Liquor Commission - Regular Meeting

GOOD AFTERNOON, AND WELCOME TO THE JULY 9, 2026 LIQUOR COMMISSION MEETING. ROLL CALL.

CHERICO? HERE. KUNZER? HERE. MCGURRY? HERE. DEGIOIA? HERE. SIGNORELLA? HERE. WORLEY?

HERE. BEFORE WE MOVE INTO PUBLIC FORUM, I WANT TO START BY ACKNOWLEDGING THE DEPARTURE OF ONE OF OUR COMMISSIONERS. THIS IS HIS LAST MEETING TONIGHT. OUR COMMISSIONER SIGNORELLA HAS SERVED HONORABLY FOR ALL OF MY TERM AS MAYOR SO FAR. AND PRIOR TO THAT, I THINK AT LEAST ONE TERM WITH MAYOR CHERICO. SO ABOUT EIGHT YEARS?

I DON'T THINK IT'S THAT LONG. MAYBE FIVE OR SO.

FIVE? WELL, AT LEAST THREE HONORABLY. So it's an honor to present you with a certificate of appreciation. Our first order of business is public forum. If there is anyone here to speak on an item that is not on the agenda, please come forward now. Are there any speakers registered?

We have one speaker signed up to speak today.

Hello? We can hear you. Go ahead. Could you just state your name for the record and who you represent?

Yeah, my name is Kevin Reed, Vice President of Operations for Biagi's and Ancho and Agave. We have two restaurants on Route 59 and currently, let's see, 14 restaurants, Biagi's around the country and seven Ancho's around the country. But we have one of each in Naperville because We love Naperville. I want to thank the mayor and the commissioners for giving us this time to chat about something. And when we were inquiring about opening our ancho and agave concept, SURPRISED TO LEARN THAT HAPPY HOUR IS SOMETHING THAT'S NOT PROHIBITED IN NAPERVILLE. WE UTILIZE A HAPPY HOUR IN ALL OF OUR OTHER UNITS, 21 OF THEM ACROSS THE COUNTRY. AND SO FOR A LITTLE BIT OF HISTORY FOR ANYBODY THAT DOESN'T KNOW, MANY, MANY YEARS AGO, ILLINOIS PROHIBITED HAPPY HOUR STATEWIDE. AND DID THAT FOR A COUPLE OF DECADES. IN 2015, THEY ROLLED THAT LAW BACK. AND EVERY MUNICIPALITY EXCEPT NAPERVILLE adhered to their decision to roll that back with certain restrictions and guidelines. Only, let's see, 15 hours a week total of discounted happy hour time is permissible. It's not permissible after 10 o'clock at night, only four hours a day. There are guardrails on the statewide happy hour restrictions. For us in Naperville, it becomes a little bit difficult PROBLEMATIC BECAUSE WE'RE AT A LITTLE BIT OF A DISADVANTAGE WHEN WE'VE GOT COMMUNITIES RIGHT NEXT TO US IN PLAINFIELD, OSWEGO, AURORA, WHEATON, DOWNERS GROVE THAT ALL HAVE HAPPY HOURS THAT ARE RESTRICTED AS THE STATE HAS ALLOWED FOR. AND I DON'T WANT TO DIMINISH FOR A SECOND THE COMMUNITIES RESPECT FOR THE PUBLIC SAFETY, AND WE TAKE THAT RESPONSIBILITY VERY SERIOUSLY AS WELL. BUT THINGS HAVE CHANGED OVER THE YEARS, THE DECADES, REALLY. TECHNOLOGY HAS GOTTEN BETTER. UBERS ARE UBIQUITOUS. PEOPLE UNDERSTAND WHAT ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION DOES TO THEM. OPERATORS ARE BETTER TRAINED AND OUR EMPLOYEES ARE BETTER TRAINED. THE TECHNOLOGY IN GENERAL, AND BY THE WAY, WHEN THE STATE OUTLAWED THE the happy hours originally, the legal limit was 0.1. It's now 0.08, as everybody knows, countrywide. So things have changed over the decades. And it's been 10 years since the state has rolled back their restrictions on happy hours. And I think this might be a good opportunity for Naperville to consider doing the same. AGAIN, BEING RESPONSIBLE, PROTECTING THE PUBLIC, THAT'S ALL OF US AS ALCOHOL SERVERS OUR NUMBER ONE PRIORITY, BUT I THINK WE CAN DO THAT SAFELY, AND I'D LIKE TO ASK THE COMMISSION TO CONSIDER THAT OR TAKE UP THAT DISCUSSION.

NEW SPEAKER THANK YOU.

NEW SPEAKER THANK YOU, MAYOR. MAYOR KNIGHT, WE'RE SPEAKING ABOUT THIS. YOU SENT A LETTER IN, AND BY THE WAY, I THINK YOUR COMMENTS WERE VERY WELL THOUGHT OUT, AND YOUR PRESENTATION WAS EXCELLENT, ESPECIALLY JUST NOT READING ENOUGH OF A SCRIPT. THANK YOU. YOU KNOW, WE WERE DISCUSSING ABOUT THIS A LITTLE BIT, AND, YOU KNOW, THE WORKAROUND HAS BEEN IN NAPERVILLE THAT, YOU KNOW, WE DO HAVE HAPPY HOURS, BUT YOU JUST CAN'T DO ALCOHOL. SO THEY DO THE FOOD PART.

WHICH WE DO.

APPETIZERS AND HARDERVES AND WHATNOT AT HALF PRICE. AND IT SEEMS TO HAVE BEEN A REASONABLE WORKAROUND. YOUR COMMENTS ALSO ARE SOMETHING THAT I THINK ARE WORTH A DISCUSSION AS WELL FROM MY VIEWPOINT. WE PROBABLY DO HAVE TO TAKE ANOTHER LOOK AT THAT AND SAY, HEY, DOES THIS STILL APPLY? WE DID IT FOR A REASON BACK WHEN WE HAD DONE IT, AND NOW I GUESS WE NEED TO HAVE THAT DISCUSSION ABOUT DOES THIS STILL APPLY TO TODAY WITH TODAY'S DIFFERENT, AS YOU SAID, TECHNOLOGIES AND THE THINGS THAT HAVE CHANGED OVER THE YEARS THAT MAKE IT PERHAPS NOT AS APPLICABLE AS IT ONCE WAS. SO I'D BE WILLING TO HAVE THAT DISCUSSION AT SOME POINT IF IT'S, YOU KNOW, MAYOR.

PROCEDURALLY, YOU COULD OFFER THAT MOTION DURING NEW BUSINESS TO BRING IT BACK ON A FUTURE LIQUOR COMMISSION AGENDA, AND THAT WOULD BE THE WAY TO DO.

Mr. Mayor? Go ahead. May I? Yes. I'd like to make a motion to.

It would be under new business. Oh. So when we get the new business. No worries. All right. I don't see any other questions. Thank you. If you want to stick around, you can see how the new business resolution is.

Absolutely. Yeah. Okay. I want to hear some other presentations as well. Thank you for your consideration.

Very well. Thank you. Any other public forum speakers? Seeing none, we'll move on to old business D1. May I have a motion to accept the meeting minutes from the prior meeting?

Commissioner Signorella? So moved. Is there a second?

Aye. I'm sorry, I'm looking at my microphones, the controls here, and nobody else is lit up here. So Commissioner, oh, I'm sorry. Okay. Commissioner Kunzer has a second. All those in favor sign aye. Aye. Opposed? THE MOTION PASSES. ON TO ITEM E1. CONSIDER FIVE IRON GOLF'S REQUEST TO INCREASE THE CAP ON LATE NIGHT PERMITS IN THE DOWNTOWN BY ONE. IS THERE A REPRESENTATIVE FROM FIVE IRON GOLF HERE TO PRESENT?

GOOD AFTERNOON, MAYOR, COMMISSIONERS. MY NAME IS JOSEPH DE PALMA. I'M THE ATTORNEY HERE ON BEHALF OF FIVE IRON THIS AFTERNOON.

BEFORE YOU GET TOO FAR IN IT, COULD YOU RAISE THE MICROPHONE A LITTLE BIT? YOU HAVE TO REALLY SPEAK INTO THESE THINGS, UNFORTUNATELY.

We're here regarding the request to increase the cap on the downtown late night permit caps by one for our proposed location at 47 East Chicago Avenue. For those that don't know, Five Iron is a hospitality-driven concept focused on golf simulators, virtual golf simulators, with food and beverage as kind of a complement to that whole experience for guests. I would liken it to a similar kind of golf entertainment food bar expo. I don't want to give their name and give the competition a little shout-out here, but essentially guests are booked in simulator bays, so it's similar to other experiences that people in the room might be familiar with. And yeah, I think that's all I had. If you guys have any questions, I'm happy to answer some.

