After a drunk-driving arrest, he heard of an obscure tropical plant called kratom. The leafy botanical, related to coffee, has been used throughout Southeast Asia for centuries to treat ailments including anxiety, chronic pain and drug addiction. It has become increasingly popular in the U.S. in the wake of an opioid drug crisis that is killing close to 20,000 people a year. Haley, 30, ordered a batch from a company called Kratom King in Indonesia. Ash, 46, said she used kratom to break a debilitating morphine habit that grew out of her struggle with fibromyalgia.

Source: Los Angeles Times October 19, 2016 18:55 UTC