Kratom industry & regulatory news
The Kratom Council tracks the laws, agencies, and companies shaping kratom in the United States — sourced from public records and named outlets, with every affiliation disclosed.
Regulation · Top story
The federal comment docket on the 7-OH threshold closed September 10. The DEA order it was widely described as a last chance to stop has not issued, and was never waiting on it. What closing changes, what it does not, and what is actually pending.
Read the report →
Regulation
Three kratom bills sit in Pennsylvania committees and none has reached a floor vote, leaving the state with no statutory age limit on kratom sales. On September 2 the Bucks County District Attorney obtained a civil injunction that imposes one on a single smoke shop.
Regulation
City kratom ordinances began as sales rules. Starkville, Mississippi has now criminalized possession, and Bellingham, Washington votes Monday on an ordinance carrying up to a year in jail. What has changed in the municipal wave, and what has not.
Industry
A warning letter, a recall, unannounced inspections and a million-dollar federal seizure ran against this operation for fourteen months while production continued. Then one scheduling order took effect, and roughly ten million dollars of inventory was destroyed within days.
Regulation
Armstrong called a special session to ban kratom outright and did not get one. The House killed the total ban by a single vote, and the law he signed instead writes the DEA's proposed 7-OH threshold into state code at the same number and the same denominator, months before the federal order it comes from has published.
Regulation
Two lawsuits filed within a week, one against the DEA in federal court and one against Massachusetts public health officials in Suffolk Superior Court, now ask judges how far a measure aimed at concentrated compounds reaches into ordinary leaf. The plaintiffs, defendants and legal machinery differ entirely. The argument underneath is the same.
Regulation
Two interim committees of the Montana Legislature took up kratom within five days and moved in opposite directions. The Kratom Consumer Protection Act was tabled 8 to 1, in part by legislators who considered it too permissive, while a separate committee advanced a statewide ban draft on a 6 to 5 vote.
Regulation
While the trade watches one page of the Federal Register, three state attorneys general have already acted on 7-OH using three different legal tools, none of which required the federal order. Texas and Missouri are suing sellers under consumer-protection law. Florida scheduled the compound itself, by rule, and is defending how.
Industry
Federal agents were openly present at the industry's largest trade show in the same week a DEA scheduling order took effect. What this publication saw, what it was told, and what none of it establishes.
Industry
A legal botanical on the label, a laboratory compound doing the work, a fresh molecule ready for the day regulators catch the current one. From Spice and bath salts through the hemp pivot to the blister packs of 2026 - the twenty-year history of the loophole molecule.
Regulation
The August 26 order placed three compounds in Schedule I with no concentration threshold. 7-OH itself remains unscheduled while a separate proposal waits. A plain-language map of the line the law just drew.
Industry
In July roughly half the vendors at the industry's largest trade show were selling 7-OH. By August the category had nearly vanished from the exhibitor roster. What is moving into the shelf space, and why the next cycle answers to a different federal agency than the last four did.
Regulation
North Dakota banned kratom outright by executive order on August 3. A state working group has now advanced two separate bill drafts to a September 2 special session: one regulating natural leaf, the other banning synthetic derivatives.
Regulation
An emergency order from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health places kratom in all forms into Schedule I under state law, and gives local boards of health direct enforcement authority over retailers. It sets no concentration threshold.
Regulation
A DEA temporary scheduling order placing mitragynine pseudoindoxyl, MGM-15 and MGM-16 in Schedule I published on August 26 and took effect immediately, carrying no concentration threshold. The 7-OH threshold order itself still has not issued, and HHS has reopened its comment window through September 10.
Regulation
Four state enforcement actions, a federal warning-letter campaign and at least two wrongful-death suits have been filed over kratom-labeled products since mid-2025. Most of them turn on a single claim: that what was on the shelf was not what the label said.
Science
Forensic laboratories commonly test for mitragynine as the marker of kratom use, and the FDA has written that 7-OH cases may therefore be classified as mitragynine-related. That measurement gap sits underneath a large amount of public reporting.
Industry
A Texas family told Newsweek their son died after using a concentrated 7-hydroxymitragynine product he believed was kratom. Their account turns on the gap between what a customer asks for at a counter and what a shop hands back.
Science
A compound sold online as SR-17 is being marketed to people losing access to concentrated 7-OH products. It is not kratom and shares no structural relationship with the alkaloids in the leaf, and the DEA moved on July 1 to place it in Schedule I.
Science
An attempt to set out what the published record establishes about stopping concentrated 7-OH, what it does not, and where the gaps are. Nothing in it is medical advice, and it says so where the evidence runs out.
