Community Services and Youth Committee - Regular Meeting

Are they ready in the back? Yeah. Alright. It is 01:00. It is February 18, I believe, of twenty twenty six. Welcome to the Safety, Wellness, and Youth Committee. Committee members are here. Staff is here. And we will get underway, and we will start with public comment.

Public comment is now open for this item. Available in both English and Spanish. Call (951) 826-8686 and follow the prompts to access the meeting in either language. To request to speak, press 9. You can also join via Zoom. The meeting ID for both languages can be found on the agenda.

We have nobody in chambers. We'll wait a few moments to see if anyone calls in. We have no callers so we will bring we will close public comment and that will take us to our discussion calendar item number agenda item number two, proposed amendments to titles one five six and nine of the Riverside Municipal Code to standardize background investigation procedures for business that require a background as part of a business permit process and we will call upon our deputy chief deputy chief of police, Frank Osuma, and we will open public comment. Public

comment is now open for this item, available in both English and Spanish. Call (951) 826-8686 and follow the prompts to access the meeting in either language. To request to speak, press 9. You can also join via Zoom. The meeting ID for both languages can be found on the agenda.

Alright. Mister Asuma, the floor is yours.

Good afternoon, committee members. Obviously, I'm deputy chief Frank Asuma here to discuss the proposed ordinance amending titles one, five, six, and nine of the Riverside Municipal Code to include a background investigation. Alright. Let's talk about the background. RPD is responsible for conducting background checks and issuing business permits for 11 types of businesses in the city of Riverside.

Those businesses are pool rooms, vehicles for hire, taxi cabs, and animal drawn vehicles, massage parlors, cannabis cannabis dispensaries, entertainment, junk dealers and scrap metal recyclers, pawn shops and secondhand dealers, firearm dealers, tobacco retail establishments, adult oriented businesses, fortune telling, and occult art. The Riverside municipal code currently provides different requirements for conducting background investigations into business owners and their employees depending on the business types. This most likely occurred because RMC is a living document, and the codes were written into the RMC at different times. As an example, a permit for pool rooms requires that the application is complete and truthful. However, there's no requirement to fully complete the application in the adult oriented business or fortune telling permit background investigations.

Also, there's no provision in the current RMC that allows investigators to consider the existence of active felony or misdemeanor arrest warrants, probation or parole status, or civil lawsuits with a final judgment or order against any of the business types when conducting background checks. So the proposed solution is to add RMC section one point one seven point one two two, the background check procedure for Riverside Police Department review of business permit applications. RMC one point one seven point one two two will include a standard background check procedure that will apply to all businesses requiring a background check by the Riverside Police Department. This will provide a more consistent process for all background checks regardless of the business type while still retaining some of the requirements specific to certain business types. Also, currently, the time required to complete background investigations varies between business types.

However, background checks are dependent on information received in a timely manner from outside agencies or organizations that we do not have control over. Therefore, it's not practical to set a specific time frame to complete a background investigation. Section one point one seven point one two two will replace any reference to specific deadlines with after a reasonable amount of time. The benefits of a uniform procedure. Adding a standard procedure for conducting background checks under section one point one seven point one two two would create a more consistent process for all background checks across all business types, creating more clarity for applicants and staff and increase compliance and enforcement.

So we recommend that the safety, wellness, and youth committee receive and discuss the proposed ordinance amending titles one, five, six, and nine of the Riverside Municipal Code to include a standardized background investigation procedure for businesses that require a background as part of the business permit process in addition to any specific changes for specific business types covered under their respective titles within the RMC and forward the recommendation to the city council for final consideration.

Alright. We have no public comment inside the chambers. Let me see if we have any phone calls. We have none, so we will close public comment and we'll bring it back to the dais for questions and ultimately motion. Council member Bill?

I don't necessarily have any comments other other than to say this just appears to be the cleanup, kind of make things a little make the process go a little smoother. Correct. Makes makes complete sense to me, and I would just make a motion that we move this onto the full council for consideration. I would be in support of approving as as written.

Alright. Council member Condor.

Thank you, chair. Deputy chief, let me ask you a question. Let's just pick, for example, one of the ones you had on there, pawn shops. Do the employees currently have to go through a background check?

No. The owners.

Just the owner. So it's just the owner?

Correct. Okay. Currently, it's just the owners.

Okay. So the ones that don't currently require it, will this be an extra fee to their licensing?

The business to to do background checks on employees?

Well, no. Mean, whatever does this ordinance include employees? Is it gonna include employees?

For those ordinances, for example, like

The pawnshop.

The pawnshops, no.

Okay.

So there would not be any additional cost.

Okay. But other ones might, if they have to do employees, there might be an additional fee?

Correct. Okay.

