HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (WCHS) — A plant grown in southeast Asia is sparking debate in this country. Is kratom an opioid or an herbal supplement? We spoke to people in our region who say kratom has its good and bad points, but does one outweigh the other?

“Green is more energy. Red is more for pain,” said Que Imair, owner of Mr. Smoke in Huntington.

He’s been selling kratom at his Huntington store for more than 10 years. Some of his customers use kratom to give them a boost of energy.

“It’s not as addictive as people like to think. They use kratom as pain relief, majority of the customers. They use it as a pain relief because they had surgery or do not want to use pain medicine,” Imair said.

You have to be 21 years old to buy kratom in West Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky. The drug is illegal in six states.

According to the Ohio Board of Pharmacy, the Ohio General Assembly has introduced legislation over the past three legislative sessions that would regulate kratom. However, no law has been passed.

“The Ohio Department of Agriculture is claiming that you can sell kratom in a clear plastic bag with powder in it and no labelling. That is the definition of insanity,” said Mac Haddow, senior fellow for public policy at the American Kratom Association in Northern Virginia.

Haddow said the proposed Ohio policy invites people to manipulate the substance, making it more harmful. He points out that kratom in its natural form is safe.

“The National Institute on Drug Abuse has invested $100 million of our money in studying kratom and they say kratom is a great harm reduction tool for people who are struggling with opioids and people are using it safely,” Haddow said.

“I’m really at a loss as to why we need to add or allow kratom in our armourmentarium. From a medical standpoint I am at a loss,” Kentucky Sen. Donald Douglas, R-Nicholasville, said.

Douglas has worked in the medical field for several years.

“At its base, kratom really is an opiate. Pharmaceutical therapeutic products that affect the mu receptors in the brain and has a certain shape are defined as opiates because they affect the opiate receptor in the central nervous system. Kratom falls in that same category. It stimulates the mu receptor therefore it can be highly addictive,” Douglas said.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse found people who use kratom had stimulant-like effects such as increased energy, alertness and rapid heart rate which are similar to opioids and sedatives that cause relaxation, pain relief and confusion. The Food and Drug Administration said that kratom is often used to treat pain and opioid use disorder, breaking the bonds of addiction.

“He’s replacing one opiate for another preparation for which society has said OK,” Douglas said. “It’s an herbal preparation so it’s not really an opiate and more acceptable.”

Despite the fact that kratom has benefits, the NIDA reports a very small number of deaths have been linked to kratom products compared to deaths from other drugs. One of the kratom deaths took place in Ohio.

“Coroners and medical examiners automatically go to the FDA guidance and say kratom was present in the bloodstream therefore it was the cause of death. The National Institute on Drug Abuse has examined this issue carefully and their conclusion is that kratom deaths are rare and when they do occur it’s because of the adulterated products or poly drug use,” Haddow said.

Is there such a thing as a lethal dose of kratom?

“It’s not known yet. In all studies that have been done no one has been able to find what that lethal dose would be,” Haddow said.

According to the FDA, there are no approved uses for kratom, warning people not to use kratom products because of potential adverse effects. Both Douglas and Haddow agree that more studies need to be done on kratom to find out if it is useful to society.