{"id":985111,"date":"2026-08-06T18:53:23","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T18:53:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/985111\/"},"modified":"2026-08-06T18:53:23","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T18:53:23","slug":"san-diego-targets-owner-of-11-smoke-shops-for-selling-kratom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/985111\/","title":{"rendered":"San Diego targets owner of 11 smoke shops for selling kratom"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Image from San Diego City Attorney\u2019s civil enforcement action<\/p>\n

The San Diego City Attorney\u2019s Office has filed a civil lawsuit against the owner of 11 smoke shops, alleging he illegally sold kratom, a psychoactive substance linked to hundreds of deaths nationwide, and dozens here in San Diego.<\/p>\n

In a newly filed enforcement action, obtained by Times of San Diego, City Attorney Heather Ferbert\u2019s Office hopes to stop kratom sales at the 11 smoke shops owned by a businessman named Wadeea Wadeea. <\/p>\n

In recent years, kratom\u2019s popularity has grown in San Diego and beyond. Kratom products are marketed as being derived from leaves of the kratom tree, a plant native to Southeast Asia. Some products have opioid-like effects, according to health officials.<\/p>\n

More and more smoke shops and even some convenience stores are selling kratom extracts, which are often marketed as organic and holistic products. That, say attorneys from the City Attorney\u2019s Office, has led to medical emergencies and, on many occasions, has even resulted in fatal overdoses.<\/p>\n

From 2015 to 2025, the Centers for Disease Control have recorded at least 233 kratom-associated deaths in the U.S. \u2014 more than 10% of those deaths occurred in San Diego County in the past five years alone.<\/p>\n

The rising number of deaths and other medical emergencies has led cities throughout the state to outlaw kratom and crack down on stores that sell it.<\/p>\n

According to the newly filed court injunction, City Attorney Herbert\u2019s Office says Wadeea Wadeea is one of the city\u2019s largest sellers at his stores in Imperial Beach, Normal Heights, Ocean Beach, North Park, Mira Mesa and South San Diego. <\/p>\n

The injunction is not the first legal action Ferbert\u2019s office has taken against Wadeea. In December 2025, Ferbert\u2019s Office filed a civil enforcement action against the smoke shop owner for selling unlicensed cannabis products.<\/p>\n

In that investigation, investigators for the City Attorney\u2019s Office discovered workers at Wadeea\u2019s Mira Mesa Smoke and Vape were selling cannabis products from a \u201cconcealed back room.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, Wadeea will be in court against the city for alegedly selling kratom as well. In the newly filed case, the city is asking a judge to prohibit Wadeea\u2019s smoke shops from selling kratom. The city is also asking the smoke shop owner to pay a multitude of fines.<\/p>\n

Times of San Diego contacted Mr. Wadeea\u2019s attorney for comment. This article will be updated with any response.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Image from San Diego City Attorney\u2019s civil enforcement action The San Diego City Attorney\u2019s Office has filed a…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":985112,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,66944,3549,7264,244966,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-985111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-america","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-kratom","tag-san-diego","tag-sandiego","tag-smoke-shops","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117050081969774950","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/985111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=985111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/985111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/985112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=985111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=985111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=985111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}