{"id":104609,"date":"2025-08-29T16:04:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-29T16:04:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/104609\/"},"modified":"2025-08-29T16:04:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T16:04:12","slug":"balancing-kratoms-potential-benefits-and-risks-%e2%88%92-new-legislation-in-colorado-seeks-to-minimize-harm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/104609\/","title":{"rendered":"Balancing kratom\u2019s potential benefits and risks \u2212 new legislation in Colorado seeks to minimize harm"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Bregger had never heard of kratom before his son, Daniel, 33, died in Denver in 2021<\/a> from using what he thought was a natural and safe remedy for anxiety.<\/p>\n

By his father\u2019s account<\/a>, Daniel didn\u2019t know that the herbal product could kill him. The product listed no ingredients or safe-dosing information on the label. And it had no warning that it should not be combined with other sedating drugs, such as the over-the-counter antihistamine diphenhydramine, which is the active ingredient in Benadryl and other sleep aids. <\/p>\n

As the fourth anniversary of Daniel\u2019s death approaches, a recently enacted Colorado law aims to prevent other families from experiencing the heartbreak shared by the Bregger family. Colorado Senate Bill 25-072, known as the Daniel Bregger Act<\/a>, addresses what the state legislature calls the deceptive trade practices around the sale of concentrated kratom products artificially enriched with a chemical called 7-OH<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The Daniel Breggar Act seeks to limit potency and underage access to kratom, an herbal supplement.<\/p>\n

7-OH, known as 7-hydroxymitragynine, has also garnered national attention. On July 29, 2025, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration<\/a> issued a warning that products containing 7-OH are potent opioids that can pose significant health risks and even death.<\/p>\n

As kratom and its constituents<\/a> are studied in greater detail, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and university researchers have documented hundreds of deaths<\/a> where kratom-derived chemicals were present in postmortem blood tests. But rarely is kratom deadly by itself. In a study of 551 kratom-related deaths in Florida<\/a>, 93.5% involved other substances such as opioids like fentanyl.<\/p>\n

I study pharmaceutical sciences<\/a>, have taught for over 30 years about herbal supplements like kratom, and I\u2019ve written about kratom\u2019s effects and controversy.<\/p>\n

Kratom \u2013 one name, many products<\/p>\n

Kratom is a broad term<\/a> used to describe products made from the leaves of a Southeast Asian tree known scientifically as Mitragyna speciosa. The Latin name derives from the shape of its leaves, which resemble a bishop\u2019s miter<\/a>, the ceremonial, pointed headdress worn by bishops and other church leaders.<\/p>\n

\"Small<\/a><\/p>\n

People report buying kratom powder from online retailers and putting it into capsules or making it into tea for consumption.
\n Everyday better to do everything you love\/iStock via Getty Images<\/a><\/p>\n

Kratom is made from dried and powdered leaves<\/a> that can be chewed or made into a tea. Used by rice field workers and farmers in Thailand to increase stamina and productivity<\/a>, kratom initially alleviates fatigue with an effect like that of caffeine. In larger amounts, it imparts a sense of well-being<\/a> similar to opioids. <\/p>\n

In fact, mitragynine, which is found in small amounts in kratom, partially stimulates<\/a> opioid receptors in the central nervous system. These are the same type of opioid receptors that trigger the effects of drugs such as morphine and oxycodone. They are also the same receptors that can slow or stop breathing when overstimulated.<\/p>\n

In the body, the small amount of mitragynine in kratom powder is converted to 7-OH by liver enzymes<\/a>, hence the opioid-like effects in the body. 7-OH can also be made in a lab and is used to increase the potency of certain kratom products, including the ones found in gas stations or liquor stores.<\/p>\n

And therein lies the controversy over the risks and benefits of kratom.<\/p>\n

Natural or lab made: All medicines have risks<\/p>\n

Because kratom is a plant-derived product, it has fallen into a murky enforcement area. It is sold as an herbal supplement, normally by the kilogram from online retailers<\/a> overseas.<\/p>\n

In 2016, I wrote a series of articles<\/a> for Forbes as the Drug Enforcement Administration proposed to list<\/a> kratom constituents on the most restrictive Schedule 1 of the Controlled Substances Act<\/a>. This classification is reserved for drugs the DEA determines<\/a> to possess \u201cno currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse,\u201d such as heroin and LSD. <\/p>\n

