Supervisors on Wednesday voted to join with the city of Columbus in calling a joint public hearing on whether to ban tianeptine — often referred to as Za-Za or “gas station heroin.”
The board also passed a resolution supporting any state-level legislation related to banning the sale of the substance. Three bills have been introduced in this session to implement a ban, including House Bill 304, which passed the House and is being considered by the Senate.
The city has scheduled a public hearing on a potential local ban during its regular meeting Feb. 21. Supervisors want that to be a joint hearing.
District 1 Supervisor Harry Sanders said this would give the board an opportunity to gather more information before considering a county-wide ban, especially if people with knowledge of the substance show up.
Leroy Brooks, supervisor for District 5, agreed and wants to see some concrete data before deciding on local action.
“I remember back with this Kratom, there was a more mixed group, physicians and other people, that had looked at this, and I would like to see the same kind of procedure,” Brooks said. “Who has the expertise to say to us that this drug is not good? Not the sheriff. Not any of these people.”
The county and city banned Kratom in 2019. The state has not.
Similarly to Za-Za, the drug is not regulated by the FDA and has no age limit on purchase. This has drawn support of a ban from Lowndes County Sheriff Eddie Hawkins and Police Chief Joseph Daughtry.
Joe Murphy, who appeared before the city council last week to ask for an ordinance banning the substance from sale within the city, was the catalyst for the county addressing the issue. He also appeared before supervisors on Wednesday.
“When I go to bed at night and when I wake up in the morning, I say to myself, ‘How can we get these removed from the shelves, not just in Lowndes County, but in the State of Mississippi?’” Murphy said.
If passed, House Bill 304 would go into effect July 1 unless passed with the stipulation of being effective immediately.
Murphy is looking to local officials to pick up the slack and ban it sooner.
There is a problem, however, in that a local ordinance would likely be May before being enacted due to the legal process, according to board attorney Tim Hudson. Even if local or state bans were “effective immediately” after passage, he said that still presents a problem.
“(Effective immediately) is going to be difficult for this reason: I’ve got a legal product in my possession. Once you do it by passage, it becomes an illegal product and I have no warning,” Hudson said. “I know this isn’t going to happen, but the sheriff could sit in front of a gas station and say, ‘OK, the governor signed it,’ and go in and arrest everybody in there. That’s really why they give a little pause time, to give notice that this is going to be illegal (and) you need to get rid of it.”
Gas stations
Regardless of timing, local businesses will be among those who bear the brunt of the decision.
There are numerous gas stations in Lowndes County that sell Za-Za.
Victor Patel, owner of the Country Mart on Highway 182, which sells the product and was burglarized twice recently specifically for the drug, said he is not worried about a ban though. He said his store did not see any negative effects from the Kratom ban, and he doesn’t think it will if Za-Za is banned either.
“The salesmen come and say, ‘That’s a good seller and people love it.’ That’s why we sell it,” Patel said. “But if it’s banned, we’ll take it out of the store. It wouldn’t affect anything.”
He said the store only sees about $1,200 a month in sales of Za-Za.
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