Thailand has announced funding for 33 new research and development projects for kratom. The National Herbal Medicines Policy Committee has listed the traditional plant as a “herb of the year” for 2025.
Along with phlai and black ginger, special consideration will be given to promote kratom for export and for use in wellness centers and in sports. According to the Bangkok Post:
The policy committee also approved a plan to promote herbs internationally to a sector that generated $137 billion in 2023, said [Public Health Minister Somsak Thepsutin], adding that Thailand generated at least $78 billion (58 billion baht) during the same period.
Kratom has been used in Thailand for centuries, especially in the south, as a traditional remedy. But in 1943, the Thai government passed the Kratom Act, which made planting new kratom trees illegal and required the destruction of existing ones. This move was largely economic: kratom was cutting into opium tax revenues.
In 1979, kratom was classified as a Schedule 5 narcotic under the Narcotics Act B.E. 2522, placing it in the same category as cannabis at the time. Possession, sale, and use were criminal offenses, despite its continued use in rural communities.
There were multiple attempts to reform kratom laws in 2004, 2009, and 2013, but none succeeded until 2018, when Thailand passed legislation allowing limited use under strict regulation.
In August 2021, kratom was officially removed from the narcotics list, decriminalizing its cultivation, possession, and use. This marked a major policy shift, aligning with broader regional trends toward recognizing traditional remedies and reducing punitive drug laws.
In a 2021 interview, policy expert Pascal Tanguay, who lives in Thailand, explained the history of Thai kratom policy to Kratom Science:
[In 2003] the prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra declared a bloody war on drugs that led to the extrajudicial killing of over 2,000 people suspected of being involved in the drug trade, which were mostly petty users and small time dealers that were extra-judicially assassinated by police forces across the country. At that point, then the police restarted focusing arrests on kratom, and the number of arrests increased gradually and radically over the next 15 years. Throughout that period, so since the early 2000s up until recently there were several attempts to decriminalize kratom because many communities in Thailand are indeed using kratom, and they’ve been using kratom since the earliest, that I was able to find, was officially in 1650s that people have been using kratom without much problems for traditional purposes and for medicinal purposes.
The different proposals went in different directions proposing to now alleviate some of the laws = decriminalize, legalize, promote for market for export, for local use, for medicinal use, and none of that really worked up until recently, as you pointed out, it’s just in the past few months that kratom has been decriminalized in Thailand. So it’s not entirely legal but it has been decriminalized to the point where we have a big superstore, grocery store chain here called Big C, and now kratom is available at Big C in the produce section.
Since 2021, the Thai government placed a considerable amount of funding into kratom research and crafted policy to help promote a Thai kratom export industry.
In 2021, immediately following decriminalization, the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation began funding studies on kratom’s alkaloid content, cultivation conditions, and pharmacological properties. One such study, conducted by Kasetsart University, was supported by both this ministry and the Thailand Science Research and Innovation agency
By 2022, the Kratom Plant Act B.E. 2565 was enacted to regulate and promote kratom’s economic potential. This law explicitly supports research, trade, and product development, signaling a policy shift toward long-term investment in kratom science.
In 2023, the first World Kratom Conference was held in Phuket, hosted by Prince of Songkhla University. The event was backed by government agencies and highlighted Thailand’s ambition to become a global leader in kratom R&D.
In 2024 and 2025, the Thai FDA increased the allowable mitragynine dosage in herbal products based on research from Mahidol and Naresuan Universities, both of which received government support. The FDA also issued detailed product guidelines, indicating continued funding for regulatory science and safety assessments.