The Indonesian Kratom ban continues to loom ominously in the near future. Indeed, unless the Indonesian Kratom ban law is overturned, Kratom will become illegal in Indonesia on New Year’s Day 2022, which is only 1 year and 2 months from now. If that happens 95% of the United States’ Kratom supply would be cut off, causing a drastic increase in Kratom prices and all sorts of supply outages where Kratom won’t be readily available.
One of the primary alternative plans for if Indonesia does ban Kratom in 2022 is Thailand legalizing Kratom. Essentially, Thailand grows a tremendous amount of Kratom naturally, but Kratom is illegal in Thailand, so none of this Kratom is exported to the United States. However, if Thailand fully legalized Kratom, it could replace a good amount of the lost Kratom supply from Indonesia.
Unfortunately, Kratom legalization in Thailand is happening at a snail’s pace, and there is no sign that Kratom will be legalized in Thailand anytime soon, and in particular there is no guarantee Thailand will legalize Kratom before New Year’s Day 2022.
Even worse, as the Kratom legalization law in Thailand comes into focus, it is becoming more convoluted, and it doesn’t seem to really legalize Kratom anymore.
Specifically, now the stated ‘aim’ of the Kratom legalization law in Thailand is to prevent the public from abusing Kratom, and Kratom advertising in Thailand will be made illegal if this law passes. Literally, if someone advertises Kratom in Thailand after it is ‘legalized’, they will be sent to prison.
Further, the law would only authorize the import and export of Kratom for medicinal purposes, and there will be strict regulations surrounding this, and anyone who imports or exports Kratom for ‘non-medicinal’ purposes will be sent to prison.
Basically, as the Kratom legalization law in Thailand comes into focus, it is appearing more and more like a limited legalization for medical purposes, where people with medical conditions in Thailand will have limited access to Kratom. Although that is a good thing for Kratom users in Thailand, it will do nothing to supply the world with Kratom if Indonesia bans Kratom in 2022.
Thus, it is appearing less and less likely that Thailand will be a good supply alternative if Indonesia bans Kratom in 2022. Considering this, the Kratom community needs to fight hard to keep Kratom legal in Indonesia, and also needs to explore obtaining Kratom from Papua New Guinea, since those may be the only options left.