Kratom
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According to Thailand's government, kratom is weaker than morphine and less harmful than cocaine. The punishment for being caught with kratom is the same as being caught with cocaine — a death sentence. Despite some concerns, kratom is legal in most places across the world.
Kratom is part of the Rubiaceae, or coffee, family. These trees may grow to be 50-100 feet (15.2-30.5 meters) tall and have a spread of 15 feet (4.5 meters) or more.
Ready to drying #kratom #kratomshop pic.twitter.com/HT0Kbx0IIA
— INAkratom (@INAkratom) March 2, 2015
According to those familiar with kratom, it causes an effect similar to coffee if people only consume a small amount. When people consume more, they will often experience an effect that is somewhat similar to, but generally milder than, opium-based drugs.
Experts aren't certain why the kratom effects can be so different depending on the size of the dose. Some people think it has something to do with certain alkaloids present in the herb. Generally, the alkaloids either stimulate or sedate.
Some effects include feelings of euphoria, sedation, and pain relief. The leaves of kratom plants have narcotic, analgesic, and cough-suppressant properties, leading to kratom's traditional use as an herbal tonic for pain and depression.
Kratom is usually chewed; however, its leaves are also steeped to make tea. The powder also may be added to capsules, and the leaves can also be smoked.
Farmers, field workers, and other manual laborers traditionally chew kratom leaves for the stimulant effect. It is said to make work easier and more efficient, similar to coffee in the Western world.
There are mostly three strains of kratom: red, green and white strains.
The red strain (e.g: Red Bali Kratom) is by far the most sedative and euphoric kratom strains with limited coffee-like stimulation in lower doses.
The green strains (e.g: Green Malay kratom) has the best of both worlds and will be moderately stimulating in low doses and moderately sedative in high doses.
The white strains (e.g:White Borneo) are largely and purely stimulating and offer little sedative or euphoric effects regardless of dose
Anecdote
I started drinking kratom tea about 2 years ago to combat anxiety and insomnia and let me that say it's one of the best things that ever happened to me since prior to my discovery of kratom, few things offered long term relief the way kratom does.
Kratom tea is very bitter (especially the white strains which are almost undrinkable) so lot's of sugar or other sweeteners are required.
After ten minutes of ingestion, you notice it's kicking in and your consciousness is being altered. A few mintues later you feel a deep peace cascading over your body like a warm comfortable blanket and you feel just amazing. This will last up to 6 hours.
Personally, I always get the red strains of kratom since its the most effective for what I use it for, which is stress relief. The white strains are great if you're an athlete and want to increase endurance, stamina or want to combat lactic acid build up when lifting weights.
One of the amazing side effects of drinking kratom is that after the effects have subsided, you'll still feel an incredible "afterglow" the day afterwards which can only be discribed as a reverse hangover. So instead of feeling like crap with throbbing headaches like with alcohol, with kratom you are in a super good mood with mild euphoria where you can't stop smiling and everything is just awesome.
One major downside, is that you can't drink high doses immediately before going to sleep. The alkaloids in Kratom attach to your opioid receptors and just like morphine or other opioids, they slow down your breathing. When the sedative effects kick in while you're sleeping, your brain will send signals to wake up as a response to the slowed down breathing and this will result in a major panic attack, since your brain might be confused into thinkin you're dying.
I've personally experienced this several times and its very scary. It usually takes up to an hour to able to go back to sleep.
This has only happened with the red strains of kratom as I haven't come across this experience with the other strains.
As for Kratom being addictive...
It depends how you define addiction.
You definetely can't overdose on it since Mitragynine attaches to different opioid receptors than other overdose prone opiates and isn't an opioid in itself.
If you do find yourself addicted to kratom, you can compare it to being to being addicted to coffee or (black) tea while being actually less harmful than both. And this is largely a psychological (and not physical) addiction since you want to drink it because of the effects being pleasureable not because your body will go in to withdrawal symtoms without it being in your system, which is also impossible with kratom.
I have nothing but good things to say about kratom and nearly everyone I gave it to instantly loved it and got a stash of their own as soon as possible.
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