I'm gonna prepare myself for phone calls. Okay. I'll second the motion of customer Mill.

Alright. I have no further questions. So, we have a motion by councilmember Mill, second by councilmember Conder. And that is going to be unanimous. Any objections? Seeing none, passes unanimously. Thank you. Alright. That'll bring us to agenda item number three which is proposed amendments to title nine of the Riverside Municipal Code prohibiting the sale and distribution of nitrous oxide in the city of Riverside. And I'm gonna call upon deputy police chief Charles Payne, and we will open public comment.

Public comment is now open for this item, available in both English and Spanish. Call (951) 826-8686 and follow the prompts to access the meeting in either language. To request to speak, press 9. You can also join via Zoom. The meeting ID for both languages can be found on the agenda.

All right. Mr. Payne, the floor is yours.

Excellent. Thank you, Councilmember Perry. We're discussing an ordinance to regulate nitrous oxide, commonly known as NOS, and Kratom, which is a drug that's commonly sold in smoke shops and certain markets and widely abused. Both are subject to regulation and bans in other jurisdictions in other cities. So the proposed ordinance would add Section 9.04.225 to prohibit the sale or distribution of nitrous oxide.

It would add Section 9.04.325 9.04.325 to regulate the sale and distribution of Kratom products. It would amend Chapter 6.24 of the Riverside Municipal Code by prohibiting nitrous oxide in Kratom sales at tobacco retail establishments. And then it would amend the RMC to prohibit the sale entirely of Kratom in the city. And we'll talk about that a little bit more too. So as of January 2026, there are two fifteen known locations selling tobacco products in the city.

So those are locations that either have a tobacco retail establishment permit or are selling them without a permit, with a suspended permit, and so forth. Mini Marts, grocery stores, smoke shops, and gas stations. 28 of those locations are classified as smoke shops under the RMC. And the definition under the RMC of a smoke shop is a business selling tobacco where the sales of tobacco constitute 30% or more of their gross sales or 30% or more of their total lease area, their total sales floor area. Between March '5 and January '6, the Vice Union observed mini marts, gas stations, and smoke shops selling both Kratom and synthetic based kratom products that exceed 2.7 I'm sorry, 2% of the active ingredient concentration.

Smoke shops were observed selling both nitrous oxide and kratom products along with illegal sales of psilocybin mushrooms commonly known as magic mushrooms cannabis products which are not currently authorized for lawful sale in the city of Riverside in cannabinoid products and narcotics and narcotics paraphernalia. And we've presented to this committee and to City Council before on some of those issues. Nitrous oxide, you'll hear it referred to as laughing gas. It has certain legitimate uses. For example, as a general anesthetic in dental procedures or medical procedures, as a propellant and whipped cream.

If you buy like the Ready Whip whipped cream cans, the propellant in there, the gas in it is nitrous oxide. It's used in automobile racing. It's abused by folks that want to abuse it to become intoxicated, to have a short term high that lasts a little bit of time. And it's sold for illegal recreational intoxication purposes in smoke shops, which we'll talk about a little bit. So here are some examples of the types of products that we found in those smoke shops.

And I've got one here that you can look at if you want to, If you'd like to see it. So Savage brand, blueberry flavored. This obviously is not used for any kind of legitimate purpose other than getting high. You'll even notice that it's got a nozzle on the top that's designed to fill balloons which is how the person ingests it by breathing it in from a balloon. So this photo was taken at one of the smoke shops in the city selling flavored NOS similar to this one right here.

And you'll see a wide selection on the counter there. You'll also notice the canister balloons being merchandised right next to it. It's kind of hard to say that it's being sold for any other purpose. And then, NOS in the canister, it's extremely cold because it's under pressure just like any aerosol. When it comes out of there, if you breathe it in from there, it can cause severe frostbite, lung injuries, and then the balloons are used to warm the NOS gas to prevent those injuries while they're inhaling it rather than just sucking it straight out of the canister.

So there are certain state regulations for nitrous oxide. Three eighty one B of the penal code, it's illegal to possess, purchase, or be under the influence of nitrous oxide with the intent to inhale it for recreational intoxicating purposes. So if you have it and we can establish that you have it for that purpose, that's illegal. It's a misdemeanor. Penal code three eighty one c, it's illegal to furnish, distribute, or give away nitrous oxide to someone who's under 18 years of old, so it's an age controlled product.

And then three eighty one e of the penal code, the seller is required to maintain pretty meticulous detailed records of each transaction. So if you were to go into a company that was selling it for legitimate purposes, a culinary supply, and you're buying it, they're required to keep a log where you would put down your name and your information so there's a record of who it was sold to. And obviously, the places that are selling it for illicit purposes are not doing that. Our vice detectives that have been doing this investigation have observed zero compliance with these regulations at the smoke shops in our city. Under the penal code, it's a misdemeanor to provide nitrous oxide to a person that the seller knows or should know intends to inhale for recreational or intoxicating purposes, and that person proximally causes great bodily injury or death.

