A flood of information about kratom circulates daily from supporters and those who have concerns about it, fueling intense debate. At the extremes of this divided landscape, some people view kratom as harmful and advocate for strict prohibition, while others see no faults in kratom use whatsoever. The Mysteries of Kratom, a new kratom documentary by Stephen Hamm, dives into this debate.
Nearly six years after the kratom-community-favorite documentary A Leaf of Faith was released, The Mysteries of Kratom shows how the kratom landscape has changed and provides some of the most in-depth coverage of kratom to date.
What Is The Mysteries of Kratom About?
In The Mysteries of Kratom (available for free on YouTube) Hamm presents both sides of the kratom debate and allows the audience to draw their own conclusions.
On one side are scientists, advocates, and traditional kratom consumers in Southeast Asia. On the other side are the grieving relatives of individuals who passed away due to ‘mitragynine-related toxicity’ as well as the trial lawyers who are representing their claims in court.
The new documentary spans diverse locations. In the first chapter, Stephen (Steve) Hamm travels to countries including Thailand and Malaysia to learn about kratom use and research in the regions where kratom grows naturally.
He then ventures to Appalachia, Florida, and other locations throughout the US to speak with more consumers, pharmacologists, and business owners.
Steve gave the impression of someone who scantily hid his own curiosity behind a facade of work. His film production projects seemed to legitimize his quest for knowledge, as though knowledge for knowledge’s sake would not adequately open doors to the conversations he wanted to have.
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Director Steve Hamm Visits West Virginia
In 2023, Steve Hamm traveled to West Virginia to meet me (Soren) and my team and speak about Top Tree, which I cofounded in 2020 to change the way that kratom is viewed and consumed in American culture.
Steve arrived in West Virginia late one spring evening. During our greetings, we introduced Steve to more than just the people he had journeyed here to meet: upon arrival at our home, Steve saw and touched a kratom tree for the first time.
It was one of the few survivors of a greenhouse full of kratom trees lost to winter frost. We kept the remaining trees as indoor plants—primarily decorative, unfortunately stunted in their growth.
We cared for the trees as a symbol of appreciation for the entire Mitragyna speciosa species, as their brethren halfway around the globe provided leaves for our tea.
My initial conversation with Steve flitted between small talk and compliments as we gauged trust in one another. As it turns out, Steve has long been a creative, shifting between media. He had written several books about big topics before they were big—artificial intelligence, cloud computing, personal computers, the rise of Indian tech companies…
Hamm’s past film productions had all been completed on a shoestring budget, but Hamm had still found success through local PBS broadcasting. His latest project on kratom marks the first time he spent money to complete a film.
Top Tree Herbs’ Role in The Mysteries of Kratom
The second morning of Steve’s visit, we met him for breakfast and planning. As we all enjoyed a cup of kratom tea, Steve and I discussed the interview we’d soon sit down for.
I’ve shared almost every story about Top Tree with excitement and openness in the past, from why we founded Top Tree to our involvement in legislation. But one of the most important Top Tree Herbs stories I have to share is one that I had never discussed publicly prior to the interview with Steve.
After our conversation ahead of the interview, I felt that Steve could be trusted to portray it accurately and fairly.
The Final Cut: Samuel Weber’s Death
All in all, our recorded conversation lasted for about an hour, though only a minute or so ended up in the final cut of the documentary.
Steve and I talked about the trials and tribulations of starting a kratom company. We spoke about tea bags and why they are the core of the business. And finally, we spoke about Sam Weber, my co-founder.
Who Is Samuel Weber?
Sam Weber and I met at Columbia University and established our friendship while taking one of Dr. Carl Hart’s classes, Drugs and Behavior. Our geeky obsession with drugs and gleeful experimental attitudes cemented our relationship, which in the short term revolved around study sessions fueled by cannabis, caffeine, and kratom.
Often Sam and I would talk about life after graduation. Sam oscillated between taking a promising Wall Street job and moving to Colorado to attempt to break into the cannabis industry.
Always bold, optimistic, and willing to take risks, Sam left for Colorado after we graduated. He got his foot in the door of a cannabis remediation start-up called Willow Industries. Initially, Sam drove trucks for Willow, delivering their heavy machinery to cannabis companies. He quickly rose through the ranks, and was eventually promoted to the head of the marketing department.
Still, Sam’s drive to succeed could not be sated. While I trudged through the final months of the COVID-hampered production of the third season of Hamilton’s Pharmacopeia, Sam gave me a call.
Sam knew that I, like him, enjoyed having kratom powder for productivity. He asked me if I realized that kratom was traditionally consumed by steeping the leaves to make tea. I explained that I was aware, but I had never actually seen anyone in the US make a tea with kratom.
