The Thai government passed the Kratom Act 2486 which went into effect on August 3, 1943. This law makes planting the tree illegal and requires existing trees to be cut down. This law has not stopped kratom use completely and is hard to enforce since kratom grows wild all over Thialand.
On December 28, 2018 the Thailand National Legislative Assembly (NLA) passed amendments to a bill permitting the production, import, export and use of both kratom and cannabis for medicinal purposes. Many aspects of the new legislation are still to be decided. Thailand is the first country in the south pacific region to propose legalizing medicinal cannabis.