Do you have a PowerPoint or anything?

No PowerPoint.

OK. And could you describe for us specifically the location you are going to be in? I understand it's on a second floor. Is that correct?

Yes. So it's 47 East Chicago. I forget the cross streets. But it will be on the second floor of that building. There are other, I believe, liquor licensees in the building as well. We will have a stair and elevator direct access to the unit. And there will be nothing outside that is maintained or operated by Five Iron.

THIS IS THE NORTHEAST CORNER OF CHICAGO AND WASHINGTON STREET, THE FORMER BOOKSTORE. IT'S ON THE SECOND FLOOR OF THAT PARTICULAR SPACE. IT IS ABOVE AND NEAR WHERE WELLS FARGO IS TODAY AND NEAR WHERE THE FIDELITY OFFICES ARE TODAY. SO THE ONLY ACCESS TO YOUR FACILITY AS I UNDERSTAND FROM HEARING SOME OF THE PROPOSAL FROM CONCEPT IS It's going to be through stairs and elevator. You have a full kitchen, is that correct?

Yeah, full service kitchen and bar.

OK. And that exists today, or you're building that?

Build out is currently in process. I think the anticipated open last I heard was April 27, give or take any construction delays or whatnot. But I know that was part of the discussion.

All right. They fit the restaurant category, the B license category. What they're requesting from the Liquor Commission is consideration for a late night permit, which is capped in the downtown. Could you describe a little bit for us the atmosphere? Obviously you have bays for golf. Is that the only activity in there? Is there a customer bar? walk us through exactly what the experience looks like.

Yeah, of course.

So we can understand what's gonna happen after 11 o'clock at night.

Yeah, and if it would be helpful, I have a floor plan too, if you'd like to look at that. That would be helpful. Okay, so essentially golf is the main focus of the establishment. There is a customer-facing bar on the premises, but as you can tell, it's only one. It's got maybe 15 to 20 stools, if I recall correctly. And the focus is all on golf and food. Beverages are kind of just a side to complement that experience. The food will be served throughout all hours of operation, so even during the, as long as the city permits it during the late night hours. So there will be no concern with the kitchen closing and only alcohol service. Everything will include food at any time.

Is there a plan for security or how you're going to control the patron activity?

So I don't want to speak on, I don't want to put words in our client's mouth. I know that they've discussed security just with the late night hours. They have four existing locations in Chicago that have the same hours as closing at 1 AM on Fridays and Saturday evenings. They have not experienced any issues with that. I KNOW THEIR MAIN METHOD OF CONTROL IS ALL THE GOLF SIMULATORS REQUIRE RESERVATIONS, SO THAT'S KIND OF THEIR THOUGHT PROCESS BEHIND CONTROLLING THE FLOW OF PEOPLE AT ANY TIME WHEN THEY'RE OPEN.

QUESTIONS FROM THE COMMISSION? COMMISSIONER CHERICO.

THANK YOU, MAYOR. GETTING BACK TO SECURITY, I ASSUME YOU'LL HAVE CAMERAS IN THE FACILITY, RIGHT? CORRECT. ALL INTERNALLY? OKAY. You can get up by elevator or by stairwell? Both, yes. Is that correct? Okay. That's all I have.

Any other questions for the petitioner from the commission? Seeing Commissioner DeGioia.

Is there an age restriction on this place?

No, there is no age restriction. In fact, they encourage families. They have family memberships that are part of it. They have certain hours that are dedicated to like a member discount or something along those lines. But essentially, during the day, during the early evening hours, it's dedicated to being open to anyone in any ages. Perhaps during the evening hours with curfews and everything, anyone under a certain age wouldn't be there.

Thank you.

Commissioner Cherico.

Mr. Mayor, I'd like to make a motion.

Go ahead.

This motion is for recommendation to city council, correct?

Yes.

I'd like to make a motion to approve the increase of the cap by one, late night cap by one. Make that as a positive recommendation to city council.

Commissioner McGurry. I'll second that. We have a motion and a second. Any further questions or discussion? Seeing none, roll call.

Kunzer?

Yes.

McGurry?

Yes.

DeGioia? Yes. Signorella? Yes. Chirico? Aye.

Motion passes 5-0. Thank you and good luck.

Thank you for your consideration.

This will likely appear, I believe, in August. It'll be on the August City Council agenda. On item E2. As we open this agenda item, I want to provide some context. In 2019, a prior Liquor Commission held a discussion on Kratom and recommended action to the City Council. THE COUNCIL ULTIMATELY ADOPTED AN ORDINANCE RESTRICTING YOUTH ACCESS TO CRADIM BY BANNING RETAIL SALES TO ANYONE UNDER 21 AND PROHIBITING POSSESSION BY ANYONE UNDER 18 WHICH SUPPLEMENTED THE ILLINOIS CRADIM CONTROL ACT BY ESTABLISHING A LOCAL MINIMUM SALES AGE OF 21 WHILE ALIGNING POSSESSION PROHIBITIONS WITH STATE LAW. Six years later, we're here revisiting the issue because over the past several months, I've heard from members of the community about the impact that Kratom has had on their lives with their families and their friends. Some of you are here this afternoon and some of you are going to share those experiences. And I want to thank you in advance for that. IT ISN'T EASY TO SPEAK PUBLICLY ABOUT SOMETHING THAT IS THIS PERSONAL AND THIS COMMISSION AND OUR CITY ARE BETTER FOR YOUR WILLINGNESS TO DO THAT. FOR THOSE LESS FAMILIAR WITH CRATUM, LET ME GIVE YOU A BIT OF A BACKGROUND. IT COMES FROM THE LEAVES OF A TROPICAL EVERGREEN TREE NATIVE TO SOUTHEAST ASIA. PEOPLE BREW IT IN as tea, they crush it into powder, they smoke it, they snort it, or take it in capsules and tablets. Some use it as a mood enhancer or energy booster, others use it for pain relief, and some advocates claim it helps with opioid withdrawal. Today, we need to talk about both the traditional plant-based product and a newer category. that is the synthetic and concentrated kratom extracts, often labeled as 7-O, which is short for 7-hydroxymitragynine. While this alkaloid occurs naturally in kratom leaf, it appears only in very small amounts, and the products showing up on the shelves are different. Many are synthesized or heavily concentrated in a lab BOOSTING 7-0 LEVELS FAR BEYOND WHAT OCCURS IN THE PLANT ITSELF, PRODUCING A MUCH STRONGER, MORE OPIOID-LIKE EFFECT. THAT DISTINCTION MATTERS BECAUSE THE RISKS IN APPROPRIATE REGULATORY RESPONSE MAY DIFFER BETWEEN A CUP OF TRADITIONAL CRATUM TEA AND A CONCENTRATED 7-0 TABLET OR EXTRACT. The FDA has warned about risks across these products, including liver toxicity, seizures, and substance use disorder, and has raised particular concern about the concentrated synthetic forms. These products are sold in our local stores, primarily by those who hold Naperville tobacco licenses, which this body has jurisdiction and controls over. AND THEY'RE SOLD IN GAS STATIONS, VAPE SHOPS, AND RETAILERS, AS WELL AS ONLINE SELLERS. OTHER MUNICIPALITIES HAVE TAKEN A RANGE OF APPROACHES. ROCKFORD, FOR EXAMPLE, HAS BANNED THE SALE OF SYNTHETIC 7-0 CRATUM PRODUCTS SPECIFICALLY, WHILE LEAVING TRADITIONAL CRATUM LEAF PRODUCTS ALONE. WINNETKA AND BLOOMINGTON HAVE GONE FURTHER AND BAN RETAIL SALES OF CRATUM ALTOGETHER WITHOUT DRAWING THE DISTINCTION. OTHER COMMUNITIES HAVE CHOSEN TO RELY ON THE STATE LAW RATHER THAN ENACTING STRICTER LOCAL REGULATIONS. THERE'S NO SINGLE STANDARD HERE AND THAT'S PART OF WHY THIS DISCUSSION THIS AFTERNOON IS VERY IMPORTANT. OUR JOB IS TO LISTEN AND WE'LL HEAR FROM A VARIETY OF PERSPECTIVES AND EXPERTISE THAT CAN HELP US UNDERSTAND THE ISSUE IN BOTH ITS TRADITIONAL AND SYNTHETIC FORMS. WHATEVER WE RECOMMEND TO COUNCIL, IF ANYTHING, SHOULD COME OUT OF THAT RECORD. We want to start with our speakers and our first speaker this afternoon is Ashley Ware.

