The Growing Toll of America's Booming Kratom Industry
Table of contents
- Finding peace in nature while mourning a loved one.
- Kratom, an ancient Southeast Asian remedy, is now a booming industry in America, offering new hope for those battling opioid addiction.
- Beware of "Feel Free" tonics—they're marketed as wellness drinks but can be dangerously addictive.
- Feeling duped by deceptive marketing—companies need to be honest about what's in their products.
- A new, unregulated opioid substitute is hitting the market, raising serious concerns about safety and addiction.
Finding peace in nature while mourning a loved one.
It's just hard to think he walked here and now he's gone. That's the hardest part for me. Well, I'm wearing my brother's hat as a nod to him. When I come down here, I feel like part of him is within all of this wildness, and it just gives me peace. I wish he could see this, be here. Yeah, that's where you should be, you should be.
On April 5th, 2022, Jordan McKibben of Col Washington collapsed in his bathroom. His nephew called Jordan's mother when he found him unconscious on the floor. We went into the emergency room. The doctor came in and talked to us and he told us that Jordan had died. I couldn't figure out why. The actual cause of his death was Kratom. When compared to the opioid epidemic, kratom's death toll is small, but over the last decade, it has exploded in popularity. As early as 2020, 1.7 million people were estimated to have used kratom.
"Cam, are you familiar with this?" "I'm on it right now." "Oh wow, yeah I took six of them, see what happens. I'm making this video about kratom and the ultimate high that you can achieve. I got a little prize for you, I'm at that right now." For some, it's a lifesaver. "I am an alcoholic and in the last year and a half, I haven't drank alcohol and it's all due to kratom." For others, a life ruiner. "I went from being on top of the world, 5 months newly sober alcoholic, to spending the next 2 years in complete and utter hell." And for the most unlucky, it's taken the life of a loved one. "I had watched my son grow and I wanted him to have the life and the dreams that he wanted, and all of a sudden it just felt like it was all taken away for nothing because he didn't know."
It's also over a $1 billion industry that's growing and changing so fast that neither consumers nor regulators can keep up. "These extracts and concentrates are totally changing the game and the safety around the market. We're seeing this blow up in an area that's completely unregulated. In my mind, it's more similar to the illicit drug trade. The genie's out of the bottle and it's going to be really hard to rein this back in."
"This is pretty much the standard of what we see coming into the United States now. This is just the leaf flesh material and then we will start to process those powders by extraction." This is Christopher McCurdy, one of the foremost experts on the efficacy and potential risks of kratom in America. "I've always been interested in sort of the intersection of pain treatment and where substance abuse starts to take place. At first, we were interested in looking at kratom as a new class of painkillers, but they're very weak compared to opioids, which are still the gold standard for painkillers."
Derived from the leaves of the Mitragyna speciosa tree, there are around 50 different alkaloids found in kratom, but two of them, mitragynine and 7-hydroxymitragynine, stand out as the primary psychoactive compounds that affect the nervous system. "We are doing research to evaluate the potential that mitragynine may have to treat pain and its potential for treating opioid addiction. We're in this opioid crisis; we need medications that can help people get off of the hardcore opioids. Pure mitragynine by itself has been shown to be helpful in treating opioid addiction, and we turned our focus in that direction. It is important and urgent because people are already using kratom, so to document whether it has a positive or negative effect is crucial."
While kratom is relatively new in America and Europe, it's been around for centuries in Southeast Asia with relatively few problems.
Kratom, an ancient Southeast Asian remedy, is now a booming industry in America, offering new hope for those battling opioid addiction.
We are currently facing an opioid crisis and urgently need medications that can help people transition away from hardcore opioids. Pure Metron, by itself, has been shown to be helpful in treating opioid addiction, and we have turned our focus in that direction. This is crucial because people are already using kratom, and documenting whether it has a positive or negative effect is essential. While kratom is relatively new in America and Europe, it has been used for centuries in Southeast Asia with relatively few problems.
Figures from the Indonesian government show that 4,500 metric tons of kratom, around 10 million pounds, are exported to America every month. American capitalism has transformed this ancient Southeast Asian tea, traditionally used by farmers, into a significant market. Kratom has now become a main staple of various products, including edibles and drinks. For instance, Jelly 70 Botanicals is our newest line of kratom gummies. Hydroxy, a company specializing in single-alkaloid kratom extracts, aims to offer the strongest and purest products on the market. They are the first to introduce extract-enhanced powder and capsules, targeting consumers like soccer moms who need an energy boost in the morning.
Twenty years ago, the only available products were leaf materials. Achieving a euphoric feeling or a high with leaf material required consuming more and more, which increased the danger. The poison is in the dose. Nowadays, we see liquid energy-type shots and concentrated products being introduced almost weekly. There is no universal standard across vendors, leading to varying potencies and risks. For example, some products suggest taking only a few pills, but consuming 8 to 10 pills can have severe effects. The industry continues to evolve, with new shots and extracts meeting consumer demand, despite the associated risks.
