Dutchess County, New York wants to ban kratom.
On July 30, 2026 the county executive proposed a countywide ban on kratom sales and distribution. The county legislature decides it. This page tells you what the proposal actually says, who votes on it, and gives you a letter you can send in your own words from your own email in about five minutes.
I am based in this county, so it also decides whether I can keep operating here. What that would mean for me.
⚠️ Time sensitiveWhat is actually on the table.
County Executive Sue Serino announced the proposal on July 30, 2026 and submitted it to the Dutchess County Legislature, which is scheduled to consider it at its August 10, 2026 board meeting. Based on the county's own announcement, here is what it does.
- Bans the sale and distribution of kratom and kratom derived products across the entire county.
- Does not distinguish plain leaf kratom from concentrated synthetic products such as 7-OH. Everything is treated the same.
- Civil penalties up to $1,500 per violation, and up to $2,000 for a sale to anyone under 21.
- Enforced by the Dutchess County Department of Health.
- Announced July 30, 2026 by County Executive Sue Serino and submitted to the County Legislature.
Read the county's announcement yourself: Serino Proposes Countywide Ban as Kratom Health Concerns Grow, dutchessny.gov.
We operate out of Dutchess County
Hudson Valley Botanicals is a one person business, mine, run out of Poughkeepsie since 2017. A countywide ban on sale and distribution reaches me directly. If it passes as announced, I could not sell or ship from here.
I would stop shipping to Dutchess County addresses, pause operations briefly, and relocate outside the county. Then I would be back. I am not closing, and I am not going anywhere.
You would hear that plan from me before anything changed, not after. If there is a stretch where you cannot order, I will tell you how long I expect it to last and when I am back, and I will not leave you refreshing the site wondering.
I would rather say all of this plainly than have you guess at it. A forced move also costs a small business real time and money that would otherwise go into the product, which is a plain reason I am asking for help rather than pretending I have no stake in the outcome.
The executive proposed it. The legislature votes.
This distinction matters, because most people write to the wrong office. A proposal from the county executive is a request. Twenty five elected county legislators decide whether it becomes local law, and they are the ones who count letters from the districts they represent.
So write to both. And if you live in the county, the single most effective thing you can do is find the legislator who represents your address and contact that one person directly.
Sue Serino
County Executive. Wrote and submitted the proposal. Can withdraw or amend it.
25 County Legislators
Vote it up or down on August 10. Each represents one district. Yours answers to you.
Department of Health
Would enforce the ban if it passes. Commissioner Dr. Livia Santiago-Rosado supports the proposal.
There is a better line, and it has already been drawn.
Nobody serious is arguing for no rules. The question in front of the legislature is where to draw the line, and both the federal government and New York State have already drawn it in the same place: at concentrated synthetic products, not at the plant. Four points worth making in your own letter.
The federal government drew the line at concentration, not at the plant
On July 1, 2026 the DEA announced its intent to temporarily place 7-OH into Schedule I above a specified concentration threshold, set at 0.05 percent, along with three related synthetic compounds. The action deliberately targets enhanced, concentrated, synthetic, and semi-synthetic products. Ordinary leaf carrying only naturally occurring trace amounts below the threshold is not covered. The scheduling order was stated to publish on or after August 5, 2026. The agencies charged with drug enforcement and public health reviewed the science and concluded the concentrates are the threat.
New York State already regulates this, and is going further
In December 2025 the governor signed legislation prohibiting kratom sales to anyone under 21 and requiring ingredient disclosure and consumer warning labels. In June 2026 the state legislature passed a bill addressing concentrated synthetic 7-OH products, and further legislation on the Kratom Consumer Protection Act model, with testing, labeling, and age standards, has been introduced.
A New York county faced this exact choice last week and chose regulation
In late July 2026 the Suffolk County Legislature voted unanimously to regulate kratom rather than ban it outright, a law its County Executive has since signed: prohibiting products adulterated with other dangerous substances and synthesized kratom materials, and requiring third party testing for everything sold in the county. Nassau County went the other way earlier in 2026 and banned outright. Dutchess gets to pick which of those two precedents it follows.
Prohibition moves the market, it does not close it
A countywide ban would go further than the DEA itself determined was warranted, while the concentrated 7-OH products the county is rightly worried about are about to become federally illegal regardless of what Dutchess does. What a local ban does reach is the businesses here that already verify age, test every batch, and publish results. Demand does not disappear with them. It relocates to sellers with no age check, no testing, no labeling, and nobody the county can hold accountable at all.
