Opioid dependence is a global pandemic, and in the United States alone synthetic opioids and opiates takes the lives of over 5 people every hour. Further, there are many more people who do not die from opioid dependence but lose their friends, family, house, job, and everything they have in this world.
Fortunately, God has given the world Kratom, and it seems to be a miracle cure for opioid dependence. Kratom activates the mu-opioid receptors, providing the euphoria and analgesia that pain patients and opioid dependent patients need, but simultaneously Kratom has relatively little addiction potential and does not cause respiratory failure. This is because Kratom is a partial mu-opioid agonist, meaning it activates G proteins instead of beta-arrestin-2, as explained in-depth in a previous article on Kratom Cafe. Indeed, there has never been a death scientifically proven to be due to Kratom.
In addition to the science, there are numerous subjective reports of people who used Kratom to leave synthetic opioids and opiates behind for good, potentially saving their life. Below are 7 real-life stories obtained from Erowid that are about Kratom saving people from opioid dependence.
Report #1, Overcoming Terrible Opiate Withdrawal
“I started using different opiates about seven years ago. I started with low dose pharms and slowly moved onto harder substances. Then I tried a maintenance program with therapy and suboxone, which is being touted by doctors and pharmaceutical companies as the go to for opiate addiction. Suboxone, in my opinion is being over prescribed, both in dose and in length of time. You are trading one addiction for another. The withdrawals last a very long time, and if I dont properly wean myself down to about .25mg can also be pretty bad
Not long after I weaned down to .125mg I quickly jumped back on the ‘H’ train. After two years of what I thought, at the time, was hard work was actually a huge, expensive, facade. Suboxone only helps cravings as long as I am taking it. Opiate naive people will get extremely sick if they take too much. Although much better than methadone, it is NOT the silver bullet doctors and the pharm companies are making it out to be.
After a very short relapse, I was already getting sick again. I’d heard of Kratom and that it could be used for opiate withdrawals. Truly not wanting to continue living the way I was, I bought some. I took 7-9 grams for nine days straight and quickly stopped. It made what should have been a terrible experience, and turned it into a cake walk. Still some anxiety and sleeplessness, but nothing more. 95% of withdrawal symptoms were gone.
I dosed once a day in the morning and that was it. I believe I would have slept if I dosed in the evening as well, but I wanted to be free of the hell I was living in and did not want to trade one substance for another. I stopped after the nine days and PAWS quickly showed its face. Depression, apathy, insomnia. I was miserable. Opiate addiction rewires the brain. Most no one becomes an addict overnight and it is very difficult to stay clean after making the decision get clean.
Kratom is great for a number of reasons if you are in the spot I am in. I now ingest 3-5g about once or twice a week. I dont crave it when I dont have it. Its not running amok in my mind 24/7 like heroin does. Any time I feel like I’m on that edge, about to ‘make the call’ I dose a moderate amount of kratom and it quickly passes.
I highly prefer Kratom over any other program. I’ve never tried Ibogaine or rapid detox so I cant attest to those. I truly believe this herb will save my life. I am 60 days free of being tethered to a substance today.”
Report #2, I Am Happy Being In Control Again
“I am a 29 year old female and would like to offer information to others that suffer from Opiate Addiction.
Over a year ago I gave birth to my first child and soon after was put on Tramadol because of constant pain from C-Section/Pregnancy. Tramadol is not considered a narcotic so it is pretty easy to get at any clinic. As the first few months went by the Tramadol allowed me to have energy and the ability to be happy even when my hormones would not allow me. Overall Tramadol is a great drug for someone that can understand it is as much of an abusive drug as any narcotic.
After 9 months of being on the drug I was able to get the dosage to be pushed up several more pills per day. I was recieving 3 months worth of pills at one time. 150 per month… Two weeks after my appointment I took 9 of my pills at once, which I had recently been using close to that dose. I have a Gran Mal Seizure and ended up in the hospital. The great thing is that Tramadol does not show up on a tox screen so they just expected it was an illness. I stopped taking the tramadol that day! For the next 4 days I felt like I was dying, I could not sleep, I had restless legs, body aches, depressed. I stopped taking the tramadol that day! I gave all my pills to a friend to hold until I got clean, and well after 4 days I was able to get them back. I continued for the next 2 months taking my normal dose but then I ran out 2 weeks before my next appointment.
