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U.S. Hunger For Opioid Alternative Drives Boom in Borneo Jungle

JacksinPA

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https://www.bloomberg.com/news/feat...ioid-alternative-drives-boom-in-borneo-jungle

Indonesia is the main supplier of kratom, a popular painkiller.

Deep in the lush jungles of Indonesian Borneo is the remote region of Kapuas Hulu, a dizzying 12-hour drive along narrow, twisting roads from the nearest city. Until recently, most villagers eked out a living working at nearby rubber plantations or gold mines.

Now, thanks to the opioid epidemic in the U.S., one of the hottest local commodities is a controversial plant called kratom that fans call a natural alternative to synthetic painkillers but U.S. regulators say isn’t safe. Demand from the U.S. has turned Kapuas Hulu into a boom town: Newly affluent residents have built additions to their houses and workers drive the latest model Honda motorcycles.
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Even though the active principles in kratom (mitragynine & a hydroxylated derivative) are not related to the opium poppy's alkaloids like morphine, they act at the same opioid receptors as heroin, morphine & codeine. Kratom can be very addictive & difficult to quit, with strong withdrawal symptoms. It is freely available via the Internet.
 
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/feat...ioid-alternative-drives-boom-in-borneo-jungle

Indonesia is the main supplier of kratom, a popular painkiller.

Deep in the lush jungles of Indonesian Borneo is the remote region of Kapuas Hulu, a dizzying 12-hour drive along narrow, twisting roads from the nearest city. Until recently, most villagers eked out a living working at nearby rubber plantations or gold mines.

Now, thanks to the opioid epidemic in the U.S., one of the hottest local commodities is a controversial plant called kratom that fans call a natural alternative to synthetic painkillers but U.S. regulators say isn’t safe. Demand from the U.S. has turned Kapuas Hulu into a boom town: Newly affluent residents have built additions to their houses and workers drive the latest model Honda motorcycles.
=======================================
Even though the active principles in kratom (mitragynine & a hydroxylated derivative) are not related to the opium poppy's alkaloids like morphine, they act at the same opioid receptors as heroin, morphine & codeine. Kratom can be very addictive & difficult to quit, with strong withdrawal symptoms. It is freely available via the Internet.

Everything old is new again. Heroin was supposed to help with the morphine addiction problems in the U.S. back then, if you can believe it.

A lot of folks don't realize that Bayer developed heroin right around the same time as aspirin, and promoted it as a non-addictive fix for just about everything.
 
If anything can be abused, IT WILL.

When used correctly, though, it could be a Godsend to those kicked to the curb by the VA.
 
Well, if they are going to get addicted then better it is to kratom than opioids I guess. At least they won’t OD with kratom.
 
Well, if they are going to get addicted then better it is to kratom than opioids I guess. At least they won’t OD with kratom.

I live in an affluent suburb of Phila. I own a paging receiver that can monitor all the emergency service dispatch calls in my part of my county. Not surprisingly, I catch 2-3 overdose calls per week.

My neighbor across the street, a good Republican with his TV room lined with stuffed big game trophy heads, is against the EMS crews using Narcan (naloxone) to save OD victims. 'Let 'em die' is his take on the opioid OD crisis. Sort of a form of Social Darwinism.
 
Since being made aware of KRATOM by this thread, I did some cursory research.

Almost every "guvmint" source quoted pretty much is a repeat of what they said about marijuana in the 1930's.

One source said there were 44 kratom "related" deaths between 2011 and 2017.
"related' means they also mixed it with other street drugs.
Only one death was as a direct result...in five years.

I think more people have died from Tylenol than that number.
...and i am absolutely sure MUCH MORE people have died from psych drug effects than that number.
Yet they are all legal.

We are back to the REEFER MADNESS days, but now it is kratom.

Anything big Pharma can't profit from and the government can't control MUST be stopped.
(now i am starting to sound like a 1970's activist)

My rule of thumb....If any government hates a substance and wants it banned, then it must be pretty cheap and pretty good.
The trees grow 80 feet tall and grow all over SE Asia.
hard to control that many leaves.
It must keep them up at night.
 
