Kootenai County weighs kratom's rising use and local risks

Kratom is no longer a fringe product in Kootenai County. It is showing up in grocery stores, gas stations and farmers markets, and county officials say that visibility has turned a retail item into a public-health question with real consumer-safety stakes.

At a June 11 town hall in the Kootenai County Admin Building in Coeur d'Alene, Sheriff Robert B. Norris, Commissioner Leslie Duncan and Coroner Dr. Duke Johnson brought residents together to discuss dangerous forms of kratom and what the county should do next. The crowd split quickly, with some people describing misuse and others insisting kratom is just a supplement.

The urgency is growing because use appears to be spreading across more than one slice of the community. Officials say they are seeing kratom used by blue-collar workers and white-collar users alike, which makes the debate harder to dismiss as a niche problem. For residents in Coeur d'Alene, Post Falls, Hayden and beyond, the concern is not only what kratom is, but how easily it can be bought in ordinary retail settings without much warning about what it does.

Federal health agencies say the product carries real risks. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says an estimated 1.7 million Americans age 12 and older used kratom in 2021, and it warns that kratom is not lawfully marketed in the United States as a dietary supplement, food additive or drug product. The agency also says 7-hydroxymitragynine, or 7-OH, is a minor constituent in natural kratom leaves, making up less than 2 percent of total alkaloid content.

That distinction between natural leaf kratom and synthesized 7-OH is at the center of the local fight. Johnson told the town hall that some products contain 7-OH levels as high as 98 percent, a claim that sharply raises the stakes for consumers who may assume they are buying a plant-based product with familiar effects. Johnson also said Kootenai County had one death last year in which kratom was the only substance found in the person’s body.

National data helps explain why county leaders are paying attention now. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in March that kratom-related poison-center exposure reports rose from 258 in 2015 to 3,434 in 2025, an increase of about 1,200 percent. The agency said it received 14,449 kratom exposure reports over that 11-year span, and that multiple-substance exposures were tied to more severe outcomes and accounted for most kratom-associated deaths in the study period.

Idaho lawmakers have already begun weighing how to respond. Senate Bill 1282 was introduced Feb. 13 and referred two days later to the Senate Agricultural Affairs Committee. A later proposal would have limited sales to adults 21 and older and restricted products to natural leaf kratom, showing how quickly the discussion has moved from anecdote to possible regulation. With kratom already embedded in everyday retail life, Kootenai County’s next step could shape how the product is sold, warned about and understood across North Idaho.