Kratom, 7-OH and Gas Station Drugs: What Every Parent Needs to Know, with Dean Francis

ABOUT THE EPISODE:

It's the green powder in the shaker bottle, the little blue shot by the register, the "herbal supplement" your kid bought for focus. If you've been quietly wondering whether kratom is something to worry about, drop everything and tune in.

Dean Francis's son Cameron was an elite college runner, closing in on a sub four-minute mile, when he found kratom online, sold as a plant-based boost for energy and focus. For a few months it did exactly what the marketing promised. Then his running slid, the anxiety showed up, and nobody in the family connected any of it to the powder he was shaking into his water bottle every day. It took an ER doctor in 2021 to say it plainly: this is an opioid, he’s addicted, and it's serious.

Dean got mad, and then he got busy. He founded End Kratom Addiction, and he showed up to this conversation with a mountain of knowledge (and a few products to hold up on camera, so the YouTube version is worth a watch). We talk about what kratom actually does in the body, the forms kids are buying it in, why the "safe natural leaf" story isn’t all it’s been touted as, and the Billion-dollar business keeping it on gas station shelves. He also gets honest about what treatment looked like for Cameron, and the gap in care that cost him more than anyone expected.

This is an educational episode, and it's also the wake-up call I think every parent needs, whether or not your child is struggling right now. What's sold at the corner store down the street may not be what you or your child thinks it is.

YOU'LL LEARN

• What kratom turns into once it reaches the liver, and why that changes everything
• The popular "energy shot" Dean held up that most parents would never look at twice
• Why the "used safely for centuries in Southeast Asia" story should be taken with a grain of salt
• The treatment mistake Dean wishes someone had warned his family about
• How you can add your voice to the push to make kratom a controlled substance

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• End Kratom Addiction website
• Stop the Magicians campaign, petition, and End Kratom Addiction film
• Dopesick series on Apple TV or Disney Plus
• Kratomquitters.com 
• Free parent PDF: What Kratom Products Look Like 

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