Kratom

[Creeping Death]

There I was one spring morning, withdrawing and overall shitty in general not more than 48 hours after my last shot of diacetylmorphine. All my dealers were either in jail or being too much of an asshole to help me out. Then I remembered kratom, I've taken it before then and I knew the shops in the area had it, yet I figured my opiate tolerance was too high for my body to notice the kratom. But fuck it I said, and got myself some green maeng da.
30 minutes in- why tf did I waste my money on that?
45 minutes- mkay I notice something
1 hour - wow I actually have relief from my withdrawal symptoms

FF a few months and I take it daily and haven't touched the sticky diesel since.
I'm not sure why regulators are considered taking this plant away from the masses. There are similar stories where opiate warriors have found comfort in kratom.

Did I trade one habit for another? Yes, but do some cost/benefit analysis here. $100 of Mexican puddy will last me 6 hours, $100 of kratom will last 6 weeks. If I take too much dirty cheese I'll wake up with paramedics around me or not at all, if I take too much kratom I'll just throw it up and have some discomfort. Kratom has a plateau where taking more won't be to your benefit.

In the few dozen or so deaths associated with kratom, the person was also taking other things. It's like if you smoke weed, but then you drink a liter of vodka and swallow a fistfull of pills and do something dumb and die, and then the maryjewannas gets blamed for it. Madness I tell you.

Need a mood boost with pain relief to jump start your morning? green maeng da
Need to relax at the end of the day after wage slaving for your douchebag boss? Gold or red bali
Want to get home to the frustrated young lady who thinks you could be a little more satisfying with your equipment and knock the stuffin off that egg mcmuffin? White Indo Kali
If you release your dna-carrying bodily fluid too soon and leave a certain female companion disappointed and unimpressed then you might want to take a look at a White or Green strain.

You may notice bowel movements to be less runny and more solid, so no more wiping off the bottom of the seat that you decorated with brown speckles.

 

[kora]

I'd never heard of Kratom, it seems to be legal where I am. How come you started taking heroin ?

 

[Creeping Death]

It got me motivated and less anxious. I know most people associate it with being sedated but when you've been taking it consistently it gets you going, not like cocaine gets you going, but an energetic boost without hyper awareness, being scatterbrained, and paranoid like a hard stimulant. Kratom gives a similar feel of getting motivated while still easing body pain and giving a mild opiate - like euphoric warmth. It's more subtle, and not nearly as dangerous. It doesn't impair working or driving ability unless you take a stupid amount of it, but even then it doesn't really alter the mind much at all. More of a body feel than mind altering.

Kratom can be addicting itself, and can even have withdrawal effects depending on how long you've been taking it, how often you take it and how much you take at a time. I was taking 10-12 grams 3 or 4 times a day. I'm now down to 6-8 grams 2 or 3 times daily. Anyone reading this who's interested in kratom who doesn't already have an opiate tolerance shouldn't consider taking such doses. 2 grams on an empty stomach should be enough. 1 gram if you're small. Doses over 10-15 grams are wasteful even for someone with a tolerance since after a certain point you won't get anymore opiate like effects. Too much at a time will result in a dizzy/uncoordinated and sick feeling. Knowing this keeps me from trying to abuse it with higher doses.

There are different strains with different levels of the two main alkaloids (mitragynine and 7-hydroxymitraginine).
Some strains are said to give an energetic feel while some are more sedating. Ime, the dose matters more than the strain for this. Lower doses are associated with mood boost/energy, while higher doses are associated with sedation and relaxation. I've noticed green strains work best with me.

I don't take it for sleep specifically, anything opiate - like taken in moderate amounts doesn't make me sleep. My brain wants to stay up to enjoy it. I've stayed up for a couple days just on heroin alone and no hard stimulants. Heavier amounts of hard opiates will make me nod in and out, but not a solid state of sleep, and I'll eventually get up and do something.

 

[Cognisant]

Did I trade one habit for another? Yes, but do some cost/benefit analysis here. $100 of Mexican puddy will last me 6 hours, $100 of kratom will last 6 weeks. If I take too much dirty cheese I'll wake up with paramedics around me or not at all, if I take too much kratom I'll just throw it up and have some discomfort. Kratom has a plateau where taking more won't be to your benefit.

On one hand that's a good logical argument, on the other it really sucks that you're nursing an addiction. I'm not some screaming ninny who thinks drugs are bad and that's all there is to it but if I was in charge of things treating/preventing addictions would be high on my list of priorities. An ounce of prevention is worth a ton of cure but for those who are already addicted I don't think criminalizing their habit is the way to go. Certainly the production and sale of addictive substances should be strictly regulated but the fact of the matter is you can't really help people who don't want to be helped.

 

[a_ghost_from_your_past]

>Placebo effect

 

[Creeping Death]

>Placebo effect

Kratom is known to work on certain opiate receptors. If you think the millions of people who use it are just experiencing the placebo effect then you're insanely mentally challenged.

 

[a_ghost_from_your_past]

>Placebo effect

Kratom is known to work on certain opiate receptors. If you think the millions of people who use it are just experiencing the placebo effect then you're insanely mentally challenged.

Can you cite scientific placebo tested studies, otherwise, calling me mentally challenged is a bit far reaching?

 

[Creeping Death]

>Placebo effect

Kratom is known to work on certain opiate receptors. If you think the millions of people who use it are just experiencing the placebo effect then you're insanely mentally challenged.

Can you cite scientific placebo tested studies, otherwise, calling me mentally challenged is a bit far reaching?

Not far reaching at all, as I've never met someone before who knew so little about it to say its just placebo effect, saying that only shows how mentally challenged you are.
There are none that I know of that are placebo tested, actually, that's true for many other drugs known to work on specific receptors, no placebo tested studies. But that's irrelevant to even mention if there is plenty of info out there that shows a specific drug acts on certain receptors.

 

[Hadoblado]

Way to take the tone down guys.

@a_ghost_from_your_past
You don't get to decide things are placebo effects just because they haven't been proven not to be. Show me an article that demonstrates it's placebo.

@Creeping Death
Just because someone disagrees with you doesn't mean they're stupid. That's dumb.

 

[Pizzabeak]

I tried a low dose of kratom once and basically nothing happened. So I couldn’t tell if it was just boring as shit or just the dose wasn’t enough.

Then it made me think of all the (then) recent political stuff going on about them trying to ban kratom despite it being a potent painkiller, like how cannabis can soothe cancer patients’ pain. So it seemed weird they’d want to ban it, besides that act making more money for the synthetic pharmaceutical industry and pharmacy companies. Salvia also binds to opioid receptors (kappa), so that could be responsible for any addiction killing effects it causes.

 

[a_ghost_from_your_past]

What scientists agree upon is that with kratom you just replace one dependence disorder with another.
Whether kratom is more effective for opioid withdrawal over placebo hasn't been tested.
If I were in such a serious situation such as opioid dependence, i would rather not bet on a horse that has barely even seen scientific scrutiny and instead visit a doctor or clinic and follow the rules and regulations that have been tested and tried.
But that's just me.
Placebo evaluation is just one of the corner stones of modern evidence based medicine, but apparently evidence basis is not as important to you as it is to me.