Jordan McKibban spent his final day doing what he loved: working at an organic food distributor, surrounded by the health-conscious products he believed in. When he arrived home that Tuesday in April 2022, the 37-year-old mixed a tablespoon of powdered kratom supplement into his lemonade, never suspecting it would be his last drink. Within hours, McKibban collapsed in his bathroom and never woke up, becoming another tragic victim of kratom dangers that remain largely hidden from consumers.

Marketed as an “all-natural” solution for pain, anxiety, depression, and more, kratom appeals to health-conscious individuals like McKibban, who wouldn’t even take ibuprofen for the arthritis in his hands, according to his mother, Pam Mauldin. However, an autopsy report later revealed that a compound in the substance called mitragynine took McKibban’s life.

“I’ve lost my son. I’ve lost my grandchildren that I could have had, I’ve lost watching him walk down that aisle, watching him have a life that I get to watch with my other kids,” Mauldin told reporters. “I have to go to the cemetery, and I hate going to the cemetery. He shouldn’t be there.”

Understanding Kratom and Its Risks

Kratom products, sold in powders, gummies, and energy-looking drinks, come from a plant native to Southeast Asia and can act like a stimulant at lower doses and a sedative at higher ones. Moreover, whilst they’re readily found online, in brick-and-mortar shops, and even petrol stations as catch-all solutions to everything from fatigue to opioid withdrawal, the Food and Drug Administration states that kratom and its key components are “not lawfully marketed” in the United States as a drug product, dietary supplement, or food additive.

Dr. Robert Levy, an associate professor at the University of Minnesota who’s board-certified in both addiction and family medicine, explains the fundamental problem: “Kratom does act like an opioid, and people can become addicted to it and have withdrawal from it and overdose on it.”

National poison control centres documented 1,807 calls about kratom exposures between 2011 and 2017, and “it’s only been increasing since then,” Dr. Michael Greco, an emergency medicine physician in Florida, confirmed. Indeed, the kratom dangers extend far beyond what most consumers realise when they pick up these innocuous-looking products.

The Alarming Symptoms and Effects

Patients using kratom present with a disturbing range of symptoms, Dr. Greco explained. “You can have a lot of agitation, sometimes even psychosis,” he said. “You get sweating, you get dizziness, you get very high blood pressure or elevated heart rate.” Conversely, on the other end of the spectrum, “people might be totally unresponsive or just extremely drowsy and out of it.”

Furthermore, whilst documented deaths from kratom are rare and typically involve other substances like fentanyl, critics argue consumers remain unaware of the supplement’s potential dangers. Manufacturers aren’t required to verify if what appears on the label accurately reflects what’s inside the product, creating a regulatory vacuum that puts consumers at risk.

McKibban, for instance, received assurances that overdosing on kratom was impossible; that he’d simply vomit if he consumed too much, Mauldin said. The green cellophane bags he left behind contained no instructions or warnings whatsoever.

A Mother’s Frustration With Regulatory Inaction

“I find it so frustrating when I get a recall from Costco over lettuce or they have a recall over some potato chip and they pull it all off the market,” Mauldin noted. Her lawsuit alleges kratom is 63 times more deadly than other “natural” products sold to consumers. “There have been hundreds of people killed from this, and they don’t pull it. The government doesn’t step in.”

Meanwhile, the products gain attention on social media, as TikTokers reveal disturbing interactions with teens going to great lengths to obtain drinks like Feel Free. The shot-like capsules of kratom and other “botanic” ingredients look innocent enough and line some petrol station checkouts, yet they harbour significant risks.

The Enhanced Threat of 7-OH

Experts express particular concern about a highly potent, highly addictive kratom offshoot called 7-hydroxymitragynine, or 7-OH, which appears to have infiltrated the market in recent years. “There’s always been concern around kratom because if you take enough of it, kratom does act like an opioid, and people can become addicted to it and have withdrawal from it and overdose on it and ruin their lives on it,” Levy said.

However, 7-hydroxymitragynine proves “much more addicting and much more problematic.” Just last week, the FDA recommended classifying 7-OH as an illicit substance. “7-OH is an opioid that can be more potent than morphine,” FDA Commissioner Marty Makary stated in a press release. “We need regulation and public education to prevent another wave of the opioid epidemic.”

