In Poland, kratom is a controlled narcotic drug. Possessing it is a criminal offence, and selling, supplying or importing it are separate crimes that carry prison terms. It is listed as a narcotic, on the same schedule as classic controlled drugs, and not in the separate category Polish law keeps for new psychoactive substances.
A narcotic drug here means a substance on the state’s controlled list of środki odurzające, subject to the criminal provisions of the drug law. The distinction from a “new psychoactive substance” is not pedantry: the two categories sit in different annexes and carry different penalties, and kratom is in the stricter one.
What Poland actually lists
Poland’s Minister of Health maintains a regulation with three annexes: psychotropic substances (Annex 1), narcotic drugs (Annex 2), and new psychoactive substances (Annex 3). Kratom is in the second one. Under the heading “1. ŚRODKI ODURZAJĄCE GRUPY I-N” in Annex 2, the list includes:
- item 132, Mitragyna speciosa, covering live plants, dried material, seeds and extracts, and
- item 133, mitragynine, its main alkaloid.
Both entries sit alphabetically among classic narcotics: methadone at 122, 3-methylfentanyl at 128, and morphine at 136. Group I-N is a narcotic-drug category whose substances, under the Act, may be used only for narrow authorised purposes. Both the plant in every practical form and its active compound are covered.
The instrument is the Minister of Health regulation of 17 August 2018, consolidated as Dz.U. 2024 poz. 1139 and since amended twice: by Dz.U. 2025 poz. 598, and by Dz.U. 2026 poz. 934, which was published on 13 July 2026 and came into force on 28 July 2026. We read both amendments. Neither mentions Mitragyna speciosa or mitragynine, and neither renumbers the entries around them, so items 132 and 133 stand unchanged. The official register records no further amendment to the regulation after that one.
One thing the annex does not contain is worth stating, because a reader following the American story will look for it. 7-hydroxymitragynine is not listed separately in Poland. The plant entry covers live plants, dried material, seeds and extracts, so a concentrated preparation made from the plant is caught as an extract rather than by a compound of its own.
What that listing does
Being a listed narcotic drug, rather than a new psychoactive substance, is what sets the penalties. Under the Act on Counteracting Drug Addiction of 29 July 2005 (consolidated text Dz.U. 2023 poz. 1939):
- Lawful use is narrow. Group I-N narcotic drugs may be used only for medical, industrial or research purposes (Article 33). There is no lawful consumer market.
- Possession is a crime. Article 62 makes possessing a narcotic drug punishable by imprisonment of up to three years. For a “significant quantity” the range rises to one to ten years; in a case of lesser gravity it can instead be a fine, restriction of liberty, or up to a year. A narrow safety valve exists in Article 62a: where the quantity is insignificant and held for the person’s own use, proceedings may be discontinued, and that can happen even before an investigation is formally opened. It is not automatic. The Act allows it only where punishing the person would serve no purpose given the circumstances of the act and its degree of social harm, and it is a discretion rather than a right.
- Import and export are separate crimes. Bringing kratom into or out of Poland, including from another EU country, is punishable by a fine together with imprisonment of up to five years (Article 55(1)). Where the quantity is significant, or the act was committed for financial or personal gain, Article 55(3) raises this to a fine and imprisonment of three to twenty years.
- Sale and supply are crimes. Placing a narcotic drug on the market, or taking part in such trade, carries a fine and imprisonment of six months to eight years under Article 56, rising to two to twelve years for a significant quantity.
- Advertising is prohibited. The advertising and promotion of narcotic drugs is banned outright (Article 20).
Correcting a miscategorisation, including our own
Kratom in Poland is sometimes described as a “new psychoactive substance,” a category associated mainly with fines rather than imprisonment. That is wrong, and until 27 July 2026 this page said it too. We have corrected it and logged the change.
The plant and its alkaloid are in the narcotic-drugs annex (Annex 2, group I-N), not the new-psychoactive-substances annex (Annex 3). The difference is one a reader could act on. The narcotic regime makes possession punishable by imprisonment under Article 62. The new-psychoactive-substance regime is milder: Article 62b makes simple possession punishable by a fine, though a significant quantity there can still reach three years. The distinction is between a fine and a prison term for ordinary possession, not between a fine and prison in every case.
The EUDA’s kratom drug profile also records Poland among the European countries controlling Mitragyna speciosa, mitragynine or 7-hydroxymitragynine, which is consistent with what the Polish instruments say.
What this means for a reader
For someone in Poland, kratom cannot lawfully be bought, sold or possessed for recreational or self-treatment use. Possession is a criminal offence that can carry a prison sentence, not merely a fine; importing it, including by mail order from another country, is a separate crime. The only lawful uses are medical, industrial or research, under the controls that apply to narcotic drugs.
How current this is
The classification and penalties above come from the Polish instruments in the sources, read in their consolidated form: the narcotic-drugs annex of the Minister of Health regulation (Dz.U. 2024 poz. 1139, as amended by Dz.U. 2025 poz. 598 and Dz.U. 2026 poz. 934) and the Act on Counteracting Drug Addiction (Dz.U. 2023 poz. 1939).
The Act has been amended once since that consolidated text, by the Act of 3 July 2026 amending the Act on Counteracting Drug Addiction and certain other acts (Dz.U. 2026 poz. 1004), in force since 27 August 2026. We read it. It reorganises substitution treatment, widens police and inspection powers, and renames the European monitoring centre to the EU Drugs Agency in Article 44c. It does not touch Articles 20, 33, 55, 56, 62, 62a or 62b, which are the provisions this page relies on, and it does not touch the schedules. The one criminal provision it does amend is Article 57(2), on preparation to commit the offences in Articles 55(3) and 56(3), which now carries imprisonment of up to three years.
One caveat on the penalty wording. The consolidated text of the Act prints two versions of Article 55(3), because at the date it was published the amendment to that provision had not yet commenced. The amending act is the Act of 7 July 2022 amending the Criminal Code and certain other acts (Dz.U. 2022 poz. 2600, and Dz.U. 2023 poz. 403), which entered into force on 1 October 2023. The three-to-twenty-year range given above is the version in force since that date.
Both instruments are amended from time to time, and a substance’s annex position or the exact penalty wording can change. We last checked them on the verification date at the top of this page. If a later amendment has changed anything here, and you can point us to it, write to editorial@wikikratom.com and we will update the page and credit the correction.