What changes for visitors and residents on Tenerife?
The US warning has no effect on Tenerife or the rest of Spain. The FDA has issued a health warning on kratom, but it applies only in the US, and no new rule for Spain or the Canary Islands has been reported.
Kratom is on no list of narcotics or psychotropic substances kept by the Spanish Health Ministry and the medicines agency AEMPS. That is not a green light, because kratom may not be sold as a food.
For guests in the south of Tenerife nothing changes legally, but kratom is not clearly regulated either. For the island itself, the sources name neither shops nor case numbers.
US authorities cite addiction risk, liver damage and seizures, and in some cases death from overdose. Anyone thinking of trying kratom should talk to a doctor first.
How does kratom reach the market in Spain?
Spanish traders sell kratom in smart shops (stores for legal psychoactive substances), herbal shops, cannabis shops and online. According to Spanish media, it is sold there as incense, a collector's item or workshop material.
What matters is how the seller describes it. Sold as a food it is banned, under any other description it is still possible, and the EU Novel Food Regulation expressly prohibits kratom as a food or food supplement.
The Observatorio Español de las Drogas y las Adicciones, Spain's drugs and addiction monitoring centre, calls kratom a “new psychoactive substance”. Neither the plant nor its active compounds appear on the official lists.
So far, police and social organisations in Spain report no poisonings, no misuse and no seizures. That describes only the situation to date.
Publications describe the legal position differently. A press article of 24 January 2025 calls cultivation, sale and consumption in Spain legal but cites no law, while a blog claims the opposite, also without a law, and neither version has official confirmation.
Why are US authorities warning about kratom?
Kratom is the shrub Mitragyna speciosa, a relative of coffee that grows mainly in Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. People there chew the leaves or drink them as an infusion, against tiredness and pain.
The dose decides the effect. Small amounts make users alert, large ones are calming, pain-relieving and euphoric, and the make-up of powders, capsules, gummies, drinks and extracts varies widely.
US authorities worry about chemically enriched products such as 7-hydroxymitragynine (7-OH), whose opioid effect is far stronger than that of the leaves. According to Spanish media, mitragynine pseudoindoxyl, a semi-synthetic liquid extract, is linked to around 50 overdose deaths in the US.
On 29 July 2025 the FDA recommended placing 7-OH under US narcotics law, saying it means concentrated products, not the natural leaf. According to the Congressional Research Service, kratom may not be sold in the US as a food additive or supplement anyway.
What is the US drug agency DEA planning?
The US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) wants to place 7-OH and three related substances provisionally in Schedule I, the strictest US drug category. It announced this on 1 July 2026, according to the Congressional Research Service, the research arm of the US Congress.
An interim order for three substances took effect on 26 August 2026: mitragynine pseudoindoxyl, MGM-15 and MGM-16. It runs until 26 August 2028, and the deadline for comments on 7-OH ran until 10 September 2026.
On 14 October 2026 a revised threshold appeared, which the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) had recommended. Control would start at 1 milligram of 7-OH or mitragynine pseudoindoxyl per gram or millilitre, or where the mitragynine ratio is below 100.
The plant itself falls outside the orders as long as 7-OH stays below the thresholds. The July proposal had still set 0.05% 7-OH for the plant or 1 milligram per product.
In the US, 7-OH is not yet controlled: without a decision by the DEA or Congress it is not a controlled substance, according to the CRS. An interim order on 7-OH and mitragynine pseudoindoxyl is due no earlier than 13 November 2026.
How do Europe and the US states handle it?
Europe has no single rule on kratom. France polices the trade particularly strictly and links it to the overdose death of a 22-year-old.
Following an EU notification, the Czech Republic has listed kratom among psychomodulating substances under government decree 456/2025, promulgated on 11 November 2025 and in force since 12 November 2025. Sweden reported a draft in 2025 that would classify kratom as a narcotic.
In the US, ten states expressly ban its sale and 39 allow it with restrictions. Ohio and Utah restrict only products without the natural leaf, while North Dakota allows sales from age 21 and bans synthetic variants.
Two bills are before the US Congress: the END 7-OH Act (H.R. 8000) and the End Gas Station Heroin Act (S. 5383 / H.R. 10272). Both would place 7-OH permanently in Schedule I, with exemptions for naturally occurring amounts in kratom.
What is still unclear?
There are no figures specific to the Canary Islands, neither numbers of sales outlets nor a statement from the Servicio Canario de la Salud (the Canarian health service). Nobody has reported seizures or poisoning cases on Tenerife either.
The research found no official Spanish text on the status of kratom. According to the sources, the food safety agency AESAN would be responsible for food and the AEMPS for medicines.
The US side names 13 November 2026 as the next date, the earliest for the interim order on 7-OH. As of 26 October, it is not confirmed that the order will appear.