At least eight U.S. states have banned kratom, a plant-derived supplement often sold at gas stations and smoke shops, as hospitalizations linked to the substance rise and users describe addiction experiences similar to opioids. Lawmakers in several other states are weighing bans or tighter regulations, while industry groups contend that kratom is a safe herbal product that helps people withdraw from harder drugs.
Maizie Hepner, 24, said she started drinking kratom in 2024 at a Dubuque, Iowa, bar called Kava Kava that served beverages containing kava and kratom as “herbal tea mocktails.” Hepner, a server and bartender, said she asked the owner if the drink was addictive and was told “Absolutely not.” She began going three to four times a week and later bought kratom powder from a liquor store, stirring it into her tea. “I just didn’t feel like myself without it,” Hepner said. “I would start to get sweaty and irritable.”
Hepner decided to quit this month after reading reports about kratom’s dangers and seeing a fundraising page for an Iowa family that said a father died from a kratom overdose. After quitting, she experienced a fever for three days, tremors, and difficulty eating solid food. She said she now feels better and has had no cravings.
A University of Virginia study found that U.S. hospitalizations linked solely to kratom rose from 43 in 2015 to 538 in 2025. The authors said the spike coincides with the emergence of synthetic versions of the drug, including one called 7-OH.
“It is increasing the prevalence of opioid use disorder,” said Dr. Andrew Kolodny, director of the Opioid Policy Research Collaborative at Brandeis University. “Being able to buy an opioid at a convenience store is going to make the opioid crisis worse.”
Eight states — Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Indiana, Louisiana, Tennessee, Vermont and Wisconsin — have banned kratom. Tennessee’s ban takes effect July 1. Breyer Ferris, manager of a smoke shop in Tennessee, described kratom as “the biggest bad, and it’s one of those things where it’s kind of hard to stop it,” Local 3 News reported.
In Idaho, kratom was listed as a contributing factor in the deaths of 47 residents between 2021 and 2023, the state Office of Drug Policy reported. Other opioids appeared in the toxicology reports of all those who died. In Bonneville County, the coroner reported in October 2025 that four local deaths in the previous 18 months were due solely to acute toxicity of mitragynine, kratom’s primary active compound. “This is a wake-up call for our community,” the coroner said in a press release. Idaho Falls, the county’s largest city, approved a ban on kratom sales effective July 1.
John Radford, a city council member who runs a nonprofit for economically disadvantaged people, said he has spoken with hundreds of people who started using kratom to avoid appearing in urine tests. “They said it was harder for them to come off of kratom than it was some of their other drugs,” Radford said.
Mac Haddow, senior fellow on public policy for the American Kratom Association, a kratom industry group, denied that kratom is addictive or dangerous. He attributed addiction concerns to “addiction personality” and said there is no evidence “that kratom alone caused” deaths. Haddow said the problem is 7-OH, which is much more potent than kratom powder. The association supported U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy’s July 2025 announcement calling for the Drug Enforcement Agency to ban 7-OH, but the agency has not implemented a prohibition.
Kolodny called the industry group’s messaging “deceptive.” “Many policy makers seem to have fallen for” the argument “that all of the harms associated with kratom are limited to these 7-OH products and that the kratom leaf products are benign herbal supplements helping millions of Americans,” Kolodny said.
New York state Assembly member Phil Steck co-sponsored bipartisan legislation that passed this month — and awaits the governor’s approval — to ban 7-OH but not natural kratom products. “I would not go out and say that you can use the so-called natural product to an unlimited extent, but the two products are substantially different,” Steck said.
In Iowa, the statehouse approved legislation in March that would criminalize possession of kratom. The bill has not been signed into law. Kava Kava, the business where Hepner first consumed kratom, posted on Facebook urging opposition to the legislation, arguing it would affect “kava and sober communities” — though the bill does not mention kava and there are no efforts nationally to ban it.
Eric Schiesl started as a customer at Kava Kava and later worked there as a “kavatender.” He said the shop’s kava and kratom drinks and sense of community helped him stay sober for three years. He said he has not heard customers report addiction. “We definitely stress moderation,” he said. Of the proposed criminalization, Schiesl said, “Prohibition didn’t work, and it led to more crimes.”
Hepner said kratom itself should be banned. “I think that it’s unsafe, and I think there’s not a lot of knowledge about it,” she said. “That is how people fall into it.”
A Reddit group called Quitting Kratom has more than 40,000 subscribers.