This content is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment from a licensed prescriber. If you or someone you know is in immediate danger, call 911. For a suspected poisoning or exposure in someone who is awake and stable, call Poison Help at 1-800-222-1222. For crisis support, call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. For treatment referrals and information, the SAMHSA National Helpline is 1-800-662-4357 (free, confidential, 24/7).
In late July, Utah’s agriculture department and poison control center warned the public about tablets being sold as cat’s claw. Utah officials are investigating a death and several severe health incidents linked to one brand. Cat’s claw is a real herbal supplement you can buy in a health food store, but the tablets tested in Utah contained compounds made from kratom that act like opioids.
The same tablets are sold in smoke shops around the country, including in Tennessee, where the state’s kratom ban took effect July 1. They have been turning up on shelves that used to carry kratom. A label that says cat’s claw does not tell you what is in the tablet. Short of lab testing, there is no way to know.
What Happened in Utah, and Why the Timing Matters Here
Utah moved before Tennessee did. A law that took effect there on May 6, 2026, SB 45, allows only pure leaf kratom to be sold, bans extracts and the products made from them, and limits sales to registered tobacco specialty retailers. Utah went after the concentrated products and left the leaf alone.
Tennessee’s ban came eight weeks later and reached further. HB1649, known as Matthew Davenport’s Law, took effect July 1 and makes kratom itself illegal here, including the pure leaf Utah still allows.
Eleven weeks after the Utah law took effect, the Utah Poison Control Center published an alert on adulterated cat’s claw and kava products. It named Buzzers and Homiez, and said others may be involved. Testing was still under way. The center said it had received multiple reports of severe overdose related to these products, and told people to avoid cat’s claw and kava products bought at smoke shops altogether.
The poison center and the state agriculture department have warned the public not to buy or consume Buzzers cat’s claw tablets, and to safely destroy any they had.
What Cat’s Claw Actually Is
NCCIH describes cat’s claw as a woody vine that grows wild in the Amazon rainforest and other tropical areas of Central and South America, and says most commercial preparations sold in the United States contain Uncaria tomentosa. The agency notes that Indigenous people of the Amazon have used the plant for centuries to ward off disease, and that it is promoted today for osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and other conditions. NCCIH also says there is no conclusive evidence, from studies in people, supporting cat’s claw for any health purpose.
It is sold as an herbal supplement. NCCIH says it appears to be safe taken by mouth for short periods, up to six months. The NIH’s LiverTox database calls its side effects minor, listing nausea, stomach upset, and diarrhea.
Most of the cautions are about taking it alongside something else, or taking it with a condition it could affect. NCCIH says cat’s claw may slow blood clotting, and that this might increase the risk of bleeding during surgery. It might also make the immune system more active, which could increase symptoms of autoimmune diseases. The agency says there are theoretical reasons to suspect it might interact with anticoagulant, antiplatelet, and blood pressure drugs, as well as other supplements. Some studies of its use during pregnancy suggest it is unsafe.
LiverTox adds that it has the potential to raise the levels of certain other medicines. If you take the supplement and anything else regularly, tell your prescriber. LiverTox adds that it has the potential to raise the levels of certain other medicines. If you take the supplement and anything else regularly, tell your prescriber.
That leaves the question of whether the plant itself could account for what Utah reported. The study that looked most directly at how it works injected mice with a concentrated fraction of the plant. Blocking serotonin weakened the pain-reducing effect. Blocking opioid receptors did not. That was one test in one animal model, but it points away from opioids. Neither NCCIH nor LiverTox lists euphoric effects or withdrawal.
All of that describes the plant. What is actually in smoke shop cat’s claw tablets is a separate question.
Why It Showed Up After the Ban
If you noticed cat’s claw tablets in smoke shops after kratom came off the shelves, there is a reason. They are being marketed to those shops as a kratom replacement.
Cat’s claw is a genuine supplement, and its botanical connection to kratom makes the product seem plausible. Both plants belong to the family Rubiaceae and, within it, to a tribe called Naucleeae. They are different genera, closer to cousins than siblings, but the link is real.
