Most Kratom users, and even many Kratom vendors, may not be aware that the Kratom supply in the United States could be absolutely annihilated just 1.5 years from now.
Specifically, Indonesia has a law in place which would ban Kratom as of New Year’s Day 2022. This is a critical problem for all Kratom users and businesses since it is estimated that 95% of the United States’ Kratom supply comes from Indonesia, and truthfully it’s more like 100%, since even the remaining 5% may just be Kratom which was shipped from Indonesia to another country before being exported to the United States.
Therefore, if Indonesia bans Kratom, the United States and most of the rest of the world would have practically no Kratom availability. Vendors which stockpiled Kratom may be able to run for some time after the Indonesian Kratom ban, perhaps for months or maybe even years, but ultimately Kratom prices would absolutely skyrocket, and even if some Kratom users are willing to pay astronomical prices they may not be able to find a consistent supplier.
This is just speculation, but if Indonesia bans Kratom, then Kratom prices would easily jump to $1 per gram, which is $1,000 per kilo, and $10 per gram is quite possible, which is $10,000 per kilo.
This price increase could cause Kratom users to seek out prescription synthetic opioids and opiates and illegal drugs, since at that point Kratom would be just about as expensive as street drugs. Obviously this could cost many lives and cause untold amounts of suffering.
Further, if the Indonesia Kratom ban happens, the variety and freshness of Kratom would go downhill quick, and within months all available Kratom would be stale and weak despite costing crazy prices.
The silver lining is this is not set in stone yet. To be clear a law has been passed, but local governments in Kratom growing regions are fighting the law because science proves that Kratom is safe, and Indonesian Kratom growing regions absolutely depend on Kratom for their economy.
Also, the American Kratom Association (AKA) will eventually be meeting with multiple Indonesian government agencies to tell them the real science, and to blot out the misinformation in the Indonesian government which led to this Kratom ban.
The AKA is optimistic about overturning the ban because the global economy is likely in a long term depression, and therefore it would be extremely damaging to the Indonesian economy to ban Kratom.
Indeed, the reason the Kratom ban was delayed by years in Indonesia is because the government wanted to give time for farmers to transition to other crops, since banning Kratom suddenly would really hurt the economy. The fact of the matter is Indonesian farmers have no lucrative alternatives besides Kratom, and now that the global economy is a flaming wreck, Kratom growing regions would be plunged into certain poverty if the ban goes through.
Also, there are somewhere around 21 million Kratom trees in Indonesia, and destroying them would actually ruin the ecosystem of large swaths of Indonesia.
Finally, the AKA has a Plan B, which is to get Kratom legalized in Thailand, and this would offset a fraction of the supply lost from Indonesia, and at least provide a significant amount of consistent and fresh Kratom supply to the United States.
That being said, although there are some promising tidings from Thailand regarding Kratom legalization, the process is moving very slowly and there’s no guarantee it will be legalized.
Thus, Kratom users and the Kratom industry could be facing the Kratom-ocalypse in 2022 if the Indonesian Kratom ban goes into effect, but there are vigorous efforts to overturn this ban, and Thailand may legalize Kratom before Indonesia bans it. Therefore, there is still hope that this Kratom doomsday will never happen, but Kratom users and vendors certainly need to monitor this situation.