PROVIDENCE − Gov. Dan McKee has vetoed five bills, including one to legalize a psychoactive herb known as “kratom” that squeaked through the legislature on the narrowest of votes.

He also vetoed bills to:

Kratom

Many bills flew through in the final hours of the General Assembly session but few raised more questions than those legalizing kratom and the bill, introduced on Atty. Gen. Peter Neronha’s behalf, to clarify his powers over fraudulent business filings.

The legislation authorizing the sale of kratom − the key ingredient in questionable products often sold at gas stations and smoke shops − cleared the General Assembly in the closing days of the session that ended June 14, despite serious objections from the Rhode Island Department of Health and the medical community.

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Rhode Island is one of just six states that ban kratom. That rule has been in place since 2017, when the Department of Health designated the drug’s main chemical compounds, mitragynine and 7-hydroxymitragynine, as Schedule 1 controlled substances.

The so-called Kratom Consumer Protection Act that McKee vetoed would have overturned that decision, and prohibited kratom from being adulterated with dangerous substances, marketed in vape or candy form or sold to people under the age of 21.

The legislation was sponsored by Sen. Hanna Gallo, D-Cranston, and Rep. John “Jay” Edwards, D-Tiverton, who hold leadership roles in their respective chambers.

McKee’s veto message echoed concerns raised by the Department of Health, Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities & Hospitals, which deals with substance use disorders; the Rhode Island Medical Society; and the Rhode Island Pharmacists Association. Among them:

• “The lack of scientific evidence regarding the safety and efficacy of kratom.”

• “The potential for abuse and addiction, and the reports of adverse health effects like seizures, liver damage, and “increased risk to youth … due to easier accessibility, especially without any corresponding funding for education or safety awareness campaigns.

He said the state’s division of taxation requested a veto because “it cannot confidently determine for tax purposes whether kratom is a controlled substances, food … [or] dietary supplements,” and the attorney general’s office requested a veto because it “quite simply lacks the knowledge and expertise to undertake the significant role of regulation of a new controlled substance.”

“Due to the overwhelming opposition to this Act by multiple state agencies, the medical community, and the Office of the Attorney General, I cannot support this Act,” McKee wrote, while leaving the door open to discussions with the sponsors in the future.

Attorney General’s powers

This legislation would have authorized the Attorney General to issue investigative demands without a court order and seek damages, and penalties of up to $10,000 per violation and/or the cancellation of a certificate to do business in Rhode Island in response to “repeated illegal acts” in the “transaction of business or governmental activity.”

In his veto message, McKee cited objections by the R.I. Business Coalition and warnings by the ACLU of Rhode Island that it would “provide virtually unconstrained authority to the Attorney General to conduct civil investigations of suspected or alleged illegality in almost every corner of public or private life.”

He said the term “persistent illegality” is an undefined and almost unlimited and, as the opponents noted, the legislation, as written, would “exponentially expand the power of the Attorney General to engage in intrusive investigatory practices, and to do so without the presence of any meaningful guardrails.”

“The Act would simply empower the Attorney General ‘to serve as a roving civil law enforcer,’ ” he wrote.

Nursing homes

In vetoing the advisory board on wages and staffing in nursing homes, McKee cited arguments raised by “numerous Rhode Island nursing and assisting living facilities,” among them:

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“[T]his piece of legislation does not address the real issues facing nursing homes including years of underfunding, increased costs and the lack of an available workforce in the state.”

A board “focused so narrowly on only working conditions and wages and without consideration for key constraints such as reimbursement … will not generate the comprehensive solutions Rhode Island needs to address the nursing home emergency,” he concluded.

Magistrates

But a bill to retroactively allow court magistrates − who were not chosen for their robes through the publicly screened merit-selection process that Rhode Island voters demanded in 1994 − to decide contested divorce cases became law without his signature.

John Marion, the executive director of the citizens’ advocacy group Common Cause, was among those calling for a veto. His argument: “Magistrates should not be conducting trials so long as they are not selected in the same manner as judges … This end run around our Constitution must be stopped. Governor McKee should defend our state Constitution, and honor the will of the voters, by vetoing these bills.”

McKee issued letters explaining why he let some other bills become law without his signature, but not this one.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: The governor also vetoed a bill that would expand the AG’s authority to conduct civil investigations.