If we're lucky they wont just start calling it "The other K@"
KAVA PRODUCT ALERT Feel Free "Wellness Tonic" - Botanic Tonics
- Thread starter The Kap'n
- Start date
mountainguy
Newbie
I know this is a very old post, but curious if you are still around. I too have found Feel Free to beneficial in some ways, but am a bit wary of a few things about their product and am curious for your thoughts.
Are you still using it, and if so, any side effects?
Did you have any luck creating your own drink with similar effect from kava and K@ combined?
I like this product, but a few things about it raise red flags. The disingenuous marketing is one (promoting it as a kava drink when in reality it much heavier slanted towards K@). Another is the changes in the label and formula several times since I've used the product. It's very hard to tell exactly what you are consuming and in what amounts. There are also numerous reports on reddit of folks becoming very addicted to it, but the consumption amounts are typically excessive and most of it could be tied directly to the K@ in it.
Any feedback is appreciated!
GPT4 Summary:
"Federal officials in Tulsa seized a large amount of K@, an herbal ingredient considered dangerous by the FDA. U.S. Marshals and FDA investigators confiscated over 250,000 K@-containing products and 1,000 kilograms of bulk K@, valued at more than $3 million. The seizures took place at Botanic Tonics LLC, where the products were marketed under the brand "Feel Free Plant Based Herbal Supplement." The FDA claims there is inadequate information to ensure K@'s safety and has received concerning reports about its use. K@ affects opioid brain receptors, potentially exposing users to addiction, abuse, and dependence."
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I get text messages from Botanic Tonics (the makers of Feel Free) and yesterday I was informed that they are rushing a new product to market that contains a bunch of medicinal mushrooms, Rhodiola, and NO K@. I have no idea why anybody would pay those astronomical prices for this garbage without about 100 mgs. of MIT which is about what it had before. I know for a fact that many people took this stuff without being aware it had K@ extract in it. I am a K@ person, but people should be able to make informed consent about what they are putting in their bodies, and a lot of people had no idea that they were ingesting a high potency K@ product that even many K@ lovers like myself would steer clear of.
(Summary of article re: Deceptive Marketing)
Initially, Botanic Tonics did not disclose that their Feel Free tonic contained K@. They marketed it as a "kava" drink with "other ancient plants," leaving customers in the dark about the presence of K@. K@ was only mentioned on their website on May 21, 2022, hidden in a non-searchable image in their FAQs. Even as recently as February 26, 2023, there was no mention of K@ on their product page. This failure to disclose K@ as an ingredient allowed them to market and sell their product on platforms like Amazon, which typically restricts the sale of K@ products. The company began listing K@ as an ingredient only two days before a class-action lawsuit was filed against them in late March 2023. The lawsuit also alleges that Botanic Tonics targeted vulnerable populations on social media and failed to disclose K@ as an ingredient, which could be particularly risky for those populations.
Initially, Botanic Tonics did not disclose that their Feel Free tonic contained K@. They marketed it as a "kava" drink with "other ancient plants," leaving customers in the dark about the presence of K@. K@ was only mentioned on their website on May 21, 2022, hidden in a non-searchable image in their FAQs. Even as recently as February 26, 2023, there was no mention of K@ on their product page. This failure to disclose K@ as an ingredient allowed them to market and sell their product on platforms like Amazon, which typically restricts the sale of K@ products. The company began listing K@ as an ingredient only two days before a class-action lawsuit was filed against them in late March 2023. The lawsuit also alleges that Botanic Tonics targeted vulnerable populations on social media and failed to disclose K@ as an ingredient, which could be particularly risky for those populations.
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PapaCthulu
Kava Lover
This whole thing reminds me of the Four Loko caffeinated beer thing from back in the day but worse. Hope they get more than a slap on the wrist for this
The FDA has released information regarding K-RAT in an official format.
tinyurl.com
FDA and Kratom
K@ is not lawfully marketed in the U.S. as a drug product, a dietary supplement, or a food additive in conventional food.
Krunked up Tong
Kava Enthusiast
Such a sneaky company. Can't believe they're getting away with not labelling K@ on their product or website. That's insane. Should be illegal.
I flushed the remainder of my K@ down the toilet the other day, really pleased it's gone. I don't understand how people take that shit multiple times a day for years on end, it tastes absolutely fucking disgusting and you have to take quite a lot of it, well I did anyway. On days that I'd take it, I'd only take it once, so I wasn't taking it nearly as much as most people, but that was enough to make me absolutely sick of it. I dreaded drinking it because it's that bad.