But readers countered<\/a> the DEA\u2019s stance and sent me more than 200 messages that primarily documented their use of kratom as an alternative to opioids for pain.<\/p>\n

Others described how kratom assisted them in recovery from addiction to alcohol or opioids themselves. Similar stories also flooded the official comments requested by the DEA, and the public pressure presumably led the agency to drop its plan<\/a> to regulate kratom as a controlled substance.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Kratom is under growing scrutiny.<\/p>\n

But not all of the stories pointed to kratom\u2019s benefits. Instead, some people pointed out a major risk: becoming addicted to kratom itself. I learned it is a double-edged sword \u2013 remedy to some, recreational risk to others. A national survey of kratom users was consistent with my nonscientific sampling, showing more than half were using the supplement<\/a> to relieve pain, stress, anxiety or a combination of these. <\/p>\n

Natural leaf powder vs. artificially concentrated extracts<\/p>\n

After the DEA dropped its 2016 plan to ban the leaf powder<\/a>, marketers in the U.S. began isolating mitragynine and concentrating it into small bottles that could be taken like those energy shots of caffeine often sold in gas stations and convenience stores. This formula made it easier to ingest more kratom. Slowly, sellers learned they could make the more potent 7-OH from mitragynine and give their products an extra punch. And an extra dose of risk.<\/p>\n

People who use kratom in the powder form describe taking 3 to 5 grams<\/a>, the size of a generous tablespoon. They put the powder in capsules or made it into a tea several times a day to ward off pain, the craving for alcohol or the withdrawal symptoms from long-term prescription opioid use. Since this form of kratom does not contain very much mitragynine \u2013 it is only about 1% of the powdered leaf \u2013 overdosing on the powder alone does not typically happen.<\/p>\n

That, along with pushback from consumers, is why the Food and Drug Administration is proposing<\/a> to restrict only the availability of 7-OH and not mitragynine or kratom powder. The new Colorado law limits the concentration of kratom ingredients in products and restricts their sales and marketing to consumers over 21. <\/p>\n

Even David Bregger supports this distinction<\/a>. \u201cI\u2019m not anti-kratom, I\u2019m pro-regulation. What I\u2019m after is getting nothing but leaf product,\u201d he told WPRI in Rhode Island last year while demonstrating at a conference of the education and advocacy trade group the American Kratom Association.<\/p>\n

Such lobbying with the trade group last year led the American Kratom Association to concur<\/a> that 7-OH should be regulated as a Schedule 1 controlled substance. The association acknowledges that such regulation is reasonable and based in science.<\/p>\n

Benefits amid the ban<\/p>\n

Despite the local and national debate over 7-OH, scientists are continuing to explore kratom<\/a> compounds for their legitimate medical use. <\/p>\n

A $3.5 million NIH grant<\/a> is one of several that is increasing understanding<\/a> of kratom as a source for new drugs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Researchers have identified numerous other chemicals<\/a> called alkaloids from kratom leaf specimens and commercial products. These researchers show that some types of kratom trees make unique chemicals, possibly opening the door to other painkillers. Researchers have also found that compounds from kratom, such as 7-OH, bind to opioid receptors in unique ways. The compounds seem to have an effect more toward pain management and away from potentially deadly suppression of breathing. Of course, this is when the compounds are used alone and not together with other sedating drugs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rather than contributing to the opioid crisis, researchers suspect that isolated and safely purified drugs made from kratom could be potential treatments for opioid addiction. In fact, some kratom chemicals such as mitragynine have multiple actions<\/a> and could potentially replace both medication-assisted therapy<\/a>, like buprenorphine, in treating opioid addiction and drugs like clonidine for opioid withdrawal symptoms<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rigorous scientific study has led to this more reasonable juncture in the understanding of kratom and its sensible regulation. Sadly, we cannot bring back Daniel Bregger. But researchers can advance the potential for new and beneficial drugs while legislators help prevent such tragedies from befalling other families.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David Bregger had never heard of kratom before his son, Daniel, 33, died in Denver in 2021 from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":104610,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[64,63,137,490],"class_list":{"0":"post-104609","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-medication","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-medication"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104609\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}