Kratom, a plant that commonly grows in South East Asian countries like Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea, has recently been used to produce food supplements and marketed as an alternative to addictive pain medication like opioids, as well as used to help treat opioid withdrawal symptoms.
Use of the food supplement has fired debate among physicians, patients, and public officials as all sides continue to determine its efficacy and how, or whether, it should be given a drug classification.