this post was submitted on 17 Aug 2024

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United States | News & Politics

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'Gas-station heroin' kratom, targeted in crackdowns by states and cities (www.nbcnews.com)

submitted 1 year ago by return2ozma@lemmy.world to c/usa@lemmy.ml

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[–] normalexit@lemmy.world 29 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Comparing kratom to heroin is pretty wild. One seems like a relaxing tea, the other is heroin.

[–] Etterra@lemmy.world 19 points 1 year ago

The war on drugs can't keep rolling without its key component - catastrophizing.

[–] caboose2006@lemmy.ca 20 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Omg. Kratom is nothing like heroin or opioids. Jeezy pete

[–] Entropywins@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah none of my friends have died in a union gospel mission bathroom from kratom...heroin on the other hand is a different story

[–] caboose2006@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago

Mine either bub. The shits rough. Hugs.

[+] HubertManne@moist.catsweat.com 17 points 1 year ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

[deleted]

[–] halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world 20 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Because kratom is an easy target. Few people have heard of it so it's easy to force their initial reaction. It threatens both the pain drug and marijuana lobbies.

[+] HubertManne@moist.catsweat.com 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

[deleted]

[–] halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah definitely. I have a friend who has a severe abdominal pain issue that no one has been able to figure out for almost a decade now, severe enough and without any sort of warning that he is on disability and cannot work. Sometimes so bad he has to be hospitalized. Most doctors he's seen have essentially just been wanting to throw opiates at it, just treating the symptoms with highly addictive drugs.

Most of the time however, kratom has been able to treat the daily symptoms. When that can't, marijuana has been able to. He rarely has an issue requiring a hospital visit now despite still no idea what the root cause is.

I do think there needs to be some sort of regulation on things like additives along with the kratom. I feel like a lot of those deaths are more likely a situation similar to fentanyl being secretly added to street drugs to boost the effect, and that not being disclosed to the user or potentially even known by the dealer which causes people to overdose using a dose that otherwise would have been "safe".

We don't want to force more things down the same path as truly medically relevant drugs like marijuana thanks to political bullshit like the failed War on Drugs.

[–] finickydesert@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Wow, it's about to get wild

[–] dRLY@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 year ago

I like how they mention that there aren't any dosage advice on most of the products and "not our problem if you die" portrayal. But the whole reason most products like Kratom don't give usage advise is because doing so tends to then come with regulations that tend to be bad-faith. Yet the largely more damaging products that are openly sold in "supplement" stores are able to grift all day. Stuff like Kratom actually does shit and therefore gets sniped by pharma and other deep pockets.

They went nuts over how many people tried or actively used shit like K2/Spice. But the only reason basically everyone used it was all down to weed being illegal. If weed were legal, then there wouldn't have been a massive demand for K2 or any of the variants. At least with shit like Kratom, the chances of bad shit happening are super fucking low compared to the shit that pharma somehow convinced the gov and regulators wasn't addictive.

[–] Asidonhopo@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

When I worked in gas stations the only people who bought kratom seemed to be opiate addicts trying to find an alternative, maybe to wean off it.

I've known a few people who quit smoking by stepping down to vapes and then quitting those, so maybe kratom use can sometimes be an analogue to that. Not denying vapes addict people or that kratom is addictive and has significant downsides but perhaps it's a positive thing in certain cases

[–] timewarp@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Biden going after the real criminals. Kratom & Ketamine. Alcohol is completely safe though.

[–] Irremarkable@fedia.io 7 points 1 year ago

We tried banning booze once. It didn't go over well

[–] feddylemmy@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The DEA sought to temporarily reclassify kratom as a schedule 1 substance in 2016, but reversed course following a backlash. So in lieu of federal oversight, a growing number of states and cities have been cracking down on kratom on their own.

What's this have to do with Biden?

[–] irreticent@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Nothing at all. User timewarp does this a lot. It's just a repackaged "Thanks Obama" idiots would chant anytime anything went wrong. Even though it has nothing to do with the president, logic and critical thinking aren't their strong suit.

[–] timewarp@lemmy.world -3 points 1 year ago

The prosecutor in charge of the case is a US attorney. I'm not sure... Can you let me know if Biden has any influence in what attorneys prosecute and the scheduling of drugs?

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/10/06/statement-from-president-biden-on-marijuana-reform/

[–] protist@mander.xyz 4 points 1 year ago

Alcohol is highly regulated, fyi

[–] mashbooq 1 points 1 year ago

The way he described it was ‘gas-station crack.'

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