Three seemingly unrelated headlines dominated the news in recent weeks: NBA star Brandon Clarke passed away, the family of a teenager who died from a drug overdose after prompting by ChatGPT sued OpenAI, and the resignation of FDA Commissioner Marty Makary.
But, there’s a disturbing thread that ties these disconnected stories together: Kratom — a deadly drug sold in convenience stores across America. For years, the government has failed to act. That failure has cost lives, and now is the time for a federal ban on kratom.
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Kratom, an addictive, opioid-like drug banned in many of the Southeast Asian countries from where it originates, has flooded American gas stations nationwide over the past fifteen years. In some forms, the drug is 13 times more potent than morphine. But kratom is federally uncontrolled; anyone of any age can legally buy kratom at corner stores across the country. It is a pharmaceutical-grade risk being sold with less oversight than a candy bar.
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This policy has resulted in deadly consequences: Between 2020 and 2024, nearly 5,300 people died from overdoses involving kratom.
From celebrities to everyday teenagers, our failed approach to kratom impacts Americans of all stripes. Just weeks before his sudden death, Memphis Grizzlies power forward Brandon Clarke was arrested in Arkansas (one of the few states that prohibit kratom) for possessing and trafficking over a half pound of kratom. And in California, a family announced a lawsuit against OpenAI after Chat GPT told their nineteen-year-old son, Sam Nelson, that it was safe to mix kratom with Xanax, advice that led to his fatal overdose.
Kratom’s threat has, in the past, led the FDA to take the limited step of proposing some action against the drug. In 2025, then-Commissioner Marty Makary announced that the Trump administration would recommend classifying 7-OH as a Schedule I drug.
Unfortunately, even Makary’s proposed limited action was a bridge too far for President Donald Trump, who, in a stunning move, announced that he would push for 7-OH approval.
One day later, Makary resigned. Reporting on Makary’s resignation suggests that the former FDA Commissioner could not reconcile his medical opinion with Trump’s lenient approach to synthetic kratom.
Fortunately for the American people, a growing bloc in Congress is pushing for a federal ban on kratom. In March, a bipartisan group of eleven United States senators sent a letter to the FDA urging it to prohibit all components of the kratom plant. These Senators should be lauded for their efforts and encouraged to take legislative action to add kratom to the list of controlled substances.
At a time when the Executive Branch seems less focused on fighting drugs than at any time in recent history, congressional champions are crucial. Taking on kratom and protecting the American people is a worthwhile and winnable battle.
Federal regulators have been trying — and failing — to control kratom for nearly a decade. In 2016, the DEA announced emergency action to make kratom a Schedule I drug, only to reverse course six weeks later after intense lobbying from the kratom industry.
The FDA then spent years building a scientific case, resulting in a recommendation to place kratom in Schedule I. This, too, was rescinded after a pro-kratom group called the American Kratom Association met privately with the HHS official who had authority to override the FDA.
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The recommendation was quietly killed, and the public wasn’t informed for two and a half years. This action enraged then-FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb so much that he took to Twitter in 2018 to declare that HHS prevented FDA “from moving forward with the scheduling of kratom, and I’m convinced it’s fueling the opioid addiction crisis.”
For a decade, the Executive Branch has failed to take meaningful action against kratom. Instead, powerful special interest groups have guided public policy. Enough is enough. We can’t afford to lose another young person like Sam Nelson. For the sake of all Americans, it’s time for Congress to step in and get this gas station opioid out of our communities.
Dr. Kevin Sabet is one of America’s foremost drug policy experts and a three-time White House drug policy adviser, having served under Presidents Obama, Bush, and Clinton. He holds a doctorate from the University of Oxford and has testified before Congress on drug policy multiple times.