Hi there, I'm Ashley Ware and I am really, really honored to be here. Thank you so much for having me. The reason I really wanted to come is to just raise awareness and to share my story briefly. How I used Kratom was from a two-ounce blue bottle called Feel Free. I heard of it on a health and wellness podcast. It's a really, really popular one. And the founder of Feel Free, J.W. Ross, claimed he was sober for 20 years. And he created Feel Free to give him the alcohol effects without drinking alcohol. He called it an alcohol substitute, gluten-free, a mood enhancer, or an energy drink. And the kratom was from a plant and basically like an herbal supplement. So I am a mom of four young kids, and I just was intrigued because I didn't want to drink wine anymore. So I ordered it, and I got hooked on it immediately. So for me, it worked as a stimulant. It gave me the energy that I wanted. I thought it was literally like drinking a coffee. I didn't realize what Kratom was. I had no idea. There's a lot of things in Whole Foods that have mushrooms that have benefits, so I kind of thought it was similar to that. I took it for two years, and throughout those two years, I had significant... physical and mental health issues. The physical ones were my skin started to turn green, I got really, really thin, I had irregular heart palpitations, my digestive system was a mess, and I was just, I looked really, really sick. I still didn't fully understand that it was an addictive drink. I just thought, again, like it was drinking coffee every morning. It was something like that. I need my coffee in the morning, and I needed that. So I got sober from everything April 15, 2025, so almost 15 months ago. I just became so incredibly sick. The mental mood swings were completely insane. And what I thought it was taking away my anxiety was actually making me really paranoid. And When you take more than one bottle a day, it actually works as more of like a relaxer than a stimulant. So I was having heart issues, and I really thought drink was going to kill me. But I still didn't know enough about it until the day before I got sober. I told my husband, who's also in recovery and has been since I met him almost 14 years ago, more about it. And we both kind of researched it. And we didn't realize it was more like an opioid and like heroin drug. And I checked into Edwards Hospital at Detox. And still very unsure why I was feeling the withdrawal. I had never felt withdrawals ever. But I was so physically ill, I just wanted to make sure I was OK. So I went into Edwards, and the detox unit was incredible. The Edwards staff are just amazing. But they had never heard of Feel Free. They welcomed me with open arms, but had never heard of it. And so there was a lot of Googling while I was in detox, and they really wanted to treat me the right way without even knowing what this product was, which is a huge reason also why I'm here. There's no... or anything towards the staff. It's just nobody really knows much about Feel Free and what it's doing to people, including the people taking it sometimes. So they immediately treated me like a heroin addict, which totally freaked me out as a mom. But again, they were really kind, and they treated me really well. So the withdrawals came on really strong. They didn't suggest me going into rehab or outpatient. However, if you know someone that is taking feel-free or is trying to get off of it, I really highly suggest they do because the withdrawals are horrific. I... I go to recovery meetings a lot. I enjoy going to recovery meetings, actually. I learn a lot from people in recovery. And there really aren't many. I actually have only met one other person in a recovery meeting who struggled with kratom and feel free. However, her story was a little bit more scary. When she went into her detox unit, I think she was from out of town because I've never seen her since. I only saw her once. But when she went into her detox unit, they, again, didn't know much about the product and didn't know how to treat her. So they ended up giving her benzos. it ended up putting her in a coma and she almost died. Not because it was a bad hospital staff or uneducated people. It's just like our bad employees, they just, nobody knows about this and what it's doing. It's like it came out in 2020 and people are still taking it. It's just a very, very addictive, awful drink. And as I'm driving around Naperville, I know they're in the smoke shops, I know they're in the gas stations, but the billboards for Feel Free just keep getting bigger and bigger. And to me, if people are going into detox and the detox unit are treating them like heroin addicts, what's the difference between a feel-free billboard and a sign with cocaine or heroin needles on it in our community? It's right by the high school. There's a gas station off Washington. And I just worry about the kids. A lot of the people that try this drink are not, they're very healthy, they're athletic, they're moms, they're dads, they're great people, and they think they're doing something better by drinking this alcohol alternative. The marketing for this, feel free, is just so awful. It's just, I mean, it's a business. It's a very expensive drink. It's a very expensive addiction. Naperville's a perfect community for it. I really believe why the billboards are getting bigger is because it's keeping the gas stations and the smoke shops in business. It's an extremely, extremely expensive addiction, and it's just ruining families and harming kids, and I think that's it. Thank you.

Thank you. Ms. Ware. Yes. When it comes to the product packaging and what this actually looks like when it's being sold at the retailers, is there any warning? Or what does it look like, resemble?

So for me, it's a small two-ounce glass blue bottle. I took it, and because it was a stimulant for me, it reminded me of a five-hour energy. It has a leaf on it. The warning signs have become more labeled on it. Right back in 2023, it was an herbal supplement. That's all it said. And still to this day, you can't tell that it is something that's really dangerous at all. There's a leaf. It's gluten-free. It helps with focus. It's an herbal alcohol substitute is how it's marketed. And I think the people working, of course, because it's a business, they want people to try it and get addicted.

You mentioned it's expensive.

Yeah.

How expensive?

It's $10 per bottle. And when you get really addicted, I got up to five a day before I quit. I've heard of people getting up to nine a day, and that's when, I mean, it has put people in psychosis and irregular heartbeats. I mean, you are really close to death at that point when you take that much. Thank you.

Questions from the commission? Commissioner Signorello.

Thank you, Mayor. I just want to thank you for standing up and stepping up and sharing your story. And I'm very, very happy that you're on good, solid well-being and your health is improving, yours and your husband's. And I want to thank the people from Edwards Hospital as well for the good care that they provide to not just you, but all neighbor billions as well. So thank you.

Thank you so much.

Certainly.

COMMISSIONER DEGIOIA.

I ALSO WANTED TO SAY THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THAT STORY. I'M GLAD YOU'RE DOING WELL. IS THERE AN AGE RESTRICTION TO PURCHASE THIS AT THIS TIME?

IT WAS 18. YOU JUST HAD TO BE 18 YEARS OLD WHEN I PURCHASED AT THE TIME WHEN I WAS TAKING IT. I DON'T KNOW IF THEY MOVED IT UP TO 21 OR NOT. BUT, YEAH, 18 I BELIEVE IS STILL THE AGE. THANK YOU SO MUCH.

ANY OTHER QUESTIONS FROM THE COMMISSION? COMMISSIONER CHERICO.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Yeah, thank you very much for speaking today. We ran into each other randomly at Hyman's grocery store the other day. The age is, I think, 21 right now, right, Mayor? Correct. Yeah. Okay. And I went to a gas station after hearing about your story, because I didn't know about Feel Free either. We had had the Kratom discussion years ago, but I didn't know about this particular product.

Mm-hmm.

And so I just went to buy a bottle of it, you're right, 10 bucks, you know, and just to see if, you know, did they card you? Where was it at? in the gas station, or was it placed? Is it something that could be easily stolen from the shop without being detected? Things like that. In this particular case, it was sitting by the front cash register. Small thing, but all these little blue bottles. They did card me, which my age is sometimes they can safely make an assumption that I'm over 21, I think. But they did card me in this particular case, which was comforting to see. But, yeah, I was unaware of it. But, anyway, thank you for sharing the story and definitely a discussion that needs to be had.

Thank you.

Okay. Seeing no other questions, thank you, Ms. Ware, for your courage and patience. all of the strength to get here today. And I hope you'll stick around because I think there will be more discussion and we might recall you for some additional questions at that time.

Yeah, thank you so much, everyone.

Next speaker is Dr. Laura. Or is it going to be Alex from, okay, I'm sorry, Alex on behalf of Fox Valley Institute.

