WASHINGTON – Health officials are urging caution about Kraton.
This, as a new study links more deaths with the herbal drug than was previously known.
Kratom is a plant from Southeast Asia that’s sold in pills, capsules and extracts. At low doses, Kratom acts like a stimulant, at higher doses, it sedates dulling pain.
The drug is popular as a over-the-counter remedy for opioid withdrawal.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analyzed reports of more than 27,000 unintentional drug overdoses across 32 states and the District of Colombia. The study found 152 of those people were found to have Kratom in their system; and the drug was a cause of death for 91 of them.
That’s a higher number than previously reported. Earlier this year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said only 44 deaths had been associated with the drug.
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