Albany County banned all kratom. Its own order shows the way out.
Emergency Public Health Order No. 1 of 2026 took effect at 12:01 a.m. on September 1. It prohibits the sale, distribution and delivery of all kratom in Albany County, natural leaf included, and it reaches online sellers shipping in from outside. We no longer ship there. But the Commissioner wrote two separate prohibitions into Section 2, built the Order so the narrower one survives on its own, and asked the County Legislature to take the subject up in local law. Nobody has yet.
Last updated August 29, 2026, from the signed Order.
What it actually does.
Every line below cites the section it comes from. The Order is a signed public health order issued by the Commissioner of Health under the Albany County Sanitary Code, not a local law passed by the Legislature, and that distinction runs through the rest of this page.
- Section 2(1) prohibits any person or entity, naming online platforms alongside smoke shops, convenience stores and gas stations, from selling, offering for sale, distributing, marketing or delivering any kratom product within Albany County. Retail establishments must immediately cease and desist.
- Section 7(1) sets the effective time at 12:01 a.m. on September 1, 2026, subject to filing.
- Section 1(a) defines "kratom" broadly: any material containing any part of Mitragyna speciosa, mitragynine, 7-hydroxymitragynine, mitragynine pseudoindoxyl, MGM-15 or MGM-16, their isomers, esters, ethers and salts, plus anything held out as kratom.
- Section 3 requires retailers to remove all covered products from sale within forty-eight hours of the effective time.
- Section 4 lets an inspector demand a certificate of analysis from an independent laboratory establishing 7-OH and total alkaloid content, and a product without one may be embargoed pending testing.
- Section 6 carries a penalty of up to $1,000 under Article I, Section 12(b) of the Albany County Sanitary Code, with notice and an opportunity to be heard under Section 12(d).
- Section 7(2) keeps the Order in effect until the Commissioner determines the danger has abated, until it is superseded by local law, or until an effective state or federal prohibition, whichever comes first, and requires review at least every thirty days with a report to the Board of Health.
- Section 7(3) states the Commissioner's intent that the Order serve as an interim measure and respectfully requests that the Albany County Legislature consider local legislation at its earliest opportunity.
We do not ship to Albany County
We stopped as of September 1, 2026. We did not run a last-call sale first, because Section 2(1) reaches delivery into the county by an online platform rather than only sale inside it, so a parcel ordered before the date and arriving after it would still be covered. Albany is the fourth New York county we cannot ship to, after Nassau, Washington and Oneida.
Your account and order history are untouched. If the Legislature replaces the Order with a threshold law, or the Commissioner finds the danger has abated, we will ship there again and say so here the same day.
Section 2 contains two bans, not one.
This is the part worth reading closely, and none of it is our characterisation. It is how the Order is built.
Section 2(1), the categorical ban
All kratom, with no product exceptions. This is the prohibition in force from September 1, and it is the reason we stopped shipping to Albany County addresses. It expressly reaches online platforms and the act of delivering into the county.
Section 2(2), the threshold ban
A separate ban on "Prohibited Kratom Products" only. The Order calls it "a separate, self-executing prohibition" that does "not depend for its validity or operation upon paragraph 1." It sits underneath the categorical ban and does not need it.
Section 1(c), what that term means
A Prohibited Kratom Product is one containing a synthesized alkaloid, or botanical material above 0.05% 7-OH on a dry-weight basis, or a processed product above 0.05% or more than 1.00 mg of 7-OH per serving, or one adulterated with a controlled substance or tianeptine, or one packaged to appeal to people under twenty-one.
The sentence that closes Section 1(c)
A kratom product consisting of natural leaf in raw, dried, powdered, brewed or encapsulated form, whose 7-OH content does not exceed the clause (ii) threshold, is not a Prohibited Kratom Product for purposes of the Order. County counsel wrote that carve-out.
And Section 8 plans for the broad one falling.
The Order plans for the broad ban failing
Section 8(2) provides that if the categorical prohibition of Section 2(1) is stayed, enjoined or invalidated, "including natural-leaf kratom products," then Section 2(2) and every other provision continue in full force automatically, without further action by the Commissioner or the Board of Health.
The Order would then be run as the narrow rule
Section 8(2)(b) says the Order is thereafter administered and enforced as to Prohibited Kratom Products "as if the categorical prohibition had not been adopted."
And seized leaf would go back
Section 8(2)(c) provides that any product embargoed or quarantined solely under Section 2(1), which is not a Prohibited Kratom Product, is released on written request.
The definitions already swing across
Section 1(d) defines "Covered Product" as any kratom product, then provides that during any period in which Section 2(1) is unenforceable, "Covered Product" means a Prohibited Kratom Product. The narrow version is pre-wired throughout.
To be plain about what this does and does not mean: Section 2(1) is in force. Natural leaf is prohibited in Albany County today, which is why we stopped shipping. The Section 1(c) carve-out describes what the Order becomes if a court sets the categorical ban aside, or what a local law could adopt. It is not a loophole anyone can rely on now.
