Good afternoon and welcome to the July 9th, 2026 Liquor Commission meeting.

Roll call.

Here.

Here.

Before we move into public forum, I want to start by acknowledging the departure of one of our commissioners.

This is his last meeting tonight.

Well, at least three honorably.

Are there any speakers registered?

We have one speaker signed up to speak today.

Hello.

We can hear you.

Go ahead.

Could you just state your name for the record and uh who you represent?

Yeah, my name's Kevin Ray, vice president of Operations for uh Biagis and Ancho and Agave.

Uh we have two restaurants on Route 59 and uh currently let's see 14 restaurants uh Biagis around the country and uh seven Anchos around the country but we have one of each in Naperville because we love Naperville.

Um I want to thank the mayor and the commissioners for giving us this time to to chat about something and um when we were inquiring about opening our Ancho Nagave concept uh we're uh surprised to learn that happy hour is something that's not prohibited in Naperville.

Um we utilize a happy hour in all of our other units, 21 of them across the uh the country.

Um and so for a little bit of history for anybody that doesn't know many many years ago Ellinois prohibited happy hour statewide and did that for a couple of decades in 2001 they rolled that law back um and every municipality except Naperville um adhered to their decision to roll that back with certain restrictions and guidelines.

Uh only let's see 15 hours a week total of discounted happy hour time is permissible.

It's not permissible after 10 o'clock at night only four hours a day.

There are guardrails on uh on the statewide happy hour restrictions.

Uh for us in Naperville it becomes a little bit um problematic because we're at a little bit of a disadvantage when we've got communities right next to us in Flamefield Oswego uh Aurora Wheaton Downer's Grove that all have um happy hours that are restricted as the state has has allowed for um and I I don't want to diminish for a second the community's respect for the public safety and and we take that responsibility very seriously as well.

Um but things have changed over the the years the decades really technology's gotten better Ubers are ubiquitous um people understand what alcohol consumption does to them uh operators are better trained and our our employees are better trained um the technology in general and and by the way when the state outlawed the uh the happy hours originally the uh the legal limit was uh point one it's now point oh eight as everybody knows countrywide so things have changed over the decades and it's been ten years since the state has rolled back their restrictions on happy hours and I think this might be a good opportunity for Naperville to consider doing the same.

Again, uh being responsible, protecting the public that's all of us as alcohol servers our number one priority but um I think we can do that safely and um I'd like to ask the commission to consider that or take up that discussion.

Thank you Commissioner Sheriko thank you mayor uh yeah uh mayor and I were speaking about this you sent the letter in and by the way I think your um your comments were very well thought out and and your presentation was excellent especially just not reading enough of a script.

Thank you.

Uh um you know we we were we discussed about this a little bit and you know the with the workaround has been in Naperville that you know we we do have happy hours but you just can't do alcohol.

So they do the food part you know the which we do appetizers and hors d'oeuvres and whatnot at that price and that seems to have been a a reasonable uh workaround um but uh your comments also are something that I think are worth a discussion as well from my viewpoint uh we probably do have to take another look at that to say hey does this still apply uh we did it for a reason uh back uh when we had done it and uh now I guess we need to have that discussion about does this still apply to today with today's uh you know different as you said technologies and and uh things that are that are have changed over the years that make it perhaps not as uh applicable as it once was so um I'd be willing to have that discussion at some point if it's if it's you know, sure I I I think um procedurally, you could offer that motion during new business to bring it back on a future liquor commission agenda, and that would be the way to do it.

Mr.

Mayor, go ahead may I yes like to make a motion to uh it would be under due business.

Oh, so uh when we get the new business.

Yep, no worries.

All right, I don't see any other questions.

Thank you.

Uh if you want to stick around, um uh you can see how the new business is.

Absolutely, yeah.

Okay.

We want to hear some other presentations as well.

Thank you for your consideration.

Very well, thank you.

Any other public forum speakers?

Seeing none, we'll move on to all business D1.

We have a motion to accept the meeting minutes from the prior meeting.

Commissioner Signorella?

So moved.

Is there a second?

Aye.

I'm sorry, I'm looking at my microphones and controls here, and uh nobody else is lit up here.

So, commissioner.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Okay.

Um Commissioner Cunzer has a second.

All those in favor sign aye.

Aye.

Opposed?

The motion passes.

Consider five iron golfs request to increase the cap on late night permits in the downtown by one.

Is there a representative from Five Iron Golf here to present?

Good afternoon, mayor, commissioners.

My name is Joseph De Palma.

I'm the attorney here on behalf of Fiveiron this afternoon.

Before you get too far in it, could you raise the microphone a little bit?

The you have to really speak into these things, unfortunately.

So told me to speak loudly, so that's on the um we're here regarding the re the uh request to increase the cap on the downtown late night permit caps uh by one for our proposed location at 47 East Chicago Avenue.

Uh for those that don't know, Fiveiron is a hospitality-driven concept focused on uh golf simulators, virtual golf simulators, uh, with food and beverage as kind of a complement to that whole experience for guests.

Um I would liken it to uh a similar kind of golf entertainment food bar uh expo.

I don't want to give their name and give the competition a little shout out here, but um essentially guests are booked in simulator bays, so it's similar to other experiences that people in the room might be familiar with.

Um yeah, I think uh I think that's all I had.

If you guys have any questions, I'm happy to answer so.

Do you have a PowerPoint or anything or no PowerPoint?

Okay.

And could you describe for us specifically the location you are going to be in?

It's I I understand it's on a second floor, is that correct?

Yes, so it's uh 47 East Chicago.

I forget the cross streets, but it will be on the second floor of that building.

There are other, I believe, liquor licensees in the building as well.

Um, we will have a stair and elevator direct access to the unit, and there will be nothing outside um that is maintained or operated by FiveIR.

Right.

This is the northeast corner of Chicago in Washington Street, the the former bookstore.

Uh it's on the second floor of that particular space.

It is above and near where Wells Fargo is today and near where the fidelity offices are today.

So the only access to your facility, as I understand from hearing some of the proposal uh from concept is going to be through stairs and elevator.

You have a full kitchen, is that correct?

Yeah, full service kitchen and bar.

Okay.

And that will that exist today, or you're building that?

Uh build out is currently in process.

Um I think the anticipated open last I heard was April 27, right?

Um give or take any construction delays or whatnot, but I know that was part of the discussion.

Right.

Alright, so they fit the restaurant category, the B license category.

What they're requesting from the liquor commission is consideration for a late night permit, which is capped in the downtown.

Um could you describe a little bit for us?

Um the the atmosphere.

Obviously, you have bays for for golf.

Is is that the only activity in there?

Is there a uh customer bar?

What you know, walk us through exactly what the experience looks like.

Yeah, of course.

So we can understand what's going to happen after 11 o'clock at night.

Yeah, and if it would be helpful, I have a floor plan too if you'd like to look at that.

That would be helpful.

Okay.

Um so essentially golf is the main focus of the establishments.

There is a customer-facing bar on the premises, but uh as you can tell it's only one, it's got maybe 15 to 20 stools if I recall correctly, and the focus is all on golf and food.

Um beverages are kind of just aside to complement that experience.

Uh the food will be served throughout all hours of operation, so even during the uh as long as the city permits it during the late night hours.

So there will be no concern with the kitchen closing and only alcohol service.

Um, everything will include food at any time.

Is there a plan for security or how you're going to control the patron activity?

