More US states push to ban kratom drink deemed ‘gas-station heroin’

At least eight states have banned the plant-derived product as more people use it and some claim it’s addictive

In 2024, Maizie Hepner, 24, started visiting a bar in Dubuque, Iowa that did not serve alcohol and instead offered beverages containing kava and kratom, psychoactive substances derived from plants.

The drinks were marketed as “herbal tea mocktails”. Hepner, who works as a server and bartender, said. “I asked the guy who owns” Kava Kava “if it was addictive, and he said, ‘Absolutely not’”.