Ordinance committee delays local kratom action, asks council to await state decision

The Livingston Parish Ordinance Committee voted to recommend that the full parish council take no action at this time on a local ordinance addressing kratom, saying the committee will await any action by the state legislature.

Committee Chair (name not specified) moved and the motion was seconded to forward a recommendation that the council take no action now; committee members agreed to table local action while the state’s process proceeds. John Wascomb, who earlier had prepared draft ordinance language, told the committee, “I think that's a good idea to table it and and wait. Let's just wait and see what the state has to say.”

The discussion before the motion centered on recent activity in the Louisiana House. A committee speaker said the House had “went through committee and passed through committee to make the possession of having kratom illegal,” and that, because the state was considering a possible ban, local enactment could be superseded. Wascomb told the committee he had drafted a new ordinance and asked the committee to send a formal recommendation that the committee “take no action on that ordinance” until the state acts.

No roll-call vote was recorded in the meeting transcript; the motion was made, seconded and the item was tabled and forwarded to the parish council with the committee’s recommendation that no local action be taken at this time.

The committee did not debate the text of the draft ordinance at length at this meeting. The committee’s action was procedural: to pause local ordinance work while the state’s consideration continues. If the state does not ban kratom, Wascomb said the committee would pick the matter back up at a future meeting.