What's The Latest With Kratom?

Kratom is being sold like a simple plant, but the way it’s packaged, concentrated, and marketed in 2026 can turn it into something much closer to an opioid problem hiding in plain sight. We’re taking you through a practical, clinician-friendly update drawn from a talk I gave to local therapists and drug and alcohol counselors, especially as the political and regulatory landscape shifts and bans and enforcement efforts expand in places like California.

We break down what kratom is (Mitragyna speciosa), why it can feel stimulating at low doses, and why higher doses bring opioid-receptor effects that can lead to tolerance, dependence, and withdrawal. We also cover what kratom overdose can look like, why mixing kratom with fentanyl, alcohol, or THC raises risk, and why naloxone still belongs in the conversation even when the data is often limited to case reports.

Then we get real about how people actually encounter kratom today: smoke shop “strain” menus, euphoric promises, and an online retail experience that’s faster and easier than getting medical care. The most important update is potency. Extracts are changing the game, and 7-hydroxymitragynine (7-OH) may be sold under the kratom label while acting like a far more powerful opioid. Finally, we lay out treatment pathways we use in addiction medicine, including comfort meds, tapering, Suboxone or methadone, and long-acting injectable buprenorphine (Sublocade/Brixadi) that can help some people step down without a brutal withdrawal.

If this helped you understand kratom, share it with a colleague or a friend, subscribe for more practical addiction medicine, and leave a review so more people can find the show.

To contact Dr. Grover: ammadeeasy@fastmail.com

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Transcript

Welcome And Why Kratom Matters

SPEAKER_01 0:08

Hi, I'm Dr. Casey Groove. I spent years practicing emergency medicine before shifting my focus to addiction medicine. This podcast grew out of caring for patients, hearing their stories, and wanting to do better. Here we talk about recovery, medicine, and compassion. This is Addiction Medicine Made Easy. Today's episode is on Kratom. Specifically, what's new with Kratom? And are we doing anything different in 2026 in treating patients who use Kratom? This lecture was given to a group of local therapists and drug and alcohol counselors. As you've heard on the podcast before, I provide lectures to my colleagues frequently on whatever topic in addiction is most on people's minds. And last month it was Kratom. I actually got asked, hey, is Kratom a new drug? Of course it's not. And so this lecture was born. So if you are a veteran podcast listener, some of this will be review, but this lecture came out great, and the political landscape around Kratom is changing. Where I live in California, Kratom just got banned this year, and so I made sure that this lecture included all the newest stuff I could find out about Kratom.

What Kratom Is And How It Works

SPEAKER_01 1:28

Two quick updates. First, I am pleased to say that this podcast is one of the top 50 addiction podcasts according to the website Million Podcasts. And second, thank you to all of you who have given me a rating or a review, since that is one of the things that has made my podcast successful and how I got recognized as a top addiction podcast. So if you haven't yet given me a rating or a review for this podcast, please do. It takes just a few seconds and it really helps the podcast grow. Okay, enough banter. Let's get started with an update on Kratom. So we are going to talk about Kratom. And I literally just updated my slides because this is a topic that's constantly changing. So as a physician, I would consider myself a Kratom geek, meaning I've put a lot of time and effort into researching this. And you'll find that it's a very nuanced conversation. And kind of like how if you ask somebody, are you using cannabis? and they say yes, the next question you have to ask is, What type of cannabis? Meaning the cannabis has changed, there's different strains, there's different potencies. Kratom is the same thing. And there's a ton of strong opinions on social media, and we'll talk about some of the regulatory things that have been happening. But yes. So we'll start with the easy stuff, which is what is Kratom? It is a plant that grows in Southeast Asia. This is a picture of the leaves, and the scientific name is Mitragyna speciosa. And it's actually related to the coffee plant. And this is something that was used as a traditional medicine in Southeast Asia for many years, as basically a way to deal with the heat and humidity of Southeast Asia, much as how people in the Andes used to chew coca to deal with altitude sickness. It was basically a traditional plant medicine. And it's a really interesting plant. So it grows naturally containing these chemical compounds called alkaloids. And they do different things and interact with our bodies. So the first thing is at a low dose, Kratom acts like a stimulant. As you increase the dose, it activates the opiate receptor. It also activates the alpha-2 receptor. And it also blocks the COX-2 enzyme. So let me break this down into pharmaceuticals that it would be like. So it has stimulant properties. That would be like an amphetamine or methamphetamine. It activates the opiate receptor, so it would be like a morphine or an oxycodone. It activates the alpha-2 receptor, which makes it like clonidine or prasecin. People know that as minipress for nightmares. And it also blocks the COX-2 enzyme, which makes it like an anti-inflammatory, like an NSAID. So if you had to create a drug name for what Kratom does, I came up with methoxyclonoprofin, meaning it acts like methamphetamine, oxycodone, clonidine, and ibuprofen all at once. So when people use creatin, they use it in different ways. Some people actually just kind of chew on the leaf. When they consume the whole leaf kratom product, and we'll talk about the different subtypes, this is what they're getting. Now, as you can imagine, with all of these effects, you can overdose