Good afternoon. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. Ashley, congratulations on your sobriety. My name is Alex Pakran. I'm a therapist with Fox Valley Institute here in Naperville. I'm a licensed social worker, a certified alcohol and drug counselor, and I have treated addiction to Kratom and 7-0 firsthand. Though both Kratom and 7-0 carry risks, 7-0 products carry a significantly higher risk of dependence with opiate-like effects and a similar withdrawal experience, making it difficult to stop using and with dependence developing much faster. With that dependence comes cravings, tolerance, and continued use despite severe consequences. As Ashley powerfully illustrated, clinicians are still learning how to address this new and insidious substance use disorder. The research is scant. There is no FDA-approved medication, and physicians are prescribing off-label the same medications they use to treat opioid withdrawals. Withdrawal symptoms include nausea and vomiting, muscle pain, insomnia, chills and sweating, tremors, itching, and loss of appetite. In the 18 months working in an intensive outpatient program, I did not see a single successful completion of treatment for Kratom Use Disorder. I did, however, see people begin treatment for one substance and then develop this new addiction, mistakenly believing that Kratom products were harmless supplements, no different than a cup of coffee. I saw people with Kratom addiction in and out of treatment returning to use because the cravings were unbearable until eventually they left treatment and never returned. The people I treated for Kratom addiction all fit the profile common to citizens of Naperville. They were professionals, parents, valued community members, intelligent, disciplined, and began using Kratom products believing they were safe until cravings increased, withdrawal symptoms emerged, and they were unable to stop despite consequences to their health, families, and careers. This past winter, a client burst into my office 24 hours after his last use of 7-0, his face gray and sweaty, teeth chattering violently from the chills, and doubled over with stomach pain. Is this normal, he asked me. I didn't know. I sent him immediately to the physician on call, who later confirmed for me that, yes, this was normal. This was withdrawal from 7-0. My hope is that this is just the beginning of the conversation about Kratom products, because conversations around policy are insufficient if they do not also include prevention, education, research, and the sharing of resources and information with schools, medical, and mental health professionals about this growing public health threat. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Any questions for Alex? Not at this time. I hope you'll stick around. Thank you. Thank you. Next presentation is from Linden Oaks Behavioral Health.

All right. I think.

Don't hold me to it.

Hello, can everybody hear me?

Is everybody OK?

Hi. Go ahead. Thanks, Amanda, for inviting me. I appreciate it. My name's Ari. I'm a licensed clinical social worker. I work at the Mill Street PHP IOP program as the clinical supervisor. Before, I worked at the Mill Street location of Endeavor Behavioral Health, which is affiliated with Linden Oaks Hospital. It used to be called Linden Oaks, then we, EEH, Endeavor. Edwards Elmhurst Hospital merged with North Shore, now we're Endeavor Behavioral Health. Before I worked there, I worked on the south side of Chicago doing treatment for opioid use disorder in an outpatient setting and set up a buprenorphine or suboxone clinic for the treatment of opioid use disorder. So just some context in what I'm going through today. So as the mayor and Alex and Ashley reviewed, Kratom is a psychoactive plant that is legally sold online and at smoke shops and gas stations. Like many supplements, it can be used in a couple of different ways. And it's not very regulated, which I'll discuss more as I go through the PowerPoint. At low doses, from one to five milligrams, it has some stimulant-like effects. And as you increase the dose, it has more of an opioid-like effect, which I will talk about further in the presentation. This is just a map of the number of quote unquote smoke shops that are in the area that are most likely selling Kratom. So it's pretty well distributed throughout the community. And this is not accounting for gas stations that are also selling Kratom products. So this is information from the DuPage Public, or sorry, the DuPage Health Department. And this is the number of overdose, overdoses in 2025. And so there were 65 overdoses accounted for, substance use, substance use-related overdoses, and six of those involved Kratom products. So once they did a urine or not a urine, but an analysis of substances in people who overdosed. Six of the 65 overdoses had kratom in their system. So as people reviewed, Kratom has two psychoactive components. The first one is mitrogine, which is a partial mu opioid receptor antagonist. So it affects the opioid receptors in the brain. And Kratom also has 7-hydroxamine, which is a full mu opioid receptor. And I'm going to skip a... I had a slide. So if we're thinking about a full antagonist, like 7-OH, that's pretty synonymous with methadone, like a real opioid. Where if we're thinking about mitra gene, which is the primary active ingredient in kratom, it's more of a partial agonist, which is something more like suboxone or buprenorphine. And so thinking about, you guys asked kind of like what these packaging or products look like, and some more information about Kratom, especially in the last five years, 7-OH has really become a popular derivative that's being sold in a lot of these smoke shops, which is... 10 times more powerful than the classic mitra gene. That's the primary psychoactive ingredient in kratom. And 7-OH is being sold as a standalone product. And then more recently, there's even more derivatives. So there's mitra gene pseudosoxamine, which is often referred to as MP, which is 100 times more potent than mitra gene. That's, again, the product that, or the psychoactive component that's in Kratom that's just like the dried up compound that's in the leaf. Another way to describe this is five years ago when I switched from working on the south side doing primary opioid use disorder, like fentanyl and heroin, and came to Naperville, I was finding that my people with severe substance use disorder were taking 20 to 30 pills of crushed powder raw kratom to get an opioid-like effect. And so that amount was really slowing down their digestive system because they're just eating, you know, a bunch of dried plant. So it's hard to really get to a high dose of Kratom, even for my people with more severe substance use disorder. And I think Kratom in kind of more of the severe substance use disorder community has been known to produce an opioid effect for probably 20 or 30 years. Like people who are going to treatment and we're trying to avoid coming up for positive urine drug strains related to opioids, we're taking Kratom to still get an opioid-like effect. And that's been, again, a part of the substance use disorder world for 20 or 30 years. But this development of 70H and MP is newer, and some of these marketing techniques are also newer to our community. And again, this is some of the marketing. And we can see, kind of going back to this last slide, especially there's this even newer form, which is MGM-15 or DH-70H, which is 30 times more important than MitraGene. So we can see how some of these are advertised of having 200 milligrams of MG. This one with the blue packaging is being advertised as having 70H with pseudo, and that pseudo is going to the MP, which is the Mitrogeny Pseudoloxine. Does anybody know how to say that better than me? Okay, good. As long as I'm not embarrassing myself. So it's like, I can't believe you're saying it like that. It's commonly referred to as MP. So we can see that these products are being sold as an intoxicant. Especially when it says with pseudo, that's being marketed to people who are looking to become intoxicated and understand that this pseudo has a much stronger intoxicating effect than standard Kratom. Ashley kind of pointed out that feel-free product, which is up here. It just is a little key. Again, we're thinking as MG as the primary psychoactive ingredient in raw kratom. And the 7-OH as a more potent form of that. And then the MP as an even stronger intoxicant. On the There's two important, I think, things to look at here. If you can see my cursor right here, this is what's advertised as the dose. And then through this quantitative testing, this is what's actually in the product. So this feel free product is being advertised as having 40 milliliters of this MG psychoactive ingredient. But when it was actually studied in the lab, it actually had some 7-OH that was not advertised. Then when we're looking at this EDP buzz, they're reporting that they have 25 milligram dose of MG and they actually had 150 over 150, and they actually had a really significant amount of this MP, which is, again, the most intoxicating derivative of creative products.

Does that make sense?

Just some other clear-cut data that these Products that are clearly marketed not as a supplement but to be have an intoxicating effect When they're writing things like as advertised with pseudo or mp These have a wide range of Psychoactive ingredients that are not the actual dose that they're um being as advertised, which can really lead to some dangerous combinations if they're taking it with other substances or other medications. I'm not going to go through each one of these, but you can kind of see the disparities between what's advertised and what was actually in the sample. So I work at, again, a PHP IOP program, which is a partial hospitalization program for people with mental health and substance use disorder. Currently, we typically have a census of about 20 to 40 patients. Typically about 10 to 28% of our patients are struggling with opioid use disorder that is caused by kratom. And these patients require detox and then four to six weeks of day programming and usually probably about a year of outpatient therapy and medication management. And we do see patients who have issues with Kratom relapse and return. Currently four of our 26 patients that are currently on unit are struggling with Kratom use disorder. I just, I'm the supervisor there but I was covering for one of my staff who called out sick today and I spent a half an hour talking with some of the who's who's here at our program for Kratom use. She said, she reported that she was there, she struggled with Kratom use for seven years. This is her first time seeking treatment for it. And I think she has about 14 days without use, so the first time in seven years that she didn't take Kratom on a daily basis. We're really treating Kratom as, again, opioid use disorder. We have a pretty dedicated team of people who are focused on substance use disorder treatment. We have Dr. Kevin Masterson, who is a doctor who specializes in addiction medicine, as well as Danielle who's an advanced nurse practitioner. And these are people who have dedicated their medical practice to treating addiction. And we're just treating Kratom as opioid use disorder. So we're just prescribing Suboxone as a medication. to help with opioid withdrawal and to keep people from overdosing on opioids, whether that be Kratom or things like heroin or fentanyl. We also prescribe Narcan just like we would do for any other opioid to prevent overdose. Because as Ashley and Alex mentioned, and as the mayor mentioned, higher doses of Kratom and especially 70H and MP lead to respiratory depression just as any opioid would. Just some case examples. We had a 40-year-old who started using Kratom because they thought it would help them with pain, and they built up to a habit of $100 a day. They came to PHP IOP two times, and they're continuing to use Kratom. Suboxone for outpatient, and I think they had about six months without use between their two stays at PHB-IOP. I had a 50-year-old male who started using it because of stress and prior opioid use. They knew that what they were doing when they were buying these 70H products, and they returned to a program after being 20 years sober and started on Suboxone, and I have a 20-year-old who started using it to manage anxiety and they went to, as I think Ashley pointed out well, they went to the ER several times with like stomach issues connected to their withdrawal symptoms. And so as a system, when I saw this person going back, I actually gave them a call and said, I think you really need to come to our program because I think you're having opioid withdrawal. And she came in. And I continue to see her coming to our outpatient clinic for monthly refills on her Suboxone and treatment. And then the DEA is also looking at this. The DEA put out a presser on the first that they're looking to temporarily schedule 7-LH and related substances to protect public safety. So just in summary, we just basically treat kratom like an opioid. I think Ashley's anecdote that would we be in support of putting Heroin or fentanyl on a billboard is an apt one. That's how we treat it. It's widely accessible. We could leave here and within 10 minutes purchase enough to become pretty intoxicated or even overdose. We treat it with Suboxone and that can be a six month to two year treatment recommendation. And it can increase mental health symptoms as well. WE ALSO REALLY PROMOTE THE USE OF NARCAN AS OVERDOSE PREVENTION. HERE'S SOME OF OUR INFORMATION IF PEOPLE NEED ANY REFERRALS TO TREATMENT. THAT'S MY PRESENTATION. NEW SPEAKER THANK YOU.