So I don't want to speak on, I don't want to put words in our clients' mouth.

I know that they've discussed security just with the late night hours.

Um, they have four existing locations in Chicago that have the same hours as closing at 1 a.m.

on Fridays and Saturday evenings.

They have not experienced any issues with that.

Um I know their main method of control is the all the golf simulators require reservations, so that's kind of their thought process behind controlling the flow of people at any time when they're open.

Questions from the commission?

Commissioner Sheriko.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, getting back to security.

I mean I assume you'll have cameras in the facility, right?

All of internally, okay.

And um uh you can get up by elevator or by stairwell?

Both, yes.

Is that correct?

Okay.

Um, any other questions for the petitioner from the commission?

Seeing uh Commissioner DeJoya, uh, is there an age restriction on this place?

Uh no, there is no age restriction.

Uh, in fact, they encourage families.

They have family memberships that are part of it.

Um they have certain hours that are dedicated to like a member discount or something along those lines, but essentially during the day, during the early evening hours, it's it's dedicated to being open to anyone in any ages, um, perhaps during the evening hours with curfews and everything.

Anyone under a certain age want to be there?

Thank you.

Commissioner Cherico.

Mr.

Mayor, I'd like to make a motion.

Go ahead.

This motion is for recommendation to city council, correct?

Yes.

Okay, I'd like to make a motion to uh approve the uh increase of the cap by one, late night cap by one.

Uh make that uh is a positive recommendation to city council.

Commissioner McGurry, uh, second that we have a motion and the second, any further questions or discussion?

Seeing none, roll call.

Kunzer, yes, McGurry.

Yes, De Joya?

Yes.

Signorella?

Yes.

Motion passes 5-0.

Thank you, and good luck.

Thank you for your consideration.

This will likely appear, I believe, in August.

It'll be on the August City Council agenda.

On item E2.

As we open this agenda item, I want to provide some context.

In 2019, a prior liquor commission held a discussion on Kratom and recommended action to the city council.

The council ultimately adopted an ordinance restricting youth access to Kratom by banning retail sales to anyone under 21 and prohibiting possession by anyone under 18, which supplemented by supplemented the Illinois Cratum Control Act by establishing a local minimum sales age of 21 while aligning possession prohibitions with state law.

Six years later, we're here revisiting the issue because over the past several months I've heard from members of the community about the impact that Kratom has had on their lives with their families and their friends.

Some of you are here this afternoon, and some of you are going to share those experiences.

For those less familiar with Kratom, let me give you a bit of a background.

It comes from the leaves of a tropical evergreen tree native to Southeast Asia.

People brew it in as tea, they crush it into powder, they smoke it, they snort it or take it in capsules and tablets.

Some use it as a mood enhancer or energy booster, others use it for pain relief, and some advocates claim it helps with opioid withdrawal.

Today we need to talk about both the traditional plant-based product and a newer category.

That is the synthetic and concentrated kratom extracts, often labeled as 7-O, which is short for 7-hydroxymitrogenine.

While this alkaloid occurs naturally in Kratom Leaf, it appears only in very small amounts, and the products showing up on the shelves are different.

Many are synthesized or heavily concentrated in a lab, boosting 7-O levels far beyond what occurs in the plant itself, producing a much stronger, more opioid-like effect.

That distinction matters because the risks in appropriate regulatory response may differ between a cup of traditional Kratom tea and a concentrated 7-0 tablet or extract.

The FDA has warned about risks across these products, including liver toxicity seizures, and substance use disorder, and has raised particular concern about the concentrated synthetic forms.

These products are sold in our local stores, primarily by those who hold Naperville tobacco licenses, which this body has jurisdiction and controls over, and they're sold in gas stations, vape shops, and retailers as well as online sellers.

Other municipalities have taken a range of approaches.

Rockford, for example, has banned the sale of synthetic 7-0 Kratom products specifically, while leaving traditional Kratom leaf products alone.

Winnetka in Bloomington have gone further and ban retail sales of Kratom altogether without drawing the distinction.

Other communities have chosen to rely on the state law rather than enacting stricter local regulations.

There's no single standard here, and that's part of why this discussion this afternoon is very important.

Whatever we recommend to council, if anything, should come out of that record.

We want to start with our speakers, and our first speaker this afternoon is Ashley Ware.

Hi there, I'm Ashley Ware, and I am really, really honored to be here.

Thank you so much for having me.

The reason I really wanted to come is to just raise awareness and to share my story briefly.

Um how I used Kratom was from a two-ounce blue bottle called Feel Free.

I heard of it on a health and wellness podcast.

It's a really really popular one.

And um the founder of Feel Free, JW Ross claimed he was sober for 20 years, and he created Feel Free to give him the alcohol effects without drinking alcohol.

He called it an alcohol substitute, gluten-free, uh mood enhancer, or an energy drink, and the kratom was from a plant, and basically like an herbal supplement.

So I'm a mom of four young kids, and I just was intrigued, intrigued because I didn't want to drink wine anymore.

So I ordered it, and I got hooked on it immediately.

So for me, it worked as a stimulant, it gave me the energy that I wanted.

Um I thought it was literally like drinking a coffee.

I didn't realize what Kratom was.

I had no idea there's a lot of things in Whole Foods that have mushrooms that are that have benefits.

So I kind of thought it was similar to that.

Um I took it for two years, and throughout those two years, I had significant physical and mental health issues.

Um the physical ones were my skin started to turn green, I got really, really thin, I had irregular heart palpitations, um, my digestive system was a mess, and I was just I looked really, really sick.

Um I still didn't fully understand that it was a an addictive um drink.

I just thought again, like it was drinking coffee every morning, it was something like that.

I need my coffee in the morning, and um I needed that.

Um so I got sober from everything April 15th, 2025, so almost 15 months ago, um, I just became so incredibly sick.

The mental um mood swings were completely insane.

Um, and what I thought what it was taking away my anxiety was actually making me really paranoid.

And when you take more than one bottle a day, it actually works as a um more of like a relaxer than a stimulant.

So um it was giving me comp I was having heart issues, and I I really thought this drink was gonna kill me.

Um, but I still didn't know enough about it until the day before I got sober.

I told my husband who's also um in recovery and has been since I met him for almost 14 years ago um more about it, and we both kind of researched it and we didn't realize it was more like an opioid and like heroin drug, and I checked into Edward's hospital at DTox, and still very unsure why I was feeling the withdrawal.

I had never felt withdrawals ever.

Um, but I was so physically ill, I just wanted to make sure I was okay.

So I went into Edwards and the detox unit was incredible.

The Edwards staff are just amazing, and um, but they had never heard of Feel Free.

They they welcomed me with open arms but had never heard of it, and so there was a lot of googling while I was in detox, and they really wanted to treat me the right way without even knowing what this product was, which is a huge reason also why I'm here.

There's no um shame or anything towards the staff, it's just nobody really knows much about feel-free and what it's doing to people, and including the people taking it, um, sometimes so um they immediately treated me like a heroin addict, which totally freaked me out as a mom.

Um, but again, they're they were really kind and um they treated me really well.

So the withdrawals came on really strong.

Um, they didn't suggest me going into uh rehab or outpatient, however, if you know someone that is taking feel-free or is trying to get off of it, I really highly suggest they do because the withdrawals are hor horrific.

Um I go to recovery meetings a lot.

I enjoy going to recovery meetings.