Overdose Risks And Naloxone Basics

SPEAKER_01 4:59

on it. And what is most dangerous are the opioid-like effects. As we all know, opioid overdoses are very dangerous. They suppress the breathing. But because it's not a pure opioid-like molecule, the overdose looks different. So you can get some of the other effects, like from the stimulant. So somebody might be sedated, but also appears to be agitated and have a fast heart rate because you're getting the stimulant and opioid-like effects from the kratom. Now, in terms of leaf kratom, and we'll talk about the different types. If somebody is making the leaves into a tea or drying the leaves and putting them into a powder, when someone's using leaf kratom, it's not that strong of an opioid, meaning it's much less likely to cause a life-threatening overdose compared to a morphine, oxycodone, fentanyl, etc. Now, as we all know, many patients with substances like to mix. So if you mix fentanyl and kratom, the risk of overdose goes up, or alcohol in Kratom, or THC in Kratom, the risk of overdose goes up. Now, as we talked about, you guys were asking, is Kratom new? The answer is no, but it's becoming much more common. So we don't have as much research on it as we do other substances. So in terms of overdose, it's recommended that a person get a dose of naloxone because of the opioid-like effects of the kratom. But most of the studies on kratom overdoses are small data, like case reports or case series. So generally speaking, if someone comes to the emergency department with a kratom overdose, treatment's gonna be supportive. What does that mean? If they're dehydrated, we give them IV fluids.

unknown 6:47

Right?

SPEAKER_01 6:47

If their blood pressure is low, we're gonna give them IV fluids. If they're agitated, we're gonna give them a sedative so that they're not fighting with the staff. And then if they're really suppressed from the opioid-like effects, we're gonna try to give them naloxone or give them supplemental oxygen in whatever form. Now, we'll talk about why people use kratom.

Why People Use Kratom Daily

SPEAKER_01 7:08

But generally speaking, people just want to feel better. If you think about why do my patients use alcohol, THC, fentanyl, whatever, they have some sort of unmet need and they're trying to meet it. And we'll talk about how Kratom is sold in just a little bit. But generally speaking, when they study it, people tend to use kratom for I want to feel better in terms of my mood. I'm tired and I need to get up and go, or I have pain. Now, unfortunately, when people use kratom daily, that opiate-like effect leads to opiate dependence, meaning when they stop, they go into withdrawal. And they also get tolerance too, by the way. It's really frustrating for people because they're like, I just wanted to get through my day. I'm 50. I've got to keep up with these 20-year-olds at work, and now I'm sick when I stop. So I have a case that we'll go through when we get there. Now I mentioned there's some studies on Kratom. There's a lot of studies looking at who uses Kratom. These are, for example, surveys where people can fill out who they use or they try to get some demographic data based on purchasing data. But it tends to be younger people. The average age you can see here is 35. In this study, it was a 50-50 male-female mix. And as you can see, again, why do people use the kratom? They're looking to feel better. They have high rates of anxiety, depression, pain, and comorbid substance use. And for many people, because it's a plant, it's viewed as a lesser substance. Well, I got to get sober from alcohol. I know I'll use kratom and that will make me feel better. Now you can see there's a lot of kratom users in the US. It's estimated as many as 15 million. Now, where does that come from? We have really not a great idea of how many kratom users there are. Sometimes what they do is they look at how much kratom comes into the US. They estimate how much people use and divide. Okay, there were six tons, and each person would use two pounds. Let's do the math and it's X number of users. We really don't have great data on how many Kratom users there are in the US, but here's an estimate from this study: as many as 15 million Americans. So it adds up. Now, I'm going to give you my anecdotal experience as an addiction doctor. Who uses Kratom? There are two groups. There's the opiate sophisticated patient. This is somebody who's been on prescription opioids or illicit opioids, and they understand tolerance, withdrawal, and dependence. And they know from talking to other people or going online, going on Reddit, whatever it is, that Kratom is sold fairly unrestricted. And because it acts like an opioid, you can get off your fentanyl, oxycodone, whatever, and you can get on Kratom. So that population is very savvy and knows exactly what they're doing. They're managing their withdrawal pain, whatever with Kratom. Then there's the second group. And when we do prevention work and education on Kratom, this is the group that we're trying to protect. These are what I'm calling the I just want to feel better users. These are people in their 30s who go into a smoke shop. Maybe they want to buy a vape, and this Kratom thing sounds really good. I don't know what it is, but it says it makes you feel better. I'll take that. These are people who do not use opioids. Some of them don't even have any history of addiction. They're just reading the product labels and trying to find out how they can feel better, perform better, work better, be a better parent, whatever that is. Now, cranum, as you can imagine, with all these different interactions, can have some serious health consequences that it causes. Truly, the biggest issue is that it causes opioid dependence. And when people stop, they get withdrawal. But when people are particularly heavy users, you can get some effects on other organ systems. So it can cause an inflamed liver. Like most opioids, it suppresses some of our hormones, our thyroid, and then also opioids suppressed our canadal function. So men who are on opioids get low testosterone. This also happens with kratom. There are some case reports of people getting kidney failure or actually the stimulant part of Kratom causing the heart to go into an abnormal rhythm. Because of the stress of the stimulant, you can also get some lung congestion. And then you can imagine it's a very psychoactive, so you can also get things like seizures and cognitive impairment. And if a mother is using Kratom because of the opioid-like effects, the baby will develop opioid withdrawal or neonatal abstinence syndrome after the delivery.

