Is Kratom Legal in Wisconsin?

In Wisconsin, the journey of kratom legality has been marked by significant legislative activity, and public debates.

Wisconsin was one of the earliest states to criminalize kratom consumers. In 2014, the governor signed SB325 into law, placing kratom on the list of the state's Schedule I substances, making it illegal to sell, buy, and possess kratom.

Since then, efforts have been made to legalize and regulate kratom.

In October 2019, a hearing about kratom was held by the Wisconsin State Health Committee where the American Kratom Association together with Dr. Jack Henningfield and Utah Senator Curt Bramble gave evidence in favor of a Kratom Consumer Protection Act in the State of Wisconsin. The hearing had a positive outcome, but no legislation passed that year overturning the ban.

In 2022, joint bills filed by both the House and Senate of Wisconsin would have legalized and regulated kratom, AB599 and SB958. The bills would have prohibited sales of adulterated and contaminated kratom, kratom with 7-hydroxymitragynine at more than 2% of alkaloids, set the age at 21, and requires levels of mitragynine and 7-hydroxymitragynine to appear on the label. The bill also requires processors to “obtain a food processing plant license from the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, and to register a kratom product before distributing it”. If either of these bills would have been codified into law, Wisconsin would have been the first state to overturn an existing kratom prohibition bill.

However, both bills died.

Two more companion legalization bills, similar to those in 2022, were introduced in 2023: AB393 and SB445. Both of these carried over into 2024, but also died.

In February 2024, Marijuana Moment reported: "A Wisconsin Democratic lawmaker says he suspects Republican Assembly leadership pulled a kratom bill from floor consideration last week out of concern about an amendment he filed that would have forced a vote on medical marijuana legalization."

Therefore Wisconsin chooses to remain in the dark ages regarding kratom legislation, and kratom remains illegal in the state of Wisconsin. At the risk of being charged with a felony, kratom consumers should not possess kratom in the state of Wisconsin, even though it's legal in surrounding states.