So basically if they're the proximate cause of somebody's injury. Smoke shops continue to violate these laws. Again, you saw the pictures where it's merchandised alongside with balloons. And they're being sold and displayed in a manner that there's no other legitimate purpose that they're being used for. Nitrous oxide is inexpensive.

It's readily available, as you can see. And the increase in nitrous oxide abuse is becoming a problem. State law, the laws that we talked about in the penal code, those misdemeanor sections are not deterring the sales, are not deterring the abuse of the product. The proposed nitrous oxide ordinance will reduce illegal use by banning all sales except for traditional legitimate uses like we talked about, and banning all sales from tobacco retailers and smoke shops. So if you have a tobacco retail establishment permit, you'll be banned from selling that product in your shop or you'd be in violation of the conditions of your permit.

The County Of Orange, the City Of Fullerton, the City Of Santa Ana, the City Of Costa Mesa have all adopted ordinances very similar to this. On to Cratum. So Cratum is a biological product. It's a tree that's native to Southeast Asia. The leaves contain different alkaloids.

I'm not even going to begin to pronounce it. Seven hydroxymitaginin, which is what we were talking about before as far as the active ingredient and the kind of percentage level. And I'll explain why that's relevant. It interacts with the brain in a way that's similar to morphine or other substances like that. And that's why it's commonly referred to as gas station heroin or cheap heroin because it has a similar effect.

It's a stimulant in low doses which increases energy and heart rate, but in higher doses which is what we tend to encounter, the people go into almost a comatose kind of Sedative kind of a property to the higher doses. It's not FDA approved for any medical use. It's not regulated, which is one of the problems. In a concentrated synthesized form it's very dangerous. And regularly use can lead to addiction dependence, withdrawal symptoms just like any other opiate like heroin, oxycodone, hydrocodone, and fentanyl which are all regulated substances.

So the risks and side effects: nausea, constipation, dizziness, tremors, sweating and vomiting, liver toxicity, seizures, respiratory depression and death. So it's essentially a it's becoming more popular as kind of a substitute for folks that would ordinarily be inclined to get fentanyl or something like that. And with those substances becoming harder to get, obviously the kind of restrictions at the border and the things that the federal government is doing, DEA is doing to prevent the import of fentanyl. Folks are going to other things and Kratom is becoming more popular in addition to the fact that it's less expensive. So it's engineered to be addictive just like any other drug that's sold for illicit purposes.

It's potent opioid, not unlike those other drugs that we talked about that are already illegal. So the Riverside County ordinance bans Kratom sales to persons under 21 years old and prohibits the sale distribution or possession of Kratom and Kratom products exceeding two percent active ingredient or 2% concentration. No packaging marking that are attractive to children, so they're not allowed to market it toward children or have like cartoons on the packages or anything like that. It prohibits the sale of products containing the synthetic or semi synthetic kratom alkaloids. And it requires age verification at the point of sale again to ensure that they're over 21 years old, that they're buying the lawful kratom products that are under 2% concentration.

La Quinta, Anaheim, Huntington Beach, Laguna Niguel, Buena Park all adopted similar ordinances prohibiting the sale and distribution of Kratom products exceeding 2% concentration. Cities of San Diego, Oceanside, Stanton and Newport Beach have banned Kratom completely, which is obviously our recommendation. Having a permissive sale of a 2% product, we already know from our experience that the people that are selling are not going to be necessarily truthful about what the concentration truly is. That puts the city into a position where any time we want to enforce the ordinance, we would have to go to laboratory testing to verify that the concentration is in fact above 2%. It creates an issue that we don't need to create an additional expense to the city to do that testing and so forth.

So we're in favor of the full band. Kratom nitrous oxide products along with synthetic urine, which is to pass drug tests. Balloons are on the second shelf right next to the nitrous oxide, obviously, for ingestion of the nitrous oxide. Kratom is commonly displayed for sale in smoke shops throughout the city like we talked about. And here's an example of that.

And then they're also selling Kratom energy drinks, which was new to me, with no identification requested at the time of purchase. Products displayed right next to other energy drinks. And so someone could ostensibly go in thinking they're going to buy a Monster or Red Bull or something along those lines and end up with a Kratom product instead. The product lists 18 years or older to purchase and 21 where applicable. But again, no identification was requested.

