Ballston Spa Mom Urges Saratoga Board: “Please. Sound The Alarm” 

BALLSTON SPA — For eleven minutes on Thursday afternoon more than a dozen members representing the legislative authority of Saratoga County government sat in silence and listened, the gravity of the moment spreading across their faces.  

The supervisors spent the earlier part of their monthly meeting working on the executive decisions for which they had been elected – authorizing memorandums, accepting grants, amending policies and designating for use funds in Saratoga County’s nearly half-billion-dollar annual budget.  

When Ballston Spa resident Cari Scribner stepped to the mic to hold up a photograph during the meeting’s Public Input segment, silence fell upon the large room.  

“This is my son Nicholas,” she began. “He worked for the Saratoga County Sewer district.” 

Nicholas Scribner grew up in Ballston Spa, graduated from Ballston Spa High, served four years as a lifeguard at the village pool – “after that decided he didn’t want children,” his mom quipped – and worked as an associate electrician for the Saratoga County sewer system. “It was a job he loved.” After his death last November, the American flag was lowered to half-staff and flew over county facilities for seven days. 

 “Nick had a very common affliction: insomnia. Since he was a child, he could not sleep,” Scribner said. “A friend told him about an herbal, all-natural energy enhancer to overcome fatigue with no side effects. This substance was kratom. Of all the adults that I’ve talked to about it about 10% have heard of it; of all the kids I’ve talked to about it, it’s 100%.”

When Nick was 17, a doctor prescribed medicine to help with insomnia. “In an effort to take something from nature rather than from a pharmaceutical company, my son chose this all-natural substance,” Scribner said.  “And that choice ended his life.” 

Kratom – a tropical tree native to Southeast Asia, commonly refers to an herbal substance that can produce opioid- and stimulant-like effects, according to the National Institutes of Health.  While its use or sale has been banned or restricted in several countries, kratom and kratom-based products are currently legal and accessible in many areas. 

“Kratom managed to stay under the radar. Most adults have never heard of it, but here is its tricky little secret: it is enormously addictive. It affects the same opiate brain reducers as morphine, exposing users to high risks of addiction, abuse and dependence,” Scribner said. Recent media reports have referred to it as “gas station heroin.”  It may be sold as powder or gel, tea, gummies, fruit flavored energy drinks and honey sticks.  

“Kratom sells all over Saratoga County at gas stations and quick stop markets,” said Scribner, displaying a colorful can labeled as kratom Seltzer energy drink to the supervisors in the room. “I purchased this in the village for about $7. Zero sugar, zero alcohol, zero calories – OK, great!  And the name on it: A Different Kind Of Energy Drink, Watermelon Candy Kratom Seltzer,” said Scribner, gesturing to the can. “Now who is this watermelon seltzer with a cartoon rabbit aimed at?”

While there are no uses for kratom approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, people report using kratom to manage drug withdrawal symptoms and cravings (especially related to opioid use), pain, fatigue and mental health problems, according to the NIH. An estimated 1.7 million Americans aged 12 and older used kratom in 2021. It contains two main chemical compounds which bind to the same receptors in the brain as opioid drugs such as codeine.

“Within a short time unless they keep upping their dose, kratom users will experience shocking side effects – including crushing stomach pain, migraines, tremors, hot flashes, insomnia. My son was trying to overcome insomnia and chose something that caused insomnia. No side effects on the can. Nowhere does it say this is what it will cause, no warnings,” Scribner said.  

“In 2016, in response to increasing calls from poison control centers, the DEA sought to classify kratom as a Schedule 1 drug. This means the substance has no currently accepted medical use and high potential for abuse. But no action was taken. And you know what? My son would be alive if they had done something in 2016.”   

Without federal action a handful of states have taken steps to protect its people, she says, Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Rhode Island and Vermont among them. There are currently no age restrictions in New York state to buy kratom. 

“Due to my big mouth all over Albany,” Scribner said there are currently four bills in the New York State Assembly and one in the New York State Senate. Some simply place purchase age minimums. A recent state Senate Bill, sponsored by Sen. Patricia Fahy and introduced in February, seeks to prohibit the sale of kratom to individuals under the age of 21, imposing a civil penalty of up to $500 for its sale. 

“We all know how kids are. Someone who is 22 will get it and pass it around. I mean that’s what we did with cigarettes back in the day,” Scribner said. 

“Nick did not overdose on kratom or mix it with other drugs or alcohol. His death was a complete accident. Two common kratom side effects, again not listed anywhere, are vomiting and catatonic sleep,” Scribner said. “He lived alone and while sleeping on his back in November he began to wretch, couldn’t turn over, and asphyxiated from the contents of his stomach. Twenty-seven years old. His brother found him later, already cold.”

Scribner urged supervisors and residents to contact legislators to support the bills. 

“As a family we are gutted. None of us sleep. I cry in waiting rooms, in the grocery store. At stop signs in my car. My tears froze to my face while I was out shoveling these past couple of weekends and I’m really afraid that I’m going to forget the sound of his voice,” Scribner said.  “Parent-to-parent, please help me save some of the other children, because no one sounded the alarm in time to change to keep my son alive. Please. Sound the alarm.”