Sam replied, “I think I’m going to quit my job and start a kratom tea company. Are you in?”
Seismic Shifts for Our Tea Family
Flash forward past two grueling years of getting our start-up tea company off the ground to the summer of 2022.
I had moved back home to West Virginia after Pharmacopeia production wrapped up in New York and was working virtually with Sam, who was still based out of Denver.
Sam had been working himself to the bone. He was sleeping very little and consuming a wide range of substances to help him with chronic pain and other issues—issues which were exacerbated by a recent traumatic brain injury sustained at a Denver skatepark.
On August 26, 2022, I was climbing at a rock outcrop called Seneca Rocks in eastern WV when I noticed I had a missed call from Sam’s wife. As soon as I was back on solid ground, with a prescient pit in my stomach, I returned her call.
She told me that earlier that morning she had made Sam breakfast, had a short conversation with him, and then stepped out to walk their dog. When she returned half an hour later, Sam was dead. She found him sitting upright in bed, the shower running, a towel around his waist, a half-eaten apple nearby, and an entrepreneurship podcast playing on his phone.
After I said goodbye to Sam’s wife, I fell apart. I spent the next few days in confused anguish, hoping family or medical professionals could eventually provide me with an explanation that would help me process Sam’s death more clearly.
The Controversy of Kratom-Related Toxicity
The agonizing sorrow of losing my beloved friend is not one that I can easily share in words or in writing with others, but I have done so on occasion for a few different reasons.
“Some people would take this story and warp it into an anti-kratom narrative. I believe this story exemplifies why we should continue the fight to keep kratom legal, regulated, and accessible.”
The reason I’m writing about it now, and the reason I shared this story with Steve Hamm for The Mysteries of Kratom, is that Sam’s death was legally attributed to the substance that Sam spent the last years of his life supporting.
After family, friends, and investigators searched Sam’s body and environment for answers, the Denver medical examiner declared his cause of death to be “mitragynine-related toxicity.” This declaration was not made with certainty, but in the absence of certainty.
There were no signs of a heart attack, stroke, or aneurysm. His toxicology report noted safe levels of THC, caffeine, and amphetamine. He had been vaccinated for COVID twice, and had come down with it a month or two prior as well, but he seemed to have recovered well. While he routinely slept less than three hours a night, he still managed to exercise and meditate daily. Sam had been under immense stress, but had just celebrated his 30th birthday and believed he was strong enough to continue “the grind.”
There was no smoking gun, just a thousand small paper cuts. So of all the variables involved, the one that was the most unfamiliar, mitragynine (the primary active alkaloid in kratom leaves), was chosen as Sam’s cause of death.
Some people would take this story and warp it into an anti-kratom narrative. I believe this story exemplifies why we should continue the fight to keep kratom legal, regulated, and accessible.
Debunking Myths: Has It Been Proven that You Can Overdose with Kratom?
While Sam’s story is personal, it reflects broader questions that are central to the debate surrounding kratom’s safety and regulation.
In cases of death in which kratom alkaloids are present in the toxicology report, the majority involve the co-consumption of kratom with other substances are likely contraindicated with kratom. Only a small fraction list kratom as the only substance of note found in the toxicology report, and an even smaller number cases don’t involve any underlying health conditions that might have contributed to a person’s risk of death. But these cases do exist.
Sam’s toxicology report cited no discernible contraindications with other substances. Still, like many official reports, there are inexplicable variables that cast doubt on the narrative that Sam died from a mitragynine overdose.
Sam had a complicated health history including a traumatic brain injury, extreme stress, and sleep deprivation. He had been experiencing severe stomach pain throughout the summer before he passed away, but he never visited a doctor because he didn’t have health insurance at the time. None of these issues were reflected in the report.
“Innocent until proven guilty” doesn’t apply when it comes to medical examiners and unfamiliar plants.
Beyond that, while Sam did often consume kratom tea and leaf powder, there was no evidence he had consumed any the morning of his passing. Overdoses do not usually hide latent in the body and then suddenly strike. The exact mechanism through which mitragynine could have led to Sam’s death remains unclear.
Mitragynine was listed as the cause of death not due to any clear evidence of its lethality, but because the levels found in Sam’s blood had unknown effects. “Innocent until proven guilty” doesn’t apply when it comes to medical examiners and unfamiliar plants.
Harm Reduction and Kratom: a Balanced Perspective
During the interview for The Mysteries of Kratom, Steve Hamm asked me how I run a kratom business when my co-founder died of a purported mitragynine-related toxicity.
My response (which I will reiterate here in slightly different words than I chose when speaking to Steve) is that Top Tree is a company committed to reducing harm and suffering in this world.