SPEAKER_00 12:07

Now, I mentioned the I just want to feel better user, right?

SPEAKER_01 12:12

So

Inside A Smoke Shop Sales Pitch

SPEAKER_01 12:13

I played Secret Shopper and I wanted to know what's it like buying Kratom. So this was my little adventure into a smoke shop in Monterey. This is the this is the sign right when you walk through the door. Okay. They sell all sorts of products, but this is what they wanted to highlight. Okay. Kratom. Kratom is a natural plant grown in Southeast Asia. And then it goes through the different effects. Take a look at what they say. Red vein, that refers to the plant. It's a green leaf, but the veins are red. Relaxing, euphoric, and well-being. That sounds great. My life is stressful. I'd like to relax. Now the white vein, oh, this one's energy stimulating and uplifting. Again, the veins of the plant are white. And then the green vein is a euphoric mood boost. This all sounds pretty good, right? Now, if you were wondering, the different colors of the veins and the plant really don't do that much different, but the companies will tell you they absolutely do. So again, I'm playing secret shopper. I walk in and I'm like, hey, I'm interested in buying Kratom. What can you tell me? And the lady behind the counter handed me this. This is a handout, and I'll make it bigger so you can see it. So this is basically a handout of one Kratom company's way that they say the different strains of Kratom affect you. So let's go through this. Kratom strain above the waves, relaxing, a well-being boost, and a sense of calm. I'm a busy physician. That sounds great. I would love a well-being boost and sense of calm in my day. I think my favorite one is the wedge, the all-in-one energizing lifeliter. White elephant and white horn are take charge, get up and go activation. This is how this stuff is sold. And so I'm, of course, I know what you know what's going on here. And I asked the lady, are there any major side effects to this? And she was like, I don't know, I don't take it, just read the thing. And I was like, Could you get addicted to it? She's like, I don't know, just read the thing. And I was like, and then I got even more edgy. What if I have pain? Could it be helpful? She was like, I don't know, just read the thing. So the person working at the smoke shop, and I realized this was only one smoke shop and only one person, really, I couldn't get any additional facts on it. So, yes, this is what the I want to feel better user is drawn to. It's a plant, it's natural, and yet it makes all these promises. So I got my camera out and I started taking pictures. Look at all the various products. There was an entire wall of kratom in this store. I felt bad taking this person's time, so I bought some. This is the package that I bought. Let me zoom in on the warning label and the product description. Warning. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. It's a supplement. That's how they're able to do this. Okay. Warning. Individuals should consult their physician in the case of heart disease, high blood pressure, liver disorder, or other medical condition. They should also consult their physician when taking any medication. Pregnant and nursing women, as well as anyone under the age of 21, should not use Kratom. Kratom should not be used with alcohol and medications. Keep out of the reach of children, not sold to minors. It does not mention that it is addictive and that it causes dependence. You can overdose on it or withdraw. Look at the wedge is one of our most popular strains. Due to the broad balanced range of strains, it's a great choice for supporting energy levels, enhancing motivation, and this is the best part getting you through your workday. For the I just want to feel better Kratom user, this is so unfair, right? This is somebody who may not have an addiction. They just want to feel better.

