4817 S. West Shore Blvd. — West Shore Boulevard Street Scene
Hillsborough County commissioners are set to hold a public hearing and final vote today on an ordinance that would ban the sale of concentrated 7-hydroxymitragynine, known as 7-OH, a compound derived from kratom that county officials are seeking to restrict. The proposal would leave whole-leaf kratom and kratom teas legal, targeting instead the chemically enhanced, high-potency products that have drawn alarm from doctors and regulators.
The push began in June, when the County Commission voted to direct county attorneys to add 7-OH to Hillsborough’s existing synthetic drug ban, according to Axios. Commissioners took the first procedural step toward the ban last month, and if that step cleared, the ordinance would return today for the public hearing and final vote. The proposed ordinance exempts whole-leaf kratom and any product not chemically enhanced, chemically altered, or otherwise concentrated for increased potency, and it would not touch the dozens of coffee shop-style retailers in the county that serve kratom brewed as tea…