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WEBVTT CONTROVERSY. REPORTER: IT'S THE MOST TRAGIC OF IRONIES. DR. LARRY FOX IS THE PHYSICIAN WHO DELIVERED HIS MIDDLE CHILD ALEX INTO THIS WORLD, AND 20 YEARS LATER, THE PERSON WH DISCOVERED HE HAD LEFT IT. >> I CAME AROUND 2:00 IN THE AFTERNOON, AND IT WAS TOO QUIET. IT WAS TOO QUIET, HE USUALLY SNORES. HE WAS ICY COLD. WHEN I MOVED HIM, HE WAS STIFF. RIGOR MORTIS HAD SET IN. I WAS HAVING TROUBLE ACCEPTING WHAT I WAS SEEING. PART OF ME, THAT IS THE PHYSICIAN. BUT I KNEW IT I HAD TO DO, AND MY MIND WAS SCREAMING, THIS CAN'T BE. REPORTER: ALEX WAS GONE. >> WHEN WE LOOKED THROUGH HIS ROOM TO SEE WHAT HAD HAPPENED, WE FOUND LITTLE FOIL PACKETS, FULL OF KRATOM. I HAD NEVER HEARD OF THE DRUG BEFORE. REPORTER: KRATOM IS DERIVED FROM A PLANT IN SOUTHEAST ASIA. FOR CENTURIES, PEOPLE HAVE USED IT TO RELIEVE PAIN, PROVIDE ENERGY, OR HELP THEM RELAX, DEPENDING ON THE DOSE. YOU CAN DRINK IT IN A TEA, OR SWALLOW A CAPSULE. WE FOUND IT EASILY AVAILABLE AT SMOKE SHOPS AND ONLINE. ALEX BROUGHT HIS -- BOUGHT HIS OVER THE INTERNET, BUT FOR A MORE COMMON REASON, TO HELP KICK AND OPIOID ADDICTION. WITH NO GREAT -- REGULATION, THERE'S NO WAY TO KNOW WHAT YOU WOULD GET. ACCORDING TO THE MEDICAL EXAMINER, ALEX DIED FROM AN OVERDOSE OF MITRAGYNINE, WHICH IS KRATOM MIXED WITH AN OPIOID CALLED ODESMETHYL-TRAMADOL. IT'S A COMBINATION KNOWN AS KRYPTON. YOU MAKE IT SOMETHING THAT IS ADULTERATED IN SOME WAY, IT CAN BE FATAL. ALEX USED THIS ONCE. AND HE WAS DEAD WITHIN A COUPLE OF HOURS. REPORTER: BUT SUSAN ASH TELLS US KRATOM GAVE HER HER LIFE BACK. >> IT TURNED ME FROM SOMEBODY WHO WA LARGELY BED AND HOMEBOUND, AND ONLY LEAVING THE HOUSE TO GO TO DOCTORS BECAUSE OF CHRONIC PAI FROM LYME DISEASE, TO A FUNCTIONAL AND PRODUCTIVE MEMBER OF SOCIETY. REPORTER: SUSAN HAS BEEN TAKING KRATOM ONCE A DAY FOR TWO AND A HALF YEARS. SHE'S SO PASSIONATE ABOUT ITS BENEFITS, SHE FOUNDED THE AMERICAN KRATOM ASSOCIATION, WHICH HAS THOUSANDS OF MEMBERS. SUSAN SAYS 40% OF THE ORGANIZATION'S MEMBERS HAVE BEEN ADDICTED TO PAIN MEDICATION, AS SHE ONCE WAS SHE BELIEVES IF KRATOM GOES AWAY, OPIOID DEATHS WILL GO EVEN HIGHER WE DO BELIEVE THAT THE ANSWER TO THIS WOULD BE REGULATION, NOT PROHIBITION. WHEN I TALK ABOUT REGULATION, I MEAN THINGS LIKE AGE RESTRICTIONS, AND MAKING COMPANIES THAT SELL THIS PRODUCT TEST IT SO THAT WE KNOW WE ARE GETTING A SAFE , PURE PRODUCT. REPORTER: LARRY FOX AGREES, BUT BELIEVES UNTIL THERE IS REGULATION, KATOM SHOULD NOT BE SO EASY TO GET. >> I'M NOT ADVOCATING MAKING IT UNAVAILABLE TO PEOPLE FOREVER BUT I KNOW, BECAUSE MY SON DIED, THAT YOU CAN, GET SOMETHING THAT IS SUPPOSED TO BE SAFE AND IT CAN KILL YOU. REPORTER: IT HAS BEEN THREE YEARS SINCE LARRY ENDURED THE WORST EXPERIENCE A PARENT CAN IMAGINE. BUT IT'S A SMALL MOMENT FROM ALEX'S CHILDHOOD THAT HAUNTS HIM A DAY WHEN THIS EXCEPTIONALLY SENSITIVE CHILD NEEDED EXTRA REASSURANCE. >> I WISH I HAD HELD HIM IN MY ARMS AND HUGGED HIM, BECAUSE HE STILL NEEDED IT. AND NOW I CAN ONLY DO THAT IN MY DREAMS. REPORTER: 4011 NEWS I-TEAM, I'M MINDY BASARA. STAN: THE DEA IS SOLICITING PUBLIC COMMENT ABOUT KRATOM THROUGH DECEMBER 1. AFTER THAT, IT WILL DECIDE WHETHER IT WILL PROCEED WITH ANY KIND OF REGULATION PERMANENT OR

