“This gas station drug nearly ruined my life,” reads the caption of one viral TikTok video. “Pharmacist reacts: THE MOST ADDICTIVE SUPPLEMENT EVER????” warns a professional in another. The subject of both? A small, vibrant blue bottle of a supplemental drink, Feel Free, marketed as a “source of clean and natural energy.” A 12-pack of the drinks will run you a crisp $89.99. Reviews hail it as a “perfect lift for engagement and energy,” providing a “relaxing euphoria.”
In 2024, it reportedly surpassed 5-hour Energy as the best-selling drink in one major convenience store chain, despite only being on the market for four months. Despite such noble intentions, Feel Free has also been linked to a host of addiction issues. And as of Jan. 9, 2026, its sale in California is illegal.
Per a letter by the California Department of Public Health to retailers, the sale of kratom products, including Feel Free, is now prohibited in California. Kratom, a herbal extract from the Southeast Asian tree, Mitragyna speciosa, is the active ingredient in Feel Free and is indeed what makes the drink quite so dangerous: It is estimated to be over 17 times more potent than morphine.
And yet the marketing of kratom products does not indicate anything of the sort. Kratom first came to the consciousness of many, including myself, in the summer of 2025, when a variety of online content discussing Feel Free and its dangers went viral. One such TikTok, which garnered 3.7 million likes, discusses the user @yourbestiemisha’s encounter with Feel Free in a gas station. In his encounter, he said that a kid came up to him, asking if he could buy him some “Feel Free.” He asked the gas station worker what exactly “Feel Free” was, and the worker pointed him to a little blue bottle on the counter. He was told that people would come in to purchase it multiple times a day.
“I do not think we talk enough about things that are legal and yet [they are] sold next to gum and energy drinks,” the creator said. This represents a common pipeline for kratom addiction: seeing the substance, used as it often is in the scheme of “wellness” products like tablets, gummies, drink mixers, and shots, and assuming it to be perfectly innocuous. Also important to consider is the financial burden posed by the drug and the financial gain for companies that can successfully hook users.
This lays bare a particular danger of kratom in an era when we are steeped in anti-vaping content and opioid harm-reduction strategies: Kratom does not present itself as a drug, despite very much being one.
In fact, kratom contains many opioid-like tendencies. The compound 7-hydroxymitragynine, or 7-OH, occurs naturally in the kratom plant in trace amounts. Used regularly, 7-OH can result in physical dependence. Stopping this use can cause withdrawal symptoms similar to opioid withdrawal. Per a recent U.S. Food and Drug Administration assessment, the opioid pharmacology of 7-OH presents a “significant potential for abuse” of the substance. However, despite attempts to restrict the drug, including July 2025 warning letters from the FDA saying that 7-OH products are not lawful or FDA-approved, kratom remains widely accessible, with an estimated 1.7 million Americans using the drug in 2021. The risk of addiction is particularly high for concentrated 7-OH products, including products such as Feel Free.
This lack of regulation – and broader lack of understanding of the severity of the drug – poses a serious threat. In September of 2025, three fatal overdoses were identified in Los Angeles County to be tied to the combination of kratom with alcohol, prompting a release by the Los Angeles County Public Health department on the substance and proper use. Since California’s recent ban on the substance, the state has seized over $5 million worth of kratom products in various locations. However, some argue that kratom’s immediate seizure from stores could also be harmful; restricted access may prove dangerous for those who depend on the drug. Jackie Subeck, the executive director of 7-HOPE Alliance, which advocates for 7-OH access, said that this sudden removal “creates real risk.”
Similarly, a lack of understanding of the potential positive effects of the drug might be restricting its potential uses. According to Kirsten Smith, director of a clinical trial at Johns Hopkins University evaluating kratom withdrawal, the substance can be used “in a fairly normative, noneventful, or even a net beneficial way.” Others have found the drug to be beneficial for treating chronic pain and alleviating use of prescription drugs.
This illuminates a broader truth about the state of drug policy in the United States: that uniformly criminalizing something is ultimately bad because it can restrict access without room for nuance. At the same time, the current lack of regulation of kratom presents an immense danger for many. What, then, is the appropriate line to toe with policy towards kratom?
First in this process should come evidence. The FDA press announcement describing the warning letters issued regarding the marketing of 7-OH products cites their own “growing concern” with the substance and the fact that the substance “has not been proven safe or effective for any use.” Yet there has been little meaningful research conducted towards these claims and similarly little research into the actual danger of the drug. Indeed, this lack of understanding breeds dangerous ideas and values.
