Newspaper, TV, and magazine reporters only have a limited time to report the Kratom story, so many crucial details get left out. To really understand why kratom seems to be connected with something as seamy as heroin use is very important for the public to truly understand, but is rarely explained.
Americans, young and old, didn't just decide one day that heroin would be a cool drug to add to their lifestyle. They generally ended up shooting heroin because a doctor had prescribed them the medical equivalent of heroin for many years, they became dependent or addicted, and the fearful withdrawals -- when doctors were forced by the DEA to stop prescribing their opioids -- drove them to either go into highly expensive, stigmatized, often ineffective, and inconvenient drug rehab or find a cheaper alternative on the streets.
Most found heroin, but -- with access to better information -- many could have found kratom. Unfortunately, official sources of information, such as the FDA/CDC/DEA choose to report as facts tidbits that no other scientists have found, and they're sticking to their story that kratom causes respiratory depression. How odd!
This part of the story is never told by reporters because it would make their advertisers (and the FDA)) unhappy, but it needs to be told to point out a serious flaw in our current medical monopoly that has created only treatments for simple conditions, ranging from anxiety and depression to back pain and autoimmune diseases.
Why do we have no cures and little attempt made to prevent or reverse these conditions? Because the big money is in treating the symptoms with patented synthetic drugs and/or surgery. The pharmaceutical industry is calling the shots to produce maximum profit, so they don't want you to know that simple nutritional supplement programs, such as the ones given our pets and livestock, can prevent and reverse most of our ailments. But that's too big a story to tell and most of the public isn't likely to believe it, anyway.
A smaller part of the big story is that natural medicinal herbs like kratom have a long history of easing pain and emotional distresses, when used properly. For economic reasons and reasons of mercy, Americans need to retain their access to pure, unadulterated kratom to support their sense of wellbeing.
News reporters generally don't want to call out the FDA for misrepresenting the truth -- or the drug rehab professionals who claim kratom is not a safer alternative to the highly-addictive methadone, which only kills about 3300 Americans per year.
Bottom line here is: Kratom doesn't kill. Figure in the conflicts of interest that explain the perspective of those who imply that kratom is not a viable way out of drug addiction and other conditions. Only then will we begin to arrive at the truth.