Ex-kratom addict thought substance was safe ‘miracle pill’

(NewsNation) — As the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning parents about kratom, one recovering user says she was fooled into thinking the substance was life-changing.

“I literally thought I found a miracle pill,” Emily Beutler told “Elizabeth Vargas Reports” on Wednesday.

“I thought I was doing something healthy. It was said to be natural. Actually, it was a healer I was talking to in Sedona and I was visiting there, and she literally said, ‘You need to take kratom.’ She goes, ‘It will take away your anxiety, it’s healthy for you.'”

Beutler said she went to a kava bar for a kratom drink and initially felt blissful and saw her anxiousness subside. But the founder of “QuitK” said she developed an addiction.

“I started having one drink a day,” Beutler recalled. “Then I’ve had four shots in the same drink, and then I was coming back twice a day for the same drink. … I started getting it in pill form from the gas station.”

“I was taking literally over 20 capsules of it a day, and then within six months, I had just gone to straight powder and was consuming 30 to 40 grams of it a day multiple times throughout the day.”

Recovering kratom addict’s case just like many others

Beutler didn’t have to go to rehab to break her addiction but other people have had to seek help.

Dr. Jeffrey Swisher, chairman of the Department of Anesthesiology at California Pacific Medical Center, says her experience is similar to others who grew addicted to kratom.

“I have a very close friend whose son became addicted to it when he was in high school. And he actually ended up going to Narcotics Anonymous, or the equivalent of that, to break the habit of having it,” Swisher said.

“It is addictive because it’s an opioid agonist. It’s not an opioid. I want to be very clear about that. And one of the other things is this idea that it’s 13 times more potent than morphine, that’s not exactly correct. It might have an affinity which is 13 times greater for the mu receptor, but there are other effects that morphine and drugs like fentanyl have, which kratom does not have.”

Swisher pointed out that 7-OH is an especially potent extract of the kratom leaf.

Pamela Mauldin’s son died from kratom toxicity. The substance is found in gummies, drinkable shots and tablets that are sold at gas stations, corner stores and vape shops across the United States.

“It kills people,” she said. “I want it off the shelves. It’s not safe.”

As for Beutler, she said she found herself waking up in the middle of the night to take more kratom and it took her a year-and-a-half to overcome her addiction to the substance.

Florida declares emergency to ban kratom

The State of Florida on Wednesday became the latest to lean into the U.S.’s fight against 7-OH.

Florida officials declared 7-OH illegal, putting it in the same drug class as meth and fentanyl. By doing so, they became the eighth state since March to ban the product.

NewsNation asked FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary how something so dangerous became so easily accessible.

“It’s just been off the radar, nobody’s been talking about it,” Makary said.

“Nobody has studied it, nobody has statistics on how many people have died from it yet. But what we are seeing, physiologically, is that it functions like oxycontin or morphine and so we want to get the word out about that.” 

“There’s a need for regulation,” said Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier.

“I know at the federal level, the FDA is looking at it, our state leaders are looking at it. But here today, we see one product that is so dangerous that we have to take immediate action.”

Dr. Cory Howard, director of Florida Poison Control, said it’s difficult for parents to know whether their kids are buying kratom: “It’s hard to do that. It’s sold everywhere.”