Stop the Kratom Ban in Ohio
The Ohio Board of Pharmacy tomorrow is considering a dangerous move of scheduling both Kratom and 7-hydroxymitragynine (7-OH) as a controlled substance, meaning these products will be fully banned. If this happens, thousands of Ohioans will lose access to a natural product that has been a lifeline for so many.
We need your voice right now.
Please email the Ohio Board of Pharmacy and urge them to reject this ban.
Email addresses:
exec@pharmacy.ohio.gov
Contact@pharmacy.ohio.gov
HOW YOU CAN HELP:
Below is a sample message you can copy, paste, and personalize:
Subject: Please Do Not Schedule Kratom or 7-Hydroxymitragynine (7-OH)
Dear Ohio Board of Pharmacy, I am writing to strongly oppose any proposal to schedule Kratom or 7-hydroxymitragynine (7-OH) as a controlled substance in Ohio.
Kratom and 7-OH are natural plant compounds that have helped me [insert your personal story here: pain relief, recovery, stress, sobriety, etc.]. They are not a public health crisis. Banning kratom means banning 7-OH as well, taking away options that thousands of Ohioans rely on to live healthier, more productive lives.
I urge the Board to follow science, not fear and to ignore the misleading attacks you may hear from certain kratom industry groups specifically on 7-OH. These individuals are being misinformed by industry members seeking market control, not consumer safety, and they do not represent the experiences of the many Ohioans who rely on kratom and 7-OH responsibly every day.
Instead of banning 7-OH, I urge the Board to support reasonable regulation, quality standards, and transparent labeling - approaches that protect consumers while preserving access to an important natural alternative. Please follow the science, not fear, and do not schedule 7-OH.
Sincerely,
[Your Full Name]
[Your City, Your State]
💡 Every email counts. Please take two minutes to send yours today and share this action with your friends and family, especially those from Ohio.
🙏 Thank you for helping us protect access to safe, natural alternatives and standing up for evidence-based regulation.
A copy of the letter i wrote
Dear Ohio Board of Pharmacy,
I am writing to strongly oppose any proposal to schedule Kratom or any of its alkloids, including mitragynine or 7-hydroxymitragynine (7-OH) as Schedule 1 controlled substances in Ohio.
I am an addiction neuroscientist who has studied chronic pain and alternative medicines including kratom for over 16 years. I am the author of Kratom Is Medicine, and serve as the Chief Scientific Advisor to the nonprofit 7-HOPE Alliance. I work with kratom consumers across the United States, including Ohio.
Kratom is used by 15 million people nationwide with over a decade of mainstream use in the United States. Since Ohio is roughly 3.5% of the U.S. population, I estimate there are roughly 525,000 kratom users in Ohio. The primary use of kratom is chronic pain relief and the secondary use is recovery from opioid use disorder (OUD).
If you ban kratom and kratom alkaloids, you will cause real harm to these 525,000 consumers, including forced withdrawal and potentially even overdoses and deaths as kratom users seek far more dangerous illicit opioids to deal with their chronic pain or addiction issues. There were 2,900+ drug overdoses in Ohio in 2024. It is likely you will see an increase in the number of drug overdoses if you ban kratom and kratom alkaloids, similar to other states like Utah that created bans.
The primary active alkaloids in kratom, mitragynine and 7-hydroxymitragynine (7-OH), are atypical opioids both in chemical structure and because they both function as G protein-biased partial mu opioid agonists, meaning they can never activate the opioid receptor to the same magnitude as a traditional opioid like fentanyl, morphine, or oxycodone that are full mu opioid agonists.
This translates to minimal euphoria and even dysphoria at higher doses of kratom or 7-OH, little activation of the beta-arrestin pathway that causes respiratory depression, and low likelihood of overdose and death when taken alone. Compare this to traditional opioid drugs with very real risk of addiction, overdose and death. Kratom and kratom alkaloid products are the safer option with established therapeutic use.
Kratom simply isn’t a crisis that merits emergency scheduling in Ohio. In 2023, the National Poison Data System (NPDS) reported only 51 kratom exposure cases in Ohio out of a total of 75,961 exposure cases. 9,640 exposure cases were for analgesics including traditional opioid painkillers, showing how kratom is relatively safer than traditional painkillers.
Kratom is not a recreational drug of abuse nor is it a drug that teens are using. The average age of both traditional kratom users and alkaloid products such as 7-OH is over 40. Teens are not using kratom products, as the Monitoring The Future (MTF) survey data collected by the federal government shows less than 1% of high school students have experimented with it. On the other hand, 11% of teens have used delta-8-THC vapes. The argument that kratom or 7-OH needs to be banned to protect the children simply isn’t valid here, and instead warrants regulations such as age-gating to 21+ and child resistant packaging.
Finally, I urge the Board to follow science, not fear and to ignore the misleading attacks you may hear from certain kratom industry groups specifically on 7-OH. These individuals are being misinformed by industry members seeking market control, not consumer safety, and they do not represent the experiences of the many Ohioans who rely on kratom and 7-OH responsibly every day.
Instead of banning kratom and kratom alkaloids including 7-OH, I urge the Board to support reasonable regulation, quality standards, and transparent labeling - approaches that protect consumers while preserving access to an important natural alternative.
Please follow the science, not fear, and do not schedule kratom or 7-OH. I am available for any questions you may have.
Sincerely,
Dr. Michele Ross PhD, MBA
Scientific Advisor, 7-HOPE
michele@7hopealliance.org
www.7hopealliance.org