Actually, I learn a lot from people in recovery, and um there really aren't many.

I actually have only met one other person who in a recovery meeting who struggled with Kratom and Feel Free.

Um, however, her story was a little bit more scary.

When she went into her detox unit, I think she was from out of town because I didn't I've never seen her since I only saw her once, but when she went into her detox unit, um they again didn't know much about the product and didn't know how to treat her, so they ended up giving her benzos, um and it ended up putting her in a coma and she almost died, not because it was a bad hospital staff or uneducated people, it's just like our bad um employees, they just nobody knows about this and what it's doing.

Um it's like it came out in 2020 and people are still taking it, and um it's just a very very addictive, awful um drink.

And as I'm driving around Naperville, I know they're in the smoke shops, I know they're in the gas stations, but the billboards for feel-free just keep getting bigger and bigger.

And to me, if people are going into detox and the detox unit are treating them like heroin addicts, what's the difference between a feel-free billboard and a sign with like cocaine or heroin needles on it in our community?

Um there's it's right by the high school.

There's a gas station off Washington, um, and it's I just worry about the kids and a lot of the people that try this drink are not um they're very healthy, they're athletic, they're moms, they're dads, they're great people, and they think they're doing something better by drinking this alcohol alternative.

Um the mismarketing the marketing for this feel-free is just so um awful.

It's just it's I mean, it's a business, it's a very expensive drink, it's a very expensive addiction.

Naporvale's a perfect community for it.

Where it I I really believe why the uh billboards are getting bigger is because it's keeping the gas stations and the smoke shops in business.

It's an extremely, extremely expensive addiction, and um it's just ruining families and harming kids and I think that's it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Is where well when it comes to the the product packaging and what this actually looks like when it's being sold at the retailers, um is there is there any warning or what what does it look like resemble um so um for me it it it's a small two-ounce glass blue bottle of resem I took it and because it was a stimulant for me, it reminded me of a five hour energy.

Um it has a leaf on it.

The warning signs have become more um more labeled on it right back in 2023, it was a now it was an herbal supplement.

That's all it was that's all it said, and um still to this day you can't tell that it is something that's really dangerous at all.

There's a leaf, it's gluten-free, it's helps with focus, it's an herbal alcohol substitute is how it's marketed.

It's and I think the people working, of course, because it's a business, they want people to try it and get addicted.

So, it's you mentioned the it's expensive, yeah.

How how expensive?

It's ten dollars per bottle.

And when you get really addicted, I got up to five a day before I quit.

Um, I've heard of people getting up to nine a day, and that's when I mean it has put people in psychosis and uh irregular heart beats.

I mean, you are really close to death at that point.

You take that much.

Questions from the commission?

Commissioner Signorlo.

Thank you, Mayor.

I just want to thank you for standing up and stepping up and sharing your story, and I'm very, very happy that you're on good solid well-being and your health is improving.

Yours and your husband's, and I want to thank the people from Edwards Hospital as well for the good care that they provide to not just you, but all neighbor billions as well.

So thank you.

Thank you so much.

Certainly.

Commissioner DeJoya.

I also want to say thank you so much for that um story.

I'm I'm glad you're doing well.

Uh, is there an age restriction to purchase this at this time?

It was 18.

You just had to be 18 years old when I purchased when at the time when I was taking it.

I don't know if they moved it up to 21 or not.

Um, but yeah, 18, I believe is still the age.

Thank you so much.

Any other questions from the commission?

Commissioner Cherokee.

Uh, thank you, Mayor.

Thank you.

Uh thank you very much for speaking today.

Uh we ran into each other at the randomly at Heinman's uh grocery store the other day.

Um the uh the age is I think twenty one right now, right, Mayor?

Correct.

Yeah.

And uh I went to a gas station uh after hearing about your story because I didn't know about feel-free either.

We had had the Kratom discussion years ago, but I didn't know about this particular product.

And so uh I just went to buy a bottle of it.

You're right, 10 bucks.

You know, and uh just to see if you know how, you know, did they card you?

Where was it, where was it at the in the in the uh gas station, where is it placed to something that could be easily, you know, uh you know, you know, that or you know, stolen from the shop without being detected, things like that.

In this particular case, it was sitting at the by the front cash register, small thing, but all these little blue bottles.

They did card me, uh which, you know, my age is you know, sometimes they can safely make an assumption that I'm over 21, I think.

Um but uh they did card me in this particular case, which was comforting to see.

Uh but yeah, though I was uh I was unaware of it.

But anyway, thank you for for sharing the story, and uh uh definitely a discussion that needs to be had.

Thank you.

Okay, seeing no other questions.

Thank you, Ms.

Ware, for your courage and and uh um all of the the strength to get here today, and I I hope you'll stick around because I I think there will be more discussion and we might recall you for some additional questions at that time.

Yeah, thank you so much, everyone.

Next speaker is Dr.

Laura.

Or is it or is it gonna be Alex from okay?

I'm sorry, Alex on behalf of um Fox Belly Institute.

Afternoon.

Um thank you for the opportunity to speak.

Ashley, congratulations on your sobriety.

Uh my name is Alex Pochran.

I'm a therapist with Fox Valley Institute here in Naperville.

I'm a licensed social worker, certified alcohol and drug counselor, and I have treated addiction to Kratom and 7-0 firsthand.

So both Kratom and 7-0 carry risks.

7-0 products carry a significantly higher risk of dependence with opiate-like effects and a similar withdrawal experience, making it difficult to stop using and with the pundits developing much faster.

With that dependence comes cravings, tolerance, and continued use despite severe consequences.

As Ashley powerfully illustrated, clinicians are still learning how to address this new and insidious substance use disorder.

The research is scant.

There is no FDA approved medication, and for physicians are prescribing off label the same medications they use to treat opioid withdrawals.

Withdrawal symptoms include nausea and vomiting, muscle pain, insomnia, chills and sweating, tremors, itching, and loss of appetite.

In the 18 months working in an intensive outpatient program, I did not see a single successful completion of treatment for creatum use disorder.

I did, however, see people begin treatment for one substance and then develop this new addiction.

Mistakenly believing that Kratom products were harmless supplements, no different than a cup of coffee.

I saw people with Kratom addiction in and out of treatment, returning to use because the cravings were unbearable until eventually they left treatment and never returned.

The people I treated for Kratom addiction all fit the profile common to citizens of Naperville.

They were professionals, parents, valued community members, intelligent, disciplined, and began using Kratom products believing they were safe until cravings increased, withdrawal symptoms emerged, and they were unable to s to stop despite consequences to their health, families, and careers.

This past winter, a client burst into my office 24 hours after his last use of 7-0, his face gray and sweaty, teeth chattering violently from the chills, and doubled over with stomach pain.

Is this normal?

He asked me.

I didn't know.

I sent him immediately to the physician on call, who later confirmed for me that yes, this was normal.

This was withdrawal from 7-0.

My hope is that this is just the beginning of the conversation about Kratom products.

Because conversations around policy are insufficient if they do not also include prevention, education, research, and the sharing of resources and information with schools, medical and mental health professionals about this growing public health threat.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Any any questions for Alex?

Not at this time.

I hope you'll stick around.

Thank you.

Next presentation is from Lynn Noakes, Behavioral Health.

All right.

Hello, can everybody hear me?

Is it really okay?

Hi.

Thanks, Amanda, for inviting me.

I appreciate it.

My name's Ari.

