First, I'd like to state that I am not a casual drug user (I don't even smoke weed). I do smoke tobacco, however. I was recently diagnosed with a form of tendonitis that gave me considerable pain in my right wrist at the thumb and my options were surgery to correct the problem (followed by physical therapy for several...
Kratom
Well-documented
Well-documented
Multiple authoritative sources agree on dosing and effects.
- 5 corroborating sources
- 1 ROA with full dose ladder
- duration data present
- 29 combo interactions documented
- toxicity data (PsychonautWiki)
Well-documented
Multiple authoritative sources agree on dosing and effects.
- 5 corroborating sources
- 1 ROA with full dose ladder
- duration data present
- 29 combo interactions documented
- toxicity data (PsychonautWiki)
Aliases: Biak, Thom, Ketum, Thang, Madat
Summary
Kratom (Mitragyna speciosa) is a tropical tree native to Southeast Asia with leaves containing indole alkaloids including mitragynine and 7-hydroxymitragynine. Effects are dose-dependent: low doses produce stimulant effects while higher doses produce opioid-like sedation and analgesia. Potency varies significantly between strains, batches, and vein colors (red, green, white, yellow).
Perspectives
“Kratom is a remarkable botanical, but if you are going to use it, dose sensibly and be careful not to make a habit of it.”
Dose Information
| ROA | Light | Common | Strong | Heavy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oral BA ~20% | 0.5-1.5g | 1.5-3g | 3-6g | 6g+ |
Onset, Duration & After-effects
| ROA | Onset | Comeup | Peak | Offset | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oral | 10-40 min | 30-60 min | 1-2 hrs | 2-4 hrs | 2-5 hrs |
Effect Profile
449 reportsScores (0–10) curated from multiple sources:
- Effect keyword matching from PsychonautWiki catalog
- Validated against 363 Erowid trip reports
- Weighted by importance: core (×3), major (×2), minor (×1)
Stimulant
8.0
Intense
8/10
Strong euphoria and focus with moderate stimulation
Stimulation / Energy
×3
6
stimulation
Euphoria / Mood Lift
×2
10
physical euphoria
cognitive euphoria
motivation enhancement
Focus / Productivity
×2
8
focus enhancement
motivation enhancement
thought acceleration
Anxiety / Jitters
×1
0
Opioid
7.7
Intense
8/10
Strong euphoria, pain relief, and sedation with strong itching/nausea
Euphoria / Warmth
×3
10
physical euphoria
cognitive euphoria
Analgesia
×2
8
pain relief
Sedation / Relaxation
×1
8
sedation
muscle relaxation
Itching / Nausea
×1
10
nausea
constipation
Based on reports from:
Tolerance
Build-up
develops over weeks of daily use; partial cross-tolerance with classical opioids
Reset
Falls quickly once you stop, at a rate you can't judge. After any break, treat your tolerance as gone.
No tolerance chart. Our decay curves for opioids were estimates, and a curve can make tolerance look longer-lasting than it is, which is the dangerous direction.
Opioid tolerance drops fast when you stop, and even a few days off can be enough, so a dose that used to be normal can now stop your breathing. Overdose deaths rise sharply after prison, detox or leaving treatment, and tolerance also falls during a hospital stay. After any break, start with a much smaller amount, try a test dose first, don't use alone, and keep naloxone within reach. Alcohol, benzodiazepines, gabapentinoids and other sedatives make an opioid overdose much more likely.
Sources: FRANK: heroin · National Harm Reduction Coalition · WHO: opioid overdose · Merrall et al. 2010 · Binswanger et al. 2007 · Strang et al. 2003 · FDA 2019: gabapentinoids and breathing
Effects
Aggregated from 363 single-substance Erowid and 86 Bluelight experience reports (the Bluelight figures come from the 50 of them read for effects); 196 Erowid reports where another drug was taken too are left out
Each bar shows the share of analyzed reports whose text mentions that effect — a mention is not always a first-hand experience (fear of an effect or something witnessed can count). Mentions saying the effect did not happen are left out; that check reads keywords, so it can miss some. The shaded band on a bar, and the small range after its number, is the 95% interval: where the share could plausibly be with other reports of the same kind. Fewer reports, wider band. Tap or hover any number for details. The second value is the Bluelight extractor's per-effect confidence; a dash means the row is Erowid-derived, which has no confidence measurement.
