In July 2016, New Hampshire passed a Senate Bill 540 that allows for any individual who is over the age of 18 years to possess, use or sell kratom. This same bill however started its journey intending to ban the sales, possession and distribution of kratom.

Many people along with the Health and Human Services Committee met to discuss the future of kratom. Many spoke at this meeting about their experiences with kratom however the most impactful testimonial was of State Representative Shem Kellogg.

He was undergoing chemotherapy treatment at the time due to cancer and stated that if given a chance would use kratom as a natural pain relief to significantly increase his quality of life. This resulted in the authorities to amend the bill instead of banning kratom and add the age limit to it.

However in September 2019, Franklin became the first municipality in New Hampshire to ban kratom and its products within its jurisdiction. Although this ban applies at present only to Franklin but in February 2020 a new bill, SB758, aims to regulate the kratom products across the state. This could again go either way and lead to a banning of the products or hopefully better sense will prevail and they would instead regulate kratom. But the future is yet to be written.

The DEA in 2016 announced that it intended to add kratom to the Scheduled I drugs list like some of the other dangerous drugs like heroin, LSD and cocaine. They said that kratom products are uncertain and inconsistent and it is difficult to identify them or their purity levels.

However, in the same year in October 2016 they changed their stance to first studying the plant and its products. This was made possible due to the immense support from the public who challenged them and requested them to reconsider.

Similarly, the FDA has also over the years played the see-saw on kratom legalisation and at present have decided to settle on a course where they shall study it before bringing out their verdict on kratom.

The FDA has in the past compared kratom to morphine in terms of its addiction, dependence and capability for abuse. The FDA while it evaluates more scientific information on kratom also keeps warning consumers from using the product until it is better understood.

They cite the report from the Center for Disease Control where kratom was marked as the drug used in 91 cases of unintentional drug overdose deaths between a period of 18 months from July 2016 to December 2017. However, they also say that in most of these overdose cases, fentanyl was listed as a cause of death which means the person was using more than one medicine or drug.