All Roll Calls
Yes: 63 • No: 34
Rhode IslandH55652025 Regular SessionHouseWALLET
AN ACT RELATING TO FOOD AND DRUGS -- THE RHODE ISLAND KRATOM ACT .
Sponsored By: Brian Patrick Kennedy (Democratic)
Signed by Governor
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Bill Overview
Analyzed Economic Effects
12 provisions identified: 2 benefits, 10 costs, 0 mixed.
Illegal kratom sellers risk seizure
Beginning April 1, 2026, officials may seize kratom held for illegal sale or distribution without a warrant. Seized contraband must be destroyed. Selling, displaying, offering, or holding contraband for sale without written proof of tax payment can bring value-based fines. The maximum is 10 times retail value for a first offense, or 25 times for a repeat offense within 24 months. Officials must consider mitigating factors, including history, severity, and intent. Distributor or retailer equipment and other premises property are forfeited for specified recordkeeping, tax-payment, or evasion conduct intended to defraud the state. The health department must provide administrative hearings for confiscations, fines, and license suspensions or revocations; its decisions can be appealed to the sixth division of district court.
Kratom businesses face stricter license eligibility
Beginning April 1, 2026, kratom license eligibility depends on tax filings, payment history, ownership, and past violations. Tax filings at least one month late, unpaid license charges, or a revocation within two years can block licensing. Covered tobacco, vaping, kratom, tax, or fraud convictions and civil fines over $25,000 can also disqualify applicants or owners. Location-related charges, attempts to evade them, and ownership changes also affect eligibility; previously licensed locations require a genuine, good-faith ownership change. Suspension or revocation also blocks new licenses for affected applicants and covered corporations or current or former corporate officers. The health department may suspend or revoke licenses for kratom-related legal violations. It must revoke a license when the holder no longer qualifies to obtain or renew it.
Kratom businesses need licenses and pay fees
Beginning April 1, 2026, kratom manufacturers, importers, distributors, and retailers need annual health department licenses. Each location and business class needs a separate license, which must be prominently displayed at covered premises. Through December 31, 2027, each application or renewal costs a nonrefundable $2,000 for manufacturers, importers, and distributors, or $1,000 for retailers. Beginning January 1, 2028, the health director may set fees by rule. Manufacturers and importers may supply only licensed distributors; distributors may supply licensed distributors or retailers. Retailers must buy only from licensed distributors, and licensed buyers cannot source wholesale products from unlicensed suppliers. Products bought from unlicensed sources still owe tax. Businesses without a Rhode Island location license their principal location and must report a move within 30 days. Selling or conveying kratom without a required license brings a $5,000 fine per cited violation. Specified license fees, fines, and penalties fund a restricted health department account used to administer the law.
Kratom sellers face fines and suspensions
Beginning April 1, 2026, violations of kratom product or age rules carry fines up to $1,000 for a first offense and $2,000 for a second. A retailer's license must be revoked after a third violation under that penalty rule. A separate underage-sales schedule counts violations within 36 months: $250 for the first and $500 for the second. The third brings $1,000 plus a 14-day suspension; each later violation brings $1,500 plus a 90-day suspension. A court may suspend a third-or-later suspension when the holder demonstrates preventive measures and employee training. The health department may also require independent product testing, with retailers paying testing and administrative costs. Failure to pay within 30 days after receiving an invoice may lead to license suspension or revocation.
Kratom businesses face late-tax penalties
Beginning April 1, 2026, unpaid kratom taxes accrue interest at the rate set by state tax law. Filing or payment failures generally add 10%, unless caused by reasonable cause rather than willful neglect. A tax shortfall caused by negligence or intentional disregard without fraud adds 5%; fraud adds 50%. An unpaid check brings a 1% penalty, or $5 for checks under $500. That check penalty does not apply when payment was tendered in good faith with reasonable grounds to expect it would clear. Late tax also brings an additional penalty of $1,000 or up to five times the unpaid tax, whichever is greater. Tax administrator decisions can be appealed to the sixth division of district court, with final tax orders reviewable by the Rhode Island Supreme Court.
Kratom buyers face age and delivery limits
Beginning April 1, 2026, selling, transferring, distributing, or advertising kratom to anyone under 21 is banned. Every buyer must show government-issued photo identification proving age, such as a driver's license, driver privilege card, military ID, or passport. Retailers must keep products behind the counter, accessible only to employees. Sales must take place at the licensed store; delivery to retail customers is banned. Licensed sellers must provide products in original factory-wrapped packages, sealed and certified by the manufacturer. Free products and free or discount coupons cannot be distributed or redeemed for anyone under 21. That same promotion ban applies within 500 feet of a school, regardless of age. Each prohibited product, coupon, or voucher brings a $500 fine for the person initiating or redeeming it.
