Kratom's defenders have spent years walking into statehouses armed with testimonials, miracle recoveries, borrowed scientific authority, attacks on medical examiners, and an apparently bottomless supply of reasons why kratom deserves the credit when something goes right and none of the blame when something goes wrong. Open Truth simply applies their favorite concept—scrutiny—to the people doing the selling. No rumors required. Their testimony, publications, advocacy materials, organizational ties and own words provide more than enough material. We didn't write the record. We just stopped politely looking away.
Different state, different death, different evidence—same conclusion: it wasn't the kratom. FDA, medical examiners, FAERS, fentanyl, 7-OH and eventually cheese all get their turn in the defendant's chair.
Read more →From "God made the natural Kratom plant perfect" to challenging conclusions about kratom deaths. Nothing says disinterested scientific scrutiny quite like reviewing evidence about a substance you've already called a "miracle."
Read more →From cocaine withdrawal and a Netflix documentary to passing along her "journey, wisdom and science." Somewhere between A Leaf of Faith and the smoke shop, an Institutional Review Board convened without telling anyone.
Read more →The medical miracle that made it all the way to Congress before the treating doctor made it into the materials reviewed. Extraordinary claims deserve something sturdier than an extraordinary testimonial.
Read more →Her testimony presents a dramatic before-and-after story culminating in "controlled pain, living life, being a grandma." Lovely photograph; unfortunately, the kayak is evidence of kayaking, not pharmacology.
Read more →The kratom lobby needed moms. Mom answered the door. An organization promising to "Protect American Families" joined an AKA partnership initiative involving testimonials and work alongside its legislative team. Grassroots, apparently, now comes with lobbyists.
Read more →His January 2026 Pinney Associates report for Ohio claimed scientific independence. Its own disclosures revealed AKA funding, consulting ties to kratom marketers, and paid expert-witness work. The conclusion: exactly what the industry paid for.
Read more →Decades of recovery experience. Extraordinary claims: 29 of 30 detoxed with kratom, kratom reducing opioid deaths, and only six addicts out of thousands. His testimony asks lawmakers to accept all of it — without the evidence to back it up.
Read more →A six-rat IV study becomes "kratom isn't addictive." A non-probability survey becomes "24 million Americans." A self-selected AKA-recruited sample becomes evidence of safety. A critical examination of the evidence packet.
Read more →Invisible 7-OH. Free kratom on the AKA vendor page. Industry money that took several questions to disclose. Twenty-four million users from a non-probability survey. Casomorphins in cheese. And then Louisiana banned kratom anyway.
Read more →Twenty times the recommended dose. Safe at all levels. Directly out of the FDA. The published study says something considerably different. Montana lawmakers heard the pitch. Then they advanced the ban.
Read more →Monster Energy. Benadryl. Imodium. A threatened complaint to the Speaker. A "trick question" accusation. Cheese. A ten-year personal disclosure. Then a legislator asked: "Should we sell it in a convenience store? Yes or no?" The answer arrived without the gift wrapping.
Read more →DEA scheduled MGPI as Schedule I. "Any quantity" is unlawful. Hours later, DOJ announced it would exercise enforcement discretion for undefined "trace" amounts in kratom. The problem? A 2026 study found MP in 33 of 35 commercial products. Nobody knows how much is "trace."
Read more →Seven papers. Lots of scientific vocabulary. One very consistent conclusion: keep kratom on the market, no matter what. KCAC admits dependence, pediatric exposures, contamination, and enforcement failures — then asks lawmakers to trust better regulation. That is not peer review. That is damage control.
Read more →A sitting legislator on the Health and Welfare Committee called concerned Idahoans "Kratom Crazies" — including doctors, police chiefs, and a mother who lost her daughter. Meanwhile, the product he defends is Indonesian. The contributions are traceable. The priorities are revealing.
Read more →Mac Haddow invokes a 2016 study documenting suspected 7-OH adulteration to challenge a grieving mother. Curious. In years of written testimony defending kratom before state legislatures, he repeatedly warned about fentanyl, heroin, and morphine, but never highlighted that study's elevated 7-OH findings. Apparently, a decade-old warning becomes important when it's useful against a grieving family.
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