ANY QUESTIONS FROM THE COMMISSION? COMMISSIONER SHARIGO.

NEW SPEAKER THANK YOU, MAYOR. THE MP PRODUCTS, THE TABLETS, Are those being sold locally in the smoke shops as well, or just the feel free type of?

Yeah. I mean, most smoke shops are going to have a wide array of products. And most of them are going to be these derivatives. And again, even from Ashley's story, she bought this drink, which Five years ago, I was having people just take raw Craven pills. And that would take, you know, they'd have to take 20 or 30 pills versus drinking this bottle that's going to take a couple seconds to ingest. And it's not going to have the same kind of like taxing effect on their body that's going to have to take all those pills. But yes, these products are available in... The area and there's a wide range of products there's there's going to be a section for I mean if you go to I mean. I think. The Commission would do well to look at smoke shops in general, I mean there's going to be nitrous there's going to be delta eight and there's going to be. these products as well. And it's going to be like a section, like a candy section, like a variety that's going to be like this colorful type of marketing without any warnings on it about the severity of these products.

And Mr. Mayor, questions for Detective Creighton. DO WE DO ANY COMPLIANCE CHECKS ON I ASSUME THESE PRODUCTS ALL FALL WITHIN THE STATE LAW AT MINIMUM ON THE PROHIBITION OF SALES UNDER 21, RIGHT?

NEW SPEAKER THANK YOU. YES, CORRECT. BUT WE DO NOT DO ANY SPECIFIC COMPLIANCE CHECKS FOR THESE PRODUCTS.

NEW SPEAKER OKAY.

We have discussed it in the past and we even, the mayor and I have reached out to the state to see if we can add these to the normal compliance checks that we do for tobacco. And as of yet, we haven't heard back, but we could discuss another round of checks separate for this. If the commission and the department wanted to do so, it would definitely be something worthwhile, I think.

Yeah, I mean, from my perspective, it seems that this is far more, DANGEROUS THAN SELLING TOBACCO TO KIDS. THERE'S NO PROGRAM FOR CHECKING THE SALE OF IT TO MINORS SO THAT SEEMS LIKE A PRETTY EASY THING FOR A MINOR TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF. THANK YOU.

NEW SPEAKER THANK YOU. THAT'S ALL THE QUESTIONS FOR YOU FOR NOW. THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR PRESENTATION. OUR NEXT SPEAKER IS FROM 360 YOUTH SERVICES.

Good afternoon. Thank you so much for having us. My name is Matt Cassie. I'm here with my colleague Natasha Grover. We're here from 360 Youth Services. I was here when those conversations happened in 2019, when the city was beginning to talk a little bit about Kratom and what the impacts could be. And one of the things I think is important to note, it was already mentioned previously, is this is something we're still really working to understand in a greater sense. There still needs to be a lot of research and understanding about it, but we want to share what we are seeing and what we know about now. Going a little bit later on in the docket, you will certainly see some echoes and hear some echoes of other presentations of people who provided a lot of really great information about those pieces. And we're going to spend a little time focusing on a little narrower band, really talking about youth. And when we're talking about youth, we are talking about minors, people up to the age of 18. But thinking a little bit broader beyond that, because that's what the government is expanding, the idea of youth and adolescents into young adulthood, and knowing that young adults are making decisions that very quickly funnel down to our younger population. So that is the direction that we would like to share a little bit about today. So some of these things are going to be familiar already. But again, I'm going to talk a little bit about those younger populations. So really, again, in an echo of what we're already talking, has already been shared, is that very often these products are being marketed as increasing focus, managing pain, anxiety, common things and symptoms that people are experiencing that are maybe looking. for a little help in. We see this with our youth, especially in high achieving areas where school is a big part of life. People are looking for ways to get a leg up, to be more focused. And we see that with that stimulant like quality. I'll talk a little bit more about that in a moment. But we see that kind of marketing oftentimes tiptoeing right up to making a health claim, but really sharing that it's a health or an energy supplement. using that type of language, herbal, so it sounds safe, sounds more comfortable, and that can create an idea that it is safe, even though it is under-regulated, especially for our youth, seeing something that is over-the-counter, it can be purchased not in a liquor department, not in a dispensary, but really in an everyday store. provides a perception that there isn't going to be the same levels of harm, dangers, or impairment that can come with that as there are with the other products. And that perception is a really big part of what we see with our youth. What they feel, what they see, what they see on social media really shapes their perspective. So as was already talked about, we do see it at gas stations, vape shops, different stores throughout communities. It can appear fruit-flavored, tablets, gummies, extracts, drink mixes, oils, powdered dry leaves, vape pens, or liquid shots. And it is highly visible through social media influencers. One of the biggest pieces of influence over our youth and our young adults, and really all of us this day and age, is social media. People spend a large amount of time scrolling through, whether it's TikTok, Instagram, whatever social media platform people want to engage with. And that is well known. And so we see a lot of people who are health, fitness, wellness people who are paid promoters in extolling the virtues of these products, talking about them in a healthy perspective. And so people don't always have the full understanding and education of what they're engaging with when they are moving into these products. So when people might encounter them in a storefront, the packaging is often bright colors, can resemble candy, and these concentrated forms and other products often have packaging that's appealing to our younger buyers. Again, the brighter colors, bright language, things that will catch the eye, and especially for our youth and our young people. Data is harder to come by. Natasha will talk a little bit more about this. We're continuing to try to figure out how we can get better than anecdotal evidence. So we were really relying a lot on national data as opposed to our local data. in front of this group before, talking about Illinois Youth Survey and local data. Right now, kratom is not a substance that is asked about for that local. So we really do look at the national data and those trends. But we know that it is an increasing number of people who are engaging with kratom. It's becoming more popular. And that evolution, as we always see, back in 2019, people talked about how all of a sudden it's becoming more potent. It's becoming more discreet. It's becoming more visible. in terms of people being able to engage and buy those products. And all those things, that's unfortunately how substance use always goes. It always becomes more potent. It always evolves to be something stronger and a derivative of. We've seen that with our conversations about cannabis derivatives. Now we're seeing it here with Kratom and 7-0, which we'll talk a little bit more about. The area where we see the age range, where we see the highest reported use is between 21 and 34-year-olds. But again, that is not to say that other age groups are not being involved and engaged. The image you see here is a local gas station. You can see the Kratom products right there in the middle. You can see some of the bright colors from all kinds of different products that are being sold. Kratom, again, is in the middle. You don't see a ton of warning, but you do see that age restriction because here in Naperville, Obviously, you have to be 21, as has previously been established. But you can see the different products, how forward-facing they often are in the storefronts by checkout stands. Obviously, this is just one store. There are a number of different stores. They do not all operate and use their space the same way. But they typically are highly visible within a setting or a store. And not only on the inside of the stores, we also often see them on the outside. This is a vape shop, and you can see that Kratom is becoming more prevalent in terms of the actual advertising as its popularity is growing. So where Delta 8, e-cigarettes and vape, that used to be the language that we would see more often, we're seeing this evolution and we're seeing the change where Kratom is becoming something that is becoming more common item to be promoting because of the influence and because of the popularity of the product. So when we're looking at these products, again, some of these things are already talked about, but one of the things that I think is really important is the effect on the brain, is we know that the brain continues to develop until the age of 25. So anytime somebody will engage with an impairing substance before that, it has an outsized impact on the brain, and the younger somebody engages with something, their age of first use greatly increases their chance of having a lifelong problem or developing a substance use disorder. So one of the interesting things about this product is depending on the amount or the strength of it, it really does change the impact. So the low doses, we do have those stimulant-like pieces that people have talked about, increased energy, alertness, talkativeness, rapid heart rate. And this is something that we do see people using it as a stimulant to feel more on top of their game, to be able to study longer. feel more engaged. These are the things that we hear anecdotally. But when it moves into a higher dosage, we start to see those opioid-like qualities. And unfortunately, the more somebody is using, the more likely they are to be engaged and be taking more of that substance. But you see some of these symptoms that come along with the high dosage. With that, I'm going to turn it over to Natasha to share some data.

