It’s a Friday night at Palm Bay’s Nocturne Teas. Kava bowls line the counter, sending an earthy scent through the room while drinks flow. Guests sip mocktails or canned beverages at the wraparound bar, relax on full-length couches, or play pool and video games beneath pulsing EDM and alternative tracks. A small stage anchors the space, and live performers keep the energy going well past midnight.

Even after Florida’s emergency ban on 7-hydroxymitragynine (7-OH), business here feels largely unchanged. Nocturne draws a wide cross-section of the community, including students from nearby Florida Institute of Technology, and the vibe remains steady despite the new rules.

On August 13, 2025, Florida enacted emergency rule 2ER25-2, reclassifying 7-OH as a Schedule I controlled substance. Found in trace amounts in kratom, 7-OH is known for strong opioid-like effects; an FDA study found it to be 13 times more potent than morphine. The ban is the state’s latest step to regulate plant-based substances that have gained popularity in bars and tea houses across South Florida.

Intuitively, the ban might have been expected to hit kava bars hard. Instead, many tea houses have shifted their menus, and business appears to be doing fine. Some customers, though, are disappointed by the changes.

“We’ve had people that were disappointed that the new 7-OH beverages had changed, although they still order other drinks,” said Corbin Monge, 25, a veteran and co-owner of Nocturne Teas.

Drinks containing 7-OH have stirred controversy for years. In 2023 a class-action suit targeted Botanic Tonics, maker of Feel Free, a kratom-based drink marketed as a safe alcohol alternative; the suit alleged the company didn’t properly disclose kratom-related health risks. That case settled earlier this year for $8.75 million.

Kratom and kava are different plants with different effects, but before the ban both were commonly served at kava bars and were sometimes blended in teas. Many kava bars post warnings and informational signs about the risks and origins of kava and kratom to help educate individual consumers.

Before August’s emergency rule, 7-OH was also sold in concentrated pill forms far more potent than kratom. While some consumers and proprietors acknowledge that high-dose pills and other concentrated 7-OH products can be dangerous, many dispute blanket claims that kratom-based teas are inherently unsafe. Monge said when 7-OH is distilled and isolated—“that’s when you get those drastic negative 7-OH effects”—but not when it’s present in brewed teas.

Some customers and tea-house owners support banning distilled forms of 7-OH, including pills. “Kava bars,” Monge said, “were making a killing on something that was overpriced, easily accessible, and ultimately should not have been put on the market to begin with. It [7-OH] did a very great disservice to the kava and kratom community; introducing those products gave us a bad name.”

Reactions to the changes have been mixed. “Some drinks had 7-OH, and they had to change their formula. Regulars at the bar would say this [change] would ruin you or that it was the best thing,” said Jack Meyer, a 21-year-old Palm Bay resident and cook who frequents Nocturne.

Kratom is sometimes promoted as a way for opioid users to quit, but Meyer doubts that kratom, tea houses, 7-OH or the ban will make a major difference. “You kidding me? These people say, ‘Oh, this is how you’re gonna get off drugs–this is how you stop being addicted–when people are doing and dealing drugs in these places pretty openly.”

This article was adapted from an original report published on wlrn.org. All rights belong to the original publisher.