I called the Dr. and he would not let me come in until my appointment date, so thus I went through the worst withdrawals I have ever had!
I am not a regular drug user but I have done every drug under the sun (natural and chemical). I started searching for something to help with the opiate withdrawals and even considered going to rehab. I finally admitted to my boss, my husband and my family that I had a problem. Everyone began to research and we found Kratom. I ordered some overnight and got it that next Monday. I went from suicidal, horrible body aches to getting up and cleaning house. I went to work the next day and started dosing only at 1 to 3 grams. That would last me the whole day. I also was able to take days off and not feel withdrawals. I admitted to my doctor that the Tramadol had me hooked and we figured out a new treatment to pain without narcotics. I continue with my all natural Kratom (1 to 5 grams) when I have really bad pains, but otherwise I am finally back to normal.
1.5 Months after Stopping Tramadol I am once again happy, smart and empowered. Drug addiction can be so horrible because that next pill/hit will be your last, and it never is. For anyone that is undergoing this journey please research your sources and understand there are lots of sites that sell bad stuff. Each brand and type has a different reaction.
I know I could get a ‘high’ from this drug but honestly I have no desire to, I am happy being in control again. I hope that this will help anyone that needs advice.”
Report #3, Who Needs Ibogaine, When There’s Kratom?
“Seeing as how I’m taking it easy while quitting opiates, I figured I’d write a little about my experience with kratom.
I started taking kratom about a year ago, after having some major surgery. I was given oxycodone for a little while after the surgery, and suddenly cut off. Still in pain, I asked around for help, and a friend told me about this plant he had recently heard of, called kratom. After obtaining a small 30 gram bag of kratom and after careful research, I decided to start out with a half a teaspoon of the enhanced bali. An online forum dedicated to this plant stated that one (level) teaspoon of the powder from this vendor was equivalent to 4 grams of material, and I went based on recommendations on that forum as well as information from other sites.
Within 30 minutes of taking kratom on an empty stomach, my pain was gone, and I felt great. I started taking kratom daily for a few months and slowly upped my dose until I was taking about 1 tsp at a time, once a day. I definitely built a quick tolerance this way, but no matter what happened to my tolerance to many of the effects, I always seemed to get a mood boost from the stuff. I eventually ended up quitting cold turkey after 5 months of daily use and. . .no withdrawals! Only some lethargy/laziness for a few days.
Fast forward several months, I have some intense cravings for oxycodone (I only used it for pain originally, and I used less than would get rid of a lot of my pain, yet I would still get high and extremely euphoric when I took it, despite what the doctors said), so I decide to pick up a small amount for a few days of fun. Well, a few days turned into a few weeks. . .a few months, and I was hooked. It is now 8 months later after some horrible issues with addiction, planning my life around my next dose, etc, and I want out. Not only do I feel awful when I dose (no more euphoria, only dysphoria and restlessness), I feel worse when I don’t! And at this point I’m up to 30 mg every 3 hours!!
One day after a sudden realization and some serious depression, soul searching, crying. . .I decide I’m going to quit. So I start dosing every 8 hours instead of every 3, and after a lot of pain and about a week, I’m down to 10 mg every 8 hours (30 mg a day). It is at this point I switch completely to kratom. Let me tell you, kratom is a miracle plant for blocking withdrawals. Just a little over 1/4 tsp of the enhanced bali this time around is enough to make me feel euphoric, empathetic, etc (despite my tolerance to oxy), and at the same time blocks all symptoms of withdrawal!
Fast forward to today, six days since my last dose of oxycodone. I’m taking 1/4-1/2 tsp (depending on my needs) every 8-10 hours, hoping to make it 1/4 every 12 very soon. Around day 4-5 I was having some bad body aches associated with the lack of oxy, but I’m doing much better now. I think my body is mostly stabilized on the kratom, and once I quit, that will be it!
