The American Kratom Association Calls on the Georgia LegislatureTo Protect Georgia Kratom Consumers and Retailers by Fixing New Kratom Law 

The signing of HB 181 highlights the key defect in Georgia law in protecting kratom consumers because there is no state agency assigned to that task.

WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES, May 2, 2024 – The American Kratom Association (AKA) welcomes part of the new Kratom Consumer Protection Act signed by the Governor that strengthens some of the product standards and labeling requirements that are needed. The AKA strongly decries the political hijacking of the bill by trial attorneys who orchestrated the replacement of a state regulatory agency to oversee kratom products with criminal penalties targeting Georgia businesses that Representative Townsend (R-St. Simons) championed for his top-dollar trial attorney contributors.

“Representative Townsend strongly condemned the previously passed Kratom Consumer Protection Act because there was no assigned state agency to regulate kratom, and the AKA agreed with him on that,” commented Mac Haddow, Senior Fellow with the AKA. “But his bill as passed has no assigned state agency to regulate kratom – only making his top-dollar trial attorney campaign contributors richer at the expense of Georgia kratom businesses.”

HB 181 will not be effective until December 31, 2024, and the AKA intends to work with legislators in the 2025 legislative session to restore effective oversight of kratom products who protect the citizens of Georgia rather than top-dollar campaign contributors. The only enforcement in HB 181 is for local law enforcement officers to oversee kratom sales to minors, and the rest are criminal penalties, including on retailers who do not have the resources to independently verify every product the sell meets the highly technical standards for kratom products outlined in HB 181.

 “There is only one beneficiary of Representative Townsend’s kratom bill – other than his own political campaign account – and that is a group of trial attorneys who want to sue kratom manufacturers and retailers for their own profit,” Haddow concluded. “The Georgia citizens who purchase kratom for their health and well being are less protected today than they were before this legislation was passed.