The NY Post Doesn’t Want You to Know the Truth About Kratom — So I’ll Tell You

The NY Post Doesn’t Want You to Know the Truth About Kratom — So I’ll Tell You

On March 26, 2026, the New York Post ran a headline designed to terrify you: “Hospitalizations from ‘natural’ supplement have shot up 1,150%.” The article, based on a freshly dropped CDC MMWR report, paints kratom — a plant used safely in Southeast Asia for centuries — as some kind of emerging public health catastrophe. They quote poison control statistics. They invoke a tragic death. They trot out the FDA’s push to schedule 7-hydroxymitragynine (7-OH) as a Schedule I controlled substance — the same category as heroin and LSD.

And they’re counting on you not asking questions.

I’m Tony Huge, Medical Lawyer, J.D. My mission is simple: give you the truth. Not a filtered, pharmaceutical-industry-approved version of reality. The actual facts — the science, the data, the context — that the government, the FDA, and corporate media are working overtime to hide from you. Because without true facts, you cannot make your own informed decisions. And that’s exactly what they want. A population that can’t think for itself is a population that can be controlled.

I am the most censored person in the history of health, wellness, and fitness content. Not because I spread misinformation — but because the information I give works. It empowers people to take control of their own health. It allows people to achieve medical freedom. And that is the single greatest threat to a system built on keeping you weak, dependent, and paying.

Let me show you everything this NY Post article doesn’t want you to see.

The 1,150% Statistic Is Designed to Scare You — Not Inform You

The CDC’s MMWR report says kratom-related poison center calls went from 258 in 2015 to 3,434 in 2025. That’s a 1,200% increase. Hospitalizations climbed alongside it. Sounds terrifying, right?

Now let’s use our brains for ten seconds.

In 2015, almost nobody in America knew what kratom was. Today, an estimated 15 million Americans use it. The user base expanded by thousands of percent. If usage goes up 2,000% and calls go up 1,200%, the per-user rate of calls actually decreased. Kratom got safer per capita. But you’ll never see that headline because it doesn’t serve the narrative.

Here’s what else they don’t tell you: a poison control call is not a poisoning. The National Poison Data System (NPDS) is voluntary, self-reported, and captures calls — not confirmed medical events. A panicked parent calling because they found kratom in their kid’s room counts the same as an actual overdose. A nurse calling to ask what kratom is counts. These are information calls, not body counts.

The data is what researchers call “numerator-only” — it counts events without accounting for the growing population of users. As a 2022 study in Clinical Toxicology explicitly warned, studies using poison control data that “claim statistically significant temporal associations may simply be measuring changes in consultation utilization or magnified population shifts.” In plain English: the numbers went up because more people are using kratom and more people know to call poison control about it. Not because kratom suddenly became dangerous.

And here’s the buried detail the NY Post conveniently glosses over: about half of the exposure reports were classified as “intentional misuse” or suspected suicide attempts. That’s not a kratom problem. That’s a mental health crisis. By this same logic, Tylenol (acetaminophen) is one of the most dangerous substances on the planet — it causes roughly 500 deaths per year and over 50,000 emergency room visits annually in the U.S. Where’s that fear-mongering NY Post headline?

Let’s put the raw numbers in perspective. 3,434 poison control calls nationwide in a year. Out of 15+ million users. That’s a rate of 0.02%. Meanwhile, NSAIDs (ibuprofen, aspirin) send over 100,000 Americans to the hospital every year and kill approximately 16,500. Prescription opioids killed over 80,000 people in 2024 alone. Alcohol kills 140,000+ Americans per year. But kratom — with a handful of calls per state per year — is the emergency?

The “Deaths” Exposed: The Polysubstance Lie

The article invokes the January 2026 death of Austin Beutner’s 22-year-old daughter. Tragic. Heartbreaking. And the NY Post is using her death to manipulate you — because she consumed a mix of prescription drugs and kratom. That’s buried deep in the article. The headline doesn’t say “woman dies from drug cocktail.” It says the danger is from a “natural supplement.”

This is the playbook. And the data exposes it completely.

The CDC’s own earlier analysis of 152 kratom-associated deaths from 2016-2017 found that 87% involved other substances. Fentanyl. Benzodiazepines. Alcohol. Prescription opioids. In the vast majority of these cases, the contribution of kratom to the death is unclear — the CDC’s own words. A 2024 Frontiers in Psychiatry commentary confirmed that 79% of kratom-associated fatalities during their study period involved multiple substances.

How many deaths have been attributed to kratom alone, with no other drugs present, in peer-reviewed literature? Between 2 and 11 over an entire decade. Compare that to fentanyl (70,000+ deaths in 2024), prescription opioids (80,000+), or even acetaminophen (500/year). The risk profiles aren’t even in the same universe.

Blaming kratom when someone dies with fentanyl, benzos, and alcohol in their system is like blaming the lettuce on a cheeseburger for heart disease.

The Science They Don’t Want You to See

While the NY Post runs scare pieces, actual scientists are producing peer-reviewed research that tells a completely different story.

