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Empty wood-paneled hearing room with leather chairs, microphones, a wall clock and one envelope on the table

Scheduled by Silence: How New Jersey Banned Thr...

Kemal Whyte

New Jersey scheduled three synthetic kratom compounds on 25 September 2026 with no hearing, vote or finding: one official did not object within 30 days.

Why is kratom legal: a wooden gavel suspended mid air above a single kratom leaf on a stack of blank papers, on a dark marble bench beneath a domed hall lit by shafts of gold.

Why Is Kratom Legal? Because Nobody in Washingt...

Kemal Whyte

Why is kratom legal in the US? Not because anyone decided it should be. The 2016 DEA withdrawal, the 2018 HHS rescission and the 2026 record, by a seller.

Dark typographic title card. Gold kicker reads Five bans, 1 August 2025 to 28 August 2026, above the headline Two planned. Three did not., a gold rule, then Of the three, one search came back empty. Reviewed 7 September 2026.

Who Gets the Withdrawal? Five States Banned Kra...

Kemal Whyte

Five states banned kratom between August 2025 and August 2026. Two published clinical guidance for dependent users. Louisiana announced through its tax agency.

A dim state house corridor with tall panelled doors receding down a marble hallway, under type reading one repeal, two bans, one year, and the headline Ninety-one days, then thirty-five more.

Ninety-One Days: The Only Kratom Repeal, and th...

Kemal Whyte

Rhode Island repealed its kratom ban on 1 April 2026 and became the only state ever to reverse one. Ninety-one days later Tennessee banned kratom outright, reaching possession and not...

Dim convenience store shelving photographed at night, small bottles racked on the right and deep shadow to the left, under type reading Gas station heroin. Two drugs, one name.

Gas Station Heroin: Two Different Drugs Are Sha...

Kemal Whyte

FDA uses gas station heroin for tianeptine. The press uses it for concentrated 7-OH kratom products. They are different drugs with different legal status, and treating them as one makes...

Editorial banner reading nine states, then Massachusetts, over the question of where kratom is illegal, noting nine outright state bans and one temporary Massachusetts order placing all forms of kratom in Schedule I from 28 August 2026

Kratom Illegal in What States? Nine of Them, an...

Kemal Whyte

Kratom is illegal outright in nine states. Massachusetts adds a temporary Schedule I order on 28 August 2026, and it got there without a single vote.