My sister did not start or end with heroin or pills. She did not meet a drug dealer in a parking lot. 

She walked into a gas station and found a branded bottle of kratom on the counter, marketed as a botanical energy solution. She had a small baby at home, and it promised to bring her energy and make her feel like herself again. She eats organic, avoids plastic and always reaches first for the natural alternative.

headshot of a woman in a purple blouse and black jacket.
Lindsay Case Palsrok is a Michigan policy advocate, public affairs professional and sister. (Courtesy photo)

Weeks later, she was so addicted that she waited outside gas stations sobbing, trying her best to make it a full four hours between “doses.” Her organs failed, her skin scabbed, and she nearly lost her life. She spent thousands. She bore the marks of addiction on her face, in her body and in her soul. Today she’s clean, but it was a perilous journey — one that rocked our whole family and will leave scars.  

Ask anyone who knows my sister’s journey and they’ll tell you what kratom is and what it is not. It is not an herbal supplement or a wellness product. It is a substance whose active compounds bind to the same receptors in the brain as morphine, oxycodone and fentanyl. Worst of all, it is sold openly at gas stations and convenience stores across Michigan with no age verification and no warning label that comes close to capturing the risk.

The physical withdrawal symptoms are devastating and keep new addicts hooked. They range from anxiety, depression, muscle aches, sleeplessness, tremors and chills to full psychosis and seizures — the same profile as opioid and heroin withdrawal. My sister now takes suboxone every day to decrease the likelihood of relapse — the same recommended dosage given to recovering opioid addicts.

Between 2019 and 2023, the CDC identified kratom in nearly 1,800 overdose deaths in the United States. The FDA has seized millions of dollars’ worth of contaminated kratom products — products laced with heavy metals, bacteria and synthetic additives — because what is on the label is often not what is in the package. And the synthetic derivative 7-OH, which is now being sold alongside leaf kratom in those same convenience stores, is far more potent than the plant itself. Law enforcement has started calling all of it “gas station heroin.” That name is not hyperbole.

Kratom’s loophole is that it is sold under the same regulatory structure as a “food.” Food products that become contaminated and kill even one person are pulled from shelves rightly and immediately to eliminate, not mitigate, additional risk and harm.  Kratom is a tremendous AND amorphous risk. It is likely much worse than we know.  And we now know a lot.  

I have spent my career working on public policy in Michigan. I understand how complicated it can be to regulate substances, how many competing interests there are and how slowly the government tends to move. But I also know that when something is actively harming people — when it is deceptively sold in a format designed to look benign, at a gas station— the state has a responsibility to act. 

Until recently, Michigan has not acted. 

Right now, kratom is completely legal to sell in Michigan with zero regulations. It is now banned in neighboring states of Wisconsin, Indiana and Ohio, and their suffering addicts are driving here to buy it. 

House Bill 5537, introduced by Rep. Cam Cavitt and passed by the House in March, would change that. The bill bans the growth and sale of kratom and its synthetic derivatives in Michigan. It is a straightforward response to a documented public health crisis, and it needs to pass.  

There has already been pushback. The kratom industry has lobbyists and talking points, and they’ve gotten a head start with tactics intended to deceive and confuse.  They argue that kratom helps people manage pain, or that a ban drives users underground. They try to paint a picture of “good kratom” and “bad kratom.”  Meanwhile, “good Kratom” manufacturers are releasing themselves from future class action suits by admitting addictiveness and risk in “terms of use”  fine print buried on their websites.  Even Kratom in totally pure leaf form, not concentrated and without additives, is highly addictive.  

My sister’s experience is not unique. Doctors, pharmacists and addiction specialists across Michigan are seeing increasing numbers of patients — often young, often first-time substance users — who became dependent on something they bought at a gas station because it was legal and it sounded safe. By the time many realize what they are dealing with, they are in full withdrawal and have few good treatment pathways, because kratom addiction is something our health systems are just catching up to.  

Michigan policymakers should not need a personal story to act on this. The science is there. The CDC data is there. The FDA warnings are there. Local municipalities are pulling it from shelves as first responders are overwhelmed.  Eight states have already moved legislation to ban, and many more are moving to ban legislation or enacting emergency administrative orders to pull it from shelves right now.  

But if a personal story helps: a tired postpartum mom — my sister — walked into a gas station and was sold a “natural” energy product, and what she found nearly destroyed her life. Michigan families should not have to keep learning that lesson the hard way.

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