When Kim Maloney saw the press conference, she said she was so happy she nearly cried.
It was July 2025, and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and then-Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary announced their plan to initiate the process to have 7-Hydroxymitragynine − or 7-OH, a compound naturally occurring in the kratom plant − scheduled as an illicit substance.
It’s an issue that hits close to home for the Ohio mother. For years, she struggled with debilitating kratom addiction, one that eventually saw her drinking upward of 10 kratom drinks a day, after trying one from a local CBD store in 2021. Her addiction to this “hippie heroin,” she told USA TODAY at the time, took nearly everything from her. Her car. Her house. Her marriage. Nearly half her body weight. At one point, she weighed 70 pounds. Maloney believes her addiction would have taken her life, too, had she not gone to rehab in 2024.
So, when Kennedy and Makary announced federal action against synthetic 7-OH − a version of the compound artificially altered to become more potent − she saw it as a silver lining. Maybe the tide on kratom was finally about to turn.
But, a year later, she and other recovering addicts say they aren’t so sure about that.
While they applaud the federal government for getting the ball rolling on 7-OH, they’re disappointed federal regulation hasn’t yet extended to natural leaf kratom products as well, which are still sold at gas stations, liquor stores and smoke shops across the country. This past July, the HHS commended the Drug Enforcement Administration’s notices of intent to temporarily schedule 7-OH and three of its derivatives as illicit substances but stated these actions are “not intended to regulate natural leaf kratom that does not contain enhanced levels of 7-OH.”
During that 2025 press conference, Makary was asked if the federal government in the future planned to also go after natural leaf kratom, which remains legal in most states.
“There have been physicians who have had concerns about some claims around natural kratom,” Makary said. “We have to prioritize what we work on. So, we are going after the killer first, which is the synthetic concentrated kratom. And then we can look into that other question. But we think it’s night and day in terms of the public health risk.” USA TODAY has reached out to the HHS and DEA for further comment.
While synthetic 7-OH is far more potent and addictive than natural leaf kratom, experts say both substances pose risk for addiction. For Maloney and others who know this risk firsthand, going after one and not the other only gets at part of the problem.
“They need to go after all of it,” Maloney says. “Things like this should not be sold at a gas station.”
7-OH and the dangers of kratom
In 2025, USA TODAY spoke with more than 20 people, including Maloney, who said they became severely addicted to kratom. Many of these people had no history of substance abuse prior to ingesting kratom. Some were health and fitness enthusiasts who thought kratom was just like any other wellness supplement. Others thought it was a healthy alternative to alcohol. A few mistook it for a run-of-the-mill caffeine drink, like coffee or tea.
Many also said they used only natural leaf kratom and never touched synthetic 7-OH. Natural leaf products come in many forms − some as capsules, others as powders, others as drinks. In July 2025, one product went viral when a TikToker posted a video describing how a teenage boy tried stealing his wallet outside a gas station after he refused to buy the boy a Feel Free tonic. At the time, a representative for Botanic Tonics, the company behind Feel Free, told USA TODAY its Feel Free Classic tonic contains only natural leaf kratom, with nearly undetectable levels of 7-OH. USA TODAY has reached out to a representative for Botanic Tonics for additional comment.
In online support groups, stories abound of people who say they fell into devastating addiction shortly after trying natural leaf kratom.
“It’s, like, the same names, the anonymous names, over and over,” Maloney says of a Reddit group for people trying to quit Feel Free, the product that she says hooked her. “‘This is my 12th quit.’ ‘I can’t quit.’ ‘Somebody help.’ It’s constant. The same people, over and over. … It’s heartbreaking.”
Dr. Timothy Fong, president of the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry, says that while it’s clear synthetic 7-OH is far more powerful and dangerous than the natural leaf products, lack of standardized regulation has muddied the waters for consumers.
“It’s kind of like caffeine and nicotine and alcohol,” Fong says. “If I buy a Red Bull in New York and in LA, I know it’s the same content. If I buy a Starbucks latte in New York and LA, it’s going to be the same. … If I buy a bag of natural leaf kratom, I have no idea if it’s exactly the same, in terms of purity, contaminants, because these products are not regulated.”
‘It ruined my life’
Still, pro-kratom advocates say it is possible to consume natural leaf kratom responsibly and that many do so for pain relief. Many also take issue with natural leaf products getting conflated with the 7-OH ones.
Mac Haddow, a senior fellow on public policy at the American Kratom Association, is one of those advocates. He says he’s used natural leaf kratom for 10 years to treat his knee and back pain, as well as arthritis.
“When I was young and stupid, I raced motorcycles in the desert when I was in college, and I banged myself up pretty good, and I’m paying the price for it now,” he says. “So I use it on a daily basis, just to fend off the pain that’s associated with that, and it helps me dramatically.”
Yet many who’ve struggled with kratom addiction say the risks far outweigh the benefits. Jinny Schmidt, a nurse who says she became addicted to Feel Free, says she sees both perspectives.
“The government is right to distinguish botanical kratom leaf from highly concentrated or semi-synthetic 7-OH products,” she says. “They’re not interchangeable. Lumping them together is scientifically sloppy and could hurt people who have responsibly used traditional leaf or powder for pain or to move away from more dangerous substances. But pretending botanical kratom can’t cause dependence is also dishonest.”
For Maloney, she says natural leaf kratom almost killed her. She’s gotten pushback for wanting more regulation but says she’ll keep speaking out, if doing so spares others that fate.
“People have come after me and said, ‘Oh, you’re nothing but an addict. Why are you trying to get rid of something so good?’ And I’m like, ‘It ruined my life.'” she says. “Either you’re a full-blown addict or you’re delusional, because you didn’t live my experience.”