"Not for human consumption." I sit here at my new job reading this warning on a crude, dusty, handmade label, scotch taped onto an old jar, many jars actually, full of various capsules, hard tablets, powders, as well as shot-like beverages nearby, said to contain this substance. I step back, my field of vision expands to reveal that all of these substances, these things that I've never heard of or seen before, take up approximately a third of the entire smoke shop that I'm standing in. We'll sell it to anyone 21 and up, and we call it Kratom.
"Not for human consumption." I shift my eyes to the left to see a countertop full of colorful, attractive flyers on the different strains of this substance, listing all the different effects they'll have on the "user's" body and mind. One sheet reads almost like a wellness pamphlet: Red Bali "eases pain, relief anxiety, stress, depression, anger issues." Another lists Kratom's "Top 10 Benefits," including energy boost, pain relief, antidepressant properties, even boosted libido and blood sugar regulation, the kind of language you'd expect on a vitamin bottle, not a jar that says not for human consumption two feet away. A separate flyer breaks down 7-hydroxymitragynine and mitragynine, the two major alkaloids in the kratom leaf, claiming 7-hydroxy binds five to ten times more strongly to opiate receptors in the brain. The same sheet admits the effects include euphoria and sedation, that it's not recommended for beginners, and in small print: potentially habit forming. Some of these flyers are dusty and ancient, clearly straight from a printer, crudely produced in Microsoft Word and laminated unevenly. Others were designed well, printed on real card stock, almost like posters.
"Not for human consumption," a customer humorously reads aloud as they ask me for more information. What is it? What does it do? Is it bad for you? Is it even legal? About ninety percent of the people who come up to the counter already know exactly what they want before they even walk in, mostly regulars in their thirties and forties; we rarely get anyone older or younger. The few first-timers who do ask almost always start the same way: "what is that?" It might just be how I read people, but it seems like a lot of these regulars are using kratom as a stand-in for heroin and other drugs when they can't get their hands on the real thing, since kratom is far cheaper. When someone's new and actually curious, I tell them what my family told me: never touch this stuff. I tell them what my boss told me too: it's addictive, it'll fry your brain. None of that ever reaches the ones who are already in it. They're not the ones asking questions.
"Not for human consumption," a regular says, almost laughing, "what bullshit." He tells me he got out of the hospital a few hours ago. Says he doesn't trust the brand he'd been buying, says it must've been a bad batch, that's the only explanation for what twenty grams did to him. Then he asks me for two hundred and fifty grams of our strongest capsules, same brand, just a different strain. Holy shit, I think. If twenty put you in the hospital, what's two hundred and fifty going to do?
"Not for human consumption." This idea bounces around in my brain as I ponder whether this stuff is good or bad. It divides me, and it divides everyone who brings it up. People who don't use it walk in sometimes just to talk: that stuff should be illegal, they'll say, or, well, everything's fine in moderation, like that's not its own kind of fantasy. Then a regular tells me it's the only thing that's ever helped his back pain, or stopped his hands from shaking, or done more for his depression than anything a doctor ever gave him, and he looks genuinely better for it. And then I think about the guy buying two hundred and fifty grams a few hours out of the hospital, who's probably headed right back. It's my job to sell it. If I don't, I don't get paid. But I feel for these people, and I don't think there's a clean answer here, just a lot of people pulled in different directions, including me.
"Not for human consumption," just take the label off the jar. That's the rumor going around the shop, anyway, nothing I've confirmed myself. From what I've heard, there was a push to ban kratom outright, but it stalled, since it's not classified as a controlled substance and there's nothing on the books to actually regulate it. So now, the talk is that instead of banning it, the plan is to get rid of the "not for human consumption" label altogether, the same label that's technically the only thing keeping it unregulated in the first place. Remove the label, and suddenly there's something to tax, license, and control. It's the same path marijuana took: couldn't keep it illegal, so the money found a way to make it legal instead.
Maybe that’s the real punchline. The label was never about protecting anyone, it was just the one thing standing between a jar on a shelf and a tax bracket.
So I’ll keep selling it, the same as I have been, “not for human consumption†and all, and I can’t help but wonder whether taking that line off the label would actually change anything, or just make it easier to regulate what was already being used that way.