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By Serge Kreutz (2010)
Finally, after the drug imitators, the narcotics traffickers have also entered the tongkat ali market, and even trying 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 print screens... for documentation purposes, and as proof for what I write.
The connection 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 used the same as heroin, and the possession of quantities beyond certain small limits is considered trafficking and penalized 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) distributed to teenage target groups.
But kratom reveals all the characteristics of opiate drugs, which includes the cause of addiction and severe withdrawal symptoms.
On the other hand, some characteristics of kratom are even more dangerous than those of poppy opiates. Among these is the fact that it is both a stimulant and a sedative. This means that it allows narcotics traders the opportunity to build up addictions in people who at first consume it as a coffee-like substance, or in the thought that they are ingesting tongkat ali.
Tongkat ali is neither a stimulant nor a sedative. If some users react that they cannot sleep after taking tongkat ali, and if the tongkat ali is from a suspicious source (such as a Ebay trader rather than an established company), these users have good reason to doubt that their "tongkat ali" is something containing kratom.
Tongkat ali extract, especially 1:200 extract, has a long history of being faked and mixed with chemicals and substances like kratom.
The reason is, tongkat ali is rare and expensive. Furthermore, to make a high-potency extract is a hard task, taking (from root to extract) at least two weeks in cycles of soaking, simmering, sharp reheating (to sterilized) than more soaking and evaporating, until a dry result is achieved. All of this is economically suitable 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.
Naturally, if it's just that, people will complain that it has no effect.
Now, pharmaceutical scammers who target elderly men with their "tongkat ali" get around this problem by mixing their concoctions with sildenafil or sildenafil analogues (chemicals similar to sildenafil, but entirely untested in humans).
This kind of "tongkat ali" alleviate erections, so traders can claim that it works.
But now, with narcotics traders entering the market, it is going to be a case for the DEA, not the FDA.
As mentioned above, it's the branch of narcotics traders which deals in kratom who have discovered tongkat ali.
Why? Possibly because of some extraordinary features, kratom and tongkat ali have in common. The intensely bitter taste, for example.
Furthermore, largely mistaken reports have been spreading widely on the Internet for some time as to tongkat ali causing sleeplessness and over-agitation.
Low-dose kratom has these features, but not tongkat ali.
Tongkat ali has the capacity to boost testosterone levels back to youthful (useful) levels.
Aging men can recall how they felt when their testosterone levels were higher. They had more energy, were easier to excite, especially sexually.
But continuously agitated? That's not even pleasant.
Anyway, testosterone is released, and bear it's effect, in pulses, not as a continuous state. We feel testosterone as a wrath of anger, or as a lift of sexual excitement, not as a persistent high.
However, narcotics traffickers are used to a client that wants to feel treated. A client that wants an instant mental response. Who wants to feel assured that they have taken something.
And that is much easier to obtain with kratom than with genuine tongkat ali. That is why they claim that their tongkat ali is more effective. Of course it is more effective. After all, it is a narcotic drug, not an adaptogen.
The reaction, of course, depends on the mixture and the quantity of kratom leaves mixed into it.
A little amount will just feel like a few cups of tea, a point of agitation that may even be comfortable.
A greater quantity will be more yohimbine-like.
But 1 characteristic that sets kratom apart from theobromine and yohimbine is the addicting character. And, of course, the opiate-style dreamland of higher doses (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 a piece that is easy to sell as tongkat ali because of the bitterness, a piece that people feel as agitation (which uneducated users may interpret as testosterone-modulated), plus something that makes people come back for more (because it's addicting).
It is also something to create money with, because of the expensive price of the genuine product.
Quite ideal for narcotics traffickers who want to widen their markets beyond that of youngsters looking for pleasure. Libido-deprived elderly, and physique-concerned bodybuilders addicted to what they incorrectly believe to be tongkat ali. (ma*r)
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Copyright Serge Kreutz