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Blask built this as an informational site for havenaccess.org, an organization dedicated to protecting access to kratom and all of its alkaloids.
It is an opinion site built on public records. Every claim carries a label and a source, so you can check it yourself. Nothing here is medical or legal advice.
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History, updated Oct 8, 2026
Every event on the date it happened. Read it top to bottom and watch who shows up when.
Entries with no marker belong to neither camp. A marker describes the side an action helps. It is our reading, not an accusation.
Before 2014
A leaf people used to get off opium, a first ban written for tax money, an emergency power, and a molecule nobody had heard of.
6 entries
Botanists in British Malaya described people using kratom leaf in place of opium (Burkill and Haniff 1930; Burkill 1935).
Why it matters
The first thing anyone wrote down in English about this plant is that people used it to get off opium.
The Kratom Act of 1943 made Thailand the first country to outlaw the leaf. A 2026 peer-reviewed review of Thai policy says the main motive was economic.
“safeguarding state revenue from opium taxation rather than public health considerations”
Why it matters
The first ban anywhere protected a government's opium revenue. Thailand reversed it in 2021.
Congress gave DEA temporary scheduling power under 21 U.S.C. 811(h) in 1984. Its first use put MDMA in Schedule I in 1985. In 1987 the First Circuit threw out DEA's permanent Schedule I placement of MDMA and sent it back. DEA placed it again in 1988.
Why it matters
The power DEA used on kratom compounds in 2026 starts here. The first drug it touched had its placement thrown out by an appeals court.
Mac Haddow, formerly a senior official at the Department of Health and Human Services, was sentenced on two counts of conflict of interest. Decades later he is the American Kratom Association's lobbyist and public face, and he discloses the conviction himself on its federal lobbying filings.
“9/15/1987, U.S. District Court, 18 U.S.C. Section 208(a), conflict of interest (2 counts)”
Why it matters
It is public, and he put it there. Judge the group's arguments on the record, and know who is making them.
Ponglux and colleagues reported 7-OH as a minor alkaloid in kratom leaf. In the leaf it is a trace compound. Leaf users mostly get their 7-OH when the body converts mitragynine.
Why it matters
Thirty years later the same molecule, concentrated and sold on its own, is what every bill is written around.
A 2025 review describes the US market from about 2004 to 2023 as dried leaf powders, capsules and hydroalcoholic extracts, and notes the absence of isolated 7-OH products before 2024.
Why it matters
Concentrated 7-OH tablets are a new product. The molecule is not: it was in the leaf on these shelves all along, at low levels.
2014 to 2016
FDA closes the border. DEA tries an emergency ban. Forty-three days later it backs down.
7 entries
Susan Ash, Paul Kemp and Sebastian Guthery started the AKA to protect legal access and fight bans.
Import Alert 54-15 lets FDA detain kratom shipments without examining them, on the grounds that kratom is a new dietary ingredient without enough information to show it is safe. FDA last revised the alert on Aug 17, 2026. It has never been withdrawn.
Why it matters
The federal fight started at the ports, two years before DEA moved.
A large distributor recommended Mac Haddow. Ash told Courthouse News she hired him for his line to Senator Orrin Hatch.
CDC published its guideline for prescribing opioids for chronic pain. Doctors and insurers across the country began tapering and cutting off long-term patients.
Why it matters
People cut off from prescriptions went looking for something else. A 2020 survey found many of them in kratom.
Notice of intent
DEA announced on Aug 30 and published on Aug 31 a notice of intent to temporarily place mitragynine and 7-OH in Schedule I. The notice cited port seizures, two FDA import alerts, about 30 deaths, and 720 seizure reports from 43 states.
Why it matters
That is the record DEA called an emergency in 2016. The 2026 notice counts 42 seizure reports in 12 states.
A letter from 51 House members, 22 of them Republicans, led by Reps. Mark Pocan and Matt Salmon, asked DEA to delay and open a comment period. Senators wrote too. Veterans, pain patients and consumers flooded the agency.
Why it matters
Matt Salmon later became the AKA's chairman.
