People in Southeast Asia have brewed tea with leaves from the kratom tree for centuries. It’s a long-trusted home remedy known to relieve minor aches and pains and put a spring in users’ steps.

Many experts characterize the tradition as relatively benign. But today, thanks to a distinctly American brew of modern science and entrepreneurial enthusiasm, that once-mild Asian analgesic is fast becoming the latest flashpoint in the U.S. war on drugs.

The problem? Americans aren’t brewing weak tea from fresh-picked leaves. Instead, they’re spending about $1.5 billion a year on highly-concentrated kratom-infused products like energy drinks and gummies at vape shops and in convenience stores all across South Carolina and the nation — products that a growing number of industry critics are calli

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