Kratom, the legal opiate alternative (and other legal highs discussion, I guess).

FDA calling it kratom an opioid now, ban sure to follow soon?

Never managed to take it even in small doses without (mild) stomach cramping.

https://www.fda.gov/Food/RecallsOutbreaksEmergencies/Outbreaks/ucm597265.htm

Salmonella outbreak.

tried kratom for the fuck of it. first time: got nauseated and it sucked. second time, got so super nauseated and could not swallow my spit. it was insane and scary and the only reason i didn't completely flip the fuck out was that i could still swallow water from a cup

Were you just drinking powder and water or taking it in capsules? It does taste fucking terrible. Also how much did you take? I’ve never gone over 3g at once.

I’m still grateful to kratom for getting me through plane flights without a massive headache.

drinking the powder and just eyeballing the doses. so probably mostly my fault for not being smart about it

I guess my rec would be to take around four 00 capsules on an empty-ish stomach and see how it goes. That is if you’re a bad enough dude to handle a little salmonella.

But who knows, it might just make you feel gross and I don’t know if I should encourage anyone to start taking something that’s likely to get banned real soon.

classic or dud

the wikipedia page is so absurdly negative i find it hard to take seriously

possible TMI: gross tasting but can produce nice effects, assuming you stock up on stool softeners

personally I have a hard time handling the taste but obviously that varies btwn folks

I got these little rice paper discs that mask the taste pretty well.

Again, I don’t fully endorse it, look up r/quittingkratom for some warnings, but the people on there are often taking 10 times the amount I find effective.

not a patch on the real thing ive been told, from a close friend who tried it while in recovery for heroin. although obv ymmv. at least it won't have fentanyl in it!

will maybe try if i ever get in an experimental mood again.

I never managed to take it at any dose I could feel without awful stomach cramps.

C & D. I started taking it to kick a prescription painkiller habit I developed after cracking a rib. Helped me do that completely and initially felt great, was running PBs and generally feeling great. But I'm not good at keeping this type of thing under control and have done it pretty much every day since October, to treat chronic pain and as a mood boost. Just anecdotally I've found my skin and nails to be a little dry and I'm a bit chesty and wheezy. I have achilles pain that won't clear up. I'm sure it's related. I make a lemon tea with it but consuming all that plant matter probably isn't that great for you. Currently two days into a break and feel generally tired, sore, irritable and can't sleep without taking something. I'd like to be able to use it a few times a week because there are benefits but who knows if that'll be possible

damn, sounds rough. good luck with that.

Mostly classic. To echo xp, it's a godsend for treating opiate withdrawals, the obvious side effect being eventual kratom withdrawals, which can be tapered away relatively easily. My preferred dose is a heaping teaspoon (about 3-4 grams) via "toss and wash" with a glass of water, which is painless/flavorless once you get the technique down. I actually find that I'm more "regular" when I'm on kratom, which I think is due to a combination of ingestion of lots of plant fiber plus increased water intake. The key is to drink at least a full glass of water with each dose, even if you're only taking a couple of capsules.

Here in Thailand they sell you the Kratom leaves for about 20 cent each and you just boil them and make tea out of them. I was a bit skeptical at first but the effect is actually quite nice, and not too far from the real thing imho

Have never tried it in Europe so I can’t compare though.

spotted this in a shop in Ohio and got a bag out of curiosity, now that I'm reading about it though thinking I might just toss it

i think my younger brother uses this just about every night. he seems fine but i find it worrying that he is essentially addicted to it. i tried it once while hanging out with him and didn't notice any effect, but i had been drinking

not to be that guy but frogbs, don't do it!

by which i mean, toss it, don't use it!

i had a friend who tried out kratom a few years ago, was all about it for a week, said it helped him with his back pain, then he came to visit me in chicago for 2 days, and during these 2 days we did nothing but watch him take cratom, watch him run out of cratom, go all over the city to get cratom, and then went and got some extra cratom for his trip home. he was incredibly cranky the entire time, the crankiest i've seen him in 25 years of friendship, and couldn't stop talking about how awesome cratom was and how i should try some with him.

finally, finally he stopped taking it a few months later, but man, fuck that kratom stuff

sorry, i watched a kranky kong video last night and have been konflating kr and cr ever since

in conclusion, kratom is bad. much better to watch all of this video before making any decision:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npuuTBlEb1U

i'd be a lot more worried about my brother if his habit resembled anything like that. he takes it before bed like sleepytime tea

i tried this once and it just made feel a little mentally hazy and nauseated. didn't realize it was addictive in its own right, so i guess i have more than one reason to avoid it.

I've tried opiates and benzos a few times and didn't get addicted but maybe a big part of it is just not having them available. my thought in buying this was "well you can't get more so if you really like it too bad" but obv it's pretty easy to buy online

still may try it once for curiositys sake