What is Kratom? Uncovering the opioid-like drug affecting college campuses
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The recent deaths of two University of Mississippi students have garnered nationwide attention because of their links to kratom — an unregulated opioid-like substance sold as a stimulant and depressant.
The packaged kratom involved in the deaths were pills sold at a retail store. The drug can commonly be found online, in convenience stores and gas stations.
Kratom is an herbal substance derived from a tree commonly found in Thailand. While not classified as an opioid, the drug interacts with the same brain receptor targeted by opioids and produces similar effects.
Before the confirmation of kratom, students at Ole Miss suspected another drug, the synthetic opioid cychlorphine, was the cause. Cychlorphine can appear on its own or mixed with other drugs including cocaine, fentanyl and methamphetamines.
The drug can’t be detected by fentanyl testing strips and may be 10 times more potent than fentanyl, according to Becker’s Behavioral Health. If taken in high doses, cychlorphine can lead to changes in behavior, sleepiness, breathing and cause heart attacks. The drug has been linked to at least 55 deaths nationwide in 2025 and 2026, U.S. News & World Report reported.
Although the connection is unconfirmed at Ole Miss, the drug has spread worry across other universities, with one social media page at Coastal Carolina University sending out a message of concern.
Syracuse University Department of Public Health professor Dessa Bergen-Cico said at lower doses, kratom functions like a stimulant. However, higher concentrations can produce varying depressant effects.
SU’s Department of Public Safety and the Syracuse Police Department both declined to comment.
Users can experience increased energy or alertness when first taking kratom, Bergen-Cico said, but higher doses have more severe impacts including pain modification and sedative effects.
“I think one of the reasons it’s also appealing is it’s perhaps seen as safer and natural because it’s a plant based substance,” Bergen-Cico said.
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The drug is easily obtainable and widely sold because it’s not regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Bergen-Cico said. Kratom is legal at the federal level, but some state and local governments have banned the substance.
“It falls in this gray category of neither food nor drug technically by the FDA,” Bergen-Cico said. “Because of that, it’s not tested and regulated.”
Since the drug is widely sold, Bergen-Cico said alteration of the substance can be common, whether intentional or natural.
“It’s uncertain really what people are getting if there’s fillers in it, if there’s other adulterants, or if there’s even things like mold and spore contamination that can naturally happen with plant-based substances,” Bergen-Cico said.
Researchers have also warned against combining different drugs and alcohol with kratom. In many overdose investigations involving kratom, toxicologists often see correlation between overdoses and using kratom with other substances, Bergen-Cico said.
“There is often another depressant that’s present with kratom,” Bergen-Cico said. “So it could be alcohol, it can be Xanax, benzodiazepines, or other opioids. They all have a compounding effect on the central nervous system.”
Although combination overdoses can make it hard to determine what causes a death, there’s growing concern surrounding a specific compound of kratom for its addictiveness, — 7-hydroxymitragynine.
In response to the deaths at Ole Miss, the university rolled out vending machines with free Narcan for students. Narcan, an emergency drug used to quickly reverse drug overdoses, has produced mixed results for combating kratom.
The substance’s similarity to opioids may help Narcan reverse some symptoms, Bergen-Cico said. However, limited research creates a challenge for an immediate response to a kratom overdose.
Questions about legal status, product contents and overdose treatments have led to a common theme of “uncertainty,” Bergen-Cico said. She said the uncertainty is why it’s important to take certain safety measures if taking kratom.
Those who choose to use kratom shouldn’t take it alone and have a sober friend that can check on them, Bergen-Cico said.
“Not using alone is important. Having somebody else who’s maybe a delayed user or a sober person that is checking on folks can help, Bergen-Cico said. “And then if all of that fails or isn’t available, use the advice of starting slow and taking low amounts.”
