Georgia attorney general calls for removal of kratom from store shelves

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) — Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr is asking stores to remove kratom from shelves after the death of a metro Atlanta native.

Kratom was found in the room where Robert Strang, 20, was found dead near the University of Mississippi last month. Investigators believe Strang bought the pills at a store 20 miles outside Oxford, Mississippi.

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Carr is now asking gas stations and smoke shops statewide to remove kratom from store shelves before another life is placed in jeopardy.

“We’re facing a new crisis, and it’s not prescription pills. It is these deadly and dangerous drugs that are sold in our gas stations and in our vape shops,” said Carr. “I am actually calling on each and every convenience store and vape shop in this state today, do the right thing. Get this poison off your shelves. It shouldn’t take legislation. It shouldn’t take litigation. It shouldn’t take law enforcement intervening to do what everybody knows is right.”

Pitter Goughnour, a woman who watched the final moments of her husband’s life after using kratom via FaceTime, says she’s just happy that someone cares enough to do something.

“People are abusing it. The people in the gas station don’t know how to sell it. The people who are selling it don’t know how to sell it. They don’t have the knowledge about it and the people who are buying it, don’t have the knowledge either. So, it’s a big vicious cycle,” said Goughnour.

In the meantime, Attorney General Carr is pleading with lawmakers to ban kratom in Georgia altogether.

“That’s why I’m standing in front of you today, proposing that you reverse the model. I say you ban all kratom-related products from the beginning, and those products should be presumed illegal for retail sale unless the state has affirmatively approved it,” Attorney General Carr added.

General overdose deaths are down for a third year in a row in Georgia, while the number of opioid prescriptions filled is also down.