Kratom and Its Bratty Offspring

It has been a long time since kratom was the latest big thing.  In fact, kratom has not been new at any point in recorded history.  The Mitragyna speciosa tree grows wild in the Indochina Peninsula and the islands of Indonesia, all the way to New Guinea, and people there have been using its leaves, which are known as kratom, for medicinal purposes for as long as anyone can remember.  The people of Southeast Asia and parts of Oceania chew kratom leaves, smoke them, and make beverages out of them, since the plant has calming and pain-relieving effects.  A few decades ago, kratom was rare in the United States, and only the most adventuresome drug seekers had taken it.  The legal cannabis movement, which aimed to reframe plant-based and fungus-based drugs as superfoods, swept up kratom and gained a new following in the United States.  The laws surrounding kratom are easily as confusing as those related to other barely legal drugs such as cannabis and psilocybin.  Here, our Miami drug crimes defense lawyer explains the ambiguous legal status of kratom and the Florida bill that aims to add new controls on the legal sale of kratom products.

I Guess That’s Why They Call It Gas Station Heroin

The federal government banned the importation of M. speciosa over a decade ago, but this by itself does not tell us much about the legal status of kratom.  Plenty of tropical plants are illegal to import, on the grounds that Florida has enough introduced species already; look around you, and all you see are melaleucas and water hyacinths, to say nothing of the introduced animal species, such as nutrias, Nile monitor lizards, and those dreaded iguanas.  Case in point, it was illegal to import mangosteen, a tropical fruit of epically pleasant scent, until a few years ago.  If you wanted to taste a real mangosteen, you had to travel to Southeast Asia, but if you just wanted the health benefits, there were plenty of multilevel marketing companies selling mangosteen pills that were happy to oblige.

Kratom is not a controlled substance at the federal level.  After a series of kratom-related deaths, the Drug Enforcement Administration began procedures to make kratom a Schedule I controlled substance, but this measure was so unpopular that the DEA withdrew it in 2016.  Kratom has a loyal following among people who use it to stave off opioid cravings; it feels enough like opioids that people use it to help them stay away from real opioids.  Thus, like tianeptine and other dietary supplements, kratom has earned the nickname “gas station heroin.”

Kratom-Derived Seven Hydroxy Causes a Panic in Fort Myers

Earlier this year, police made multiple drug arrests in the Fort Myers area that led to a curious discovery in crime labs.  The drugs seized contained 7-hydroxymitragynine, also known as seven hydroxy, a potent drug derived from kratom.  Seven hydroxy acts like a powerful opioid, but it is so new that there is no data on whether it is receptive to naloxone, a drug that can reverse symptoms of overdose on even the strongest opioids, such as fentanyl.

HB 1489 Imposes Stricter Regulations on the Sale of Kratom

A bill introduced in the Florida legislature in April 2025 proposes amendments to the Kratom Consumer Protection Act.  The bill, HB 1489, increases the restrictions on the following aspects of the legal trade in kratom:

• Which businesses can sell kratom at retail prices to consumers
• Licensing requirements for kratom distributors
• Which kratom products can be sold legally
• Online sales of kratom
• Delivery of kratom through the mail

Violating the rules regarding the sale of kratom would carry criminal penalties, but the bill does not abolish the legal sale of kratom in Florida.  Some states have laws against the sale of kratom; for example, you cannot buy it legally in Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Vermont, or Wisconsin.  For now, there are no plans to criminalize possession of kratom at the state level.  As for seven hydroxy, it is a new enough drug that there are no laws specific to it yet.  It would be possible to introduce legislation outlawing kratom in its capacity as a precursor to seven hydroxy, just as Florida recently introduced a bill outlawing possession of psilocybin spores, which, unlike the mature mushrooms, do not have hallucinogenic properties.

Contact Our Criminal Defense Attorneys

A South Florida criminal defense lawyer can help you defend yourself against criminal charges related to kratom or seven hydroxy.  Contact Ratzan & Faccidomo in Miami, Florida for a confidential consultation about your case.

Sources:

winknews.com/wink_investigations/wink-investigates-controversy-over-kratom-in-swfl/article_96e74343-7a71-4a31-84ef-f3e7cca21d60.html

wfla.com/news/florida/new-florida-bill-proposes-stricter-regulations-on-kratom/