Miserable taste, but not tongkat ali (because it’s kratom)

Finally, after the drug fakers, the narcotics traffickers have also entered the tongkat ali market, and they try to go mainstream.

eBay is of help.

You can check for yourself (as long as it hasn’t been taken off). I also keep a large collection of printscreens… for documentation purposes, and as proof for what I write.

The link between the narcotics traffickers and tongkat ali is an opiate analogue named kratom.

This drug is native to Southeast Asia. In Thailand and China, it is legally treated the same as heroin, and the possession of quantities beyond certain small limits is considered trafficking and punished with the death penalty.

It is also scheduled as a narcotic drug in Australia and an increasing number of other countries.

However, in many other constituencies, the law is still silent on kratom, simply because the drug is not (yet) known and not (yet) circulated to teenage target groups.

But kratom displays all the characteristics of opiate drugs, including causing addiction and severe withdrawal symptoms.

On the other hand, some characteristics of kratom are even more vicious than those of poppy opiates. Among these is the fact that it is both a stimulant and a sedative. This means that it affords narcotics traders the opportunity to build up addictions in people who initially consume it as a coffee-like substance, or in the belief that they are ingesting tongkat ali.

Tongkat ali is neither a sedative nor a stimulant. If some users complain that they can’t sleep after taking tongkat ali, and if the tongkat ali is from a dubious source (such as a Ebay trader rather than an established company), these users have good reason to suspect that their “tongkat ali” is something containing kratom.

Tongkat ali extract, especially 1:200 extract, has a long history of being forged and laced with chemicals and substances like kratom.

The reason is: tongkat ali is rare and expensive. Furthermore, to make a high-potency extract is a strenuous task, taking (from root to extract) at least 2 weeks in cycles of soaking, simmering, sharp reheating (to sterilized) than more soaking and evaporating, until a dry result is obtained. All of this is economically viable only if production is on a large scale.

On the other hand, an “extract” based on crushed foliage (as it may be collected from the ground of any city park) can be prepared in a home kitchen on a gas stove within a few hours.

Of course, if it’s just that, people will complain that it has no effect.

Now, pharmaceutical fakers who target elderly men with their “tongkat ali” get around this problem by lacing their concoctions with Pfizer’s Blue or Pfizer’s Blue analogues (chemicals similar to Pfizer’s Blue, but entirely untested in humans).

This kind of “tongkat ali” facilitates erections, so traders can claim that it works.

Numerous such fake tongkat ali products have been pulled off the shelves by the FDA and comparative government agencies in other countries (see the Wikipedia entry on Eurycoma longifolia for references).

But now, with narcotics traders entering the market, it’s going to be a case for the DEA, not the FDA.

As mentioned above, it’s the branch of narcotics traders dealing in kratom who have discovered tongkat ali.

Why? Possibly because of some unique features, kratom and tongkat ali have in common. The extremely miserable taste, for example.

Furthermore, largely erroneous reports have been circulating on the Internet for some time as to tongkat ali causing sleeplessness and over-agitation.

Low-dose kratom has these characteristics, but not tongkat ali.

Tongkat ali has the power to boost testosterone levels back to youthful (useful) levels.

Aging men can remember how they felt when their testosterone levels were higher. They had more energy, were easier to excite, especially sexually.

But constantly agitated? That’s not even pleasant.

Anyway, testosterone is released, and exerts it’s effect, in pulses, not as a continuous state. We feel testosterone as a rage of anger, or as a wave of sexual excitement, not as a persistent high.

However, narcotics traffickers are used to a client that wants to feel doped. A client that wants an immediate mental response. Who want to feel certain that they have taken something.

And that is much easier to achieve with kratom than with genuine tongkat ali. That is why they claim that their tongkat ali is more powerful. Of course it is more powerful. After all, it’s a narcotic drug, not an adaptogen.

The reaction, of course, depends on the concoction and the amount of kratom leaves mixed into it.

A low amount will just feel like a few cups of tea, a degree of agitation that may even be comfortable.

A larger quantity will be more yohimbine-like.

But one feature that sets kratom apart from theobromine and yohimbine is the addicting character. And, of course, the opiate-style dreamworld of higher dosages (but these will seldom be reached by users who are in the belief that they are consuming tongkat ali).

So, with kratom, the narcotics traffickers have an item that is easy to sell as tongkat ali because of the miserable taste, an item that people feel as agitation (which uneducated users may interpret as testosterone-modulated), plus something that causes people to come back for more (because it’s addicting).

It’s also something to make money with, because of the high price of the genuine product.

Quite ideal for narcotics traffickers who want to expand their markets beyond that of youngsters looking for a kick. Libido-deprived seniors, and physique-concerned bodybuilders addicted to what they falsely believe to be tongkat ali.