Washington, DC

The Kratom Consumer Advisory Council (KCAC) today applauded Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser's $152,000 settlement with the owners of a 15-store smoke-shop chain that sold products that exceeded the state's legal 7-hydroxymitragynine (7-OH) potency limit and failed to meet critical consumer safety labeling and packaging requirements. Under the Daniel Bregger Act, the amount of 7-OH in a product may not exceed 2 percent of a product's total alkaloid content - a level that natural kratom leaf cannot reach. Products over the cap are, by definition, concentrated synthetic 7-OH products, not natural kratom leaf products.

The settlement requires the businesses to test products sold in Colorado, maintain purchase documentation and comply with the Colorado Consumer Protection Act and the Daniel Bregger Act. A violation of the agreement triggers an additional $500,000 payment to the state.

Colorado law restricts kratom sales to adults 21 and older, bans synthetically derived products like concentrated synthetic products, and prohibits products that exceed the state's 7-OH potency limit, lack required labeling or packaging, or otherwise violate consumer-protection standards. The Attorney General's announcement draws the same line: "While the alkaloid substance 7-OH naturally occurs in the kratom plant, companies manufacture concentrated forms of 7-OH products that interact with the same brain receptors as opioids, which can be extremely potent and addicting."

"Colorado's action demonstrates that policymakers can protect consumers without treating every product sold under the 'kratom' label as the same thing," said KCAC Chair Dr. C. Michael White, Pharm.D., FCP, FCCP, FASHP, Distinguished Professor of Pharmacy Practice at the University of Connecticut. "Natural kratom leaf, conventional extracts and highly concentrated 7-OH products have important differences in composition and risk. Effective policy recognizes those differences, targets products that violate the law and gives consumers clear, accurate information. Well done to AG Weiser on this decisive action"

"Policymakers must distinguish between natural botanical kratom leaf and the highly concentrated or chemically manufactured products that are driving legitimate concern," said, David Bregger, a former member of the Kratom Consumer Advisory Council whose son Daniel died in Denver in 2021 after consuming a highly concentrated product sold without serving directions or warnings, and for whom Colorado's Daniel Bregger Act is named. "It is rewarding to see the state take the Daniel Bregger act seriously and bring businesses and manufacturers to task for violating the provisions in the act. I want to express my gratitude to AG Weiser and his team for this decisive and important action."

The Kratom Consumer Advisory Council supports science-based safeguards modeled on the Daniel Bregger Act and Kratom Consumer Protection Act frameworks, including 21-and-over sales restrictions, independent testing, transparent labeling, manufacturing standards and strong penalties for companies that market adulterated or noncompliant products.

About the Kratom Consumer Advisory Council

The Kratom Consumer Advisory Council (KCAC) is an independent board made up of a clinician-scientist and consumers that uses the strongest available evidence to produce position statements that promote evidence-based policy. The KCAC is supported by the Global Kratom Coalition, which advocates for regulations that protect consumers and curb the sale of adulterated or synthetic products falsely marketed as kratom. For more information, visit globalkratomcoalition.org/about-kcac.

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