The OPMS kratom lawsuits are a group of consumer class actions and wrongful death cases accusing the brand of selling addictive, opioid-like kratom products without adequate warnings. As of mid-2026, cases are active in California, New York, Colorado, and Louisiana, and none has reached a public settlement or verdict. The plaintiffs range from consumers who say they became dependent on the products to families of people whose deaths coroners attributed to kratom toxicity.
OPMS, short for Optimized Plant Mediated Solutions, is a brand of kratom powders, capsules, and concentrated liquid extracts sold in gas stations, convenience stores, and smoke shops. Its Gold and Black lines are chemically concentrated to boost mitragynine and 7-hydroxymitragynine, the plant’s two main psychoactive alkaloids. Those same compounds sit at the center of the lawsuits.
What Plaintiffs Say OPMS Did Wrong
Across the cases, the core allegation is the same: OPMS marketed its products as natural and safe while concealing that they act on opioid receptors and can cause physical dependence, withdrawal, overdose, and death. Complaints describe “innocuous packaging” and the absence of health warnings on labels. Several suits also accuse the brand of promoting kratom for opioid withdrawal, pain relief, and mental health symptoms without approval to make those claims.
Plaintiffs have pursued a mix of legal theories: strict product liability, failure to warn, fraud by omission, negligent misrepresentation, breach of implied warranty, unjust enrichment, and violations of state consumer protection statutes.
The Consumer Class Actions
California: C.B. v. Martian Sales, Inc.
The first consumer class action was filed on February 22, 2023, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, case number 3:23-cv-00645-LL-AHG. A California resident identified as C.B. sued Martian Sales Inc., which holds the OPMS trademarks, for allegedly failing to warn buyers that its kratom products are addictive. The claims were brought under the California Unfair Competition Law and the Consumers Legal Remedies Act on behalf of California purchasers within the limitations period. No settlement, dismissal, or trial outcome has been publicly reported.
New York: J.P. v. Martian Sales Inc., et al.
A broader class action was filed on February 24, 2025, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, case number 1:25-cv-00741. The plaintiff, J.P., sued Martian Sales along with seven affiliated entities — Jopen LLC, LGI Holdings LLC, LP Ind. LLC, CAG Holdings Co. LLC, Calibre Manufacturing LLC, and Nuza LLC — collectively described in the complaint as the “OPMS Kratom Enterprise.” The suit alleges that OPMS products act on the same opioid receptors as morphine and that the defendants concealed that fact from consumers.
Legal claims include breach of implied warranty, unjust enrichment, fraud by omission, negligent misrepresentation, and violations of New York’s General Business Law. The plaintiff, represented by Neal J. Deckant of Bursor & Fisher P.A., is seeking a jury trial, injunctive relief, and compensatory and punitive damages for New York purchasers. The case was in early litigation as of filing.
The Wrongful Death Cases
Colorado: Simmons v. One Love, Inc.
On September 23, 2024, Erika Simmons filed a wrongful death suit in Weld County District Court over the death of her 34-year-old husband, Robert Simmons. The Weld County coroner ruled the cause of death acute mitragynine toxicity. The product involved was OPMS Silver Super Green Borneo kratom powder, bought at a Greeley smoke shop called One Love.
The complaint names One Love Inc. and its owner alongside Peyton Palaio, Mark Jennings, and a series of OPMS-connected entities: Jopen LLC, Martian Sales Inc., Johnson Foods LLC, LP Ind. Inc., Olistica Life Sciences Group, and two companies operating as Jordan Process. It alleges that the defendants operated an “evolving web of undercapitalized shell entities” to evade accountability and marketed their products as natural and safe without adequate warnings.