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Kratom is a legal substance that many people have never heard of, and it's very controversial. Earlier this year, the Drug Enforcement Administration announced its intention to ban Kratom, putting it in the same category as LSD or heroin. But the opposition was so intense, that's now on hold. It's the most tragic of ironies: Dr. Larry Fox is the physician who delivered his middle child, Alex, and 20 years later, he was the person who discovered Alex had died. "I came home around 2 in the afternoon and it was too quiet," Fox said. "He's a snorer, and I didn't hear him breathing. I approached his bed and his color looked bad. I touched him, he was ice cold. When I moved him, he was stiff. Rigor mortis had set in." Fox would discover what caused Alex's death. "I was having trouble accepting what I was seeing. Yet part of me that's the physician knew what I had to do, and my mind was screaming, 'This can't be, this can't be my son,'" Fox said. "When we looked through his room to see what had happened, we found little foil packets labeled Kratom. I had never heard of the drug before." Kratom is derived from a plant in Southeast Asia. For centuries, people have used it to relieve pain, provide energy or help them relax, depending on the dose. It can be consumed in tea, or swallowed by capsule. The 11 News I-Team found it easily available at smoke shops and online. Alex bought his Kratom over the internet. An increasingly common purpose is to help kick opioid addiction. But with no regulation, there's no way of knowing what you're getting. According to the medical examiner, Alex died from an overdose of mitragynine, which is Kratom mixed with an opioid called odesmethyltramadol, a combination known as Krypton. "You may get something that's adulterated in some way that can be fatal. Alex used this once, and he was dead within a couple of hours," Fox said. Susan Ash, on the other hand, said Kratom gave her her life back. "It turned me from somebody who was largely in bed and homebound and only leaving the house to see doctors because of chronic pain from late-stage Lyme disease, to a functional, productive member of society," Ash said. Ash has been taking Kratom once a day for two-and-a-half years. She's so passionate about its benefits that she founded the American Kratom Association, which has thousands of members. Ash said 40 percent of the organization's members have been addicted to pain medication, as she once was. She believes if Kratom goes away, opioid deaths will go even higher. "We do believe that the answer to this would be regulation, not prohibition, and when I talk about regulation, I mean age restrictions and make companies that make these products test it to make sure that we're getting a safe, pure product, and that it's just Kratom that we're taking," Ash said. Fox agrees, but believes that until there is regulation, Kratom should not be so easy to get. "I am not advocating making Kratom unavailable to people forever, but I know, because my son died, that you can get something that's supposed to be safe, and it can kill you with one use," Fox said. It has been three years since Fox endured the worst experience a parent can imagine, but it's a small moment from Alex's childhood that haunts him: A day when the exceptionally sensitive child needed extra reassurance. "I wish I had scooped him into my arms and hugged him, because he still needed it, and now I can only do that in my dreams," Fox said. The DEA is soliciting public comment about Kratom through Dec. 1, after that, it will decide whether to proceed with any kind of regulation, permanent or temporary. Tap here for the Schedules of Controlled Substances: Temporary Placement of Mitragynine and 7-Hydroxymitragynine into Schedule I; Withdrawal Tap here to file a public comment