What that relationship does not explain is what was in the tablets. Utah’s testing identified two kratom-derived opioid compounds.
The rest of the answer is in how these products are sold. A wholesale distributor that supplies smoke shops files cat’s claw tablets under a product category called “Kratom & Alt Products.” A trade post on the same distributor’s site, published in June 2026, pitches a cat’s claw tablet to retailers as a “legal botanical alternative for kratom style retail sections.” The listings advertise that the tablets contain no kratom and no 7-OH.
These are tablets often sold in small bags, in flavors like sour apple and pink lemonade. That is not how cat’s claw reaches someone looking for joint support.
Utah tested one brand. That does not mean every cat’s claw tablet on a smoke shop shelf has something extra in it. It does mean there is no way to reliably know which ones do. So far, no other test results have been made public, and there is usually nothing on the package that would tell you.
The product listings and trade post described above are public and were reviewed in August 2026.
What Testing Has Actually Found
“Since July we have had patients come in using a product sold as cat’s claw, and clinically they look like the 7-OH patients we were seeing before the ban. Cat’s claw the herb has been on health food store shelves for years and it does not do this. When Utah tested the products they warned about, what they found in them was kratom-derived opioids. The name on the package is not telling you what is actually in it.”
Steven Lepley LPC, MHSP EMDR I & II, Clinical Director, Freeman Recovery Center
On July 30, 2026, Utah’s Department of Agriculture and Food and the Utah Poison Control Center put out a joint warning. It covered “illegally sold kratom products mislabeled as cat’s claw products in Utah retailers.” The tested products were sold under the Buzzers brand. They contained what the agencies called “opioid-acting compounds derived from the kratom plant”: mitragynine pseudoindoxyl and MGM-15. Utah lists both as Schedule I under state law.
Those two names are a mouthful, and you do not need to remember them. What matters is where they come from. In a notice published July 6, 2026, the DEA describes both as products of “synthetic modifications of purified mitragynine isolates or 7-hydroxymitragynine.” That second one is the alkaloid usually written as 7-OH. The notice calls mitragynine pseudoindoxyl a chemical rearrangement of 7-OH, and MGM-15 a derivative of 7-OH. Both were made by chemically changing a kratom alkaloid in a lab. In animal studies cited in the notice, MGM-15 is stronger than morphine.
The DEA notice also reports that mitragynine pseudoindoxyl was found in at least 31 overdose cases between February 2025 and February 2026. Twenty-five of those were fatal.
They count cases where the compound was found in a person. The notice does not say what products those people took. Utah found that same compound in the tablets it tested.
Utah put out two alerts. The July 22 poison center alert warned about cat’s claw and kava products it described as adulterated. It named Buzzers and Homiez, and said others may be involved. The July 30 warning reported test results, and Buzzers is the only brand it names. Investigations in Utah are still open. A brand missing from the warning does not mean it has been cleared. It may simply not have been tested.
In the same DEA notice, the agency said it intends to place these compounds in Schedule I on a temporary basis. As of the date on this post, that had not happened. Scheduling restricts a drug. It does not vouch for the ones that are still unrestricted.
Can You Become Dependent on Cat’s Claw Tablets?
If what you are taking contains one of those compounds, your body treats it as an opioid. Repeated opioid use can lead to tolerance and dependence, and to withdrawal when use stops. That does not depend on what the label says, or on whether you thought of yourself as using an opioid.
If you switched from kratom to cat’s claw expecting something milder, that may not be what you got. You may have noticed you need more of it than you used to. Stopping may bring on something that feels like kratom withdrawal. Those can be signs of physical dependence.
How Would You Even Know What You Took?
“Someone tells us they have been taking cat’s claw, and clinically that gives me almost nothing: We do not know which compound we are managing or at what dose. The drug panels we run do not pick these compounds up, so a negative screen does not rule it out either. When Utah’s agriculture department tested products sold under that name, they found kratom-derived opioids, including one far more potent than morphine. So when we hear cat’s claw at intake, we prepare for opioid withdrawal.”
Louis Lerebours M.D., OBOT, Medical Director, Freeman Recovery Center
It seems like there should be a way to find out. Usually there is not, and two problems stack on top of each other.
