The Kratom Civil War Is Heating Up, and MAHA Has Picked a Side
The Kratom Civil War Is Heating Up, and MAHA Has Picked a Side
卡痛叶“内战”升温，MAHA 已选边站队
A decade ago, kratom advocates fought a surprisingly successful campaign against a proposed Drug Enforcement Administration ban that claimed the obscure Southeast Asian plant posed “an imminent hazard to public safety.” 十年前，卡痛叶（kratom）的倡导者们发起了一场出人意料的成功运动，反对美国缉毒局（DEA）的一项禁令提案。该提案声称这种鲜为人知的东南亚植物对“公共安全构成了迫在眉睫的威胁”。
They won bipartisan allies from Bernie Sanders to Rand Paul, and helped create a billion-dollar industry out of kratom, which has pain-relieving effects they said could help fight the opioid epidemic as a far safer, natural alternative to pills. 他们赢得了从伯尼·桑德斯（Bernie Sanders）到兰德·保罗（Rand Paul）等两党盟友的支持，并助力卡痛叶产业发展成为价值十亿美元的行业。他们认为，卡痛叶具有镇痛作用，作为一种更安全、天然的药片替代品，有助于对抗阿片类药物危机。
Now, many of those same pro-kratom activists are calling for a ban on products containing concentrates of one of kratom’s active components: 7-hydroxymitragynine, or 7-OH, an ultra-potent extract with opioid-like effects. And it’s causing major friction amongst consumers, sellers, and advocates of both substances. 如今，许多当初支持卡痛叶的活动人士却呼吁禁止含有卡痛叶活性成分之一——7-羟基帽柱木碱（7-hydroxymitragynine，简称 7-OH）浓缩物的产品。这是一种具有阿片类药物效应的超强效提取物，目前在消费者、销售商以及这两类物质的倡导者之间引发了严重摩擦。
“This is a chemically manipulated, full-blown opioid that is now in the marketplace,” claims Mac Haddow, the senior public policy fellow at the American Kratom Association, a kratom industry lobby group. “They masquerade as kratom products.” “这是一种经过化学操纵、彻头彻尾的阿片类药物，现在却出现在市场上，”卡痛叶行业游说团体“美国卡痛叶协会”（American Kratom Association）的高级公共政策研究员麦克·哈多（Mac Haddow）声称，“它们伪装成卡痛叶产品进行销售。”
The proliferation of 7-OH in gummies, capsules, and shots with brand names like Magic 7OH, 7 O’Heaven, and Pure OHMS across thousands of gas stations and corner stores over the past few years has caused increasing consternation. Consumers of 7-OH have spoken of its excruciating withdrawal symptoms, and there have been reports of polydrug overdoses involving 7-OH and other substances. Some are now entering rehab to overcome their dependency, while others are self-detoxing based on advice from Redditors. 过去几年里，7-OH 以软糖、胶囊和口服液的形式（品牌包括 Magic 7OH、7 O’Heaven 和 Pure OHMS 等）在数千家加油站和便利店泛滥，引发了越来越多的担忧。7-OH 的消费者描述了其令人痛苦的戒断症状，且已有涉及 7-OH 与其他物质混合使用的药物过量报告。一些人正在进入康复中心以克服依赖，而另一些人则根据 Reddit 网友的建议进行自我排毒。
The kratom community fears that 7-OH’s bad reputation could drag the entire kratom industry into a regulatory quagmire. But the 7-OH industry has organized against the potential prohibition, claiming 7-OH is kratom, despite only appearing in trace amounts within the leaves of the kratom plant, and that its benefits as an analgesic outweigh its potential harms. 卡痛叶社区担心 7-OH 的恶名会将整个卡痛叶行业拖入监管泥潭。但 7-OH 行业已组织起来反对潜在的禁令，声称 7-OH 就是卡痛叶（尽管它在卡痛叶植物叶片中仅以微量存在），并坚称其作为镇痛剂的益处大于潜在危害。
