The Drug Hiding in Plain Sight: A Former Kratom Addict Speaks Out | Jonny Schoen |Have A Seat

Chris Hansen (0:00)

In the last few weeks, two students at the University of Mississippi, Old Miss, died. Drug overdoses, kids who are in the primes of their lives, good kids, good students, athletic, great parents, all of it. Dead, shocking. And what do they have in common? At both death scenes, something called Kratom was found. Now, if you don't know what Kratom is, it probably sounds somewhat familiar, given the fact that every time you drive by a gas station, sometimes mini-marts, grocery stores, you see it advertised. What is it? Some people call it gas station heroin. It comes in different forms. In its natural state, it can be beneficial to people trying to beat an opioid addiction. But it's dangerous in the way it's being sold. We have, having a seat with me today, a young man, musician, athlete, all-around great kid who I had known for some 20 years, who is deeply involved in this world, not just because he's had experience with Kratom, he now helps people get off of Kratom.

I ran into him, and we'll get into this in our conversation, and we got into this discussion several months ago.

I reached out to him again based upon those deaths that occurred in so many other tragic cases around the country. His name is Jonny Schoen. Jonny, thanks for having a seat with me. I appreciate it.

Jonny Schoen (1:28)

I'm so happy to be here.

Chris Hansen (1:29)

We go back a long way, don't we?

Jonny Schoen (1:31)

A long way.

Chris Hansen (1:31)

You were a kid when I first met you.

Jonny Schoen (1:32)

I know. Yeah.

Chris Hansen (1:33)

Jonny is the son of some friends of mine, who I've known for many, many years. And we happened into each other on Broadway at about 20th Street. About six months ago, I was coming from the trainer, and you were on your way to wherever you were going. And we got into this conversation.

Kratom. What is Kratom?

Jonny Schoen (1:59)

It's such, first of all, thank you for having me. I'm so pumped to be here because it's such a complicated thing. And myself and my team at Klear, we've kind of been like screaming from the rooftops about this and now just having the opportunity.

Chris Hansen (2:14)

And Klear Recovery is your group, and we're going to get into that in a minute, but just so people know. Yeah.

So tell me, to somebody who doesn't know what Kratom is, and I know what it is, and I've seen it around. I don't know it as well as you do, but what is it?

Jonny Schoen (2:27)

So really simply put, Kratom in its most pure organic form is a leaf that is grown naturally in Indonesia. And it's been around for thousands of years, and people have been taking it in ceremony for thousands of years.

Chris Hansen (2:42)

What does it do to you, what is used properly in its most pure form?

Jonny Schoen (2:47)

It's such an interesting substance because if you take a lot of it, it can be a sedative and it can feel like you've taken a painkiller or an opioid.

Chris Hansen (2:56)

Do you make tea out of it? Do you smoke it? Do you ingest it?

Jonny Schoen (2:59)

It comes the leaf in its natural form. You would see it out of store in a big green powder, right?

Then what they've done, and this is what we'll get into, is they've started to concentrate that, and it's gotten very far from the natural plant to these synthesized compounds that are quite literally destroying people's lives, which is why it's so, there's such a large spectrum of how Kratom is being ingested, because there is an argument that, hey, this is actually not so harmless of a thing, which it obviously is, because people are dying, but there's a way to take it safely, or safely with quotes. But then on the other end of the spectrum, there's the capsule or the pill that is being sold, which is called 7-OH, that is just as strong as morphine, and coming off of this stuff is insanely horrible. We've spoken to people who have been on Fentanyl, and they say the detox from 7-OH or these Kratom products is worse than coming off of Fentanyl. So in its natural form, it is a plant that comes from Indonesia and has been around for years.

Chris Hansen (4:06)

In its natural plant form, I have heard that people are using it to get off a heroin or other opioids, and that it is, in its natural form, less harsh and maybe even better than a suboxone or a prescribed pharmaceutical treatment to wean yourself from opioid addiction.