Palm Desert City Council opted to ban just synthetic kratom rather than outright banning the naturally derived kratom.
The Palm Desert City Council voted 5-0 Thursday to introduce an ordinance banning synthetic kratom products and restricting sales of natural kratom leaf to adults 21 and older, while also overhauling the city's tobacco retailer licensing and smoking regulations for the first time since 2009.
Public Safety Coordinator Daniel Huerta, at the last study session on the issue, described kratom as a product derived from the leaves of a tree native to Southeast Asia that has gained popularity as an unapproved treatment for pain and anxiety.
Huerta told the council that modern kratom products — including concentrated extracts, flavored drinks, gummies and vapes — can be far more potent and inconsistently labeled than the traditional leaf.
Riverside County Sheriff Sgt. Steven Nelson provided firsthand testimony at that study session about a 2023 traffic stop in which he pulled over a 29-year-old college student who was driving erratically on Monterey Avenue. The sergeant said the driver showed signs of impairment but tested negative for the 13 most commonly screened substances. A follow-up 200-drug panel later identified kratom.
"He truly believed he didn't do anything wrong because he bought this over the counter at a tobacco store," Nelson said.
He added that a local toxicology laboratory said it has seen a significant increase in kratom appearing in drug test results and is now considering testing for it in-house because of how frequently samples are being sent out of state for analysis.
The new ordinance prohibits the sale, distribution and possession of synthetic kratom products — including those containing chemically altered 7-OH — while allowing the continued sale of natural kratom leaf products under age verification requirements, child-resistant packaging mandates, and oversight through the city's existing tobacco retailer licensing system.
The same ordinance bans the sale of electronic smoking devices, prohibits the sale of flavored tobacco products and bars pharmacies from selling tobacco products.
It also updates the city's smoking regulations to clarify that private country clubs are considered public places for purposes of smoking enforcement, closing an enforcement gap identified by staff.
“The issue we had was people coming out of a clubhouse restaurant and getting hit by a cloud of smoke,” a city staff member said. “We found some enforcement issues with clarification in the definition, so we've cleaned that up now so that private clubs are now considered public places only in those areas to protect public health.”
The ordinance increases penalties, adds the ability to cite violators in court rather than through administrative citations only, and introduces revocation of a tobacco retailer's license for illegal synthetic kratom sales.
When code enforcement conducted a sweep of retail locations selling tobacco, they found that out of 41 active locations, only five were fully in compliance with existing rules related to signage and licensing, and 15 had no city tobacco license at all.
"We visited them, they know we're here, and we're going to get them into compliance," staff said.
Six speakers addressed the council during the public hearing — five in person and one online — all of them urging the council not to ban natural leaf kratom and expressing support for the targeted regulation of synthetic products.
Jordan Thomas, who said he lives with PTSD and a neuromuscular skeletal disease, told the council that kratom had preserved his quality of life after other treatments failed.
"Kratom, in a way, has saved what quality of life I still have," he said. "I've been put on everything from opioids to Gabapentin to Celebrex, and all those things create health problems."
Councilmember Karina Quintanilla, who had argued for a complete ban on kratom at a Feb. 12 study session, said she appreciated the personal testimony but continued to raise questions about inconsistent labeling and the absence of standardized dosing information.
A second reading and final adoption of the ordinance will follow at a subsequent council meeting. The ordinance takes effect 30 days after adoption.