As Illinois legislators weigh stricter oversight of kratom and its synthetic alternatives, the list of communities around Peoria and Tazewell counties putting their own bans in place continues to grow.
Peoria Heights recently became the first municipality in Peoria County to enact a ban on the sale of kratom, while the Tremont village board is scheduled to act on its own prohibition Monday night.
Ahead of his own board’s vote, Peoria Heights Mayor Matt Wigginton noted the drug can have devastating impacts and is largely unregulated.
“Things that are marketed and sold in stores as natural kratom are not, in fact, natural, because there is no FDA regulation on the marketing and sale of these items,” said Wigginton. “It’s pretty much a free-for-all.
“So while I do sympathize with some in that industry about the natural stuff, unfortunately as we find it through just the gas stations and smoke shops where these things are sold, there’s no way to correctly identify if this is a natural substance or some sort of synthetic.”
The latest bans come after East Peoria banned kratom in October, followed by Morton in November and Pekin in December.
“Each community has some nuances to their ordinances. East Peoria has banned only kratom and it’s synthetic ‘analogs’—it’s basically like cousins,” said Megan Hanley, epidemiologist with the Tazewell County Health Department.
“Creve Coeur passed a similar ordinance, and they had already banned some of the THC synthetic products. Pekin chose to ban kratom, all of its synthetic analogs, and all of the different THC synthetics – they’re called ‘hemp derived intoxicating cannabinoids.’ Morton passed a similar ordinance to Pekin’s, and I have a couple more that we’re in conversation with currently.”
Kratom bans have been popping up all across Central Illinois, including in Bloomington. Hanley said Tazewell County's concerns about the dangers of kratom grew after a disturbing trend emerged nearly three years ago.
“We had six overdose deaths in 2023 that were related to kratom, which is about 18% of Tazewell’s overdose deaths for that year, which is a significant amount,” said Hanley.
“When we looked at the toxicology, there was no other illicit substance in their toxicology. Kratom was the only opioid substance in there; it’s not like they had kratom and heroin or anything like that.”
Understanding the risks
Sold as an energy booster and pain reliever, kratom has been used to treat anxiety and depression. However, an advisory from the Food and Drug Administration [FDA] warns it can cause liver toxicity, seizures and potential addiction—or worse, as Hanley discovered.
“I kind of went down a research ‘rabbit hole’ and ended up writing a literature review explaining how kratom works in the body, physiologically, looking through the scientific literature,” said Hanley, who approached state Rep. Bill Hauter, R-Morton, with her results.
“Basically, as a county, we decided this is significant—one death related to a substance that is relatively novel, at least to our community, is worth preventing.”
It’s a concern that’s also drawn the attention of Peoria City/County Health Administrator Monica Hendrickson, who said educating the public is the biggest key.
“A lot of people are not familiar what kratom is,” said Hendrickson. “It’s a natural substance that has been used in different parts of the world, but part of the effects of it is creating kind of a change in your mental and your physical abilities. So it can lead to long-term health issues, especially if not correctly utilized.”
Hauter, a physician, has been among the state lawmakers seeking to regulate kratom. Current Illinois law prohibits the sale of kratom to anyone under 18, and a handful of bills still pending in the General Assembly would add further statewide restrictions.
The Kratom Consumer Protection Act [HB4737] introduced last month would repeal the current law, raising the age to 21 while forbidding the synthetic compounds and establishing certain safety standards.
Other proposals would take even tougher stances, classifying the drug’s active substances as a controlled substance in what would effectively amount to an outright ban regardless of age.
“Because the effects of kratom, and especially unregulated kratom, can really create public health concerns, we’re really wanting to focus on: how do you provide a way to regulate appropriately, whether it’s banning the synthetic compounds derived from the plant, or distribution and sale possession of it. What layers can we put in to actually really protect individuals?,” said Hendrickson.
“Especially young children. Oftentimes, the products that we see with kratom or the synthetic compounds derived from the plant are in flashy containers. They look very similar to some of our high energy drinks or candies or gummies. So it can be very confusing to realize it is not a food product and nor is it regulated by the FDA.”
Hanley said one of the biggest problems is product marketing. She said they conducted “environmental scans” across the county using school resource officers to look at how prevalent kratom is throughout Tazewell County.
“We wanted to see kind of what substances are here, and how they’re labeled,” she said. “They went into over 50 liquor stores, smoke shops and gas stations across all of the communities. So that has been some of the other data that has been helpful in the ordinance changes, particularly in showing the ease of accessibility of these substances and then the deceptive marketing.
“A lot of them are lookalikes to candies. So you could grab a kratom product, think it was a Sour Patch Kid, and have no idea that it was actually an opioid, because there’s no labeling requirements or anything like that.”
Hanley said she’s also spoken to Washington Police Chief Jeff Stevens about a potential kratom ban there, and Hendrickson said she’s communicated with other Peoria County municipalities that are beginning to explore bans of their own.
“I believe Brimfield is looking at it, and even the City of Peoria. So we’ve been pushing out a lot of the information, some example ordinances, just as reference documents,” she said.
“This is still very new, and so because of that, I think there’s still not a full awareness of the impact of it. But again, it is a substance that’s not regulated by the FDA, and depending on your dosages it can have really severe adverse effects.”
