Georgia's Kratom Bill Dies at Crossover Day After Scheduling Synthetic Derivatives and Rewriting Sale Rules
Photo: DXR / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
A Georgia bill that would have scheduled synthetic and concentrated kratom derivatives as controlled substances, while imposing a strict new regulatory regime on natural kratom, died in the 2026 session without a House floor vote. House Bill 968 cleared committee on a substitute but was not taken up before Crossover Day, the deadline for a bill to pass its originating chamber. Kratom remains legal and regulated in Georgia under existing law.
The House Committee on Judiciary, Non-Civil, advanced a substitute to House Bill 968 that combined two approaches. It would have added synthetic and semisynthetic kratom derivatives, analogs, concentrates, and metabolites to the state's Schedule I list, naming 7-hydroxymitragynine, mitragynine pseudoindoxyl, MGM-15, MGM-16, and 7-acetoxymitragynine. At the same time, it preserved legal sale of natural-leaf kratom while tightening the rules around it.
Under the substitute, natural kratom products would have faced concentration caps of 150 milligrams of mitragynine per serving and limits on 7-OH content. Sales would have required a licensed pharmacist on site or reachable by real-time communication, behind-the-counter placement, and age verification for buyers 21 and older. The bill also directed the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to operate a real-time electronic sales logging system beginning in 2027, and it banned pressed tablets, multi-serving packages, and vaping forms.
The substitute cleared committee but never reached a House floor vote before Crossover Day. With the 2026 session adjourned, the bill is dead.
Because HB 968 did not pass, Georgia's existing kratom law remains in effect, and the compliance baseline for retailers and distributors is unchanged. The bill signals the regulatory direction some Georgia lawmakers favor: scheduling concentrated and synthetic derivatives like 7-OH while permitting natural-leaf kratom under strict caps, pharmacist-gated sales, and state logging. That approach differs from neighboring states that enacted outright bans, with Tennessee prohibiting kratom statewide and Kansas scheduling both of its alkaloids, each effective July 1. For operators selling across state lines, Georgia remains a regulated-legal market for now, while the synthetic-versus-natural distinction continues to shape how states draw their rules.