Thailand did something in 2021 that no other country in Southeast Asia has done: it took kratom out of narcotics control and built a dedicated legal framework around it. Five years on, that framework is worth understanding in detail, particularly if you are considering anything commercial, and most particularly if you are considering export.
This post covers the Thai framework and its penalties, selected countries in the region, and the destination-market rules that decide whether an export is viable. Where a figure is disputed or unverified, it is marked as such rather than smoothed over. This is general education, not legal advice.
How Thailand got here
The Thai relationship with kratom is older than the prohibition of it.
- 1943: The Kratom Act B.E. 2486 bans the plant. Historical accounts attribute the ban less to health concern than to revenue: kratom competed with a state-taxed opium trade.
- 1979: Kratom is listed under the Narcotics Act B.E. 2522 as a Category 5 substance, the least restrictive schedule, alongside cannabis.
- 2019: Decriminalised for medical purposes, with a community-control model piloted in southern provinces.
- 2021: The Narcotics Act (No. 8) B.E. 2564, published in the Royal Gazette on 26 May 2021, removes kratom from Category 5 effective 24 August 2021. Cultivation, possession and use stop being criminal matters.
- 2022: The Kratom Plant Act B.E. 2565 is published in the Royal Gazette on 26 August 2022 (Vol. 139, Part 52 Kor) and comes into force on 27 August 2022.
- 2024: Thai FDA guidelines announced on 4 September 2024 set mitragynine limits for kratom food supplements.
The Transnational Institute, which tracks drug policy across the region, describes Thailand as the first Southeast Asian country to fully legally regulate cultivation, use, trade and manufacturing of kratom.
What the Thai framework permits
Growing, possessing and selling leaf need no licence. The Kratom Plant Act licenses only import and export (Section 10).
Processed products fall under their own laws. Under Section 3, kratom used as an ingredient in herbal products, drugs, food or cosmetics is governed by the law for that product. A kratom food or health product therefore needs the relevant Thai FDA approval, and food manufacturing must meet GMP standards.
Import and export need a licence from the Secretary-General of the Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB) (Section 10), plus a notification for each shipment. A licence is valid for five years from issue (Section 12). Carrying leaf across the border for personal use or treatment is exempt, up to amounts set by ministerial regulation.
Who may apply for an import/export licence: Thai nationals over 20 who live in Thailand, juristic persons registered under Thai law, community enterprises, and government agencies. A foreign individual cannot apply in their own name. Whether a foreign-owned Thai company qualifies is a question for counsel.
What the framework restricts
These restrictions are the part operators most often get wrong:
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No sale of leaf, or of food containing leaf, to anyone under 18, pregnant women or breastfeeding women (Section 24). Sellers must post a notice of this at the point of sale, including online points of sale.
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No sale of leaf in educational institutions, dormitories, public parks, zoos or amusement parks, or through vending machines (Section 25).
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No advertising or marketing that encourages consuming kratom mixed with narcotics or psychotropic substances, the “4x100” cocktail (Section 26). Consuming such mixtures (Section 27) and inducing others to consume them are also offences.
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Food supplements (Thai FDA guidelines, September 2024):
- Mitragynine is capped at 0.2 mg/day for powdered-leaf or leaf-extract supplements and 1 mg/day for water-extract supplements, counting naturally occurring 7-OH.
- Adding 7-hydroxymitragynine is prohibited.
- Labels must warn against continuous use for more than seven days and against use with alcohol or other kratom products.
These rules apply to registered supplements, not raw leaf. As the separate post on kratom chemistry explains, 7-OH is largely a post-harvest oxidation product, and enriched products behave differently from leaf.
Penalties under the Kratom Plant Act
| Offence | Maximum penalty |
|---|---|
| Selling to a person under 18 or a pregnant or breastfeeding woman (s. 24), or not posting the required notice | Fine of THB 30,000 (s. 33) |
| Selling in a prohibited place or by vending machine (s. 25) | Fine of THB 50,000 (s. 34) |
| Consuming kratom mixed with narcotics or psychotropics, “4x100” (s. 27) | Fine of THB 50,000 (s. 36) |
| Advertising mixed consumption (s. 26) | 2 years’ imprisonment, THB 200,000 fine, or both |
| Inducing or forcing others to consume such mixtures | 1 year, THB 100,000, or both; doubled to 2 years / THB 200,000 if the victim is under 18, pregnant or breastfeeding |
| Importing or exporting without a licence, or breaching licence conditions | 1 year, THB 100,000, or both |
What I could not verify
I could not open the Royal Gazette text itself. The section numbers for Sections 33 and 34 come from Thai news reports. Section 36 comes from a Thai FDA provincial office summary. The last three rows come from law-firm and ONCB summaries that give no section numbers. I also could not confirm the import/export application fee in a ministerial regulation, so I do not print one. English-language coverage generally summarises the operative provisions and skips the penalty tables. If a member has checked the Gazette text, please post the citation.
