products behind the counter under staff control. The next battle is over how visible and accessible those products should be. A fresh proposal, H7518, would require retailers to store kratom in locked display cases that only employees can open, further reducing the chance of casual grab-and-go theft or underage access. Lawmakers backing the measure point to a handful of overdose deaths involving kratom in recent years as justification for extra precautions, even as other states move in dramatically different directions, from outright bans to Schedule 1 designations. Readers can find the original report framing this debate at USA Today.
Rhode Island Readies for Legal Kratom — With a Push for Tighter In‑Store Controls
