Months before Jordan McKibban collapsed in his bathroom and never woke up, the 37-year-old prepared smoked salmon and home-grown canned peppers to entertain his big, blended family in their quiet Washington state community.<\/p>\n
Weeks before, he told his mom, Pam Mauldin, things were getting serious with the woman he was dating \u2014 his \u201cone big desire\u201d to have kids was finally in reach, Mauldin recalled.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Days before, he helped a friend plant a flower garden for a baby shower. \u201cHe loved life. He loved doing things outdoors,\u201d Mauldin told The Post.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Then, on the day of his death, McKibban went to his longtime job at an organic food distributor. When he got home, he mixed a tablespoon of a powdered kratom supplement into his lemonade.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jordan McKibban died at age 37 while taking kratom, an \u201call-natural\u201d supplement available online and in stores. Courtesy Pam Mauldin<\/p>\n
Jordan\u2019s mom, Pam Mauldin (second from right), spoke to The Post to warn other parents \u2014 and thinks kratom should be pulled from shelves. Courtesy Pam Mauldin<\/p>\n
Marketed as an \u201call-natural\u201d way to ease pain, anxiety, depression and more, kratom can appeal to health-conscious people like McKibban, who Mauldin says wouldn\u2019t even take ibuprofen for the arthritis in his hands.<\/p>\n
But on that Tuesday in April 2022, a compound in the substance called mitragynine took McKibban\u2019s life, an autopsy report later showed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When Mauldin broke into his bathroom after a call from her grandson that day, she found McKibban lifeless. She performed CPR on her own son and shielded her eyes when medics carried his gray body away.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve lost my son. I\u2019ve lost my grandchildren that I could have had, I\u2019ve lost watching him walk down that aisle, watching him have a life that I get to watch with my other kids. I\u2019ve lost enjoying these years with him,\u201d Mauldin said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI have to go to the cemetery, and I hate going to the cemetery. He shouldn\u2019t be there,\u201d she added.\u00a0<\/p>\n
From dizziness to nonresponsiveness\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Kratom products \u2014 sold in powders, gummies and energy-looking drinks \u2014 come from a plant native to Southeast Asia and can act like a stimulant at lower doses and a sedative at higher ones.<\/p>\n \u201cKratom does act like an opioid, and people can become addicted to it and have withdrawal from it and overdose on it.\u201d<\/p>\n Dr. Robert Levy, addiction and family medicine doctor<\/p><\/blockquote>\n While they\u2019re readily found online, in brick-and-mortar stores and even gas stations as catch-all solutions to everything from fatigue to opioid withdrawal, the Food and Drug Administration<\/a> says kratom and its key components are \u201cnot lawfully marketed\u201d in the US as a drug product, dietary supplement or food additive.\u00a0<\/p>\n Kratom, which comes in powders, gummies and drinks, can have serious side effects. AP<\/p>\n The products, though, are gaining attention on social media, as TikTokers reveal<\/a> disturbing interactions with teens going great lengths to get their hands on drinks like Feel Free<\/a>.<\/p>\n The shot-like capsules of kratom and other \u201cbotanic\u201d ingredients look innocent enough and line some gas station checkouts.<\/p>\n National poison control centers documented 1,807 calls about kratom exposures<\/a> between 2011 and 2017, and \u201cit\u2019s only been increasing since then,\u201d Dr. Michael Greco, an emergency medicine physician in Florida, said. <\/p>\n Patients on kratom \u201ccan have a lot of agitation, sometimes even psychosis,\u201d he added. \u201cYou get sweating, you get dizziness, you get very high blood pressure or elevated heart rate.\u201d On the other end of the spectrum, he noted, \u201cpeople might be totally unresponsive or just extremely drowsy and out of it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n While documented deaths from kratom are rare and typically involve other substances like fentanyl, critics say consumers are unaware of kratom\u2019s potential dangers. Manufacturers aren\u2019t required to verify if what is listed on the label accurately reflects what\u2019s inside the product.\u00a0<\/p>\n McKibban, for one, was told it was impossible to overdose on kratom; that he\u2019d just throw up if he took too much, Mauldin said. The green cellophane bags he left behind had no instructions or warnings.<\/p>\n \u201cI find it so frustrating when I get a recall from Costco over lettuce or they have a recall over some potato chip \u2026 and they pull it all off the market,\u201d Mauldin, whose lawsuit<\/a> alleges kratom is 63 times more deadly than other \u201cnatural\u201d products sold to consumers, noted. <\/p>\n \u201cThere have been hundreds of people killed from this, and they don\u2019t pull it. The government doesn\u2019t step in,\u201d she added. \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve lost my son. I\u2019ve lost my grandchildren that I could have had, I\u2019ve lost watching him walk down that aisle, watching him have a life,\u201d Mauldin said. Courtesy Pam Mauldin<\/p>\n \u201cI have to go to the cemetery, and I hate going to the cemetery. He shouldn\u2019t be there,\u201d Mauldin said. Courtesy Pam Mauldin<\/p>\n An even more potent danger\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Experts are especially concerned with a highly potent, highly addictive kratom offshoot called 7-hydroxymitragynine, or 7-OH, which seems to have infiltrated the market in the past few years, said Dr. Robert Levy<\/a>, an associate professor at the University of Minnesota who\u2019s board-certified in both addiction and family medicine.<\/p>\n Many people don\u2019t know the difference.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s always been concern around kratom because if you take enough of it, kratom does act like an opioid, and people can become addicted to it and have withdrawal from it and overdose on it and ruin their lives on it, like anybody else that has a substance use disorder,\u201d Levy said. <\/p>\n 7-hydroxymitragynine, though, \u201cis much more addicting and much more problematic.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n In fact, just last week, the FDA recommended<\/a> classifying 7-OH as an illicit substance. <\/p>\n\n