What is happening, and when
On 28 August 2026 an emergency order from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health places kratom in Schedule I under state law. The instrument is 105 CMR 726.000, signed by Commissioner Robbie Goldstein, MD, PhD and announced by Governor Maura Healey on 13 August 2026. You can read the emergency regulation itself in a few minutes.
Three things decide everything below. It reaches every form, with no potency threshold. It is temporary, with a ceiling of one year. And enforcement sits with municipalities, so from 28 August 2026 the people who can clear a shelf are your local board of health rather than anyone in Boston. WBUR's coverage of the announcement notes that the potency of these products can vary.
Which GUD Tonics products are affected
Four of our five. GUD Tonics sells kava tonics blended with mitragynine: the front of the bottle says kava, the ingredient panel says Mitragyna speciosa. Affected: TropiColada, Baja Bliss, Pink Sunset and the three bottle bundle that contains all three. From 28 August 2026 those are Schedule I in Massachusetts. No exceptions.
Not affected: our Raw Kava Extract Powder, which contains no mitragynine. It is kava root, a different plant, and the order does not name it. That is a statement about the scope of the order, not a suggestion. Treating "contains mitragynine" as the line is how we audited our own catalogue; it is not a legal test we are asking you to rely on, and how far the order's scope reaches as written is a question for counsel.
Per-lot alkaloid numbers are published on our lab results page, so the figure that applies to you is the one against the lot code in your hand. We ran the same exercise for North Dakota earlier this month; the reasoning is in our post on whether that order reaches kava drinks.
What we are doing about shipping
We stop accepting Massachusetts orders for the four affected products on 27 August 2026, and the checkout will block Massachusetts addresses for them from that date. Raw Kava Extract Powder is unaffected and continues to ship.
Any affected order placed before 27 August 2026 that has not shipped by then will be cancelled and refunded in full, automatically. No need to contact us. Orders already in transit are the case we cannot answer cleanly. Nothing published says how the order applies to a parcel that leaves our warehouse before 28 August 2026 and arrives after it. We have not had that interpreted by a Massachusetts attorney. If you would rather not find out, email us and we will stop the shipment and refund you. The same gap covers product you already have at home and what a Massachusetts retailer must do with stock still on the shelf: the order schedules the substance, DPH's page references "the legal requirements regarding possession of Schedule 1 substances", and no published guidance goes further. For your own position, ask a lawyer licensed in Massachusetts.
What to do if you are a customer in Massachusetts
Cancel or pause any subscription that includes the four affected products before 27 August 2026, because a renewal after that date will simply fail. Check whether your own city or town already restricts kratom: several Massachusetts municipalities acted through their local boards of health before the state did, and those local rules can be stricter and can outlast the state order. And if you use kratom products regularly, read the next section.
We are not going to help anyone stockpile ahead of the date, and we are not shipping into Massachusetts once the order is live.
Where to get help
DPH's own wording is worth quoting rather than paraphrasing. It writes that it "expects disruptions in the availability of all kratom products", and that "people who regularly use these products are likely to experience opioid tolerance and withdrawal symptoms when they stop or reduce their use, including craving, nausea, diarrhea, muscle and head aches, sniffling, sneezing, sweating, and irritability". It adds: "They should seek medical care and/or substance use treatment." Likely is the department's word, not a certainty.
On treatment, DPH writes that "Medications used to treat opioid use disorder, like buprenorphine, have been found to be effective for treating kratom use disorder", and that they "can also improve withdrawal symptoms". That is the department's summary of the research it cites, not ours. The office based addiction treatment model developed at Boston Medical Center describes how that care is delivered in Massachusetts, in ordinary primary care settings.
Two things we will not say. Kava does not treat kratom withdrawal, and we are not in a position to claim otherwise about a product we sell. Nor will we publish a tapering schedule: someone coming off a substance with opioid-like withdrawal should be doing that with a clinician who can see them. Kava is a social drink, and the NCCIH page on kava sets out what is known, liver safety questions included. The Drug Policy Alliance briefing on kratom and 7-OH is worth reading too; DPH links it.
If you are not in Massachusetts, nothing changes. The full range, including which products carry mitragynine and which do not, is set out across the GUD Tonics collection. Raw Kava Extract Powder has never contained any.
This notice summarizes publicly reported regulatory developments as of 17 August 2026 and links to primary sources. It is general information, not legal or medical advice, and not a substitute for counsel or a clinician. Laws in this area change quickly and local rules may be stricter than state rules. Nothing here is a health claim. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Not for sale to anyone under 21.
