I wonder if/when we’ll see clinics offering kratom as an alternative treatment for pain management and opioid withdrawal. There’s heaps of anecdotal evidence of its effectiveness for helping people to get clean, but we’re lacking research to corroborate it, and I can imagine people are hesitant to start such research in case the FDA succeeds in banning it—on the basis of what seems to me junk science and fearmongering, I might add, but we’ll see.

More to the point—a typical dose of kratom is less than $1; it’s hard to abuse since taking too much will just make you dizzy/nauseated/anxious, a mistake most users only make once; it doesn’t cause respiratory depression (doesn’t recruit β-arrestin2) so it (EDIT: probably, although we don’t know for certain) won’t kill you if you overdose; and if you’re in withdrawal, it will take you from “not fine” to “fine” within an hour without getting you particularly high or keeping you dependent like methadone/suboxone.

There are certainly downsides—e.g., it’s moderately addictive itself and can interfere with testosterone like any opioid—but its potential utility in fighting the opioid addiction epidemic is clear. If I had my way, it’d be guaranteed to remain legal and available over the counter to people over 18, thoroughly studied for side effects and drug interactions, and recommended/prescribed as an alternative PRN treatment for withdrawal symptoms—and other conditions like anxiety, if you don’t want to get hooked on benzos.

I know this: it saved multiple people in my life from opioid abuse, and myself from alcohol. That’s got to be worth something.