It’s not cannabis and it’s not a poppy. It’s something entirely different and it traveled a long way from its original home in Asia all the way to your local smoke shop right around the corner and its name is “Kratom.”
Kratom, or its scientific name, Mitragyna speciosa, is a leaf grown on trees indigenous to southeastern regions in Asia like Myanmar. The plant contains the alkaloid Mitragynine and the chemical 7-hydroxymitragynine, which both target the opioid receptors in the brain causing similar effects of regular opioids. The difference is that Kratom obviously doesn’t derive from the poppy family but rather the coffee family of flowering plants.
Kratom comes in a variety of forms like capsules, powders, paste, and even raw leaves, so there are plenty of ways to ingest this plant.
But is it even legal? It depends. The psychoactive plant is technically not regulated on a federal level right now, but certain states have made it completely illegal like Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin, according to sprouthealthgroup.com, while many other states have put in place certain regulations like age restrictions. In Texas, it is legal to buy, sell and consume Kratom.
While Kratom has garnered popularity in recent years among Americans, it’s been used in Southeast Asia for many years as a traditional medicine. According to a study examining the botanical properties of Kratom, laborers in Thailand sometimes ingest it to stave off exhaustion and as a painkiller.
“It’s unclear when Kratom use began, and, although we only have a couple centuries of documented Kratom use in Southeast Asia, the practice is thought to be ancient,” according to Bow Key Botanical, a Kratom and CBD distributing website discussing the plant’s history.
Though considered to be ancient, records and research of Kratom use date closer to only two centuries.
Pros
The effects of Kratom vary depending on the size of dosage taken; in smaller doses it gives a stimulating effect, the same effect you’d find when drinking any form of caffeine. At higher doses, kratom acts as a sedative (giving a high) in which recreational users claim can be used to treat pain, diarrhea, and even opiate withdrawals.
At first, Kratom offers useful effects in low doses, giving a psychedelic stimulus similar to coffee where one feels more awakened — almost like your regular cup of coffee.
Though recreational users across the U.S. rejoice in the treatments kratom offers, the FDA officially warns against taking it, but there aren’t any laws giving the agency any …….
Source: https://www.theprospectordaily.com/2020/12/10/kratom-party-drug-or-treatment-here-are-the-facts/