Regulation
The HHS comment docket on a proposed 7-hydroxymitragynine threshold closed July 31. The DEA's notice states the temporary scheduling order will not issue before August 5, with no announced publication date after that.
Regulation
Minnesota's purchase age for kratom rose from 18 to 21 on August 1 under a law that passed both chambers with wide margins, and a Washington city council landed on the same age limit days earlier.
Regulation
The DEA filed a notice of intent to temporarily schedule 7-OH above a specified concentration threshold, and HHS opened a public docket asking whether that number is set correctly. Comments closed July 31, 2026.
Regulation
A February consent judgment in Franklin County — signed by the Ohio Board of Pharmacy itself — declares the state's emergency mitragynine rule does not apply to natural kratom leaf, and two follow-on cases are now testing the permanent version of the rule.
Regulation
City councils in Ocala, Ephrata, and Moses Lake advanced kratom ordinances this month, most of them broader in scope than the concentration threshold the DEA has proposed at the federal level.
Regulation
Ohio Senator Bill Blessing has introduced Senate Bill 299, a proposal to set testing, labeling, and age-verification standards for kratom sales while prohibiting synthetic derivatives such as 7-OH.
Science
A commentary in PsychiatryOnline flags a synthetic, chemically modified kratom derivative appearing in vape shops, and underscores why clinicians and researchers treat it as distinct from natural leaf.
Regulation
Albuquerque's Environmental Health Department embargoed more than 5,400 kratom items from over 50 retailers, citing regulatory non-compliance and federal guidance.
Industry
A Case Western Reserve study found the number of Cleveland-area retailers selling synthetic kratom products has more than tripled since 2023, prompting calls for clearer oversight.
Industry
As Manatee County weighs restrictions on kratom, downtown Bradenton business owners say the botanical anchors their lounges and are urging regulation over an outright ban.
Regulation
The Blackfeet Tribal Business Council passed a resolution banning the sale, possession, and use of kratom on its reservation, an exercise of tribal sovereignty amid a national patchwork of laws.
Regulation
From New Jersey's proposed CJ's Law to Rhode Island's move toward regulated sales, state lawmakers are charting sharply different courses on kratom and its concentrated derivative 7-OH.
Regulation
Kratom-derived products remain widely available across San Diego County as federal and state regulators debate how to classify, monitor, and regulate them.
Science
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment and the FDA issued an advisory on concentrated and synthetic 7-hydroxymitragynine, stressing how it differs from the trace amounts in natural leaf.
Regulation
The federal comment docket on the 7-OH threshold closed September 10. The DEA order it was widely described as a last chance to stop has not issued, and was never waiting on it. What closing changes, what it does not, and what is actually pending.
Regulation
Three kratom bills sit in Pennsylvania committees and none has reached a floor vote, leaving the state with no statutory age limit on kratom sales. On September 2 the Bucks County District Attorney obtained a civil injunction that imposes one on a single smoke shop.
Regulation
City kratom ordinances began as sales rules. Starkville, Mississippi has now criminalized possession, and Bellingham, Washington votes Monday on an ordinance carrying up to a year in jail. What has changed in the municipal wave, and what has not.
Regulation
Armstrong called a special session to ban kratom outright and did not get one. The House killed the total ban by a single vote, and the law he signed instead writes the DEA's proposed 7-OH threshold into state code at the same number and the same denominator, months before the federal order it comes from has published.
Regulation
Two lawsuits filed within a week, one against the DEA in federal court and one against Massachusetts public health officials in Suffolk Superior Court, now ask judges how far a measure aimed at concentrated compounds reaches into ordinary leaf. The plaintiffs, defendants and legal machinery differ entirely. The argument underneath is the same.
Regulation
Two interim committees of the Montana Legislature took up kratom within five days and moved in opposite directions. The Kratom Consumer Protection Act was tabled 8 to 1, in part by legislators who considered it too permissive, while a separate committee advanced a statewide ban draft on a 6 to 5 vote.
Regulation
While the trade watches one page of the Federal Register, three state attorneys general have already acted on 7-OH using three different legal tools, none of which required the federal order. Texas and Missouri are suing sellers under consumer-protection law. Florida scheduled the compound itself, by rule, and is defending how.
Regulation
The August 26 order placed three compounds in Schedule I with no concentration threshold. 7-OH itself remains unscheduled while a separate proposal waits. A plain-language map of the line the law just drew.
Regulation
North Dakota banned kratom outright by executive order on August 3. A state working group has now advanced two separate bill drafts to a September 2 special session: one regulating natural leaf, the other banning synthetic derivatives.
Regulation
An emergency order from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health places kratom in all forms into Schedule I under state law, and gives local boards of health direct enforcement authority over retailers. It sets no concentration threshold.