The label is the first one. Routine drug testing is the second. Standard opiate screens are not designed to catch the compounds in kratom. The American College of Medical Toxicology states that separate assays are required to reliably detect them, along with other synthetic opioids. For a treatment team, a negative routine panel does not show what someone has been taking. The team has to manage withdrawal from the clinical picture instead.
Tennessee’s new law changes part of this. Its definition of kratom reaches past the plant to cover anything extracted from the leaf, along with alkaloids and alkaloid derivatives created by chemical synthesis that alter the composition of a kratom alkaloid. That is what the DEA says these two compounds are. It requires toxicology testing to include kratom when a physician orders it for a suspected overdose or suspected neonatal abstinence syndrome. It also requires a county medical examiner to test for kratom when an autopsy is performed and the suspected cause of death is overdose. That helps after a crisis. It does not help anyone trying to find out what they are taking now.
What About Using Cat’s Claw to Get Off Kratom?
The idea of using cat’s claw to come off kratom is not new. It was about the herb in a supplement bottle. That says nothing about what is in a tablet sold under the same name today.
Coming off kratom, or off one of these products, is something to talk through with a clinician, who can tell you whether you need medical support to do it safely. Freeman Recovery Center provides medically monitored kratom detox at its Burns campus. The campus runs 24 hours a day with clinical supervision.
Signs of an Overdose and What to Do
If someone cannot be woken up or is not breathing normally, call 911 now. What follows is guidance published by federal agencies and in the FDA-approved label for Narcan. It is general information. It is not medical advice from Freeman Recovery Center, not legal advice, and not specific to any individual. It does not replace emergency services.
Utah’s testing found opioid-acting compounds in one brand of tablets sold under this name. The signs to watch for are those of an opioid overdose.
NIDA lists these signs:
- They cannot be awakened or are unable to speak
- Slow, shallow breathing
- Their breathing or heartbeat slows or stops
- They start vomiting or making gurgling noises
- Pale, gray, or bluish skin, lips, or fingernails. For lighter skinned people the skin tone turns bluish purple. For darker skinned people it turns grayish or ashen
- Pinpoint pupils
- Limp body
- Their face is extremely pale and/or feels clammy to the touch
SAMHSA adds two more: choking, gurgling, or snoring sounds from a person who cannot be awakened, and pupils that do not react to light. To check whether someone can be roused, SAMHSA says to rub your knuckles on the person’s upper lip or the center of the chest.
NIDA gives the response steps in this order:
- Call 911 immediately.
- Give the person a dose of an opioid overdose reversal medication, if you have one. NIDA names two, naloxone and nalmefene. SAMHSA says to use it even if you are not sure what drugs someone took, and that these medications do not cause harm if given to a person who is not experiencing an opioid overdose.
- Try to keep the person awake and breathing, and administer rescue breaths if needed. Ask the 911 dispatcher to direct you.
- Once the person can breathe on their own, lay them on their side with their top leg bent, the recovery position, to prevent choking. If they are not breathing on their own, keep giving rescue breaths rather than stopping to move them.
- Stay with the person until emergency assistance arrives.
If someone has taken one of these tablets and is awake, alert, and breathing normally but you are worried, Poison Help is free and staffed around the clock at 1-800-222-1222. If the person cannot be woken up or is not breathing normally, that is 911, not Poison Help. In an emergency, follow the 911 dispatcher.
If You Switched After the Ban
“Since the ban took effect, the people coming through our doors are not telling me they relapsed. They are telling me they switched to something they believed was legal and safer. They were trying to do the right thing with the information they had, and the information was wrong. That is not a moral failure, and we do not treat it like one.”
Shawn Baker, Founder and CEO, Freeman Recovery Center
Treatment does not depend on naming the compound. Clinicians manage withdrawal using what they can observe and measure, even when they do not know what someone took.
Freeman Recovery Center provides kratom addiction treatment in Tennessee, with rehab centers near Nashville. A free, confidential assessment is a place to start. You can reach our admissions team at (615) 645-3677.
If this is an emergency, call 911. For crisis support, call or text 988, the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.
