Florida's Unregulated Kratom Market

1A

NPR

News

4.3 • 4.5K Ratings

🗓️ 31 January 2024

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the United States, Kratom is sold in its concentrated form, oftentimes in potent capsules or liquid shots. Kratom is a tropical plant with leaves that contain a chemical compound with similar effects to opioids.

The Kratom industry is worth roughly $1.5 billion, but unregulated.

For this installment of our "Local Spotlight" series, we take a closer look at The Tampa Bay Times investigation into kratom in Florida. Reporters found that more than 580 died from a kratom-involved overdose in Florida the last decade. Most of those deaths involved other substances too, but 46 were due to kratom alone.

We discuss what we know about Kratom, its possibilities, dangers and why it's unregulated.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This message comes from NPR sponsor, Square Space, with powerful blogging tools to share content.
0:05.6	Categorize share and schedule your posts to make your content work for you.
0:09.6	Use Code NPR to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. I'm a 73 year old veteran combat veteran. I have some few aches and pains. I view
0:28.9	cray-tham is just a natural thing that works.
0:33.3	I have been a daily user for the last three years.
0:35.9	At my highest dose, I was taking 20 grams a day.
0:38.4	Currently I'm taking 7 grams a day.
0:40.4	It gets rid of pain.
0:42.0	It's easier for me to do tasks during the day. It can be abused just like anything else.
0:48.7	I was using it to help with ADHD to help slow and calm my brain down so I could get work done and it
0:54.6	was effective with that. Cratum is a federally legal unregulated substance
0:59.7	that about 1.7 million Americans consume each year. It comes from a tropical tree native to
1:06.0	Southeast Asia. Its leaves are ground into a green powder that you might find at gas stations
1:11.1	and smoke shops. But not all experiences with the substance are as positive
1:15.8	as the ones we just heard.
1:17.2	I was addicted to creating them for about four years.
1:20.0	I went in that time $30,000 in credit card debt. I tried to come off of it many many many
1:27.1	times and had terrible, terrible withdrawals worse than even heroin.
1:33.4	As of this week, I have chronic kidney disease,
1:36.9	may have lesions on my pancreas,
1:39.5	waiting for the MRI back on that.
1:42.0	I took 210 capsules a day by the end of my addiction.
	...

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