Article: Is Kratom Banned in Pennsylvania? What HB 2657 Actually Does (October 2026)

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Oct 7, 20267-oh

Is Kratom Banned in Pennsylvania? What HB 2657 Actually Does (October 2026)

Two things moved this week, both on kratom. Pennsylvania's House sent a kratom bill to the state Senate on October 5. And the DEA still has not finished the 7-OH scheduling action it started in July, six weeks after it scheduled three related compounds instead.

Pennsylvania House passes HB 2657

The Pennsylvania House passed House Bill 2657 on October 5 by unanimous vote. Rep. Bridget Kosierowski of Lackawanna County is the sponsor. The House Health Committee reported the bill out on September 29.

The bill, as printed in the committee packet, allows natural kratom leaf in powder or capsule form and prohibits synthetic kratom. It defines synthetic kratom as a product with 7-hydroxymitragynine exceeding 0.5% of the total alkaloid composition. Processors and retailers would register annually with the Department of Health, with the registration fee capped at $100. Sales to anyone under 21 would be prohibited. Packaging would need to be child resistant and carry manufacturer information and the FDA disclaimer, and labels could not carry medical claims. Natural kratom would be taxed under Pennsylvania's tobacco products tax.

Kosierowski cited 33 kratom-associated deaths in Pennsylvania since 2025 and 106 poison control calls in the first half of 2026, according to Fox56. The Associated Press put the tax at 12% and projected $4.4 million in first-year revenue plus $241,000 in additional sales tax, routed to a new Kratom Regulatory Fund.

Stage matters here. This passed one chamber. It is not law. The Senate has to pass it and the governor has to sign it, and reporting this week noted the Senate has only a handful of session days left on the calendar. If you sell kratom in Pennsylvania, nothing changes today. Read the printed bill now rather than later, because a 0.5% cap on 7-OH as a share of total alkaloids is a lab number, not a label number, and proving it takes a current certificate of analysis.

The federal 7-OH action is still unfinished

Here is the Federal Register record, in order. On July 6, 2026 the DEA published two separate notices of intent. One covered 7-hydroxymitragynine above a specified threshold. The other covered mitragynine pseudoindoxyl, MGM-15 and MGM-16, three compounds related to 7-OH.

The second one finished. A temporary scheduling order published August 26, 2026 placed mitragynine pseudoindoxyl, MGM-15 and MGM-16 in Schedule I, effective on publication, through August 26, 2028. That order covers those three substances and their isomers, esters, ethers and salts. It does not cover 7-OH.

The 7-OH action did not finish. On the same day, August 26, the DEA extended the comment period on it. Searching the Federal Register for 7-hydroxymitragynine as of October 7, 2026 returns no temporary scheduling order for 7-OH itself. The July notice of intent and the August comment extension are the latest entries. So 7-OH is not on the federal schedules right now. The agency has said it intends to put it there, and it can publish that order on short notice.

State rules keep splitting apart

Stateline reported on October 5 that states are moving in opposite directions. Its survey counts 31 states with some form of kratom regulation and 36 that introduced legislation across the 2025 and 2026 sessions. On one side, Tennessee's statewide ban on possession, sale and distribution took effect in July 2026, and the Massachusetts governor issued an executive order in August 2026 placing all forms of kratom in Schedule I for one year. On the other, Rhode Island replaced its own statewide ban with a regulated market for adults 21 and over that prohibits synthetic alkaloids and 7-OH, and Oklahoma set a 1% ceiling for 7-OH plus alkaloid labeling requirements.

Those are Stateline's figures and Stateline's reading of each law. We have not pulled the primary text for every state listed, so treat the state-by-state detail as reported rather than confirmed. If you ship into any of those states, check the statute itself before you decide what you can send.

Healing Herbals sells kanna, kava, blue lotus, Amanita muscaria, wild dagga and akuamma. We do not sell kratom or 7-OH. We cover kratom here because the rules written for it keep pulling in the rest of the botanical shelf, and because the lab-number thresholds showing up in these bills are the direction every one of these plants is headed. Adults 21 and over.

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Written by Herbal Healings