Is Kratom Legal in Pennsylvania?

What law covers kratom in Pennsylvania?

No law names it. Pennsylvania lists its controlled substances in two places. The first is The Controlled Substance, Drug, Device and Cosmetic Act of 1972. Read the full text on the General Assembly’s site. The second is a Department of Health rule, 28 Pa. Code § 25.72, last changed in 2015.

Kratom isn’t in either list. Neither are mitragynine and 7-hydroxymitragynine, the leaf’s two main alkaloids. So the state has no possession offense for kratom. It has no kratom rule on age, labels or testing either.

Does Pennsylvania require anything of a kratom seller?

Not under any kratom law. House Bill 2657 would write the first rules. Its official name is the Regulation and Oversight of Kratom Act. As the House passed it, the bill would:

• require processors and retailers to register with the Department of Health each year, for a fee of no more than $100
• bar sales to anyone under 21, and require stores to check age with a device that reads IDs
• allow only “natural kratom products”: dried leaf or leaf powder, alone or in a plain capsule, with no extract
• cap 7-hydroxymitragynine, often shortened to 7-OH, at 0.05 percent of a product’s dry weight
• ban every other kratom product, extracts included, with fines up to $15,000 and up to five years in prison
• require a label with the processor’s name and address, a lot code, and a warning that kratom may cause dependence and withdrawal
• add a 12 percent tax on the retail price

That 7-OH cap works out to half a milligram in each gram of product. Most of the bill would take effect 180 days after it became law.

How did House Bill 2657 pass the House?

Quickly, and without a vote against it. Representative Bridget Kosierowski filed House Bill 2657 on June 22, 2026. The House Health Committee approved it 26 to 0 on September 29.

The next day, the House amended it on the floor, 201 to 2 and 200 to 3. As filed, the bill measured 7-OH against a product’s alkaloids, with a line at 0.5 percent of them. As amended, it measures 7-OH against the product’s dry weight. The changes also allowed leaf in a plain capsule and swapped in the 12 percent tax. And they set up a fund to pay for enforcement: three quarters to the Department of Health, one quarter to the Attorney General.

The Appropriations Committee approved it 37 to 0 on October 5, 2026. The full House passed it 202 to 0 the same day. On October 13, the Senate sent it to its Health and Human Services Committee.

Which Pennsylvania kratom bills failed?

Two, and both came from the same lawmaker. Each was called the Kratom Consumer Protection Act.

• House Bill 2357. Representative Tracy Pennycuick filed it on March 8, 2022. The House Health Committee lowered its buying age from 21 to 18. The House passed it 197 to 3 on June 27, 2022. A Senate committee approved it 10 to 0 on October 18. The Senate sent it to Appropriations the next day, and the session ended with it there.
• Senate Bill 614. Pennycuick, by then a senator, filed it on April 25, 2023. It never left the Senate Health and Human Services Committee.

Both bills would have barred products holding more 7-OH than 2 percent of their alkaloids, or any synthetic alkaloid. Both would have had the Department of Health fine sellers, from $100 for a first offense up to $5,000. The legislative record doesn’t say why either one stopped.

Which other kratom bills were pending in Pennsylvania?

Four, besides House Bill 2657, on the date at the top of this page. Two would regulate sellers. Two would add products high in 7-OH to Schedule I, Pennsylvania’s strictest drug category.

• Senate Bill 233, filed by Senator Pennycuick on February 4, 2025. It’s the Kratom Consumer Protection Act again, with a buying age of 21. It hadn’t left committee.
• Senate Bill 899, also filed by Pennycuick, on June 30, 2025. A Senate committee rewrote it 9 to 3 on November 18, 2025. As amended, it would list in Schedule I any product with 7-OH at 2 percent or more of its alkaloids, or at 1 milligram or more per recommended serving. Every synthetic or semi-synthetic kratom alkaloid would go on the list too. On March 23, 2026, it was laid on the table, which sets a bill aside until the Senate votes to take it back up.
• House Bill 2058, filed by Representative Emily Kinkead on November 19, 2025. It would register sellers, set the buying age at 21 and keep products behind the counter. Labels would list the mitragynine and 7-OH in each serving. It hadn’t left committee.
• House Bill 2158, filed by Representative Gary Day and sent to the Judiciary Committee on January 26, 2026. It carries the same Schedule I language as the amended Senate Bill 899. It had no vote.

What has Pennsylvania’s health department said about kratom?

It has warned doctors and hospitals three times. Its first advisory, on August 4, 2025, said standard kratom products typically hold 7-OH at 1 to 2 percent of total content or less. It set those apart from concentrated, semi-synthetic 7-OH products that run as high as 98 percent.

The department’s August 19, 2026 advisory said 7-OH occurs naturally in kratom leaves at very low levels. It counted deaths in which kratom was listed as contributing: 65 in 2023, 38 in 2024 and 33 in 2025, the last figure preliminary. Fewer than six a year involved mitragynine alone. The department said its death data can’t tell plant kratom apart from concentrated 7-OH.

We have never sold 7-OH products and we do not defend them.

Two letters have gone to the Secretary of Health. On July 7, 2026, Representative Brenda Pugh asked her to be ready to act if the DEA finalized the 7-OH proposal it had published the day before. The DEA withdrew that proposal on October 14, 2026, and published a new one the same day.

On August 31, 2026, the district attorneys of Bucks and Chester counties asked her to use emergency powers to list 7-OH and related kratom compounds as controlled substances. On the date at the top of this page, the department’s rule hadn’t changed. A search of the Pennsylvania Bulletin, where the state publishes new rules, found no notice naming kratom or 7-hydroxymitragynine.

Could Pennsylvania kratom law change?

Yes. House Bill 2657 needs a Senate committee vote, a full Senate vote and the governor’s signature.

Time is short. Under the state constitution, the General Assembly is one continuing body only for the two-year term of its House members. That term ends when new members take office on December 1, 2026. A bill that isn’t law by then has to be filed again. The new General Assembly meets on January 5, 2027.

The Department of Health can also act on its own, as the district attorneys asked. And federal action sits above all of it. On October 14, 2026, the DEA published a federal proposal on 7-OH. It’s a proposal, not a rule, and this page doesn’t state federal law. Our page on whether kratom is legal federally tracks it, and the Kratom Legality hub carries every state.

If a Pennsylvania bill moves, the General Assembly’s own site shows it first. Not a store’s website. Ours included.

Can you order kratom online in Pennsylvania?

Yes. No Pennsylvania law names kratom, so none sets rules for buying it online.

We’re based in Arlington, Texas, and Pennsylvania is the fifth-largest state for our orders. We verify age at checkout. Every lab report we publish for our Whole Earth line measures 7-OH, and you can read them on our lab tests page. We carry kratom powder and kratom capsules from Whole Earth and other brands.

Is kratom legal in the states around Pennsylvania?

In all six, at the state level, with one exception for extracts. New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and West Virginia allow kratom. Ohio allows natural leaf, but it has listed kratom extracts in Schedule I since May 19, 2026.

That makes the drive west the one that catches people out. An extract bought legally in Pennsylvania becomes a Schedule I substance the moment you cross into Ohio. The law reaches you where you are, not where you bought it. Traveling with kratom covers what that means on a drive and in an airport.

Can a city or county in Pennsylvania ban kratom?

We haven’t found a Pennsylvania city or county ban that we could confirm in the government’s own records. Our shipping page keeps the full list of places we don’t ship.

This page covers state law. Cities and counties can add rules of their own, and those rules differ and change.

There’s no reliable way to track every local rule in the country, and we are not going to pretend there is. Check your own city and county before you buy, carry or travel.