Withdrawn
DEA withdrew its notice of intent (signed Oct 6, published Oct 13) and opened a public comment period through Dec 1. More than 23,000 comments came in.
Why it matters
The only federal emergency move on this plant was stopped before it took effect. Then people filled the record.
2017 to 2020
The trade group changes hands, the word opioid gets attached to a plant, and a drug company starts working on kratom chemistry.
11 entries
About a year after Haddow arrived, the AKA board removed Ash. Haddow became its senior fellow for public policy and its public face.
“From all appearances the AKA is Mac Haddow.”
Adding the AKA's lobbying disclosures for Haddow's firm from 2017 through 2020, amendments applied, gives $708,000. Courthouse News reported $776,000 for the same work. That is its figure, not ours.
Why it matters
The money that defends the leaf in Washington runs through one man's firm.
Former Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy, a co-founder of SAM and later of FDPS, was appointed to the board of Braeburn. Braeburn markets Brixadi, an injectable buprenorphine treatment for opioid use disorder.
Why it matters
A board seat at a company selling addiction treatment, held by a co-founder of the groups that want kratom banned. That tie is documented. No record shows a payment from Braeburn to the campaign. SAM says it takes no pharmaceutical money.
University of Florida pharmacologist Christopher McCurdy was among scientists who urged DEA not to schedule kratom. He became the expert both sides cite.
FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said an FDA computer model predicted that kratom compounds act on the body's opioid receptors. The agency cited 44 deaths where kratom was found. Its word was associated, not caused.
Why it matters
The word opioid attached to the plant here, from a model's prediction, not a study in people. Every headline since has leaned on it.
Rescinded
Assistant Secretary for Health Brett Giroir wrote DEA reversing HHS's earlier recommendation. Kratom's compounds should "not be controlled at this time, either temporarily or permanently," he wrote, citing "the relative lack of evidence."
Why it matters
The health department DEA needs on board said the evidence was not there, and DEA did not schedule the plant.
The city outlawed kratom.
FDA required label changes after reports of serious withdrawal, uncontrolled pain, psychological distress and suicide in patients whose opioids were stopped suddenly.
Why it matters
The agency put the harm of cutoffs on the label three years after the guideline that set them off.
In a survey of 2,798 kratom users, 41% (1,144 people) said they had used kratom to stop or reduce opioid use. Of those, 35% reported going more than a year without opioids. Self-reported, from an online sample.
Why it matters
These are the people a ban lands on first.
Columbia licensed mitragynine analogs, including a version with hydrogen swapped for deuterium, to Kures, a startup developing a drug called KUR-101.
atai Life Sciences acquired a majority interest in Kures to develop KUR-101 for opioid use disorder.
2021 to 2023
Thailand legalizes. A Mississippi county criminalizes. Federal agents seize a kratom drink, and its founder writes his first political check.
6 entries
At the sheriff's request, the county outlawed kratom in any form, including having it.
Why it matters
Remember this county. It comes back in September 2026.
Thailand removed kratom from its narcotics list. A regulatory law followed in 2022.
Why it matters
The country that invented kratom prohibition walked away from it the same year an American county criminalized having it.
The 2022 guideline warns against abrupt tapering and lists the risks of stopping opioids, including overdose and suicidal ideation and behavior. The same year, a CDC and NIDA funded study of 199,836 patients found overdose or suicide events rose about 15% after tapering (Larochelle). Another found fast dose cuts nearly doubled overdose risk in years two to four (DiPrete).
Why it matters
A 2026 Australian study found the opposite, and its authors point to Australia having no fentanyl supply. The US has one. Being cut off here means the street.
atai reported that KUR-101's Phase 1 breathing result was inconclusive because the oxycodone comparison did not separate from placebo. No Phase 2 has followed.
Under a court warrant, agents seized Feel Free, Botanic Tonics' kratom and kava drink, from a warehouse near Tulsa. FDA reported the seizure Apr 28 and valued it at about $3 million. DOJ filed a civil forfeiture case against the bottles.
