A team at the Stanford University School of Medicine recently created a two-lesson curriculum for children that highlights the harms of kratom and 7-hydroxymitragynine (7-OH). The curriculum’s page said that the lessons are “aimed at helping young people understand what kratom and 7-OH products are, what they do to the body, and how the industry uses specific marketing tactics to sell their products.”
Created by Dr. Bonnie Halpern-Felsher and the Halpern-Felsher REACH Lab, the first lesson focuses on the harms of kratom and 7-OH. The second focuses on the marketing and messaging of these products that children will be exposed to.
The six stated goals of the curriculum are for adolescents to:
- Know what kratom is and what chemical compounds are in kratom products
- Know how kratom can affect the body in the short- and long-term
- Know harm reduction strategies to reduce the negative health effects of kratom products
- Understand the lack of FDA authorization surrounding kratom products
- Understand the different marketing tactics used to increase kratom product sales
- Acquire improved media literacy skills to better understand kratom labeling, information, and company claims
For example, the first lesson teaches students that the most common health effects of kratom include nausea, constipation, dry mouth, dizziness, sweating, insomnia, increased urination, and itching, noting that it may also lead to psychosis and death. It added that regular use can lead to tolerance, dependence, and withdrawal.
After San Mateo County banned kratom in April 2026, Dr. Halpern-Felsher told a local NBC affiliate during an interview about kratom that “it’s similar to an opioid, and we are increasing addiction. We are increasing overdoses amongst young people. And unfortunately, they’re just buying it over the counter in gas stations, in smoke shops, as a drink, as gummies.”
The Halpern-Felsher REACH Lab has also created similar programs focused on tobacco, marijuana, and harm reduction.
This program is especially timely, given that the prevalence of kratom use has been increasing throughout the nation. Between 2021 and 2025, the number of Americans aged 12 or older who had ever tried kratom increased from 4.4 million to 5.4 million, while the number using it in the past year increased from 1.7 million to 1.9 million. Between 2015 and 2025, the number of kratom-related poisoning reports in the United States increased 1,231% from 258 to 3,434.
Kratom is an addictive opioid-like substance that is not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of any disease or condition. 7-OH is an alkaloid of the kratom plant; the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) announced in July 2026 that it would temporarily schedule this substance. However, because kratom is neither scheduled nor legalized, it stands in a gray area and continues to be sold nationwide.