SPEAKER_00 16:14

And this is telling them take this to get through your busy workday. Now, Kratom is also sold online.

Online Shopping And Product Forms

SPEAKER_01 16:25

So I Google buy Kratom Online, and this is one of the many stores that popped up. You have free shipping bonuses, there's a rewards program. It's really like a retail shopping experience. And let's just take a minute and pause and consider why that matters. Okay. I have to give credit to my addiction medicine colleague on the East Coast, Dr. Sonia Deltredici. She has an addiction podcast, and I have one, and we collaborated. And so when she heard I was a secret shopper, she went and secret shopped as well. And she said, Casey, think about this. Let's imagine you have back pain. You have to use your health insurance. You have to find a doctor. You have to go talk to the doctor. You might have to wait for the appointment, right? The doctor might not want to give you what you think you need. You might have to go get x-rays, you might have to go get an MRI. Then the doctor prescribes something, you're not sure if it's going to work. You've got to go to the pharmacy. What if there's a copay? What if there's a prior authorization? Oops, the pharmacist was on lunch. It might be like six weeks before you are able to get what you think is a medication for your back. I was in and out of that Kratom shop in just a few minutes. So for people who don't do well with their traditional medical experience, myself included, because healthcare is often not very patient-friendly, this is an alternative, right? My mood is down, the Kratom makes me feel better. I go in and out. No big deal. I don't have to talk to a therapist. I'm trying to be funny here. I know I'm talking to a therapist, right? I don't have to talk to a therapist, I don't have to talk to a doctor, don't have to deal with a pharmacist. I just get what I need. So the retail experience is a part of what makes Kratom so pervasive as a problem for us. We'll talk about this in just a sec, but there are different forms of Kratom. But you can see this website gives you all sorts of options: powdered kratom, leaf kratom, extracts, capsules, and you can even buy it in bulk. Okay. They make it into food products. Here's Kratom chocolate. You can get it in liquid extracts. You can get it as a powder. They make it into gummies. And again, look at the packaging here. It looks like one of those five-hour energies, right? It's the little take a shot and feel better. Now, this is where it gets interesting. Turns out Kratom is not Kratom. So thank you to artificial intelligence because this gave me a very nice overview of the different types of Kratom. So now you all know what Kratom does. How is it prepared? Okay. So some people actually consume leaf kratom. It's fairly bitter, it's very fibrous. So it's actually hard to enjoy chomping on some kratom. So what do they do? They dry the leaf and make it into powder, and it's usually then mixed into food or drinks, or even some of my patients will take like a Gatorade bottle and just pour the Kratom in and kind of shake it up, and then they're good to go. They'll literally kind of just mix up their Kratom into their drink and move on. Now you can imagine Kratom's bitter doesn't taste great. So it turns out you can also pack it into capsules. Okay. And we all know this, right? Humans like getting high. We used to have coca, then we got cocaine, now we have crack. Right? We used to have sugar cane and fruit, and now we have high fructose corn syrup. Right? We used to have to go to the store, now we have Amazon. Humans like doing anything that makes more dopamine, and Kratom is no exception. So they figured out that they could take some of those alkaloids out of the kratom leaf and make them more concentrated into the form of extracts. So think of this like cannabis. You can extract it and make these like super potent preparations like waxes or dabs. That's what extracts are with kratom. They're really concentrated preparations of these active ingredients, the alkaloids in the kratom. Now, the plot thickens.

7-OH The Potent Kratom Opioid

SPEAKER_01 20:27

We have to talk about 7-hydroxymitrigyonine, which people call 7-O or 7-OH. A little bit of a backstory here. So it turns out that 7-hydroxymitrigyanine is one of the molecules that is naturally found in the kratom leaf and is also a metabolite of when humans use kratom. It turns out that it is a very potent activator of the opiate receptor. In fact, it's something like 13 to 15 times stronger than morphine. The reason this got on people's radar is apparently some healthcare entities doing research said, hey, this 7-hydroxynitrogynine acts like an opioid. I wonder if we should bring it to market as a new pharmaceutical. And the kratom industry went, we got you on this. So what they've done is they're selling this one molecule that naturally occurs in kratom in very small amounts as Kratom, but it's not. Leaf Kratom, again, fairly weak opioid effects. It has stimulant effects, it has again those anti-inflammatory and alpha-2 effects. 7-hydroxymitragynine is essentially a novel synthetic opioid. So when people say they're on 7OH, it's like they're on oxycodone, fentanyl, morphine, whatever. And unfortunately, because it's related to kratom, it's still sold as a supplement. And the kraton Industry knew this. So they actually marketed some 70H products to the opiate sophisticated users using names like perks, referencing percocets, or oxies, referencing oxycodone. And for the just feel better Kratom user, they don't start with this. They usually start with other forms of Kratom, but as their tolerance and dependence go up, they end up going to seven hydroxymetride. So that's an overview kind of what Kratom is and how it's sold.