Two payments of $3,300 to Team Kennedy, $6,600 in all, are the first contributions under his name on the FEC record.
Why it matters
This starts the first of three separate money trails on this page. We never add them together.
2024
Concentrated 7-OH reaches the shelf, and the people selling kratom start fighting over who gets to keep selling.
12 entries
UNODC: "Since 2024, novel kratom-related products have emerged." A Yale, Ohio State, Florida and Johns Hopkins team found 304 7-OH or MGPI products marketed online from Sep 2024 to Feb 2025, 82.2% of them 7-OH only.
Why it matters
A new way to sell a kratom alkaloid, apart from the leaf. Everything after this is a fight over who gets to sell what.
Botanic Tonics' new label, per ounce: ground kratom leaf with 34 mg total alkaloids, 20 mg mitragynine and under 0.05 mg 7-OH, plus kava root extract.
Why it matters
The drink is leaf plus kava, with 7-OH on its own label. Keep that in mind when its founder's network starts attacking 7-OH products.
Journalist Scott Carney reported that Ross is Jerry Cash and that Ross confirmed it to him. As CEO of Quest Energy Partners, Cash diverted about $10 million and was sentenced to 108 months in federal prison.
Matt Salmon, AKA's chairman and a former congressman, said so in an open letter and repeated Ross's criminal record.
Why it matters
Two groups that both claim to defend kratom, fighting in public. This is where the split shows.
University of Florida records obtained by ProPublica show the association bought the ticket for a trip to Indonesia, which was weighing a ban. He canceled and kept the credit. The travel was not disclosed.
Why it matters
Undisclosed money matters. Most of his research money is federal NIDA funding, and he does expert work for both sides. Judge each study on its data.
Columbia's license to Kures ended in October 2024 and the company was dissolved in November. The licensed rights returned to Columbia. atai kept certain assets and trial data.
Why it matters
When Lilly buys atai in 2026, it is not buying kratom rights. Those left atai here.
The Global Kratom Coalition said publicly on Oct 7 and 8 that AKA supported the promotion and sale of 7-OH isolates.
AKA said it "has never supported the promotion or sale of 7-OH isolates." It described an agreement with the Holistic Alternative Recovery Trust (HART), which represents 7-OH makers: products above natural levels get labeled as not kratom.
Why it matters
As AKA describes it, "7-OH is not kratom" starts as a deal between two trade groups, not a finding by a regulator or a court. The science runs the other way: the body makes 7-OH from mitragynine.
AKA's own release reported a lawsuit by Ross personally against AKA, its Center for Plant Science and Health and Haddow, over donations and Utah's delisting of Feel Free.
Its SEC filing reports $25,000,000 sold in an exempt offering, first sale Nov 7, 2024. It lists Ross as a director or manager and declines to disclose revenue. This is financing, not sales.
A five-year NIDA grant to take SBS-226 through Phase 1 for opioid use disorder and withdrawal.
Why it matters
Federal money to develop kratom chemistry as a drug, in the same years federal agencies move against kratom products.
AKA reported $4,700,427 in 2024 revenue, up from $866,808 in 2016. GKC reported $3,431,756.
Why it matters
Both groups say they defend kratom. Their tax returns show what that is worth.
2025
Warning letters, a scheduling recommendation, ban demands, and a lobbying campaign that defends one product by attacking another.
22 entries
$146,300.01 on Jan 2 and $15,499.99 on Feb 5. On Jan 2 he also gave $14,207.34 directly to three small parties. His direct personal giving on the FEC record totals $182,607.34.
Why it matters
This is his own money. The RNC money and the PAC money further down are separate, and we never add them to it.
Journavx (suzetrigine) is approved for moderate to severe acute pain in adults.
Why it matters
It is approved for short-term pain. It is not a replacement for people managing chronic pain.
The company said annual sales passed $250 million in more than 30,000 stores. It has also claimed 24,000 stores. Both are its own figures.
The merged company is later called AtaiBeckley.
FDA sent a warning letter to Thang Botanicals, which sells 7-OH products as 7OHMZ.
