7-Hydroxymitragynine Legality: State-by-State Guide 2026

In July 2025, the FDA formally recommended that the DEA place 7-hydroxymitragynine on Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act. Kratom and its alkaloids remain unscheduled at the federal level, but that status is currently under active review. The short answer is that it depends on where you live and what type of product you're buying. However, not everyone supports regulation or a ban. CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — A new push aims to regulate a popular drug sold in smoke shops around Tennessee. All information presented here is not meant as a substitute for or alternative to information from health care practitioners.

Kratom – Uses, Side Effects, and More

In fact, the Association has consistently advocated for strict regulation and scheduling of chemically converted 7-OH opioids that are marketed as kratom despite possessing pharmacological characteristics far removed from natural leaf material. That is fundamentally inconsistent with the narrative that natural kratom leaf is itself a significant public health threat.” They are highly concentrated opioids manufactured through chemical conversion processes that fundamentally alter the natural composition of kratom.” For example, Tennessee has explicitly banned synthetic alkaloids while permitting natural plant products. According to agency statements, natural kratom leaf products are not the focus of this action. New York state assembly member Phil Steck co-sponsored bipartisan legislation that passed this month – which the governor must still approve – would ban 7-OH but not so-called natural kratom products.

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That happens when the liver processes and converts mitragynine, another kratom alkaloid, into even more 7-OH. Trump’s remark about “natural 7-OH” soon became a Rorschach test for rival advocacy groups in the kratom industry. The HOPE Act wants to test “ibogaine as a medication to treat opioid use disorder, co-occurring substance use disorder, and other neurological or mental health conditions for which ibogaine demonstrates efficacy.” When lawmakers banned kratom in Tennessee earlier this year, it became the eighth state to do so.

AKA works to give a voice to millions of Americans by fighting to protect their rights to access safe and natural kratom. American Kratom Association (AKA) is a consumer-based, nonprofit organization, focused on furthering the latest science as guidance for kratom public policy. The AKA strongly supports federal and state actions targeting chemically manipulated 7-OH products.

• At least eight states have banned the plant-derived product as more people use it and some claim it’s addictive
• That’s because kratom’s active ingredients — mitragynine and 7-hydroxymitragynine (7-OH) — bind to the same brain receptors as morphine and alcohol, triggering a rush of dopamine, the body’s “feel good hormone.”
• In May, Colorado’s governor signed the Daniel Bregger Act into law, named after a young man who died from a toxic combination of a highly-concentrated product of the active psychoactive ingredient found in kratom and a common allergy drug.
• Common side effects include appetite loss, erectile dysfunction, nausea and constipation.

• “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.
• I am a mother of 4 and have anxiety, depression, acute back pain, and I am an opioid addict.
• “Similar to a sedative at higher doses, it also provides pain relief and euphoria.”
• “I think people are buying these drinks like Feel Free thinking they’re healthy alternatives to alcohol,” Dr. Poorman added.
• What happens is there’s not enough 7-OH in the leaf to economically purify it away from everything else.

It made my gut sick,” said Loring’s mom, Jennifer Young, after discovering 20 packs of kratom near Loring’s room. Warnings about the addictive nature of kratom have gone viral on social media platforms such as TikTok amid the spread of drinks like Feel Free, a tonic with kratom in it. Between 2011 and 2017, national poison control centers fielded 1,807 calls about kratom exposures, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For now, kratom is technically legal, though some states are launching their own crackdown.

“Despite our warnings that no kratom product is safe, we continue to find companies selling kratom and doing so with deceptive medical claims for which there’s no reliable scientific proof,” said FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb in 2018. The Food and Drug Administration tested 30 different kratom products in 2019 and found "significant levels" of lead and nickel in them, which researchers said could cause heavy metal poisoning if consumed over the long term. At higher doses, kratom can produce an opioid-like and euphoric state that has led to a steady growth of abuse worldwide, according to the federal Drug Enforcement Administration. It wasn't until January 2024, after Kevin Oliveira had already been using the product for a year, that Botanic Tonics updated its back label to say kratom "can become habit-forming and harmful to your health if consumed irresponsibly."

The substance’s effect on an individual is highly variable, depending on the dose, concentration, method of ingestion, and the user’s personal medical and drug-taking history. Kratom advocates say the negative press and push to criminalize kratom are fueled more by corporate greed than actual health concerns. Stories of relatives coming home to find a loved one dead, a cocktail of kratom and orange juice in their hand, darken the all-natural image suppliers have concocted over the years. Medical examiners pointed to a lethal dose of mitragynine, the chemical compound known as kratom, as his cause of death.

Emily Beutler says she became addicted to kratom in 2022 after trying a tea with it at a kava bar in Arizona. "These are not drug people that I talk to for the vast majority of them," he says. At first, he says, he used kratom like an energy drink. "And so, the argument can be made that they're not opioids, because they don't have a specific shape like opioids. And that's despite the fact that they work in a very similar way." "The shapes of these molecules from kratom are very different than the shapes of things like morphine or fentanyl," Fenno says. "We've been advocating for exactly this type of regulatory approach − one that protects consumers from synthetic derivatives while preserving access to traditional botanical ingredients with centuries of safe use," Korehbandi said.

The AKA remains committed to advancing science-based regulation, protecting consumers from dangerous synthetic and chemically manipulated 7-OH opioid products, and preserving access to properly manufactured natural kratom leaf products that meet established safety and quality standards. 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. Current federal and state actions specifically target concentrated 7-OH products, not natural kratom leaf.

They are chemically altered substances that carry potent opioid-like effects and pose an imminent threat to consumers,” Mac Haddow, senior fellow on public policy at AKA, said in a statement. “We are targeting a concentrated synthetic byproduct that is an opioid.” Some of these souped-up products contain 109% to 509% more 7-OH than what’s naturally in the plant. “These people find it difficult to control their use of kratom and experience opioid-like withdrawal symptoms when they stop.” “In the past two years, I have noticed an increased number of people coming to my clinic for the treatment of kratom addiction,” Volpicelli said. Its popularity has soared in the US in recent years, with many turning to it as a so-called natural fix for pain, anxiety, depression and even to kick huntington blogs opioid addiction.