New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed Assembly Bill 5852 into law on December 19, 2025. This is the first law that specifically prevents a kratom vendor from using the term “all natural” on the label.
The new law states, “No kratom product shall be advertised as nor shall the packaging of such kratom product suggest, state, or imply that such kratom product is all natural.”
Kratom vendors have repeatedly been accused in the media of implying kratom is safe by advertising products as “all natural”.
Kratom is literally composed of leaves from a kratom tree. Traditional kratom preparations in Southeast Asian countries like Thailand or Malaysia consist of fresh leaves, while most kratom sold in the United States consists of dried leaf.
Highly concentrated kratom extracts in powder or liquid form could be considered less natural, but contain the same alkaloid profile as leaf kratom. These extracts are often sold as “all natural” kratom.
In the past two years, 7-hydroxymitragynine (7-OH) products have been labeled as “all natural” and “kratom”, even though these products are semi-synthetic, as mitragynine goes through an oxidation process to produce 7-OH that occurs at far higher levels than in plain leaf kratom. Therefore, 7-OH products are extremely different from natural leaf kratom.
The safety profile of a substance has nothing to do with whether it is natural or synthetic.
Every kratom package sold in New York must also include the following statement: “WARNING. This product has not been approved by the FDA. Side effects may include nausea, agitation, hallucinations, difficulty breathing, liver damage, and death”. This statement may be considered controversial as while kratom has been shown to cause nausea and liver damage in a minority of consumers, leaf kratom alone has not been proven to cause hallucinations. Psychosis has been demonstrated in individual case reports where the patient has been consuming other drugs, discontinuing prescription medications, suffering from an extreme lack of sleep, has a history of psychosis triggered by other substances, or other complicating factors. Kratom is not a hallucinogen in any traditional sense of the term.
Death from consuming kratom alone is possible. But a vast majority of deaths involving kratom have involved consumption of multiple drugs (kratom should not be combined with most other drugs), pre-existing health conditions (comparable to several people with heart conditions who died after reportedly drinking high-caffeine lemonade served at Panera), or such an extreme amount of kratom extract as to be comparable to death from a food toxicity (such as the man who died from consuming black licorice).
Any substance, natural or synthetic, can be toxic if consumed at high enough doses. “The dose makes the poison” is a maxim commonly used in toxicology.
AB5852 takes effect on January 1, 2026.
Also on December 19, Gov. Hochul signed Senate Bill 4552 into law, prohibiting sales of kratom to persons under the age of 21. This law took effect immediately upon signing.
“I thank Governor Hochul for signing this important legislation that not only protects children from potential harm caused by kratom but also requires labeling so all individuals choosing to purchase these products know exactly what they contain.” –NY State Department of Health Commissioner James McDonald