Sources
- DEA press release, July 1, 2026: DEA to Temporarily Schedule 7-OH and Related Substances to Protect Public Safety
- Federal Register, July 6, 2026: Temporary Placement of 7-Hydroxymitragynine Above a Specified Threshold in Schedule I
- Congressional Research Service: Temporary Control of 7-Hydroxymitragynine (7-OH) and Related Substances Under the Controlled Substances Act
- FDA: Hiding in Plain Sight, 7-OH Products
- Governor of New York, December 22, 2025: signing of the under-21 sales prohibition and warning label requirements
- New York S10514 (2026): testing, labeling, and age standards for kratom products
- The Long Island Advance, July 30, 2026: County Legislature approves kratom regulation
- Dutchess County announcement, July 30, 2026: Serino Proposes Countywide Ban as Kratom Health Concerns Grow
What a compliant operator already looks like.
Part of the argument against a blanket ban is that the standards the county says it wants already exist here in practice. Some of the list below is required by New York State law. The rest goes beyond anything any law currently requires of me. Either way, all of it can be written into county law and enforced by the Health Department using the same civil penalty structure the proposal already contains. Here is how this business runs today.
- Leaf only. No 7-OH, no concentrated extracts, never have and never will.
- Every customer age verified at 21 or over by a third party service requiring a photo ID upload at checkout.
- Every batch tested by independent third party laboratories, with the certificate of analysis published publicly.
- Labeling compliant with New York State ingredient disclosure and warning requirements.
- No shipping into states or localities where sale is prohibited.
Read the letter I sent to the county executive and the legislature
Dear County Executive Serino,
My name is Scott, and I own Hudson Valley Botanicals, a small business that has operated here in Dutchess County since 2017. I am writing about the proposed local law announced on July 30 that would prohibit the sale and distribution of kratom and kratom derived products countywide. I am respectfully asking you and the County Legislature to choose a targeted regulatory framework instead of a blanket prohibition.
I share your concern for public safety, and especially for keeping these products away from young people. I am not asking the county to do nothing. I am asking it to aim at the actual problem. The products driving recent headlines, poison control calls, and hospital visits are concentrated and synthetic derivatives of 7-hydroxymitragynine, commonly sold as "7-OH." These are chemically enhanced isolates that reach potencies never found in the natural leaf. As announced, the proposal does not distinguish between those engineered concentrates and traditional leaf products, and it would treat a responsible, tax paying Dutchess County business the same as the gas station counter selling flashy 7-OH tablets. It is worth noting that the CDC exposure data cited in the county's announcement covers the same period in which the DEA documented a rapid proliferation of concentrated synthetic 7-OH products in the marketplace, which is precisely why the federal response targets those products.
The federal government has just drawn exactly this line. On July 1, 2026, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration announced its intent to temporarily place 7-OH above a specified concentration threshold, along with three related synthetic compounds, into Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, with the scheduling order expected to take effect in early August. The DEA deliberately limited this action to concentrated and synthetic products. Natural leaf kratom below the threshold is not covered. In other words, after reviewing the science with the FDA and HHS, the federal agencies charged with drug enforcement and public health concluded that the concentrates are the threat and drew their rule accordingly. A countywide ban on all kratom products would go further than the DEA itself determined was warranted, while the dangerous 7-OH products the county is rightly worried about are about to become federally illegal regardless of what Dutchess does.
New York State has been drawing the same line. In December 2025, the Governor signed legislation prohibiting kratom sales to anyone under 21 and requiring full ingredient disclosure and consumer warning labels. In June 2026, the Legislature unanimously passed a bill addressing concentrated synthetic 7-OH products, and further legislation modeled on the Kratom Consumer Protection Act framework, with testing, labeling, and age requirements, has been introduced. A county law that mirrors and strengthens the state and federal approach would be durable and enforceable. A blanket ban would simply push demand to unregulated online sellers and out of county shops while shutting down the local businesses that already follow the rules.
Just last week, Suffolk County's Legislature faced this same choice and voted unanimously to regulate kratom rather than ban it outright, and Suffolk's County Executive has signed that law. Dutchess County has the opportunity to adopt the same evidence based posture.
As for how a responsible operator runs: my company sells leaf only products. We carry no 7-OH and no concentrated extracts, and never have, and never will. We verify that every customer is 21 or older through a third party that requires them to upload a photo of their ID at checkout, we test every batch through independent third party laboratories and publish the certificates of analysis on our site for all to see, we label in compliance with New York's new requirements, and we do not ship to localities where sale is prohibited. Everything the county is worried about, from youth access to unlabeled and untested products, is already addressed by these standards, and they can be written into county law and enforced by the Department of Health with the same civil penalty structure your proposal contains.
To the members of the Legislature in particular: the review period before your vote is the moment to shape this local law rather than simply pass or reject it, and I would ask you to amend it into a targeted regulatory framework. Before you take this up on August 10, I would welcome the chance to meet with you or your staff, answer any questions about how businesses like mine operate, and share what a Dutchess County regulatory framework aligned with the DEA's threshold approach and the state's standards could look like. I want the same outcome you do: a county where dangerous synthetic products are off the shelves and no minor can buy any of this, anywhere.
Thank you for your time and for your service to Dutchess County.