I flushed the remainder of my K@ down the toilet the other day, really pleased it's gone. I don't understand how people take that shit multiple times a day for years on end, it tastes absolutely fucking disgusting and you have to take quite a lot of it, well I did anyway. On days that I'd take it, I'd only take it once, so I wasn't taking it nearly as much as most people, but that was enough to make me absolutely sick of it. I dreaded drinking it because it's that bad.
A wild aspect of the consumption of this botanical lies in its highly varied effects among different individuals, largely due to slight alterations in how our bodies metabolize chemicals. This leads to a spectrum of experiences where some individuals may not perceive the addictive potential of this plant, while others equate its effects to that of Percocet tea.
Central to this variability is our bodies' capability to metabolize the primary alkaloid, Mitragynine, into 7-Hydroxymetragynine, and uniquely in humans, into a further compound known as mitragynine pseudoindoxyl. Mitragynine pseudoindoxyl exhibits a strikingly high opioid affinity — 119 times greater than mitragynine, and potency 20 times that of morphine.
This speaks to why some might say "It's only like coffee" where another may be calling their loved-ones from a treatment center.
Kamble, Shyam H., Francisco León, Tamara I. King, Erin C. Berthold, Carolina Lopera-Londoño, Kanumuri Siva Rama Raju, Aidan J. Hampson, et al. 2020. “Metabolism of a K Alkaloid Metabolite in Human Plasma Increases Its Opioid Potency and Efficacy.” ACS Pharmacology & Translational Science 3 (6): 1063–68. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsptsci.0c00075.
J
Jeffy
I registered solely to post the following:
I found this page probably a year ago, after searching feel free and what the f*** is in it. I have had it bookmarked for that long, and would occasionally come back to see if there were any updates.
Needless to say, I was a virgin with it came to k@ (apparently that's what you use here). ButI knew from the first case that this stuff was going to be trouble for me. Alas, I have continued to order it. And am crazy addicted to it.
I used to drink alcohol to mask my anxiety. And xanax. This stuff kinda accomplished both for me. Without either. It was magic.
Fast forward to now - it still works. Too well. And I've been afraid to look at how much I've spent on it over the past 1.5 years. Probably upwards of $10k. No shit.
The only time I'd heard of k@ was on that NatGeo show about airport security. I had no idea. And I'm in a bad place. No one really knows about this problem other than my bank account and me.
Obviously I know I need to nix this addiction, yet I just keep finding myself in the same state, only 2 months and about $800 later.
I have debated getting in on the whole class action thing, but at the same time, I KNEW from about day 2-3 what this shit was capable of doing to me. Which is make me feel f*cking amazing.
Until I ran l/run out. And I'm pretty sure that's where the name "Feel Free" stems from - not how it makes one feel initially, but how one feels when they have been in withdrawal and deprived of feel free, and they get more in their system.
Crazy shit...
I found this page probably a year ago, after searching feel free and what the f*** is in it. I have had it bookmarked for that long, and would occasionally come back to see if there were any updates.
Needless to say, I was a virgin with it came to k@ (apparently that's what you use here). ButI knew from the first case that this stuff was going to be trouble for me. Alas, I have continued to order it. And am crazy addicted to it.
I used to drink alcohol to mask my anxiety. And xanax. This stuff kinda accomplished both for me. Without either. It was magic.
Fast forward to now - it still works. Too well. And I've been afraid to look at how much I've spent on it over the past 1.5 years. Probably upwards of $10k. No shit.
The only time I'd heard of k@ was on that NatGeo show about airport security. I had no idea. And I'm in a bad place. No one really knows about this problem other than my bank account and me.
Obviously I know I need to nix this addiction, yet I just keep finding myself in the same state, only 2 months and about $800 later.
I have debated getting in on the whole class action thing, but at the same time, I KNEW from about day 2-3 what this shit was capable of doing to me. Which is make me feel f*cking amazing.
Until I ran l/run out. And I'm pretty sure that's where the name "Feel Free" stems from - not how it makes one feel initially, but how one feels when they have been in withdrawal and deprived of feel free, and they get more in their system.
Crazy shit...
Dylan Knable
Country Grits
They have ads all over Tik Tok now from what I noticed. Not once does the guy mention K@M, but boy he sure mentions Kava. Can't tell you how many times I've reported it for false advertisement.
Krunked up Tong
Kava Enthusiast
Honestly, if you haven't tried it, give kava a shot man.
I was hooked on K@ too for a good while, and got into kava about 5 months ago. I've taken K@ a few times in that 5 months, but not much. Kava has killed my desire to take it. The only times I've taken it is when I've ran out of kava and felt the urge to have something, but I ditched all my K@ down the toilet a couple of weeks ago, so I don't plan on going back to it again. Just thinking about the taste of that stuff right now makes me feel sick lol.
Kavas a much safer and healthier alternative. Give it a shot. Plus, it's way better lol.