Treating Kratom Dependence In Clinic

SPEAKER_01 22:35

What do I do as an addiction medicine doctor to treat people when they're using Kratom? So the first thing is why are they using Kratom? What unmet need do they have? For many patients, it's pain. Great. Let's get you a referral to pain medicine. Or hey, let's put you on some lidocaine patches or an anti-inflammatory. Great. For a lot of people, they like the stimulant effect. And we all know, as people who practice mental health care and provide services to those with mental health conditions, we often treat ADHD with stimulants. So some people who have comorbid ADHD will actually find that they can focus better because of the stimulant-like effects of Kratom. And we all know that fatigue is not a very particularly pleasant feeling, whether it's just because you didn't sleep last night or you have a medical condition like anemia or a low thyroid, that people really like the stimulant effects of the kratom. So usually we'll do when we're seeing patients using kratom, we'll do a detailed history of why are you taking it, what are you missing. We might offer non-addictive ADHD medications. We might suggest well-butrin, which is a very activating antidepressant that's puproprian, just to help with things like ADHD and focus and fatigue. But the big issue is we have to manage the fact that they're dependent on opioids. And when they don't use Kratom, they go into withdrawal. And there's basically four options. Number one, they just stop Kratom and we treat their withdrawal with what I call comfort medications. Are you nauseated? We'll give you a nausea medicine. Are you having body aches? Let's give you some anti-inflammatories. Are you not able to sleep? Let's give you a non-addictive sleep aid like trazenum. Okay. Some people will actually wean themselves off of Kratom. So we'll figure out how many milligrams of alkaloids they're getting based on the package, and we'll wean them down. We'll try to aim for 10% dose reduction every somewhere between one to four weeks, depending on how well they're able to tolerate it. Or we treat them with what is gold standard for opioid use disorder, which is buprenorphine, like suboxone or methadone.

SPEAKER_00 24:55

Now, I'm going to tell you a story.

SPEAKER_01 24:58

This is one of my patients, and I'll tell you why this picture of him matters when we get to the end of the story. But this gentleman found me in a remote part of California and drove to Monterey to see me. So there's a podcast, shout out to the Kratom Sobriety Podcast, that has been doing over a hundred episodes of people's stories getting off of Kratom. There are a group of individuals, some of which have used Kratom and have just created a forum through podcasts where people can share their stories and help each other to get off of Kratom. And they needed a subject matter expert and they found me. So I've been on their podcast three times. And I will get emails from all over the United States saying, Dr. Grover, it seems like no doctors know anything about Kratom. I heard you on the Kratom Sobriety podcast. Can you please help me? So this individual found me through their podcast and drove De Monterey to see me. He was in the I Just Want to Feel Better group. Very functional, very fit, no addiction history, very physically demanding job, just wants to keep up with the younger guys now that he's 40. And it was great. We got him off of Kratom onto Suboxone.

SPEAKER_00 26:10

He felt really good. And then he was like, Dr.

