Saratoga County Bans Kratom Sales, Adding to a New York Patchwork

Saratoga County supervisors voted 17-4 on Tuesday to prohibit the sale and distribution of kratom products countywide, making the county the latest in New York's Capital Region to legislate against a leaf that state regulators spent last year trying to control through age limits and labels. The local law takes effect when it is filed with the Department of State and carries fines of up to $1,000 for a first violation.

The measure, adopted at the Board of Supervisors' monthly meeting in Ballston Spa, covers every form of the product — natural, synthetic, semi-synthetic, chemically altered or otherwise modified kratom, including natural leaf powder — with a single exception for any kratom product that wins Food and Drug Administration approval after the law's effective date. Sellers get 30 days from filing to dispose of their inventory.

A ban that covers the leaf, not just the extracts

The scope of the law is what split the board. Minita Sanghvi of Saratoga Springs and Toni Sturm of Wilton, both Democrats, joined Republicans David Ball of Waterford and Edward Kinowski of Stillwater in opposition, and both wings of that minority said the same thing for different reasons: the county had conflated two different products.

Sanghvi said she was "100% opposed to synthetic and concentrated 7-OH products," describing synthetically elevated 7-hydroxymitragynine as behaving "like novel, high-potency full-agonist opioids" and packaged in "deceptive, candy-flavored seltzers and high-potency gas station shots." Her objection was to bundling that market with raw leaf. A full ban, she said, "treats two vastly different categories of substances as if they are the same thing," and "prohibition destroys the regulated, transparent supply" while handing sales to "illicit online sources and grey-market actors who test for nothing and obey no age limits." She proposed sending the draft back for a narrower ordinance modeled on a Kratom Consumer Protection Act.

Kinowski came at it from the opposite direction, arguing that a county that bans kratom should logically ban alcohol, tobacco and vaping products too. "Synthetic creations on Mother Nature's list of hopeful remedies should all be regulated, but let's not ban the miracles of so many of Mother Nature's gifts, like Kratom, because of man-made creations," he said during the meeting.

The death that drove the vote

Much of the debate traces to a single death. In 2024, Nickolas Scribner, a county Sewer District employee, died of asphyxiation while taking kratom to treat insomnia, according to Saratoga TODAY. His mother, Cari Scribner, campaigned for regulation after his death, and Saratoga TODAY reported that her efforts led the state to pass its 2025 rules restricting kratom sales to adults 21 and older and requiring warning labels. She spoke in favor of the county ban at an Oct. 14 public hearing.

Supervisors who supported the law leaned on that record. Chairman Phil Barrett of Clifton Park said kratom is easy to find in the county and that "it's clear people don't know what they are buying," adding that "more study and regulations are needed, and the federal government has a role in that process." In a statement after the vote he said the county had "seen the devastating impacts of kratom, which have tragically included local deaths," and argued that pulling the products from retail shelves would help families.

The law's fine structure escalates: repeat violations within five years of a prior conviction can bring up to $1,500 more, up to a year in jail, or both.

One county at a time in the Hudson Valley

Saratoga is not acting alone. Albany County and Rensselaer County have introduced their own bans in recent months, according to The Saratogian, and Barrett noted during the meeting that "other nearby counties have recently implemented full bans." That leaves New York with a growing map of county-level prohibitions layered on top of a state law that permits adult sales with warnings — a structure that retail chains will have to navigate store by store.

The patchwork has consequences beyond enforcement. A product legal at 21 in one county and banned a short drive away tends to migrate to the jurisdictions that still allow it, which is the outcome Sanghvi predicted in her floor speech. It also pushes the underlying policy question — whether kratom belongs in a regulated consumer market or off shelves entirely — into dozens of separate board votes rather than one legislative fight.

What the law doesn't do

The ban restricts commercial sale and distribution only; it does not reach individuals, so possession and informal sharing remain outside its scope. Retailers have a month after filing to clear stock, and the county has not said how the law will be enforced or by which agency.

The practical question now is timing: because the law takes effect on filing with the Department of State, sellers in Saratoga County remain legal until that happens and the 30-day window runs out. Supervisors who wanted a narrower ordinance have not said whether they will push for an amendment, and the families who testified in favor of the ban have not indicated whether they consider the county's version a model worth exporting.