Lab tests found alcohol in O.P.M.S. kratom drinks, and unlicensed Alaska stores are being told to stop selling them

A kratom drink sold across Alaska is, in the eyes of the state, alcohol. And that changes who is allowed to sell it.

State lab testing found that O.P.M.S. liquid kratom extract products contain more than 0.5 percent alcohol. Under Alaska law, that threshold pulls them under Title IV, the statutes governing alcoholic beverages. So a product marketed as a supplement is now regulated like beer or liquor.

The catch is where these drinks are sold. O.P.M.S. kratom turns up in convenience stores, smoke shops, and supplement retailers, many of which hold no alcohol license and may not have known they were stocking what the state now treats as booze. The Alcohol and Marijuana Control Office has issued an advisory and is sending cease and desist letters to those retailers, telling them to stop.

AMCO has not said which stores received letters. The State of Alaska's crime lab confirmed the alcohol content, which is what put these drinks under the alcohol statutes to begin with.