Keep the concentrate ban. Drop the blanket.
Section 7(3) is an open invitation from the Commissioner to the Legislature, and Section 7(2) says a local law supersedes the Order. That is the decision still on the table.
Not a repeal
Nobody is asking the Legislature to leave concentrated 7-OH unregulated. The products described throughout the Order's own findings would stay prohibited county-wide.
Adopt the county's own definition
A local law that takes the Section 1(c) definition and the Section 2(2) prohibition, without the categorical layer above them. Concentrates and synthetics stay banned. Natural leaf returns for adults 21 and over.
No new drafting is required
The language exists, it was written by county counsel, and Section 8 already contemplates the Order running without the categorical layer. Dutchess County Resolution 2026136, adopted unanimously on August 10, is a second working model.
It also matches the state and federal line
The Order's own recitals describe the DEA's July 2026 action and S8925-A, both of which set thresholds rather than prohibiting the plant. Because Section 7(2) makes an effective state prohibition supersede the Order, a county law matching the state thresholds is the least likely to need revisiting.
The Order's strongest finding is that leaf and concentrate cannot be told apart on a shelf without laboratory analysis. That is a real problem, and it is also an argument for requiring the certificate rather than prohibiting the category. Section 4 already builds that machinery: an inspector can demand a certificate of analysis from an independent laboratory establishing 7-OH and total alkaloid content, and embargo anything that has none pending testing. That paragraph anticipates enforcement running under Section 2(2) alone.
If you live in Albany County, write to the member for your district. Say who you are, where you live, and what you are asking for, which is a local law adopting the county's own Section 1(c) definition without the categorical layer. A few plain sentences from a constituent outweigh anything a business outside the county can send, including ours.
Write your own email in a minute
Say where you are writing from and add your name and town. The letter rewrites itself for an Albany County resident, a New Yorker outside the county, and someone out of state, because those are not the same argument. It opens in your own email app and sends from your address, not ours. Edit anything before you send it.
Your letter
Selecting the full Legislature makes a long mailto link, and some mail apps will not open one past a certain length. If the button does nothing, use Copy addresses and Copy letter text and paste them into a new message by hand. A few members list a personal address rather than a county one; both are published contacts.
The Legislature sits at 112 State Street, Albany, New York 12207. We wrote to the Chairwoman and members on August 27, 2026 making the request set out above, and enclosed the Dutchess County text as a working model.
What people are asking.
Is kratom legal in Albany County right now?
No. Section 2(1) of Emergency Public Health Order No. 1 of 2026 prohibits the sale, offer for sale, distribution, marketing and delivery of all kratom products county-wide, and it took effect at 12:01 a.m. on September 1, 2026.
Does the Order ban possession?
The prohibitions in Section 2 are directed at selling, offering for sale, distributing, marketing and delivering, and at retail display. The Order is a commercial-supply measure.
Then why does the page talk about a natural leaf exception?
Because the Order contains two independent prohibitions. Section 2(2) reaches only "Prohibited Kratom Products," and Section 1(c) states that natural leaf below the 0.05% dry-weight 7-OH threshold is not one. That narrower rule governs only if the categorical ban in Section 2(1) is stayed or struck down, under Section 8(2). It is not the rule today.
Do you ship to Albany County?
No. We stopped as of September 1, 2026. Section 2(1) reaches delivery into the county by an online platform, so we did not run a last-call deadline: a parcel ordered before the date but arriving after it would still be reached.
How long does the Order last?
Section 7(2) keeps it in effect until the Commissioner determines the danger to public health has abated, until it is superseded by local law, or until an effective state or federal prohibition takes effect. The Commissioner must review it at least every thirty days and report to the Board of Health, which reviewed the Order on September 3, 2026.
Who can change it?
The Albany County Legislature. Section 7(3) states the Commissioner's intent that the Order be an interim measure and formally requests that the Legislature consider local legislation. Section 7(2) provides that a local law supersedes the Order.
Which other New York counties do you not ship to?
Nassau, Washington and Oneida, in addition to Albany. Dutchess and Suffolk regulate rather than prohibit, and we ship to both.
Where every claim came from.
Everything on this page was read out of Albany County Emergency Public Health Order No. 1 of 2026, signed by the Commissioner of Health on August 24, 2026 and reviewed by the Albany County Board of Health on September 3, 2026. Section numbers are cited inline throughout so any statement here can be checked against the Order rather than taken on trust. The Order is a public record filed with the County Clerk.
For the wider picture, including which New York counties prohibit kratom and which regulate it instead, see our state-by-state kratom legality reference. Two neighbouring counties have proposals that have not been adopted: Rensselaer and Saratoga.
Hudson Valley Botanicals sells kratom and is affected by this Order, so read this page with that interest in mind. Nothing here is legal advice, and nothing here describes what any product does. It is a summary of a signed public health order, with section citations so you can check it yourself. The county's own filed document is the authoritative version.