I'm a licensed clinical social worker.

I work at the Mill Street PHP IOP program as the clinical supervisor.

Before I worked at the Mill Street location of Endeavour Behavioral Health, which is affiliated with Linda Noakes Hospital.

It's kind of uh it used to be called Linden Oaks, then we uh EDH Endeavor, uh Edwards Elm Hurst Hospital merged with North Shore, now we're in Denver Behavioral Health.

Um before I was there, I worked uh on the south side of Chicago doing um treatment for opioid use disorder in an outpatient setting and set up a morphine or serboxal clinic for the treatment of opioid use disorder.

Um, so just some context in uh what I'm going through today.

Um as uh the mayor and Alex and Ashley reviewed, um, Kratom is a psychoactive plant that uh is legally sold online in smoke shops and gas stations, like many supplements, um, it can be used uh in a couple different ways, and it's not very uh regulated, which I'll discuss more as I go through the PowerPoint.

Um at low doses uh from one to five milligrams, it has some stimulant-like effects, and has uh you increase the dose.

Um it has more of an opioid-like effect, which I will uh talk about further in the presentation.

Um this is just a map of the number of quote-unquote smoke shops that are in the area that are most likely selling uh Kratom.

So it's pretty well distributed throughout the community.

Um, and this is not accounting for gas stations that are also selling kratom products.

Um so this is information from the public, or sorry, the topage health department, and this is the number of overdose overdose, overdoses in 2025.

Um, and so there were um sixty-five overdoses accounted for uh substance use, um, substance use related overdoses, and six of those involved kratom products.

So once they did uh urine, or not a urine, but uh uh analysis of um substances and people who overdosed six of the 55 overdoses uh had kratom in their system.

Um so as people uh reviewed um kratom has two psychoactive components.

Um the first one is mitrogen, which is a partial mu opioid receptor antagonist.

So it uh affects the opioid receptors in the brain, and kratom also has seven hydrox hydroxamine, which is a full mu opioid receptor, and I'm gonna skip ahead of slide.

So if we're thinking about a full antagonist, um, like 70H, that's pretty um synonymous with like methadone, like a uh a real opioid, um, where if we're thinking about mitrogen, which is uh the primary active ingredient in Kratum, um it's more of a partial agonist, which is something more like subboxin or buprenorphen.

Um thinking about you guys asked kind of like what these packaging or products look like, um, and some more information about Kratom, especially in the last five years, 70H has really become a popular derivative that's being sold in a lot of these smoke shops, which is um ten times more powerful than um there's like the classic Mitrogen, that's that's the primary psychoactive ingredient in Kratum.

Um, and 70H is being sold as a standalone product, and then um more recently there's even more derivatives.

So um there's mitrogene pseudosyl pseudasoxamine uh which is often referred to as MP, which is a hundred times more um potent than mitrogene, um that's again the the product that or the psychoactive component that's in uh Kratum that's just like the dried up compound that's in the leaf.

Um another way to describe this is five years ago when I switched from um working on the south side doing primarily opioid use disorder, like fentanyl and heroin and came to Naperville, I was finding that by people with severe substance use disorder were taking you know 20 to 30 pills of crushed powder raw kratom to get opioid-like effect.

And so that amount was really slowing down their digestive system because they're just eating, you know, a bunch of dried plant, so it's hard to really get to a high dose of kratom, even for my people with more severe substance use disorder.

And I think Kratum in kind of more of the severe substance use disorder community has been known to produce an opioid effect for probably 20 or 30 years.

People who are going to treatment and we're trying to avoid um coming up for for positive urine drug stream-related to uh opioids, we're taking kratom to still get an opioid like effect.

And that's been again a part of the substance use disorder world for 20 or 30 years, but this development of 70H and MP is newer, and some of these marketing um techniques um are also newer to our community.

And again, this is um some of the the marketing, and we can see um kind of going back to this last slide, especially there's this even newer form, which is NGM 15 or DH 70H, which is 30 times more potent than Mitrogen.

Um so we can see how some of these are advertised of having um 200 milligrams of Mg.

Um, this one on the um the blue packaging is is um being advertised as having 70H with pseudo, and that pseudo is going to the MP, which is the mitrogen pseudoxy.

Does anybody know how to say that better than me?

Okay, so I embarrassing you guys, so it's like I can't believe you're saying it like that.

It's um it's commonly referred to as MP.

So we can see that these products are being sold as an intoxicant.

Like, especially when it says with pseudo, that's being marketed to people who are looking to become intoxicated and understand that this pseudo is much uh has a much stronger intoxicating effect than standard Kratom.

Um so um Ashley kind of pointed out that uh feel-free product, which is up here, um, it just is a little key.

Again, we're thinking um as Mg as um the primary psychoactive ingredient in raw kratom, um, and the 70H as um more um potent form of that, and then the MP as an even stronger um intoxicant on the there's two important uh I think things to look at here.

If you can see my cursor right here, this is what's advertised as the dose, and then um through this um quantitative testing, this is what's actually in the product.

So this feel-free product is uh being advertised as having uh 40 milliliters of this MG um psychoactive ingredient, but when um it was actually studied in the lab, it actually had some 70H that was not advertised.

Then when we're looking at this uh EDP buzz, um, they're reporting that they have 25 uh gram dose of MG, and they actually had 150 over 150, and they actually had a really significant significant amount of this MP, which is again the which is the most intoxicating derivative of um Kratom products.

Does that make sense?

Um just some other um clear-cut data that these um products that are clearly marketed not as a supplement, but to be have an intoxicating effect when they're writing things like as advertised with um pseudo or MP.

Um these have a wide range of of um psychoactive ingredients that are not the actual dose that they're um being as advertised, which can really lead to some um dangerous combinations uh if they're taking it with other substances or other medications.

I'm not gonna go through each one of these, but you can kind of see the disparities between what's advertised and what was actually in the same.

Um so I uh work at again a PHP IOP program, which is a partial hospitalization program for people with mental health and substance use disorder.

Um currently um we typically have a census of about 20 to 40 patients.

Um, typically about 10 to 28% of our patients are struggling with opioid use disorder that is caused by a kratom.

Um, and these uh patients require detox and then four to six weeks of uh day programming, um, and and usually probably about a year of outpatient therapy and medication management.

Um, and we do see uh patients who um have issues with Kratom, relapse and return.

Um currently four of our 26 patients that are currently on unit uh are struggling with Kratom use disorder.

I just I'm the supervisor there, but I was hovering for one of my staff who call out six today, and I spend a half an hour um talking with somebody who's uh here um at our program for Kratom use.

Um, she said she reported that she was there.

She's struggled with Kratom use for seven years.

This is our first time, and uh I think she has about 14 days without use, so um the first time in you know seven years that she didn't take Kratom on the other basis.

Um we're really treating um Kratom as again opioid use disorder.

Um we have a pretty uh dedicated team of people who are uh focused on substance use disorder treatment.

Uh we have Dr.

Kevin Masterson, who is a doctor who specializes in addiction medicine, as well as Danielle DeGrado, who's uh advanced nurse um practitioner, and these are people who have dedicated their medical practice to treating uh addiction, and we're just treating uh Kratom as opioid use disorder.

Um so we're just prescribing uh Suboxone as um medication, um to help with opioid withdrawal and to people keep people from overdosing um on an opioids, whether that be kratom or um things like heroin or fentanyl.