Louisiana: Wrongful Death Filing in Monroe
The law firm Herman, Katz, Gisleson & Cain filed what it described as the first kratom wrongful death lawsuit in Louisiana, in the 4th Judicial District Court in Monroe. The plaintiffs are the parents of a 25-year-old man who died in West Monroe after consuming OPMS kratom bought at a local gas station. Defendants include Martian Sales Inc., Jopen LLC, Johnson Foods LLC, Lp Ind. LLC, Cag Holdings LLC, R.M.H. Holdings Inc., and Vikram-Vijay LLC.
The suit alleges violations of the Louisiana Products Liability Act, claiming the products were unreasonably dangerous in design and lacked adequate warnings about addiction, overdose, death, and interactions with prescription medications. It also accuses the defendants of deceptive business practices by promoting OPMS for opioid withdrawal, pain, and mental health symptoms. The plaintiffs are seeking a jury trial along with survival and wrongful death damages.
Who Is Actually Being Sued
OPMS is a brand name, not a single registered company, and that fact shapes the litigation. A 2023 Tampa Bay Times investigation reported that the brand operates through at least 16 limited liability companies and eight trade names, many registered in Wyoming, and described the structure as a “labyrinth.” Martian Sales Inc. holds the trademarks, but complaints routinely name a long list of affiliates including Jopen LLC, LGI Holdings LLC, LP Ind. LLC, CAG Holdings Co. LLC, Calibre Manufacturing LLC, Nuza LLC, Johnson Foods LLC, Olistica Life Sciences Group, and R.M.H. Holdings Inc.
Plaintiffs identify Peyton Palaio as the person at the center of the enterprise, based on former employees, business partners, and internal organization charts cited in the newspaper’s reporting and in complaints. Palaio was president of the company that bought the 36-acre Colorado extraction site known as Jordan Process, named after his brother Samuel Jordan Palaio, who died of a heroin overdose in 2015. After the 2022 filing that first named him, employees were reportedly told Palaio was stepping down, with Mark Jennings taking over day-to-day leadership. Both men are named as individual defendants in the Colorado wrongful death case.
The FDA Warning on OPMS Black Liquid
Separate from the lawsuits, on July 26, 2024, the FDA issued a public safety alert warning consumers not to use OPMS Black Liquid Kratom. The agency said it had received at least one death report and “many reports of serious adverse events,” including addiction, withdrawal, digestive problems, restless leg syndrome, skin issues, aggressive behavior, increased anxiety, and difficulty concentrating. The product’s label lists mitragynine and 7-hydroxymitragynine as ingredients.
The FDA reiterated that it has not approved any prescription or over-the-counter kratom drug, that kratom is not lawfully marketed as a dietary supplement, and that it cannot legally be added to conventional food. The agency warned of risks including liver toxicity, seizures, and substance use disorder. An attorney for the OPMS trademark owner reportedly said the company would challenge the warning.
Where Things Stand and What Could Change Them
No OPMS-specific lawsuit has reached a public settlement or verdict as of mid-2026. The New York class action complaint alleges that the enterprise has already paid “millions of dollars in settlement payments” in prior wrongful death claims, though specific amounts and case details were not disclosed in the public filings.
Regulation is moving in parallel. Import Alert 54-15, published in February 2025, authorizes detention without physical examination of kratom-containing dietary supplements at the border. On July 29, 2025, the FDA recommended that 7-hydroxymitragynine — an ingredient in OPMS’s concentrated extract lines — be classified as a Schedule I controlled substance. The DEA was reviewing that recommendation as of mid-2026, with public rulemaking still ahead. Florida has already banned 7-OH products by emergency regulation, and California’s Department of Public Health announced in October 2025 that foods and dietary supplements containing kratom or 7-OH are illegal to sell or manufacture in the state. Any of those actions, if finalized, would reshape what OPMS can sell and could sharpen the legal claims already pending against it.
If you or a family member used OPMS products and experienced serious health effects, the class actions in California and New York and the wrongful death filings in Colorado and Louisiana are the active vehicles through which claims are being brought. Preserving the product, its packaging, purchase records, and any medical documentation is what a plaintiff’s lawyer will ask for first.