7 TOO MANY –
Aug. 8, 2025 – Lauren tried Feel Free, “I just felt a wave of euphoria wash over me,” she tells PEOPLE exclusively. At the time, she was sober and remembers thinking, “I really miss drinking, and this is a great replacement and it’s not making me visibly messed up,” she said. “It scratched the itch.” Feel Free is made with leaf kratom product — an ingredient the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency has listed as a “Drug and Chemical of Concern.” It can lead to addiction, the DEA says, and can cause euphoric or sedative effects, depending on the dose. It retails for $8 to $10 per shot.
Kratom is often bought as pills, or in powdered form — and it’s currently under fire as U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr, is moving to ban 7-OH, a concentrated version of kratom. Per the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, it’s “a potent opioid that poses an emerging public health threat.”
In a statement to PEOPLE, manufacturer Botanic Tonics said the company “does not use extracts or isolates. Leaf kratom is different than concentrated 7-OH,” and “We support the FDA announcement” to ban 7-OH.
