Before the plant-based opiate was on RFK Jr.'s desk, it made its way from Southeast Asia to recovery Reddit, American college campuses and Erewhon
Late last year, my little sister called from South Florida, where she'd recently relocated. She was on a new health kick and had replaced her nightly glass of wine with some kind of herbal soda, which she said was deeply relaxing, totally legal, and way healthier than alcohol. I didn't think much of it until she called a few weeks later. She had collapsed on the kitchen floor while waiting for nachos to reheat in the microwave. Remind me what was in that soda, I said, and proceeded to open seventeen browser tabs.
I had completely missed the arrival of kratom in vape shops, convenience stores, and health food markets over the past five years. Just like I'd mostly ignored the taurine energy drinks, mushroom tonics, and many other murkily regulated new libations that were popping up on cooler shelves. Functional beverages, as they are sometimes called, often come in sleek, aluminum cans and make vague promises. (One brand, Kin Euphorics, promises to "awaken your mind, uplift your mood, and open a portal to connection.") Careful googling of ingredients is required to determine whether they're uppers, downers, or just seltzers. In some cases, they could contain something much riskier: 7-OH (7-hydroxymitragynine), the potent kratom byproduct that Human Health and Services secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is calling to be classified as a Schedule I substance, alongside heroin, methamphetamine, and cocaine.
Long before kratom and its supercharged derivative showed up in wellness beverages, kratom leaves were used medicinally in Southeast Asia. Kratom is a tropical tree in the coffee family, the leaves of which contain alkaloid mitragynine, a compound that interacts with the brain's opioid receptors to produce mild pain relief. As the opioid crisis took hold in the US, homebrewed kratom tea achieved some renown on Reddit as a DIY harm reduction strategy. Heroin and fentanyl users said its gentle high helped ease their withdrawal symptoms.
Eventually, kratom showed up in pockets of culture that are receptive to alternative wellness. "If you take two pills it's like a cup of coffee," Joe Rogan said during an interview on his show back in 2019. "I took eight and I was fucked up." Indeed, the kratom pills, powders and sodas hitting the market, and advertised on podcasts, seemed to produce a high that was less than gentle. "My nephew totaled so many of his vehicles on [those products]," comedian Theo Von told Brittany Broski when she appeared on This Past Weekend in 2024. Kratom got an endorsement from the Dimes Square universe after Red Scare's Dasha Nekrasova tweeted, "When the proprietary kava kratom blend hits while you're at Brandy [Melville]." Although kratom is often called "gas station crack/heroin" the plant and its derivatives are also marketed to MAHA moms on Dear Media podcasts that champion raw milk and parasite cleanses. At a kratom café in Brooklyn, film bros sip their herbal elixirs while watching Barry Lyndon flicker on a projector.
This spring, I went to a kratom café in Bushwick, hoping to experience kratom in its gentler, wellness-inflected form. It was one of the first sweltering days of the year, and Maria Hernandez Park was overrun with picnickers while bar-goers on Knickerbocker Avenue vied for outdoor tables. A few blocks over, I posted up inside a dim-lit cafe where the crowd seemed unmoved by the good weather and good vibes the rest of the neighborhood was out chasing.