Kratom: Fear-worthy foliage or beneficial botanical?

Depending on what you read, kratom is a dangerous, addictive drug with no medical utility and severe side effects, including overdose and death, or it is an accessible pathway out of undertreated chronic pain and opiate withdrawal. How can the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), medical professionals, and millions of regular kratom users have such divergent views of the same plant? What is kratom? Kratom (Mitragyna speciosa) is a tropical tree from the coffee family native to Southeast Asia, with properties that range from stimulant-like, energizing and uplifting, to opiate-like, causing drowsiness and euphoria. Kratom has dozens of active components, which makes it difficult to characterize as one particular type of drug such as “stimulant” or “opiate.” The two main chemicals, mitragynine and 7-hydroxymitragynine,

from http://besthealthnews.com/2019/08/kratom-fear-worthy-foliage-or-beneficial-botanical/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=kratom-fear-worthy-foliage-or-beneficial-botanical

from
https://healthnews010.tumblr.com/post/186856080653

from https://johnher1.blogspot.com/2019/08/kratom-fear-worthy-foliage-or.html

from
https://johnher10.tumblr.com/post/186856228522