Checkmate reported income from the LLC every quarter from Q3 2025 through Q2 2026, $750,000 in all. The campaign targets concentrated products and defends natural botanicals.
The agency treated the products as unapproved drugs.
FDA asked for scheduling action aimed at concentrated 7-OH products, not natural kratom leaf.
Why it matters
Not the leaf. FDA, HHS and DOJ all say it over the next year. Watch what happens to it.
The changes stress long-term risks and warn against stopping suddenly.
SB 154 (Act 41) took effect, with penalties of up to five years. The leaf is illegal statewide.
Smart Approaches to Marijuana, led by Kevin Sabet, asked that all kratom, leaf included, go in Schedule I.
In a Newsweek op-ed, Sabet wrote that kratom "played a role (in some cases causal) in at least 4,100 deaths."
Why it matters
In some cases means most were not. Read every death figure for what it counts.
Ohio canceled a pharmacy-board meeting and paused its ban effort. Governor Mike DeWine acknowledged contact from the health secretary.
Why it matters
Ross had given to Kennedy's campaign committees. Those were payments to political committees, not to HHS. Nothing in the record connects them, and we are not saying it does.
US 12,419,927, inventor Jerry Wayne Ross, claims kava CO2 extract in liquid with ground kratom leaf. One claim specifies leaf substantially free of 7-OH.
County health officials said six deaths were associated with 7-OH products.
Why it matters
Associated is not a cause of death.
A federal judge gave final approval to a class settlement against Botanic Tonics and Hydra623 Holdings over Feel Free's disclosures, after preliminary approval on Mar 5. 7-Eleven was a co-defendant. The order says it is not an admission.
The health department called the products illegal and unsafe and sent inspectors to red-tag them. The leaf went with the isolates.
FDPS's 2024 return reports $55,194 paid to two firms of Kevin Sabet's, LUA Partners ($30,194) and Policy Solutions Group ($25,000), disclosed as related-party business. It reports zero employees and also $117,987 paid to Luke Niforatos.
DOJ filed a civil forfeiture complaint against about 73,000 units of 7-OH products (No. 4:25-cv-00917, W.D. Mo.).
Why it matters
The federal government was already seizing 7-OH under existing law, months before any scheduling notice.
The model covers human-use kratom and tianeptine products for the 2026 state sessions. AMA policy also says personal use should not be a crime.
DEA asked about mitragynine pseudoindoxyl (MGPI), MGM-15 and MGM-16. HHS answered Jan 20, 2026.
Dismissed
DOJ filed a notice of dismissal, docket document 38. Botanic Tonics announced it Jan 6, 2026. A dismissal is not a finding that the product is safe.
Why it matters
The case ended before either corporate payment to MAHA PAC. Nothing in the record connects them, and we are not saying it does.
January to June 2026
A million dollars to a PAC, a cabinet stake, eleven senators, and the first suits that reach the leaf.
23 entries
Mitragynine is the leaf's main alkaloid.
Four payments in one day. The payer of record is Hydra623 Holdings LLC. FEC memo entries attribute the money to Ross as a partner.
HHS answered Mar 6 with no objection.
From 2015 to 2025, poison centers reported 233 deaths where kratom was found, about 21.2 a year, and 79% involved other drugs. In 49, kratom was the only substance: about 4.5 a year.
Why it matters
Poison center reports for ages 12 and up, not every death in the country. It is still the federal count, and the single-substance row is small.
MAHA PAC (C00821439) booked it on Line 17, Other Federal Receipts. The contributor of record is the company.
SF0056 became Chapter 68.
Markwayne Mullin's nominee report, signed Mar 10, lists Botanic Tonics LLC at $500,001 to $1,000,000, with income of none or less than $201. His Mar 17 ethics agreement lists 62 stocks and 19 bonds to sell. Botanic Tonics is not among them.
Why it matters
Homeland Security does not oversee DEA, which sits in the Justice Department. The stake still puts a cabinet secretary's money in a kratom drink company.