We also prescribe uh narcan, just like we would do for any other opioid to prevent uh overdose.

Because um, as um Ashley and Alex mentioned, and as uh the mayor mentioned, um higher doses of um Kratom and especially 70H and MP uh lead to uh respiratory uh depression, just as any opioid would.

Um just some case examples.

Um we had a 40-year-old who started using uh Kratom because they thought it would help them with pain, and they built up uh to a habit of $100 a day.

And they came to PHP IOP uh two times, and um they're continuing to use umboxamin for outpatient, and I think they had about six months without use between the two states of PHP IOP.

I had a 50-year-old male who started using it because of stress and prior opioid use.

They knew that what um they were doing when they were buying these 70H products and they returned a program after being 20 years sober, um, and started on Suboxone, and I have a 20 year old who uh started using it to manage anxiety, and they went to, as I think um Ashley pointed out well, um, they went to the ER several times with um like uh stomach issues connected to their um withdrawal symptoms.

Um and so um as a system when I saw this person going back, I actually give them a call and said, I think you'll need to come to our program uh because I think you're having opioid withdrawal, and she came in uh and I I continue to see her coming into our outpatient basis uh to our outpatient clinic um uh for like monthly refills under suboxone and uh treatment.

Um and then the DEA is also looking at this.

The DA uh DEA put out uh oppressor on the first uh two that they're looking to temporally schedule seven LAH and related substances to protect public safety.

So just in in summary, um we just basically treat Kratom like an opioid.

Uh I think Ashley's um anecdote that would we be in support of putting uh heroin or fentanyl on a billboard, is an apt one.

Um that's how we treat it.

It's widely accessible.

Um we could leave here and within 10 minutes um purchase enough um to become pretty intoxicated or even overdose.

Um we treat it with suboxone, and that can be a six-month to two-year treatment recommendation, um, and it can increase mental health symptoms as well, and we also really promote the use of Narcan as uh overdose prevention.

Uh here's some of our information if people need any uh local treatment presentation.

Thank you.

Any questions from the commission?

Commissioner Sherigo.

Yeah, thank you, Mayor.

Um the MP products, the tablets.

Are those being sold locally in the smoke shops as well, or or just uh like feel free type of yeah, I mean most smoke shops are gonna have a wide array of products, and most of them are going to be these derivatives.

Um and again, even from Ashley's story, right?

Like she bought this um this drink, which, like, five years ago, I was having people just take raw Kratum pills, and that would take, you know, they'd have to take 20 or 30 pills versus drinking this um this bottle that's gonna take a couple seconds to ingest and it's not gonna have the same kind of like taxing effect on our body that that's gonna have to take all those pills.

But yes, these products are available in um area, and there's a wide range of of products.

There's a there's gonna be a section for I mean, if you go to I mean, I think uh the commission would do well to look at smoke shops in general.

I mean, there's gonna be nitrous, there's gonna be um delta eight, and there's gonna be um these products as well, and it's gonna be like a section, like a candy section, like a variety that's gonna be like this colorful um type of marketing without any warnings on it about the severity of these uh products.

Uh Mr.

Mayor, do I have a question for detective?

Um detective Creighton, uh do we do any compliance checks on?

I assume these products all fall within the state law at minimum on uh the prohibition of sales under 21, right?

Thank you.

Yes, correct.

Um, but we do not do any specific to compliance checks for these products.

Okay.

We have discussed it in the past, and we even the mayor and I have reached out to the state to see if we can add these to the normal compliance checks that we do for tobacco and as of yet we haven't heard back, but we could discuss another a round of checks separate for this.

If if the commission and the department wanted to do so, it would definitely be something worthwhile, I think.

Yeah, I mean, from my perspective, it it seems that this is far more um dangerous than selling tobacco to kids, you know, if if and we're not there's no uh program for checking the sale of it to miners, so that seems like a pretty easy uh thing for a minor to take advantage of.

Um that's all the questions for for you for now.

Thank you very much for your presentation.

Our next speaker is from 360 youth services.

Good afternoon.

Thank you so much for having us.

My name is Matt Cassie.

I'm here with my colleague Natasha Grover.

We're here from 360 Use Services.

And I was here when those conversations happened in 2019, uh, when we the city was beginning to talk a little bit about Kratom and what the impacts could be.

And one of the things I think it's important to note, it was already mentioned previously, is this is something we're still really working to understand in a greater sense.

Uh there still needs to be a lot of research and understanding about it, but we want to share what we are seeing and what we know about now.

Going a little bit later on in the docket, you will certainly see some echoes and here's some echoes of other presentations of people who provided a lot of really great information about those pieces.

And we're going to spend a little time focusing on a little narrower band, really talking about youth.

When we're talking about youth, we are talking about minors, people up to the age of 18, but thinking a little bit broader beyond that because that's what the government is expanding the idea of youth and adolescence into young adulthood, and knowing that young adults are making decisions that very quickly funnel down to our younger population.

So that is the direction that we would like to share a little bit about today.

So some of these things are going to be familiar already, but again, I'm going to talk a little bit about those younger populations.

So, really, again, in an echo of what we're already talking, has already been shared, is that very often these products are being marketed as increasing focus, managing pain, anxiety.

Common things and symptoms that people are experiencing that are maybe looking for a little help in.

We see this with our youth, especially in high achieving areas where school is a big part of life.

People are looking for ways to get a leg up to be more focused, and we see that with that stimulant like quality.

I'll talk a little bit more about that in a moment.

But we see that kind of marketing oftentimes tiptoeing right up to making a health claim, but really sharing that it's a health or an energy supplement.

Using that time of language, herbal so it sounds safe, sounds more comfortable, and that can create an idea that it is safe, even though it is underregulated, especially for our youth seeing something that is over the counter, it can be purchased not in a liquor department, not in a dispensary, but really in an everyday store, provides a perception that there isn't going to be the same levels of harm, dangers of impairment that can come with that as there are with the other products.

And that perception is a really big part of what we see with our youth.

What they feel, what they see, what they see on social media really shapes their perspective.

So, as was already talked about, we do see it at gas stations, vape shops, different stores throughout communities.

It can appear fruit flavors, tablets, gummies, extracts, drink mixes, oils, powder, dry leaves, vape pens, or liquid shots, and it is highly visible through social media influencers.

One of the biggest pieces of influence over our youth and our young adults, and really all of us in this day and age, is social media.

People spend a large amount of time scrolling through, whether it's TikTok, Instagram, whatever social media platform people want to engage with, and that is well known.

And so we see a lot of people who are health, fitness, wellness people who are paid promoters, and extolling the virtues of these products, talking about them in a healthy perspective.

And so people don't always have the full understanding and education of what they're engaging with when they are moving into these products.

So when people might encounter them in a storefront, the packaging is often bright colors, can resemble candy, and these concentrated forms and other products often have packaging that's appealing to our younger buyers.

Again, the brighter colors, bright language, things that will catch the eye, and especially for our youth and our young people.

Data is harder to come by.

Natasha will talk a little bit more about this.

We're continuing to try to figure out how we can get better than anecdotal evidence.

So we were really relying a lot on national data as opposed to our local data.

I know I've appeared in front of this group before talking about Illinois Youth Survey and local data.

Right now, Kratom is not a substance that is asked about for that local.

So we really do look at the national data and those trends.

But we know that it is an increasing number of people who are engaging with Kratom.

It's becoming more popular.