Age verification was not conducted. And this was a picture taken a couple of months or actually last month. So tobacco retail permits. The additional prohibitions would prohibit them from engaging in the sale of any nitrous oxide or device as defined in the RMC and prohibit them from engaging in the sale of any Kratom or Kratom products as defined in the RMC. And with that, I'll take any questions you might have.

Question I should probably clarify before you begin. We're showing ran both together on the agenda? We have them separated. Were they supposed to be together or separate? Or do you have something in addition for kratom on the next agenda item?

So we were advised to because they're very similar to one another, to have one PowerPoint to kind of discuss both items. I hope that's not a problem.

No, it shouldn't. I think we'll just, since we have a published agenda, we may just have to run through it again here a second time.

I understand.

Or an abbreviated edition, whatever you think is best. With that, we have no public comment. We have no public comment inside the chambers. Do we have any phone calls? No calls. So we will close public comment. And could you just go over your recommendation one more time since it's not on the screen here?

Yeah, absolutely. Let me see if I can back that up. So the recommendations would be to ban the sale of nitrous oxide or nitrous oxide devices at smoke shops or anybody that has a tobacco retail permit. Not just smoke shops, but anybody that has that permit from the city Of Riverside. And ban them from selling Kratom or Kratom products in the city Of Riverside entirely.

Alright. Thank you. We'll bring it up to the dais now. Councilmember Amel.

Thank you, chair. Thank you deputy chief Payne. I'm very excited that we're at this point today. This kind of all came to be was, you know, I started going out to smoke shops in the city, and it started out by my look into the sale of, they were selling meth pipes. And and and, of course, they they they're cute.

They use the term oil burners or whatever. And it kinda started from that. And while I was in the stores, I noticed the the little whippets and, started looking into all that and saw they were selling the nitrous there. And and just to be clear, there is there are legitimate uses for for nitrous oxide. You know, it's used in the whipped cream we buy, you know, the canisters at the store and, automotive. I mean, that's when I first heard of it, I'm sure Chuck, same thing. When I think of nitrous, I think of of drag the dragsters and and and and the carburetor. Yep. And so there are there are legitimate uses. So as I'm going around the store, I noticed these items in the store, and so I just engaged the the employees.

And, they were free with what the use of the they didn't say, oh, yeah. You use it when you're cooking at home or you're or you're gonna use it in your carburetor at the at the racetrack. No. They were free and told me exactly what I, was shocked that they were just so open about how, what their uses were. And, you know, when when it comes to nitrous, the physiological effects, long term effects aren't as you know, people say, is it highly addictive, all those things?

No. My bigger concern is these kids well, not just kids, just folks who are using this, then they get behind the wheel of a car. And we've seen, I I did the research, there's, you know, people under the influence of of of these things, and they usually they usually survive. It's the the the other folks that they ran into. And so I started questioning, like, well, why are we allowing this to be be sold here?

I reached out to the city attorney's office. I said, you know, what can we do about it? And I started researching and did research all across the the nation on this. While I was doing that, I noticed that there was another product in the store, kratom. I noticed it was everywhere, and, so I started doing a little research on that and found out that it was actually called gas station heroin.

That that kind of got my, you know, curiosity up. So I started looking into that, and I can't believe that, you know, a product so destructive is just we can walk into a store right now in our city and and purchase it. And, you know, what really concerns me about it is that these products are sold with little to no oversight. You know, there's no government oversight. There's no, you know, there's no FDA approval.

There's no standardized dosing. There's no age restrictions, and they're marketed as being natural. Oh, it's natural. Well, it must be good for me. And so it's kinda downplaying the risk. I felt it was the more research I did into this, I I I realized how destructive it is. And as I look around our our city, and I've been very outspoken when it comes to the issues we're we're seeing in our city. We have a we have a major, drug problem on the streets of our city. I've gone out with our officers, and most of the people we engage with on the streets, somehow have an addiction problem of one kind or another. Some of them, you know, it's fentanyl.

It could be methamphetamine. It could be other things. But we're selling legally selling products that are doing the same things, and it it's creating a a destructive lifestyle, and it really affects the quality of life for riversiders across the board. You know, the the seven o h, which is the real that's the stuff that you know? Because the kratom in in in the energy drinks is kind of, akin to drinking couple shots of of espresso.

As someone who likes his his coffee and espresso and whatnot, I I get that. But it's this the seven o h, products are the ones that are you know, it's masking. It does the same thing to your brain that, you know, that opioids do. And the thought that that folks could just walk into to any store here in the in the city, you know, you go in gas stations, you know, any smoke shop that's readily available, it was concerning. And, you know, these products bring risks of addiction.

There's withdrawal issues. There's overdose. There's all all and then we we we don't know what the interactions are when they're taking other medications, when they're when they're or alcohol. And it just makes absolutely no sense to me that we would allow a product like this to be available where our children can go into the store. So, and and purchase it.

