On July 29th, 2025, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr. took the stage at a press conference in DC to make a major drug policy announcement: The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) and the HHS were recommending the placement of 7-hydroxymitragynine (7-OH), a federally legal opioid found in small quantities in kratom, into Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act.
Schedule I is a legal classification reserved for drugs with no accepted medical benefits and a high potential for abuse. The placement of any drug into this category makes it difficult to research the drug, and easy to lock people behind bars for distribution or possession.
The recent 7-OH scheduling announcement, surprisingly, has enjoyed widespread support from some of the same lobbying groups that have fought to keep kratom legal in the past, and the kratom world is now divided into two warring camps: those who support scheduling 7-OH as a dangerous drug (while still defending natural kratom leaf as an herbal wellness supplement), and those who believe that once the government bans a kratom derivative, it won’t be long before they come after the herb itself.
To understand why and how this split happened, we have to look behind the curtain at the government agencies that regulate these drugs, and the lobbying groups that fund the scientists who research them.
Kratom and 7-OH: What Are They?
Kratom is an herbal substance derived from the leaves of a tropical tree in the coffee family. It’s commonly sold throughout the US in the form of powders, capsules, extracts, and teas, and contains psychoactive compounds that produce both stimulant-like effects at low doses and opioid-like, sedative effects at high doses. Over 10 million Americans use kratom products to boost energy and focus, elevate mood, manage chronic pain, and …
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Author: Skye Hawthorne / High Times
