NEBRASKA PASSES KRATOM CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT, SHUTS DOWN PROPOSED BAN

As the focus on kratom laws has shifted from prohibition to regulation, an unexpected group of states has taken up the charge during the 2025 legislative session. 

That includes Nebraska, a staunchly conservative state that has taken a strict approach to various plants and herbal options, which not only rejected an attempted ban on kratom but instead flipped years of attempts against the plant into a robust regulatory structure that ensures safe access for local kratom consumers. 

Nebraska joined a group of 15 other states by passing a law regulating kratom, and the story of the situation is as much about the process and final version of the bill as it is about a red-state opting for reasonable regulation. With a growing number of traditionally conservative lawmakers joining the cause to support kratom regulation, advocates are hoping the development in Nebraska is a sign of an industry that is about to receive the oversight it has been demanding for years. 

Two opposing bills were introduced into the Nebraska unicameral this session. Only one emerged from the committee stage–that was LB 230, known colloquially as the Kratom Consumer Protection Act (KCPA) and sponsored by Sen. Bob Hallstrom. At the time, Hallstrom told the Judiciary Committee that his bill was aimed at “highly concentrated” products masquerading as kratom products and informed the committee that the scientific community had been warning of the public health risk of such products. 

Regulation Wins Out Over Prohibition

In the face of a ban bill, Hallstrom’s arguments centered on “allowing safe products” to stay on the market and garnered the support of a wide variety of allies. Industry workers, local shop owners and even trial lawyers showed up against the proposed ban bill, pointing out that it would unnecessarily criminalize citizens who were responsibly using kratom. 

After that hearing, the bill to ban kratom was left on the table for the remainder of the legislative session and received no further action. 

More significantly, Hallstrom’s bill underwent a series of actions, both approving and declining proposed amendments, before it was voted into law on the final day of the legislative session. What emerged is perhaps the most comprehensive and unique KCPA of the 16 states that now legally regulate kratom. 

The bill contains a majority of the language that is typically associated with a KCPA: Comprehensive labeling requirements; limits on additives, synthetic alkaloids and a cap on the amount of 7-hydroxymitragynine; and simple definitions on age requirements and other aspects of kratom-related products. 

What is new is how integrated the law is with existing state statutes and the practical measures that were put in place as the process played out. 

Crafting a Comprehensive KCPA

For starters, the definition of a retailer and the facility requirements for producers must fall in line with similar state laws and regulations. Likewise, the law states that kratom products must be “manufactured, processed, packed, or held by a processor who has registered with the federal Food and Drug Administration as a food facility.” 

Other states have passed, or nearly passed, their versions of the KCPA, only to be limited or held up by a lack of enforcement mechanisms or without a state agency to oversee implementation of the law. Nebraska also solved another common problem of such legislation by including instructions for the state Tax Commissioner to “establish, operate, and administer a program to register kratom products.” 

To register as a kratom producer, the law requires each application to include a certificate of analysis about the product’s alkaloid makeup and a Good Manufacturing Process (GMP) certificate in addition to registering with the FDA. Although there is a financial burden associated with that application process, the law includes a carve-out where products that contain the same ingredients and the same delivery form can be packaged and sold in different containers, but be included on the same registration application. 

Hallstrom specifically targeted products with synthetic 7-OH in his testimony, and in the wake of that discussion the law was amended to include careful language of what constitutes an “adulterated” kratom product, while giving the state the right to request verification of any product that is suspected to be adulterated or fail to meet the definition of a kratom product as outlined in the law. 

Under LB230, businesses whose products are deemed not to meet the standards of a “kratom product” are offered a robust appeals process and a chance to maintain their registration, so long as no false statements are submitted to the state. The law also allows for businesses to function as the registration process is finalized, meaning that kratom sales can continue as the program to enforce the KCPA is put into place. 

Nebraska’s KCPA is also unique in how it separates kratom products from tianeptine, which is a synthetic medicine that is often referred to as “gas station heroin.” Under the KCPA, tianeptine is added to Schedule I in the state. 

During a rapid-fire session on May 14, the final day of the unicameral (a legislative setup with just one chamber of lawmakers), the KCPA passed 49-0 with an emergency clause, meaning the “act takes effect when passed and approved according to law.”  Gov. Jim Pillen signed the bill into law two days later.