Nick Stosz said he found his wife, Julie, on the floor of their Labadie home that morning. After months of decline following an unsuccessful neck surgery and degenerative bone disease, he said, she’d grown so weak that he thought she died from a heart attack.

“The one thing that we thought was giving her a little bit of quality of life back was the one thing that killed her,” he said.

He said his wife took a teaspoon or two of ground kratom three or four times a day mixed with orange juice. He said a friend of hers with rheumatoid arthritis suggested taking it for pain relief.

He said his wife bought kratom at two different stores in the area over a period of months. He said it helped her sleep an hour or two at a time, which was an improvement to her existence. But she eventually experienced withdrawal symptoms when she didn’t take it.

“After a dose or two again, she felt back to herself again,” he said.

Risk of dependence

A common factor between the three kratom cases is that all of the victims had a combination of prescribed or over-the-counter medications in their systems, according to the death reports. None of the toxicology results included opioids or illicit drugs.