On Tuesday, February 3rd, the city council in Tupelo, Mississippi voted unanimously to ban the possession and sale of kratom. The push to ban kratom in Tupelo began in January 2026 with a petition organized by two local citizens. The movement was supported by an alliance between Lee County Coroner Carolyn Green and Jamie Concaid, …
A new year brings a new legislative season. Thousands of kratom consumers around the country are being threatened with criminalization in the form of state bans, as we wait for the federal government to move forward with criminalizing all consumers of 7-hydroxymitragynine (7-OH) via a national law that would make 7-OH a Schedule I controlled …
Kratom Under Attack: New 2026 Bills Aim to Criminalize Consumers Across the U.S. Read More »
On Tuesday, January 6, the Ohio Board of Pharmacy (BOP) announced it was taking steps to ban all kratom in the state of Ohio. In August, the BOP proposed an emergency ban placing both mitragynine and 7-hydroxymitragynine (7-OH) on the list of Schedule I controlled substances. The ban was halted after a call from Department …
Comment Period Open Until Jan 28 on Proposed Ohio Kratom Ban Read More »
New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed Assembly Bill 5852 into law on December 19, 2025. This is the first law that specifically prevents a kratom vendor from using the term “all natural” on the label. The new law states, “No kratom product shall be advertised as nor shall the packaging of such kratom product suggest, …
Unique New York Law Prohibits “All Natural” on Kratom Product Packaging Read More »
On December 18, 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing the federal government to reschedule cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). This does not legalize cannabis for recreational use, but places it in the same category as anabolic steroids, Tylenol with codeine, buprenorphine, and ketamine. States …
What Trump’s Executive Order and Schedule III Means for Cannabis Read More »
On June 2, 2025, a last-minute amendment to ban kratom was slipped into a Connecticut hemp regulation bill that had originally been introduced on February 2. By June 4, the bill was sitting on Governor Ned Lamont’s desk. Lamont signed the bill into law three weeks later. The next step was to determine which schedule …
Connecticut Moves Forward with Kratom Ban Despite Majority Public Opposition Read More »
On Thursday, December 11, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine issued a statement that he had updated a previous request to the Ohio Board of Pharmacy (BOP), issued in August, to ban all kratom immediately under an emergency rule. The new request seemed to suggest that the BOP ban only “synthetic kratom” under the emergency rule and …
Did Ohio Just Ban Kratom? Hard to Tell From New Emergency Rule Read More »
Two men allegedly selling kratom as a supplement through the mail were arrested by police in Kyiv, Ukraine and charged with illegal sale of a controlled substance. The narcotics unit of the Kyiv police discovered the kratom after tracing it back to the residence where two men sold it by mail through a Telegram account. …
Ukraine’s Wartime Crackdown on Kratom Continues With New Kyiv Arrests Read More »
A recent bill introduced in the Pennsylvania House would prohibit kratom from being sold to people under the age of 21, impose language requirements for labels, and require all kratom vendors to register with the PA Department of Health. The bipartisan House Bill 2058 was introduced on November 19 with 20 cosponsors (18 Democrat, 2 …
Pennsylvania Introduces Bipartisan Kratom Regulation Bill Read More »
Since the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) July 29 announcement recommending 7-hydroxymitragynine (7-OH) become a Schedule I controlled substance, many counties, cities, and towns have reacted by announcing possible bans on 7-OH, but also on plain leaf kratom, which the FDA said it is not targeting. Local municipalities have been enacting bans for years, most …
U.S. Municipalities Escalate Crackdowns on Kratom and 7-OH Read More »