Understanding kratom dangers requires recognising that many people don’t know the difference between standard kratom and its more potent derivative, creating additional risk for unsuspecting consumers.

Another Family Shattered

For Jennifer Young in Columbus, Ohio, the warning about kratom dangers came too late. She first googled kratom a few years ago after her son, Johnny Loring, mentioned using it for anxiety. What she found didn’t alarm her initially.

“I saw it’s this ‘all-natural, safe alternative,’ and then people are like, ‘It’s wonderful, it saved my life, helps with my anxiety, helps with my pain, it’s a cure-all,'” Young remembered. “So I didn’t really think it was that bad.”

Loring, a delivery driver for a flooring company who loved fishing and playing guitar, found kratom helped him stay alert and communicate with his customers. “Everybody loved Johnny,” Young said. “He was the kind of guy that would give you the shirt off his back, the last dollar in his pocket.”

Warning Signs Missed

Even when Loring started experiencing seizures, neither Young nor clinicians traced them back to kratom. At the hospital, “they told me that everything was fine and they referred me to a seizure clinic,” Young recalled.

Tragically, Loring never got the chance to attend. Weeks later, at age 27, he collapsed during an annual mushroom hunting trip with the men in his family and his new girlfriend. By the time the ambulance reached him, he was dead. A toxicology report revealed deadly levels of mitragynine and gabapentin, a prescription painkiller, in his system.

“The level of kratom shocked me. It overwhelmed me. It made my gut sick,” said Young, who later found approximately 20 packs of kratom around Loring’s room. “I didn’t realize it was so addicting.”

The Devastating Aftermath

Like Mauldin, Young is pursuing a wrongful death lawsuit. Nevertheless, she added, “there’s no amount of money I could put on my child’s life.” After Loring’s death last spring, she spent a year in bed and started taking antidepressants for the first time. One of her other children has been hospitalised for panic attacks. Christmas proved “miserable,” she said.

“Our house is silent now. The void of Johnny is just loud,” Young added. “I just hope that someday I can get back to enjoying things, because I know he would want me to. But right now, I don’t enjoy anything.”

Critical Lessons for Parents and Consumers

According to Levy, parents should be having open conversations with their children about the appeals, dangers, and addictive potential of kratom. Crucially, they need to understand that “all-natural” or “plant-based” doesn’t necessarily mean safe. “Arsenic is also from a plant,” he points out.

Regarding people who claim kratom helps them wean off other substances “and they can control their use and they’re getting their life back together, then who am I to judge?” Levy said. However, he worries that “because they can’t control the use of something, the part of their brain that controls the use of psychoactive drugs is fundamentally broken, and I worry they’ll continue to take more and more of it until they develop a kratom use disorder.”

“If your child or you or whoever is suffering from a substance disorder, you’re not alone,” Levy emphasised. “Lots of people suffer from substance disorder. There is help, treatment works.”

The Illusion of Safety

Both McKibban and Loring represent a growing number of individuals attracted to kratom’s promise of natural relief without understanding the substance’s addictive potential and serious health risks. The marketing of kratom as a harmless, plant-based alternative masks the reality that it acts on the same receptors as opioids and carries similar risks of dependence, overdose, and death.

The lack of regulatory oversight means consumers cannot trust product labels, dosing information, or purity claims. Without standardised testing requirements, the concentration of active compounds varies wildly between products and even between batches of the same product, making safe consumption virtually impossible.

A Call for Action

Mauldin’s message to consumers reflects her painful experience: find out who and where you’re buying products from and what they stand for. However, she believes the burden shouldn’t rest solely on consumers. Government regulators must step in to protect public health, just as they would for contaminated food products.

The deaths of McKibban and Loring illuminate a critical gap in consumer protection. Whilst the FDA warns against kratom use, the substance remains readily available with minimal restrictions. This regulatory failure allows potentially deadly products to sit on shop shelves next to chewing gum and energy drinks, giving consumers a false sense of security.

As awareness of kratom dangers slowly grows, two mothers hope their losses will prevent other families from experiencing similar tragedy. Their sons’ stories serve as urgent reminders that natural doesn’t mean safe, and that greater regulatory action is desperately needed to protect consumers from products marketed with misleading health claims.

Source: NY Post