One product, MIT 45, has users building up a tolerance to the point where they need to consume an entire bottle to feel any effect, which is not safe. This situation is likened to legal morphine. Personal stories highlight the dangers of substance abuse. One individual, who used to drink morning, noon, and night, and also took pills, shared how their life was affected. They knew they needed to clean up their act and found relief in a product called Feel Freeze, which helped them manage their cravings and improve their life.
Beware of "Feel Free" tonics—they're marketed as wellness drinks but can be dangerously addictive.
Tolerance is built up to the point where I have to take the whole bottle to feel anything, which is also not a good thing. That's what we've linked to is more like legal morphine, and it truly is. I was the type of drinker that drank morning, noon, and night. My problem was I never stopped, and then there would be pills on top of that. That's how I used to look on a good day, but you can see the weight in my face from drinking a lot. I was not the happiest. I knew I needed to clean things up. It wasn't until I was 40 that I found the Feel Free shot. I would have one of those, and I'd be good for like four hours. I wouldn't think about drinking alcohol or picking up pills. It was just a godsend for me.
Chris isn't alone. I came up with an idea to essentially stop taking painkillers and use Kratom for a couple of days as a step stool. In my head, I needed that one drug to use when I got overwhelmed and couldn't deal with my emotions, and it just happened to be Kratom. Some people say that Kratom is helping them, but for a lot of others, they feel misled. When I first heard about Kratom, I was listening to a podcast. If you have not heard of this breakthrough product from Botanic Tonics called the Feel Free shot, then this one's going to blow your mind. This isn't an isolated incident. On podcasts, you introduced me to something called Feel Free, which I thought was like an energy drink or something like that. It turns out it just gets you high.
Those drinks put you in a nice place. It's a plant. I felt like I was on another planet. You can buy it at a regular store like 7-Eleven. At that time in my life, I had been sober for four months. I was on top of the flipping world. I think this was before I got sober, but that's the amount of weight that I had on my body. I was listening to that podcast, and they mentioned Feel Free. I found out that the owner of the company was an alcoholic and said it had basically saved his life. He spent about two years experimenting on himself until he found the feeling he was looking for.
Feel Free is the main product sold by the company Botanic Tonics, which markets Feel Free on its website as a wellness tonic and health alcohol alternative. There was something very familiar about the way I felt after I drank it. I felt like I was on drugs. I was addicted from the first bottle because I knew there was something wrong with it, but by that time, it was too late. I remember taking up to ten bottles in one day. This is how I found the subreddit Quitting Kratom. When I got in there, I saw so many people who were sick and couldn't get off of it. Every single day, a new person comes into the quitting Feel Free subreddit with the exact same story as mine.
Today, I wanted to talk about Feel Free. Stay away from those. They can be very addictive. Trying to get off it for the first time cold turkey was one of the scariest days of my life. I'm angry because I feel like I've been tricked and duped. There have been lawsuits and stuff, and I feel like they knew what they were doing.
She's talking about a class action lawsuit filed against 7-Eleven and Botanic Tonics in 2023, where a recovering alcoholic said he was hospitalized after drinking ten Feel Free tonics a day. The suit alleges that Botanic Tonics failed to disclose in its marketing materials that the drink's main ingredient is not Kava but Kratom.
Feeling duped by deceptive marketing—companies need to be honest about what's in their products.
Days of my life I'm angry. You know, I'm angry because I feel like I've been tricked. I feel like I've been duped, and there's been stuff going on, lawsuits and stuff, and I feel like they knew what they were doing.
She's talking about a class action lawsuit filed against 7-Eleven and Botanic Tonics in 2023, where a recovering alcoholic said he was hospitalized after drinking 10 Ffree tonics a day. The suit alleges that Botanic Tonics failed to disclose in its marketing materials that the drink's main ingredient is not Cava but Kratom.
Botanic Tonics is not the only defendant in lawsuits. Large Kratom companies like OPMS have been sued by people who have claimed that they overdosed on Kratom products. In July, the FDA warned consumers not to ingest OPMS Black Liquid, saying it's been linked to serious adverse health effects, including death. OPMS didn't respond to a request for comment. The company has sought to dismiss lawsuits filed against it and has said it will challenge the FDA warning. CDC data indicates that Kratom-involved overdoses in the US have jumped from 152 in a 1 and 1/2 year period in 2017 to at least 4,100 deaths between 2020 and 2022.
Kratom has escaped being labeled a controlled substance because overdoses tend to involve other drugs. Still, the DEA has listed it as a drug and chemical of concern. This is Matt Low, the executive director of the Global Kratom Coalition, an industry trade group supported by these companies. JW Ross of Botanic Tonics serves as chairman of the board. "So I think the RAB doesn't sit in prohibition again; it sits in appropriately regulating it," industry lobbyists have successfully fought attempts to tighten restrictions on the drug a number of times in the last few years. "Every Kratom product, including 70 products, should have a warning to consumers that these products can be habit-forming. You can pick up a bottle of cough syrup and you can kill yourself with it, so responsible use with good labeling on all products is a key part of the safety factor."
