Meyer supports kratom ban
Larson wants regulations on “very volatile drug’
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Because of her career as a registered nurse and nursing instructor, state Rep. Ann Meyer has plenty of contacts in the health care profession.
What those providers are telling the Fort Dodge Republican about kratom is scary.
"This substance has been causing organ failure in some folks," Meyer said Tuesday evening.
"It works on the receptors in the body like a narcotic drug," she added.
She said she backs Gov. Kim Reynolds' plea to ban the substance in Iowa.
"I support that," she said.
She voted in favor of a bill that the House of Representatives passed earlier this year to ban kratom. That bill did not pass in the Senate.
State Rep. Wendy Larson, R-Odebolt, voted for a measure, which she described as greatly tightening up the regulations on kratom but stopping short of a complete ban.
"I literally had no idea what that was until I became a state legislator nine months ago," she said of kratom.
Larson described kratom as "a very volatile drug that completely unregulated.”
"The fact that it is completely unregulated and you can buy it at the gas station is not OK with me," she said.
Meyer said she believes a proposal to ban kratom will gain momentum when the legislature convenes in January.
"It takes a few sessions to pass good legislation," she said.
Meyer's Democratic opponent, Kris Williams, of Fort Dodge, did not respond to a request for comment on the kratom ban proposal.
According to information from the Mayo Clinic, kratom is an herbal extract from an evergreen tree native to southeast Asia. It is sold as an energy booster, pain reliever and as an aid for reducing drug withdrawal symptoms.
Kratom is sold over the counter.
The experts at the Mayo Clinic say that kratom products can be contaminated with heavy metal and bacteria.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration advises against using kratom. The Drug Enforcement Administration list it as a drug of concern.
Because of all the problems linked to kratom, Meyer wonders why it is legal.
"I honestly don't know how this slipped through," she said.
State Sen. Tim Kraaynebrink, R-Fort Dodge, and Rachel Burns, Larson's Democratic opponent, did not respond to requests for comment on the kratom proposal.