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I live in an affluent suburb of Phila. I own a paging receiver that can monitor all the emergency service dispatch calls in my part of my county. Not surprisingly, I catch 2-3 overdose calls per week.

My neighbor across the street, a good Republican with his TV room lined with stuffed big game trophy heads, is against the EMS crews using Narcan (naloxone) to save OD victims. 'Let 'em die' is his take on the opioid OD crisis. Sort of a form of Social Darwinism.

I take it he does not get invited to too many house parties.

I guess he does not realize not all overdoses are by pillheads, but sometimes are accidental, or not knowing a certain mix can be fatal.
The body count got pretty high when they finally figured out opioid pain killers mixed with certain psych drug are deadly.
 
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I take it he does not get invited to too many house parties.

I guess he does not realize not all overdoses are by pillheads, but sometimes are accidental, or not knowing a certain mix can be fatal.
The body count got pretty high when they finally figured out opioid pain killers mixed with certain psych drug are deadly.

I'm tempted to try kratom. I have lousy veins & hate needles, so I'm safe from IV opioid abuse otherwise.
 
I'm tempted to try kratom. I have lousy veins & hate needles, so I'm safe from IV opioid abuse otherwise.

I told a veteran friend of mine about it after I read your thread.
He bought five bottles from a California company that sells it.
Would you like me to keep you updated via PM about what he says about it?
 
. Kratom can be very addictive & difficult to quit, with strong withdrawal symptom.

Actually, the last time I went digging for studies, they indicated that if people took over 28g a day (a very high dose) every day for six months, about 1/3 were mildly addicted and 1/3 were moderately addicted. Meaning mild and moderate withdrawal symptoms. Withdrawal is nothing compared to the various actual opiates and it isn't nearly as addictive.

The people who take it for painkilling are taking a far smaller daily dose than the study I mention examined, and on top, are taking it instead of perscription opioids.

In addition, it is self-limiting in terms of abuse. Even people seeking to get genuinely high from it report that at doses over 10-15g, there are unpleasant side-effects that override any pleasurable sensation.
 
Everything old is new again. Heroin was supposed to help with the morphine addiction problems in the U.S. back then, if you can believe it.

A lot of folks don't realize that Bayer developed heroin right around the same time as aspirin, and promoted it as a non-addictive fix for just about everything.

Well, it did help with morphine addiction problems. The trouble is that it helped by replacing morphine addiction with di-acetyl-morphine (heroin) addicition.
 
Since being made aware of KRATOM by this thread, I did some cursory research.

Almost every "guvmint" source quoted pretty much is a repeat of what they said about marijuana in the 1930's.

One source said there were 44 kratom "related" deaths between 2011 and 2017.
"related' means they also mixed it with other street drugs.
Only one death was as a direct result...in five years.

I think more people have died from Tylenol than that number.
...and i am absolutely sure MUCH MORE people have died from psych drug effects than that number.
Yet they are all legal.

We are back to the REEFER MADNESS days, but now it is kratom.

Anything big Pharma can't profit from and the government can't control MUST be stopped.
(now i am starting to sound like a 1970's activist)

My rule of thumb....If any government hates a substance and wants it banned, then it must be pretty cheap and pretty good.
The trees grow 80 feet tall and grow all over SE Asia.
hard to control that many leaves.
It must keep them up at night.

When I dug into it, I found that every single one of the very very very few (I think it was 7 per year) deaths said to be "linked to" Kratom involved people on multiple other high-powered drugs. "Linked" just means "had it in detectable amounts in the body", but they use it to suggest causation.

Nobody has actually died from Kratom as far as I could tell.
 
When I dug into it, I found that every single one of the very very very few (I think it was 7 per year) deaths said to be "linked to" Kratom involved people on multiple other high-powered drugs. "Linked" just means "had it in detectable amounts in the body", but they use it to suggest causation.

Nobody has actually died from Kratom as far as I could tell.

I found that out too and feel like the government is either under the thumb of Big Pharma, or doing their typical knee jerk stuff.
maybe both.
 
Well, if they are going to get addicted then better it is to kratom than opioids I guess. At least they won’t OD with kratom.

I know 2 different individuals who had problems with Kratom. One used it improperly and thus rather deserved what he got, the other did not.

Both got over it and are fine today.
 
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