Nickolas Scribner was a hardworking 27-year-old when he died in his sleep in November 2024.
According to Nickolas’ mother, an autopsy found her son’s system contained nothing but ice cream and an herb known as kratom.
This week, Nickolas’ death has helped inspire new statewide regulations.
Cari Scribner describes her son as introspective, reliable and inquisitive.
“You would think that he was bored or just looking around, but he was taking in his surroundings even when he was little, he was fascinated by the outdoors and by constellations and whether or not there are UFOS and little things like different kinds of bugs and he had books about all of these subjects that he was constantly reading,” Cari Scribner said.
Cari said Nickolas had his life together. He worked about 70 hours a week as an electrician for Saratoga County and made good money.
It wasn’t until after her son’s death that Cari discovered Nickolas was grappling with kratom use.
An herb from Southeast Asia, kratom is sold over the counter and marketed as a pain reliever, mood lifter, and energy booster in corner stores and gas stations across the country.
According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, kratom can produce both stimulant and sedative effects and can lead to psychological and physiological dependence.
Cari said her son began taking kratom in an effort to deal with insomnia.
“Which is what he was originally looking for, a natural herbal remedy for, so he could get some sleep,” Cari Scribner said.
She said she noticed some changes in Nickolas but did not consider that kratom could be the cause.
“He became thinner, he was always kind of wiry to begin with, but he was losing weight, but I chalked that up to he had a new job, he took a lot of overtime, he worked a lot of weekends,” Cari Scribner said.
Then, on Nov. 17, 2024, Nickolas died in his sleep.
“You know, I cried myself, every day for a year,” Cari Scribner said.
But she also began advocating for New York to regulate kratom, which the autopsy determined likely contributed to Nickolas’ death.
Cari spoke at Saratoga County meetings, she picketed outside stores that sold kratom, and she worked with local assemblymembers to draft legislation that would regulate the herb.
Her efforts led to a bipartisan group of legislators, including 110th District Assemblyman Phil Steck, putting forth legislation.
The regulations, which Gov. Kathy Hochul signed Monday, require any kratom products that are sold, manufactured or distributed in New York to include warning labels. They also require anyone buying kratom to be at least 21.
Steck, a Democrat, says the kratom problem is part of a larger issue that began in the 1990s.
“Nutritional supplements were deregulated and that used to be, that in order for these things to be allowed to go to market you had to get FDA approval, that’s no longer the case,” Steck said.
At a press conference in Albany Monday, Hochul said New Yorkers deserve to know what they are buying.
“Their families should know, and they deserve to have clear warnings about the psychiatric, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal and respiratory risks associated with it,” Hochul said.
Cari says her work isn’t finished. She one day hopes to see kratom become a Schedule 1 drug — meaning it would be placed in the same federally regulated category as heroin.
In the meantime, Cari says the new regulations have given her son’s death a silver lining.
“It really has not sunk in yet that we are now protecting millions of people. It seems like I am still plugging for Saratoga County but that was just the beginning,” Cari Scribner said.