There's no there's really no regulation over it. And, I can't in good conscience, sit here and and continue to allow that to to happen in the city. That's why I I work with the city attorney's office to to to bring this item forward. And I think we we I mean, it just makes complete sense that we we follow the your your recommendation. I think we should have a complete ban of of of kratom here in the city.

I I also think when it comes to the to the nitrous oxide, we will have the carve outs for for automotive, uses and and for baking and all the other, uses. But for these for these smoke shops to be able to continue to just, like, to buy something like that in in a smoke shop right next to the balloons that are it's clear what it what what the intended use are. This just makes good sense. I think it's good public policy, and, my recommendation is to we'll take them separately. So, the first item would be my motion would be to to ban the the sale of of the nitrous oxide in the alcohol into in in the smoke shops here in the city.

Alright. Councilmember Conner.

Thanks, deputy chief. Yeah. Ban it, period. No argument, no discussion. As deputy chief Asum and I learned when we went to Colorado in 2018, you know, they say, well, you can have the 2%. Well, you take a handful of 2%, and you're at 30%, and you're dead. Mhmm. And we learned that with the with the edibles. They go, oh, it's only so much. Well, they take a handful of the damn thing, and now it's a 100%. So ban the son of a bitch. Just stop it. I like to, obviously, the carve outs on the NOS for the for the racing and the other things that either it can be legally used for. But, you know, as I've said when I I stood my ground on on the marijuana, again, deputy chief and I, we were there in '18, and we visited Sally Vanderveer at at Medicine Man. And she was very proud.

They said by 2025, I'll have my THC level up to the mid forties. That's addictive as hell. Mhmm. And we've gone from recreation being golf and swimming to recreation being drugs and getting behind the wheel and killing people. So I agree with your recommendations. I agree with councilmember Mills' motion. I'll second that. And we just need we're we're gonna get threats of lawsuits. Bring it on. Our job is to protect the people, protect the children, and this is getting down to that level. And I'll be damned if I'm gonna have it on my watch. Thanks.

Alright. We have a motion by council member Mill, seconded by council member Conder. Thank you for the you know, we're being proactive. Thank you for the work that you've done on this. Thank you for the work that your detectives have done because when we got people together, they had already started this process.

And it's obviously a problem throughout the state as the California Narcotics Officers Association is working with multiple cities and that's how I got involved was through them. So that we're we're being very proactive and that's a good thing. So we don't see any objections, so we will that passes unanimously. And that'll bring us to our final discussion calendar item number four, which is a proposed ordinance regulating kratom product sales and distribution within the city of Riverside. And again, deputy chief Charles Payne, Chuck or Charlie Payne, and we can open public comment.

Public comment is now open for this item. Available in both English and Spanish. Call (951) 826-8686 and follow the prompts to access the meeting in either language. To request to speak, press 9. You can also join via Zoom. The meeting ID for both languages can be found on the agenda.

All right. Mr. Pengant, the floor is yours again.

Thank you, Councilmember Perry. So the discussion item here is to talk about the sale of Kratom or Kratom, in the city of Riverside. We discussed this a little bit during the previous item since it's in the same slideshow. I'm going to kind of skip through that and we'll talk about some of the highlights as far as the Kratom regulations that are being recommended. So the recommendation is to add Section 9.04.325 to the Riverside Municipal Code regulating the sale and distribution of kratom products.

We'll talk about what those are. And then amend Chapter 6.24 by prohibiting the sale of Kratom products at tobacco retail establishments. So any business that has a tobacco retail establishment permit in the city of Riverside. And specifically to amend the Riverside Municipal Code to prohibit the sale of Kratom in the city entirely by anyone. So as of January 2026, there's two fifteen locations selling tobacco products in the city.

So those are tobacco establishments whether they have a permit necessarily or not. 28 of those are smoke shops as defined by the Riverside Municipal Code. And then between March '25, so March and January, advice units observed mini Mart's gas stations and smoke shops selling Kratom and synthetic based Kratom products that exceed the 2.7% I'm sorry, two percent seven zero eight concentration. So we'll talk about that a little bit. But obviously, it's a widespread problem, the sale of the Kratom products in the city.

So, Kratom is a biological product. It's made from a tree native to Southwest Asia. The leaves contain various alkaloids. The active ingredient seven hydroxy or seven Oh, comprises two percent of the alkaloids. It interacts with receptors in the brain the same way that narcotics like morphine do or other opioids, which is why it's very frequently referred to as gas station heroin.

