Philadelphia's new ordinance restricting kratom and intoxicating hemp products is already in court. Hours before the rules took effect on Thursday, November 12, the city's own lawyers moved a retailer's lawsuit out of a Philadelphia courtroom and into federal court — 40 minutes before a judge was set to hear whether enforcement should be paused at all, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
Source: The Philadelphia Inquirer via Kratom News Today
The lawsuit was filed on November 10 in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas by CBD Kratom, a St. Louis-based retailer with three stores in the city, and the Pennsylvania Healthy Alternatives Association, a nonprofit that advocates for hemp and kratom sellers. The two plaintiffs named Mayor Cherelle Parker and the co-commissioners of the Philadelphia Department of Licenses and Inspections as defendants, according to the Inquirer, and asked a judge to pause enforcement of the ordinance.
In their complaint, the sellers say the ordinance would force businesses to close and eliminate jobs. They argue it fails to separate law-abiding retailers from sellers of dangerous products, and that the city chose a ban in place of workable regulations on kratom sellers, the Inquirer reported. These are the plaintiffs' claims in a pending lawsuit; the court has not ruled on them.
A hearing that never happened
Judge Brian R. Kisielewski had scheduled a hearing on the injunction request for the afternoon of November 12 — the day the ordinance took effect. It never took place. City attorneys filed papers moving the case to federal court, arguing it belongs there because the sellers claim the ordinance violates the U.S. Constitution, according to the Inquirer. Kisielewski told the retailers' lawyers the city had given notice of the move to neither the court nor the plaintiffs, and the hearing was adjourned. No federal hearing date and no ruling on the injunction request had been reported as of Friday.
"We have several stores now that we are hoping to get some kind of answer as to whether they can stay in business and sell products after today," Craig Katz, president of the Pennsylvania Healthy Alternatives Association and a member of CBD Kratom's management, told the Inquirer after the adjournment. The City of Philadelphia did not immediately respond to the Inquirer's request for comment.
What the ordinance actually bans
The ordinance is City Council Bill No. 260163. It adds a new chapter to the Philadelphia Code — Chapter 9-6700, covering what the city calls "intoxicating substances," a category that includes both intoxicating hemp products and kratom products — and its sales prohibitions took effect on November 12. Council passed the bill in June and Mayor Parker signed it in September. It was introduced by Councilmember Katherine Gilmore Richardson.
Under Section 9-6702, it is unlawful in Philadelphia to sell a kratom product that has been mixed or packed with a non-kratom substance to the point of being harmful, an extract with solvent residue above a national pharmaceutical standard, a product containing more than 2 percent 7-hydroxymitragynine (7-OH) as a share of its overall alkaloid content, or any product containing synthetic versions of those compounds, Fox 29 and the ordinance text summaries report. A violation is a Class III offence under the city code, carrying a fine of up to $2,000 a day.
The clause sellers fear most is broader. The ordinance also bars the sale of any intoxicating substance that is not considered appropriate for use as a dietary supplement or a safe food additive, or the subject of an FDA-approved application, under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has long held that kratom is not lawfully marketed as a dietary supplement or food additive, and there is no FDA-approved kratom product. A spokesperson for Councilmember Gilmore Richardson told the Inquirer the Department of Public Health will not create the retailer licence the ordinance envisages because the FDA has not approved kratom or intoxicating hemp for consumption — which, the Inquirer reported, means in practice that no such products are allowable for sale in the city.
The permit system cannot fill that gap yet. Section 9-6703 creates an Intoxicating Substance Retailer permit for each location, but that section takes effect only once the city issues regulations, and no regulations had been announced when the sales bans began. The ordinance contains no grace period, and whether the Department of Public Health had begun enforcement on November 12 was unclear, the Inquirer reported.
A fight that started months before this week
Retailers warned Council about exactly this outcome during the spring. Allison Smith of the Global Kratom Coalition told a Council hearing in May 2026 that the legislation would amount to a de facto ban on all kratom products in Philadelphia because of the requirements it places on sellers of natural leaf kratom. CBD Kratom chief operating officer Jason Brandl said in a June 10 statement: "We respect the Council's commitment to consumer safety, but we are concerned this bill moved forward without adequate consideration of the scientific research, industry expertise, and testimony provided by Philadelphia residents who rely on these products." The company argues that tying legal sales to FDA approval effectively ends sales of natural-leaf kratom, because no practical approval pathway exists for those products.
Philadelphia is also moving ahead of both Harrisburg and Washington. Pennsylvania still has no statewide kratom law: House Bill 2657, sponsored by Representative Bridget Kosierowski, passed the state House 202-0 on October 5 and was referred to the Senate Health and Human Services Committee on October 13, with no Senate action recorded since. Federally, the Drug Enforcement Administration's October 14 notice of intent says a temporary Schedule I order covering concentrated 7-OH and a related compound, mitragynine pseudoindoxyl, may issue on or after November 13 — the day after Philadelphia's ordinance took effect.
What happens next
The case now sits in federal court, where a judge will decide whether enforcement should be paused while the constitutional challenge is heard. Until that ruling, Philadelphia stores face the ordinance as written: covered products are unlawful to sell, fines can reach $2,000 a day, and the permit that would let a shop sell legally does not exist yet because the city's regulations have not been issued. For CBD Kratom's three Philadelphia stores — and for the small retailers across the city who sell the same products — the federal court's first decision will determine whether they can keep trading at all while the larger case runs.