Though we wish we could eliminate all risk and harm for all people, we know this is a fallacy. No food, supplement, or drug is perfectly safe. A person can experience harm when consuming any product—from coffee and alcohol to licorice root or even water—if they consume it improperly. Kratom-derived products are no different.
Yes, kratom products have risks. Nevertheless, millions of people across the globe use various kratom-related products to improve their quality of life.
The question that we continually ask ourselves at Top Tree is, knowing that people are going to continue using kratom and similar products despite their potential risks, how can we maximize the benefits while limiting the downsides?
Why We Persisted with Top Tree After Sam Weber’s Death
Sam’s death, even if it was related to kratom in some way, doesn’t change the bigger picture: that many kratom products can make a huge difference in peoples’ quality of life and serve as useful harm-reduction tools on a societal level.
Research into kratom and its individual alkaloids is still limited, but thus far, evidence suggests that there is a large gap between the common serving size people consume and the amount of kratom that induces negative side effects.
We do not doubt that kratom can kill you, or that it could have contributed to Sam’s death. However, it is not some otherworldly evil substance that kills without explanation. Before we can be satisfied with the determination that any death is the result of mitragynine-related toxicity, we just want to see a convincing etiology.
With that in mind, our mission at Top Tree from day one has been to educate consumers about kratom to the best of our ability and to create a kratom product that would closely resemble the formulation of kratom that has been safely consumed for centuries in Southeast Asia: a tea made by steeping kratom leaves.
We have long championed kratom tea as a safer, more traditional way to enjoy kratom. Relative to most other kratom-derived products, it has a well-established safety profile.
Most recorded harm associated with kratom stems from adulterants (inadvertent or intentional additions of substances that make a product dangerous) or misuse (overindulgence, intentional co-consumption with products that may not be safe, etc.).
Our tea, on the other hand, is thoroughly tested for heavy metals and microbial contaminants. We list the lab results for kratom alkaloid levels on our packaging. We give conservative serving size suggestions and instructions for use. Further, we warn consumers about potential risks associated with kratom.
All of these actions combine to produce a product that we can confidently argue is the safest kratom on the market.
Behind the Scenes of The Mysteries of Kratom: Exploring Psychoactive Mushrooms with Steven Hamm
After sharing Sam’s story with Steve, I felt emotionally drained and deeply reflective. Experiences like these remind me of the fragility of life and the need to find solace in nature.
Foraging for mushrooms is one of many ways I’m able to reconnect with the world around me. I love identifying fungi, admiring their unique forms, and learning about their lifecycle. Foraging offers me comfort in times of grief and a chance to appreciate the resilience of life in its smallest forms.
So, after our interview, Steve and I packed our gear and joined my partner Caro, my father Jeff, and Jeff’s girlfriend Tara for a walk through the woods—an opportunity to shift from the weight of loss to the quiet contemplation that foraging brings.
Foraging Psilocybe ovoideocystidiata in Appalachia
One fungus holds a special place in my heart above all the rest, the elusive Psilocybe ovoideocystidiata. Steve had never gone foraging for mushrooms before, and delighted at the opportunity to experience it.
Fortunately, the previous week’s rain and cool nightly temperatures had provided the perfect conditions for the ‘ovoids’ to grow abundantly. There were many beautiful specimens to admire.
Steve filmed parts of this foraging adventure, and some of the footage appears in The Mysteries of Kratom.
A quick aside: In most states, foraging Psilocybe mushrooms is illegal. We advise against foraging or possessing psilocybin-containing mushrooms in these locations. Some states and localities, such as Colorado, have decriminalized natural entheogens. Decriminalization an important first step towards ending the unnecessary suffering caused by policing of nonviolent drug-related “crimes,” but it is only the beginning of the process.
Steve Hamm’s The Mysteries of Kratom Documentary Recap
The Mysteries of Kratom is as much of a story about kratom as it is a story about following your curiosity and scrutinizing opinions as a non-expert. Traveling, filming, and interviewing solo, Steve Hamm was able to produce a comprehensive documentary on a limited budget.
The Mysteries of Kratom only scratches the surface of the political motivations shaping the kratom industry. If you’re familiar with kratom and have read some of the published scientific literature, you probably won’t be surprised by any of the footage.
But for those new to kratom, the documentary offers a balanced look at controversies that surround kratom—the addiction potential (or lack thereof) of different kratom-derived products, the health benefits and drawbacks, current research into kratom, and more.
All of us at Top Tree are extremely grateful for Steve Hamm’s work on this documentary. His dedication to releasing an unbiased examination of the discourse around kratom is admirable.
Watch The Mysteries of Kratom on YouTube above and share your thoughts with us. What did you think of Hamm’s exploration of this divisive topic?