In low doses it's a stimulant. In high doses it has a sedative effect causing relaxation, pain relief, and you'll often see folks that look like they're under the influence of heroin when they're actually under the influence of kratom because it's very similar, almost in a comatose kind of a state. It's not approved by the Federal Drug Administration for any medical use. It's not regulated. And in a concentrated or synthesized form it's very dangerous. Regular use can lead to addiction. It's very addictive. It's designed to be addictive. Dependence and withdrawal symptoms are very similar to opioid addiction. Folks that you see that are addicted to heroin or fentanyl, OxyContin, other types of opioids.

It's very similar to that. Risks and side effects include nausea, constipation, dizziness, tremor, sweating and vomiting, liver toxicity, seizures, respiratory depression, and death. So it's very dangerous. So we talked about this a little bit before, just the fact that it's becoming more popular with fentanyl and other opioids being more heavily regulated and harder to obtain. The problem with the Kratom is only increasing and that's exacerbated by the fact that it's relatively inexpensive.

The Kratom ordinances in other jurisdictions, Riverside County has an ordinance that bans sales to people 21 years old, prohibits sales of Kratom products exceeding 2% concentration. They're not allowed to market it or package it in a way that's attractive to kids. And it prohibits the sale of products containing synthetic or semi synthetic karatum alkaloids and they are supposed to verify age at the point of sale. Now we know that sometimes that doesn't necessarily happen. One of the issues with the ordinance that I've just described is very often those products, they are not manufactured in a consistent way that, you know, drugs that you would buy from a drug manufacturer or from a professional manufacturer like Pfizer or something like that, are manufactured under very strict quality control conditions.

And very often they lie on their packaging about what it actually contains as far as the concentration. So enforcement of that type of an ordinance would require us, any time we wanted to enforce it, to engage in laboratory testing to confirm the actual concentrations and so forth. It creates an unnecessary issue and unnecessary expense for Riverside and the taxpayers just to be able to enforce the ordinance. The recommendation would be to ban it entirely. We'll talk about that a little bit.

La Quinta, Anaheim, Huntington Beach, Laguna, Niguela, Buena Park all adopted similar ordinances banning products exceeding 2% concentration. Cities such as San Diego, Oceanside, Stanton, and Newport Beach have banned it entirely, which is what we're recommending. So here's an example of kratom, nitrous oxide, and nitrous oxide balloons being merchandised in a smoke shop along with synthetic urine which is used to try and fake a drug test. Here's a display at one of our smoke shops in Riverside of Kratom products for sale. And here we talked about this a little bit before but this is also very concerning is the sale of food products.

This is an energy drink containing Kratom that was photographed for sale at a shop here in Riverside, merchandised right alongside next to other energy drinks and not really distinguished or differentiated from them. Ostensibly someone could go in trying to buy a Monster or something like that and inadvertently end up with a Kratom product. It's supposed to be age regulated. In this instance, they were not requiring any kind of identification or age verification to purchase recommendations from the police department would be to approve the ordinance which would ban the sale of Kratom products entirely within the city of Riverside.

Alright. Thank you for the presentation. We have no public comment in chambers. I'll look to the phone lines. We have sounds like we have a handful of callers online. So we will ask the first caller to Europe. You have three minutes.

Hi. Can you hear me?

Yes. Go ahead.

Fabulous. So my name is Allison Smith. I am the director of government affairs for the Global Kratom Coalition. We are an organization that works with consumers, manufacturers, and researchers to institute regulations on kratom products. We also are trying to work to prohibit the sale of seven o h. So just for clarity, for my conversation, I Kratom is anything below two percent seven o h. Anything above is a concentrated synthetic product. So just just for clarity on on that. I do ask come to you guys and ask that you pass regulation. The regulatory bill that's being proposed or considered alongside the ban.

The regulation follows what the state level's current currently considering. In fact, right now in California, they are looking at state bill ten eighty eight, which would institute regulations statewide. This also follows what the federal government is doing. The HHS, FDA, and DEA announced last year an effort to put concentrated 70H as a Schedule I substance, but Doctor. Marty Makary has repeatedly made clear that their focus is on natural kratom.

I do just want to flag a couple of things. Regulation is feasible. If you can read the back of a label, you can tell the difference between natural kratom and synthetic concentrated substances because the labeling is blatant. And they are federally required to list the seven zero h requirements or their nutrition. And it's very easy for you guys to be able to write an ordinance that would require clear labeling standards. And if they don't follow those, tough luck. You don't get to be sold within city limits. I also want to follow-up. There was a comment made about how if you regulate, you can just take ten, twenty, and and reach the potency of a seven o h product. That's not feasible with kratom.

If you wanted to get the quote, unquote high that you achieve with a seven o h product by consuming natural kratom powder, you would have to consume up to seventy two capsules, if not more, to get to that level. And you there's a natural limit within your body. You'll start to reject it and throw it up after about twenty four. So you'd it's very, very hard to hit those those potency levels. Seven zero eight is the gas station heroin, and I share your concerns, and I work with municipalities across the country.

