diff --git a/opentelemetry/Cargo.toml b/opentelemetry/Cargo.toml
index 75b6597a57..0a4ef72242 100644
--- a/opentelemetry/Cargo.toml
+++ b/opentelemetry/Cargo.toml
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ futures-sink = "0.3"
 once_cell = { workspace = true }
 pin-project-lite = { workspace = true, optional = true }
 thiserror = { workspace = true }
+tracing = {workspace = true, optional = true} # optional for opentelemetry internal logging
 
 [target.'cfg(all(target_arch = "wasm32", not(target_os = "wasi")))'.dependencies]
 js-sys = "0.3.63"
@@ -38,6 +39,7 @@ testing = ["trace", "metrics"]
 logs = []
 logs_level_enabled = ["logs"]
 otel_unstable = []
+internal-logs = ["tracing"]
 
 [dev-dependencies]
 opentelemetry_sdk = { path = "../opentelemetry-sdk", features = ["logs_level_enabled"]} # for documentation tests
diff --git a/opentelemetry/src/trace/context.rs b/opentelemetry/src/trace/context.rs
index 681c7b2e0c..723a525f88 100644
--- a/opentelemetry/src/trace/context.rs
+++ b/opentelemetry/src/trace/context.rs
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 //! Context extensions for tracing
 use crate::{
-    global,
+    global, otel_debug,
     trace::{Span, SpanContext, Status},
     Context, ContextGuard, KeyValue,
 };
@@ -55,7 +55,13 @@ impl SpanRef<'_> {
         if let Some(ref inner) = self.0.inner {
             match inner.lock() {
                 Ok(mut locked) => f(&mut locked),
-                Err(err) => global::handle_error(err),
+                Err(err) => {
+                    otel_debug!(
+                        name: "SpanRef.LockFailed",
+                        message = "Failed to acquire lock for SpanRef: {:?}",
+                        reason = format!("{:?}", err),
+                        span_context = format!("{:?}", self.0.span_context));
+                }
             }
         }
     }