Kratom has never been banned in New York State, but nor has kratom been formally legalized and regulated. This has left consumers in the state with no restrictions on buying kratom but also navigating local head shops and online vendors with little incentive to put the safety of their customers first. Fortunately, with MIT45, you’ve found one of the manufacturers who is doing things right.
Is Kratom Legal in New York?
Know the State Laws and Industry Regs
We’re planning for a sustainable future in which kratom is fully legalized and widely accepted nationwide—precisely because essential consumer protections have been put in place.
The good news for consumers in New York is that the state legislature has realized the need for precisely this type of industry regulation. Learn more about the existing rules and regulations as well as the current momentum toward enacting a Kratom Consumer Protection Act in New York.
Proposed Bills for a Kratom Consumer Protection Act
Two State Assembly bills with identical texts have been referred to the relevant legislative committees. On January 3rd, 2024, Assembly Bill A02983 was referred to the Consumer Affairs and Protection Committee, while Assembly Bill S00488 was referred to the Agriculture Committee.
There is also a kratom regulation bill in the Senate, but from the text we’ve seen, it looks limited to prohibiting the sale of kratom to anyone under the age of 21. The House Assembly bills appear to be more fulsome legislation that would create new product and industry safety standards.
It wasn’t always this way. Barely more than five years ago, there was considerable momentum in the state to ban kratom. Suffolk County, in particular, came within a whisker of completely banning kratom locally in 2016-17.
The Importance of a Kratom Consumer Protection Act in New York
That said, the different bills also reflect today’s growing nationwide consensus that kratom should not be banned and left to the black market. Certainly, reasonable policymakers can disagree about how far regulation should go, but consumers should not be left to the Wild West of a legal but unregulated market.
While each state law is a little different, one of the most important things kratom consumer protection laws do is limit the amount of 7-hydroxymitragynine in kratom products, officially ban adulterated kratom, and add more transparency with product labeling requirements.
How important are these product safety regulations? Keep in mind that the isolated reports of acute kratom toxicity are likely connected to these types of unsafe products, as most scientific researchers believe that pure kratom has a low potential for abuse and no real mechanism that would lead to acute toxicity.
What’s Different about Kratom Legality in New York City?
Worse, there are even fewer guardrails in terms of smoke and vape shop licensing regulations, given this report from the NYTimes that there are roughly 2,000 unlicensed head shops in the city. Why? The state has been woefully slow to issue licenses for new cannabis dispensaries following the passage of a recreational marijuana law in 2021.
Of course, there may be little incentive for an unlicensed head shop to abide by kratom industry rules, but as more states pass this type of regulation, entire manufacturers will be forced to change the way they do business, while the worst actors in the industry will face a legal reckoning for the dangerous products they’ve been putting on the market.
This will help kratom consumers across the country, especially New Yorkers who like to browse shops throughout the five boroughs.
Want Proof Kratom is Legal in New York? Order MIT45 Products Online!
We don’t take any shortcuts when it comes to product safety, best manufacturing practices, rigorous lab testing, and consumer education. Yet, our commitment to each and every individual customer isn’t quite absolute. Namely, we’re not about to face hefty fines or get shutdown altogether by selling and shipping kratom to locations where it’s banned.
Check out our tailored assortment of kratom products and let us prove to you that it’s legal to buy kratom online in New York.
- Liquid Shots and Gels
- Tasty Gummies
- Red, Green, and White Raw Leaf Powder
- Capsules: Raw Leaf and Extract Strength
How to Find High-Quality Kratom Near You
Looking for specific recommendations for the best local stores? Use our city-by-city guide to stick to only reputable retail stores selling kratom. With this guide, you can also explore opportunities to make new friends by finding like-minded kratom fans in your community.
How to Contact State Agencies for Legal and Public Health Info
While we applaud New York State for actively considering and making a push toward passing a KCPA law, the available information about kratom on state agency websites leaves something to be desired.
We still recommend contacting these state agencies, but if you’re looking for recent consumer safety alerts, you’re likely going to be disappointed. More specifically, while you can find some of these alerts, the agencies seem to have stopped maintaining these information resources sometime around 2019, perhaps due to the pandemic.
The Office of the Attorney General
Most state Attorneys General publish reports of smoke, vape, and head shops that have received warnings or faced legal action due to the sale of adulterated kratom products or other violations to state law. The New York Attorney General is no different, except again the notifications appear to stop altogether in 2018.
The New York Department of Health
Aside from pointing out that the state’s Medicaid program tests for kratom, the only information we could find on the state’s website was this 2019 report that mentions a single study which looked at the dangers of kratom adulterated with phenylethylamine.
You can also find isolated kratom stories and rulings from smaller state agencies.
- This report from the state’s Gaming Commission reveals what happened with four horses that were doped with kratom.
- This report from the Department of Financial Services shows that a person who received inpatient care due to multi-substance drug intoxication (including kratom) could not be denied health insurance coverage.
Become an Advocate for Kratom in New York
The first thing we would suggest is to act locally. Contact your State Senator and Assembly Member. Monitor the bills in the State Assembly and State Senate for any online forums or public hearings that may be scheduled. Talk to your friends and neighbors who may not have the facts about pure, unadulterated kratom.
After that, share any personal anecdotes about kratom’s potential with a national audience and your federal representatives. We have an easy and effective way for you to do this. Tell your story (or the story of a loved one) and sign the national petition started by the American Kratom Association.
More Tips for Buying Kratom in New York
If you have a local head shop that you trust and that sells your preferred type of kratom, go for it. If it happens to be right on your block, it might even be more convenient. But between the risk of walking into an unlicensed shop, the comfort and confidence of researching brands and products, and the cost savings that come with larger orders and loyalty rewards, most people like to buy their kratom online.
You might consider taking a hybrid approach and tryout new forms of kratom from a local shop and then source your regular supply of kratom online. That said, if you’re expecting the sales clerk to have basic knowledge of kratom products and industry practices, you’re likely going to be disappointed.
Drug Testing and Employment Policies
With the pressure that some New York employers are known to put on their employees, it may feel like your boss wants you to take kratom. But in all seriousness, we get a lot of questions from customers about whether their kratom use will show up on a drug screen. Here’s what you need to know.
In one sense, the answer is yes. Kratom can be detected by some drug test panels. The reality, however, is that the standard 5-,10-, and 12-panel tests used by the overwhelming majority of employers are not designed to detect kratom. Unless your employer specifically asks for this test, you probably have little to worry about.
Actually, though it’s rare, you may need to worry about your kratom use creating a false positive on the opiate drug panel. If you know your employer won’t have a problem with kratom, you might consider disclosing this fact before the test.
But also know this: New York is an at-will employment state and kratom users are not a protected class of workers in terms of discrimination. The fact that kratom is legal won’t save your job if your employer strongly disapproves.
Social Attitudes about Kratom Use
Due to misinformation and confusion about pure kratom vs kratom mixed with other substances, many people mistakenly believe that kratom is nearly as harmful as seriously addictive opiates. We salute those people who advocate for kratom, but know that you may not get a receptive response from everybody you talk to.
We also want to point out one more time the rules for kratom and state Medicaid benefits. New Yorkers do a lot better job than people realize taking care of one another, but be careful about being generous with your kratom and people who are struggling financially. The New York State Medicaid program screens applicants and enrollees for kratom use to determine eligibility.