Effect glossary — · full glossary
Positive Effects 54
47.2% (95% interval 42 to 52 percent)
91%
39.9% (95% interval 35 to 45 percent)
86%
38.0% (95% interval 26 to 52 percent)
85%
34.0% (95% interval 22 to 48 percent)
82%
31.7% (95% interval 27 to 36 percent)
84%
25.4% (95% interval 22 to 30 percent)
85%
16.4% (95% interval 13 to 20 percent)
85%
14.0% (95% interval 11 to 18 percent)
87%
12.6% (95% interval 10 to 16 percent)
87%
12.0% (95% interval 6 to 24 percent)
85%
12.0% (95% interval 6 to 24 percent)
82%
10.0% (95% interval 4 to 21 percent)
73%
9.4% (95% interval 7 to 13 percent)
85%
9.2% (95% interval 7 to 12 percent)
82%
9.0% (95% interval 7 to 12 percent)
72%
8.3% (95% interval 6 to 12 percent)
–
8.0% (95% interval 3 to 19 percent)
81%
8.0% (95% interval 3 to 19 percent)
84%
8.0% (95% interval 3 to 19 percent)
84%
Auditory Effects
6.5% (95% interval 4 to 9 percent)
88%
Show 34 more positive effects
6.0% (95% interval 2 to 16 percent)
75%
6.0% (95% interval 2 to 16 percent)
80%
6.0% (95% interval 2 to 16 percent)
85%
6.0% (95% interval 2 to 16 percent)
82%
4.8% (95% interval 3 to 7 percent)
90%
4.0% (95% interval 1 to 14 percent)
82%
4.0% (95% interval 1 to 14 percent)
82%
4.0% (95% interval 1 to 14 percent)
92%
4.0% (95% interval 1 to 14 percent)
80%
4.0% (95% interval 1 to 14 percent)
85%
4.0% (95% interval 1 to 14 percent)
88%
4.0% (95% interval 1 to 14 percent)
78%
4.0% (95% interval 1 to 14 percent)
90%
3.6% (95% interval 2 to 6 percent)
88%
2.9% (95% interval 2 to 5 percent)
80%
2.4% (95% interval 1 to 4 percent)
80%
2.0% (95% interval 0 to 10 percent)
85%
2.0% (95% interval 0 to 10 percent)
85%
2.0% (95% interval 0 to 10 percent)
85%
2.0% (95% interval 0 to 10 percent)
80%
2.0% (95% interval 0 to 10 percent)
85%
2.0% (95% interval 0 to 10 percent)
90%
2.0% (95% interval 0 to 10 percent)
85%
2.0% (95% interval 0 to 10 percent)
80%
2.0% (95% interval 0 to 10 percent)
75%
2.0% (95% interval 0 to 10 percent)
80%
2.0% (95% interval 0 to 10 percent)
90%
2.0% (95% interval 0 to 10 percent)
85%
2.0% (95% interval 0 to 10 percent)
80%
2.0% (95% interval 0 to 10 percent)
85%
2.0% (95% interval 0 to 10 percent)
80%
2.0% (95% interval 0 to 10 percent)
85%
2.0% (95% interval 0 to 10 percent)
75%
2.0% (95% interval 0 to 10 percent)
80%
Adverse Effects 39
35.8% (95% interval 31 to 41 percent)
88%
22.0% (95% interval 13 to 35 percent)
89%
20.0% (95% interval 11 to 33 percent)
86%
18.0% (95% interval 10 to 31 percent)
84%
16.0% (95% interval 8 to 28 percent)
79%
10.9% (95% interval 8 to 14 percent)
82%
8.0% (95% interval 3 to 19 percent)
81%
8.0% (95% interval 3 to 19 percent)
79%
8.0% (95% interval 3 to 19 percent)
75%
8.0% (95% interval 6 to 11 percent)
80%
6.0% (95% interval 2 to 16 percent)
87%
6.0% (95% interval 2 to 16 percent)
80%
6.0% (95% interval 2 to 16 percent)
75%
6.0% (95% interval 2 to 16 percent)
80%
5.8% (95% interval 4 to 9 percent)
–
4.3% (95% interval 3 to 7 percent)
87%
4.0% (95% interval 1 to 14 percent)
80%
4.0% (95% interval 1 to 14 percent)
85%
4.0% (95% interval 1 to 14 percent)
85%
4.0% (95% interval 1 to 14 percent)
88%
2.0% (95% interval 0 to 10 percent)
85%
1.1% (95% interval 0 to 3 percent)
–
Show 17 more adverse effects
4.0% (95% interval 1 to 14 percent)
82%
4.0% (95% interval 1 to 14 percent)
88%
3.6% (95% interval 2 to 6 percent)
–
2.5% (95% interval 1 to 5 percent)
–
2.0% (95% interval 0 to 10 percent)
80%
2.0% (95% interval 0 to 10 percent)
85%
2.0% (95% interval 0 to 10 percent)
85%
2.0% (95% interval 0 to 10 percent)
90%
2.0% (95% interval 0 to 10 percent)
80%
2.0% (95% interval 0 to 10 percent)
80%
2.0% (95% interval 0 to 10 percent)
75%
2.0% (95% interval 0 to 10 percent)
75%
2.0% (95% interval 0 to 10 percent)
80%
2.0% (95% interval 0 to 10 percent)
90%
2.0% (95% interval 0 to 10 percent)
75%
2.0% (95% interval 0 to 10 percent)
95%
2.0% (95% interval 0 to 10 percent)
90%
Also reported in combinations. In the 196 Kratom reports where another drug was taken too, 18 (9.2%) mention hospital, emergency services or an overdose, 2 (1.0%) a seizure and 1 (0.5%) psychosis. In the 363 single-substance reports: 5.0%, 0.6% and 1.1%. These are not in the figures above: they cannot be put down to Kratom alone, and a mention is not always something that happened to the writer.