The Johns Hopkins JAMA Study (2024): The largest controlled clinical trial of kratom ever conducted. 450 participants. Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled — the gold standard. Results: 62% of the kratom group reported 30%+ pain reduction versus 31% placebo. Participants reduced their prescription opioid use by an average of 47%. Side effects were mild — constipation (18%), nausea (12%), drowsiness (9%). No serious adverse events were attributed to kratom. This is Johns Hopkins and JAMA — not some fringe source.

2026 Randomized Clinical Trial (Therapeutic Drug Monitoring): 116 participants tested with dried kratom leaf powder, placebo-controlled with dose escalation and close medical monitoring. No serious adverse events. All side effects resolved without medical intervention.

Frontiers in Pharmacology Meta-Analysis (2024): A comprehensive review of all available safety data found that authentic kratom leaf contains only 0.01-0.04% 7-hydroxymitragynine (7-OH) by dry weight. Virtually nothing. The dangerous products aren’t kratom leaves — they’re synthetic concentrates made in laboratories.

Johns Hopkins Survey Research: Among 2,500+ kratom users surveyed, the majority reported improvements in pain management, mood, and daily functioning. Less than 2% of moderate users (2-3 times weekly) reported dependency concerns. Kratom withdrawal, when it occurs, is significantly milder than opioid withdrawal.

Centuries of Traditional Use: Kratom has been consumed in Southeast Asia — Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia — for generations. Laborers chew the leaves for energy. Communities use it as traditional medicine for pain, diarrhea, and as an alternative to opium. Thailand, which banned kratom in 1943 (to protect its opium tax revenue — sound familiar?), re-legalized it in 2021 after decades of evidence showed the ban caused more harm than the plant ever did.

This Is About Synthetic 7-OH — Not Kratom

Here’s what the NY Post article deliberately conflates, and it’s either journalistic incompetence or intentional deception: the FDA’s crackdown is targeting synthetic 7-hydroxymitragynine (7-OH) products, not the kratom plant itself.

Synthetic 7-OH is produced in laboratories and concentrated into products that are 10 to 100 times more potent than natural kratom leaf. These are the gas station pills, the smoke shop shots, the concentrated extracts being sold with zero quality control. Fatalities involving synthetic 7-OH and related compounds tripled between 2023-2025 compared with 2019-2022.

Even the American Kratom Association — the industry’s own advocacy group — agrees these products are dangerous and has called for immediate enforcement action against them. Their statement is unequivocal: “7-OH is not kratom.”

Blaming kratom for synthetic 7-OH harms is like blaming grapes for methanol poisoning from bootleg liquor. It’s like banning coffee because someone synthesized a caffeine concentrate that can stop your heart. The plant isn’t the problem. Unregulated, synthetic, concentrated derivatives made in shady labs are the problem.

But the NY Post headline says “natural supplement” — because that’s scarier and gets more clicks. And it serves the agenda.

The Real Agenda: Protect Pharma, Destroy Alternatives

Ask yourself one question: who benefits from banning kratom?

Not the 15 million Americans using it to manage chronic pain without prescription opioids. Not the veterans using it for PTSD when the VA handed them bottles of pills that made things worse. Not the former heroin addicts who used kratom as an exit ramp from addiction — peer-reviewed research shows 77% of users in one study took kratom specifically to treat heroin withdrawal, and 59% used it as a heroin replacement.

The beneficiaries are pharmaceutical companies. Every kratom user is a lost customer for the opioid manufacturers, the antidepressant makers, the anti-anxiety drug producers. The same pharmaceutical industry that created the opioid crisis — that killed over 800,000 Americans since 1999, that lied about addiction rates, that paid doctors to over-prescribe, that got caught and paid billions in fines they could easily afford — now wants to ban the plant that helps people escape their products.

The FDA tried to emergency-schedule kratom in 2016. The DEA reversed course after unprecedented public backlash — over 100,000 public comments opposing the ban. They lost. So now they’re trying a different approach: drip-feed scare articles through compliant media, schedule individual compounds incrementally, manufacture public consent for a ban through coordinated government-media action.

The timing of this CDC report dropping right as RFK Jr. pushes for 7-OH scheduling isn’t coincidence. It’s choreography.

And consider the regulatory double standard: the FDA approves drugs that kill tens of thousands annually. Opioids. NSAIDs. Acetaminophen. These are all on shelves, legally available, advertised on television. But a plant with a handful of questionable deaths over a decade needs to be treated like heroin? If safety were truly the concern, alcohol and tobacco would be Schedule I.

The Contamination Problem Is an Argument FOR Regulation — Not Prohibition

The NY Post and FDA love to point out that kratom products have been found contaminated with Salmonella, heavy metals, and even other drugs. They’re right — and they’re making the argument against their own position without realizing it.

At least seven distinct episodes of kratom product contamination are documented: products laced with O-desmethyltramadol (a synthetic opioid) that caused nine fatal poisonings, products contaminated with hydrocodone and morphine, products adulterated with phenylethylamine, and batches tainted with heavy metals and Salmonella. Every single one of these is a failure of regulation, not a failure of the plant.

