Christina Bryant has not taken a prescription narcotic since November.

It is not because she still isn’t in pain.

Bryant has degenerative disc disease, causing her to have seven back surgeries in the last six years. She has had five discs removed and two cages built around her spine. Another surgery is planned to remove another disc and add another cage.

Bryant, 43 and a Gardner resident, acknowledges the pain will follow her the rest of her life. But she wanted to treat it with something other than a narcotic.

As she was driving her 10-year-old son to a hockey game last September, Bryant decided to stop into the Dragon’s Leyr in Leominster to purchase kratom, a plant indigenous to Thailand and Southeast Asia that produces “complex stimulant and opioid-like analgesic effects,” according to The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association.

“Basically, what they use it for is pain relief, focus, overall mood enhancement, relaxing and between that too, it depends on the certain strain,” said Paul Wolfe, a kratom user whose wife owns the Dragon’s Leyr, a smoke shop and vapor retailer.

The Drug Enforcement Administration announced a temporary ban on kratom starting Sept. 30, categorizing the plant and its chemicals as a Schedule I substance — the same category as cocaine, marijuana and heroin, among other substances.

“Kratom is abused for its ability to produce opioid-like effects and is often marketed as a legal alternative to controlled substances,” according to a DEA release.

“In addition, kratom has a high potential for abuse, has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States and has a lack of accepted safety use under medical supervision,” the release states.

Wolfe said the Dragon’s Leyr has around 60 regular customers who purchase kratom from them. He uses kratom for chronic knee pain.

“People are realizing that if you have chronic pain, like we have a couple regular customers who come in here who have sciatica or MS,” Wolfe said. “They pick up kratom because they don’t want to be on prescription pain killers anymore and kratom is an alternative that they can use that is not going to affect their kidney or liver. It is more of a beneficial plant than anything.”

People also use kratom to fight an addiction with opioids or alcohol. Wolfe said the store has customers who are using kratom as they wean off suboxone or methadone. He said it can help with withdrawal because “it settles the stomach.”

Kratom can be taken orally as a pill capsule or in a tea. Bryant said she has a “couple of teaspoons” in her tea each morning and night. It took her more than a month for her to find the right amount of dosage and which strain was most effective for her.

“I was on pain medication for years,” she said. “(Kratom) has been amazing. Trying something new, I thought it was in my head at first. But now, every day I can get out of bed. Every day, I can clean my house.”

Kratom has become more popular in recent years, Wolfe said. He said the Dragon’s Leyr, which opened in 1999, first starting selling it three years ago and they “have definitely seen an increase in our sales within the last year and a half.” He attributes that to “word of mouth.” Bryant found out about the product on TV.

The DEA has seen it become more popular in recent years as well. The American Association of Poison Control Centers identified only two exposures to kratom from 2000 to 2005. From 2010 to 2015, it received 660 calls related to kratom exposure, according to the DEA.

Kratom can be purchased online. Other popular tobacco and smoke shops in the area, including City Line Smoke Shop in Lunenburg and Madvapes in Fitchburg, do not sell kratom.

“I never have and never will,” said George Grande, who has owned Billerica Smoke Shop for 22 years.

He said he has people calling looking for it, but “any legit smoke shop, does not sell it,” because of the health risks.

The DEA lists health risks as psychosis, weight loss, insomnia, vomiting, poor concentration, hallucinations and death, among others. The DEA “is aware” of 15 kratom-related deaths between 2014 and 2016.

“To me it’s a better alternative,” Wolfe said of kratom over prescription medicine. “The thing is, the DEA can have all of this information, like they have 15 deaths from 2014 to 2016, but almost all of them had other drugs in their system.”

NPR reported that in 14 of the 15 deaths, the person had “other drugs or illegal substances in their system.”

“Some of the other stuff is valid,” Wolfe said. “There are some come-down effects. Yes, you may feel a little nauseous, get dry mouth, a headache or be a little bit more irritable, but not dying.”

Chris Kirouac of Fitchburg said he used to sell it at a shop he worked at in New Hampshire and had many customers who took it to avoid the prescription medication their doctor prescribed or to get off the prescribed medication. He said it is not for everyone.

“I have tried using it myself, but it wasn’t for me,” Kirouac said. “It seemed to help with some pain management, but I just didn’t like the feeling it gave me.”

Bryant said she was “shocked” when she heard the plant was going to be banned.

“They are pushing people to take prescription medicine,” she said. “I don’t want to be on narcotics the rest of my life.”

“It blows my mind,” Bryant continued. “I thought they had bigger fish to fry.”

Wolfe and Bryant are not the only ones who oppose the ban. More than 129,000 people have signed a White House petition titled “Please do not make kratom a Schedule I substance.”

Wolfe sees the temporary ban as a ploy to continue to boost “Big Pharma,” or the pharmaceutical industry, which Reuters expects the industry’s sales to reach $1.3 trillion by 2018.

“My personal opinion is because the government is making money off of suboxone and opiates and stuff like that,” Wolfe said. “If you are going in for any kind of surgery, they are going to give you pain medication to help with the pain management. Every time a doctor prescribes a pain medication, the doctor is getting a check and then Big Pharma is getting a check.”

Bryant’s doctor has suggested she looked into medical marijuana, but she isn’t sure if she wants to choose that path. She was already on the right one, she said.

Kratom turned her life around.

“My son was paying the price,” she said. “All I could do was just sit in the chair. Sometimes, I would just sit there and cry.”

“Kratom helped me be the wife and mom I used to be,” Bryant continued. “I couldn’t believe I finally had a smile on my face.”