DOSE: T+ 0:00	2.0 g	oral	Kratom	(extract)
T+ 3:00	4.0 g	oral	Kratom	(extract)

BODY WEIGHT:

195 lb

I learned about the existence of Kratom after some friends of mine introduced me to another product called Bliss Shots. The two have little in common aside from the fact that they are legal alternatives to illicit drugs. Before trying the Bliss Shot I assumed all such products were useless, but after feeling an effect that couldn't possibly be placebo I decided to look into these legal products more and kept coming back to something called Kratom.

It is worth noting that I have never done any illegal drug aside from Marijuana and generally attempt to stay away from prescription painkillers or strong drugs of any kind. The last time I took anything that wasn't over the counter was when I was 10 or 11 years old due to a broken leg. Most people compare Kratom's effects to that of other opiates but I have no frame of reference in that area.

My experience was with the 15X Kratom extract powder. After reading the various reports this seemed to be the most convenient form of the stuff and I didn't want to be bothered with making tea or anything of that nature. I set aside an entire Saturday to experiment with it but due to the priority mail taking an extra day to arrive (probably due to the holiday mail congestion) I had to wait until around noon to get started. After reading about the horrible taste I purchased various beverages I expected would help neutralize it. Finally I had all the ingredients and was ready to begin.

The first challenge was measuring the stuff. The 15X product is a very fine powder. The package was a total of 12 grams and the suggested dose was 2 grams. After reading many of the other articles here, I had already decided to start somewhere between 3 and 4. This was due to the possibility of nausea at high doses. So rather than dig out my scale I decided to eyeball it. In retrospect, this was a mistake.

I mixed my selected amount with some orange juice until I had a brown, nasty liquid. The taste was bitter but not horrible. As a kid I had trouble swallowing pills so sometimes I would take them crushed up in OJ, this was about the same taste. I downed it quickly and refilled the cup a few times to get all I could from the sludge on the bottom.

I didn't document the time, after all I was trying to enjoy myself, not do hard science. So all times are approximate.

First 30 minutes: I definitely started to feel the “warmth” immediately. I became sweaty and flushed and a very slight twinge of possible nausea. The effects at this stage were barely noticeable.

A hour in: I was certainly feeling something. A “good” feeling was sort of rolling over me in waves. Nothing too pronounced yet, but the effects were rapidly increasing. This went on for a while and at the 2 hour mark it seemed to plateau. I felt I was starting to come down but decided to wait rather than top up the dose.

3 hours in: I could still feel slight effects but still hadn't experienced anything like the other reports I had read. I was also hungry, this stuff works extremely well as an appetite suppressant and I hadn't even thought about food since taking it even though at that point I had only eaten 2 eggo waffles the entire day and it was around 4 p.m. I decided to eat and then try again with a larger dose.

2nd dose: The second time around I assumed I had been too frugal with the amount and loaded up at least twice the original dose. This time around it was pink lemonade resulting in a similar brown sludge but it tasted much better. I had eaten 2 slices (about half) of a small (7-8 inch) frozen pizza. I had no desire to eat any more, apparently the appetite suppressant qualities of Kratom were still affecting me.

I can't really approximate the timeline for the second dose, but it seemed to come on a lot quicker. I watched some TV while I waited so it probably took around 30-45 minutes to reach a point where I felt very “high”. The same warm pleasant feeling came back only much more intense. After about an hour I was deep into the experience.

This time around I definitely felt euphoric. Rather than the sensory input from the world around me being distorted, it was all an internal experience. Many other users here had reported just sitting back and listening to music was the best way to enjoy Kratom so I fired up my music library on shuffle and curled up on the couch. The experience continued to build until eventually I could feel an intense pressure in my head that kept building and waning. It wasn't entirely unpleasant, but the corner of my mind that was still rooted in reality was a bit worried about it. The music was VERY nice. I was often put off by the faster, heavier stuff and definitely sought out more relaxing tunes. This went on for quite some time and eventually the urge to close my eyes was too much to resist.

I woke up the next morning around 7 a.m. In exactly the same position on the couch. I don't remember falling asleep and certainly didn't seem to have moved an inch during the night. As I sat up I was hit with a brutal wave of nausea that put me right back in my seat. I could tell that my body was unhappy about having only had the 2 waffles and slices of pizza (probably about 600 total calories) in the last 60 hours or so but knew eating at that point would result only in suffering. So I sat in misery sipping water for most of the morning. Around 10 a.m. I had to make a mad rush for the bathroom to liberate my stomach of its contents. Of course at that point there was nothing substantial in there, just water and some really repulsive white stuff. Mostly I spent about 10 minutes dry heaving and cursing the gods of Kratom.

I felt better but not good enough to eat, an hour later the same thing happened again and after that I felt good enough to eat an apple, which stayed down. I wasn't able to do anything productive until much later in the day.

After this terrible postscript to my experience I was having trouble deciding whether to ever touch Kratom again. I decided to find out exactly how much I had consumed so I searched out my digital scale. Much to my surprise there was only about 6 grams left in the package. I had assumed that I had only taken 4 at most, but had actually taken 6. Probably 2 at first and then 4 for the second dose. I head earned my suffering through my own laziness, but learned an important lesson.

In summary, Kratom does have powerful effects. It is a very interesting experience but has very serious side effects. I am still contemplating whether or not to take another dose. If I do I will ensure that I have at least 48 hours to deal with the effects and rest assured I will be measuring with much more accuracy. I would suggest any newcomers to it start with no more than 3 grams and resist the urge to push the high by topping up.

The other limiting factor is that 12 grams cost me around $50 after shipping so it cost me around $25 for the whole experience. Certainly not something that I could justify doing very often at that price.

Exp Year: 2007	ExpID: 67655
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Sep 4, 2008	Views: 47,155
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