Morris: Kratom-related fines can exceed the annual salary
of a southern Thai farmer, making the locals reluctant
to show off their contraband vegetation.
Eating some durian, I see.
Very good.
So, do you have your own kratom tree?
May I see it?
You want me to try the durian?
I'll have a nibble.
Thank you.
I'll have just a small piece.
Very small piece.
It's a very pungent flavor.
Mmm.
Very pungent.
Mmm.
Mm.
Hmm.
Mmm.
Get some water to wash that down.
♪♪
[ Hatchet scraping ]
So you only chew it for a moment?
That was a pretty unusual way of consuming it.
I wouldn't imagine you could get a lot of buckle
or sublingual absorption in that short period of time,
but he does it every day.
Is there a kratom tree that grows nearby?
It seems to be the case that people have
their own private trees in their backyards,
and they harvest the leaves themselves,
chew the leaves themselves, but because it's illegal,
the trees are a little bit secret.
And so I still haven't seen
a kratom tree.
♪♪
Those look prehistoric.
I wouldn't be surprised if a velociraptor or a glyptodon
came out and attacked me.
♪♪
Woman: Careful, careful.
Good job.
♪♪
Oh wow.
Beautiful.
Wow.
Mitragyna speciosa.
The kratom tree.
The leaves look just like I expected they would,
with a prominent red central vein.
These are really beautiful.
Morris: How long have you had this tree?
[ Thunder rumbles ]
[ Thunder crashes ]
How does it feel?
Has anyone ever died from chewing too many leaves?
Are you afraid of being arrested
for having this tree in your backyard?
[ Thunder rumbles ]
♪♪
[ Applause ]
Morris: Though kratom has been used for centuries,
its pharmacological impact on opioid receptors
has only been studied for 20 years.
So, could you tell me
about the chemical composition of kratom?
And that's a little bit uncommon.
Usually these indole alkaloids are not opioids.
Yes.
And what about the conflicting reports
about the activity of the plant?
Some people say that it's a sedative,
other people say that it's a stimulant.
Do you think that that is based on just different
subjective responses to the plant,
or that there might be different chemicals
that account for the stimulant or sedative effects,
or that it's dose dependent?
♪♪
Put everything on.
♪♪
Through his E.E.G.
studies on mice, Dr. Kumarnsit
hopes to understand how kratom and classical opiates differ
in their impact on electrical activity in the brain.
And can you tell me anything about the composition?
What percentage mitragynine?
Ah, okay, so...
Oh, wow.
♪♪
Okay.
What are the other four brain regions that you're measuring?
And what was the dose of morphine that was just used?
15 milligrams per kilogram?
That's a high dose.
So, morphine increases locomotor activity?
Really?
That's surprising.
Yes.
I would've imagined that it would have a sedative effect.
Okay.
And what is the dose that you use of the kratom extract?
Wow.
This is an amazing demonstration.
Yes.
Unlike morphine, kratom has no impact
on the locomotor activity of mice,
nor does it change electrical activity
in the nucleus accumbens.
These experiments suggest that kratom alkaloids
have a reduced liability for dependence
relative to classical opiates.
So, if you were to give kratom or an extract
to someone who is wearing this E.E.G,
what do you think would happen?
But people describe these contradictory effects.
Some people say that it's a stimulant,
other people say that it has sedative,
morphine-type activity.
Why is it so hard to get approval
when there's people all over Thailand
that are chewing these leaves?
[ Whimsical music playing ]
[ Cheers and applause ]
Morris: In the early 2000s, as the south of the country
was mired in political unrest,
Thai media began reporting on a new teenage obsession
with a kratom cocktail called 4x100.
One of the things that first made me interested in kratom
in Thailand were these sensational reports of people
consuming mosquito coils,
or fluorescent light bulb phosphor,
or powdered human remains.
Having the media pick up on the issue of kratom,
especially the 4x100 cocktail
that the kids drink in the south,
instills fear in the population
that there's these crazy drug-addled teenagers
around the corner,
ready to rape, pillage, and kill people.
That has legitimized, you know, scaling up the war
on drugs from the government.
♪♪
Where'd you learn how to do this?
And how does this compare to chewing kratom leaf?
Have you ever seen people using
these sorts of exotic ingredients?
Things like mosquito coils,
and the phosphor from fluorescent light tubes,
or powdered human remains?
Is any of that true?
What type of cough syrup is that?
You know, 'cause there's cough syrups that contain codeine,
there are cough syrups that contain dextromethorphan.
So, I'm curious what type of cough syrup that is.
Without the bizarre and toxic additives reported by the media,
this brew seems relatively benign,
simply a kratom-based iced tea with a kiss of chlorpheniramine.
Are you excited to drink it?
Have you ever been arrested for brewing 4x100?
It seems it's not the kratom concoction that's dangerous,
but rather the impact of prohibition
on this traditional herb.
♪♪
And so I must travel deeper still into the beating heart
of the southern peninsula
to find Thailand's last kratom forest,
or what remains of it.
♪♪
Morris: I have been told of a paradise beyond these seas.
A land where kratom grows free,
unencumbered by the wrongs of men.
But paradise comes at a price.
Teeming with violent gangs of kratom bandits,
Satun Province is menacing to both humans and herbs.
And so I was escorted by government park rangers
who protect one of Thailand's last kratom forests,
armed with M16 assault rifles
and the will to defend their native flora.
Have you ever had to use your gun?
♪♪
Ow!
Ow.
♪♪
Punji sticks.
This is a classic low-tech booby trap.
These kratom bandits aren't joking.
♪♪
So, I really did need to wear boots.
Oh, fuck.
Oh, shit!
Is this the way they went?
Wow.
This is insane.
Phew!
♪♪
Wow.
That's amazing.
Is this really the last kratom forest in Thailand?
♪♪
Did the dog follow us all the way here?
Why are you devoted to protecting this forest?
♪♪
Morris: A gibbon?
Wow.
This was kratom?
[ Dog panting ]
Oh.
There it is.
♪♪
I've never seen one in the wild.
Wow.
They look a little bit different from the kratom trees
that I saw growing in people's backyards.
There is a lot of competition from other plants.
The entire -- the back-seal surface of the leaf is red,
not just the mid vein.
♪♪
Kratom is an almost entirely benign, vaguely bitter,
mildly psychoactive Thai plant.
It's a nice plant with a long tradition
that should not be illegal.
In fact, I would go so far as to say no plant should be illegal,
and that the war on vegetables is insane
and nothing of use will ever be achieved
by making plants illegal.
It's a wonderful plant.
There's nothing wrong with this.
Who would be angry about this?
Who would dedicate their life to making this illegal?
What kind of insane person would do that?
♪♪
[ Applause ]
[ Electronic music playing ]
♪♪
Scorned by the government in its native land,
kratom has found a new home
in the urban jungle of New York City.
♪♪
For a couple years, it'll probably stay like this.
It won't be legal or illegal.
And then eventually they'll regulate it
and somehow figure out a way to make money off of us.
It has a little bit of a foothold
because of places like this, and that is good.
And by the end of this project,
I really think kratom is a great thing.
The future of this maligned Mitragyna is uncertain.
But in America, it's winning a battle against the D.E.A.
At least for now.
[ Siren wails ]