So as Matt had mentioned, our local data is from the Illinois Youth Survey. And we do that every two years. And it's administered to eighth graders, 10th graders, and 12th graders. We do not, because this is a new trend, we do not have local data regarding the youth. So we rely on the national data, which is through the monitoring the future. SURVEY, IT'S A NATIONAL SURVEY THAT IS GIVEN TO 23,000 KIDS THROUGHOUT THE NATION, 270 PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SCHOOLS, AND IT WAS FROM FEBRUARY THROUGH JUNE 2025, AND THEY FOUND OUT THAT 1.2% OF 12TH GRADERS REPORTED USING CREDIM IN THE PAST YEAR. I know you've mentioned, you know, Kratom is age-restricted, but I wanted to point out that if you go to the Federal Trade Commission website, there is a statistic that says 74% of teens do not buy their alcohol. It is given to them for free. So just keeping that in mind. So this is pulled from Kratom exposure data, and it was extracted from the National Poison Data System, which is the data repository for the 53 US poison centers. And during 2015 to 2025, the poison centers documented about 14,000 Kratom exposures. THE 3400 EXPOSURES REPORTED IN 2025 REPRESENT AN INCREASE OF APPROXIMATELY 1200% COMPARED WITH THE 258 REPORTED IN 2015. So what is an exposure? If you look on the left side, an exposure is like when somebody calls the Poison Center and says, I'm taking Kratom. And then the numbers on the right, that is the same. It's parallel, but it's per million. So it's adjusted for the population. So what it's saying is out of every million people, how many Kratom exposures calls happened? So if you look, the exposure rates increased in parallel with the number of exposure reports from 412 to about 4,400 per million drug exposure reports. with a steady increase in 2019, and then suddenly you see suddenly a marked surge in 2025. And what you will notice is the number in 2025 is actually much higher than all the previous years aggregated. So this slide shows the number or rate of poison center calls involving kratom. The rate adjusts for the differences in population size again. The solid line is multiple substance exposure, whereas a single one is just kratom. Because what we have noticed, people don't take sometimes substances by themselves. It's called stacking, where they take different substances and stack them upon each other. So for instance, with one million multiple substance exposure reports of those 9,000 involved kratom in adults 20 to age 39. And we do have some data here for the young population ages. So the poison centers, they document data from 12 and above. Reports involving Kratom used with other substances are generally more common than reports involving Kratom alone, and all age groups experience a sharp rise in 2025. So this is showing the data of people who take Kratom and have to go get hospitalized. Of the people whose Kratom exposure was serious enough to be reported to a poison center, how many ended up being hospitalized? It compares, again, single substance, just the Kratom, as well as the multiple substance. Nearly half of all the poison center reports involving kratom and another substance resulted in hospitalization. The dashed line over here is only kratom, and then over here is multiple substances. So the kratom only line indicates that about one out of four poison center reports involving kratom resulted in hospitalization. And again, if you see in 2025, a marked upsurge. So we had talked about 7-OH a lot. And as was mentioned previously, it is in trace amounts. But it is the most potent compound in the Kratom plant. And it's being extracted. And what happens is when it's being extracted and used with the other substances, you don't know how much 7-OH is going into the substance. So when it's being sold, you don't know how much is incorporated. As the previous speaker had shown, what it says versus what there actually is, and that's a huge issue. And it's being falsely advertised as natural kratom products, and some commercial concentrates run 5 to 50 times stronger than regular kratom, as we saw on the previous speaker was showing his slide. And here are some products. And as Matt had mentioned, how do we Entice the youth and if you look at this one over here, it's like an ice cream cone and so It's various different ways of enticing the youth to purchase these items Any questions for us Oh, I do want to mention you guys were talking about ordinances that different cities have passed. Plainfield just passed an ordinance in May banning the sale of Kratom, novel, synthetic, and psychoactive drugs. So I did want to mention that.

For all age groups, are you aware? For all age groups. For all age groups. Thank you. I don't see any questions from the commission at this point, but stick around. Thank you. Thank you. Detective Crichton and Detective Sussness, did you want to add anything that may or may not have been said at this point?

I brought my expert here, Detective Sussness. He sees the stuff on the street more. As you know, I'm in an office, but a former, what, DEA task force officer?

No, actually.

Former TAC.

A former case agent here. I've been approximately an employee here for 10 years with Naperville. Most of my career has been with our special operations group. I was case agent, primary undercover detective for two years, and most currently I have a canine, a single purpose narcotics dog, Riggs. Just in my short time here, blessed to be here. I've seen every type and every type of quantity of drug you could imagine. Obviously we have a task force officer with the ATF. We have a task force officer with the DEA, so we're heavily involved with them as well. The Kratom, obviously, that's not new. I'm not going to go over everything that everybody else, like Ashley and everybody, they did a great job. It's highly unregulated. I've been in these smoke shops. I've been in these gas stations. There are probably 100 different brands. I don't know where these come from. I don't know where it's synthesized. No one does. The 70H, probably 100 different brands. It comes in loose. Oh, excuse me. loose big leaf bags or are commonly pills. I could give you probably a dozen testimonials or a dozen calls I've been to involving Kratom. One that was pre-body cam just to shed some light on it. I was working as a patrol officer early on in my career. It was kind of like Worley and Hobson area. Ambulance already responded. It was dead of winter. There was a subject passed out or incapacitated, you know, face down in the snow. The ambulance, obviously the fire department got there. They checked them, however they checked his pulse. Didn't notice him breathing. We had to maintain the crime scene. So we walked in one line. As soon as the battalion chief got there, he eventually flipped over the body we thought was going to be dead, and the person was alive. They started breathing at that point in time. But initially, the paramedics, they didn't feel a pulse on him when they checked. Later on, after he was hospitalized, we went and we talked with the victim, and he clearly was incapacitated under kratom. He mixed it with a little bit of alcohol, but he's drank before. He said the kratom he's never had. And if he wasn't found, he would have been left there for dead. So that's just one instance that I've dealt with. We've gone in to these smoke shops and these vape shops, and we've dealt with the Delta 8. There's a Delta O. There's a Delta Z. There's synthetic mushroom bars that we could be talking about. There's a lot of things. So I think Kratom is a great addition, a great start. And we would love to, at least in my unit, start the compliance checks as well. Other than that, if you have any questions for me, I'll be here anytime. I appreciate you letting me talk.

Great. Thank you, Detective.

Thank you.

Commissioner Signorella.

Thanks, Mr. Mayor. No questions, but I'd like to make a motion.

Go ahead.

I'D LIKE TO MAKE A MOTION AND A RECOMMENDATION THAT ON BEHALF OF THE CITIZENS OF NAPERVILLE AND THIS COMMISSION THAT THE NAPERVILLE CITY COUNCIL BAN THE RETAIL SALE OF 7-OH AND CRATUM DERIVATIVE PRODUCTS AT A DATE, EFFECTIVE DATE IN THE NEAR FUTURE TO BE DETERMINED BY THE NAPERVILLE CITY COUNCIL.

IS THERE A SECOND?

I SECOND.

COMMISSIONER DEGIOIA WITH A SECOND. WE'LL NOW GO INTO DISCUSSION.

MR. MAYOR.

COMMISSIONER CHERICO.

ARE THERE ANY MORE SPEAKERS?

I DON'T SEE ANY OTHER SPEAKERS ON THE LIST. HOWEVER, I DO HAVE A WRITTEN COMMENT THAT I WANT TO MAKE SURE THAT WE GET INTO THE RECORD.