And that evolution, as we always see back in 2019, people talked about how all of a sudden it's becoming more potent, it's becoming more discrete, it's becoming more visible in terms of people being able to engage and buy those products, and all those things.

That's unfortunately how substance use always goes.

It always becomes more potent, it always evolves to be something stronger and a derivative of.

We've seen that with our conversations about cannabis derivatives.

Now we're seeing it here with Kratom and 7-0, which we'll talk a little bit more about.

The area where we see the age range where we see the highest adult or the highest reported use is between 21 and 34 year olds.

Uh, but again, that is not to say that other age groups are not being involved and engaged.

The image you see here is a local gas station.

You can see the Kratom products right there in the middle.

You can see some of the bright colors from all kinds of different products that are being sold.

Uh Kratom again is in the middle.

You don't see a ton of warning, but you do see that age restriction because here in Aprilville obviously you do have to be 21 as is previously been established.

But you can see the different products, how forward-facing they often are in the store cross by a checkout stance.

Obviously, this is just one store.

There are a number of different stores.

Um they do not all operate and um use their space the same way, but they typically are highly visible within a setting or a store.

And not only on the inside of the stores, we also often see them on the outside.

Um, this is a big shop, and you can see that Kratom is becoming more prevalent in terms of the actual advertising as its popularity is growing.

Um, so where Delta 8 e-cigarettes are big, that used to be the language that we would see more often.

We're seeing this evolution, we're seeing the change where Kratom is becoming something that is becoming a more common item to be promoting uh because of the influence and because of the popularity of the products.

So when we're looking at these products again, some of these things are already talked about, but one of the things that I think is really important is the effect on the brain is we know that the brain continues to develop until the age of 25.

So anytime somebody will engage with an impairing substance before that, it has an outsized impact on the brain, and the younger somebody engages with something, their age of first use greatly increases their chance of having a lifelong problem or developing a substance use disorder.

Um, so one of the interesting things about this product is depending on the amount or the strength of it, it really does change the impact.

So the low doses we do have those stimulant like pieces that people have talked about, increased urge, increased energy, alertness, talkativeness, heart rate, and this some is something that we do see people using it as a stimulant to feel more on top of their game, to be able to study longer, feel more engaged.

This is these are the things that we hear anecdotally.

But when it moves into a higher dosage, we start to see those opioid-like qualities.

And unfortunately, the more somebody's using, the more likely they are to be engaged and be taking more of that substance.

But you see some of the symptoms that come along with the high dosage.

With that, I'm gonna turn it over to Natasha to share some data.

So as Matt had mentioned, our local data is from the Illinois Youth Survey, and we do that every two years, and it's administered to eighth graders, 10th graders, and 12th graders.

We do not, because this is a new trend, we do not have local data regarding the youth that we rely on the national data, which is through the monitoring the future um survey.

It's a national survey that is done to is given to 23,000 kids throughout the nation, 270 public and private schools, and it was from February through June 2025, and they found out that 1.2% of 12th graders reported using Kratom in the past year.

I know you've mentioned um you know Kratom is age restricted, but I wanted to point out that if you go to the Federal Trade Commission website, there is a statistic that says that says 74% of teens do not buy their alcohol.

It is given to them for free.

So just keeping that in mind.

So this is pulled from Kratom exposure data, and it was extracted from the National Poison Data System, which is the data repository for the 53 U.S.

poison centers.

And during 2015 to 2025, the poison centers documented about 14,000 Kratom exposures.

The 3,400 exposures reported in 2025 represent an increase of approximately 1200% compared with the 258 reported in 2015.

So what is an exposure?

If you look on the left side, an exposure is like when somebody calls the poison center and says, you know, um, this per I'm taking Kratom.

And then the numbers on the right, that is the same, it's parallel, but it's it's per million population, so it's adjusted for the population.

So what it's saying is out of every million people, how many kratom exposures calls happen?

So if you look, the exposure rates increased in parallel with the number of exposure reports from 412 to about 4,400 per million drug exposure reports with a steady increase in 2019, and then suddenly you see plateau, suddenly a marked surge in 2025, and what you will notice is the number in 2025 is actually much higher than all the previous years aggregated.

So this slide shows the number or rate of poison center calls involving kratom.

The rate adjusts for the differences in population size again, the solid line is multiple substance exposure, whereas a single one is just kratom because what we have noticed, people don't take sometimes um substances by themselves.

They it's called stacking, where they take different substances and stack them upon each other.

So for instance, with one million multiple substance exposure reports of those 9,000 involved kratom in adults 20 to age 39, and we do have some data here for the young population ages.

So the poison centers they document data from 12 and above reports involving kratom used with other substances are generally more common than reports involving kratom alone, and all age groups experienced a sharp rise in 2025.

So this is showing the data of people who take Kratom and have to go get hospitalized.

Of the people whose kratom exposure was serious enough to be reported to a poison center, how many ended up being hospitalized?

It compares again single substance, just the kratom, and as well as the multiple substance, nearly half of all the poison center reports involving kratom and another substance resulted in hospitalization.

The dashed line over here is only kratom, and then over here is multiple substances.

So the kratom only line indicates that about one out of four poison center reports involving kratom resulted in hospitalization, and again, if you see in 2025, a marked upsurge.

So we had um talked about 70H a lot, and as was mentioned previously, it is in trace amounts, but it is the most potent compound in the Kratom plant, and it's being extracted, and what happens is when it's being extracted and used with the other substances, you don't know how much 70H is going into the substance, so when it's being sold, you don't know how much is incorporated as a previous the previous speaker had shown what it says versus what there actually is, and that's a huge issue, and it's being falsely advertised as natural kratom products, and some commercial content straights run five to fifty times stronger than regular Kratom, as we saw on the previous um speaker was showing his slide.

And here's some products, and as Matt had mentioned, how do we entice the youth?

And if you look at this one over here, it's like an ice cream cone, and so it's various different ways of enticing the youth to purchase these items.

Any questions for us?

Oh, I do want to mention we were you guys were talking about ordinances uh that different uh cities have passed.

Plainfield just passed an ordinance in May banning the sale of Kratom, novel synthetic and psychoactive drugs.

So did want to mention that.

For for all age groups, are you aware of or all age groups.

For all age groups.

Okay.

Thank you.

I don't see any questions from the commission at this point, but stick around.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um Detective Crichton and Detective Susance, did you want to uh add anything that uh may or may not have been said at this point?

I brought my expert here, Detective Sussness.

He has sees the stuff on the street more, as you know I'm in an office, but uh former what DEA task force officer.

No, former TAC no former case agent here.

Uh I've been approximately uh employed here for ten years with Naperville.

Uh most of my career's been with our special operations group.

Uh was case agent, primary undercover detective for two years, and most currently I have a canine, uh single purpose narcotics dog uh rigs.

Just in my short time here, blessed to be here.

Um I've seen every type and every type of quantity of drug you could imagine.

Obviously we have a task force officer with the ATF, we have a task force officer with the DEA, so we're heavily involved with them as well.

Um the Kratom, obviously that's that's not new.

Uh I'm not gonna go over everything that everybody else like Ashley and everybody, they did a great job.

Um it's it's highly unregulated.

I've been in these smoke shops, I've been in these gas stations.

There are probably a hundred different brands.

Uh I don't know where these come from, I don't know where it's synthesized, no one does.

Um the seven oh h probably a hundred different brands, it comes in loose, oh, excuse me.

