Lawmakers shouldn’t criminalize all-natural kratom, just powerful synthetic form

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Massachusetts lawmakers are considering a slate of bills that could criminalize natural kratom leaf, a centuries-old botanical consumed safely by 23 million Americans, including thousands of Bay Staters.

But legislators on Beacon Hill are confusing a critical distinction: the difference between whole-leaf kratom and dangerous commercial opioid products known as concentrated synthetic 7-hydroxymitragynine (7-OH) .

(Editor’s note: Use of the kratom leaf, and synthetic versions, was examined in a recent story on MassLive.)

Whole-leaf kratom, from the Southeast Asian tree Mitragyna specio