Copyright Salt Lake Tribune
For 13 years, I have battled the relentless torment of atypical trigeminal neuralgia, a chronic nerve disorder that causes constant pain on the top half of my face. (Imagine an ice cream headache that never goes away.) As a devoted mother, grandmother, flute player and active community member here in Utah, I never imagined how my life would change as chronic relentless pain set in. I have pursued every available form of conventional medicine: surgeries, nerve blocks and a cascade of prescription pills that often left me sedated, fatigued and confined at home. I even endured a dangerous microvascular decompression brain surgery and opted to try an implanted facial nerve stimulator. None of these gave me much relief. In my darkest moments, I felt trapped inside my own body. My children watched me fade, and I worried I would never be the same spouse and parent I once was. I ended up in pain management, where I was prescribed a small dose of opioids that gave me partial relief — enough to get through about eight of the day’s 24 hours. I often had to choose between managing pain during my waking hours or getting much-needed rest at night. Every month, I worried my medication would be reduced or taken away altogether. Amid America’s ongoing opioid crisis, many patients living with chronic pain have been left struggling to find safe, consistent care. Everything changed after a friend encouraged me to try natural, whole-leaf kratom. Kratom is a tropical tree from the coffee family and native to Southeast Asia. Products prepared from kratom leaves are available in the U.S. online and in retail stores. Kratom is often used to self-treat conditions such as pain, anxiety and depression, opioid use disorder and opioid withdrawal. At first, I was skeptical of the substance. But what I experienced soon after amazed me: For the first time, I felt like myself again. Natural kratom leaf didn’t leave me altered or impaired; it simply helped me function to the best of my ability and live life to its fullest potential. After years of struggling with the side effects of prescription medications, that was a tremendous relief. I have now been a proud natural kratom leaf consumer for eight years. I’ve shared details of my personal journey in podcast interviews, media reports, and testimony to state lawmakers — all in the hope that my lived experiences might inform stronger health policy for my fellow Americans. Perhaps most significantly, I helped pass Utah’s Kratom Consumer Protection Act in 2019, standing alongside Gov. Gary Herbert as our state became one of the earliest adopters of responsible kratom regulation. As of August 2025, Washington, D.C., and seven states — Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Louisiana, Rhode Island (until April 2026), Vermont and Wisconsin — have banned kratom. At least half of U.S. states now regulate kratom or its components in some way, with 18 states (including Utah) having some form of the Kratom Consumer Protection Act (KCPA) in place. That’s why I was so disappointed when I learned Utah could soon move to ban kratom in all its forms. This decision would punish people who rely on the natural leaf while doing little to curb the real threat: dangerous, lab-made derivatives like concentrated synthetic 7-hydroxymitragynine (7-OH). A blanket kratom ban would severely impact my life and the lives of so many other Utahns who rely on the whole-plant product every day. If the state proceeds with this misguided enforcement action, the consequences could be catastrophic. Law-abiding natural kratom users could be punished, and people like me would be forced back into a life of pain, isolation and confinement. Even a less drastic action, a moratorium, would erase the state’s ability to regulate with nuance. The solution is not to outlaw the entire kratom plant, a centuries-old botanical with an established safety profile that is consumed by more than 23 million Americans. Instead, our government must target concentrated synthetic 7-OH products and other synthetic kratom derivatives that are 13 times stronger than morphine and chemically designed to mimic hard narcotics. This approach aligns with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s own science. Earlier this year, the agency formally recommended classifying concentrated synthetic 7-OH as a Schedule I substance, and the Drug Enforcement Administration is expected to adopt that recommendation in the near future. Utah should follow the federal government’s lead, not overstep it. If state lawmakers want to play a role in this fight, they can start by urging DEA officials to schedule lab-made synthetic kratom alkaloids. That’s the surest way to protect consumers and families while preserving access for the millions of responsible adults who have reclaimed their lives with legal, natural, whole-leaf kratom use. Lora Romney served as treasurer for TRUCE (Together For Responsible Use and Cannabis Education) and helped bring medical cannabis to Utah. She began to advocate for kratom accessibility in 2019. A resident of Layton, she is an accountant, a mother of four, a grandmother and treasurer of Harmonic Winds of Utah, where she plays the flute.
