Is Kratom Legal in Alabama?
Last checked: 09/04/26
No. Kratom is banned in Alabama and has been since May 10, 2016. Mitragynine and 7-hydroxymitragynine are Schedule I controlled substances under Ala. Code 20-2-23, so having them, selling them, or offering them for sale is a crime. Kratom is legal under federal law, and that changes nothing here.
The statute is a decade old and it is not the interesting part. What sets Alabama apart is that the state went looking for these products in 2026, tested them, and pulled them off shelves by the truckload. That record is below, and so is a penalty figure almost every other page on this subject gets wrong.
What law bans kratom in Alabama?
Ala. Code 20-2-23, the section listing the state’s Schedule I controlled substances. Senate Bill 226 of the 2016 regular session added kratom’s two main alkaloids to it, and Governor Robert Bentley signed it on May 10, 2016.
Schedule I is the most restrictive tier the state has. It’s the tier that holds heroin and LSD. A substance goes there when the state finds a high potential for abuse and no accepted medical use.
Alabama got there by statute, and that’s the part to hold onto. The legislature put the alkaloids on the schedule itself. A ban written into the code by lawmakers can’t be undone by a state agency. It takes another act of the legislature.
What does the ban cover?
The law names the alkaloids, not the leaf. Mitragynine and 7-hydroxymitragynine are kratom’s two main alkaloids, so anything that contains them is covered, and the ban reaches powder, capsules, tablets, extracts, drinks and tea alike.
No form of kratom sits outside the ban in Alabama, and no wording on a label changes it. The Attorney General’s March 2026 order says exactly that. Products containing these alkaloids are illegal to possess, sell, or offer for sale regardless of how they are marketed or labeled.
What are the penalties for kratom in Alabama?
Possession is a Class D felony. The Alabama Sentencing Commission scores possession of a controlled substance under Ala. Code 13A-12-212 on its Class D drug worksheet, and the state court system’s own guilty-plea form sets the punishment at not less than a year and a day, not more than five years, and a fine up to $7,500. A conviction also carries a $1,000 assessment for a first offense under the Drug Demand Reduction Assessment Act.
Almost every page on this subject says Class C. That stopped being true before kratom was scheduled. Act 2015-185 created the Class D classification, and the courts apply it to offenses committed on or after January 30, 2016. The kratom ban took effect on May 10, 2016. Possession of kratom in Alabama has never been a Class C felony.
Prison is not automatic. The felony is. Under the presumptive standards a first offense with no prior record scores in the non-prison band, which points at probation rather than a Department of Corrections sentence. A prior record moves that recommendation, and the conviction is a felony either way.
Selling is heavier. The same standards put sale or distribution of a Schedule I through V substance under Ala. Code 13A-12-211 at a Class B felony.
A business faces three kinds of exposure, and the Attorney General’s office named all three in its own order: felony prosecution, seizure and forfeiture of contraband, property, proceeds and assets under Ala. Code 20-2-93, and civil liability under the Alabama Deceptive Trade Practices Act at Ala. Code 8-19-1.
What happened in Alabama in 2026?
The state ran a statewide seizure operation and published the numbers.
Complaints about products sold in gas stations began reaching the Attorney General’s office and the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency in May 2025. Undercover purchases went to the Department of Forensic Sciences, which confirmed the products held mitragynine. District attorneys sent cease and desist letters. One of them named a product called Boujee Bliss, and that product largely left the market.
New complaints about similar products arrived in January 2026. On March 25, 2026 the Attorney General issued a statewide cease and desist order and sent it to every retail location in Alabama holding a state Beverage Control license. Independent laboratory testing had confirmed kratom in three named products: Boujee Bliss, Better Weather and Happy Hour. The order records that the testing found kratom in them with no notice given to the consumer. It also warns buyers that a label may not disclose everything inside. A person can end up holding a controlled substance without knowing it.
Retailers kept selling. In May 2026 the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency opened Operation Southern Shield. The results were published on June 15, 2026: 83 search warrants executed statewide, 63,995 bottles seized from retailers, and roughly 59,000 more units seized from two wholesale warehouses in Montgomery. Investigators also identified out-of-state distributors shipping into Alabama.
If you’re in Alabama and you’ve seen these products on a shelf, that is what they are, and that is what the state is doing about them.
Does Alabama have a Kratom Consumer Protection Act?
No. Some states answered kratom with a Kratom Consumer Protection Act, which keeps it legal under a set of rules on testing, labeling and who can buy it. Alabama didn’t take that route.
Nothing regulated kratom in Alabama before 2016, and nothing has softened the ban since. The state went from no rules to prohibition in one step, and that is where it has stayed.
Can you order kratom online in Alabama?
No. The law applies where you are, not where the seller is. Once a package crosses the state line, Alabama law is what applies to it.
The June 2026 operation reached past retailers to two wholesale warehouses and named out-of-state shippers, so the supply side is being worked as well as the shelf.
We don’t ship to Alabama. No kratom company that follows the law does.
Is kratom legal in the states around Alabama?
In three of the four. Georgia, Florida and Mississippi all allow it at the state level. Tennessee bans it, and has since July 1, 2026.
Alabama is not a state to carry kratom through on the way somewhere else. The two alkaloids are Schedule I here whatever the law says where the drive started. A package in a car is possession. Traveling with kratom covers that in full.
Can a city or county in Alabama make it legal?
No. Counties and cities can pass their own rules on top of state law. What none of them can do is undo a state ban.
There’s no reliable way to track every local rule in the country, and we’re not going to pretend there is. If you’re reading this from another state, check your own city and county first.
Could Alabama’s ban change?
It could, and only the legislature can do it. A ban written into the code by lawmakers comes out the same way, and no bill has removed the alkaloids since they went in.
The 2026 regular session adjourned on April 9, 2026. The next regular session is the first of a new four-year term, following the November 2026 election. The Legislature publishes its own schedule. Nothing in the 2026 record points toward a repeal.
If one comes, the place to see it first is the Alabama legislature’s own site, not a store’s website. Ours included.
If the law changes, this page changes with it. How we check these pages.
Back to Kratom Legality or to the Kratom Guide.