I've worked with Fresno. I worked with I'm working with Spokane and Washington. I'm working with cities in on the East Coast and somewhere anywhere in between to find regulation that works for their city. That's not a blanket ban. I'm happy to provide any additional research, answer any questions. This is, you know, what I do for a living. So please feel free to to use me as a resource, and I hope that you guys will consider regulating these products.

Alright. Thank you for your call. Next caller. Next caller, you're up.

Sir, can you hear me?

Yes. Go ahead. You have three minutes.

Thank you. Thank you for your time today as a resident of the community. I personally rely on natural leaf cratom to be able to function in my day to day life. Back in 2003, I was in a really bad car accident where I was t boned on the driver's side on the way home from work. I broke my hip in three places, my jaw in two places, all the ribs on my left side, and my lung were punctured along with a lot of crazy internal organ damage.

To be honest, I'm very lucky to be alive today. Thank you to our first responders. I was, however, left with lifelong injuries to my spine and SI joint, and, unfortunately, I'm left with pain that makes normal life very challenging. Since finding natural kratom leaf, it has been the one thing to give me any sense of a normal life back. I'm able to actually go to work, spend time with family instead of being stuck in bed because my arthritis will not allow me to function.

Please think of the important life events like birthdays, holidays, and kids' recitals. These are the things I would not be able to be a part of. Now I have been taking Kratom for over ten years, and I've seen the difference between the natural leaf and the concentrated and synthetic extracts like seven o h. When companies take multiple pounds of plant material and concentrate them into a couple pills or a drink in some lab, that's what's causing all of these issues and concerns. I don't know about you, but I personally can't eat a pound of plant leaves to get these same kinds of levels we're seeing in these concentrated versions.

Please emulate the regulatory ordinance that was passed by Riverside County. It's worded to get rid of these extracts and synthetics. I'm also hearing a concern the police officers are having around enforcement. If I was an officer tasked with enforcement, I would personally be looking at the concentrated drinks and the packages with only a few pills in them. The ground up plant leaf powder does not have a dangerous or concentrated amount of active ingredients.

This makes it a five to ten second visual. The plant leaf powder's over here. It looks fine. All the rest of these items, those are the ones that I wanna go after and recognize during an enforcement walk. Please leave natural leaf alone and focus on the crazy concentrates and synthetics that don't even occur naturally. Thank you.

Alright. Thank you for your call. Next caller. Next caller, you're up. You have three minutes.

Can can you hear me?

Yes. Go ahead. You have three minutes.

Yes. Hello. My name is Steven McIntosh. I sent a public comment, so I won't re re restate all of that. There are a few things I wanted to discuss briefly. As far as the risk to the public, there are five forty two licensed alcohol sellers within the city of Riverside that includes gas stations, bars, restaurants, liquor stores, all of that, and it can be gotten anywhere. Prohibition doesn't work. It's not a great solution. So to hear them treated in much the same way is bothersome to me. I would also say that the claim that nothing is FDA approved while that is true.

Dietary supplements under the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act are not regulated the same way drugs are. If you go to any health food store within the city, you'll see pretty much any product say these statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. You'll see that on everything from vitamins to Valerian root to help you sleep, to melatonin, all kinds of other things. I would say that it's also important to recognize there's a substantially different addiction profile between natural leaf kratom and seven zero H and classic opioids.

The FDA has failed to meet the standard under the Controlled Substances Act to schedule botanical kratom twice. The DEA withdrew its plans to do that in 2016 and the FDA was rebuked in 2018 by Health and Human Services for embarrassingly poor data and their attempt to do that. Further, the World Health Organization expert committee on drug dependence in 2020 also agreed that botanical kratom did not meet the standard for international scheduling. I would ask that the city follow the Riverside County ordinance, which is compatible with Assembly Bill ten eighty eight that's being discussed today. And the last thing I would like to say is that my understanding and the understanding of a lot of people is that the Riverside County ordinance applies to unincorporated areas of the County.

So as a seller in Riverside while they're selling products I do not like like seven zero eight that I do not think should be legal, that should be regulated out of the market are not currently breaking the law. I think that is a critical distinction before casting the entire throwing out the baby with the bathwater. Thank you.

All right. Thank you for your call. Next caller. Next caller. You have three minutes.

Thank you, My name is Jennifer Gillis. Twenty years ago I was diagnosed with transverse myelitis. At that time I became a lifelong chronic pain patient. After losing assets to prescription medications through no fault of my own I spent years struggling manage my chronic pain. That changed in 2019 when I discovered Holy Kratom.

