I of course believe in personal responsibility. By the same token, I also believe in corporate responsibility. One does not remove the other.
When the narcotic drug (kratom) that an entity markets as a "nutrititional," "health" or "sleep" supplement and distributes freely to the world without being subject to drug safety standards is characterized by its reducing (even eliminating) the very capacity for choice, the concept of personal responsibility becomes totally illusory, when one is in the pangs of physical withdrawal and has the availability of a drug that not only relieves that pain but even gives euphoria.
With kratom abuse, Opioid-Related Endocrinopathies with health maladies (impotence, hemorrhoids, constipation, etc.) are common, and they require real treatment for opioid use disorder. I say they are common because I have worked with several bodybuilders that had overlapping syndromes that converged on low free-androgen index & intractable impotence despite TRT or higher doses, and they all had the same thing in common, multiyears dependence on kratom because they were told by "reputable bros" that kratom was not only harmless but beneficial.
Clearly, I am not alone in my view that personal responsibility does not obviate other responsibilities, e.g., those on the marketer & distributor. The United States justice system agrees that this business' conduct went beyond mere sleaze, constituting an actionable wrong (wrongful death) subject to severe penalty ($11,000,000,000 in damages).
The onus is
ALWAYS on the user. Putting ANY substance in your body without knowing what it does is straight-up fucking retarded! We all know you HATE kratom an those who sell it, but I don't ever see you attacking UGL's that will sell gear to virtually anyone.
For someone to die of kratom alone, the person would have to be grotesquely irresponsible. Dare I say, even intentional. It is quite difficult to die from kratom unless you're either trying to die or you're an absolute imbecile.
...and anyone who is willing to spend the big dollars on extracts potent enough to potentially cause death knows EXACTLY what they are buying. No one but an idiot would deny that kratom can be physically addictive, but dying? It is easier to due from Tylenol or caffeine than it is from kratom...and the number of documented deaths proves that. Look at the stats. A MUCH larger percentage of Tylenol users die than do kratom users. It' not even remotely comparable. Kratom deaths (i.e., deaths attributable solely to kratom) are almost non-existent. There is a good reason for that...and it's not because people are responsible. It's because it's impossible to difficult to die from solo kratom use. Consider the following...
For one, dying on plain leaf is essentially impossible. Even if someone were trying to die from plain leaf, they would vomit long before that happened, due to the massive quantity of indigestible plant fiber they would need to consume before reaching a lethal dose. Extracts? No one buys extracts with an 80%-90% alkaloid content on accident. Why? Because any naïve kratom buyer, even if they happened to stumble upon high potency extracts, is never going to choose to spend that amount of money on what appears to be a very small amount of material. And even if they did, these extracts are sold in limited quantities, such as blister packs of 2-3 caps...and maybe 5 caps. Eve if a total newb was to spend the money on one of those packs...and be dumb enough to consume all the caps, they still aren't going to die. High potency extracts aren't sold in bulk on regular websites due to cost. You need to approach distributers for that...and only a small number if distributors make these vert potency extracts. Are you suggesting that some newb is going to accidentally stumble upon these potent extracts, spend a bunch of money on multiple packs...and then slam them all back without a second thought? Sorry, but no...that isn't happening, but if it did, it's probably best to eliminate such a person from the gene pool anyway.
On top of that, the particular partial agonists within kratom known for activating Mu and Delta receptors (namely, mitragynine and speciocilliatine), do not depress respiration to nearly the same degree as traditional, full agonists. This is one of the main reasons why kratom deaths are so rare, despite literally millions and millions of people using these products every single day. The point here is that unintentionally dying from kratom ranges from IMPOSSIBLE to very difficult.
In conclusion, assuming this product was not tainted with fentanyl other opioids (in which case the company would clearly be at fault), there is only ONE person to blame in this--the USER!