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By Vincent Medina, Contributing Writer
September 10, 2026
DOWNEY — The Downey City Council on Tuesday directed staff to write local ordinances limiting the retail sale of nitrous oxide and high-potency kratom products, while preserving medical and other legitimate uses of the gas and leaving traditional kratom leaf outside the proposed restrictions.
The council voted 4-0, with Councilmember Mario Trujillo absent, to have staff prepare two draft ordinances and return them to the council for consideration.
Community Development Director Irma Huitron said drafting could begin in November and the ordinances could return to the council around April 2027. The work is estimated to cost $15,000 from the General Fund reserve.
Nitrous oxide, commonly known as laughing gas, is used in dental offices, hospitals, commercial kitchens, automotive applications and manufacturing. But the gas can also be inhaled recreationally for a brief high, and city officials say discarded canisters have increasingly become a problem in Downey.
Kratom comes from the leaves of a Southeast Asian plant. Traditional kratom leaf contains naturally occurring compounds in relatively small amounts, while newer products can contain much higher concentrations of 7-hydroxymitragynine, or 7-OH, and are sold as extracts, gummies, liquids and other products.
The council first asked staff in June to examine stopping sales at smoke shops, but Huitron said limiting regulations to tobacco retailers would miss other businesses selling the products.
“Although these products may be sold at smoke and tobacco shops, they are not tobacco products and may also be available through other types of retail establishments,” Huitron said.
Huitron said Downey police logged 26 arrests involving possession of nitrous oxide during the previous 18 months. She said concentrated 7-OH products raise separate health concerns because potency and labeling can vary and the products have not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
Mayor Claudia Frometa said she did not favor a blanket ban on every form of either product.
“Rather than, in my opinion, having a blanket approach and just regulating them all,” Frometa said, “what I would like to say is regulating the recreational uses for the nitrous oxide.”
On kratom, Frometa said she favored targeting synthetic and highly concentrated products while allowing traditional kratom products to remain available.
“My opinion would be targeted regulation, leaving for medical purposes, but really banning the synthetics and, for the concentration, establishing that 2% threshold,” Frometa said.
She also said purchasers should be at least 21.
Mayor Pro Tem Horacio Ortiz said the issue came to his attention after a resident brought him a box containing discarded nitrous oxide canisters found near a freeway.
“I agree with the mayor with everything you said, just regulate certain things on the nitrous oxide and the kratom 7-OH products, which are synthetic,” Ortiz said.
Councilmember Dorothy Pemberton said she has seen empty nitrous oxide tanks discarded in streets and people using the gas in parking lots.
“There’s no legitimate use for nitrous oxide” recreationally, Pemberton said. “It should be regulated for the legitimate uses, the medical reasons, but for recreational use, no, it should not be made available for anyone to purchase at any of the stores.”
On kratom, Pemberton said traditional products have helped some people manage pain without opioids, while manufactured products containing high concentrations of 7-OH should be restricted.
“We should regulate that one, but leave the synthetic and the natural alone for those people that are using it and getting relief in that respect,” Pemberton said.
Council members then clarified that the proposed ordinance would target synthetic and highly concentrated products rather than traditional kratom leaf.
Police Chief Scott Loughner said nitrous oxide has been the larger problem for Downey police.
“With regards to the kratom, we haven’t had too much dealings with that. It’s the nitrous that is a big problem,” Loughner said. “It’s definitely grown over the years. A lot of containers that we’re finding … and obviously, as you see, a lot of canisters where kids are abusing it recreationally.”
Loughner said the 26 arrests do not necessarily reflect the extent of nitrous oxide use because police encounters generally involve activity occurring in public.
“Just because we made 26 arrests, that doesn’t mean it’s not being run around,” Loughner said. “That’s stuff that we see in public.”
Councilmember Hector Sosa asked whether existing state and county regulations were sufficient. Huitron said a city ordinance would give Downey additional enforcement “teeth,” particularly while proposed state legislation addressing both products remains unresolved.
Ortiz briefly proposed a substitute motion calling for a complete prohibition on nitrous oxide sales, arguing that a customer could simply claim a legitimate purpose when purchasing the gas.
Frometa and Huitron said the ordinance instead should contain tightly written exemptions allowing hospitals, dentists, veterinarians and industrial businesses to continue obtaining nitrous oxide.
City Attorney John Funk said other cities that have restricted nitrous oxide have not enacted complete bans.
“None of them have imposed blanket bans,” Funk said. “They’ve all had carve-outs, if you will, or exceptions that have been very precisely defined.”
Frometa noted that Downey has three major hospitals, numerous medical offices and industrial businesses that could have legitimate uses for nitrous oxide. Ortiz subsequently seconded the original motion.
Under the council’s direction, staff will draft a nitrous oxide ordinance aimed at restricting recreational retail sales, including large canisters, flavored products and devices intended for inhalation, while preserving exemptions for legitimate medical, dental, veterinary, pharmacy, food-service, automotive, manufacturing, industrial and wholesale uses.
Staff will also prepare a targeted kratom ordinance rather than a ban on traditional kratom leaf. The proposal is expected to prohibit synthetic 7-OH products and products exceeding a concentration threshold, with Frometa suggesting a 2% limit modeled after regulations adopted elsewhere.
The ordinances could return to the City Council around April 2027.
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