Economist Writing Every Day

Last week I visited a family member in Saint Petersburg, Florida. We had a very nice time, walking around the pier area of the city and going out on his boat. Every day was the same weather: sunny, and a high of 80° F (in mid-February).

I was out walking in the neighborhood, and I saw signage for a shop that piqued my curiosity. It offered cannabis products, which I knew about, but also “kava” and “kratom”, and apparently “nitro”.  When I came back to the house, I asked my host what kava was.  He indicated it was some kind of recreational drug, whose use seemed to be expanding, at least in that area.  I did a superficial check online, finding that kava is an extract from the roots of a plant native to some South Pacific islands, which is reputed to have anxiety-reducing and other feel-good properties.

A couple of days later I walked into the shop and introduced myself as an out-of-state tourist, who saw the sign out front and was curious.  There were no other customers at the time, so the saleswoman patiently graciously answered my questions.

I started off asking about kava. But she indicated there was actually more interest in kratom. That is what she imbibes herself, although not frequently. Kratom is extracted from the leaves of an evergreen, Mitragyna speciosa, which is native to Southeast Asia. It seems to have stronger effects than kava, and a physician I spoke with felt that kratom was more likely to be addictive. (I plan to do a deeper dive into the pharmacology of kava and kratom in later articles on this blog).

I was told that kratom comes in three main types: red, green, and white. These are extracted at different stages of leaf maturity. Red is for pain relief, white is for energy, and green is in between.  “Train wreck” has all three colors. The products in the shop with kratom, or kratom plus kava greatly outnumbered those with kava alone.

For pure kava, I would have to buy a can of soda (photo below) or buy a prepared drink at the bar.

While we were there, a customer came and ordered two drinks from the bar. He was a middle-aged, upstanding citizen, not some alienated youth covered in tattoos and body-piercings. He told us he has been using kratom for two weeks now, and it has helped him considerably. He said he suffers pain from arthritis and from operations, and that his alcohol use has gone way down since he started kratom. Normally, this man uses white kratom, but since the bar was out of the white extract, he walked out with two large cups of “train wreck”.

The shop also sells various cannabis related products. They mainly contain THCA, which is a legal and less potent version of THC, which is the most active ingredient in marijuana.

The sign out front offered mushrooms as well; I am not sure how “magic” they are. As for “nitro”, it turns out that that is not another psychotropic drug. It is just cold-brewed coffee infused with nitrogen gas, to give a somewhat creamy emulsion. Just another way for Americans to spend $6.00 on a cup of coffee.

I thought about buying and trying some kava or kratom drink, for the sake of science, but at my age I figured I needed to keep all my brain cells. I recalled that decades ago it was emphatically stated that marijuana (unlike alcohol) was not harmful, but now we know better. So, I thanked the clerk and walked out empty-handed.

POST-SCRIPT: See my follow-up article on effects of kava and kratom. Kava seems fairly safe and pleasant, maybe on a par with weed, but kratom functions largely like an opioid and should probably be avoided. Also, based on my additional reading, the kava beverages depicted above are likely to be ineffective; the way to go is to fresh-squeeze ground-up kava root in water. This can be done by you, or for you at a kava bar.