Loose big leaf uh bags or are commonly pills.

Um I could give you uh uh probably a dozen testimonials or dozen calls I've been to involving Kratom.

Uh one that was pre-body cam, just to shed some light on it.

Uh I I was working as a patrol officer early on in my career, uh it was uh kind of like Worley and Hobson area, uh ambulance already responded, it was dead of winter.

Um there was a subject faced uh passed out or incapacitated, you know, face down in the snow.

Uh the ambulance obviously the fire department got there.

Uh they were they checked them however they checked his pulse, uh didn't notice some breathing.

We had a maintain the crime scene.

Uh so we walked in one line as soon as the battalion chief got there, he eventually flipped over the body we thought was gonna be dead and the person was alive.

Uh they started breathing at that point in time, but initially the ambulance uh I guess the paramedics they didn't feel a pulse on him when they checked later on after he was hospitalized, we went and we talked with uh the victim, and he he clearly was uh incapacitated under Kratom.

He mixed it with a little bit of alcohol, but he's drank before.

He said the Kratom he's never he's never had.

Uh and if he wasn't found, he would have been left there for death.

Um so that's just one instance uh that I that I've dealt with.

Um we've gone in to these smoke shops and these vape shops, and you know, we've dealt with the delta eight.

There's there's a delta O, there's a Delta Z, there's you know, there's synthetic mushroom bars that we could be talking about.

There's a lot of things.

So I think Kratom is is a is a great addition, a great start.

Um and we would love to at least in my unit start the compliance checks as well.

Um other than that, if you have any questions for me, I'll be here any time.

I appreciate you letting me talk.

Great.

Thank you, Detective.

Commissioner Signor.

Thanks, Mr.

Mayor.

No questions, but uh I'd like to make a motion.

Um go ahead.

I'd like to make a motion and a recommendation that on behalf of the city citizens of Naperville and this commission that the Neighborville City City Council ban the retail sale of 70H and Kratom derivative products at a date, effective date in the near future to be determined by the Neighborville City Council.

For a second, I second.

Commissioner DeJoyo with a second.

We'll now go into discussion.

Mr.

Mayor.

Commissioner Cherico.

Are there any more speakers?

I don't see any other speakers on the list.

However, I do have a written comment that I want to make sure that we get into the record.

And then can we have some discussion?

Yes.

Okay.

Um so we're we're in the discussion.

We have a pending motion.

So we're in the discussion phase now for the pending motion.

I can read the and I'm gonna ask counsel as far as getting this the uh written testimony that came in late into the record.

Should I try to do that now?

Okay, yeah.

Commissioner, I'd like to get something in the record first.

Could you withdraw your motion?

I withdraw my motion.

Okay.

Commissioner DeJoya.

Second.

I second.

Okay.

So the motion on the table has now been withdrawn.

The city did receive written comment from the global Kratom Coalition that was submitted after the 24-hour deadline for written comment.

If a liquor commission wants to include this comment in the record, this can either be addressed by a motion to include the late comment in the meeting minutes, or a motion to accept the comment as though if it were submitted on time and included alongside the timely submitted written comment.

So we need a motion to do one or the other to um get the late submitted comment as a entered as part of the record for the hearing.

Commissioner Cherokle.

Thank you, Mayor.

I'd like to make a motion to accept it as part of the record.

Uh, on a normal basis, I think any information uh should be uh presented as part of the record so that we can make the most informed decision that we can.

So would that be a motion to accept it as though it was committed or submitted on time or just as uh a motion to include the late comment in the meeting minutes?

I think we can uh accept it as it was on time.

Okay.

Is there a second?

McGuri, second.

Okay, we have a motion and a second roll call.

Cherico?

I can't, McGuri.

I Joya.

Hi, Signorella.

Yes.

Motion passes five zero.

Now we will move on back to Commissioner.

Can we read it?

Commissioner Signorella.

Okay.

You want it read into the record?

Uh I I haven't seen it.

I thought that's what we were gonna do is read it into the record.

Okay.

Um before we we move forward, we're gonna read this into the record, the email that came in today.

Counselor.

Oh, Ms.

Captain, do you want to read it in the record?

Oh, okay.

Dear Mayor Worley, I hope you are doing well.

My name is Alison Smith, and I serve as director of government affairs for the Global Kratom Coalition.

I recently reviewed the liquor commission's July 9th agenda regarding agenda item 26-08112.

Receive the presentation of Kratom Feel-free and evaluate whether stricter local regulation is needed.

And I wanted to share an important federal development that occurred after the meeting materials or the agenda materials were prepared.

On July 6, 2026, the U.S.

Drug Enforcement Administration, DEA published a notice of intent to temporarily place seven high.

Seven hydroxy mitrageny.

See, that was better, maybe that's not part of the comment though.

708, above a specified threshold, along with related synthetic derivatives into schedule.

One, after determining these products, present an imminent hazard to public safety.

Importantly, the DEA did not propose scheduling traditional Kratom leaf.

Instead, it distinguished between traditional leave products and the highly concentrated and synthetic products that have become increasingly available under the Kratom label.

This distinction mirrors many of the concerns raised in your agenda materials.

I also noted that the staff report references municipalities that have taken different approaches.

While Wineka and Bloomington adopted broader retail restrictions, Rockford instead targeted synthetic 7OH products.

The DEA's recent action reinforces this targeted approach by focusing on the products federal regulators determined pose the greatest risk.

Because the city is revisiting this issue at the same time, the DEA has announced emergency scheduling of concentrated 7OH products.

This presents an opportunity to ensure any local policy complements federal action rather than duplicating or conflicting with it.

Rather than treating all products sold under the Kratom label the same, Naporville can focus its efforts on the products the DEA has now identified as posing an imminent hazard to public safety.

If the commission ultimately concludes that additional local safeguards are warranted, I respectfully encourage consideration of an ordinance that complements the DEA's action by specifically addressing concentrated and synthetic 70H products while preserving access to traditional Kratom leaf products through age restrictions, independent laboratory testing, labeling requirements, and concentration limits.

The GEKC has developed model ordinance language that accomplishes exactly that.

And I would be happy to share it with you or answer any questions the commission may have.

I hope we can serve as a resource as the Commission evaluates this issue and considers whether any changes to Neighborville's existing ordinance are necessary.

Thank you for your thoughtful consideration of this issue and for your service to the city of Naperville.

Respectfully, Allison Smith.

Thank you.

That is beneficially added to the record.

Um Commissioner Signarella.

In light of the um the statement being made, um, I would still like to submit my uh recommendation and my motion for the Neighborville City Council to ban the retail sale of 70H and Kratom derivative products at an effective date to be determined by the Neighborhood City Council.

Thank you, Mayor.

Is there a second?

I second.

Yeah, one second.

Just a point of clarification.

Uh you said uh Kratom derivative products.

Is that include all Kratom products?

Yes.

Okay.

Commissioner Cherco.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um great motion.

I I I support that.

I I think it seems to me that uh this product at minimum should be regulated much like cannabis.

Um if it does have a medical use and it it may.

I think in the last uh hearing that we had on this in 2019, there was testimony to that effect.

Um I remember a woman who had terrible skin uh disease issues.

Uh that they tried everything and Kratom was the only thing that was effective.

So I believe that there very possibly could be a medical value to this product, but if that's the case, then uh it should be um prescribed by a doctor, a medical doctor, or at least a minimum B, much like medical cannabis in a regulated, you know, controlled and regulated uh uh way.

