North Carolina Threatens to Ban Kratom

A bill that started out in the North Carolina House that would regulate kratom and hemp products, passed the Senate as a bill that would ban kratom and create a medical marijuana program.

The last time North Carolina threatened to criminalize kratom consumers was in 2016. That year, a national ban was threatened by the DEA, and some states followed. But this ban failed to come to fruition.

For years, the NC legislature was quiet on kratom. Then in April 2023, a bipartisan bill, H563, was introduced in the North Carolina House. The title of the bill is "Regulate Hemp-Derived Consumables & Kratom".

Originally, the bill would regulate hemp products (such as CBD and Delta-8), prohibit distributing kratom in public places, and require that kratom be sold without adulterants or contaminents. The amount of 7-hydroxymitragynine in the product would have been controlled to be less than 1% of alkaloids. The original bill also mandated that all kratom products must be labelled with "directions for safe use by consumers, including a recommended serving size, the recommended number of servings per day, and the number of servings in the package that is sold."

In September 2023, the original bill unanimously passed the North Carolina House.

Then in June 2024, the NC Senate transformed H563 into a medical marijuana bill that would also place kratom on the state's list of Schedule I substances, making kratom as illegal as heroin.

The bill passed the NC Senate on June 24, and now sits in the House Rules, Calendar, and Operations of the House Committee. Should the House engross H583, the bill will be sent to the governor's desk.

Governor Roy Cooper seems to support medical marijuana, according to statements made by his office to media in 2021. His position on kratom is unknown.