OCALA, FL (352Today.com) – Ocala Mayor Ben Marciano told the city council on Tuesday that police have made 10 arrests after underage buyers were sold products at smoke shops and gas stations. He added that a kratom ordinance and a public-education push are coming.

Marciano made the comments at the close of the October 6, 2026, city council meeting.

“I’m sure most of you have seen in the last week there were two deaths at Ole Miss from kratom overdoses,” Marciano said. “It’s becoming more prevalent, and I think you’re going to start to see more of a focus at the state and federal level.”

The Associated Press reported that Aidan Hamilton, a freshman from Englewood, Colorado, and Robert Strang, a junior from Atlanta, were found Sept. 21 in different places, one on campus and one off campus. A drug task force had urged people to avoid kratom after authorities found packages of kratom derivatives during the death investigations.

Marciano said that in the last two weeks the city sent underage buyers into smoke shops and gas stations. “We had 10 smoke shop gas stations sell to underage. So we made 10 arrests on that. There’ll be more to come,” he said. He said the city is working with the attorney general on steps expected in the next couple of weeks, and that it will start an education series with the Marion County Children’s Alliance on the harmful effects on youth and adults.

He also said the local ordinance is not finished. “Will’s working on this ordinance that hopefully we will be able to bring forward in the next couple weeks,” he said.

That is City Attorney William Sexton. On July 21, the council directed him to draft a kratom sales ban with Marion County after residents blamed the products for a death and an overdose. Marciano said then that Ocala police had seen people dead with packages of kratom next to them, and that the city should not wait on the state. No vote was taken at that time. Sexton said the county had already shared a draft, and that enforcement could run through code enforcement, including pulling a certificate of occupancy, or through criminal charges.

The county did not ban the products. On Sept. 14, commissioners unanimously adopted zoning rules for unincorporated Marion County that keep new standalone smoke, vape, and kratom shops at least 1,500 feet from a school, licensed daycare, church, or public park, and 2,500 feet from another smoke shop. Grocery and convenience stores stay exempt if those products are incidental to the main business, and shops already open are grandfathered. The city had said it supported that approach. Tuesday’s underage-buy arrests are a separate enforcement step. The mayor did not name the businesses, say what was sold, or set a date for the city ordinance.