Idaho Falls City Council hears from coroner, sheriff, police chief on dangers of kratom
Published at | Updated at
IDAHO FALLS — As the Idaho Falls City Council is considering banning the sale of kratom within city limits, several local experts came to speak to them about the dangers of kratom and how their potential ordinance would be enforced during a meeting on Monday.
Bonneville County Coroner Shante Sanchez was the first to speak during Monday’s work session. She said when she was appointed as coroner, one of her duties was to settle some cases left over by the previous coroner.
One of these cases was her first experience with kratom. A young man had died, and his toxicology report came back with toxic levels of mitragynine — the primary psychoactive alkaloid found in kratom.
“(Kratom) was his sole cause of death,” Sanchez said. “He was a young individual, he was only 19 years old, and the only thing in his system was kratom. He didn’t have any medical history. He had no other addictions or abuse that would have contributed to his passing. It was strictly just kratom.”
Then, a 23-year-old woman died, and they couldn’t determine the cause of death, so they sent the body for an autopsy. Sanchez said during the investigation, she came across some packets of powdered kratom.
“We got the toxicology back. Her cause of death ended up being an overdose due to acute drug toxicity of kratom,” Sanchez said.
From there, more cases popped up. In late 2025, the Bonneville County Coroner’s office released a public warning about using kratom. The office reportedly investigated six kratom-related deaths in 18 months.
RELATED: Coroner issues warning following six Kratom-related deaths in Bonneville County
“While six doesn’t seem like a very big number, if you put it in comparison to all the other drug overdoses that we had experienced in our county, we had more kratom-related deaths than we had fentanyl-related deaths at the time,” Sanchez said.
Sanchez said she supported the city banning the sale of kratom. She said that while the state legislature has introduced bills to regulate it, since nothing has come of it, the local area should do something.
“If we continue to wait for the state to make a decision on this, we’re going to continue to lose people,” Sanchez said.
Bonneville County Sheriff Sam Hulse also spoke during Monday’s meeting. He said something particularly concerning about kratom right now is that there are no age restrictions on it, so anyone of any age can purchase it from convenience stores. And some of these stores are within walking distance of schools.
“We’re seeing this in younger populations being used in school,” Hulse said. “We have different reports of different levels of intoxication and illness caused by kratom in the schools.”
Hulse said if the ordinance is passed in Idaho Falls, it may push more kratom sales to surrounding communities, so he’s told Ammon to look into a similar ordinance to ban sales that Idaho Falls is considering.
Idaho Falls Police Chief Bryce Johnson said he thinks that if Idaho Falls passes an ordinance banning sales, surrounding communities will hopefully follow. But the jurisdictional difference will make enforcement challenging.
Also, Johnson said there is no presumptive test for kratom like with controlled substances, so law enforcement will have a difficult time determining if what stores are selling is actually illegal under the potential ordinance.
“Usually with a substance, you have to have a test, and we don’t have that,” Johnson said.
But Johnson said he believes if the city’s potential ordinance is passed, most stores selling kratom will stop and come into compliance.
“I see this as harm reduction, even if we had 30% of convenience stores comply, that’s 30% fewer stores selling a product that we know is killing our residents,” council member Michelle Ziel-Dingman said during Monday’s meeting.
“If we save one life, it’s worth it,” council member Jim Freeman added.
The ordinance to ban kratom sales was previously brought up by the council in a work session in early May, though the council voted to table it and hear from experts.
RELATED: Idaho Falls considers banning local kratom sales
During Monday’s meeting, Mayor Lisa Burtenshaw said the city council will likely revisit the kratom ban ordinance during Thursday’s regular city council meeting.
“The city council typically passes ordinances during regular city council meetings, so there is an opportunity for community input,” the Idaho Falls mayor’s office previously told EastIdahoNews.com.