Led by Pete Ricketts and Richard Blumenthal, with Marsha Blackburn, John Boozman, Katie Britt, Ted Budd, Mike Crapo, Steve Daines, Jim Justice, Alex Padilla and Jeanne Shaheen. FDPS says it helped draft the letter. The senators did not credit it.
Why it matters
Not the leaf lasted eight months.
Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-FL) introduced H.R.8000 with two Florida Republican cosponsors. It has had no markup.
He was sworn in the next day. The first $500,000 from Botanic Tonics to MAHA PAC came 19 days before the vote.
Why it matters
Nothing in the record connects them, and we are not saying it does.
Utah regulates kratom rather than banning it.
The petition, filed in Jackson County, asks for an injunction barring the manufacturer defendants from selling any kratom product. GKC thanked her, calling the suit aligned with "the federal distinction" between leaf and synthetics.
Why it matters
A group that says it defends the leaf praised a suit that reaches the leaf.
The state replaced prohibition with regulation that caps 7-OH at 2%.
Why it matters
A ban state became a regulation state. The 2% cap is a limit we would not set, but a regulated shelf beats a ban.
SB985 was approved.
HB968 was reported favorably by substitute on Mar 6 and died when the session ended Apr 2.
That makes $1,000,000 from the company in two payments. The contributor of record is Botanic Tonics, not Ross.
Why it matters
Three buckets: $182,607.34 of Ross's own money, $443,000 attributed to him through Hydra623, and $1,000,000 from the company. Each stands alone.
US 12,617,790 B2 covers new compounds built on the mitragynine structure.
SB820 and HB1523 became Chapters 355 and 354.
CBD American Shaman and Relax Relief Rejuvenate Trading settled with the attorney general. The terms bar selling "7-OH, dihydro-7-hydroxymitragynine also called MGM-15, mitragynine, mitragynine pseudoindoxyl, or paynantheine" in Missouri. One company said it had sold only concentrated 7-OH.
Why it matters
The case was about concentrated products. The settlement list names mitragynine, the leaf's main alkaloid, too. Go after one kratom alkaloid and the others follow.
NIDA's Phase 1 trial will give single oral doses of 25 to 100 mg of mitragynine to 32 healthy adults who used oral opioids in the past month, and measure safety. Its listing says some people use mitragynine on their own to help manage symptoms of opioid withdrawal. It does not test whether mitragynine treats opioid use disorder. As of October 2026 the listing still said not yet recruiting.
Why it matters
The government is paying to test kratom's main alkaloid in people, the same alkaloid the body turns into 7-OH, while DEA moves to schedule 7-OH.
Chaired by Rep. Rick Townsend, the committee heard from AKA's counsel, Christopher McCurdy and others at its first meeting.
Why it matters
The state that failed to pass a Schedule I bill in April started over with hearings.
SGSH's launch release names Matthew Lowe, GKC's executive director, as its executive director too.
The state rule now covers the derivative.
July and August 2026
Two federal notices, one order, a comment record of more than 30,000, and a trade group that switches sides on 7-OH.
18 entries
Administrator Terrance Cole signed notices covering 7-OH by threshold and the derivatives MGPI, MGM-15 and MGM-16. HHS said the action was "not intended to regulate natural leaf kratom."
The same day DEA announced, the trade group publicly supported scheduling the concentrates.
Then
“has never supported the promotion or sale of 7-OH isolates”
Now
“7-OH opioid products should be banned”
Why it matters
The group that speaks for kratom consumers now asks the federal government to schedule a kratom alkaloid that other kratom sellers sell.
HB 1649 covers every form, leaf included.
The 7-OH notice (91 FR 40917) draws a line at 0.050% 7-OH and strips the exemption from material that is synthesized, chemically converted, concentrated, enriched or isolated. DEA says no safe consumption limit has been established. It also calls 7-OH "a known metabolite of mitragynine." A second notice covers MGPI, MGM-15 and MGM-16. HHS opened a request for information.
Why it matters
7-OH forms from mitragynine by oxidation during ordinary handling. Chemically converted is a phrase a leaf product can trip over.
