For now, it depends on where you live. Several cities (including Denver, where even cannabis is legal) and six states (Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Tennessee, Vermont, and Wisconsin) have either seriously restricted the use of kratom or banned it outright. Anyone caught selling or using the substance in those states could face arrest or fines and other penalties. Florida and New York are considering legislation that would do the same.
In the remaining states and at the federal level, kratom is in legal limbo. In 2016, the DEA announced plans to list the plant as a Schedule I substance, a designation that would ban it for consumers, and would severely restrict access for scientists who want to study its potential risks and benefits. (Other Schedule I drugs include heroin, LSD, cannabis, and ecstasy.)
The agency made the unprecedented move of reversing its decision following a public outcry from both consumers and medical experts who argue that the plant should be regulated and studied, not banned. But that reversal was not permanent. The DEA is currently reviewing data submitted by the FDA (including today’s report), along with thousands of public comments on the issue.
A DEA spokeswoman says that it could be several months to a couple of years before a final decision is made about if or how kratom should be classified. But she declined to say what specific impact the current study would have on those deliberations.
In the meantime, the drug's defenders say that banning kratom could potentially drive millions of kratom users to prescription opioids (or worse) to treat their pain or manage their addictions. What’s more, they say, criminalization would make it very difficult for scientists to study the plant (when cannabis was classified as an illegal substance, research on its therapeutic properties all but ground to a halt).
“If you’re concerned about safety, regulate it,” says Candland of the American Kratom Association. “Keep it behind the counter, make it illegal for minors, establish strict labeling requirements. Don’t criminalize it.”
But regulators have insisted that precautionary measures are the best way to protect consumers. The FDA began banning kratom imports in 2012 (long before today’s findings were known) and has since seized several shipments of the substance from international-mail facilities across the country.
“We’ve learned a tragic lesson from the opioid crisis,” Gottlieb says. “We must pay early attention to the potential for new products to cause addiction and we must take strong decisive measures to intervene.”
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