Gas Station Blues — or Why a Little Regulation Around Kratom Isn’t a Bad Thing

I have been making Dopey: On the Dark Comedy of Drug Addiction for almost 11 years. I started the podcast with my late friend Chris O'Connor, whom I met in treatment for our shared IV drug addiction. Our show became a magnet for drug addicts because we celebrated depravity and approached sobriety from a true degenerate point of view. We have always encouraged the audience to send in their stories of drugs, addiction, and dumb shit. Kratom came up every now and then among the listener submissions, but over the past three years, it's become one of the most common things we hear about.

Kratom comes from a tropical evergreen tree native to Southeast Asia, which has leaves that contain several psychoactive compounds. Among them is 7-hydroxymitragynine, better known as 7-OH. A few years ago, companies figured out a way to create 7-OH in a lab, and started selling it as a concentrate. The effects of Kratom or 7-OH change depending on how much of it you take: at low doses, it acts as a mild stimulant but at higher doses it produces opioid-like effects. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not approved any kratom drug products and warns against its use due to risks of addiction, misuse, and dependency. In July, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) announced its intent to make 7-OH products — though not the powder made from the leaf — Schedule I.

Schedule I drugs are substances with a high potential for abuse, no accepted medical use in treatment, and a lack of accepted safety under medical supervision.

Kratom took off in America in the mid-2000s as a "supplement" with an endless collection of claims. It could give you energy for a workout. It could help with anxiety. It could help you sleep better. It could even help opiate addicts stop using opiates. At first, it was just the powder, which contained a swath of different types of alkaloids, including trace amounts of 7-OH. But soon, companies started making 7-OH concentrates, and they were available everywhere. Editor’s picks The 250 Greatest Albums of the 21st Century So Far The 100 Best TV Episodes of All Time The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century

Today, they are sold in colorfully catchy packaging in forms of powder, tablets, liquid shots, gummies, and even vapes. They are available in smoke shops, gas stations, and bodegas. They are relatively cheap, typically around $10, and are inconsistently regulated — if at all.

The weird thing was that I never even noticed Kratom or 7-OH until I heard about it from people listening to my podcast. I just assumed Kratom was bunk. Over the years there have been countless products with less than stellar "getting high" effects, sold in head shops with claims of real results that rarely delivered what their marketing promised. Once in a while a product worked — because it contained stimulants such as ephedra. Oftentimes, shitty drug dealers and rip-off artists would sell these products at schools or concerts claiming they were MDMA, speed, opiates, or weed. It was an old scam, and I figured Kratom was just the latest one.

It turns out, and definitely not for the first time, I was wrong. Kratom worked. It worked so well people were using it not only to get high, but as harm reduction, too. To get off of alcohol and whatever other substances they were taking.

I got an email recently from a listener, 'K,' about Kratom, or more specifically 7-OH:

"I've struggled with a bunch of different addictions that were ruining my life — alcohol, coke, molly, Xanax, literally anything I could get my hands on. I was on a bender for years. I started with the [kratom] powder but then needed more and more and moved to 7-OH… The good thing about 7-OH is it got me off of everything. I was incredibly destructive and violent, and it chilled me out. All I would do is stay at home, and I liked that version of myself." Related Content Why Is the DEA Targeting Kratom, an Opioid Replacement Drug? Andy Dick Briefly Died. Now He’s 147 Days Sober Eminem Celebrates 18 Years of Sobriety GLP-1s Are a Weight Loss Miracle. Could They Also Curb the Opioid Crisis?

K stopped using it soon after they wrote because they noticed themself dependent. Four days after they stopped, K wrote to me again:

"Honestly, I don't think I've ever felt so depressed and in pain as I have the past few days. Hands down these were the worst withdrawals I've ever had and I've withdrawn from everything lol."

B. Getz, my friend and host of The Upful Life podcast, used powdered kratom every day for nearly nine years after a long and painful addiction to OxyContin. Kratom changed all of that. "What I realized was, this shit turned that switch off in my brain," Getz tells me. "I look at kratom as a lifeline for me." Kratom helped Getz get work, build a life, and ultimately get off of opiates. Kratom became the substitute, essentially working as replacement therapy. It became something he carried everywhere — a water bottle and a fanny pack filled with powder. "I could not go anywhere, do anything, without knowing I had my kratom dose on me," he says. Getz is off Kratom now because of that dependence but doesn't regret using it. "Just because I sing its praises does not mean I'm invalidating anybody else's [negative] experiences," he says.

Dr. Evan Haines, co-founder of Oro House Recovery Centers, believes the arrival of 7-OH fundamentally changed what treatment providers were seeing. "I have mixed feelings," Haines tells me. "On the one hand, the consensus is that the war on drugs has been a total failure, so it's usually never good news when a new drug makes it onto the schedule." Haines says Oro House has experienced "a huge increase in people seeking treatment" for kratom and 7-OH both. "We had never seen someone seeking treatment for [powdered] kratom before [concentrate]7-OH came along."

Jana Wu, a clinician at Mountainside Treatment Center who has worked extensively with people struggling with Kratom, has...

Indexed and credited by AIPROPX. Originating outlet: Rolling Stone. Open at source →