Nassau County legislators voted to ban the sale of kratom products in a unanimous vote, legislators announced on Monday, March 9.
Introduced by Deputy Minority Leader Arnold Drucker, the legislation was cosponsored by all 19 members of the Legislature.
The ban goes further than New York State’s legislation, which created a 21-year age limit to purchasing kratom, and includes both the natural “whole leaf” version of the plant and the synthetic compound often sold in gas stations and smokeshops known as 7-OH.
“Kratom is marketed as safe and ‘natural,’ but federal health agencies have repeatedly warned otherwise,” Drucker said in a press release. “The FDA has advised consumers not to use kratom due to risk of serious adverse effects, including dependency, liver toxicity, seizures and substance use disorder.”
Several county residents and advocates for the use of whole-leaf kratom have argued against the ban, saying it overreaches and denies users a safe pain-management alternative to opioids.
Lora Romney, president of the International Plant and Herbal Alliance, said people use kratom for mood and anxiety relief, and energy boosts as well.
“If natural plant kratom is taken away, it’s going to be devastating,” she said. “There are a lot of people like me and others out there who rely on this for their health and wellbeing. You are abandoning them.”
She said 7-OH, the synthetic derivative of the plant, should be regulated, and that marketing it as kratom has damaged the image of the plant.
Paal Eide, a retired New York City firefighter with 20 years of experience in Special Operations Command, said he uses the natural plant kratom as part of his workout regimen for mood enhancement and occasionally for pain management.
“[The ban] is unacceptable,” he said. “It’s an infringement on our civil liberties and bodily autonomy.”
Eide said the leaf has benefits that have been used for thousands of years, and said it is a far safer alternative to opioid pain medication.
He said injuries related to his career in the FDNY have brought him difficulty in his fitness routine and that regular use of kratom has brought him more motivation in the gym.
“Every time I would go to the gym, it would hurt. But I didn’t want to stop exercising,” he said, adding that he first heard about kratom from a guest on the Joe Rogan podcast, which led him to watch the film “A Leaf of Faith.”
“In high doses, it’s an analgesic. In low doses, it’s a mood elevator,” he said. He said he hasused it for about eight years now.
The FDA said in December that it does not recommend the use of the plant or its derivatives for medical treatment or as dietary supplements, but that it would review any applications for drug approval.
“Like many physicians, I find it painful to recall the many opioid prescriptions I wrote in the early 2000s for routine procedures, unaware of the high potential for abuse,” Martin Makary, commissioner of food and drugs for the FDA, said in a 2025 letter about kratom. “Our recognition of the abuse potential and our delayed response as a medical community resulted in a national crisis. Let’s not get caught flat-footed again.”
A press release from the county legislature minority office said compounds found in kratom bind to opioid receptors in the brain and have been linked in scientific and public health reports to addiction and other serious health risks.
“We were heartened to see the Nassau County Legislature take action on this important threat to public health…The fact that young people can purchase these products at off-brand gas stations and convenience stores puts their health at risk, and thankfully, those days will end once this bill becomes law,” Jeffrey Reynolds, president and CEO of the Family and Children’s Association, said. “We are aware that some consumers are using Kratom as an alternative to opioids or as an off-ramp to problematic opioid use, but there are FDA-approved products that are more effective and safer options.”
“We’ve made real progress fighting the opioid epidemic,” Minority Leader Delia DeRiggi-Whitton said. “We cannot allow another unregulated substance with opioid-like effects to spread unchecked.”
