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TUSCON, Arizona (KNXV) — Suzanne Sierra never heard of kratom before her 28-year-old son Christopher started buying small bottles of it from a smoke shop.
At first, he was taking it just to feel better. Then he needed it just to function. Within two years, Christopher was spending nearly $1,000 a day on the product, and had lost his job, his girlfriend, and his home.
“He shakes, he shakes really bad,” Sierra said. “He’s 28, and his whole life is ahead of him, and it destroyed it. For something that was called Feel Free.”
A Surge in Poisonings
Calls to poison centers about kratom have surged more than 1,200% over the past decade, according to a new CDC study. Last year alone, there were more than 3,400 reports of kratom poisoning across the country. Symptoms can range from vomiting and high blood pressure to seizures and hallucinations.
Kratom, pronounced KRAY-tom, is a psychoactive herb derived from a tropical tree native to Southeast Asia. In the United States, it is sold openly at gas stations and smoke shops in pill, powder, and liquid extract form. It is currently unregulated at the federal level, meaning there are no standard doses and no oversight of what goes into the products on shelves.
ABC15 found a Facebook group for people recovering from kratom addiction and met Ryan Wood of West Tennessee. He says he picked up kratom at a gas station five years ago thinking it was just another energy drink.
“I just ran across it, you know, I like energy drinks and stuff like that and just thought it was another pick me up,” Wood said.
Within one to two years, Wood was taking up to 100 pills a day. He has been to rehab three times. He says withdrawal was the hardest thing he has ever been through, including hallucinations, violent body tremors, and multiple emergency room visits that triggered pancreatitis.
“It’s very unsafe, it’s very unhealthy, and yes, people are losing their lives,” Wood said.
The Other Side
Not everyone believes kratom should be banned.
Fadi Fod is the owner of Kawana, an alcohol-free bar and cafe in the Valley that serves botanical beverages made with kratom. He says the problem is not kratom itself, but the synthetic, lab-made products that are often grouped with it, like a form known as 7-hydroxy.
“Please do not mix natural leaf kratom with other synthetic products like 7 hydroxy,” Fod said. “This is a natural leaf that grows naturally in nature, where this is synthetically made in a lab, synthesized by a human.”
Fod says at Kawana, every drink is carefully measured by portion and customers are educated before they order.
“Here at Kawana we work at education, not just selling, informing the customers the difference between the kratom leaves, and each cup of our drinks is measured per portion, so we know how much kratom, so it’s not being over poured,” Fod said.
The Push to Regulate
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes has said she plans to work with legislators to strengthen laws against kratom and similar products. It is currently illegal to sell kratom to anyone under the age of 18 in Arizona.
Tennessee banned all kratom products as of July 1. Wood says the rest of the country should follow.
“I think it needs to be banned all across the United States,” Wood said.
Sierra, who started a Facebook group for families affected by kratom, says she has heard from countless people with stories just like her son’s. She says she went to every store in her town that sold the product and asked them not to sell it to Christopher.
“I didn’t know what else to do,” she said.
Christopher is now living back home with his mother. Sierra says he still struggles every day.
“He doesn’t feel like he has any hope,” she said.
If you or someone you know needs help, call Poison Control at 1-800-222-1222.
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