The DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office is cracking down on sales of the natural opioid Kratom under a law signed Tuesday by Gov. Robert Bentley.
Sheriff Jimmy Harris said in a news release that officers from his drug unit began gathering up the product Wednesday from convenience stores.
He said Kratom is sold in 5-ounce bottles similar in size and shape to 5-Hour Energy supplements, and also comes in pill and powder form.
He said the department has been watching sales for more than a year but couldn’t act because the product’s ingredients weren’t illegal.
WHNT News in Huntsville reported that alkaloids of the Kratom plant, from Southeast Asia, “connect to the brain at the opioid receptors and cause the documented opiod effects and major addiction issues.”
Harris said sheriffs and district attorneys pressed to have the substance reclassified as a banned drug.