Botanic Tonics, the maker of an addictive, opioid-like kratom drink sold in convenience stores around the nation, told a Columbus judge last week that it has been selling about 59,000 Feel Free bottles in Ohio per day.
That works out to roughly 21.5 million bottles a year (at $10 each) – a pace the company says has at times outsold 5-Hour Energy.
Behind the hundreds of millions in annual revenue from Feel Free and other kratom products lies a trail of Ohioans who say they’ve become addicted to the east Asian-originated plant with the same ferocity as illegal substances like heroin and fentanyl. One Lancaster woman told state officials how the yearslong kratom addiction of her husband, who’s recovering from opioid addiction, started with the blue bottles of Feel Free sold at a convenience store…