Anti-7-OH directives from the federal government have exacerbated tensions between the two sides. 联邦政府针对 7-OH 的指令加剧了双方之间的紧张关系。
Last July, US Health and Human Services secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. described the 7-OH industry as “sinister” at a press conference where FDA commissioner Marty Makary called for the DEA to categorize the drug as Schedule I—the most restrictive class of banned substances. Speaking from the Oval Office on May 11, President Donald Trump publicly endorsed “natural 7-OH,” in confusing remarks which appeared to refer to kratom. On top of all that, it appears that both RFK Jr. and Department of Homeland Security secretary Markwayne Mullin—who is also pushing for a 7-OH crackdown—have strong ties to a kratomist (and convicted criminal) behind a notorious kratom drinks company. 去年七月，美国卫生与公众服务部部长小罗伯特·F·肯尼迪（Robert F. Kennedy Jr.）在一次新闻发布会上称 7-OH 行业“阴险”，会上 FDA 局长马蒂·马卡里（Marty Makary）呼吁 DEA 将该药物列为一级管制物质（Schedule I）——这是禁药中最严格的类别。5 月 11 日，唐纳德·特朗普总统在椭圆形办公室发表讲话时公开支持“天然 7-OH”，但其言论令人困惑，似乎指的是卡痛叶。此外，小肯尼迪和国土安全部部长马克韦恩·穆林（Markwayne Mullin，他也在推动打击 7-OH）似乎都与一家臭名昭著的卡痛叶饮料公司背后的游说者（也是一名被定罪的罪犯）有着密切联系。
Proponents of 7-OH see the substance and the plant it’s derived from as inexorably linked. In April 2025 testimony to Colorado legislators debating how to regulate 7-OH, Michele Ross, the chief scientific adviser to the 7-OH advocacy group 7-HOPE Alliance, wrote, “To say 7-OH is not kratom is to say caffeine is not coffee or THC is not cannabis. It simply does not make sense.” 7-OH 的支持者认为该物质与其提取来源的植物有着不可分割的联系。在 2025 年 4 月向科罗拉多州立法者提交的关于如何监管 7-OH 的证词中，7-OH 倡导组织“7-HOPE 联盟”的首席科学顾问米歇尔·罗斯（Michele Ross）写道：“说 7-OH 不是卡痛叶，就等于说咖啡因不是咖啡，或者 THC 不是大麻。这根本说不通。”
But as opposed to coffee, cannabis, and kratom—which have been consumed for centuries if not thousands of years—7-OH does not have a long history of human use. It’s only been on the market for a few years. 但与咖啡、大麻和卡痛叶不同——这些物质已被人类使用了几个世纪甚至几千年——7-OH 并没有悠久的人类使用历史。它进入市场仅几年时间。
Many of the products that are labeled 7-OH contain little-understood compounds with unknown biological effects in animals or humans, says Chris McCurdy, a leading kratom researcher and director of the University of Florida’s translational drug development core. “So, these products, while represented as ‘clean’ are anything but.” 佛罗里达大学转化药物开发核心主任、卡痛叶领域领先研究员克里斯·麦柯迪（Chris McCurdy）表示，许多标有 7-OH 的产品含有鲜为人知的化合物，其对动物或人类的生物学影响尚不明确。“因此，这些产品虽然被标榜为‘纯净’，但事实远非如此。”
Meanwhile, a dozen states, from California to Vermont, according to reports, have already moved ahead of federal scheduling with their own 7-OH bans. Seven of those states have also banned kratom, although Rhode Island recently overturned its prohibition. 与此同时，据报道，从加利福尼亚州到佛蒙特州，已有十几个州在联邦政府采取行动之前，先行实施了各自的 7-OH 禁令。其中七个州也禁止了卡痛叶，尽管罗德岛州最近推翻了其禁令。