Kratom versus cannabis: different instruments
Kratom has its own Act of Parliament. Cannabis flower sits under a ministerial instrument, the Notification of the Ministry of Public Health Re: Controlled Herbs (Cannabis) B.E. 2568, which is easier to amend. The Cannabis Control Act remains a draft; the Cabinet approved it on 22 September 2026 and sent it to the House of Representatives. For the cannabis rules themselves, see topic 1330 and bai210.
Selected countries in the region
Thailand is an outlier, not a trend. This table covers selected countries only. Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and the Philippines are left out because I found no reliable primary source for them, so check national law directly.
| Country | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Thailand | Regulated. Removed from narcotics control 24 Aug 2021; Kratom Plant Act in force 27 Aug 2022 | Narcotics Act (No. 8) B.E. 2564; Royal Gazette, 26 Aug 2022 |
| Myanmar | Illegal. Cultivation, possession, distribution and transport are offences, with long prison penalties. Arrests and eradication campaigns reported in Tanintharyi Region | 1993 Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Law; Transnational Institute |
| Malaysia | Mitragynine controlled under the Poisons Act 1952; sale and processing are offences (reported maximum RM10,000, four years, or both, under s. 30(3)). The tree itself is not banned | Poisons Act 1952; Khalil et al., UUM Journal of Legal Studies (2020) |
| Indonesia | Not scheduled as a narcotic; exports regulated since 2024; domestic status contested. The National Narcotics Board has pushed for Schedule I; local Borneo authorities oppose it | Trade Ministry Regulations No. 20 and 21 of 2024 (in force late Sept 2024); Transnational Institute |
| Singapore | Illegal | Transnational Institute |
Indonesia deserves its own caution: it is a major supplier to the international market while its domestic status is disputed. “Exports are regulated” and “the product is lawful at home” are not the same statement.
The part that decides whether an export deal works: the destination
Thai law tells you what you may ship out. It tells you nothing about what the buyer may lawfully receive, and that is the constraint that kills most deals.
United States (as of October 2026):
- Kratom leaf is not federally scheduled. DEA withdrew a 2016 attempt to schedule it after more than 23,000 public comments and pushback from Congress.
- FDA’s Import Alert 54-15 allows Detention Without Physical Examination of kratom dietary supplements and bulk ingredients. In practice, shipments can be detained without testing.
- 7-OH is moving. On 29 July 2025, HHS and FDA recommended Schedule I for 7-hydroxymitragynine, and FDA sent warning letters to seven companies selling concentrated 7-OH products. In July 2026, DEA published notices (Federal Register, 6 July 2026) to temporarily place 7-OH above a specified concentration threshold in Schedule I. Botanical kratom with naturally occurring 7-OH below that threshold is reported to be excluded. Check whether the order is in force before you ship.
- At the time of writing, these states prohibit kratom: Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Vermont, Wisconsin, and Louisiana (ban effective 1 August 2025).
- Rhode Island replaced its ban with the Rhode Island Kratom Act (R.I. Gen. Laws ch. 21-28.12), in force 1 April 2026, with a minimum age of 21, seller licensing and taxes.
- State and local law on kratom and 7-OH changes several times a year. Check the current law of the destination state immediately before each shipment.
US regulators are converging on restricting concentrated 7-OH while tolerating leaf. Thai supplement rules already draw that distinction. An exporter whose testing shows a leaf product with no added 7-OH fits where both regimes are heading. An exporter selling enriched extract is on the wrong side of both.
Practical checklist before shipping anything
- ONCB import/export licence plus a notification for each shipment. Not one or the other.
- Thai FDA approval if the product is a processed food or health product, not raw leaf.
- A certificate of analysis showing 7-OH content from a lab the buyer’s regulator will accept.
- Written confirmation of the destination’s current rules: the country, and for the US, the state. A buyer in Alabama cannot lawfully receive the shipment whatever your Thai paperwork says.
- Check the import alert and federal scheduling status before shipping to the US, not after.
What has not changed
Legalisation in Thailand did not make kratom an uncontroversial substance. The evidence on its risks is covered in a separate post. Legal status and safety are independent questions, and conflating them, in either direction, is the most common error in writing about this plant.
Sources: Royal Gazette, Kratom Plant Act B.E. 2565 (Vol. 139, Part 52 Kor, 26 Aug 2022); Tilleke & Gibbins, “Thailand’s New Legal Framework for Kratom” (2022), “Thailand Decriminalizes Kratom in Amended Narcotics Act” (2021) and “Thailand’s Updated Guidelines on Kratom in Food and Herbal Products” (2024); Thairath and The Standard on Sections 24, 25, 33 and 34 (Aug 2022); Transnational Institute, “Kratom in Myanmar and Southeast Asia: time for legal regulation?”; Tempo, “Indonesia Implements Regulations for Kratom Export Trade” (2024); Formichella & Sritawat, “Thailand’s Kratom Regulations: A Comprehensive Overview (2026)”; Congressional Research Service, “Temporary Control of 7-Hydroxymitragynine (7-OH)…”; Federal Register, 6 July 2026; FDA Import Alert 54-15; R.I. Gen. Laws ch. 21-28.12.