Kratom Consumer Protection Act in Florida

Saw a Mac Haddow post on Reddit saying he was speaking at Florida’s state senate this week. Looks like his AKA KCPA is heading towards passage.

If the bill does pass I’m very concerned that my favorite vendors who are not AKA sanctioned will no longer be able to ship to Florida. Many small vendors don’t have the resources to become cGMP or do lab testing, and will ultimately end up out of business as the KCPA becomes adopted by more states. 

@will @guywithtrees be sure to keep an eye on this, it may affect your business as well.

https://www.tampabay.com/news/florida-politics/2022/01/18/kratom-would-be-unavailable-to-floridians-under-21-if-this-bill-passes/

Yah I'm really not for it personally. 

@laurie we’ll have to see what ultimately ends up in the bill, but as of now there’s more than just an age restriction. 

Among other items, testing is a requirement in the current bill which is prohibitively expensive for many small vendors. The bill also contains harsh penalties for vendors who don’t comply. They would be forced to charge much more or not sell at all. Either way, they will be out of business.

The bill also appears to limit mitragynine levels on plain leaf to 2%. I find this curious since at least one AKA sanctioned vendor sells Kratom shots at gas stations and head shops that contain much higher levels. Some of their vendors also make and sell extract that also contain ridiculously high levels of mit. I think products like these are far more damaging to consumers that the odd 2.1% batch of powder.

Edit: I just read the actual bill and it appears that the 2% limit is for 7-hydroxymitraginine, not mitragynine. My understanding is that fresh leaf contains an extremely small amount and that sun drying can increase it by a very small percentage, but nowhere near 2%. Maybe it’s a typo?

My fear is that these bills will end up wiping out many of the smaller vendors and leave us with a handful of higher priced lower quality ones. 

last edited by pete2000

@laurie the biggest players are AKA vendors. The top three “Platinum Consumer Champions” from the AKA website make and sell extracts and shots. The AKA seems to be fine with this. They no doubt contribute large sums of money to the AKA.

These laws have little to do with protecting consumers and everything to do with making money.

extracts suck. The aka used to view them in an unfavorable light.

The AKA has no interest in transparency. They don’t want anyone to see how donations are really being spent. Here’s a recent article that describes AKA shadiness in more detail.

https://www.courthousenews.com/the-law-and-the-profits-inside-kratoms-political-underbelly/