Kratom – a plant known to ease the symptoms of heroin withdrawal – has been found to be addictive itself. According to the New York Times, Dariya Pankova, a lady who was drinking Kratom as part of her treatment in Delray Beach, Palm Beach County, Florida, said, “It’s preying on the weak and the broken….It’s a huge epidemic down here, and it’s causing a lot of relapses.”
What is Kratom?
For something being mentioned as a “huge epidemic”, many people are wondering why they have never heard of Kratom before. It is a deciduous tree found in the South East Asia region with the botanical name Mitragyna Speciosa. The leaves are used in herbal medicine as a painkiller and a stimulant. It is also used as a substitute to narcotic drugs such as heroin.
The Kratom leaves are either chewed after plucking from the tree; dried and turned into a powder before mixing with a liquid for drinking; or the leaves brewed as a kind of tea and then drunk.
In the New York Times article, it states that Kratom is in “legal purgatory”. This is because people import it as a dietary supplement and therefore, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) cannot ban it unless it is proven to be unsafe or harmful to Americans. Even the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has not placed it under the controlled substances schedules. The article says that states like Indiana and Vermont have already banned the drug whereas Florida and New Jersey have bills pending while they learn more about Kratom.
Effects of Kratom
According to a report by the DEA’s Office of Diversion Control – Drug & Chemical Evaluation Section, Kratom acts as a stimulant in low doses, causing effects such as alertness and energy. In higher doses, it acts as a sedative and also causes a state of euphoria in the user. Other effects include: loss of appetite, nausea, sweating and constipation.
Since people tend to drink more and more Kratom, the DEA report shows that long-term effects of the drug include: constipation, frequent urination, muscle aches and psychosis.
But the problem with Kratom is that despite its addictive nature, it does actually work in soothing opiate addiction. As Susan Ash from Norfolk, Virginia told the New York Times, “We know from all our experiences that Kratom has the potential to be a wonderful medicine. We’re all experiencing that it’s changing our lives. We do agree that more science is needed to actually prove this potential that we know it has.”
People like Ms. Pankova have already been stung by the drug though. According to the New York Times, this substance had helped her through her initial tough three months after recovering from opiate addiction. However, it was only when she became addicted to drinking the plant and relapsed to her heroin addiction that she realized the danger. She said, “It’s a mind-altering substance, so people like me who are addicts and alcoholics, they think just because it’s legal, it’s fine.”
Non-alcoholic bars – such as Krave in North Carolina and Kavasutra in South Florida – are the new home of Kratom users. But with stories of deaths – such as Ian Mautner from Delray Beach due to Kratom addiction – and with calls from South Florida lawmakers to make the drug illegal, it is only a matter of time before bills are passed banning it. Perhaps this will cause the DEA and FDA to follow suit.