Combinations
Cross-Check Kratom with another substanceCommunity Trip Reports
Anecdotal first-person accounts from Reddit, Erowid, Bluelight, and Dose.wiki. Click a source to expand. Reports are harm-reduction context, not medical guidance. Tags summarise each author's own verdict — how reports are classified.
Erowid 8 reports 3 positive 2 neutral 3 cautionary visit
I took Kratom every day, three to four times per day, for more than six years. I kept my dosage pretty consistent at half a tablespoon in a tea. When the DEA started threatening to ban it, I decided it was time to quit.
Wow what to say about Kratom other than I found it an excellent tool for self healing. I bought a small 4 gram vial off an online vendor looking for something to give me the inner softness and perception to work on my mind/body. I was extremely impressed.
Kratom Putting More Hours in the Workday This report is part of an eight-report collection. The collection consists of a summary report that is retrospective and generalized in nature as well as seven [of which this is one] more detailed chronicles of my experiences with various chemicals used intentionally for work...
Kratom: A Medicinal and Recreational Ally Background: I have been working with leaves of the tree Mitragyna speciosa (kratom) for a couple years now, and wish to share what I have learned of this wonderful plant. I am a 24 year old male weighing 128 pounds.
It has been an eventful four months since kratom unexpectedly entered my life and assumed in it a role of moderate significance. I am a healthy and athletic twenty year old male attending a West coast liberal arts college.
Purchased 28g (1 oz) in the form of 50 capsules from online vendor. This is my first experience with kratom & I prefer to be conservative with new drugs/herbs. I am a recovering addict, who has noticeably begun withdrawing from benzodiazepines which I stopped just over 2 weeks ago.
[Erowid Note: Driving while intoxicated, tripping, or extremely sleep deprived is dangerous and irresponsible because it endangers other people. Don't do it! ] A bit of history first.
Bluelight 8 threads 4 positive 2 neutral 2 cautionary visit
Hey, So I decided to finally try Kratom tea, in place of my normal codiene dose. Instead of proper tea, however, I thought it would be good to mix it hot chocolate to appeal to my sweet tooth, and also cover up the apparently horrible taste.
Opening my eyes I stare at the thousands of tiny dots that compose the drop ceiling above. For a few minutes I lie there as the sun shines in. Another beautiful day. I should leave it there, but another beautiful day usually means to me, another day I’m going to waste lost in this fog of pain, sadness and loneliness.
So .. something new! Bit of a BG: I've been around BL / sampling + abusing drugs for damn near five years now. Thru that time, I've always smoked cannabis on/off [still love it, but have to lay off due to job search], had my raving days where I'd do all the MDMA / mushrooms / ketamine I could get ..
New Year's Kratom Chillout On december 31st I decided to go to a friend's party. I ate like I always do, maybe even more than usual cause some alcohol was supposed to run down my throat that night and my tollerance is extremely weak, practically non existant.
Lately I have been getting very good quality Kratom and Kanna, Sceletium Tortuosum. I think that the Kratom trips i have had none of you have even come close to experience. Strong Physical Pleasure and Euphoria. Kratom not only is it mentally Euphoric but the physical sensation is very pleasurable.
Anyhow I am having a hard time writing this report. The effects of the Maeng Da Kratom are quite strong. I am getting a nod... I have issues with Bronchitis and Nasal Congestion and wow Kratom is amazing.
Prologue A bit of insight on my kratom usage. The first time i did it i special ordered some from a smokeshop (ground leaves) because i knew by the time it arrived i'd be withdrawaling from my worst hydrocodone dependency to date.
I have quite a bit of experience with kratom in the last 6 months since starting to use it. I have done it at least 50 times now with the maximum amount I used in a day being maybe about 20 grams.
Bluelight Reference Guide
Kratom Kratom Megathread V.2
Original Thread here Kratom basics: Curious About Kratom? Here's What We Know, Based On Science, Of Course - Kratom.org There's a lot of information on kratom out there, but a lot of it's biased or outdated. This guide covers almost everything, based on current research.
Read full thread on Bluelight →
Kratom's nerd page
Pharmacology, chemical data, effect profiles, and more
→
Helpful Links
Import into PsychonautWiki Journal
The PsychonautWiki Journal app includes Kratom, but its built-in data can be thinner than ours. Importing this file adds a separate "Kratom (Substance Search)" custom substance with our dose ranges and durations, so you can log against whichever you prefer. It leaves tolerance out on purpose, for the reason given under Tolerance above.
⬇ Download import file
Import this file as custom substances
and you get "Kratom (Substance Search)" with every
route's full dose ladder and timeline, no typing. Works on iOS and
Android (v15+); the format is confirmed by the app's
developer.
Ranges are harm-reduction guidance, not a prescription.
Report an issue or suggest an edit
Spotted incorrect or dangerous information, have a correction, a new study, or a useful addition for Kratom? Let us know. Reports are reviewed by moderators — this is not posted publicly.