For a product sold alongside energy drinks at petrol station counters across America, kratom has secured a remarkably powerful set of allies. An investigation by The New York Times revealed how a well-funded kratom industry influence campaign reached the highest levels of the Trump administration. It raises urgent questions about who is really shaping drug policy in the United States.

Kratom Lobbying and the Risks Being Downplayed

Kratom comes from the leaves of a Southeast Asian tree. Its active compound, mitragynine, interacts with the brain’s opioid receptors. Depending on the dose and preparation, it can produce mild pain relief, sedation or stimulation. Retailers across the United States sell it legally as tablets, drinks and gummies, and some companies market it to people seeking alternatives to prescription painkillers or alcohol.

The federal health warnings are not ambiguous. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) logged more than 965 kratom-related reports of harm, including 264 deaths. Between 2020 and 2024, coroners detected kratom in the systems of more than 5,200 people who died of drug overdoses, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. One study found kratom users carried a sixfold increase in the risk of overdose death.

Patti Wheeler’s son Wyatt knew none of this. The 27-year-old MBA student at Texas Christian University began taking a kratom extract in September 2022. Six weeks later, he was dead. A county medical examiner concluded the cause was the combined toxic effects of kratom’s active compound, a prescribed antidepressant and antihistamines. Ms Wheeler has since become an anti-kratom activist and documentary filmmaker.

“My son would be alive,” she said.

The Man Behind the Kratom Industry Influence Campaign

Jerry W. Ross stands at the centre of this story. The founder of Botanic Tonics and maker of the kratom and kava drink Feel Free, Mr Ross previously served federal prison time after pleading guilty to concealing the diversion of $10 million from oil and gas companies. He launched his supplement business in 2020. Feel Free now sits on shelves at more than 24,000 retailers across America.

Legal trouble has followed the product. In 2023, federal prosecutors sought to seize 250,000 bottles of Feel Free. They cited serious safety concerns and accused the company of trading illegally in an unapproved substance. A class-action lawsuit that same year alleged the product was potentially highly addictive and that Botanic Tonics had deliberately targeted recovering alcoholics with its marketing. The company settled for $8.75 million and agreed to add warning labels stating kratom can become habit-forming and cause serious adverse health effects.

Federal prosecutors then abruptly dropped the government’s case in December 2025. They told the judge the seized supplements had expired and the action was no longer a prudent use of government resources. The timing raised eyebrows.

Donations, Dinners and Access to the Vice President

The kratom lobbying push gained serious momentum after Donald Trump’s 2024 election victory. Mr Trump’s appointment of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Health Secretary opened a door. Mr Ross donated nearly $162,000 to Mr Kennedy’s defunct presidential campaign in the weeks around the inauguration, dwarfing his entire prior political giving.

In February 2026, Mr Ross donated $443,000 to the Republican National Committee at a fundraising dinner headlined by Vice President JD Vance. He and lobbyist Ches McDowell arrived early for a private meeting with Mr Vance. They used the time to promote natural kratom and press for a federal crackdown on synthetic competing products.

Botanic Tonics then donated $1 million to MAHA PAC, a political committee linked to Mr Kennedy. That single donation accounted for roughly 44 per cent of all funds the PAC raised from the start of 2025 through April 2026.

Mr Kennedy also personally rang the Governor of Ohio in autumn 2025 to head off a statewide ban on all kratom products. He urged the state to restrict only synthetic alternatives. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine initially complied, though his office later moved ahead with a broader kratom crackdown anyway.

A Cabinet Secretary With a Financial Stake in Kratom Lobbying

The most striking detail in the investigation concerns Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin. A former Republican senator from Oklahoma, Mr Mullin appeared at a press briefing in July 2025 alongside Mr Kennedy and then-FDA Commissioner Dr Marty Makary. Together they announced proposed federal restrictions on 7-hydroxymitragynine (7-OH), a synthetic compound competing with natural kratom on shop shelves.

Mr Mullin warned at the briefing that companies selling 7-OH exploited regulatory loopholes to cause harm. “It’s legal, but it’s an addiction that’s ruining lives,” he said.

His nomination to lead the Department of Homeland Security then revealed something important. Disclosure documents showed he held equity in Botanic Tonics worth as much as $1 million. He never declared when he acquired the stake. He has not filed paperwork showing he divested from it either.

Four people familiar with his efforts told The Times that Mr Mullin privately pushed health department officials to strip warning language from the FDA website about kratom’s risks. By the end of 2025, the agency had removed links from its kratom webpage pointing readers to enforcement actions against Mr Ross’s company and others. Officials declined a separate request to remove a warning about liver toxicity, seizures and substance use disorder.

The Homeland Security Department said Mr Mullin follows all ethics and conflict of interest standards and has not lobbied for any individual or company.

Stop Gas Station Heroin: A Lobbying Campaign in Disguise

The kratom industry influence campaign did not stop at private meetings. Mr Ross and his allies created an organisation called Stop Gas Station Heroin. The name was designed to make synthetic competitors sound maximally dangerous. Beneath the public health framing, the group worked to advance the interests of natural kratom producers.

Stop Gas Station Heroin hired Mr McDowell’s firm, Checkmate Government Relations, paying it at least $600,000. Mr McDowell has close ties to the president’s elder sons. His firm employs a nephew of Mr Kennedy and the son of a senior figure from Mr Trump’s 2024 campaign. That network made him a valuable asset.

Ryan Niddel, chief executive of rival kratom firm Diversified Botanics, was blunt when speaking to The Times. “It’s not pay to play,” he said. “Pay to have conversations, pay to have a chance at the table. Anybody that considers any of the lobbying work or any of the governmental work that goes on being different than that, I think has their head buried in the sand.”

When Money Shapes Drug Policy

Kevin Sabet served as a drug policy adviser under both Republican and Democratic presidents. He did not mince words. “It’s looking like we have a coin-operated drug policy that basically responds to whoever will give money,” he said. “It threatens public health and safety because it’s going around the scientific process in favour of donors and influencers.”

During an Oval Office briefing on maternal health last month, President Trump made a passing remark suggesting the issue had reached his desk. He said the administration was looking “very seriously” at approving natural 7-OH. The comment puzzled even industry insiders, who could not agree on whose side he was taking.

A White House spokesman maintained that the administration bases all health policymaking on gold standard science. The documented flow of cash from the kratom industry to political committees, cabinet members and senior officials points elsewhere.

People who have lost loved ones to addiction know the stakes better than most. When kratom industry lobbying shapes which products stay on shelves and which warnings get scrubbed from government websites, it is families like the Wheelers who pay the price.

Source: dbrecoveryresources