The Patriot Post® · Is Kratom Our Newest Addiction?

The times, they have a-changed.

It used to be that you had to hang out at seedy joints and dimly lit street corners to get your high from marijuana. Eventually, though, the drug was legalized for medical use and has since been decriminalized in several states, despite legitimate questions as to its safety.

Now there’s a new substance on the block — one that’s as readily accessible as the corner convenience store, health food shops, and even specialty drink bars. As the FDA describes it: “Kratom is a tropical tree native to Southeast Asia. Consumption of its leaves produces both stimulant effects (in low doses) and sedative effects (in high doses), and can lead to psychotic symptoms, and psychological and physiological dependence.”

With its chemical ingredient, called mitragynine, natives of the area have used it for centuries to enhance their energy and increase their endurance, often chewing the leaves directly off the tree or brewing them into a tea — botanically, the plant is a member of the coffee family.

Those who use it, such as the patrons in a Florida bar called Kavasutra that sells only non-alcoholic botanical drinks, claim it has those good qualities. “It relaxes you,” says one of those patrons. “I feel like being more social and open to these cool conversations.” Another imbiber said while playing a video game, “I feel more focused; I’m more on point.” And a bartender says the tea “completely took away my back pain” from a degenerative spinal condition. Indeed, kratom is also allegedly used as a step-down drug for those in recovery from addiction to opioids.

While there has been a push for the FDA to regulate kratom as it would other supplements, thus far the effort hasn’t borne fruit, leaving uneducated consumers vulnerable to improper dosage. One tragic example of overuse resulted in a Florida lawsuit in which the plaintiff, whose mother died from “acute mitragynine intoxication,” was awarded $11 million. The kratom that killed the victim was sold to her in a small baggie hand-labeled as “Space Dust.”

Research has shown that the average kratom user tends to be 20- or 30-something, which also raises the question of long-term effects as well as its interaction with other medications being used by older Americans. And while some may compare kratom to marijuana because of its medicinal purposes, the former is on the opposite trajectory of the latter: While states continue to decriminalize marijuana, a few states have banned the purchase of kratom.

But since kratom isn’t federally banned like marijuana is, it stands a chance of approval. Perhaps a simple and sensible first step in corralling the kratom problem may be that of putting a few regulations and dosage limitations in place — especially given that a jury has already decided that it’s deadly if overused.