Kratom businesses must keep inspection-ready records
Beginning April 1, 2026, kratom businesses must keep transaction records for each facility for three years. Records must identify the parties, product types, and quantities for sales, purchases, transfers, consignments, and receipts. Central storage needs the tax administrator's permission, and requested duplicate records are due within 24 hours. Tax officials may inspect facilities and records without a warrant during normal business hours; inspections outside those hours require a warrant. Vehicle inspections require knowledge or reasonable grounds to believe kratom is being transported illegally. Carriers, warehouse operators, and others holding shipments may be required to submit shipment reports and allow related record examinations.
Kratom businesses owe wholesale excise tax
Beginning April 1, 2026, Rhode Island taxes kratom at 15% of wholesale cost, alongside applicable state sales tax. The excise tax covers products sold or held for sale, even when the transaction is not a wholesale sale. It also covers a wholesaler's use of products that are not sold. Manufacturers, importers, or distributors pay the taxes as prescribed by the tax law. Excise tax receipts go to the state general fund. Businesses may pass some or all of the cost to buyers. Tax or fee overpayment refund claims are due within three years from the fifteenth day after the month of overpayment.
Health director cannot schedule kratom alkaloids
Beginning April 1, 2026, Rhode Island's health director cannot place or keep mitragynine or 7-hydroxymitragynine in Schedule I. This limits the director's controlled-substance scheduling power over those two kratom alkaloids. Kratom products remain subject to the law's separate product and sales standards.
New safety standards for kratom buyers
Beginning April 1, 2026, kratom products must meet safety, packaging, and label standards. The law bans synthetic alkaloids, conventional food or beverage products, and forms meant for smoking, inhaling, or injection. Products cannot mimic candy or target people under 21. Mitragynine cannot exceed 150 mg per serving. 7-hydroxymitragynine cannot exceed 0.5 mg per gram, 1 mg per serving, or 1% of total alkaloids. Heavy metals must stay below these limits: arsenic 2 ppm, cadmium 0.82 ppm, lead 1.2 ppm, and mercury 0.4 ppm. Extracts must meet USP 467 solvent limits. Products need child-resistant packaging and labels listing ingredients' alkaloid amounts, serving limits, net quantity, storage instructions, and manufacturer contact details. Labels must warn about habit-forming potential, pregnancy, breastfeeding, drug interactions, and consulting a health professional, and include an FDA disclaimer. State agencies may conduct unannounced sales checks; the behavioral health department and under-21 participants are protected from underage-sales liability solely for conducting authorized checks.
Kratom stores must train staff
Beginning April 1, 2026, kratom retailers must train employees in legal sales before they sell products. Retailers must keep training records and signed employee acknowledgments throughout employment and for at least one year afterward. Dealers must also post under-21 sales warning signs wherever kratom is sold, including each cash register. Signs must be in English and Spanish and include the health department's violation-reporting phone number. The department provides signs; dealers may use exact private copies.
Kratom tax violations risk prison
Beginning April 1, 2026, failing to provide required kratom tax reports or enforcement information can trigger criminal penalties. Incomplete, false, or fraudulent reports and refusal of required examinations are also covered. A first offense is a misdemeanor carrying up to $5,000, one year in prison, or both. Each later offense is a felony carrying up to $10,000, five years in prison, or both. Ordering for others, pooling orders, conspiring to pool orders, or receiving contraband with intent to violate the law or avoid tax is a separate felony. That offense carries a fine of $100,000 or five times product retail value, whichever is greater, up to 15 years in prison, or both.
Sponsors & Cosponsors
Sponsor
Brian Patrick Kennedy
Democratic • House
Cosponsors
Grace Diaz
Democratic • House
John G. Edwards
Democratic • House
Roll Call Votes
Senate vote • 6/21/2025
RELATING TO FOOD AND DRUGS -- THE RHODE ISLAND KRATOM ACT In Concurrence Passage
Yes: 23 • No: 10
House vote • 5/29/2025
THE RHODE ISLAND KRATOM ACT PASSAGE
Yes: 40 • No: 24
Actions Timeline
Signed by Governor — Chapter 446
7/2/2025GovernorTransmitted to Governor
6/27/2025GovernorSenate passed Sub A in concurrence
6/21/2025SenatePlaced on Senate Calendar (06/20/2025)
6/18/2025SenateCommittee recommends passage of Sub A in concurrence
6/18/2025Scheduled for consideration (06/18/2025)
6/16/2025Referred to Senate Health and Human Services
6/11/2025SenateHouse passed Sub A
5/29/2025HousePlaced on House Calendar (05/29/2025)
5/23/2025HouseCommittee recommends passage of Sub A
5/15/2025Proposed Substitute
5/9/2025Scheduled for consideration (05/15/2025)
5/9/2025Committee recommended measure be held for further study
4/8/2025Scheduled for hearing and/or consideration (04/08/2025)
4/4/2025Introduced, referred to House Corporations
2/26/2025House
Bill Text
H5565 - As Introduced
2/26/2025
H5565 - Substitute
2/26/2025
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