Yes, but the point I'm making is that we can't know if he was taking some potent opiate along with his kratom. Kratom is used by many specifically because of its quick and mild withdrawal symptoms, which is why people on strong opiates use kratom to come off of their hard opiates. That's why it's suspect when people talk about lengthy, strong withdrawals, which are very uncharacteristic of unadulterated kratom. And buying from "a reputable vendor" doesn't mean anything if they aren't testing what they're selling. I know of at least one extremely popular and highly-rated vendor that knowingly sold adulterated kratom in the United States, and I have the test results documentation to prove it. So while I can say with certainty that what I'm putting in my body is not adulterated, these other people with (wildly outlier) anecdotal stories of very hard withdrawals can't say the same thing. And in fact, the anecdotal evidence -- uncharacteristically strong and/or lengthy withdrawals -- would seem to point to having consumed something with some kind of adulterant opiate or potentiator (or both) added for potency purposes. The fact is, this happens far more often than people are willing to admit, and of course everybody's counterpoint story comes with the "it wouldn't happen to me" fallacy. But the fact remains: I can prove that I'm consuming unadulterated kratom (and having almost no withdrawal symptoms with a fairly high, regular dose). These other people cannot.
I made a promise to myself that I would not mention specific vendors in my posts here -- for good or for bad, in order not to take away from my message -- but it was one of the two most talked-about and recommended vendors that you hear about in r/kratom. And it makes sense that people would recommend a vendor whose product contains stronger opiates or potentiators, because the effects are stronger. The thing about kratom is that the vast majority of consumers are new to it, because they only just heard about it from the publicity it received when the DEA tried scheduling it. So you have a ton of people that have no experience with kratom whatsoever, gauging the "quality" of a vendor's products based on how it makes them feel, and ignoring some of the warning signs, or flatly not researching it beforehand. Only a significant minority of kratom consumers are using it to come off of hard opiates. Most people (like me) are taking it for its pain-relieving and mood-stabilizing effects. I suppose some minority of users are trying kratom to test the "high", too. But kratom doesn't get you "high" (unless it's adulterated). And unfortunately, some consumers are landing on a kratom vendor that's unknowingly or knowingly selling kratom with something extra thrown in. It's a sticky situation, because testing is not the norm. Thankfully, kratom is cheap enough that it often doesn't make economic sense to adulterate kratom. But in the ever-increasingly competitive market for Indonesian distributors, more and more are willing to take those extra steps to have kratom that stands out from the crowd, and let there be no mistake: There are some cheap adulterants, especially with China next door. The fairly new, explosive growth of the kratom industry is completely changing some of the poorest regions of Indonesia for the better. But as with anything like this, there are scumbags getting into it, looking for a golden ticket. We've been very lucky so far that adulteration is not the norm, but those days may be coming to an end, as demand starts to skyrocket. That's why I'm so big on testing, because gambling that "chances are, it won't be adulterated" is not a viable option.
