Is kratom legal in Spain?

As in most of the countries around the globe, kratom is an unregulated substance in Spain, which means it is a legal plant like many others with no different status regarding the laws. In some regions of the country, as Catalonia, it can be found in a few head shops and herbalists, besides online stores. There is also a growing kratom community in the southern coast of the country along with Portugal, where many retired locals and expatriates use the plant looking for relief for their aches and pains.

According to the EMCDDA (European Monitoring Center for Drug and Drug Addiction), kratom belongs to their list of “plants and extracts” as a psychoactive substance. It was notified in 12/2016 as a new substance by the SEAT (Spanish Early Warning System), which belongs to the PNSD (National Plan on Drugs), which overall objective is to develop and maintain a rapid early warning system for the detection, exchange of information, evaluation and response to the emergence of new substances or related events with the consumption of psychoactive substances, which can generate a public health problem.

Through the Law 17/1967, “Spain considers narcotic substances to be natural or synthetic substances included in Schedules I and II of the annexes to the 1961 United Nations Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs and other substances that acquire such consideration at the international level”.

By the Royal Decree 1194/2011 is established “the procedure by which a natural or synthetic substance, not included in Schedules I and II of the annexes to the 1961 Single Convention of the United Nations or which has not acquired such status at the international level, is considered a narcotic drug at the national level; and, consequently, the submission of these substances to the control measures applicable to narcotic drugs. The final decision shall take the form of a ministerial order and shall be published in the “Official State Gazette”.

To date (June 2021), kratom hasn’t been legally mentioned in any restrictive list and remains as an unregulated substance in the Iberian country beyond its definition as a psychoactive substance. Maybe that would explain why there are many websites based in Spain selling kratom also to other countries in Europe. We honestly hope Spain could be a starting point to seriously discuss the role of kratom in our society before the biased anti-kratom propaganda blocks the dialogue.