Pennsylvania House Unanimously Passes Kratom Regulation Bill

The Pennsylvania House voted unanimously on Monday to pass House Bill 2657, legislation that would allow adults to keep buying natural kratom leaf while banning the synthetic and heavily concentrated products that state health officials link to a growing share of poison control calls and overdoses.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Bridget Kosierowski (D-Lackawanna), cleared the chamber with no recorded opposition. It now moves to the state Senate, which has only a handful of session days left before the legislature's term ends in November.

"Kratom is already here, and establishing rules makes the marketplace more transparent and accountable," Kosierowski said, according to the Pennsylvania Capital-Star. "We should not have to choose between doing nothing and criminalizing use. There is a responsible middle ground we can establish."

What the bill would change

Under the measure, retailers who register with the state would be permitted to sell natural leaf kratom products to customers 21 and older.

Packages would have to carry the manufacturer's name and address and a warning that the products have not been evaluated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Products could not carry medical claims, would need to be child resistant and could not be designed to appeal to minors.

The bill would bar so-called synthetic or adulterated kratom products, including those containing more than 0.5 percent 7-hydroxymitragynine, or 7-OH, a compound found only in trace amounts in the raw leaf but concentrated in extract products sold at gas stations and smoke shops. Violations would carry criminal penalties aimed at sellers, not individual users.

Kratom products would be taxed at 12 percent, with the revenue directed into funds to enforce the new rules. As the bill advanced out of committee, House Health Committee Chair Dan Frankel (D-Allegheny) said Kosierowski intends to offer a future amendment to close "potential loopholes in the bill, to tax the products in a simpler way, and to direct those tax dollars towards oversight."

"The goal is to continue to make products that some find therapeutic available, while eliminating the most dangerous products or forms that might be appealing to young people or consumers who simply don't understand how dangerous kratom can be," Frankel said.

Why lawmakers acted

Kratom comes from the leaves of a tree native to Southeast Asia and has been used there for centuries. Its primary active compound, mitragynine, acts on the brain's mu-opioid receptors. In low doses the plant acts as a stimulant; in larger doses it behaves more like a sedative.

Fresh numbers from the Pennsylvania Department of Health show 33 overdoses involving kratom in the state since 2025. Calls to poison control centers about the substance have also climbed, reaching 106 this year through June 30, including 41 involving 7-OH.

Treatment specialists say they increasingly see patients seeking help for kratom dependence who report withdrawal symptoms resembling those of other opioids. Because kratom's active compounds leave the body quickly, users can begin to feel withdrawal within a few hours of a dose.

Some people who have struggled with more powerful opioids say kratom helped them manage withdrawal outside the medical system. Public health experts counter that the plant can be addictive in any form, that it has not been proven effective for opioid withdrawal and that research on long-term effects and drug interactions remains thin.

Where the industry stands

The American Kratom Association, a lobbying group for kratom manufacturers and sellers, broadly backs the bill's aims but wants changes. Senior policy fellow Mac Haddow said the group would prefer that the measure allow extracts made with solvents the FDA considers safe for food, provided the finished product is no more potent than the natural leaf.

"An extract standardizes that dose," Haddow said, noting that potency in powdered leaf varies widely with harvest and shipping. He also wants language that anticipates new synthetic compounds derived from kratom, which he said tend to appear faster than regulators can act.

A federal backdrop

Pennsylvania is moving as federal agencies tighten their own posture. The Drug Enforcement Administration placed three synthetic compounds — mitragynine pseudoindoxyl, MGM-15 and MGM-16 — into Schedule I on an emergency basis, a designation that lasts two years. The agency has also opened a public comment period on a proposed Schedule I classification for 7-OH, which would group it with drugs such as heroin and LSD.

The blog reported in August on the emergency scheduling order.

In Pennsylvania, district attorneys in Bucks and Chester counties have asked the state Department of Health to use emergency powers to classify 7-OH as a Schedule I substance. A department spokesperson told the Capital-Star that officials are reviewing the situation and that the products' placement in retail stores "can make people assume they are regulated and safe when they are not."

Kratom is currently marketed as a dietary supplement, a category that receives limited scrutiny from federal regulators. That gap is the reason state legislatures have become the primary policymakers on the substance, producing a patchwork in which the same product can be sold freely in one state and banned in the next.