LEGISLATIVE UPDATE: TEXAS SQUASHES BAN BILL AS COLORADO AND MISSISSIPPI TARGET 7-OH PRODUCTS

Legislative sessions across the country are wrapping up as the summer months approach. After an eventful couple of months for kratom policy, a trio of states have wrapped up their discussions on how to approach the regulation of the plant. 

Texas, Colorado and Mississippi all started on very different paths toward kratom regulation at the beginning of the year, yet arrived at similar destinations. As the patchwork of kratom legislation expands to nearly half of the 50 states, the outcomes in Texas and Mississippi show the prevailing winds of kratom policy, and Colorado’s updated law shows that states that have already passed kratom legislation can still tweak their laws as the science evolves.  

One thing is clear: The future of kratom is in natural kratom products rather than the modified and adulterated products that have drawn the ire of lawmakers across the country. 

Texas Ban Bill Modified, Still Stalls Out After Senate Approval

Two years after passing its version of the Kratom Consumer Protection Act (KCPA), one Texas senator came back with an attempt to ban the plant during the 2025 legislative session. 

Despite the bill passing through the state Senate, a contentious hearing surrounding it led to significant changes before the bill ultimately died in committee with just days to go in the legislative session. That leaves the existing KCPA in place, while the discussions around the proposed ban bill showed that even opponents of kratom can be swayed by science and testimony. 

Sen. Charles Perry authored SB 1868 as an attempt to schedule kratom in the state and used the same arguments against kratom that led to the plant being banned in six states nearly a decade ago. Instead of taking his statements at face value, expert witnesses clarified the position of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). They discussed recent research, before a chemist in the state set the record straight about how practical it is to test for adulterants and “bad” kratom products. 

Researchers who have worked with FDA also informed Perry about the threat posed by products with elevated levels of 7-hydroxymitragynine, one of kratom’s natural alkaloids (which occurs in trace amounts in natural kratom products). That led to Perry shifting the focus of his bill and targeting 7-OH products in various ways. 

One of the more innovative lines of Perry’s amended law allowed for “clear capsules containing kratom leaf powder” and banned the tablets and pills associated with 7-OH products. Those changes indicated that even lawmakers who were concerned about kratom were willing to listen to the scientists over outdated warnings and misinformation from its opponents. 

In the end, SB 1868 did not even receive a committee hearing in the Texas State House of Representatives. The Texas legislative session ends on Jun. 12. 

Mississippi Settles on Age Restrictions, Limit on 7-OH

Lawmakers in Mississippi started the 2025 session with four bills on kratom introduced across the two chambers of the state government. A single bill that combined elements of all four emerged, and it was signed into law on April 17. 

That bill, House Bill 1077, was introduced by Rep. Lee Yancey, who had vowed to ban kratom in the past. This time, Yancey’s bill set an age limit to purchase kratom. It was amended to target synthetic versions of kratom, and adulterated products and set limits on the amount of 7-OH that can be included in a product that is considered to be kratom. 

Earlier efforts set out for more robust regulations, while a bill in the state Senate attempted to schedule synthetic kratom alkaloids as Schedule III. The other bills either died in the chambers they were introduced, while the bill to schedule synthetic kratom made it out of the Senate before being eliminated due to procedural deadlines. 

The compromise was to include language in Yancey’s bill that targeted the same synthetic products that were at the heart of discussions in Texas. 

Yancey’s bill was approved unanimously in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Colorado Updates Kratom Law in Furious Final Day on the Floor

Colorado was one of the early states to regulate kratom with a bill that passed in 2022 that reflected the ‘first run’ of KCPAs that came following the wave of states that took action against the plant. 

The original law was similar to other states: It banned adulterated products and non-kratom additives, restricted purchasing of kratom to people over 18, and required labels and information necessary to sell kratom in the state. This year, the state came back with an updated law that would increase the regulatory structure and pass that cost on to kratom producers. 

At the time, advocates for kratom warned against creating a larger financial burden on kratom producers. The bill seemed stalled after being assigned to the Senate Appropriations Committee on Feb. 4. It sat dormant until April 25, when it finally received that hearing, and then passed through the Senate three days later. 

The increased regulatory structure and registration costs were included in the final version, but more importantly, the law was refined to specifically target synthetic and semi-synthetic products and set limits on the amount of 7-OH that can be contained in a product sold as kratom. It also updated label requirements and set rules to discourage products that would be appealing to younger consumers. 

As part of a frantic final session on the House floor, the updated kratom law was passed by a 47-18 margin and gave Colorado the same protections that were codified in Mississippi and proposed in Texas. Gov. Jared Polis signed the bill into law on May 29.