Notes from the Field, No. 2

Kratom, after Oxford

On September 21, two University of Mississippi students, 18 and 20, died in Oxford on the same day, in separate places. Police recovered packaged kratom-type products, bought at retail, in both investigations. Officials have not said what caused either death. Toxicology was completed September 30 and has not been released. Court filings, as reported in early October, describe the product as tablets labeled with mitragynine pseudoindoxyl and “MGM-15,” two semi-synthetic compounds derived from kratom, not the leaf itself. A father and son who ran the store were charged federally on October 2 with possession with intent to distribute. Nobody has been charged with causing a death.

That story put kratom in front of a lot of people who had never heard of it. Here’s what it is, and what the law says, and how it is tested, because we have already seen a pickup in kratom testing.

What it is. Kratom is the leaf of a Southeast Asian tree. Its main active compound is mitragynine. A second one, 7-hydroxymitragynine, usually called 7-OH, is under 2 percent of the leaf and is also made inside the body from mitragynine. Both act at the same receptor as opioids. In low doses the leaf is a stimulant; in higher doses it is sedating. People take it for pain, for energy, for anxiety, and very often to manage opioid withdrawal on their own. It is sold as powder, capsules, tea, and liquid extract.

Concentrated 7-OH tablets, gummies, and shots sold at gas stations and smoke shops are a different thing from leaf kratom. Often this is referred to as “gas station heroin.” DEA describes 7-OH as sharing “a similar pharmacological profile to schedule II opioids like morphine.” Newer still are the semi-synthetic derivatives named in the Oxford filings. DEA placed those three compounds in Schedule I by temporary order on August 26, 2026. Its proposal to schedule concentrated 7-OH above a threshold was published in July and, as of this writing, the order has not issued. Leaf kratom and mitragynine remain unscheduled federally. “7-OH is now illegal” is a sentence you will hear; at the federal level it is not yet true.

The states. Roughly a dozen states ban kratom outright, several recently: Connecticut in March, Tennessee and Kansas on July 1. About twenty more regulate it under consumer-protection laws with an age limit of 18 or 21 and a cap on 7-OH content. Rhode Island went the other way and repealed its ban on April 1, 2026.

Illinois. The only state law is the Kratom Control Act of 2014. It bars sale to, and possession by, anyone under 18, and its definition includes 7-OH. It says nothing about adults. Eight bills are parked in Springfield, from an age of 21 to a full ban. None has passed either chamber. The veto session runs November 17–19 and December 1–3.

The suburbs. This is where the law actually lives. Chicago, Cook, DuPage, and Lake County have no kratom ordinance. The towns do. Elk Grove Village, where we are, banned retail sale in February 2025. So did Orland Park, Des Plaines, Rolling Meadows, Mount Prospect, Winnetka, Wheaton, and, as of October 1, Naperville. Antioch got there first, in 2023. Most reach the seller only. Carol Stream’s ordinance reaches possession too. Oak Park and Batavia raised the age to 21 instead. Rockford banned 7-OH products only. Bartlett is expected to vote this month. Downstate the list is longer, and several towns, Bloomington among them, prohibit possession.

Why it matters to your case. As a practical matter, the legality of the drug, as you know, is not our concern. Its use, misuse, and abuse are what really matter. If your case involves opiates, consider asking about kratom and 7-OH usage. Many opiate users will turn to kratom as a way to avoid opiate testing and manage the withdrawal symptoms. Kratom is what we call an add-on test, meaning it can be added to any panel for an additional fee. This can be tested in both hair and urine. In hair, the test reports both mitragynine and 7-OH. In urine it reports mitragynine only, so if 7-OH is the concern, hair is the specimen to order. Detection windows: head hair roughly 90 days, body hair up to 12 months, fingernails up to 6 months, toenails up to 12 months, urine two to three days. There is no prescription form of kratom, so a positive is reported as a positive; it is not sent for medical review, because no prescription could explain it.

When the client needs ongoing monitoring

If you have a client who needs ongoing monitoring, whether for kratom or any other drug, we can make things convenient for them to test. We have a random program we can set them up in. It provides not only their notifications, but documentation and reports for any attorney who wants to check compliance. We have access to a collection network throughout the Chicago area, but also nationwide. The goal is to make compliance as easy as possible. If you have a client who is traveling, we can still get them tested and it won’t disrupt the monitoring program.

Here is what that looks like from the client’s side.

The order specifies the panel, how often, and for how long. We draw the test dates at random, weekdays only, and the client is not told them in advance. On a selected day the notices start by email at 6 AM and repeat through the morning until the client signs in to the donor portal and acknowledges the selection. The portal shows the assigned collection site, its hours, and the client’s Passport: the electronic test authorization that carries the site’s address and a barcode the collector scans to pull up the order. The client prints it or shows it on a phone, brings photo identification, and tests that day. Twenty-four-hour sites and mobile collectors cover the hours a regular site does not. If no specimen is provided that day, the case contacts are notified once we have reviewed it.

The site is chosen from the client’s ZIP code and can be changed at any time. A client who travels for work, or spends the summer somewhere else, keeps testing on the same schedule at a site near wherever they are.

For the attorney or guardian ad litem, two things arrive without asking: a copy of the client’s enrollment instructions, so everyone knows the rules the client is operating under, and the result notices as they come in. On request we send a compliance report covering any period you name: each weekday, whether the client checked in, whether they were selected, whether they tested, and the check-in and compliance rates for the period.

Details and the program cadence are on our ongoing monitoring page.