The solution is the Kratom Consumer Protection Act — already passed in several states — which establishes Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) standards, mandatory testing, proper labeling, and age restrictions. The American Kratom Association has developed and promoted these standards. Regulation works. Prohibition creates black markets, contaminated products, and more deaths.

We know this. We learned it with alcohol prohibition in the 1920s. We’re watching it play out with cannabis. And we saw it with the opioid crisis itself — when prescription opioids were restricted without providing alternatives, users went to heroin and fentanyl. Banning kratom would push users to the exact deadly substances the government claims to be fighting.

The System Is Built to Keep You Weak

Here’s the truth that no mainstream article will ever print, and the reason I’ve been censored more than any other person in health, wellness, and fitness history:

The entire medical-pharmaceutical-regulatory complex is not designed to make you healthy. It’s designed to make you a permanent customer. Healthy, strong, autonomous people don’t need the system. People who manage their own pain, optimize their own hormones, enhance their own performance, and take sovereignty over their own bodies are not profitable.

The system is built to keep you weak, dependent, and prevent you from becoming superhuman. Every time a natural substance — kratom, testosterone, peptides, research chemicals — shows the potential to give ordinary people extraordinary results, the regulatory apparatus activates. Not to protect you. To protect the revenue streams of the industries that own the regulators.

And here’s the ultimate hypocrisy: the elites use the same substances they block your access to. The executives, the politicians, the celebrities — they have concierge doctors prescribing them testosterone, growth hormone, peptides, and every performance-enhancing compound money can buy. They have access to cutting-edge anti-aging protocols, personalized medicine, and substances that are “too dangerous” for you but somehow perfectly safe for them. The rules are for the masses. The elites play by different rules entirely.

Governments work tirelessly to eliminate medical freedom and gain complete control over the mind, body, and spirit of their citizens. An optimized, informed, empowered population is ungovernable. A sick, confused, dependent population is compliant. That’s not conspiracy theory — that’s the business model.

Kratom Saves Lives — And They Know It

NIH-funded research at the University of Florida is actively studying kratom for opioid withdrawal treatment. The science shows it causes minimal respiratory depression — which is the mechanism that actually kills opioid users. It provides pain relief. It eases withdrawal. It improves mood and functioning. And unlike methadone or Suboxone — which are just replacing one pharmaceutical dependency with another, keeping you on the pharma leash — kratom is a plant you can grow in your backyard.

That’s what makes it dangerous. Not dangerous to you. Dangerous to them.

What the NY Post Article Actually Is

Let me be direct about what this article represents:

It’s a hit piece. It takes a CDC report with significant methodological limitations — voluntary reporting, numerator-only data, no user-base denominator, half the calls being intentional misuse — and presents it as proof of a health crisis. It conflates natural kratom leaf with synthetic 7-OH concentrates. It highlights a death that involved multiple drugs while headlining the “supplement.” It platforms the FDA’s scheduling push without disclosing the pharmaceutical industry’s financial interest in eliminating a natural competitor. And it relies on scary percentages derived from tiny base numbers to manufacture fear.

This is not journalism. It’s a press release for the pharmaceutical-regulatory complex dressed up as health reporting.

Interesting Perspectives

The mainstream narrative on kratom is a perfect case study in how data is weaponized against natural compounds. While the media focuses on poison control calls, other frameworks offer a more nuanced view. Some researchers and harm reduction advocates point to kratom’s unique pharmacology as a “partial agonist” at opioid receptors—a mechanism that, per the Tony Huge Laws of Biochemistry Physics, creates a ceiling effect where increased dose does not linearly increase respiratory depression risk, unlike full agonists like fentanyl. This biochemical safety profile is why it’s being investigated as a legitimate exit drug from opioid addiction, not a gateway into it. Furthermore, the conflation of the whole plant with its isolated alkaloid, 7-hydroxymitragynine, is a classic regulatory tactic also seen with other botanicals; isolating a single compound, concentrating it synthetically, and then blaming the original plant for the dangers of the lab-made concentrate. This creates a false “natural equals dangerous” equivalence that serves to justify preemptive bans on plant-based sovereignty. The push against kratom is less about the plant’s toxicity and more about the threat it poses to the chronic pain management monopoly—a system dependent on creating lifelong patients, not curing them.

Citations & References

My Commitment to You

I’m Tony Huge, Medical Lawyer, J.D., and my commitment has never changed: I will give you the truth. Every fact. Every study. Every piece of context they strip away. Because you deserve to make your own informed decisions about your own body.

The government doesn’t own your body. The pharmaceutical industry doesn’t own your health. The FDA doesn’t get to decide what plants you can and cannot consume. Medical freedom is a fundamental human right — and I will fight for it until my last breath, no matter how many platforms ban me, no matter how many articles try to silence the truth.

They’re afraid of an informed public. Be what they’re afraid of.

— Tony Huge, J.D.