Governor DeWine Calls on Pharmacy Board to Schedule Kratom Compounds as Illegal Drugs

Governor DeWine Calls on Pharmacy Board to Schedule Kratom Compounds as Illegal Drugs

Last month, he tried to kick kratom a second time using Ibogaine and said he’s feeling hopeful it will stick. He started taking kratom capsules regularly five years ago and then two years ago turned to a kratom drink called Feel Free. In Tennessee, where Clarke spent his entire NBA career playing for the Grizzlies, kratom is sold openly in smoke shops and corner stores. In the same botanical family as coffee, kratom has been used for centuries in Southeast Asia.

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One man in Colorado says he got addicted to kratom after mistaking it for an alternative to coffee. Soon, the kava bar's drink wasn't enough; she started buying kratom powder from the gas station so she could ingest greater amounts at home. It wasn't long before Beutler found herself returning to her local kava bar in Idaho for kratom every day. Emily Beutler says she became addicted to kratom in 2022 after trying a tea with it at a kava bar in Arizona. "These are not drug people that I talk to for the vast majority of them," he says. At first, he says, he used kratom like an energy drink.

• Some experts say it is 13 times more potent than morphine.
• Products range from powdered leaf, which most closely resembles the traditional use of kratom, to isolated extracts of active ingredients in the plant.
• At low to moderate doses, kratom’s effects last around two hours.
• Avoid frequent, high doses to help maintain desired effects.
• During the same press conference, Makary noted that there is no intention for the agencies to deem pure kratom as “safe” for use at this time.
• These three buckets capture almost all the kratom-related bills that were under consideration in the 2025–26 state legislative sessions.

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Currently, Mexico does not list Kratom, nor any of its active ingredients, as controlled substances. Israel further classifies Kratom as a “dangerous drug” by the Department of Health. Because Kratom contains both of these chemicals, the drug is considered illegal. Recently, Israel passed legislation that declared Mitragynine and Hydroxymitragynine illegal in the country.

Federal Legal Status in 2026

“Not only that, it’s going to last you six to eight hours just depending on your body type and your genetic makeup,” she added. The American Kratom Association said while the plant appears to be popular in pre-workout and post-workout routines, there is no data about its use in professional sports. “I mean it’s everywhere, every store I go into, every gas station, every mini-mart or convenience store,” he said. As a last resort, he said he turned to an addiction treatment facility in October that utilizes Ibogaine, a powerful psychedelic used in other countries but illegal in the U.S. “They’re these little blue bottles that you find at gas stations,” said the former player, who asked not to be named in order to speak openly about his addiction. “It first came to my attention in dealing with local high school athletes that were using it for anxiety and pain control from soreness after practice,” Quigley said.

Refugee Health

The family spends over a thousand dollars each month on kratom products. One of those ingredients is kratom, a plant that naturally contains about a quarter of a percent of opioids. All establishments selling kratom products in Ohio would be required to remove the items from their shelves. If these actions are approved by the Ohio Board of Pharmacy, Ohio will be the first state in the country to categorize all current and future natural and synthetic kratom compounds as Schedule I drugs.

Division of Environmental Health Laboratories

If you decide to take kratom, proceed with caution. If you’re thinking about taking kratom for depression or anxiety, take some time to learn about the risks. In rare cases, kratom overdose can lead to Open Kratom coma and death.