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Resident urges borough ban on concentrated kratom products after health warnings
Summary
A resident presented a draft ordinance to prohibit manufacture, sale and public use of concentrated kratom products (referred to as '70'), citing FDA warnings, sharp increases in poison‑control calls and local coroner confirmations; the committee agreed to place the draft back on next month's agenda for solicitor review.
A resident urged the committee to draft a borough ordinance banning concentrated kratom products (discussed at the meeting as "70"), saying the products are unapproved, highly potent and linked to rising poison‑control calls and local fatalities.
Michael Hartman, who said he prepared a draft ordinance modeled on Scranton’s, told the committee that the Food and Drug Administration has warned against kratom botanical products and that some concentrated synthetics are engineered to act on opioid receptors. "There have been coroners in multiple PA municipalities, including Chester County, who have confirmed related fatalities," he said, and he cited a reported sharp increase in poison‑control calls in recent years.
Hartman proposed a civil ordinance prohibiting manufacture, sale and public use within borough limits, with exemptions for law‑enforcement, research, and any future federally authorized pharmaceutical uses. Committee members asked procedural questions about whether other Pennsylvania municipalities have adopted similar bans, enforcement precedents and whether penalties would target sellers, users or both.
Members agreed to place the draft back on next month’s agenda for more detailed solicitor review and to permit public comment then. Hartman noted some states and municipalities have banned concentrated kratom products and encouraged the borough not to wait for state legislation.