This plant has given me my life back, given me my freedom. I used to have to plan everything around oxy: when my next dose would be, dividing pills into days. I’d wake up and have to dose immediately, as I’d be sick with withdrawals every morning. I could literally do nothing in between doses (after the high wore off an hour after dosing). Unlike with the oxy where I’d constantly want a bigger or sooner dose, I have no temptation to up my kratom dose, despite increased euphoria it might bring. I have no temptation to take a dose sooner than I should, even if I’m in pain/slight withdrawals in the meanwhile. With my 8 hour oxy doses, I’d constantly cheat and do six hour doses here and there. With my 8 hour kratom doses, I’m constantly pushing it to 10 hours here and there.
I have absolutely no cravings for oxy, nor any temptation to take it right now. Even if I had a nice, big 20 mg line in front of me, I wouldn’t have any use for it. Who needs ibogaine when we have kratom?”
Report #4, Using To Ease Opiate Withdrawal
“I’m sharing because I’m blown away that this works. In my opinion Kratom is a godsend.
I have been prescribed oxycodone for ten years now. My prescribed dose is 180mg daily, in 6-30mg tablets. However I’ve been taking 240-300mg daily for at least the last 8 years. This is a very strong daily dose. On an 8 year regimen of this one can only imagine the terrible withdrawal of having nothing.
I feel it’s important to tell any readers that before trying kratom recently for the first time, 3 days before being completely out of my opiate, I was forced to taper down because my supply was almost gone. I went from 180mg the first taper day to 90mg the remaining 2 days. I’m telling you this because being on such a large amount of Opiates for such a long time, tapering down put me in a little bit of withdrawal throughout the day because I have to space out my doses so far to get through the day. Tapering down, even for just a few days before kratom may have helped it work better? I can only imagine it would have been much tougher to go from 300mg to nothing, than 90mg to nothing. This is solely my opinion.
The Kratom. I purchased 2 bags of Maeng Da strain Kratom. Each bag was a total of 125 grams divided by 40 capsules. On my last day of tapering, about 4 hours after taking my last dose of oxycodone, I made some tea. I used a regular coffee pot and broke open 11 capsules into the coffee filter. I used 3 cups of water and made tea just as if it were coffee. For taste I added 3 regular spoon fulls of sugar and a half a packet of instant hot chocolate mix ( I sipped the tea before adding anything and it tastes pretty bad by itself). It tasted very much ok, not bad. Like a chocolate herbal tea I would describe it. Before drinking the tea I took 5 Kratom capsules as well. I drank all 3 cups in one big mug, and before I finished the whole thing it made me very sleepy. I would like to also note that I ate 4 hours before drinking the tea……I went to bed after.
I slept through the night completely. I woke up not in any withdrawal yet. I immediately repeated the exact same process for making the tea and drank it down again. From 8:30am to 11:30am I made the tea 3 times total, exactly the same amount and same way each time as I did the very first time the night before…… I had no physical withdrawals all day. I made it to 6:30pm without any withdrawals at all.
I did not receive any euphoria of any kind from the kratom. However I felt like a normal human being all day. No cold sweats, no diarrhea, no wrestles legs or body. Nothing but possibly a little jittery feeling but so minimal I wasn’t even sure I should mention it. By around 7:30pm I was getting a little antsy but nothing terrible. At 8:30pm I was able to acquire Suboxone and took a 2mg piece of film. I feel absolutely normal. I would have continued just using the Kratom, but I have to work and can’t make this tea all night or day.
This stuff really works and took away all withdrawals for me. I have searched forums high and low for someone with an experience similar but haven’t found one that mirrors my normal daily dose of Opiates to compare to.”
Report #5, A Miracle For Withdrawal
“I’ve abused various types of painkillers for more than five years, and I’ve been using kratom since I’ve discovered it, more than two years ago.
It all started when one of my friends came down with cancer. He was first prescribed codeine for the pain and ended up giving me three tylenol 3s. I was overwhelmed by the warmth and comfort that came over me. Even though I truly enjoyed the high it provided, I felt no need to try and find more. Whenever he offered, I’d accept, which was probably a couple of times a week. Well, as the months went on they switched him to morphine, then oxycontin, and finally, fentanyl. Needless to say, he became extremely addicted and would suffer withdrawals 4-6 hours after the last dose. He would still be able to offer me a dose of whatever he had every once in awhile. After doing oxycontin and fentanyl, I knew I would be absolutely screwed if I ever had easy access to these substances. I had never felt so absolutely amazing when on opiates, but I still hadn’t become physically addicted, just mentally.