SPEAKER_01 26:13

Grover, now that I'm on Suboxone, what happens? And I told him that he still depends on opioids. And he was like, that's really frustrating. I was addicted to Kratom and now I'm addicted to Suboxone. And I went, no, let's be very clear. The Suboxone is not the problem. You are dependent on opioids. Thank you, Kratom. We really only have three options. We can wean you, you can go through withdrawal, or we maintain you on buprenorphin or methadone. And then just a level set, we also can wean people off of buprenorphin or methadone. And he was like, this isn't gonna work. I've got a super busy job. What do I do? And I said, Well, the good news is once we get you on Suboxone, I can get you off of opioids with really out any withdrawal. So we are going to talk about using long-acting injectable buprenorphine to get people off of opioids. And they really don't have to withdraw. It's absolutely amazing. Okay. So there are two products for long-acting injectable buprenorphine. You all know this in the mental health world, right? People forget their meds. So if we give them a once-a-month shot, they can't forget, right? For particularly for people with schizophrenia, like the, what is it, Abilify maintaina or in Vega sustaina, these long-acting injectable forms of medication. Well, it turns out we have them in addiction medicine too. And there are two products for treating people who are on buprenorphine. One's called Brixadi, one's called sublicate. So take a look here. Sublicade has the longest half-life of any long-acting injectable medication for opiate use disorder at 43 to 60 days. So when people get a shot of this medication sublicade, they still have half the medicine in their system two months later. So you can imagine it wears off really slowly. So here's what it looks like. When you take a Suboxone, the drug level goes up, it comes back down, right? Somebody's on a bilify once a day, the drug levels go up, then they come back down. The long-acting injectable creates a stable plateau where the drug level really doesn't fluctuate. Okay. And again, you can't forget a dose. Now, it turns out with the product called sublicade that the half-life is 60 days, right? So it's probably in your system for more like 120 days or longer. It has a long tail. So the way I describe it to patients is I give you one shot of sublicade. When I give you the second shot a month later, the first one's still in your system. When I give you the third shot, the first two shots are still in your system. When I give you the fourth shot, the first three are still in your system. And when I give you the fifth shot, the first one has for the most part worn off. And that's called steady state. And when people are at steady state, when they stop receiving supplicate injections, they don't withdraw.

SPEAKER_00 29:17

They wear off over about nine months. So this is my patient. Active guy, super physical.

SPEAKER_01 29:29

Didn't know what Kratom was, just wanted to feel better. This is a picture he sent me to say thank you, Dr. Grover. You gave me my life back. I didn't have to withdraw. You got me off of Kratom on a Suboxone and you got me off Suboxone without withdrawing. And this is him riding his motorcycle. So the reason I bring this up is that people can go from kratom to methadone or kratom to suboxone, but then they get frustrated because they're still on opioids. So if one of your clients says, Oh, I'm stuck on the Suboxone, send them to us or send them to anyone who does these long-acting injectable forms of buprenorphine, they are absolutely amazing. Okay. Now, the plot thickens once again.

Bans And The New Regulatory Push

SPEAKER_01 30:14

It turns out that there are a lot of efforts to ban Kratom because of everything that we have just talked about. So this is from Santa Cruz, our neighbors to the north. They tried to ban Kratom in the fall. It did not pass. I was actually there. They had me zoom in to the county administrative building to say, Dr. Grover, can you share what's going on with Kratom? Why is it bad? Why should we ban it? Now, turns out that there are people who are advocating for Kratom. And this is one called the Global Kratom Coalition. And I have interviewed their executive director, Matt Lowe, on my podcast twice. I always want to understand more of the story. And here's this organization, the Global Kratom Coalition's perspective. Leaf Kratom is weak, it's bitter, it's fibrous. People are really not getting addicted to Kratom when they're chewing the leaf. Now, when people are buying extracts and buying these 70H products, are they getting addicted? Yeah. These are, in the case of 70H, these are novel opioids. They are actually trying to work with governments to enact what they believe are sensible Kratom laws, like you can't have these superpotent products. You need to have better warning labels. And I learned a ton from talking to them and understanding their side of the argument. So in Santa Cruz, what happened is people who said, I use my Kratom T and it helps my back came out in droves and convinced the county government not to pass it. Now, there is actually some movement on regulating Kratom. This is dated January 9th, 2026, from the California Department of Public Health. They have a workaround. They are calling food that contains Kratom adulterated. And therefore, it cannot be sold. I actually have a copy on my desk that I can take to a smoke shop to remind them hey, y'all, according to the California Department of Public Health, you're selling an adulterated product. Now, in terms of how it's governed here, basically the county has inspectors for the smoke shops for the tobacco retailers, and they'll basically just file a report to CDPH and then the CDPH would send out inspectors. But for example, you can actually go on the CDPH website and share a tip that you saw a store selling Kratom. And likely what will happen is because the Food and Drug Administration has recommended to the Drug Enforcement Administration that 7-hydroxymetrianine is actually an opioid, it will probably be rescheduled as Schedule One, meaning it will be made illegal.

Final Thanks And Key Reminder

SPEAKER_01 33:17

Thank you so much for listening to Addiction Medicine Made Easy. If you found this helpful, please leave a review. It really helps others find the show. And a huge thank you to Central Coast Overdose Prevention for supporting this podcast. And always remember treating addiction saves lives.