Nick Pell

And the operator was like...

No, you're good.

Just go to the hospital if you start coughing up blood.

So people calling poison control doesn't mean anything except that they were scared enough to call a poison control center.

It doesn't mean they overdosed.

It doesn't mean anything.

It means they were scared they called poison control.

Around 2012, you start seeing more articles in the media about the dangers of Kratom.

Ah, yes.

Right.

So the big push for regulation comes in August 2016 when the DEA announced an emergency Schedule 1 ban on Kratom, which is...

put it into the same category as heroin and lsd this category also includes weed the scheduling system in the united states is absolutely insane yeah wow yeah these are you know none of these things are really like each other but uh

So by October, the emergency ban was withdrawn in the face of public outcry.

There were over 140,000 signatures on a petition to the White House.

Some scientists and legislators were pushing back on this ban.

I'm curious, honestly, man, how how many kids get it?

Well, the way I always put this is like when you were 14 years old, was it easier to get booze or weed?

It was easier to get weed because, like, you know, weed, all you need is, oh, my friend has a scummy older brother who doesn't mind selling weed to teenagers.

Right, pretty much.

And, like, you go into a liquor store, they're like, get out of here.