Kim Maloney needed an energy boost. A trusted friend recommended a Feel Free tonic containing kratom. She purchased it from a local CBD shop in 2021. The small blue bottle resembled a 5-Hour Energy drink. These kratom energy drinks appeared harmless to her.

For the 49-year-old Ohio mother of two, it proved anything but safe. Her addiction to kratom beverages eventually consumed her life entirely.

“Nobody knew at that time what it was,” Maloney explains. “You figure ‘all-plant-based,’ ‘all-natural.’ I didn’t know too much about kratom. I did not know it was that addictive.”

Maloney soon descended into debilitating dependency on kratom beverages. Daily consumption escalated to upward of 10 kratom energy drinks. Her addiction stripped away nearly everything. The car vanished. Her house disappeared. A 27-year marriage collapsed. Nearly half her body weight evaporated, leaving her at just 70 pounds.

The Hidden Dangers of Gas Station Wellness Products

USA TODAY interviewed more than 20 people who developed severe addiction to kratom energy drinks. They consumed products sold at petrol stations, off-licences, and smoke shops across America. Most had no history of substance abuse before ingesting these kratom beverages. Health enthusiasts mistook kratom for standard wellness supplements. Others viewed it as a healthy alcohol alternative. Several confused it with ordinary caffeine drinks like coffee or tea.

Medical experts confirm kratom carries significant addictive potential. Getting hooked on these kratom energy drinks often brings devastating consequences. One California woman maxed out at least two credit cards fuelling her habit. An uncertain future now awaits her and her 9-year-old son. A father’s dependency on kratom beverages drove him $50,000 into debt. His credit score plummeted into the 500s. Crushing withdrawals make quitting extraordinarily difficult. Rebuilding life for himself and his child remains an ongoing struggle.

Marketed as Wellness, Delivered as Disaster

Despite their dangers, kratom energy drinks remain legal in most American states. Colourful packaging adorns many products. Shops selling them also offer bubble gum and potato chips. The FDA and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. may finally be taking action.

“How is kratom portrayed in the world? It’s organic. It’s healthy. It’s health and wellness,” says Dr Timothy Fong, a UCLA addiction psychiatrist. He reports seeing a spike in calls from people seeking treatment for addiction to kratom beverages recently. “It comes from a little bit of that world—not from the illicit drug, underground, cartel world that’s seen as much more seedy.”

FDA Targets 7-OH Compound

The FDA announced plans to crack down on products containing 7-Hydroxymitragynine, or 7-OH, on 29 July. This compound occurs naturally in the kratom plant. FDA Commissioner Martin Makary appeared alongside Kennedy whilst announcing the initiative. Plans include having 7-OH scheduled as an illicit substance pending Drug Enforcement Administration approval.

The Broader Kratom Risk

Makary clarified the organisation focuses on 7-OH specifically, not kratom overall. Medical experts tell USA TODAY that all kratom products carry addiction risk, not just those marketed with 7-OH. Those products are often stronger, however. Some people USA TODAY interviewed developed dependency using only standard kratom energy drinks. For others, using kratom beverages became a gateway to synthetic 7-OH products.

Many kratom-containing products flood the market. Capsules, powders, and drinks all exist. One product recently went viral. On 25 July, a TikToker posted a video describing how a teenage boy attempted stealing his wallet outside a petrol station. The boy wanted the man to purchase a Feel Free tonic for him.

Botanic Tonics, the company behind Feel Free, told USA TODAY its Feel Free Classic tonic contains only natural leaf kratom. It has nearly undetectable 7-OH levels.

Legal Battles and Label Changes

Earlier this year, Botanic Tonics settled an $8.75 million class-action lawsuit. The March 2023 filing accused the company of falsely marketing its kratom tonic as a healthy alcohol alternative. In January 2024, the company added a warning to its Feel Free Classic label. The product can become “habit forming and harmful to your health if consumed irresponsibly,” it now states. A 21-and-over restriction followed in May 2024.

Industry Response to Regulation

The Botanic Tonics representative emphasised the company takes its age restriction seriously. CEO Cameron Korehbandi released a statement applauding the FDA’s 7-OH action.

Many people descending into addiction say petrol station kratom energy drinks drew them in. The “Quitting Kratom” subreddit has 52,000 members. Several daily posts document journeys trying to quit kratom beverages and 7-OH.

Why Kratom Escapes Scrutiny

Dr Lief Fenno chairs the American Psychiatric Association Council on Addiction Psychiatry. Kratom has escaped scrutiny, he believes, because it doesn’t bind to brain receptors like heroin and morphine do. That doesn’t mean kratom can’t produce similar effects.

“The shapes of these molecules from kratom are very different than the shapes of things like morphine or fentanyl,” Fenno explains. “The argument can be made that they’re not opioids, because they don’t have a specific shape like opioids. That’s despite the fact that they work in a very similar way.”

