Stories about Kratom

Kratom, a popular herb of Southeast Asian origin, is prohibited for human consumption in Denver and has been the subject of numerous health warnings from the federal Food and Drug Administration, which recently seized 540 kilos of the substance from a local company called Kratom Cafe USA in conjunction with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency.

Stories about Kratom

But debate between opponents and advocates continues to rage, with the former depicting the product as dangerously addictive (kratom-related calls to the Rocky Mountain Poison Control Center are said to have doubled in recent years) and the latter portraying it as a miracle capable of helping those dependent on heroin and other opiates kick much more dangerous habits.

Stories about Kratom

The gulf between these viewpoints is epitomized by the stories told by two parents who live along Colorado’s urban corridor. The first says his son became hooked on kratom after using it as a substitute for prescription medication, precipitating a downward spiral that sent him to rehab. The latter says her daughter used prescribed opiates to treat a debilitating medical condition before kratom helped her emerge from a pharmaceutical fog and become happy and healthy again.

Stories about Kratom

We’ve not named the parents or their children (he is in his early twenties, she is in her mid-thirties) and have omitted references to home towns and other identifiers in order to protect their privacy. But the following observations, shared in the parents’ own words, represent the vastly different experiences of many kratom users.