Police Sergeant Matt Dana's Death Ruled A Kratom Overdose

Trending News: How A Popular Workout Supplement Killed A Healthy Police Sergeant

Long Story Short

People are calling for bans of the herbal supplement kratom after an overdose allegedly caused the sudden death of a healthy police sergeant. 

Long Story

It was about a year ago that I first heard about kratom. My friend started preaching to me how the herbal supplement helped him stay focused. It also has pain relieving properties, can help ween opioid users off of their drugs and is frequently used by bodybuilders as a pre-workout energy boost.

Matthew Dana, a police sergeant in New York State, also took kratom. Dana was a healthy 27-year-old and was into bodybuilding, according to ABC News. Tragically, a recent police autopsy found an overdose of kratom was the reason Dana died suddenly in August.

"It was the talk of the town. People were upset it was reported as an overdose," Paul Maroun, mayor of Tupper Lake, the Upstate New York town where Dana grew up, told ABC News. "It's not an illegal drug."

Kratom is a natural supplement derived from a Southeast Asian plant and it's perfectly legal in most states -- my friend got a pack from a local head shop.

If you take a little, it'll give you a coffee-like high. If you take a lot, it can make you relaxed or even mildly euphoric.

But kratom is also risky, as you've probably gathered following Dana's sudden death.

Six states ban kratom and the Drug Enforcement Agency considered making it illegal nationwide, but decided to delay its decision in 2016 due to protests from Congress and the American Kratom Association.

The AKA contests that Dana's death was not due to the Red Vein Maeng Da strain of kratom he was taking, but rather, due to other unknown factors.

"This is very personal to a lot of folks," Pete Candland, AKA's executive director, said to ABC News. "There are so many people who feel kratom has literally saved their lives, whether it's getting them off an opioid addiction, relieving pain or helping with overall health and well-being."

Since kratom is a dietary supplement, it hasn't been tested in the same clinical trials other drugs are usually subjected to. That means we don't know exactly what happens when you take it over a long period of time or when you take a lot of it.

Then again, this is what people say with a lot of natural supplements, but it doesn't mean everything with 'natural' or 'herbal' on the label could kill you.

It'll be interesting to see what happens if the coroner's report from Dana's death gets reviewed by toxicologists, as the AKA is advocating for. Still, I'd probably lay off the kratom, at least for the time being.

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