From blue collar to white collar, kratom has seen a massive uptick in use. Its role as a stimulant and a central nervous system depressant creates a wide-ranging demographic of users.  

Grocery stores, gas stations and farmers markets have all begun carrying kratom products, and Kootenai County officials are starting to ask questions. 

On Thursday night, Sheriff Bob Norris invited Kootenai County Coroner Dr. Duke Johnson, County Commissioner Leslie Duncan and the public to a town hall to discuss kratom and associated products. 

The community was divided.

Some told stories about their own or a friend's misuse of the product. Some said the supplement is exactly that, a supplement.

Norris, Duncan and Johnson actively delineated between natural leaf kratom and the compound 7-hydroxymitragynine, commonly known as 7-OH, a potent alkaloid found in kratom that acts on opioid receptors, producing strong pain relief and opioid-like effects.

Natural leaf kratom contains low amounts of 7-OH; some kratom sold locally contains synthesized 7-OH in high levels. Some products contain 7-OH levels as high as 98% according to Dr. Johnson.  

“We are starting to see this problem with these 7-OH products. So, it’s going to impact kids who might use it. It’s going to impact adults,” Norris said.   

Johnson spoke about his role in raising the county’s awareness of kratom. 

“Justice is a three-legged stool. You need prosecution, you need law enforcement, but you also need evidence to present in court," he said. "And I’m responsible for a significant amount of that evidence."

Based on his findings, kratom became a substance with a significant increase in use “two to three years ago.”

“They’re increasing in number, and we, just last year, had someone who died and the only substance in their body was kratom,” Johnson said. 

His presentation outlined several facts from different scholarly sources that he believed were of great concern.

“7-OH does occur naturally at 2%, and it is an opiate. And it is 13 times more powerful than morphine,” he said.

He equated 7-OH to other opiates or narcotics, like Oxycodone, Hydrocodone, Fentanyl and Heroin. 

He also mentioned that even though 7-OH does occur at low levels in natural leaf kratom, regular use of natural leaf kratom still presents risks.

“But what you’ll learn a little bit more is if you take it on a regular basis, it starts building up in the body,” Johnson said. 

Some attendees disagreed with Johnson’s claims. 

Community member and self-identified kratom user Aiden Panzer believed that deaths are being attributed to kratom, rather than being listed as a co-morbidity. 

“My biggest issue is the contamination. They are not testing for contamination,” he said. “The fact that we are not testing for salmonella, lead, zinc poisoning, we are not testing for any of these things, which are so prevalent in supplements.” 

Community member and self-identified former kratom user Emily Beutler, who runs QuitK, a supplement company aimed at helping people get off kratom, believed the presentation could have done more to outline the risks of kratom in general rather than focusing on 7-OH. 

“I think Sheriff Norris was following the FDA saying that [natural leaf] kratom isn’t the issue, and that is not what we are seeing in real life,” she said, “People are going to rehab and dying from pure-leaf kratom. So to say that pure-leaf kratom isn’t an issue, I don’t agree with that.” 

Ideas around the regulation of kratom in Kootenai County were thrown around. Requiring someone wishing to purchase kratom to be at least 21 years of age was the most popular, with most of the room agreeing. 

Sheriff Norris spoke about the challenges of investigating and prosecuting kratom-related DUIs. 

“We don’t have anything available for specific kratom ingredient testing," Norris said. "So it’s not there yet, through an investigation where if we saw packaging of some kratom, that would lead us to believe that, maybe, there is a substance [present]."

Norris felt the town hall was beneficial to his education on kratom. 

“This was very valuable for me,” he said. “We had people in this room who have admitted, saying 'Hey, I was in treatment before for kratom addiction.' It was an eye-opener for me on just how prevalent it is in our community.”