Real Addicts, Real Consequences

Some kratom addicts know this firsthand. Jason, a Florida man who struggled with both dependency on kratom beverages and heroin addiction, says the effects felt very similar. Their withdrawals did too. After seven years of sobriety from opioids, he fell into addiction after trying kratom energy drinks with friends at a kava bar. Career damage fears led him to request surname anonymity.

Initially, he used kratom like an energy drink. Before long, it gripped him similarly to heroin.

“It’s a strange, insidious drug that imperceptibly steals your soul,” Jason states. “The downsides aren’t evident until libido nosedives, hair begins falling out of your head, and you are dosing three times daily only to experience the briefest of highs before returning to a sludge-like stupor.”

Fast-Food Kratom Changes Everything

Fong says companies putting large kratom amounts into innocuous-looking kratom beverages changed the game. Kratom became more susceptible to abuse.

“At its core, this is a plant that’s been around thousands of years,” Fong explains. “It has been used in Southeast Asia, chewing on the leaf as a stimulant, as pain relief. Now, through vast modern technology, we’ve created fast-food kratom. Different formulations. Capsules. Powders. Teas. Gummies. Smokable versions. All sorts of different things.”

Addiction to kratom energy drinks affects more people than many realise. After watching a friend become addicted to 7-OH, Tom Filippone started Klear Recovery. His business helps people addicted to kratom and 7-OH detox with physician-led treatment.

Since launching this year, Filippone reports overwhelming inquiries. He receives at least four or five every hour.

“These are not drug people that I talk to for the vast majority of them,” he says. “They’re 55-year-old women who live in Texas and are involved in their church who bought it at the petrol station.”

The Brutal Reality of Withdrawal

When people try quitting kratom, Filippone says they’re often unprepared for withdrawal intensity.

“Some of these people’s doses get so high,” he explains. “If you cold-turkeyed it, you are looking at seven days of hell.”

Emily Beutler developed dependency on kratom beverages in 2022 after trying tea with it at an Arizona kava bar. Someone recommended it as a healthy anxiety relief method.

Returning to her local Idaho kava bar for kratom became a daily routine. Soon, the bar’s drink wasn’t enough. Kratom powder from petrol stations allowed her to ingest greater amounts at home. Eventually, she took multiple spoonfuls daily, unable to sleep through the night without it.

Then Beutler discovered a podcast where people shared harrowing stories about kratom energy drinks. That day, she quit.

“The next three to five days was probably the worst I’ve ever physically felt,” she recalls. “I was sweating through my bedsheets that night. Multiple baths became necessary nightly, because my restless legs were so bad. I felt like I was going almost psychotic.”

Withdrawal pain keeps many trapped in the addiction cycle.

Trapped by Withdrawal

One Colorado man developed addiction after mistaking kratom beverages for a coffee alternative. Anonymity was necessary, he felt, fearing business harm. The withdrawals proved terrible. Rehabilitation costs exceeded his budget, so he took time off work to endure it at home.

“It was really rough,” he says. “I had restless legs and felt like I had the flu. I was freezing cold for 10 days or so and zero energy. I felt like I was 80 years old.”

Lucy, a mother in rural California who requested surname protection for her child’s privacy, has been on and off kratom for about four years. Eight months represents her longest stretch without it.

Driving on streets where shops sell kratom becomes impossible for her. The pull of dependency on kratom energy drinks remains that strong.

“I don’t think everyone is afflicted with the disease of addiction,” she says. “Obviously, there are people who can pick up substances and put them down and be fine. But I don’t think kratom is a miracle drug by any means. It’s hippie heroin. That’s all it is.”

Life After Addiction

Beyond withdrawal, however, lies hope.

Since attending rehabilitation, Maloney hasn’t touched kratom beverages in the past year. Rebuilding her life has begun slowly but surely. A car became her first major purchase. The gym provides daily structure whilst her body weight has recovered—now 145 pounds. Relationships with her daughters have healed too. Random drug tests from them are welcome—whatever it takes to earn their trust back.

Financial fallout from her addiction to kratom energy drinks still challenges Maloney. That will eventually improve too, she believes.

“I’m in debt, but you know what? I’m coming back,” she says. “There’s no doubt in my mind I’m going to get my life back better than ever. I might be living in an apartment basement with my four dogs, but you know what? I’ve got my life. My kids are here. My parents support me. I’ve got everybody. I’ve got more than anybody could hope for.”

The FDA’s announcement provides a silver lining, though complete elimination of kratom seems unlikely to her.

After the FDA’s news conference, “I almost started crying,” she says. “It will save a lot of lives. I think it will. It’ll save a lot of marriages, probably. And a lot of homes. But what are they going to come out with next?”

Source: USA Today