Baltimore sues kratom producers over alleged consumer-protection violations

Baltimore’s mayor and city council have launched a civil suit against multiple kratom product makers and sellers, claiming their marketing and sales violate the city’s consumer protection ordinance. Baltimore City Solicitor Ebony M. Thompson, together with attorneys Gordon Wolf, Carney and a team from Grant & Eisenhofer, filed the case in the city’s circuit court, alleging unfair, abusive or deceptive trade practices. The complaint identifies Dallas-based Open, LLC and Georgia’s Pur Botanicals LLC, and describes unnamed "John Doe" defendants as alter egos of long-time kratom entrepreneurs Mark Jennings, Peyton Palaio and Mark Daniel James Reilly, who operate the O.P.M.S. brand.

The lawsuit stresses that it does not invoke federal law or Maryland’s Kratom Consumer Protection Act, which bans retail sales except with FDA approval. Maryland’s statewide ban took effect on July 1, adding to a wave of litigation that includes suits in Virginia, Missouri and California. City officials argue the defendants use a network of shell companies to evade liability for public-health risks associated with kratom. Both the city’s lawyers and American Kratom Association lobbyist Mac Haddow declined to comment.