America's Poison Centers counted 593 7-OH reports in 2025 and 901 in the first half of 2026. Among reports involving 7-OH alone, 20.5% were hospitalized. The advisory gives no death count. DEA's notice says poison centers only got codes for 7-OH between February and May 2025.
Why it matters
This is the strongest number on the other side, and it belongs here. Part of the climb is poison centers starting to code 7-OH in 2025, and hundreds of calls a year, for products sold online and in gas stations and smoke shops, is a small number. The answer is testing, a dose on the label and a legal shelf, not a ban or a cap.
DEA published a proposed rule to schedule tianeptine through the permanent 811(a) process, with comments through Aug 7. It drew 188. The kratom compounds went through 811(h), with no DEA comment docket. HHS ran its own.
FDA said the federal action was aimed at concentrated products, not natural leaf.
Gour, McCurdy and colleagues tested semisynthetic products, not leaf, and called for oversight. The paper was published online Jul 14. The university's release followed Jul 30.
Why it matters
Mislabeled concentrates are an argument for testing and honest labels. The authors asked for oversight, not scheduling.
Lilly will pay $6.75 a share plus contingent payments tied to two depression programs, BPL-003 and VLS-01. The deal closed Sep 11. The merger proxy never mentions mitragynine, kratom or Kures. Kures' rights went back to Columbia in 2024.
The comment period was extended to Sep 10.
Ranking member Ron Wyden's letters ask, in question 12, when Secretary Mullin acquired his stake and which other officials hold stakes. Answers were due Aug 31.
Executive Order 2026-04 made kratom illegal at 5 p.m. Possession became an infraction with a fine of up to $1,000. The order cited 50 deaths.
The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner ruled the NBA player's death an accident caused by the effects of heroin and cocaine. Mitragynine was one of eight substances detected. It is not named as the cause.
Why it matters
Headlines tied his death to kratom. This is a death where kratom was found, and the ruling names heroin and cocaine.
Sen. Bernie Moreno's S.5383 exempts botanical products under three limits: 1 mg of 7-OH per gram, 1 mg per milliliter, and 1 part 7-OH per 100 parts mitragynine. It restricts concentrates, and it says no one may be prosecuted solely for simple possession. It went to Senate Judiciary.
Why it matters
Republicans wrote a possession protection into a federal bill, and that part is worth keeping. The 1 mg lines are caps, and we oppose caps on any kratom alkaloid.
The state epidemiologist told a legislative working group that mitragynine, 7-OH or MGPI were part of the primary cause in 23 of the deaths since 2021, plus 1 where they contributed. Poison calls went from 7 in 2024 to 22 in 2025.
Why it matters
Both numbers are the state's. The 50 is what the order cited. The 23 is how many had kratom compounds in the primary cause.
The health department signed the order Aug 13, and it took effect Aug 28. Retailers sued in Suffolk County Superior Court.
A Justice Department release said the coming derivative order does not target traditional botanical kratom.
Order
DEA's temporary order covers the three derivatives through August 2028, with no threshold for MGPI, which can form from 7-OH. The same day, AKA sued DEA, asking only that the order be read not to reach traditional leaf with trace, naturally formed MGPI. AKA says it does not challenge the scheduling itself.
Why it matters
There is still no order on 7-OH. There is a notice, and nothing else.
September and October 2026
States split between regulation and prohibition. Two students die in Oxford with no cause of death published. A senator says all kratom should go.
23 entries
From university records: travel paid by the association, more than $100,000 from AKA's Center for Plant Science and Health to the University of Florida, and McCurdy's own estimate of $1 million in industry money reaching his research through the university foundation.
Why it matters
The money should have been disclosed. Most of his research is NIDA-funded and he works for both sides, so judge each study on its data.
Gov. Kim Reynolds and state health officials issued a public warning. It was a warning, not a ban or an order. The release calls them "kratom-associated" deaths, confirmed across 23 counties.
