The state of Kratom science: Too-Little-Too-Late

It's been a few years since I took a serious look at Kratom research...

It would be a real understatement to say that I was disappointed to find that (after the FDA tried to ban Kratom in 2016) there has been no effort made to fund meaningful Kratom science. Namely, double-blind placebo-controlled human studies.

2024 Update: We've got a quantum more of too-little-too-late science done Kratom, a clinical trial of 12 Americans was completed this year.

2022 Update: Good news on the clinical study front, we finally got A Randomized, Placebo-Controlled, Double-Blind Study on Kratom and Pain Tolerance - a collaboration between Yale School of Medicine and a Malaysian university. Its abstract concluded...

Kratom decoction demonstrated a substantial and statistically significant increase in pain tolerance.

The study involved just a 1-day inpatient stay and 26 male subjects, but it's a good start.

2019 Update: Two years ago I criticized the Kratom industry and the American Kratom Association for doing very little to legitimize Kratom by way of funding and conducting a human, placebo-controlled pre-registered clinical trial. Look on Pubmed, there's still no Kratom human clinical trial - apparently in 2018 $3.5M was granted to scientists to further research Kratom, and "They're optimistic human trials can begin in five years." Kratom is now banned in 6 states and a handful of cities. As of 2019, the American Kratom Association is offering a good manufacturing practices (GMP) qualification for vendors, this is a step in the right direction but really too little, too late.

Scientific literature published on Kratom in 2017 concluded:

Our data analysis has not determined if biochemical benefits of kratom may prove to outweigh its toxicity and risks. On the contrary, it seems that its potential side effects outweigh the benefits, and severe and real health hazards can, insidiously, lead to death. Kratom clinical, psychological, and medical manifestations can be disturbing.

From the abstract of another 2017 paper:

...kratom has been reported to be abused together with other illicit substances with high risk of potential addiction. There are also anecdotes of an adverse effect and toxicity of kratom, i.e. tremor, fatigue, seizure, and death. Different countries have distinctive regulation and policy on the plantation and use of this plant when most of the countries banned the use of it because of its addiction problems and side effects.

Kratom users have to realize that state and federal policymakers are going to be reading these studies and making decisions about the legality of Kratom. The bureaucrats who actually make decisions about the legality of Kratom could care less about testimonials on forums and all those guys on YouTube making video blogs about how great Kratom is. Right now, things are not looking good for the future of Kratom!

Kratom has failed to grow up as an industry.

I cannot in good conscience recommend that anyone buy or consume Kratom from any of the vendors selling it online currently.If I go to any of the popular eCommerce stores selling Kratom it's evident that they have no quality standards.

The Nootropics industry, by comparison, has some quality standards; the sources of the Adaptogenic herbs and cognition-enhancing Racetams that I recommend...

* Display 3rd party certificates of analysis verifying that they are >97% purity.

* They do mineralogy reports showing the level of lead and mercury in soil that for example makes the performance-enhancing herbs grown there safe for human consumption.

* They do a chain of custody showing where it came from and how long it sat in storage.

* When it comes to Nootropics, the credible vendors put their real names, faces, addresses, and phone numbers on their websites.

In the case of Kratom, you have no idea if...Your Kratom was grown in the garden of a monastery by monks on the side of a mountain...OrIf it's been grown in a trash dump next to a former ammunition factory.You have no idea if your Kratom was grown by an organic farmer in the United States and if the only middleman has been the eCommerce store you are buying it from...OrIf it was grown in a factory farming operation on the other side of the world and sat in the cargo hold of a massive boat for 6 months and was contaminated by toxic engine fumes.You have no idea if your Kratom is relatively fresh and was recently produced...OrIf it's changed hands five different times and has a fake expiration date.

Wherever the financial incentives create moral hazard, you need to demand evidence of quality. None of the Kratom stores online have any of the credibility indicators that I look for and I cannot recommend that anyone buy from them. If this changes I will let you know.

Kratom already has a big target on its back because in 2016 there was this massive grassroots uprising that defied the government.If the Kratom industry remains so downright dodgy, you just make it all the more appealing a target to government regulators to come and ban it. They can point to the fear-mongering #FakeNews mainstream media stories about how bad Kratom is and say...

Look at this scary drug being sold by these shady websites... We have to ban it to save the children!

Also, consider the absurdity of Kratom being sold at liquor stores and gas stations. Everyone knows that nothing good is sold at liquor stores and gas stations, except for gasoline and maybe bottled water.

Presumably, the people making a lot of money selling Kratom online would have a vested interest in keeping it legal, but I don't see any evidence of long-term thinking on their behalf.Yes, I did post a less vitriolic version of my concerns on the American Kratom Association Facebook page and they censored it.They've raised over $500K; what are they doing to fund research and actually protect the future of Kratom? Nothing that I can tell.If that changes I will let you know, I'm going to praise good behavior and long-term thinking and I'm going to condemn injudicious short-term thinking.

I'll make a philosophical point that a lot of people are missing here...

Freedom is not free.

A lot of Kratom users assume that they deserve the right to consume Kratom as part of their human rights...They really don't.A lot of people (especially Kratom users) are ignorant about philosophy and history. They assume that we deserve rights just for being alive. This is not the case.As I've said elsewhere, hum