Kratom is not a controlled substance in California, but selling it for consumption is now treated as illegal statewide. The California legislature has never passed a kratom ban. Instead, the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) took the position, beginning on October 24, 2025, that kratom and 7-hydroxymitragynine (7-OH) are unsafe food additives. Under that reading, any food, drink, or supplement that contains them is "adulterated" under the state Health and Safety Code (Section 110555) and cannot lawfully be manufactured or sold. That covers retail shelves, and CDPH says it covers online sales too.
So the honest answer to "is kratom legal in California" depends on which verb you mean. Selling it is something the state is actively enforcing against. Possessing it is not a state crime, because neither mitragynine nor 7-OH is scheduled under California law. That changes at the city level, though. The City of San Diego has banned both sale and simple possession since 2016.
Reporting the law, not legal advice. Kratom is not approved by the FDA for any use, and nothing here is medical or legal advice. Laws change, and county and city ordinances can differ from statewide status. Confirm current rules with an official source before you buy, possess, or travel with kratom. Kratom is banned in some US states and is not for anyone under 21. Check your local law.
How California banned sales without a ban law
Most states that restrict kratom do it through the legislature: they schedule the alkaloids, as Tennessee and Connecticut have, or they pass a Kratom Consumer Protection Act that regulates sellers, as Texas did. California did neither. It used the Sherman Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Law, the state's existing food-safety statute, which lets CDPH treat an unsafe additive as making a product adulterated.
The timeline:
| Date | What happened |
|---|---|
| 2016 | City of San Diego ordinance bans the sale and possession of kratom, alongside synthetic drugs like spice and bath salts |
| Oct 24, 2025 | CDPH issues a statewide consumer warning and states that kratom and 7-OH cannot lawfully be sold as food, supplements, or drugs |
| Jan 2026 | CDPH letters to food registrants and tobacco retailers assert statewide authority to embargo and seize kratom and 7-OH products |
| Jan 15, 2026 | The Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) warns licensees to pull the products or risk license suspension or revocation |
| May 2026 | CDPH and the Attorney General sue a San Diego County marketer over kratom food products |
| Sep 2, 2026 | The governor's office reports 8,038 site visits, 181 violations, and 7,888 kratom/7-OH products removed from shelves |
One consequence is that nothing in this regime was voted on. It is an agency interpretation of existing law, which is why some state-by-state trackers still list California as "legal" or "regulated" while others list it as "banned." Neither label is quite right. "Sales prohibited by regulators, possession not criminalized statewide" is the accurate description.
What is covered and what is not
CDPH's guidance treats kratom and 7-OH together. It does not limit the prohibition to concentrated 7-OH tablets; plain-leaf powder and capsules sold for consumption fall under the same reading. That is a meaningful difference from states like Pennsylvania, whose pending bill draws a hard line between natural leaf and concentrated 7-OH.
What the state's actions target:
- Retail sale. Gas stations, smoke shops, convenience stores, and anything holding an ABC license. ABC reports roughly 98% compliance among its licensees.
- Manufacturing and distribution of kratom food products, including drinks and gummies.
- Shipments into the state. CDPH says it has acted on orders shipped from out-of-state distributors to California facilities and will monitor direct-to-consumer sales.
What the state's actions do not do:
- Criminalize possession. No state statute makes simply having kratom a crime.
- Schedule the alkaloids. Mitragynine and 7-OH are not on California's controlled substance schedules.
Reporting from September 2026 notes that some online vendors still ship to California. That is a vendor's risk decision, not a sign the product is legal to sell there.
Why the state moved
California officials have framed the action mostly around 7-OH, the concentrated alkaloid now sold as tablets and shots at levels far above anything in the natural leaf. CDPH linked these products to overdose deaths and warned about combining them with alcohol or other depressants. The FDA asked the DEA to schedule concentrated 7-OH in July 2025. The DEA began that process in 2026, and the proposed approach would leave natural leaf kratom outside the order. We explain why the two are treated differently in kratom vs 7-OH.
California chose not to make that distinction at the state level and swept both into the same prohibition. Assemblymember Bains has carried kratom legislation, and her office has said the goal is to keep the products off the market. As of this writing, no bill has created a regulated California kratom market.
San Diego and other local rules
Local ordinances sit on top of the state position, and San Diego's is the strictest in the state. The city's municipal code prohibits selling or possessing for sale (Section 52.3303) and simple possession (Section 52.3304) of the substances it covers, kratom included. In August 2026, the City Attorney's Office sued the owner of eleven smoke shops over kratom sales.
Other cities and counties have issued their own retailer warnings and enforcement letters, generally pointing to the same state code sections. If you live in California, check your city's code as well as the state position.
What this means if you live in California
- You will not find kratom legally on store shelves. Retailers that still carry it are risking embargo, citations, and, for ABC licensees, their liquor license.
- Possession is not a state crime, but San Diego is the exception. Within city limits, simple possession is prohibited.
- Ordering online is a gray zone that is narrowing. The state considers the sale unlawful and says it is watching shipments. Reputable vendors publish a list of states they will not ship to. Respect it.
- Watch federal 7-OH scheduling. A DEA order would not change California's position on plain leaf. It would add federal law on top of the state's existing prohibition for concentrated 7-OH.
If you travel or are moving, our 50-state kratom legality overview shows where the rules are looser and where they are stricter.
Where to buy
Outside California and the other restricted states, the three vendors we track all publish third-party lab testing and sell plain-leaf powder and capsules. Check each vendor's shipping restrictions for your state before ordering.
- Kraken Kratom: our #1 ranked vendor and AKA GMP qualified, the strongest independent quality credential in this market. Our code
getketumtakes 15% off at Kraken Kratom. It's the only coupon we publish. - Kats Botanicals: per-batch testing with a batch-number lookup, so you can match the COA to the exact bag you're holding.
- Kona Kratom: AKA GMP qualified and consistently the cheapest per gram of the three.
The full ranked comparison, with testing weighted above price and reputation, is at best kratom vendors. If you are new to reading lab reports, kratom COA explained walks through what to look for.
The bottom line
- California has no kratom ban statute, but selling kratom for consumption is treated as illegal. CDPH has classed kratom and 7-OH as unsafe additives under the Sherman Law since October 24, 2025.
- The prohibition covers plain leaf, not just 7-OH. That is stricter than most regulating states, which separate the two.
- Enforcement is real. As of September 2026 the state reports 8,000+ site visits, 181 violations, and nearly 7,900 products pulled, plus embargoes and lawsuits.
- Possession is not a state crime, but the City of San Diego bans possession outright.
- Nothing here was voted on, so a court ruling, a new bill, or a change in CDPH guidance could change the picture. Check official sources before acting.