A study at the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center in Houston, led by a Baylor College of Medicine researcher, began recruiting 72 people with past recreational opioid use. It gives single doses of 4 to 16 grams of kratom in capsules, 30 mg of oxycodone or a placebo. Its main measure is how much people like the drug.
Why it matters
A drug-liking test against oxycodone is how abuse potential gets measured. Watch where the results end up.
The 15,300 headline figure includes hemp products.
Rep. Lance Gooden's H.R.10272 uses the same short title, the same limits and the same possession protection.
SB2408 had passed the Senate 46-1. The same day, the governor signed HB1628 instead: synthetic kratom banned, natural kratom limited to adults 21 and over, a 2% cap and a $10,000 license. He rescinded his executive order.
Why it matters
One vote between a cap and making possession a crime. We want neither.
HB332 has no cap and no possession crime. A study is due Jan 1, 2027.
Why it matters
Regulation passes nearly unanimously when someone writes it down.
Fines run $100 to $750. Constructive possession means a person need not be holding it. Nobody spoke against it.
30,340 comments were published on HHS's docket.
Why it matters
More than 30,000 comments went into the federal record. As of today there is still no 7-OH order.
As reported, the terms are $152,000 paid, $500,000 more if they fall out of compliance, pre-sale testing and supply-chain records, and no admission.
Why it matters
Colorado used the consumer protection law it already had. The products stay on the shelf, tested.
Boulder Care says kratom users were 3% of new patients in September 2025, 8% in July 2026 after Tennessee's ban, and 14% in August. Recovery Centers of America says its Massachusetts sites went from about one kratom patient a week to 10 to 20.
Why it matters
People lose access and show up in withdrawal. These numbers are the first look at what happens after a ban.
No toxicology has been released. There is no published cause or manner of death and no finding that any substance was responsible. Court records, as reported, describe a tablet whose label listed MGPI, MGM-15 and 7-OH. Two of those had been Schedule I since Aug 26. We are not going to speculate about the students.
Why it matters
Lafayette County has banned kratom, possession included, since 2021. A labeled Schedule I synthetic was still allegedly sold there.
Attorney General Kris Mayes alleges Feel Free was sold as an energy and wellness drink while its kratom content and addiction risk were obscured. The suit does not ask to pull the product. It cites a state count of 146 kratom-related deaths from 2020 to 2023.
US 2026/0284136 A1 claims purified kratom alkaloids recombined, such as 7-OH without mitragynine. Nothing in the record links CaamTech to Botanic Tonics.
The Tenth Circuit had granted a motion to abate the appeal on Jul 29. On Sep 24 its docket recorded the case as terminated without a panel. No court ruled on the merits. The district case closed Sep 25.
Rep. Gooden's Sep 24 release on H.R.10272 cited the deaths of two University of Mississippi students. He introduced the bill Sep 3, before the deaths.
Why it matters
No cause of death has been published.
A council member called it a stopgap until other levels of government act.
Rep. Lee Yancey, a former Drug Policy Committee chairman, wants a total ban, with Schedule II as his fallback.
Why it matters
The product in Oxford was a labeled Schedule I synthetic. The ask is every kratom product.
The coalition backed hearings aimed at concentrates while opposing broad limits on the leaf.
The release's title describes a "suspected connection to death of one of two students." The same day, Lafayette County's narcotics unit called for legislative hearings.
His post on X demanded a final 7-OH rule "NOW" and said kratom should not be sold anywhere. He chairs Senate Judiciary, where S.5383 has sat since Aug 8. He was not one of the 11 senators on the March letter.
Why it matters
The rule he demands only covers 7-OH above a threshold, and he wants the leaf gone too. That is why a 7-OH line is never just about 7-OH.
The state health department warned of fatal overdoses involving an illegal product containing the newly scheduled derivatives.
Their letter asks DEA and FDA for emergency scheduling of 7-OH and permanent scheduling of the entire kratom plant, with a response by Oct 15.
Why it matters
Every agency said this was not about the leaf. Now the leaf is the ask.
Nothing in this thread.
As of Oct 8, 2026
Follow the money and see where it goes.