He won bipartisan allies from Bernie Sanders to Rand Paul, and helped create a billion-dollar industry from kratom, which has pain-relieving effects that he said could help fight the opioid epidemic as a far safer, natural alternative to pills.
Now, many of those same pro-kratom activists are calling for a ban on products containing concentrations of one of kratom’s active components: 7-hydroxymitragynine, or 7-OH, a super-potent extract with opioid-like effects. And this is causing major fights between consumers, sellers and proponents of both substances.
“This is a chemically manipulated, full-blown opioid that is now on the market,” claims Mac Haddo, senior public policy fellow at the American Kratom Association, a kratom industry lobby group. “They masquerade as kratom products.”
The proliferation of 7-OH in gummies, capsules and shots with brand names such as Magic 7OH, 7 O’Heaven and Pure OHMS in thousands of gas stations and corner stores over the past few years has raised concerns. Consumers of 7-OH have spoken about its painful withdrawal symptoms, and there have been reports of polydrug overdoses involving 7-OH and other substances. Some are now entering rehab to overcome their dependency, while others are self-detoxifying based on advice from Redditors.
The Kratom community fears that 7-OH’s bad reputation could drag the entire Kratom industry into the regulatory quagmire. But the 7-OH industry has organized against a possible prohibition, claiming that 7-OH is kratom, despite it only appearing in small amounts within the leaves of the kratom plant, and that its benefits as an analgesic outweigh its potential harms.
The federal government’s anti-7-OH directives have increased tensions between the two parties.
Last July, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. described the 7-OH industry as “appalling” at a press conference, where FDA Commissioner Marty Macri asked the DEA to classify the drug as Schedule I – the most restrictive class of banned substances. Speaking from the Oval Office on May 11, President Donald Trump publicly endorsed “natural 7-OH”, in confusing comments that appeared to refer to kratom. On top of all that, it appears that RFK Jr. and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markway Mullin — who is also pushing for 7-OH action — both have strong ties to a kratom lobbyist (and convicted felon) behind the infamous kratom beverage company.
Supporter of 7-OH View the substance and the plant from which it is derived as inextricably linked. In April 2025 testimony to Colorado legislators debating how to regulate kratom and 7-OH, Michelle Ross, chief scientific advisor for the 7-OH advocacy group 7-Hope Alliance, wrote, “Saying that 7-OH is not kratom is like saying caffeine is not coffee or THC is not cannabis. It makes no sense.”
But unlike coffee, cannabis and kratom – which have been consumed for centuries if not thousands of years – 7-OH does not have a long history of human use. यह केवल कुछ वर्षों से ही बाज़ार में है।
Chris McCurdy, lead kratom researcher and director of the University of Florida’s Translational Drug Development Core, says that many products labeled 7-OH contain poorly understood compounds with unknown biological effects in animals or humans. “So, these products, while represented as ‘clean’, are anything but.”
Meanwhile, according to reports, a dozen states from California to Vermont have already moved ahead of the federal timetable with their own 7-OH bans. Seven of those states have also banned kratom, although Rhode Island recently overturned its ban.
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