My condolences. I don’t have any personal experiences with it, but a while ago I saw a video by Evan Edinger about his Kratom addiction which I found pretty informative.
What is Kratom? A friend of the family just died today. And that was the last thing he was using. Is it like K2? What type of high is it?
Submitted 2 hours ago by Patnou@lemmy.world to [deleted]
Comments
PonyOfWar@pawb.social 2 hours ago
radix@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
John Oliver also did a segment.
Timestamped at the Kratom chapter, but the whole thing is good (as is normal for JO).
Hegar@fedia.io 1 hour ago
Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
I saw this a while ago, and did not expect to sit through the whole thing. Scary shit.
prism@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 hour ago
K2 (spice, etc) is the synthetic cannabinoids (m.psychonautwiki.org/wiki/Synthetic_cannabinoid), which are often fairly dangerous, but are unrelated to kratom.
Kratom (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitragyna_speciosa) is a plant that produces two substances (mitragynine, 7-hydroxymitragynine aka 7-OH) that act like opioids. The pharmacology is relatively unusual, relative to most opioids, as the primary active substances in kratom also bind to serotonin and norepinephrine receptors; other alkaloids in the plant also act as ex. NMDA antagonists which may cause a dissociative experience (vaguely along the likes of ketamine, etc).
ITGuyLevi@programming.dev 1 hour ago
A plant people have been using in medicine since at least the mid 1800’s. The type of high varies on how much and how it is consumed, lately I’ve seen a lot of people drinking it in the morning like a caffeine substitute (I think the place near me calls it an ‘island tea’ or something like that). It made my wife jittery and throw up so we never tried it again.
Some people smoke it or chew it so those could be different.
Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
From what I understand, it’s a stimulant and people with ADHD are self medicating with it and developing a dependency on it. I don’t know exactly how it harms the body though.
BurgerBaron@quokk.au 1 hour ago
Metta Beshar is a decent drug user/educator who has ADHD and went over his own addiction and widthdrawal in his video here:
Mind you it’s a combined video where he tries 7-OH as well. Not everyone wants to watch a video so:
Metta presents Kratom’s American story as an “ethnobotany 101” case study. Every time a culture meets a new substance it has no experience with, it goes through a chaotic phase of not knowing how to use it in a responsible manner. Going from raw leaf to a powder, to extracts, and now 7-OH pills which are getting banned all over.
Metta is still on and off user and doesn’t want to quit outright. He just dialed usage back. He describes Kratom withdrawal symptoms as runny nose, body aches, and insomnia like a less severe opioid-type withdrawal and says it’s “not as scary as a lot of people think” but that it depends on how deep and how long you were in. Tolerance creep he describes as starting at 2–3g → 6g → 8g before quitting after 4-5 years. Some people get dangerous with it and go up to 28g or even 50g/day. He also described the typical experience I’ve had with chemically addictive substances where you constantly find reasons to “treat” yourself as a reward for doing something.
His active user experience:
- Onset takes about an hour.
- Very relaxed, “sense of peace”
- Aches and pains greatly reduced — the neck kink nearly gone. He liked to take it after martial arts training.
- Feels like a “warm comfort blanket,” almost like cuddling someone you care about
- Subtle overall, no noticeable change to his mental processes
- Sedating, ready for bed
The active compound in Kratom is called Mitragynin which is a partial mu-opioid agonist. You get the opioid feel (relaxation, mild euphoria, pain relief) but with a built-in ceiling so it stays mellow.
Nothing like K2, Don.
TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
Not sure. I got old and boring before this became popular.
My understanding its a mood enhancement and pain reliever.
I’m sorry you lost this person.
Postmortal_Pop@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
Kratom is a tropical evergreen native to Southeast Asia. It’s an agonist for a few opioid receptors and has been used for centuries to treat opium withdraw. K2 on the other hand is synthetic pot.
My understanding is that Kratom high isn’t really a big thing. Like trying to get high on ibuprofen or CBD. It has some promise for pain management and anxiety but it’s hardly something you’d party on and if you’re worried said friend OD’ed I can tell you it wasn’t on Kratom.
Z745812939054@lemmy.zip 2 hours ago
sorry for your loss. i don’t have an answer, commenting because i want to know too
Jaderick@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
Kratum is an opiate-like plant-based drug that gives users a boost of energy, but is addictive like actual opiates.
FlexibleToast@lemmy.world 38 minutes ago
As far as I know (and I very much could be wrong) “opiate like” isn’t really a thing. Opiates are classified by their interactions with your body, not by the drug. So, if they’re interacting with the opiate receptors, they’re opiates.
Jaderick@lemmy.world 28 minutes ago
www.azarius.com/wiki/…/kratom-vs-opioids
It’s an agonist for the opiate target receptors which is why I say opiate-like.