A decade ago, kratom lawyers fought a surprisingly successful campaign against a recommended Prohibition of Drug Enforcement Administration which claimed that the unknown Southeast Asian plant posed an “imminent danger to public safety.”
They won the bilateral partners from Bernie Sanders to Rand Paul, and helped create a billion dollars industries out of kratom, which has pain relieving effects they said can help fight the opioid epidemic as a safer, natural alternative to pills.
Now, many of those pro-kratom activists are calling for a ban on products containing concentrations of one of kratom’s active ingredients: 7-hydroxymitragynine, or 7-OH, a more potent extract with opioid-like effects. And it’s causing a lot of friction between users, sellers, and advocates of both substances.
“This is a chemically manipulated opioid, which is now on the market,” claims Mac Haddow, senior associate for public policy at the American Kratom Society, a lobby group for the kratom industry. “They’re masquerading as kratom products.”
The rise of 7-OH in gummies, capsules and shots with trade names like Magic 7OH, 7 O’Heaven, and Pure OHMS in thousands of gas stations and corner stores in the past few years has caused growing consternation. Consumers of 7-OH have talked about its withdrawal symptoms, and there have been report of polydrug overdoses involving 7-OH and other substances. Some are now entering rehab to overcome their addiction, while others are quitting independently based on advice from Redditors.
The kratom community fears that the bad reputation of 7-OH could drag the entire kratom industry into the regulatory mire. But the 7-OH industry has rallied against a possible ban, claiming 7-OH is kratom, despite only being found in trace amounts in the leaves of the kratom plant, and that its benefits as a pain reliever outweigh its side effects.
The directive against 7-OH from the federal government has increased the tension between the two parties.
Last July, US Health and Human Services secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. described the 7-OH industry as “evil” in a press conference where FDA commissioner Marty Makary urged the DEA to classify the drug as a more restrictive Schedule I-class of banned substances. Speaking from the Oval Office on May 11, President Donald Trump publicly adopted “natural 7-OH,” in a confusing pronouncement that appeared to refer to kratom. On top of all that, it appears that RFK Jr. and Department of Homeland Security secretary Markwayne Mullin—who is also pushing to crack down on 7-OH—have strong ties to the kratom lobbyist (and convicted felon) behind the kratom drink company.
7-OH followers see that the substance and the resulting plant are inextricably linked. In April 2025 testimony to Colorado lawmakers discussion how to control kratom and 7-OH, Michele Ross, chief scientific advisor for the 7-OH advocacy group 7-HOPE Alliance, he wrote“To say 7-OH is not kratom is to say caffeine is not coffee or THC is not marijuana. It makes no sense.”
But unlike coffee, marijuana, and kratom—which have been used for centuries if not thousands of years—7-OH does not have a long history of human use. It has only been on the market for a few years.
Many products labeled with 7-OH contain obscure compounds with unknown biological effects in animals or humans, says Chris McCurdy, a senior kratom researcher and primary director of drug development at the University of Florida. “Therefore, these products, although represented as ‘clean’ are anything but.”
Meanwhile, several states, from California to Vermont, according to to report, to be already transferred ahead of the federal schedule and their 7-OH ban. Seven of those states have also banned kratom, though Rhode Island recently overthrown its ban.
