State inspectors walk into a Fort Lauderdale smoke shop on a weekday afternoon with a list. They pull the 7-OH tablets from behind the counter, a case of “extra strength” kratom shots, and a display of enhanced kratom gummies, and they leave the plain-leaf powder and capsules on the shelf. The owner had a food establishment permit for kratom and assumed everything in that category was covered by it. That afternoon he learned that some of what he’d been selling was a Schedule I controlled substance, and a week later he learned something else: his insurance won’t pay for any of the inventory that was taken.
Kratom and 7-OH have become the second product change Florida smoke shops are working through this year, alongside the federal hemp change. The rules are different, the timeline is different, and the insurance consequences are much the same.
Kratom and 7-OH Are Not the Same Product
Kratom is a plant, and in Florida plain-leaf kratom products, including powders, capsules, and teas made from the leaf, remain legal for adults twenty-one and older under the Florida Kratom Consumer Protection Act. Sarasota County is the exception, having banned kratom outright years ago.
7-hydroxymitragynine, usually called 7-OH, is one of the compounds found in kratom, naturally present only in tiny amounts. Over the past few years, manufacturers began concentrating it, and in some cases chemically converting other kratom compounds into it, to make tablets, shots, and gummies far more potent than the leaf itself. Those products are what Florida has moved against.
In August 2025, Florida’s Attorney General used an emergency rule to classify concentrated 7-OH as a Schedule I controlled substance. A broader emergency rule took effect on July 1, 2026, covering 7-OH and several related compounds and limiting how much of them a kratom product can contain. As of this writing, that rule caps those compounds at one milligram per gram or milliliter and requires products to contain far more natural mitragynine, the leaf’s primary alkaloid, than 7-OH, which is a way of separating plain-leaf products from enhanced ones. Emergency rules in Florida run for limited periods and are replaced rather than simply renewed, and federal regulators have also moved to schedule 7-OH, so the details can change. The direction hasn’t.
What It Means for a Shop’s Shelves
In practical terms, the line runs between plain-leaf kratom and enhanced products. Plain-leaf powders, capsules, and teas that meet Florida’s labeling and testing requirements can still be sold to adults with the right permit. Tablets, shots, gummies, and powders marketed as 7-OH, “extra strength,” “enhanced,” or with an unusually high potency are the products most likely to cross into Schedule I territory, and the only reliable way to know is the lab result.
Florida requires kratom products to be tested and labeled, and suppliers should be able to provide a current certificate of analysis showing the product’s alkaloid content, including 7-OH. A supplier that can’t or won’t provide one is a reason to stop buying from that supplier. Selling kratom also requires a food establishment permit from the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, separate from the shop’s tobacco and nicotine permits, along with age verification on every sale and the required signage.
Any product that falls on the wrong side of the rule should come off the shelves and out of the stockroom. Returning it to a supplier or reselling it elsewhere isn’t a solution, since transferring a controlled substance creates its own legal problem. Talk to counsel about lawful disposal, and document what was removed and when.
Your Inventory Stops Being Covered Property
Commercial property policies exclude contraband and property in the course of illegal trade. Concentrated 7-OH products that are now Schedule I substances fall squarely into that exclusion. If they’re seized, destroyed in a fire, or taken in a burglary, the property policy won’t pay for them, no matter what the shop paid for them or when it bought them.
Business income coverage follows the same logic. It replaces the earnings a business would have made if a covered loss hadn’t happened, and a claim won’t include revenue from products that were illegal to sell. A shop that relied heavily on 7-OH sales should expect its business income picture to look different now.
Liability Coverage Gets Narrower
Many smoke shop liability policies already exclude kratom, and those that cover it usually do so only for products the carrier approved at underwriting. Kratom products have been the subject of injury and wrongful death lawsuits against the companies that made and sold them, which is why carriers look at the category so closely. A shop selling products that are now controlled substances has a products liability exposure no carrier is going to accept, and insurance doesn’t pay fines, penalties, or the cost of defending criminal or regulatory enforcement.
Even for compliant plain-leaf kratom, the category has to be disclosed on the application. A shop that added kratom without telling its carrier may find that claims involving it fall outside the policy, especially on the specialty market forms most smoke shops are written on, which often limit coverage to the operations described on the application. Our article on what smoke shop insurance doesn’t cover in Florida walks through those exclusions.
Suppliers Matter More Than Ever
Kratom supply chains are long and often opaque, with products imported, processed, and packaged by companies a shop may never deal with directly. Buying from suppliers who provide current certificates of analysis, carry their own products liability insurance, and will name the shop as an additional insured under a vendors endorsement protects the shop on both the compliance side and the insurance side. Keep invoices and certificates for everything you stock, so you can show where each product came from and what it contained. Our article on product liability insurance for smoke shops and vape shops explains how vendors endorsements work and what voids them.
The Upside of Getting This Right
As with Delta-8, clearing out the products regulators are targeting can make a shop easier to insure. A shop that sells only compliant, lab-tested, plain-leaf kratom under the right permit, with documented age verification and suppliers who stand behind their products, presents a far better picture to underwriters than one with a counter full of enhanced products. Make sure your agent knows what changed. Our article on the federal hemp change and your smoke shop’s insurance covers the other product change working its way through the class this year.
Worth Confirming
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Every concentrated 7-OH, “extra strength,” and enhanced kratom product has been removed from the shelves and the stockroom
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Removed products have been disposed of lawfully, with documentation of what was removed and when
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Every kratom product you carry has a current certificate of analysis showing its 7-OH content
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Your food establishment permit for kratom is current
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Age verification and required signage are in place for every kratom sale
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Your shop isn’t in Sarasota County, or you aren’t selling kratom there
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Kratom is disclosed on your insurance application, and your policy doesn’t exclude it
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Suppliers carry products liability insurance and name you under a vendors endorsement
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Your agent knows about any changes to your product mix
For the full picture of how a smoke shop program is built, see our smoke shop and vape shop insurance page. To review your coverage after changing your kratom lineup, contact Prestige Insurance Group:
Miami 305-969-8776 · Orlando 407-993-2331 · Stuart 772-247-3788
Se Habla Español.
This article is for general informational purposes only and is not legal advice. Florida’s kratom and 7-OH rules are set partly by emergency rule and change frequently, and federal scheduling is ongoing; the requirements described here reflect the rules as of September 2026. Whether a specific product complies depends on its composition and testing. Confirm current requirements with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services and qualified counsel, and refer to your policy for the terms that apply to your business. Prestige Insurance Group, Florida agency license L057894.
