States Are Divided On Regulating Kratom

In the United States over the last decade, kratom has gone from obscure to ubiquitous, with signage touting its availability appearing on storefronts and billboards all over the country. It’s even picked up some steam in a more high-end form — even as the FDA has explored ways to regulate 7-OH, a substance derived from the kratom leaf.

It’s worth noting from the outset here that kratom can mean very different things. There are different varieties of the plant, for one thing; kratom can also be ground, brewed or smoked — and processed into substances like 7-OH. These varieties can have wildly different effects. Earlier this year, the F.D.A.’s warning specifically singled out 7-OH as being dangerous.

“7-OH is an opioid that can be more potent than morphine,” the F.D.A.’s commissioner, Marty Makary, said in a ststement. “We need regulation and public education to prevent another wave of the opioid epidemic.”

That has led several state governments to explore banning or regulating 7-OH. Writing at NJ.com, Jackie Roman noted that New Jersey’s state government has been considering a law that would ban the sale of anything containing kratom. This measure, known as “CJ’s Law,” passed a state Assembly committee last year, but has not moved forward since then. As Roman pointed out, six other states have passed similar measures prohibiting the manufacture or sale of kratom.

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What those measures look like vary from state to state, however. As Amanda Hernández pointed out in an August article for Statesline, half of the states in the country regulate kratom in some way, and seven states have taken steps this year to regulate its consumption, ranging from adding age restrictions on who can purchase it to — as Louisiana did — banning it. There’s been movement in the other direction as well: Rhode Island recently opted to move away from a ban and towards a regulated market. What that means for the future of kratom in the United States at large remains to be seen.

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Tobias Carroll

Tobias Carroll lives and writes in New York City, and has been covering a wide variety of subjects — including (but not limited to) books, soccer and drinks — for many years. His writing has been published by the likes of the Los Angeles Times, Pitchfork, Literary Hub, Vulture, Punch, the New York Times and Men’s Journal. At InsideHook, he has…