When Louisiana lawmakers voted to criminalize kratom, a plant-based supplement long used by people with chronic pain, they framed the move as a necessary step to protect public health. Yet for residents like Dan Lawton, whose struggle with back injuries and nerve pain mirrors that of millions of Americans, the ban represents something very different: a forced choice between breaking the law and living in relentless pain.
Lawton’s story begins, as many chronic pain narratives do, with a seemingly minor injury in early adulthood. A hard landing on a snowboard in Colorado left his back sore for a few days, and then the discomfort faded. But over the next two decades, that brief trauma turned into arthritis and ultimately a herniated disc, sending radiating pain down his legs. Like many in similar circumstances, Lawton cycled through physicians, physical therapy and chiropractic care, and he experimented with an array of medications along the way. Eventually, he found that the only thing that reliably allowed him to function was kratom, a powder derived from the leaves of the Mitragyna speciosa tree native to Southeast Asia.
Kratom occupies a curious and contested place in American drug policy. The plant’s primary alkaloids, mitragynine and 7-hydroxymitragynine, interact with some of the same receptors targeted by opioids, but in lower concentrations and with a different pharmacological profile than classical opioid medications, according to a Johns Hopkins Medicine analysis. In surveys of kratom consumers, the vast majority report using it to manage pain, improve mood, or reduce dependence on more dangerous substances, rather than to seek an intense high. That aligns with Lawton’s experience: he says he has used kratom most days for five years without side effects or signs of dependence, and credits it with allowing him to maintain his daily life despite chronic pain.
Louisiana’s new law, codified in Act 41 of the 2025 Regular Session, classifies mitragynine and 7-hydroxymitragynine as Schedule I substances under the state’s Uniform Controlled Dangerous Substances Law. Schedule I is reserved for compounds deemed to have a high potential for abuse and no accepted medical use, placing kratom alongside drugs like heroin and LSD. Under the statute, it is now illegal to possess, produce, or distribute kratom in any form; penalties range from fines for small amounts to prison terms of up to five years for larger quantities and for those caught manufacturing or selling the product, as outlined by the Louisiana Department of Revenue.