The tragic deaths of University of Mississippi students Aidan Hamilton and Robert Strang have turned the national spotlight on the dangers of kratom, the drug known as “gas-station heroin” for its cheapness, addictiveness, and ubiquity.
These are just two of the countless reasons why the Foundation for Drug Policy Solutions, where I serve as CEO, launched a television ad campaign this week calling for a full ban.
Kratom was found at the scenes of both deaths. Local authorities have not yet made public official causes, but Fox News’s Laura Ingraham was absolutely right when she said regarding the tragedy that kratom “has got to be banned. This should not be allowed to be sold in the United States.” As was Robyn Tannehill, the mayor of Oxford, Mississippi (where the deaths occurred), when she said that “to take kratom is really rolling the dice on death.”
At least 5,208 overdose deaths from 2020 to 2024 involved kratom, according to Centers for Disease Control overdose data. (By comparison, crack — the byword for a national drug crisis — killed about 6,000 people across 25 big cities in the 1980s.) It looks increasingly possible that Hamilton and Strang will join those tragic ranks. How many more young lives will be lost before the Trump administration bans kratom in all its forms?
Yes, one active compound in the drug, 7-OH, has rightfully drawn regulatory attention from the White House. In July, the Food and Drug Administration announced its intention to temporarily place concentrated forms of 7-OH in Schedule I. That’s precisely correct: Schedule I is where drugs with no medical use and high health risks get categorized. But even that circumscribed ban has yet to take full effect, though August saw related synthetic compounds banned — and even when it goes into effect, it will leave a mile-wide loophole for the active compound in so-called “natural” or “whole plant” kratom, mitragynine.
From a public health viewpoint, this is disastrous. Both compounds are deadly. Mytraginine has links to severe heart arrhythmias; data suggest it’s toxic to human neuronal cells. 7-OH can be 13 times more potent than morphine. More than half of regular kratom users, per one study, experience severe dependency. Cessation triggers withdrawal symptoms similar to those faced by opioid abusers, including pain, fever, and diarrhea.
And since mytraginine converts to 7-OH in the human body, banning only 7-OH and related compounds makes zero scientific sense.
That disconnect with reality reflects the wider state of the accepted public narrative around plant kratom. It’s touted as “safe” because it is “natural.” Yet that is rank absurdity. Opium is a plant product. Cocaine is a plant product. So are hemlock, belladonna, yew berries, and curare. Kratom, be it synthetic or natural, kills and injures users and drives addiction.
Where does this deadly misinformation come from, and why has it taken such a deep root? For that, thank the American Kratom Association. The AKA spent $800,000 in 2025 and more than $440,000 in 2026 so far on federal lobbying (and now has tripled the number of lobbyists from just a few years ago). Lobbying efforts like these have frustrated and hobbled for a decade any federal effort to get this drug and the overdose and addiction crisis it’s driving under control. If not for these industry lies and obfuscations, Hamilton and Strang — neither of them old enough even to drink legally — might still be alive.
It’s time to act. And we at FDPS are far from the only ones demanding action.
A bipartisan group of senators has called for the Food and Drug Administration to schedule all forms of the drug. America should thank Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), John Boozman (R-AR), Katie Britt (R-AL), Ted Budd (R-NC), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Steve Daines (R-MT), Jim Justice (R-WV), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), and especially Pete Ricketts (R-NE) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), the letter’s lead signers, for having the courage to stand up and defend public health.
INSURERS WANT YOU TO HATE DRUGMAKERS SO YOU WON’T NOTICE WHO’S ACTUALLY ROBBING YOU
Their demand aligns with policy in many countries where kratom is native, including Malaysia, Vietnam, Myanmar, and Singapore. There’s a growing appetite for full bans at the local and state levels in the United States as well. Oxford has had one in place since 2019; Massachusetts issued a one-year ban in late August; Gov. Kim Reynolds (R-IA) called for a total ban this month.
At colleges across the country like Ole Miss, Saturdays should be for football and fun, not funerals. Until the White House enacts a federal ban on kratom in all its forms, sadly, the death toll is only going to rise.
Kevin A. Sabet, Ph.D., is president and CEO of Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) and the Foundation for Drug Policy Solutions (FDPS). A drug policy adviser under the Clinton, Bush, and Obama administrations, he is an affiliate of Yale University and the author of several books, including Smokescreen and One Nation Under the Influence.