GAYLORD — Another plant-based substance is shaping up to become the next hotly contested drug in America, with some touting it as a pain reliever and replacement for opioids, and others seeing it as a potential danger.
“Kratom” is a substance made from the leaves of a Southeast Asian plant related to coffee, and it is legal in most of the country — including Michigan. And some local shops, like AllWell Natural Health, 845 S. Otsego Ave., sell it to their customers.
For Frank and Veronica James, owners of AllWell, the substance is one of the few options left in their arsenal to offer their patrons. The shop, which once served as a medical marijuana dispensary, has been converted to a more general outlet for natural remedies, primarily in the form of CDB oils and kratom.
“(Kratom) is absolutely safe, as long as you’re using quality products,” Veronica James said.
She said there are three basic strains of kratom: red, green and white, named for the color vein of the leaf from which the substance is extracted. Normally, the leaf is ground up and made into a tea.
Each strain is purported to have different benefits, for pain relief, energy or relaxation. In higher doses, it can also have more psychoactive properties, but James said AllWell does not offer the substance to their patrons for that intended purpose.
But kratom has also drawn controversy.
In November, Scott Gottlieb, commissioner for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, released a statement placing a warning on the drug. Though proponents cite kratom as a potential treatment to wean people off opioids, Gottlieb likened the substance to an opioid itself.
“We’ve learned a tragic lesson from the opioid crisis: that we must pay early attention to the potential for new products to cause addiction and we must take strong, decisive measures to intervene,” he said in the statement. “From the outset, the FDA must use its authority to protect the public from addictive substances like kratom, both as part of our commitment to stemming the opioid epidemic and preventing another from taking hold.”
Prior to that, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency attempted to classify it as a schedule one drug.
That designation would place kratom alongside cocaine and marijuana as a substance that has no accepted medical value and a high potential for abuse.
There is some evidence that kratom has some dangers attached to it.
According to the FDA’s research, there have been 44 deaths associated with kratom between 2011 and 2017, although only one of them involved kratom alone.
And, to fan the flames of bad press, a salmonella outbreak was recently reported in a number of over-the-counter kratom supplements. The outbreak resulted in nearly 50 illnesses since February, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
James said there were originally other shops in town that sold kratom — not just former dispensaries, but also smoke shops like Wild Wild West Tobacco, 604 W. Main St. She said, since then, most of those shops have stopped selling kratom.
James also said she and her husband have met with U.S. Rep. Jack Bergman, R-Watersmeet, to discuss the issues surrounding the drug.
In January, Bergman was part of a group of 17 legislators who co-signed a letter urging the FDA to lift the warning.
“We have a major opioid problem in this country, so I don’t want to rule out any potential solution before taking a look at it,” Bergman said in an interview with the Herald Times that month. “It would be bad decision-making to not look at any and all potential solutions. I tend to take more time when making decisions as I want to take the time to gather the facts.”