Regulation
A DEA temporary scheduling order placing mitragynine pseudoindoxyl, MGM-15 and MGM-16 in Schedule I published on August 26 and took effect immediately, carrying no concentration threshold. The 7-OH threshold order itself still has not issued, and HHS has reopened its comment window through September 10.
Regulation
Four state enforcement actions, a federal warning-letter campaign and at least two wrongful-death suits have been filed over kratom-labeled products since mid-2025. Most of them turn on a single claim: that what was on the shelf was not what the label said.
Regulation
The HHS comment docket on a proposed 7-hydroxymitragynine threshold closed July 31. The DEA's notice states the temporary scheduling order will not issue before August 5, with no announced publication date after that.
Regulation
Minnesota's purchase age for kratom rose from 18 to 21 on August 1 under a law that passed both chambers with wide margins, and a Washington city council landed on the same age limit days earlier.
Regulation
The DEA filed a notice of intent to temporarily schedule 7-OH above a specified concentration threshold, and HHS opened a public docket asking whether that number is set correctly. Comments closed July 31, 2026.
Regulation
A February consent judgment in Franklin County — signed by the Ohio Board of Pharmacy itself — declares the state's emergency mitragynine rule does not apply to natural kratom leaf, and two follow-on cases are now testing the permanent version of the rule.
Regulation
City councils in Ocala, Ephrata, and Moses Lake advanced kratom ordinances this month, most of them broader in scope than the concentration threshold the DEA has proposed at the federal level.
Regulation
Ohio Senator Bill Blessing has introduced Senate Bill 299, a proposal to set testing, labeling, and age-verification standards for kratom sales while prohibiting synthetic derivatives such as 7-OH.
Regulation
Albuquerque's Environmental Health Department embargoed more than 5,400 kratom items from over 50 retailers, citing regulatory non-compliance and federal guidance.
Regulation
The Blackfeet Tribal Business Council passed a resolution banning the sale, possession, and use of kratom on its reservation, an exercise of tribal sovereignty amid a national patchwork of laws.
Regulation
From New Jersey's proposed CJ's Law to Rhode Island's move toward regulated sales, state lawmakers are charting sharply different courses on kratom and its concentrated derivative 7-OH.
Regulation
Kratom-derived products remain widely available across San Diego County as federal and state regulators debate how to classify, monitor, and regulate them.
Industry
A warning letter, a recall, unannounced inspections and a million-dollar federal seizure ran against this operation for fourteen months while production continued. Then one scheduling order took effect, and roughly ten million dollars of inventory was destroyed within days.
Industry
Federal agents were openly present at the industry's largest trade show in the same week a DEA scheduling order took effect. What this publication saw, what it was told, and what none of it establishes.
Industry
A legal botanical on the label, a laboratory compound doing the work, a fresh molecule ready for the day regulators catch the current one. From Spice and bath salts through the hemp pivot to the blister packs of 2026 - the twenty-year history of the loophole molecule.
Industry
In July roughly half the vendors at the industry's largest trade show were selling 7-OH. By August the category had nearly vanished from the exhibitor roster. What is moving into the shelf space, and why the next cycle answers to a different federal agency than the last four did.
Industry
A Texas family told Newsweek their son died after using a concentrated 7-hydroxymitragynine product he believed was kratom. Their account turns on the gap between what a customer asks for at a counter and what a shop hands back.
Industry
A Case Western Reserve study found the number of Cleveland-area retailers selling synthetic kratom products has more than tripled since 2023, prompting calls for clearer oversight.
Industry
As Manatee County weighs restrictions on kratom, downtown Bradenton business owners say the botanical anchors their lounges and are urging regulation over an outright ban.
Science
Forensic laboratories commonly test for mitragynine as the marker of kratom use, and the FDA has written that 7-OH cases may therefore be classified as mitragynine-related. That measurement gap sits underneath a large amount of public reporting.
Science
A compound sold online as SR-17 is being marketed to people losing access to concentrated 7-OH products. It is not kratom and shares no structural relationship with the alkaloids in the leaf, and the DEA moved on July 1 to place it in Schedule I.
Science
An attempt to set out what the published record establishes about stopping concentrated 7-OH, what it does not, and where the gaps are. Nothing in it is medical advice, and it says so where the evidence runs out.
Science
A commentary in PsychiatryOnline flags a synthetic, chemically modified kratom derivative appearing in vape shops, and underscores why clinicians and researchers treat it as distinct from natural leaf.
Science
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment and the FDA issued an advisory on concentrated and synthetic 7-hydroxymitragynine, stressing how it differs from the trace amounts in natural leaf.
Federal and state kratom policy, enforcement actions and court decisions — sent when we publish, and nothing else.
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