Rachel Carlson

I found so many different permutations of it on shelves.

Pills, tablets, gummies, seltzers, kind of like your average alcoholic seltzer beverage thing.

Some companies even make chocolates.

And it's available in smoke shops, liquor stores, gas stations, a lot of places.

But it originally comes from a plant, right?

Yeah.

It comes from a tree in the coffee family.

And traditionally, people brew the leaves like a tea or they'll pick them off and chew them.

Wait, if it comes from a tree in the coffee family, does that mean it's a stimulant?

So it's a little weird because in smaller amounts, kratom can be a mood booster.

I talked to David Epstein.

He's a senior investigator at the National Institute on Drug Abuse, or NIDA.

He wasn't speaking on behalf of NIDA when we talked, but he said it can make people feel energized, more focused.

Some people even use it to manage depression, anxiety, PTSD, and ADHD.

Which is what FDA Commissioner Marty McCary was referring to earlier.

It can relieve pain, make people feel kind of calm or even euphoric.

Okay, interesting.

Right.

The kratom plant contains different compounds called alkaloids.

Metragynine and 7-hydroxymetragynine, 7-OH, are two of the major psychoactive ingredients.