From the outside, Amber Friese’s marriage seemed unshakable: two decades together, children, a home in Maricopa and the quiet rhythm of a family finding its way.

Over the last four years, a $10 blue bottle from a Circle K was dismantling it.

It started with a casual recommendation from a life coach to her husband: Skip prescription painkillers, avoid opioids and instead try a “natural” mood enhancer made from kava and kratom. Kratom, a plant whose compounds bind to the brain’s opioid receptors, can bring mild relaxation for some. For Friese’s husband, it brought relentless addiction.

“He’d wake up in the middle of the night shaking, take a drink, and go back to bed,” Friese said. “By the end, he wasn’t even getting high. He just needed it to feel normal.”

Within months, his use balloon

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