Avoid These Places When Buying Kratom

Kratom has steadily grown in popularity throughout the United States in recent years. I’m happy to see more and more people using the plant.

Personally, I’ve tried to turn about — I don’t know, exactly — two dozen friends or associates on to kratom. Only one of them liked it.

That person stopped using opioids, as he had for several years daily — he’s a few years past 50 and suffers from cerebral palsy; he also used pain pills to more easily get through the blue-collar jobs he worked — and replaced opioids with kratom, which serves as a fine opioid replacement to many.

Kratom was a miracle plant in his eyes. And it is in many other people’s eyes, too. However, that doesn’t mean you should be willing to pay an arm and a leg for subpar-quality Mitragyna speciosa. You should be selective in shopping for the drug.

Avoid Head Shops, Music Stores, and Gas Stations

I get it — Walmart isn’t willing to stock kratom. Because kratom is a drug, many other retailers aren’t willing to offer kratom. This has left an opportunity for head shops and gas stations to start selling kratom on their own accord.

Even if you like the cashier behind the register at your favorite neighborhood gas station, don’t go there to buy kratom. Even if you enjoy visiting your local head shop to browse the selection of cleverly-crafted bongs, pipes, and other paraphernalia for smoking “tobacco,” don’t buy kratom from head shops.

I’m not hating on gas stations or head shops. I just don’t want to hurt our chances of bringing kratom into our society’s selective class of “acceptable” drugs. And I say this even though I don’t take kratom anymore — if I do, only rarely.

Here’s why I feel we should avoid these types of retailers as kratom consumers.

We Don’t Want to Bunch Kratom in With a Bad Crowd

The American Kratom Association (AKA) and countless grassroots activists have done lots of hard work in trying to keep kratom legal. As sensible fans of kratom, we shouldn’t take shots at the foundation the AKA and its helpers have constructed for all of us to enjoy.

Wouldn’t you rather buy kratom at Walmart or another mainstream retailer?

In the meantime, you should stick with domestic e-commerce vendors that you trust. It also wouldn’t be a bad idea to do business with professional sole proprietors who sell kratom in your local area, though this should be second to choosing domestic, web-based sellers, in my opinion.

Where Do Head Shops and Gas Stations Get Their Product From?

One of the most important things in consumer retail is bag appeal. Business owners interested in bringing kratom to their head shops, gas stations, or other similar types of entities are much more likely to buy already-packaged kratom that looks comparable in terms of packaging quality to whatever you’d by in major retail stores as opposed to purchasing raw, unpackaged kratom, even if the latter is several times less expensive.

Why do I bring this up?

Pre-packaged kratom, on average, will be handled more than raw kratom. This gives these batches more of a chance to be exposed to contaminants or simply take hits to such kratom’s quality.

I’m confident that you would rather purchase kratom from a source that hasn’t handled it as much.

Also, know that you’re shelling out way more for kratom that’s been branded and packaged as opposed to raw kratom powder. If you purchase kratom from a retailer that purchased it from one of these pre-packagers, know you’re paying even more — way more than you need to, that’s for sure!

These Retailers Are Likely to Offer Lower-Quality Kratom

Companies that do not specialize in kratom are typically going to sell out of each batch of inventory at a slower pace than their kratom-focused counterparts. Traditional retailers keep their lights on for long periods throughout each business day, potentially lowering the quality of their kratom. Also, consumers are inevitably going to handle these businesses’ inventory.

While the potential downsides of these three factors might not be all that high, these things are something you should think about when shopping for kratom.