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Whenever Jonathan feels a craving for methamphetamine, he turns to kratom. Each time, the 41-year-old from Colorado will take 3 milligrams of kratom extract and “toss and wash”—mix the extract into a liquid, and “chug for dear life.”
Jonathan (who requested omission of his last name due to privacy concerns) is 20 years in recovery from a methamphetamine addiction. It hasn’t always been easy. Five years ago, he went through a terrible period of stress which caused an intense desire to use again. It was through personal research that he came across kratom as a potential cure to his withdrawal symptoms. “After my first dose, something switched,” he said. Since then, it has played a key role in helping him manage his methamphetamine cravings and relapsing.
Jonathan is one of many Americans who use kratom, a drug originating from Southeast Asia and spreading rapidly throughout the West in recent years. According to the U.S Department of Health and Human Services’ 2021 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, about 1.7 million Americans over the age of 12 reported using kratom, though experts believe this could be an underestimate.
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