After awhile, my friend’s doctor realized how physically dependent he was becoming, so they lessened his prescriptions dramatically, only enough to get by without feeling major withdrawals. It bugged the hell out of me that he wouldn’t be able to give me painkillers anymore, but I completely understood and accepted it.
Two months after that, I moved to the East Coast and ended up discovering a connection for vicodin. Even though vicodin didn’t compare to the more potent opiates, it still worked and this time I had access whenever I wanted, instead of waiting for a sick friend to offer. I had just graduated college and had a decent amount of money. In a matter of three months, I blew all the money I had saved. I was taking numerous amounts of hydrocodone daily, up to 25-30 of the extra strength every day, where it was costing me around seven dollars a pill.
The problem with pain meds, at least in my experience, is that when I’ve become dependent upon them, they completely lose their wonderful euphoric feeling, which is the reason I became addicted in the first place. I find that I need them just to function in any normal everyday task. And when I ran out of money and my supply was gone, that’s when the withdrawals hit me without a warning. What my body and mind goes through during withdrawals cannot be described through words. It’s the most horrible feeling. It would last four days for me, but those four days feel like an eternity. Anxiety and depression overtook my mind, while at the same time my body felt like it belonged to a 90 year old man. Constant sweating, crying and shitting would consume the whole day and when I thought the worst was over with, it would hit me like a sledgehammer at night. Sleep was absolutely out of the question. I heard stories of how junkies would try and commit suicide when they couldn’t get their hands on heroin, and now I completely understood. Well, I did finally make it through the withdrawals, but even after all that hell and torture, I still thought about the high. So much so, that I started researching the net for alternatives.
Thats when I discovered kratom. I ordered the highest potency offered (6 grams for a strong effect) and was pleasantly surprised by the effects. I ordered more and more, and then became worried that I would have to suffer the withdrawal effects again, so I stopped abruptly, worrying that I would have to suffer extreme hell once again. The withdrawals never came, and so I continued to order. Well, it’s been about two years since I ordered my first batch of kratom, and I now get sick when I discontinue use, but it doesnt even compare to the withdrawals off of opiates. It’s tolerable and I don’t fear what would happen if my supply were to end. I wrote this report, because I just wanted to share how easy it is to become dependent on what seems like a harmless little pill.
Trust me on this one, kratom is a miracle drug for withdrawal symptoms. I’m still using and have no plans to stop, but when I don’t have access, its nowhere near the effects of opiate withdrawals.”
Report #6, Painless Opiate Withdrawal And A New Friend
“I got into Poppy tea a while back, and ended up getting hooked a few times. Quitting cold turkey was brutal – and even tapering off was an excruciating experience. I had read about Kratom so I tapered down to what looked like a good Kratom match and started doing it instead of the tea. I felt one or two neutral effects and never had the pain and suffering of opiate withdrawal. It was like transitioning off.
Fast forward to today – after having tapered off Kratom – which really isn’t that bad, I take it now and then and it gives me the same warm and fuzzy feeling that opiates did, except fully lucid. It’s like all of the good effects of opiates, with none of the bad.”
Report #7, Great For Easing RX Withdrawal
“In a nutshell I had a serious injury which kept me in the hospital and on narcotics including Fentanyl, Morphine, Oxycodone, and Hydrocodone for a period of about 6 weeks. One exacerbating circumstance is that it required HIGH doses of opiates for any analgesic properties to be recognized. Needless to say withdrawal was a nightmare.
I found references to the use of Kratom as a way to ease withdrawal pains and discomfort. It doesn’t just ease the problems, it totally wipes them out. At lower doses my energy level is increased to an extent, I feel great, a little opiation is present, and I had no trouble with nausea at low to moderate doses. High doses can turn my stomach a bit.
I’m a kava user as well, prepared the old fashioned way. Whole ground root only. If I want some recreation from it I wait for about 90 minutes after taking the Kratom [ ‘Super’ Kratom ], when the effects are at their fullest, and have a quick Kava. Nice mix of energetic bliss and contentments without inebriation.
For people struggling with Opiate withdrawal I would say this is a miracle, and I’m not easily impressed.”