Alaska health officials warn concentrated kratom products can cause overdoses drug tests miss

State health officials are warning Alaska clinicians that concentrated kratom products can cause opioid-like overdoses that routine drug tests often miss. In an alert Thursday, they urged doctors and nurses to ask patients directly whether they use kratom.

Alaska emergency departments logged 58 visits potentially tied to kratom through August, already more than the 49 recorded in all of 2025. The state says those counts do not capture the full number of cases.

Kratom comes from the leaves of a Southeast Asian tree. According to the state health department, it acts on the same brain receptors as opioids. It is sold as powder, capsules, tea and extracts, and some people use it for pain, energy or mood. Small amounts tend to feel stimulating, and larger amounts feel sedating. The department says there is no known safe dose.

The alert focuses on a compound called 7-hydroxymitragynine, or 7-OH. The kratom leaf contains only trace amounts of it. Newer products concentrate it, and some are made partly in a lab. The Drug Enforcement Administration says they are sold as powders, tablets, capsules, gummies and dissolvable strips in gas stations, convenience stores and smoke shops. State officials say these products raise the risk of dependence, withdrawal and dangerous breathing problems.

Naloxone, the opioid overdose drug, can help in some kratom overdoses by improving breathing, the state health department says. It also helps if opioids were mixed in, and it will not harm someone who has no opioids in their system.

In late August, the DEA added three lab-made compounds derived from kratom to its list of most tightly controlled drugs, alongside heroin. It has also moved to temporarily ban concentrated 7-OH products. That ban would not cover ordinary kratom leaf. The state alert says the pending ban could make the products harder to find and push some regular users into withdrawal or toward other drugs.

Naloxone is sold without a prescription at most Alaska pharmacies. Free kits are available through Project HOPE sites and some public health centers.