Kratom Product Liability Litigation: Impact of Evolving Regulation, Lack of Industry Standards, Complex Causation

This CLE course will educate product liability plaintiff and defense attorneys and in-house counsel regarding the rapidly expanding area of kratom product liability litigation. The panel will discuss best practices in an evolving regulatory environment for bringing or defending claims over manufacturing defects, design defects, or failure to warn of non-obvious dangers of kratom and related products, including lessons from the opioid, tobacco, and vaping litigation. The speakers will also address the impact of the DEA's issuance of a temporary scheduling order placing certain synthetic alkaloids associated with kratom on Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA).

Kratom is an herbal supplement sold, often at convenience stores and gas stations, as an energy booster, mood-enhancer, pain reliever, and remedy for opioid withdrawal symptoms. A wave of product liability litigation from Washington State to New York has been filed against manufacturers and distributors asserting that they falsely represented kratom and related products as "natural," safe, and non-addictive despite reports of severe health risks, such as addiction, organ damage, and even death. These suits assert strict liability, negligence, failure to warn, manufacturing defects, design defects, breach of warranty, fraud, wrongful death, and more.

Limited but rapidly evolving regulation, inconsistent labeling, lack of industry standards, and questions regarding causation complicate this litigation, although there have been several high-dollar recoveries. Only recently has the DEA issued a temporary scheduling order placing certain synthetic alkaloids associated with kratom on Schedule I of the CSA. To the extent that liability turns on what defendants knew about kratom at a given time and what they disclosed relative to that knowledge, motions to dismiss or for summary judgment may be difficult.

Listen as this panel of trial attorneys at the forefront of this emerging issue share their knowledge regarding the emerging regulatory frameworks for kratom products, what types of injuries have been attributed to it, and the claims that have resulted from those injuries.