On Tuesday, Lowndes County supervisors declined to ban the sale of ZaZa (also called ZaZa Red or Tiana or colloquially “drug store heroin”) in the county, choosing instead to approach the Columbus City Council to hold a joint public hearing on the proposal.

The idea of meeting with city officials makes obvious sense. There’s no point in banning ZaZa in the county if it’s legally available in the city. But even if the two bodies agree, it’s hardly a solution if it is legally available across the county line. So no matter what conclusion our two local governments decide on, it’s not likely to have much impact.

Supervisors likely understand this because in the same meeting, they issued a resolution supporting House Bill 4, which would make any products containing the substance tianeptine a Schedule I drug throughout the state. The bill passed, 100-11. Among the five Golden Triangle house members, only Rep. Kabir Karriem voted against the measure, which now heads to the state Senate for consideration.

A Schedule I drug cannot be manufactured, distributed, dispensed or possessed except for federal government-approved research studies.

A separate House Bill that would have added both ZaZa Red and Kratom to the list of Schedule I drugs died in committee, which in many ways speaks to the lack of clear empirical data on many of these products. Kratom is banned or considered Schedule 1 in Alabama, Tennessee, Arkansas, Indiana and Wisconsin.

Ten of Mississippi’s 82 counties (including Lowndes) have banned the sale of Kratom. Another 24 cities (including Columbus and Caledonia) have banned its sale as well.

There appears to be no real consensus on these substances, which are largely sold in convenience stores. That lack of consensus seems true across the country.

Going back to the turn of the millennium, the emergence of new drugs has created confusion and a nightmare for regulation, much of which can be attributed to the opioid epidemic, which claimed the lives of almost half-a-million Americans between 1999 and 2016. When serious limits were placed on opioids, the demand for a legal alternative that would resemble its effects quickly became a matter of chemistry.

Products like K2 or Spice, also called bath salts or synthetic cannabis, were the first to emerge before finally being placed on the federal Schedule 1 list in 2012.

Since then, other products have emerged as a substitute. Because they are chemical compounds, when one ingredient was added to the Schedule 1 lists, another legal ingredient (and product) took its place.

Those opposed to these products consider them as products designed to simulate the high of narcotic drugs and serve no useful purposes. Proponents, on the other hand, say they have a legitimate use for pain relief and can reduce anxiety or depression. (In Southeast Asia and some European nations, Kratom is considered an antidepressant.)

It should be noted that regulation on medicines always walks a fine line. Even the most common over-the-counter medicines, when used improperly, can be dangerous. Even so, reason dictates that there is value in having access to products such as acetaminophen (Tylenol) and ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin), cough suppressants like Robitussin, antihistamines like Claritin, antacids, laxatives, and diarrhea remedies like Immodium A-D and Pepto-Bismol, all of which are listed as the most commonly-abused over-the-counter medicines in the U.S.

What we don’t need is a hodge-podge of regulations that confuse the consumer and cloud the pursuit of reliable data to make informed decisions.

Whether the products should be available or not should be decisions supported by science instead of anecdote, preferably on the federal level, but failing that, on the state level. County by county and city by city bans are pointless and ineffective.

The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.

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