Thinking Citizen Blog — Kratom — What Is It? Should It Be Banned? What Else Should Be? What About 7 OH?
Thinking Citizen Blog: Thursday is Health, Health Care, and Global Health Policy Day
Today’s Topic: Kratom — what is it? should it be banned? what else should be? What about 7 OH?
Kratom at low doses is a stimulant and at high doses produces opioid-like sedative effects. It is widely available in gas stations and convenience stores across the US in tablet, liquid, and powder form. But six states have a complete ban on the sale of kratom: Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Vermont, and Wisconsin.
What do you know about kratom that the rest of us probably should but don’t?
What other similar products with similar risks deserve to be better known and understood?
In general, is there too much or too little regulation of nutritional supplements and herbal remedies?
Experts — please chime in. Correct, elaborate, elucidate.
MITRAGYNA SPECIOSA — “a tropical evergreen tree of the Rubiaceae family family (coffee family) native to Southeast Asia”
1. “It is indigenous to Cambodia, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Papua New Guinea, where its dark green, glossy leaves, known as kratom, have been used in herbal medicine since at least the 19th century.”
2. “They have also historically been consumed via chewing, smoking, and as a tea.”
3. “It was first formally described by the Dutch colonial botanist Pieter Korthals in 1839, who named it Stephegyne speciosa; it was renamed and reclassified several times before George Darby Haviland provided the final name and classification in 1859.”
NB: “In 2019, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) stated that there is no evidence that kratom is safe or effective for treating any condition. Some people take it for managing chronic pain, for treating opiod withdrawal symptoms, or for recreational purposes.”
STATE LEVEL BANS — starting with Wisconsin in 2014 — but kratom is available in most tobacco and vape stores in most states — percentages of stores where kratom is available by state; 30 counties or cities have banned the product
1. Arkansas 2015
2. Vermont 2016
3. Alabama 2016
NB: Indiana 2016, Washington DC 2025 Lousiana 2025
FEDERAL AGENCIES ARE GOING AFTER KRATOM-DERIVED 7 OH (hydroxymitrogynine)
1. “In July 2025, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) formally recommended that the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) classify 7-hydroxymitragynine as a controlled substance.”
2. “This action is not directed toward Mitragyna speciosa itself, which will remain unaffected by regulation of 7-OH.”
3. “Despite claims by products containing 7-OH that they can be used to treat anxiety and pain, the drug is not approved by the FDA for any medical use or as a food supplement.”
NB: “On August 13, 2025, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced an emergency rule placing 7-hydroxymitragynine into Schedule 1 status under Florida state law.”
Mitragyna speciosa — Wikipedia
https://www.dea.gov/sites/default/files/2020-06/Kratom-2020_0.pdf
Kratom: Unsafe and ineffective
https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/29/health/kratom-derived-opioid-7-oh
7-Hydroxymitragynine — Wikipedia
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
“Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
My spin — then periodically review, re-rank, and exchange your list with those you love. I call this the “Orion Exchange” because seven is about as many as any human can digest at a time. Game?
LAST FOUR YEARS OF POSTS ORGANIZED THEMATICALLY
ATTACHMENTS BELOW:
#1 A graphic guide to justice (9 metaphors on one page).
#2 “39 Songs, Prayers, and Poems: the Keys to the Hearts of Seven Billion People” — Adams House Senior Common Room Presentation, (11/17/20)
NB: Palestine Orion (Decision) — let’s exchange Orions, let’s find Rumi’s field (“Beyond all ideas of right and wrong, there is a field. Meet me there” Rumi, 13 century Persian Sufi mystic)
YOUR TURN
Please share the most interesting thing you learned in the last week related to health, health care or health care policy — the ethics, economics, politics, history….
Or the coolest, most important thing you learned in your life related to health are or health care policy that the rest of us may have missed.
Or just some random health-related fact that blew you away.
This is your chance to make someone’s day. Or to cement in your mind something really important you might otherwise forget. Or to think more deeply than you otherwise would about something that matters.