Respectfully,
Scott
Owner, Hudson Valley Botanicals
Poughkeepsie, Dutchess County, NY
Sources for the letter are listed above. To reach us directly, use our contact page.
Five minutes, in your own words.
Fill in the left side and the letter builds itself on the right. Then open it in your own email app, or copy it and paste it wherever you like. Nothing is sent from this website, and nothing goes out until you send it yourself.
Please write something in the story field. It is the only part of the letter that officials cannot ignore, and a hundred identical form letters get counted as one.
Your details
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Pick one. Your letter's opening line depends on it, and claiming to be a local when you are not is the fastest way to get the whole effort dismissed.
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Your letter
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Everyone worth writing to.
All of this is published by the county. Office hours are Monday through Friday, 9am to 5pm.
Sue Serino
Her office wrote and submitted the proposal. Start here.
- CountyExec@DutchessNY.gov
- Phone
- 845-486-2000
- Dutchess County Office Building, 22 Market Street, 6th Floor, Poughkeepsie, NY 12601
General inbox, all 25 legislators
This is the body that actually votes on August 10.
- CountyLegislature@DutchessNY.gov
- Phone
- 845-486-2100
- 22 Market Street, 6th Floor, Poughkeepsie, NY 12601
Julie Shiroishi
The clerk logs public correspondence into the record. Reachable through the Legislature's office.
- Phone
- 845-486-2100
- 22 Market Street, 6th Floor, Poughkeepsie, NY 12601
Find the legislator who represents you
If you live in Dutchess County, this is your highest leverage contact. Look up your district by address, then email or call that legislator directly and say you are a constituent in their district.
Sixty seconds on the phone.
Calls are logged as a position, a name, and a town. For a local vote, a handful of calls from actual constituents can carry more weight than a much larger pile of email. You will almost certainly speak to a staff member, and that is fine. That is the job.
"Hi, my name is [your name] and I live in [your town]. I am calling to ask the county executive to withdraw the proposed kratom ban, and for my legislator to vote no on August 10. I am an adult who buys this product legally and responsibly. I would support age limits and lab testing requirements instead of a total ban. Thank you for your time."
Four things that make a message actually land.
- Be polite.Angry messages get deleted, and the worst ones get read aloud as evidence that the ban is needed. Calm and specific carries much further.
- Use your real name and your town.Anonymous notes get filed and forgotten. If you live in Dutchess County, put that in your first sentence.
- Tell your own story.Not statistics, not links, not studies. They already have plenty of those from the other side. What they do not have is you, in your own words, as an adult who made a choice.
- Do not claim to be local if you are not.If you live in another state, say plainly that you are a customer of a business based in the county. That is still worth saying, and honesty is what keeps the whole effort credible.
Fair questions, answered straight.
Do I have to live in Dutchess County for this to matter?
A letter from a county resident carries the most weight, because residents vote in county elections. If you live elsewhere, your message still counts as a customer of a business based in the county, and as someone affected by the precedent. Just be upfront about which one you are.
Does anything get sent from this website?
No. The builder assembles text and hands it to your own email app, where you can read it, change it, and decide whether to send. It goes out from your address, not mine. I built it this way on purpose: a pile of identical messages arriving from one company server gets discounted as an organized campaign, and rightly so.
Will my name become public?
Correspondence sent to public officials can become part of the public record, and letters read at a public meeting are public. That is true of any message to any government office. If that concerns you, a phone call is a good alternative, since calls are usually logged as a position and a town rather than a published document.
Is organizing something like this allowed?
Yes. Contacting your elected representatives about a pending local law, and encouraging others to do the same in their own words, is ordinary civic participation. What is not fine is sending messages in someone else's name, or pretending to be a constituent when you are not, which is exactly why this page works the way it does.
Is this about kratom leaf or about 7-OH?
The proposal as announced covers both. That is one of the strongest points to raise: concentrated and semi-synthetic 7-OH products are a different category from traditional leaf, and several states have written laws that restrict the former while regulating the latter. A single countywide ban treats a tested, labeled leaf product and an untested synthetic tablet as the same thing.
What happens to my orders if it passes?
Straight answer: if a blanket ban passes, I would stop shipping to Dutchess County addresses and pause operations briefly while I relocate outside the county. Then I would be back. I am not closing, and I am not going anywhere. But a forced move costs a small business real time and money that would otherwise go into the product, which is a plain reason I am asking for help rather than pretending I have no stake in it. If it comes to that, you will hear the plan from me before anything changes, not after.
One letter helps. Twenty changes a vote.
I am one person running a small business in the Hudson Valley. There is no lobbyist on my side of this. If you know anyone in Dutchess County who would want a say before August 10, send them this page.
This page is civic and legislative information about a proposed local law in Dutchess County, New York. It is not legal advice. Any letter you send is your own message, sent from your own email address, in your own words, and you are responsible for its contents. Nothing on this page describes what any product does. Kratom products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA.
