We, the undersigned, call for the immediate resignation of Mac Haddow from his position at the American Kratom Association (AKA). We believe his continued leadership represents a serious conflict of interest, a breach of public trust, and a direct threat to harm reduction efforts and honest scientific dialogue surrounding natural alkaloids — especially 7-hydroxymitragynine (7-OH).

⚠️ Misleading claims about 7-OH

Despite the fact that 7-OH is a naturally occurring metabolite of mitragynine and present in all kratom leaf or powder, Mac Haddow and the AKA have engaged in a misleading campaign against concentrated 7-OH over 1mg. These attacks have stoked public fear, misled regulators, and divided the kratom community.

7-OH has an estimated 500 million+ doses taken with no confirmed deaths. Yet, the AKA chose to portray it as dangerous — a decision we believe reflects political positioning and donor priorities rather than real-world harm.

Worse, these efforts contributed to confusion among lawmakers about the kratom plant and its alkaloids, which preceded scheduling bans in Louisiana and Connecticut — two states that had previously accepted kratom, but now classify it as a controlled substance. At the same time, the AKA focused significant attention and resources on opposing access to a well-tolerated compound, while broader protections for kratom were left vulnerable.

🧪 Hypocrisy around OPMS products

Now claiming that 7-OH is dangerous when present in amounts above 1mg, the AKA’s largest financial supporter and promoted “GMP safe” vendor, OPMS, previously sold products clearly labeled as containing 7mg of 7-OH for nearly a decade — a fact Haddow and the AKA ignored until it no longer served their narrative.

👉 We believe that once other vendors began offering 7-OH on the market, OPMS changed its label and allegedly removed the compound in order to align with the AKA’s misguided attack on it.

According to publicly available lab testing from Anresco Labs — whose testing we rely on in good faith — a sample of OPMS Black Caps submitted by TestMyKratom (TMK) [Lab Result TMK] shows the product now contains 8mg of mitragynine pseudoindoxyl — a metabolite of mitragynine in the body produced using a similar isolation process as 7-OH, and an even more potent mu-opioid receptor agonist. While we believe pseudoindoxyl is still safe to use (we are not attacking it), this move highlights the blatant hypocrisy in attacking one compound while ignoring others used by their top donors.

⚗️ Even more concerning, that same OPMS Black Caps sample failed residual solvent testing, coming in at nearly 4x over the acceptable limit for ethyl acetate — a clear consumer safety issue.

🥀 The AKA no longer represents the kratom community

The American Kratom Association was formed to represent kratom consumers, not just a few large vendors. However, under Mac Haddow’s direction, we believe the AKA has failed to represent the broader kratom and natural alkaloid community — especially when it involves vendors outside their donor network.

Instead of fighting for truth, research, and harm reduction, the AKA  has repeatedly been accused of protecting its top donors — even when critics argue this comes at the expense of public health and scientific accuracy.

We believe the kratom and natural product community deserves better. Real advocacy must be built on facts, not politics or favoritism, if we want to preserve access to kratom and its many alkaloids.

📝 We Demand:

• 🔹 The immediate resignation of Mac Haddow from the American Kratom Association.

• 🔹 A public explanation from the AKA regarding its selective attacks on 7-OH and its silence when 7-OH or even stronger alkaloids are used by donors.

• 🔹 An overhaul of the organization’s leadership and transparency policies to ensure true representation of consumers — not just large financial backers.

Until these actions are taken, we will no longer recognize the AKA as a legitimate representative of kratom consumers and will instead support and organize with groups that prioritize protecting access to kratom, 7-OH and other vital natural alkaloids.

✊ Sincerely,

HAVEN Access

All statements herein reflect the opinions and experiences of the authors. This petition is intended to encourage transparency, accountability, and open dialogue within the kratom community.