Lower Merion Township's new kratom health advisory warns that the substance is sold in local shops and Pennsylvania has no law regulating it.
The township's advisory, posted Sept. 12, says kratom products are increasingly available at mini-markets, smoke shops and gas stations throughout the township. Kratom can produce stimulant effects at low doses and opioid-like sedation at higher ones, according to the notice. Doses are not standardized, products may contain unlisted substances, and no kratom product has been approved by the FDA.
Eight states have banned kratom outright as of July 2026, and more than 20 others regulate it under consumer protection frameworks, the advisory states. Pennsylvania is not among them.
Several bills in Harrisburg aim to change that. Commissioner Christine McGuire outlined three at the township's Aug. 5 Health Committee meeting, as Mainline Media News reported: House Bill 2357, which would ban synthetic botanical products while regulating natural ones; Senate Bill 233, which would establish consumer protections and product standards; and House Bill 2158, which would classify certain high-potency and synthetic kratom products as Schedule I controlled substances.
A fourth bill, House Bill 2058, was introduced in December 2025 by Reps. Emily Kinkead (D-Allegheny) and Jim Prokopiak (D-Bucks). It would bar kratom sales to anyone under 21, prohibit synthetic kratom, require testing and labeling, and ban packaging that targets children. The bill had 20 bipartisan co-sponsors and was assigned to the House Health Committee, the Times Observer reported.
When the bill was introduced, Prokopiak said Pennsylvanians can walk into a gas station or smoke shop and buy a product that mimics opioids with no age limit, no labeling and no oversight.
At the Aug. 5 meeting, McGuire confirmed kratom is already being sold in the township. She told fellow commissioners she hoped the state would act before municipalities had to regulate it on their own.
"I'm hopeful that the state will move faster and that there will be some movement on some of these bills and that that will take over it for the whole state rather than just continuing to legislate it township by township by zoning …" McGuire said at the meeting.
Commissioner Gilda L. Kramer raised the lack of any age restriction on purchases. She called the substance "quite dangerous" and said parents especially need to know the risks for their children.
Nearby Radnor Township took local action in 2022, approving an ordinance that bans kratom sales within 1,000 feet of a school, Mainline Media News reported.
None of the pending Pennsylvania bills have been enacted. No hearing dates or votes have been scheduled in public records as of publication. The township's full advisory is available on the Lower Merion website.