There is a bit of an arms race happening in the industry at the moment. Everyone's just going, "Well, how do I make the strongest product, the strongest product, the strongest product?" What that means sometimes is to make a product more appealing; it creates a greater sense of well-being. The greater it makes you feel good, the more you're going to want it. That's at the essence of how drugs can start to produce addiction.
One of the most addictive alkaloids in Kratom, 7-hydroxy mitragynine or 7-OH, is flooding the market. We've learned that mitragynine has this unique pharmacology; it doesn't activate opioid receptors fully. Its metabolite, 7-hydroxy mitragynine, does. Chemically, mitragynine is the most abundant alkaloid in Kratom. Seven-hydroxy mitragynine, while sharing a similar structure, has crucial differences. 7-OH features an additional oxygen atom bonded to a hydrogen atom at the seventh position of the molecule, which has a profound impact on its pharmacological profile. It enhances seven-hydroxy mitragynine's binding affinity to opioid receptors in the brain, making it significantly more potent and addictive than mitragynine alone.
"We've called it a legal morphine because it is actually only interacting with opioid receptors and it's activating them very strongly. We got rats addicted to morphine, and we simply took away their morphine and replaced it with mitragynine. They actually didn't have any interest in administering mitragynine to themselves. However, we did the same thing with seven-hydroxy, and it, boom, absolutely substituted for morphine. So it's a much more potent compound than morphine, probably not as potent as fentanyl, but really showed the...".
A new, unregulated opioid substitute is hitting the market, raising serious concerns about safety and addiction.
The brain's interaction with mitanin makes it significantly more potent and addictive than metrine alone. We've called it a legal morphine because it only interacts with opioid receptors and activates them very strongly. We got rats addicted to morphine and simply replaced their morphine with mitanin. Interestingly, they didn't have any interest in administering mitanin to themselves. However, when we did the same with seven hydroxy, it absolutely substituted for morphine, demonstrating its much more potent compound than morphine, though probably not as potent as fentanyl. This showed the abuse potential of seven hydroxy, which is incredibly frightening. People have expressed interest in synthesizing it to isolate and turn it into a product.
My name is Greg DOL, and I am the CFO of S MMS, which is a seven hydroxy product in the Crum industry. We have launched a war against fentanyl and other harmful substances that are killing people we love today. Our product is one of the only pure seven hydroxy products on the market and quickly gained popularity. Most of the drink shots on the market today taste bad because they don't use seven hydroxy and have to include more material. As soon as customers started using our product, they immediately switched. Others in the kratom industry are not thrilled with the rise of seven hydroxy products, feeling it is a bad look on the industry. Let's be honest, it's the heroin feel that people go for, and this product can do just as well as any prescription.
We have an epidemic of opiates in the United States, and we finally found something that can help people. However, flaunting these hardcore drugs in their faces is a disgusting look. When other kratom brands communicate that seven hydroxy is not good for the industry, my thinking is if they had the scientific ability to safely and at scale create seven hydroxy, they would be doing it. Kratom is legal to buy in every state except for six and Washington DC, meaning that seven hydroxy metrine is also fully legal to be sold alongside those kratom products.
We see beautiful pictures of green leaves used in Southeast Asia, Malaysia, and Thailand for a long time. However, in the United States, there is a rainbow of different products with varying concentrations and no regulation. To maximize benefits and minimize risks, we need to address the issue of regulation. You can't sell products for human consumption in America until it's scientifically established as safe. After seeing pictures on the internet of families who lost loved ones, I wanted the law changed. We are not yet ready to adequately inform consumers about the dangers, so buyer beware assumes there's enough information for the buyer to be aware of. The longer kratom goes without regulation, the more stories can end up tragically.
Jordan was not a drug user; he was health-conscious but was deceived into taking things he would never have taken had he known. Kratom takes people's lives. Regulators have been hesitant to limit kratom use, and the first FDA-sponsored study on its doses and dangers won't come out until 2027. The agency warns against using it. I felt compelled to help others, so I reached out to several lawyers to see if they would take the case. It's like the genie out of the bottle, and it's hard to put it back in.
Our firm, MCT Law, has established two judgments against kratom companies for selling these products, both wrongful death cases in Ked's County, Washington. We won one case involving Patrick Coin's death with an award of $2.5 million and are currently litigating over Jordan McKibbon's death. We have ten active wrongful death cases across the country. While our clients were not addicts, this industry preys upon those already suffering from addiction. Without clear laws regulating kratom, both sides of the debate continue to point fingers.
To hear one voice say it's impossible to overdose and another say it's only harmful and will kill you, the reality is in the middle. As scientists, we aim to develop appropriate packaging and labeling based on current science, which is ever-changing. This product deserves additional study and research, possibly even a fast track if it proves superior to other treatment methods for those struggling with opiates. Research should continue to flood into the study of this product under medical supervision. Extracts should be clearly defined in their constituents and capped at a safe percentage or milligram level of alkaloids.
It's a strong drug and should not be sold over the counter without warnings. Jordan was a huge part of our family, and then he was just gone. I don't want another mom to go through that.