A Jacksonville shop was selling kratom with a controlled substance above the legal limit — and had no valid food permit.

JACKSONVILLE, FL. Back in February 2026, state inspectors walked into Cheers Craft Beer and Wine, a convenience store on the city's north side, and found kratom products on the shelf with 7-Hydroxymitragynine concentrations above the legal limit, a compound classified as a controlled substance under Florida law.

The inspector issued a stop sale order on the spot. The kratom was voluntarily discarded. But that was only the beginning of what the February 10 inspection would uncover.

What Inspectors Found

The store was operating without a valid food permit, a violation the inspector flagged as a repeat, meaning it had been documented before. The establishment had not come into compliance between inspections.

The kratom problems extended beyond the controlled substance finding. Products on the shelf were not labeled with the concentration of 7-Hydroxymitragynine as required under a Florida emergency rule. They were missing the name and location of the manufacturer, the net quantity of package contents, and a nutrition or supplement facts panel. No age restriction sign was posted for kratom sales, though staff put one up during the inspection.

The hemp extract violations were just as extensive. Inspectors found hemp products missing a scannable barcode or QR code linked to a certificate of analysis, missing expiration dates, missing batch numbers, missing serving sizes, and missing the name and address of the processor or distributor. Some products were already past their expiration date. Others were packaged in ways that were not child-resistant. Several products contained color additives, and some packaging was designed in the shape of cartoons, humans, or animals, all violations of Florida's hemp product rules.

Every one of those hemp products was voluntarily discarded. Stop sale orders were issued and released across the board.

The violations continued: no handwashing soap or paper towels at the stockroom sink. No sanitizer test kit on hand. No written procedures for cleaning up vomiting or diarrheal events. No covered receptacle in the restroom. A damaged ceiling tile near the front door. Dumpster lids left open outside.

The stockroom sink also lacked a handwash reminder sign, though staff posted one during the visit. Labels were applied to on-site bagged ice during the inspection as well. Soap and paper towels were provided at the stockroom sink before the inspector left.

None of the 22 violations were corrected on site in the formal sense. The data shows zero corrected-on-site resolutions recorded for this inspection.

The Stop Sale Orders in Detail

The volume of stop sale orders issued during this single visit was extraordinary. Inspectors issued individual orders across three distinct legal categories: labeling violations under Florida food law, container requirement violations, and controlled substance violations tied to the kratom products' 7-Hydroxymitragynine content.

The controlled substance stop sale orders cited Florida statutes 893.03(1)(a) and 893.035, the Department of Legal Affairs Emergency Rule 2ER25-2, and Florida food safety statutes 500.04 and 500.10. Seven separate stop sale orders were issued on that basis alone.

The labeling and container orders covered dozens of individual hemp and kratom products. The inspector noted that a supplemental report was also issued during the visit with additional information for management.

What These Violations Mean

The kratom finding carries the most serious legal weight of anything documented in this inspection. 7-Hydroxymitragynine is a potent opioid-receptor-active compound found in kratom. Florida's emergency rule set a concentration ceiling for products sold at retail. When a product exceeds that ceiling, it crosses into controlled substance territory under state law. A customer buying that product off the shelf at Cheers had no way of knowing the concentration was above the legal limit, because the products were also not labeled with their 7-OH content as required.

The hemp labeling violations compound the same problem from a different angle. When a hemp extract product lacks a scannable code linked to a certificate of analysis, a buyer cannot verify what is actually in it. When it has no expiration date, no batch number, and no processor address, there is no chain of accountability if someone is harmed. The labeling rules for hemp products exist precisely because the products are ingested and their contents matter.

Child-resistant packaging requirements and the prohibition on cartoon or animal-shaped packaging are consumer protection rules aimed at keeping these products away from children. Finding products at retail that fail both standards in the same store, at the same time, is not a paperwork problem. It is a stocking decision that put non-compliant products within reach of any customer who walked in.

Operating without a valid food permit means the state had no current authorization on file for the establishment to sell food products at all.

The Longer Record

Both the missing food permit and the kratom controlled substance violation were flagged as repeat findings, meaning inspectors had documented the same problems at Cheers Craft Beer and Wine before February 10. The store had not resolved either issue between visits.

That pattern matters. A first-time permit lapse can reflect an administrative delay. A repeat permit lapse, documented again during an inspection that also turned up illegal kratom concentrations and more than 100 stop sale orders, reflects something different. The same kratom products that exceeded the legal 7-OH limit were still on the shelf.

The inspection was classified as an "Operating Without a Valid Food Permit" visit, which means the February 10 visit was itself triggered by the prior record. The store met sanitation standards during that visit, but the kratom stop sale order for a controlled substance remained on the books as of the inspection date.