Because of Kratom I can get out of bed, run errands, attend school functions and live a somewhat normal life. My story is not unique and for many of us it provides pain relief without the mental impairment often associated with traditional opioids. You know there is a huge difference between the seven zero eight products out there and the natural holy cradle. You know in the past couple of years since these chemical manipulated seven zero eight products have been on the market, you know, people that have been long time kratom consumers are even falling into addiction. They're being sold these products, being told that they're cradle products.

They're just a more pure form or whatnot. And it's linked to just a lot of issues. You know, ER visits are going up. Poison control center calls are going up. All of these things are being attributed to Cradle. But I ask that support sensible regulations. Get seven zero eight off the shelves. If you go into a store and they're selling them, make some money for the city. Find them. You know?

Definitely age restrictions, proper labeling, keeping it behind the counter to make sure, you know, the kids spread protected from the kids. You know, again, if if you find out enforcement wise that they're not even checking IDs, you know, I would definitely put an enforcement mechanism in place to to tear that. But you know this would just help the people like me to live with chronic pain be able to keep some type of quality of life. I appreciate you so much for listening to me today. Hope you all have a good day.

Alright, thank you. Next caller. Next caller, you're up. You have three minutes. Hello. Next caller.

Hello. My name is Susan Efford, and I support banning all forms of kratom. My 22 year old son, Matthew Eller, died from whole leaf kratom powder, which is the least potent form of kratom available in The United States. It caused him to have a seizure and go into cardiac arrest and die and was unable to be resuscitated. His toxicology and autopsy showed he died from the toxic effect of metronidin and alkaloid found only in Kratom.

He had no prescription drugs, no street drugs, nor alcohol in his system when he died, and his autopsy showed he had no underlying health conditions. It's important to note my son did not die from seven zero eight or seven hydroxymitrogenine as he died in 2021 and concentrated seven hydroxymitrogenine didn't come out until 2023. And in reference to Kratom, it's been said, don't throw the baby out with the bath water. Kratom being referred to as a baby, which is a highly addictive addictive toxic drug, and they make it sound like a baby to make it seem harmless. And the water in reference to even more dangerous kratom derivatives such as seven zero eight, metregeny, pseudonoxyl, which can only be made with Kratom as they are semi synthetic requiring Kratom as the main ingredient, a simple internet search will reveal how to make these drugs.

Sudafed, which is harmless in comparison to Kratom, is used to make meth amphetamine and is behind a pharmacy counter requiring state ID, sold in limited amounts, and recorded in a logbook for inspection by law enforcement. I belong to the Facebook group, Kratom Danger Awareness, a group comprised of people whose loved ones died from kratom. And many of them have died from just kratom alone, kratom powder, metraginin, and some of them with the combination of only alcohol, only Benadryl, and some with antidepressants. But most of them were over the age of 21, so age restriction would not help. And I have spoke with the FDA regarding my son's death, they assured me they're actively investigating all Kratom injuries and deaths from Kratom that have been reported to them.

Kratom has been deceptively being put into seltzers, gummies, and candies causing addiction to unsuspecting customers. Does kratom relieve pain and make you feel euphoric? Probably so, but so does heroin, methamphetamine, and cocaine. The FDA has not determined kratom to be safe as demonstrated by their import alert authority, making it illegal to import. Therefore, all kratom has been smuggled into The United States according to the FDA. They they their slow action against kratom powder is not an indication that they could get safe. And thank you for your time, and that life that you saved might be someone that you couldn't bear to live without. Thank you so much.

Alright. You for your call and we're sorry for your loss. That will close public comment. And before we bring it back to the dais, deputy chief Payne, is there any would you like to respond to any public comments?

No,

sir. Alright. Back to the diocese. Council member Mel.

Well, I've already made my statements in regards to Kratom and and my thoughts. I would just make a motion to follow the the recommendations of our police department and ban the sale of Kratom within the city of Riverside.

Council member Conner.

My comments have been heard. I support that.

Alright. And I I think we've covered it all. We have a motion by council member Mills, second by council member Condor. Any objections? Seeing none, that passes unanimously. Again, thank you for your work on this. It's appreciated very much. Alright. That brings us down to agenda item number five, legislative update and we have none for today. That brings us to our final item.

Items for future consideration. Seeing none, I I do have one and and I'll ask staff to review our current towing and storage rates with our towing companies. I believe we have a $69 fee for vehicles that are towed without a a police tow form which is commonly referred to as the CHP one eighty form. So if we could review, evaluate, and determine if this amount can be reduced and if so by how much. And if there's further information I I can provide that. Having said that, I don't see any further business with with my colleagues and we will adjourn the meeting at 01:53PM. Thank you everyone.