{"id":2695,"date":"2026-03-30T19:44:28","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T19:44:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.botanicalae.org\/?page_id=2695"},"modified":"2026-03-30T19:49:50","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T19:49:50","slug":"arkansas","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.botanicalae.org\/?page_id=2695","title":{"rendered":"Arkansas"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Arkansas officially banned kratom on <strong>February 1, 2016<\/strong>, following an administrative decision by the Arkansas Department of Health.<br><br><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">How the Ban Happened<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Unlike many states that pass a bill through the legislature to ban a substance, Arkansas utilized an administrative rule-making process:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Administrative Scheduling:<\/strong> The <a href=\"https:\/\/jonesbororightnow.com\/news\/268862-the-green-gray-zone-the-impact-of-kratom-in-northeast-arkansas\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Arkansas Department of Health<\/a> added the two primary active alkaloids in kratom\u2014<strong>mitragynine<\/strong> and <strong>7-hydroxymitragynine<\/strong>\u2014to the state&#8217;s list of <strong>Schedule I controlled substances<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Justification:<\/strong> Health officials argued that these compounds had a high potential for abuse and no accepted medical use, placing them in the same legal category as heroin and LSD.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Penalties for Possession<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Because it is a Schedule I substance, penalties in Arkansas are among the strictest in the country:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Small Amounts:<\/strong> Possession of less than two grams is a felony that can result in up to <strong>six years in prison<\/strong> and a <strong>$10,000 fine<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Larger Amounts:<\/strong> Possession of more than 28 grams (approximately one ounce) can lead to a sentence of <strong>five to 20 years<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Recent Legal Developments (2025\u20132026)<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" id=\"p-rc_a0950b905ff5993e-27\">There have been significant efforts to overturn the ban and replace it with the <strong>Arkansas Kratom Consumer Protection Act<\/strong>, which would regulate rather than prohibit the plant.<sup><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Senate Bill 534 (2025):<\/strong> In early 2025, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.billtrack50.com\/billdetail\/1874074\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">SB534<\/a> was introduced to remove kratom from the controlled substances list.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Legislative Outcome:<\/strong> The bill <a href=\"https:\/\/legiscan.com\/AR\/bill\/SB534\/2025\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">passed the Arkansas Senate<\/a> in April 2025 with a 24-5 vote. However, it ultimately <strong>died in the House<\/strong> in May 2025 after failing to gain enough support in the Public Health, Welfare, and Labor Committee.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Current Status:<\/strong> As of March 2026, kratom remains <strong>illegal statewide<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Arkansas officially banned kratom on February 1, 2016, following an administrative decision by the Arkansas Department of Health. How the Ban Happened Unlike many states that pass a bill through the legislature to ban a substance, Arkansas utilized an administrative rule-making process: Penalties for Possession Because it is a Schedule I substance, penalties in Arkansas [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2695","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.botanicalae.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.botanicalae.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.botanicalae.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.botanicalae.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.botanicalae.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2695"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.botanicalae.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2695\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2699,"href":"https:\/\/www.botanicalae.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2695\/revisions\/2699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.botanicalae.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}