Mississippi Bill Taxing Kratom at 25% Slated to Pass

A bill on the desk of Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves will levy a 25% tax on all kratom products in the state, if signed.

House Bill 1896 will impose a kratom tax that's even 10% higher than the tax on tobacco, the leading cause of preventable death and disease in Mississippi, with 5,400 adults dying annually from smoking and 192,000 children exposed to secondhand smoke at home. This tax applies to the sale, use, consumption, handling, or distribution of kratom products within Mississippi. The bill places the tax burden ultimately on consumers.

The American Kratom Association (AKA) supports this bill.

In an email sent April 2nd, the AKA wrote, "Mississippi has had lots of ongoing proposed kratom legislation this session, most of it bad, but [HB1896] has passed the KCPA Conference Report. The Botanics for Better Health and Wellness group has worked hard with the AKA team in Mississippi to protect consumers and help pass this legislation. It now goes to the Governor."

A seperate bill, HB1077, seeks to establish the minimum legal age to purchase kratom products at 21.

In recent years, Mississippi lawmakers have introduced various bills to regulate kratom. For example, some proposed legislation from 2025 aimed to classify kratom as a Schedule III controlled substance, which would have made it illegal without a prescription. Other bills sought to impose age restrictions, requiring purchasers to be at least 21 years old. Other Mississippi bills in the past decade sought to ban kratom outright. Despite these efforts, many of these bills failed to pass, leaving kratom largely unregulated at the state level.

While kratom remains legal in most parts of the Mississippi, several counties and cities have imposed local bans on its sale and use.

Should the governor sign, the law is set to take effect on July 1, 2025.