Banning Natural Kratom Won’t Solve America’s Gas Station Heroin Crisis

Walk into a gas station in almost any state, and you might find something far more dangerous than cigarettes or lottery tickets: synthetic drugs sold in candy-colored packaging, labeled as herbal supplements or mood enhancers.

These lab-made substances — often referred to as “gas station heroin” — are up to 13 times more potent than morphine, unregulated, and disturbingly easy to buy.

This is no longer a fringe problem. It’s a full-blown national crisis.

And yet, instead of targeting these dangerous synthetics, Louisiana is going after the wrong target entirely. Louisiana lawmakers recently approved Senate Bill 154, a bill that would criminalize natural kratom — a plant that has been used for centuries as a mood enhancer, and energy booster.

The bill, which now heads to Gov. Jeff Landry’s desk, wouldn’t just criminalize synthetic knockoffs; it would lump the centuries-old botanical in with heroin and LSD, treating anyone who uses it — responsibly — as a criminal.

This is exactly the kind of reactionary policymaking that fuels the problem rather than solving it.

Natural kratom is brewed like tea or consumed as a dietary supplement, and it’s used by more than 23 million Americans today as a general wellness tool.

But what’s showing up behind the counter at smoke shops isn’t always natural kratom. Increasingly, you will find a hyper-concentrated, lab-made product that isolates one compound from the plant and supercharges it, stripping away the other natural alkaloids that moderate its effects.

Scientists tracking the online market are sounding the alarm about these same potent, addictive substances as the so-called “gas station heroin” crisis spreads across the country.

The products sold at smoke shops and roadside stops are lab-made concoctions that isolate one compound found in a leaf and use harsh chemicals to turn it into a synthetic opioid, stripping away the rest.

The result? Lab-made drugs cooked by underground chemists that are not only powerful and unpredictable but have little in common with the real plant.

Now, Louisiana’s governor is considering signing a bill that, if made law, would impose felony charges, fines, and prison time on anyone who uses or sells natural kratom, including those who use it responsibly.

That kind of policy doesn’t just miss the mark — it ignores the facts.

Since 2016, no state has passed a full kratom ban. Seventeen states, including Utah, Georgia, Texas, and Oregon, have taken the opposite route: regulating kratom with quality standards, age limits, testing requirements, and labeling rules, which now safeguard more than 128 million Americans.

Even the federal government has rejected calls to schedule kratom twice, in 2016 and 2018, and again by the World Health Organization in 2021.

Only six states still maintain total bans — and most of them are considering regulatory alternatives. If Louisiana moves forward, it won’t be leading. It’ll be joining a shrinking fringe.

And for what gain? A full ban requires serious public investment — from training law enforcement to enforcing new penalties to launching public education campaigns.

Louisiana, already facing a projected $587 million budget shortfall, would be diverting funds away from urgent needs like mental health care and gun violence prevention — both of which are far more pressing. The state’s suicide rate has surged nearly 40 percent in the past two decades, and its gun death rate is more than double the national average.

The reality is this: without adequate enforcement, bans don’t stop the spread of dangerous drugs. They just push people into the shadows and drive out law-abiding businesses. The very people who’ve used natural kratom responsibly for years may be forced into the underground market — or worse, driven to synthetic substitutes that carry far higher risks.

Meanwhile, the real threat continues to thrive. Gas station heroin — products like “Dozo Percs,” “Oxin,” and “7” — are flooding the market. Despite warnings about their ties to addiction and overdose, these synthetic knockoffs remain largely unregulated, powering an $8 billion industry with little oversight.

If states truly want to curb that threat, they need to follow the science — and the data shows that regulation works better than prohibition.

A Kratom Consumer Protection Act would provide the tools to distinguish between safe, natural kratom and synthetic products that have no place on store shelves. It would give law enforcement clear lines to draw and ensure that adults can continue making informed decisions about their health.

Let Louisiana be the cautionary tale — not the model. Because SB 154 doesn’t represent progress; it represents panic.

If we’re serious about ending the gas station heroin crisis, we have to stop pretending that banning tea leaves will do the trick. The real solution is smarter oversight, not broader criminalization.