Reminder: kratom mitigates pain and addresses the symptoms of opioid withdrawal because it contains opioids. See, for instance, the 2014 book Robert B. Raffa: Kratom and Other Mitragynines: The Chemistry and Pharmacology of Opioids from a Non-Opium Source. You could get the same effect from raw opium. (Which, by the way, is Schedule II.)
Do not fall for the appeal-to-nature fallacy just because this time it’s prominently white people addicted to plant such-and-thus. Drug policy needs change, yes, but that’s because it works better to treat opioid addiction as a health problem for everybody-- rather than as a health problem when it’s white people and a crime problem when it’s everyone else.
