One million dollar kratom bust! Now we’re seeing kratom enter the territory of a blockbuster action film. Here’s what happened.
A man named Matthew Daily, 36 years old, from Royal Oak, Michigan was forced to forfeit $1 million of profit from his illegal kratom sales operation, called Nomad Botanicals. Daily was sentenced on May 8, 2019 to two years in prison for unlawfully importing and selling kratom.
At some point, this vendor made the wrong decision. He was confronted with the choice between being an honest, lawful, reliable kratom vendor…or go the way of faster profits, bigger greed, and risky criminal operations. Who knows what might have motivated him? What matters is that all smart vendors with good intentions need to remain on the road of higher ethics, and not give in to paths that end up in loss of fortune and gaining of misery.
It’s not enough to be smart and have strong ambitions. Perseverance and hard work don’t always lead to paradise. If some unethical twists enter into the picture, the portrait is bound to end up gloomy, made dismal by going in a direction that leads to failure and shame. Let’s hope he overcomes his problems and eventually rejoins society in a more dignified and successful manner. Everyone is worthy of second chances and hopeful optimism, if they admit their errors and sincerely change their behavior.
Daily had outwitted the FDA and imported several tons of kratom to his home in Michigan. His trickery involved mislabeling bundles of kratom as paint pigment or incense. Since it looked about right for the declared description, and further analysis was not conducted, Daily got away with it.
He would repackage the kratom and sell it as cures for various illnesses, even though the FDA has not approved kratom for safe human consumption, thanks to Big Pharma lobbyists. Matthew Daily became a kratom millionaire in a short period of time. His unsavory tactics of making snake oil salesman type claims for kratom made low information customers think it was a miracle drug.
He declared his kratom products as a cure for opiate withdrawal and marketed to those who were suffering from this condition. It’s one thing to say kratom can help people going through opioid withdrawal symptoms, which can be horrendous. Sufferers will latch onto anything that is cleverly advertised as the guaranteed remedy for everybody.
What’s really tragic is that kratom is legal in many states where Nomad Botanicals was selling its products. If Matthew Daily would have operated under the rules set up by the federal government and the restrictions of various regions, he might have maintained a growing and admired operation, a prosperous legitimate business.
It’s important to avoid vendors who promote kratom as a cure for Covid-19, alcoholism, opiate withdrawals, migraine headaches, or schizophrenia. While there may be incidents where people have been helped greatly by kratom, no reputable vendor will make ANY medical claims for it. At most, he or she will only describe their various strains, indicate vein color, region of origin (Sumatra, Cambodia, Borneo, Bali, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Aceh, Bentuangie, etc.), leaf maturity (horn, elephant, maeng da), 3rd party lab test results, and testimonials from customers about how they use it and the benefits they say they derive from each product.
Taking a simple plant, matching it with multiple diseases that are common these days, and marketing products as cures or remedies or guaranteed solutions to medical problems – this is not best practices in the kratom vendor world or any sphere of botanical, herbal, and therapeutic products.
People can be so desperate for a cure, they’ll try anything at all. Their fear of the ailment blinds their reason, so they can’t see how easily they succumb to con artists. They can’t see the scam being foisted upon them. All they can see is a delusional hope that maybe this time, it will work. It’s a sad dream world they live in, and get exploited by the worst kind of fraud perpetrators.
Never exaggerate or make wildly hopeful claims about kratom that are not supported by science. Anecdotal evidence, customer reviews, and patient reports need to be verified by careful clinical trials and lab experiments. It’s good to read testimonials about how kratom has helped someone who has a situation similar to yours. But be slow to enthusiasm. Maintain a guarded, skeptical stance of scrutiny.
Kratom is wonderful enough, without making unsubstantiated claims for it. Let the research reveal the truth about kratom’s action on mind and body and how it benefits various medical conditions. Until we have FDA approval and peer-reviewed studies on kratom, we must be reserved in how we praise it, even though it is indeed worthy of much praise.
