Kratom drink Feel Free gains popularity despite growing concerns about addiction, health impact and death CBS Chicago

The bill does not mention kava, and there do not appear to be any efforts in the country to ban it. The statehouse approved legislation in March that would criminalize possession of the drug. The association supported US Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary Robert Kennedy’s announcement in July 2025 calling for the Drug Enforcement Agency to ban 7-OH. “Being able to buy an opioid at a convenience store is going to make the opioid crisis worse.”

Despite their wide availability, these products are illegal to sell for consumption and cannot be sold online or in stores. The results of the single ascending dose study to evaluate the effects of botanical kratom ingestion in humans were recently published in the Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology. 7-OH is a minor kratom alkaloid and a potent mu-opioid receptor agonist. You can read more about the FDA's announcement regarding their recommendations to the DEA that concentrated synthetic 7-OH be classified as a Schedule I substance here on our website and here at Stat News.

Why Choose Kats Botanicals’ Super Maeng Da Kratom?

• The federal agency’s recommendation will be reviewed by the DEA, which ultimately has the authority to categorize the chemical as an illegal drug but not without a draft of its findings, followed by a public comment period.
• Kratom and 7-OH side effects include withdrawal symptoms, insomnia and anxiety, seizures, and fatal respiratory depression.
• One, is that we don’t really understand what’s all in that product, because it’s been synthetically manipulated.
• Kratom is slowly increasing in popularity in Mexico, leaving questions surrounding this herb’s legality.
• Some were health and fitness enthusiasts who thought kratom was just like any other wellness supplement.
• However, kratom products may still be available for purchase in many places.

Ironically, much of the hysteria about kratom has been fueled by the same federal health agencies that now want to learn about its benefits. They are chemically altered substances that carry potent opioid-like effects and pose an imminent threat to consumers,” Mac Haddow, senior fellow on public policy at AKA, said in a statement. “We are targeting a concentrated synthetic byproduct that is an opioid.” The synthetic byproduct isn’t legal in dietary supplements or food products.

Medical Professional Licenses

Some U.S. states have banned the sale of kratom. The FDA does not consider kratom to be a legal dietary ingredient. Stop taking kratom and call your health care provider if you have any of the following signs that a seizure is happening or could happen. Some people who have taken kratom have reported having seizures. Stop taking kratom and call your health care provider right away if you have any of the following symptoms of liver damage.

Kratom for Relaxation: Starter Pack

• Read our deep dive into kava vs kratom.
• Talk to your health care provider if you have questions or concerns.
• Lead poisoning is a lesser-known threat that can have irreversible negative health impacts on children.
• I’ve seen, say, less than 1% of people get addicted to it, but those are the people that get addicted to anything and everything that they come in contact with,” said the seller.
• The new NIH study means the government has come full circle on kratom’s therapeutic potential.
• A new University of Virginia Health analysis shows a sharp rise in kratom-related calls to poison centers across the United States.

Operated by our in-house editorial team — a small group of writers, engineers, and kratom-industry veterans. Amazing Botanicals — a U.S.-based kratom e-commerce company in business since 2014. Working on a story sids 2014 about kratom regulation, a specific bill, or the state of U.S. kratom policy?

Super Green Maeng Da Kratom Effects

All felony drug cases in Arkansas require seized evidence to be sent to the state’s crime lab. Kratom leaf companies have tried to distinguish themselves as wholly different from 7-OH manufacturers, who disagree with such delineations. The same allure pushed it into gyms, weight rooms and combat sports, where athletes look for ways to increase endurance and ease painful injuries. At the time of his arrest in April, Clarke had a THC vape pen on him and a prescription for a painkiller often used for sports injuries, according to the dashcam audio.

Then Beutler came across a podcast where people shared their harrowing stories of kratom addiction. Fong says companies putting large amounts of kratom into otherwise innocuous-looking products has changed the game and made kratom more susceptible to abuse. A representative for Botanic Tonics, the company behind Feel Free, told USA TODAY its Feel Free Classic tonic contains only natural leaf kratom, with nearly undetectable levels of 7-OH. Many products on the market contain kratom, and they come in many forms. Many of the people we spoke with had no history of substance abuse before ingesting kratom.