So from my perspective, uh yeah, I think that it's probably time we make a move on this.

I'll support that motion.

Any other questions or comments from the commission?

I think it's a um very appropriate action that the commission is considering right now.

Um the number of cases that I've heard about in the community and the outreach I've heard from family members, including members of our our police department about cases that we've worked in just the last several months where there were overdoses and Narcan, multiple Narcan doses were applied to bring people back, and it was fully involving these products.

It's it's just it's really uh a scary health risk for our community.

I think there's um immediate action that we need to take in our city to protect our residents.

Roll call.

McGurry de joya aye signorella yes chericho aye fenzer aye motion passes five zero and on behalf of the liquor commission i want to thank all of those who came out to testify today um your your messages were were very powerful and we look forward to seeing you when this comes to a city council agenda which will likely be at our first meeting in August at that meeting the city council will hear the recommendation from the liquor commission because it was a unanimous recommendation from the liquor commission it will be put on the consent agenda which means it will be voted with a lot of other things unless there is a council person who chooses to ask it to be removed from the consent agenda and voted separately from there.

But it's it's always good to make sure that there's there's follow through at the next phase of which what will really matter is the city council vote.

So thank you all for for being here and and again if that agenda item gets polled or if you want to um uh be there to uh be ready for questions it's highly encouraged for that meeting thank you all Mr.

Mr.

Commissioner Cherical just one more note that I want to just mention is that when it gets to city council meeting uh it will likely uh receive some press before then and there will likely be uh supporters of Kratom who will show up to speak uh to um uh try to influence the city council uh to not ban the sale of this product so your um attendance at that point will be uh more critical so you know please consider that okay um we are still in new business commissioner chericho you want to uh thank you mayor um this was uh regards to the letter that was sent to us uh uh on the happy hour and um I think it'd be worth having a discussion about this uh our restaurants uh have been uh a big you know a big part of our success in Naperville uh in terms of uh managing DUIs and things like that have been the partnership with our restaurants um and I think that it's it's at least worth having this conversation to find out if if indeed uh prohibiting uh a happy hours and the sale of discounted alcohol uh in our restaurants is still something that is uh necessary to maintain a safe environment I'd like to make a motion uh to add this to the agenda the next liquor commission meeting and have that discussion is there a second uh McGurry second we have a motion and a second any further discussion on adding happy hour discussion to our next liquor commission meeting agenda seeing none roll call actually I could do a voice vote on that all those in favor say aye aye opposed motion passes our next item is the liquor commission reports item F1 DUI reports detective Crichton thank you mayor we got March of 25 we had 23 DUIs compared to March of 26 where we had 16 April of 25 we had 20 DUIs April of 26 we had 14 May of 25 we had 12 DUIs May of 26 for unknown reasons we jumped up to 27 June of 25 we had 21 DUIs and June of 26 we had 22 DUIs we are trending right now toward about the same as 2025.

No single establishment has popped up on our lists for those that have answered the questions that the officers ask.

That's it for liquor.

And anecdotally, Naperville was just named number four in DUI arrests in the state.

F2 Tobacco.

Tobacco.

We did the last round of fiscal year 26 tobacco compliance checks in May on dates May 27th and 28th.

We had two violations out of 84 tobacco licenses, I believe.

One of those stores had a violation within about the last year.

And then the other store that violated was probably two years ago.

Mr.

Church.

For sure.

Is that when you say the fourth in the state, is it the fourth number of DUIs or as a percentage of uh um is that just raw numbers, the fourth highest amount of DUIs here in the D UI arrests.

DUI arrests in the uh cities in the state.

So I mean we're the fourth largest city, so it sort of puts us at about the third largest city, so it sort of puts us at about par, right?

Or no?

I guess that's is it a percentage thing or do you have percentages versus uh like just raw numbers?

I don't, however, I can tell you we used to be near the top, number one besides beside Chicago.

So I guess if we're falling down, I I can tell you the officers are still out there trying.

Uh the grants are still out there, the step grants and all these grants that come from the state of Illinois, so the officers are still out there in those extra capacities.

So if we are seeing a lower number, if we're dropping in that, that's one figure where you'd kind of want to drop, then uh I think we're going in a good direction.

Mr.

Mayorman.

Go ahead.

Um yeah, not I'm not trying to suggest we go one way or another.

Uh I I just wanted to put some uh um context around that.

Yep.

It shouldn't be surprising that we're the fourth highest um DUI arrests in the state because we fourth or third largest city also.

So it would be interesting though to see uh this on a per capita basis or something to find out if we are doing this.

I mean, it wouldn't be surprising to me uh if we had a higher percentage also, just given the number of restaurants that we have in our community that people uh travel to from out of out of the city.

So it but I think it might be uh um just you know if it if it's easily obtainable information, it might be helpful to see.

Sure thing, yeah.

Attorney Bonner.

Uh yeah, so I just pulled up the article uh while the discussion was going on.

So uh this is the second consecutive year that Naperville secure the number four spot.

So in 2025, the police made 287 DUI arrests, which was an 11.2% increase over the 258 arrests made in 2024.

Aurora took the number one spot with 479 DUI arrests, a one point three percent increase over 2024's 473 arrests.

They have been first for the past four years.

Rockford came in second with three with four hundred and seventy-six arrests, a thirty-two point six percent increase from twenty twenty-four, and springfield was number three with two hundred and ninety-eight arrests, a four point four percent increase from twenty twenty-four.

Right at the top twelve was Algin, Bloomington, O'Follin, Decatur, West Chicago, Juliet, Franklin Park, Lombard, and Champagne.

Who is the story from?

I believe it was the Naperville Sun.

One second.

Correct.

It was the Naperville Sun.

Okay.

Thank you.

Free.

Okay, for the Naperville liquor law essentials, for those who don't know, that's our local training that we do uh in addition to the Illinois Liquor Control Commission Bassett.

In March, we had 40 people successfully go through April 42, May 79, which is uh congruent with the uh summer hiring, and then June uh we had twenty-eight.

F four liquor concept committee report.

Is aspecting.

Between March and June 2026, we've had quite a few liquor concept meetings.

Um in March, we had the Irish Fest come and request uh whiskey tastings since that meeting in March.

They've decided not to proceed with that.

They'll continue doing what they were previously doing.

Um Tacoville Taco Fest uh attended a concept meeting and held a successful event in June.

Um Bowl of Biryani is a Class A restaurant that has since opened.

Guzman e Gomez requested a class A, and that business is no longer in the United States.

99 Ranch Market requesting a class G1 grocery store license will be opening December 2026.

Saliva's Indian Kitchen is a class B restaurant and tavern.

It's currently obtaining occupancy.

In April, Cinnamon Pancake House is an existing restaurant that requested a Class A restaurant license.

Cuisine of India is requesting a Class A license.

They're currently applying for their state license.

In May, we had Tokyo Shukudo, a Class A restaurant for a Japanese restaurant, currently applying for their state license.

We have a new ownership request for the Ogden Wine and Spirit at 1568 West Ogden Avenue.

They're working on their occupancy.

Anticipated opening August 31st of 2026.

Thank you.

Any questions?

Seeing none, that's the remaining portion of our agenda.

May have a motion to adjourn.

So moved.

Is there a second?

Mr.

Garel, a second.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Oppose.

Thank you everybody for being with us today.