Much of the opposition to the DEA’s proposed kratom ban was rooted in how many people have credited home-brewed kratom tea as a lifesaving DIY off-ramp from fentanyl and opioids. A Johns Hopkins University survey last year suggested that a quarter of people who consume kratom take it in large quantities as an opioid replacement, with many becoming dependent. Some struggle to stomach the hefty amounts of powder required to beat withdrawal, making the more potent 7-OH pills potentially useful, though their own side effects from stopping use could be even worse. 当初反对 DEA 拟议的卡痛叶禁令，很大程度上是因为许多人认为自制卡痛叶茶是摆脱芬太尼和阿片类药物的救命稻草。约翰霍普金斯大学去年的一项调查显示，四分之一的卡痛叶消费者将其作为阿片类药物的替代品大量服用，许多人因此产生了依赖。有些人难以忍受为了克服戒断反应而必须服用的巨量粉末，这使得药效更强的 7-OH 药片显得“有用”，尽管停止使用 7-OH 本身可能带来更严重的副作用。
Most people, however, enjoy lower doses of kratom in place of alcohol for its mild, euphoric buzz at the hundreds of tiki-style bars, “entheogenic” lounges, and quirky cafés that serve it. Others ingest it via capsules. “If you take two pills it’s like a cup of coffee,” podcaster Joe Rogan said in 2019. “I took eight and I was fucked up.” 然而，大多数人是在数百家提基风格酒吧、“致幻”休息室和特色咖啡馆中，以低剂量替代酒精来享受其温和的欣快感。其他人则通过胶囊摄入。“如果你吃两粒，就像喝了一杯咖啡，”播客主持人乔·罗根（Joe Rogan）在 2019 年说，“我吃了八粒，结果整个人都废了。”
People are increasingly consuming kratom in seltzers like New Brew and Feel Free, the more potent market leader. (Feel Free consumption has spawned a subreddit called Quittingfeelfree; 13,000 people visit the community each week, claiming they had become unwittingly addicted to it.) 人们越来越多地通过 New Brew 和市场领先的强效产品 Feel Free 等苏打水来摄入卡痛叶。（Feel Free 的消费催生了一个名为“戒掉 Feel Free”（Quittingfeelfree）的 Reddit 子版块；每周有 13,000 人访问该社区，声称自己在不知不觉中对该产品产生了依赖。）
JW Ross, who changed his name from Jerry Cash is the founder of Feel Free and is considered to be at the forefront of the popularization of kratom drinks. (He had previously been the CEO of an oil and gas exploration company. In 2010, he was sentenced to prison after he pleaded guilty to having failed to properly disclose to the SEC that he diverted $10 million from the business.) JW·罗斯（JW Ross，原名 Jerry Cash）是 Feel Free 的创始人，被认为是卡痛叶饮料普及化的领军人物。（他曾是一家石油和天然气勘探公司的首席执行官。2010 年，他因承认未向美国证券交易委员会（SEC）如实披露其从公司挪用 1000 万美元资金而被判入狱。）
Earlier this year, an LLC associated with Feel Free gave $500,000 to the MAHA PAC, several months after the Department of Justice dismissed its case involving Feel Free’s products. 今年早些时候，在司法部撤销涉及 Feel Free 产品的案件几个月后，一家与 Feel Free 相关的有限责任公司向 MAHA PAC 捐赠了 50 万美元。
In 2023, federal agents seized 250,000 bottles of Feel Free and a slew of other kratom products worth more than $3 million, a raid that was preceded by some people alleging they suffered horrendous withdrawals from the drinks. The FDA, which was involved in the raid, claimed Feel Free was being marketed as a dietary agent but that there was inadequate information. 2023 年，联邦特工查获了 25 万瓶 Feel Free 和其他价值超过 300 万美元的卡痛叶产品。在此次突袭之前，已有人声称因饮用这些饮料而遭受了可怕的戒断反应。参与此次突袭的 FDA 声称，Feel Free 被作为膳食补充剂进行营销，但相关信息不足。