Kratom News June 2026: Critical FDA 7-OH Updates

Unlike opioids, kratom is not derived from the poppy plant, but recent research has raised concerns about the addictive properties in kratom extracts and synthetic versions of the plant. Alkaloids found in kratom bind to the same receptors in the brain as opioid drugs, such as codeine. That amount of kratom wouldn’t be considered excessive or unusual, said Mac Haddow, a senior fellow on public policy for the American Kratom Association, a consumer group that advocates for states to regulate kratom, not ban it. “We are targeting a concentrated synthetic byproduct that is an opioid.” “These people find it difficult to control their use of kratom and experience opioid-like withdrawal symptoms when they stop.”

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It was in a similar form that kratom first arrived in the U.S. in the early 2000s — as a powder made from the dried leaves that people could take with water, or brew into a tea. When addiction psychiatrist Corneliu Stanciu first started looking into kratom in 2013, it was, he said, “a very different landscape compared to now.” “Once they started concentrating it in these 7-OH products, it was really replicating a full opioid,” she said.

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“There should be product formulation limitations, there should be strict labeling requirements, and there should be age restrictions on the use of any kratom product.” “We fully support regulations on kratom,” said Mac Haddow, senior public policy fellow with the industry group, the American Kratom Association. Lawmakers on Beacon Hill are currently considering several bills that would ban or regulate kratom, including one drafted with the help of the American Kratom Association. But, she added, “For my patients that come to me and have been using illicit opioids and have switched to kratom, they are reducing their risk. “We’ll often see patients that come in who have been trying to get off of one substance — say methamphetamines or opioids — and have reverted to using kratom that they may have gotten from a nearby state,” she said.

Like the toy maker Mattel, these synthetic kratom manufacturers have hired powerful lobbyists and spokesmen to convince the government to ban all products, including natural leaf kratom. "We believe there is a meaningful difference between traditional natural leaf kratom products and highly concentrated or synthetic derivatives being introduced into the market without consistent standards or oversight." Then there is 7-OH, which is found naturally in the kratom leaf in trace amounts, but is chemically or synthetically concentrated to create a potent opioid product. The FDA itself has warned consumers about concentrated 7-OH products, and both HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and former FDA Commissioner Marty Makary have emphasized that federal enforcement efforts are focused on chemically manipulated 7-OH products rather than properly manufactured natural kratom leaf products. Failure to differentiate between chemically manipulated opioid products from traditional natural kratom leaf products endangers consumers and can create immense policy problems.

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• Tennessee’s ban under “Matthew Davenport’s Law” (HB 1649) takes effect July 1, 2026, prohibiting kratom statewide, including powder, capsules, and extracts.
• Other states have age restrictions (18 or 21 to purchase), and some have banned it entirely.
• Botanic Tonics disagrees and says when used as directed by healthy adults, Feel Free presents no significant or unreasonable risk.
• In the forms they’re sold as, however — which are partially, if not totally, synthetic — both are leagues more potent than what’s produced in the body as metabolites.
• The incident, however, highlights the ongoing demand for the drug, even as the FDA continues to warn about its potential dangers.
• Six states ban kratom outright, several others cap 7-OH concentrations at 2%, and the rest allow sales with varying degrees of regulation.

And now that industry has grown from nothing to over a nine billion dollar industry, more than even opioids that are selling on the street, which is at five billion a day, because they justify it. All felony drug cases in Arkansas require seized evidence to be sent to the state’s crime lab. Kratom leaf companies have tried to distinguish themselves as wholly different from 7-OH manufacturers, who disagree with such delineations. The same allure pushed it into gyms, weight rooms and combat sports, where athletes look for ways to increase endurance and ease painful injuries. “That right there is legal pain medicine,” Clarke said. At the time of his arrest in April, Clarke had a THC vape pen on him and a prescription for a painkiller often used for sports injuries, according to the dashcam audio.

Food and Drug Administration announced that it was recommending scheduling action for certain 7-OH products under the Controlled Substances Act. By the early 2000s, many in the U.S. began consuming the leaves for their 7-OH to combat their addiction to illicit opioids. Importantly, Kratom’s leaf is known as a safe substitute for individuals attempting to ameliorate opioid withdrawal. A similar trick is now being attempted in the kratom debate. In 2007, toy giant Mattel was caught selling products with dangerous levels of lead.

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Utilizing a non-evidence based strategy like kratom could place your life at risk,” she says. Weimer acknowledges that kratom is less potent and less immediately dangerous than illicitly manufactured fentanyl. In fact, kratom-related reports to U.S. poison control centers increased approximately 1,200%—from 258 to 3,434 cases—between 2015 and 2025, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), with a notable surge in 2025.

Almost every state in the nation introduced some form of legislation regarding the status of kratom in its respective jurisdictions. A previous blog examined the kratom legislation that states have already passed and implemented. Kratom leaves contain two compounds, mitragynine and 7-hydromitragynine (7-OH), that can have opioid-like effects in higher doses. It's an addiction that's truly killing people, because it leads them down a road that sometimes Q Kratom they'll never recover from. Listen to Mullin address the 7-OH crisis back in 2025, and how he trashed those who were selling products that were ruining lives. With the case now closed, the kratom will instead be destroyed.