AND THEN CAN WE HAVE SOME DISCUSSION?

YES. SO WE'RE IN THE DISCUSSION. WE HAVE A PENDING MOTION. SO WE'RE IN THE DISCUSSION PHASE NOW FOR THE PENDING MOTION. I CAN READ THE I'M GOING TO ASK COUNSEL AS FAR AS GETTING THE WRITTEN TESTIMONY THAT CAME IN LATE INTO THE RECORD, SHOULD I TRY TO DO THAT NOW? COMMISSIONER, I'D LIKE TO GET SOMETHING IN THE RECORD FIRST. CAN YOU WITHDRAW YOUR MOTION?

I WITHDRAW MY MOTION.

Commissioner DeGioia? Second?

I second.

Okay. So the motion on the table has now been withdrawn. The city did receive written comment from the Global Kratom Coalition that was submitted after the 24-hour deadline for written comment. If the Liquor Commission wants to include this comment in the record, this can either be addressed by a motion to include the late comment in the meeting minutes, or a motion to accept the comment as though if it were submitted on time and included alongside the timely submitted written comment. So we need a motion to do one or the other to get the late submitted comment entered as part of the record for the hearing. Commissioner Cherico.

Thank you, Mayor. I'd like to make a motion to accept it as part of the record on an oral basis. I think any information should be presented and part of the record so that we can make the most informed decision that we can.

So would that be a motion to accept it as though it was committed or submitted on time or just as a motion to include the late comment in the meeting minutes?

I think we can accept it as it was on time.

Okay. Is there a second? McGurry, second. Okay, we have a motion and a second. Roll call.

Chirico? Aye. Gunzer? Aye. McGurry? Aye. DeGioia? Aye. Signorella?

Yes. Motion passes 5-0. Now we will move on back to Commissioner.

Can we read it?

Commissioner Signorella. Okay. You want it read into the record?

I haven't seen it. I thought that's what we were going to do is read it into the record.

Okay. Okay. Before we move forward, we're going to read this into the record, the email that came in today. COUNSELOR?

MS. CAPTAIN, DO YOU WANT TO READ IT IN THE RECORD? OKAY. DEAR MAYOR WORLEY, I HOPE YOU ARE DOING WELL. MY NAME IS ALLISON SMITH AND I SERVE AS DIRECTOR OF GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS FOR THE GLOBAL CREDIM COALITION. I RECENTLY REVIEWED THE LICOR COMMISSION'S JULY 9TH AGENDA REGARDING AGENDA ITEM 26-08112. RECEIVE THE PRESENTATION OF CRATUM FEEL FREE AND EVALUATE WHETHER STRICTER LOCAL REGULATION IS NEEDED. AND I WANTED TO SHARE AN IMPORTANT FEDERAL DEVELOPMENT THAT OCCURRED AFTER THE AGENDA MATERIALS WERE PREPARED. ON JULY 6, 2026, THE U.S. DRUG ENFORCEMENT ADMINISTRATION, DEA, PUBLISHED A NOTICE OF INTENT TO TEMPORARILY PLACE SEVEN HIGH 7-hydromitrazionine.

7-hydroxymitrazionine.

See, that was better. That's not part of the comment, though. 7-OH above a specified threshold along with related synthetic derivatives and to schedule after determining these products present an imminent hazard to public safety. Importantly, the DEA did not propose scheduling traditional Kratom leaf. Instead, it distinguished between traditional leaf products and the highly concentrated and synthetic products that have become increasingly available under the Kratom label. This distinction mirrors many of the concerns raised in your agenda materials. I also noted that the staff report references municipalities that have taken different approaches. While Winnetka and Bloomington adopted broader retail restrictions, Rockford instead targeted synthetic 7-OH products. The DEA's recent action reinforces this targeted approach by focusing on the products federal regulators determined posed the greatest risk. Because the city is revisiting this issue at the same time the DEA has announced emergency scheduling of concentrated 7-OH products. This presents an opportunity to ensure ANY LOCAL POLICY COMPLEMENTS FEDERAL ACTION RATHER THAN DUPLICATING OR CONFLICTING WITH IT. RATHER THAN TREATING ALL PRODUCTS SOLD UNDER THE CREATIVE LABEL THE SAME, NEIGHBORVILLE CAN FOCUS ITS EFFORTS ON THE PRODUCTS THE DEA HAS NOW IDENTIFIED AS POSING AN IMMINENT HAZARD TO PUBLIC SAFETY. IF THE COMMISSION ULTIMATELY CONCLUDES THAT ADDITIONAL LOCAL SAFEGUARDS ARE WARRANTED, I RESPECTFULLY ENCOURAGE CONSIDERATION OF AN ORDINANCE THAT COMPLEMENTS THE DEA'S ACTION BY SPECIFICALLY ADDRESSING CONCENTRATED AND SYNTHETIC 7OH PRODUCTS WHILE PRESERVING ACCESS TO TRADITIONAL CREATIVE LEAF PRODUCTS THROUGH AGE RESTRICTIONS, INDEPENDENT LABORATORY TESTING, LABELING REQUIREMENTS, AND CONCENTRATION LIMITS. THE GECC HAS DEVELOPED MODEL ORDINANCE LANGUAGE THAT ACCOMPLISHES EXACTLY THAT. and I would be happy to share it with you or answer any questions the commission may have. I hope we can serve as a resource as the commission evaluates this issue and considers whether any changes to Naperville's existing ordinance are necessary. Thank you for your thoughtful consideration of this issue and for your service to the city of Naperville. Respectfully, Alison Smith.

Thank you. That has been officially added to the record. Commissioner Signorella.

In light of the... THE STATEMENT BEING MADE, I WOULD STILL LIKE TO SUBMIT MY RECOMMENDATION AND MY MOTION FOR THE NAPERVILLE CITY COUNCIL TO BAN THE RETAIL SALE OF 7OH AND CRATUM DERIVATIVE PRODUCTS AT AN EFFECTIVE DATE TO BE DETERMINED BY THE NAPERVILLE CITY COUNCIL. THANK YOU, MAYOR.

Is there a second?

I second. Commissioner DeGioia?

I second. Just a point of clarification. You said Kratom derivative products. Does that include all Kratom products?

Yes.

Okay. Commissioner Chirico?

Thank you, Mayor. Great motion. I support that. I think it seems to me that this product at minimum should be regulated much like cannabis. If it does have a medical use, and it may, I think in the last hearing that we had on this in 2019, there was testimony to that effect. I remember a woman who had terrible skin disease issues that They tried everything and Kratom was the only thing that was effective. So I believe that there very possibly could be a medical value to this product. But if that's the case, then it should be prescribed by a doctor, a medical doctor, or at least at minimum be much like medical cannabis in a regulated, controlled in a regulated way. So from my perspective, yeah, I think that it's probably time that we make a move on this. I'll support that motion.

Any other questions or comments from the Commission? I think it's a very appropriate action that the Commission is considering right now. The number of cases that I've heard about in the community and the outreach I've heard from family members INCLUDING MEMBERS OF OUR POLICE DEPARTMENT ABOUT CASES THAT WE WORKED IN JUST THE LAST SEVERAL MONTHS WHERE THERE WERE OVERDOSES AND NARCAN, MULTIPLE NARCAN DOSES WERE APPLIED TO BRING PEOPLE BACK AND IT WAS FULLY INVOLVING THESE PRODUCTS. IT'S JUST, IT'S REALLY A SCARY HEALTH RISK FOR OUR COMMUNITY. I THINK THERE'S IMMEDIATE ACTION THAT WE NEED TO TAKE IN OUR CITY TO PROTECT OUR RESIDENTS. ROLL CALL.

MCGURRY.

AYE.

DEGIOIA. AYE. SENORELLA.

YES.

CHERICO. AYE.

MOTION PASSES 5-0. AND ON BEHALF OF THE LIQUOR COMMISSION, I WANT TO THANK ALL OF THOSE WHO CAME OUT TO TESTIFY TODAY. YOUR MESSAGES WERE VERY POWERFUL AND WE LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING YOU WHEN THIS COMES TO A CITY COUNCIL AGENDA WHICH WILL LIKELY BE AT OUR FIRST MEETING IN AUGUST. AT THAT MEETING, THE CITY COUNCIL WILL HEAR THE RECOMMENDATION FROM THE LIQUOR COMMISSION because it was a unanimous recommendation from the Liquor Commission, it will be put on the consent agenda, which means it will be voted with a lot of other things, unless there is a council person who chooses to ask it to be removed from the consent agenda and voted separately from there. But it's always good to make sure that there's follow through at the next phase of which what will really matter is the city council vote. THANK YOU ALL FOR BEING HERE. AND AGAIN, IF THAT AGENDA ITEM GETS PULLED OR IF YOU WANT TO BE THERE TO BE READY FOR QUESTIONS, IT'S HIGHLY ENCOURAGED FOR THAT MEETING. THANK YOU ALL.

