The Rhode Island House of Representatives voted 39-26 on Monday to legalize and regulate the sale of kratom, a herbal substance that state health officials previously banned.
Kratom is currently legal on the federal level, though there have been attempts to ban it. Proponents say that it can be a safer, less-addictive alternative to dangerous drugs like opioids. Skeptics argue that it can be dangerous, and hasn’t been adequately studied.
House Bill 5530, introduced by Rep. John “Jay” Edwards, D-Tiverton, and Rep. Brian Patrick Kennedy, D-Westerly, seeks to create guardrails by requiring lab testing, and prohibiting the sale of kratom products that are contaminated or adulterated “with a dangerous non-kratom substance.”
Read more at The Providence Journal