Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway announces the state's lawsuit against American Shaman in a press conference outside her office March 31, 2026 (Annelise Hanshaw/Missouri Independent).
Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Kansas City-based CBD American Shaman and several affiliated companies, demanding an immediate halt to the company’s advertising and sale of kratom products.
She takes particular aim at the more potent 7-OH products, which she argues are “hazardous opioids” banned by state and federal law.
“We want them to shut down American Shaman, and we named several of their related companies in the lawsuit, as soon as possible,” Hanaway said at a press conference Tuesday, announcing the lawsuit, “so that no more Missourians can be hurt or killed by this product.”
Vincent Sanders, American Shaman’s owner, told The Independent in an email statement that the company is aware of the lawsuit and “takes the matter seriously.” Shaman was the first company to make and market 7-OH products.
“We have consistently maintained that our products are safe,” Sanders said, “and we have been transparent in sharing the scientific support and quality information behind them. We intend to defend this case and continue to serve our customers.”
Hanaway’s lawsuit opens with a scathing description of Shaman’s operations.
“It’s a drug pusher cliché: The first hit is free,” the lawsuit, which was filed in Jackson County Circuit Court, states. “It’s also American Shaman’s business model. But unlike a street dealer, American Shaman and its offshoots operate on an industrial scale, in the open, on the fiction that the products they sell are legal dietary supplements.”
Hanaway cited examples of the company’s advertisements for free samples of 7-OH on billboards and websites.
Proposed ban on 7-OH products hits bipartisan resistance in Missouri Senate
Shaman Botanicals LLC is a leading supplier of 7-OH nationwide, which is sold in pill form and as an ingredient in drinks in stores and gas stations across the state. The name is short for 7-hydroxymitragynine, and it’s made by chemically converting and then concentrating the main opioid-inducing element in kratom.
“Missourians, including those struggling with opioid addiction, are being dangerously misled into believing that 7-OH is predictable, safe and natural. This could not be more untrue,” Hanaway said.
The Attorney General’s Office, in collaboration with the Department of Health and Senior Services, is asking the court to declare American Shaman’s practices illegal under the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act, to enjoin American Shaman from distributing kratom and 7-OH products and to penalize the companies $1,000 per violation.
The suit also argues kratom and its alkaloids are “analogues or homologues” to Schedule I controlled substances under the Comprehensive Drug Control Act and should be treated like other opioids. She asks the court to shut down four Kansas City warehouses for those substances as a “drug den public nuisance.”
Sanders told The Independent last year that the company conducted three research studies on its products, including using rodents and beagles, which he believes shows the products are safe.
“We’ve spent an enormous amount of money and time on this,” he said at the time, regarding the scientific studies. “My 82-year-old mother takes it twice a day. She was in so much pain… and it changed her life.”
Aside from pain relief, Sanders has advocated in Washington, D.C. that the product can also be a harm reduction tool for people addicted to opioids.
Hanaway’s lawsuit follows her investigation into American Shaman’s lab test results, research on health risks and safety label information, among other things. The Department of Justice announced in December that it seized thousands of 7-OH products from American Shaman’s warehouses.
Despite these repeated warnings, Hanaway said American Shaman “has continued its unlawful behavior” and advertises “free samples” of 7-OH despite its addictive nature, and frequently without disclosing the risk of addiction in its marketing.
Kratom leaves come from a tropical tree found in Southeast Asia, and they can be crushed and then smoked, brewed with tea, or placed into gel capsules.
The leaves contain an alkaloid called mitragynine. During digestion, the body converts it into 7-hydroxymytragynine, or 7-OH, in small amounts. It’s what gives people the opioid-like effect.
The 7-OH products Hanaway is targeting contain a highly concentrated amount of 90% to 100%. To make it, companies take mitragynine and chemically oxidize it to make a concentrate.
Missouri warns consumers of health risks associated with 7-OH products
Julie Weber, director of the Missouri Poison Control Center, said at Tuesday’s press conference that 7-OH “is not a harmless herbal product,” and the center’s hotline received more than 20 calls last year of people going into withdrawal after taking it.
Justin Bumbalough, executive director of the Rolla faith-based recovery program Life Changers Missouri, said today at the press conference he’s seeing cases where people are “swapping additions” from opioids to 7-OH.
“We are witnessing overdose, relapse,” he said, “and people trying to get free from addiction are ending up right back into the same trap, right back into the same bondage.”
People he had been ministering to about opioids are, he said, “not with us today because of the 7-OH kratom epidemic.”
Hanaway said Missouri lawmakers are currently debating bills to ban 7-OH, and it’s a “constant battle” to keep up with drugs “as they morph from one to another.” However, the legislation she was referring to derailed last week when it ran into bipartisan resistance over the proposed ban on 7-OH.
While she said she doesn’t normally weigh in on legislation, she said 7-OH should be banned but she hasn’t reached a conclusion on kratom yet.
“That’s an ongoing discussion, but the evidence is overwhelming that 7-OH is re-addicting people who are trying to recover from opioid addictions,” she said, “addicting for the first time people who think it’s some safe natural product, and killing people. We have to put a stop to it.”