One discussion on Reddit exemplifies the community response and broad misinformation regarding the drug. One commenter wrote on a comment thread on r/ems discussing a viral TikTok about FeelFree: “I really don’t believe random tiktok and Facebook videos reporting insane addictions on smth like this… I haven’t even heard of this product til now but all the Google results are like… ‘tiktok reports spreading stories of alleged hyper-addiction.’”
In the case of the first commenter, the lack of awareness and of easily accessible information regarding the dangers of kratom and related products comes into full view. Googling the drug turns up a variety of articles from sources like the Mayo Clinic and the American Psychiatric Association. (It also, scarily enough, shows a list of local smoke shops, presumably where kratom products are available. Whelan’s Smoke Shop on Telegraph Avenue makes the cut.) One article from Harvard Health poses an important question: “Kratom: Fear-worthy foliage or beneficial botanical?” But that information is not typically spread or made accessible to anyone who is not actively seeking it out. It makes sense then that people react as they do, believing the issue to be primarily fearmongering. Just because a product is currently accessible, though, does not mean it should remain that way. Dependence alone does not justify continued availability.
At this point, kratom should be studied before any action towards deregulation can properly be decided and in order for the public to have access to reliable information regarding the true dangers, and potential benefits, of the drug. Opioids, for instance, do indeed have certain practical uses, like the treatment of moderate and severe pain, but that does not mean that they should be freely sold and distributed. Only through understanding the actual benefits of kratom, if they exist, and how those positives interact with the risks of the drug, can an informed decision be made. The fact that kratom, with its high potential for addiction, is allowed to be sold in so many products is unnerving at best and threatening to the lives of many at worst.
Following this understanding should come increased regulation. While kratom is not directly comparable to marijuana, we can look towards marijuana policy as a potential indicator of the results of underregulating the drug. As a recent editorial in The New York Times argued, marijuana use has skyrocketed following its decreased regulation. Eighteen million people use the drug over 21 times a month, or about five times a week – up from around six million in 2012 and less than one million in 1992. More Americans use marijuana daily than alcohol. And this increase in usage comes with consequences. At least one in 10 people who use marijuana will develop an addiction, a similar proportion to alcohol.
“Cannabis should not have a free pass as something that is safe because it is legal or safe because it is natural,” said Dr. Scott Hadland, who oversees adolescent medicine at Mass General for Children and teaches at Harvard Medical School.
Kratom should not fall victim to a similar trend: a lack of regulation resulting in overuse. Many countries currently control kratom, including France, Italy, Sweden, Turkey, Australia, and New Zealand. Similarly, within the United States, a variety of legal restrictions at the state, city, and county level have been imposed; one website selling Feel Free lists locations where they will not ship the tonic. San Diego and Newport Beach in California each make the list. The United States should heed its peers’ actions and move towards greater restriction of kratom products. This could look like replacing the supplement loophole and ensuring greater civilian protection. This could also mean imposing clear labeling of 7-OH content.
Much of what makes Feel Free and the broader kratom industry so insidious is how it profits off the ignorance of customers, marketing its 7-OH content as a wellness product rather than as a potential source of addiction, overreliance, and financial devastation. For kratom, today’s toothless policies mean that many more people are at risk of losing their lives and savings to a drug that should not persist in access without consequence or accountability. We as consumers are not immune to the marketing of these products and the attempts of corporations to present them as innocuous. It is not our responsibility alone to be vigilant.
A satirical song by the artist Jesse Welles goes, “Well, it’s your own damn fault you’re so damn fat / … Glucose monosaccharides, diastatic malt, high fructose corn syrup, it’s all your fault.” I would argue that a similar motif presents itself in the wellness ecosystem: individuals shouldering the blame for systemic failures.
The wellness market is, at its core, a market – a market that runs on presenting itself as necessary. So, then, of course it is in these companies’ favors to jack up the prices and the drug content of kratom-infused drinks. But we should recognize that kratom is only the most recent, and certainly not the last, instance of companies that run on supposedly sound ideals taking blatant advantage of their consumers. It is just more obvious when the company whose products are “made to elevate your mood, your focus, and your flow” turn out to be highly addictive, yet continue to be sold alongside packs of Takis and sticks of Trident.
Featured Image Source: Carolina News and Reporter