JUST ONE MORE NOTE THAT I WANT TO JUST MENTION IS THAT WHEN IT GETS TO CITY COUNCIL MEETING, IT WILL LIKELY RECEIVE SOME PRESS BEFORE THEN AND THERE WILL LIKELY BE SUPPORTERS OF CRATUM WHO WILL SHOW UP TO SPEAK TO TRY TO INFLUENCE THE CITY COUNCIL TO NOT BAN THE SALE OF THIS PRODUCT. SO YOUR ATTENDANCE AT THAT POINT WILL BE MORE CRITICAL. SO PLEASE CONSIDER THAT.

OKAY. WE ARE STILL IN NEW BUSINESS. COMMISSIONER CHERICO, DO YOU WANT TO?

THANK YOU, MAYOR. THIS WAS REGARDS TO THE LETTER THAT WAS SENT TO US ON THE HAPPY HOUR, AND I THINK IT WOULD BE WORTH HAVING A DISCUSSION ABOUT THIS. OUR RESTAURANTS HAVE BEEN A big part of our success in Naperville in terms of managing DUIs and things like that have been the partnership with our restaurants. And I think that it's at least worth having this conversation to find out if indeed prohibiting happy hours and the sale of discounted alcohol in our restaurants is still something that is necessary to maintain a safe environment. I'D LIKE TO MAKE A MOTION TO ADD THIS TO THE AGENDA AT THE NEXT LIQUOR COMMISSION MEETING AND HAVE THAT DISCUSSION.

IS THERE A SECOND? MCGURRY, SECOND. WE HAVE A MOTION AND A SECOND. ANY FURTHER DISCUSSION ON ADDING HAPPY HOUR DISCUSSION TO OUR NEXT LIQUOR COMMISSION MEETING AGENDA? SEEING NONE, ROLL CALL. ACTUALLY, I COULD DO A VOICEFOLD ON THAT. ALL THOSE IN FAVOR SIGN AYE. AYE. OPPOSED? MOTION PASSES. Our next item is the liquor commission reports. Item F1, DUI reports, Detective Crichton.

Thank you, Mayor. We got March of 25, we had 23 DUIs compared to March of 26, where we had 16. April of 25, we had 20 DUIs. April of 26, we had 14. May of 25, we had 12 DUIs. May of 26, for unknown reasons, we jumped up to 27. June of 25, we had 21 DUIs, and June of 26, we had 22 DUIs. We are trending right now toward about the same as 2025. No single establishment has popped up on our lists for those that have answered the questions that the officers ask. That's it for liquor.

And anecdotally, Naperville was just named number four in DUI arrests in the state. F2, tobacco.

Tobacco, we did the last round of fiscal year 26 tobacco compliance checks in May, on dates May 27th and 28th. We had two violations out of 84 tobacco licenses, I believe. One of those stores had a violation within about the last year. And then the other store that violated was probably two years ago.

I ASKED A QUESTION ABOUT THAT COMMENT. FOR SURE. WHEN YOU SAY THE FOURTH IN THE STATE, IS IT THE FOURTH NUMBER OF DUIS OR AS A PERCENTAGE OF RAW NUMBERS, THE FOURTH HIGHEST AMOUNT OF DUIS? DUI ARRESTS. DUI ARRESTS IN CITIES IN THE STATE. I mean, we're the fourth largest city, so it sort of puts us at about, third largest city, so it sort of puts us at about par, right? Or no? I guess that's, is it a percentage thing? Or do you have percentages versus like just raw numbers?

I don't. However, I can tell you we used to be near the top. Number one. Number one. I know. Besides Chicago. Yes. So. I GUESS IF WE'RE FALLING DOWN, I CAN TELL YOU THE OFFICERS ARE STILL OUT THERE TRYING. THE GRANTS ARE STILL OUT THERE, THE STEP GRANTS AND ALL THESE GRANTS THAT COME FROM THE STATE OF ILLINOIS. SO THE OFFICERS ARE STILL OUT THERE IN THOSE EXTRA CAPACITIES. SO IF WE ARE SEEING A LOWER NUMBER, IF WE'RE DROPPING IN THAT, THAT'S ONE FIGURE WHERE YOU WANT TO DROP, THEN I THINK WE'RE GOING IN A GOOD DIRECTION.

YEAH, I'M NOT TRYING TO SUGGEST WE GO ONE WAY OR ANOTHER. I JUST WANTED TO PUT SOME CONTEXT AROUND THAT. IT SHOULDN'T BE SURPRISING THAT WE'RE THE FOURTH HIGHEST DUI ARRESTS IN THE STATE BECAUSE WE ARE THE THIRD LARGEST CITY ALSO. SO IT WOULD BE INTERESTING THOUGH TO SEE THIS ON A PER CAPITA BASIS OR SOMETHING TO FIND OUT IF WE ARE DOING THIS. I MEAN, IT WOULDN'T BE SURPRISING TO ME IF we had a higher percentage also, just given the number of restaurants that we have in our community that people travel to from out of the city. But I think it might be just, you know, if it's easily obtainable information, it might be helpful to see. Sure thing.

Attorney Bonner?

Yeah, so I just pulled up the article while the discussion was going on. So this is the second consecutive year that Naperville secured the number four spot. So in 2025, the police made 287 DUI arrests, which was an 11.2% increase over the 258 arrests made in 2024. Aurora took the number one spot with 479 DUI arrests, a 1.3% increase over 2024's 473 arrests. They have been first for the past four years. Rockford came in second with 476 arrests, a 32.6% increase from 2024. And Springfield was number three with 298 arrests, a 4.4% increase from 2024. RUNNING OUT THE TOP 12 WAS ELGIN, BLOOMINGTON, O'FALLON, DECATUR, WEST CHICAGO, JULIET, FRANKLIN PARK, LOMBARD, AND CHAMPAGNE.

WHO WAS THE STORY FROM?

I BELIEVE IT WAS THE NAPERVILLE SUN. ONE SECOND. CORRECT. IT WAS THE NAPERVILLE SUN. OKAY.

THANK YOU. Liquor essentials report.

Okay, for the Naperville Liquor Law Essentials, for those who don't know, that's our local training that we do in addition to the Illinois Liquor Control Commission Bassett. In March, we had 40 people successfully go through. April, 42. May, 79, which is congruent with the summer hiring. And then June, we had 28.

F4, LIQUOR CONCEPT COMMITTEE REPORT. MS. BECKTON.

BETWEEN MARCH AND JUNE 2026, WE'VE HAD QUITE A FEW LIQUOR CONCEPT MEETINGS. IN MARCH, WE HAD THE IRISH FEST COME AND REQUEST WHISKEY TASTINGS. SINCE THAT MEETING IN MARCH, THEY'VE DECIDED NOT TO PROCEED WITH THAT. THEY'LL CONTINUE DOING WHAT THEY WERE PREVIOUSLY DOING. Tacoville Taco Fest attended a concert meeting and held a successful event in June. Bowl of Biryani is a Class A restaurant that has since opened. Guzman y Gomez requested a Class A and that business is no longer in the United States. 99 Ranch Market requesting a Class G1 grocery store license will be opening December 2026. Saliva's Indian Kitchen is a Class B restaurant and tavern that's currently obtaining occupancy. In April, Cinnamon Pancake House is an existing restaurant that requested a Class A restaurant license. Cuisine of India is requesting a Class A license. They're currently applying for their state license. 810 Entertainment, Class B. This was formerly the Whirlyball location. I don't know what they're doing actually right now. The Belmont is a Class B that's already opened. In May, we had Tokyo Shokudo, a Class A restaurant for a Japanese restaurant, currently applying for their state license. We have a new ownership request for the Ogden Wine and Spirit at 1568 West Ogden Avenue. They're working on their occupancy. In June, we had Cantina Taco Grill, a Class B restaurant, anticipated opening August 31st of 2026. And then Five Iron Golf, who we heard from today.

Thank you. Any questions? Seeing none, that's the remaining portion of our agenda. May I have a motion to adjourn? So moved. Is there a second?

Second.

All those in favor, sign aye. Aye. Opposed? Thank you everybody for being with us today.