Mississippi restricts kratom sales after pleas from health leaders

Marie Cochran’s husband, Jeremy Cochran, suddenly passed away on his 43rd birthday on Dec. 23, 2019. The Purvis, Mississippi, resident was a U.S. Marine and a health-conscious marathon and triathlon athlete who had never broken a bone and rarely got sick. He had struggled with addictions to cannabis, opioids and cocaine, his wife said, but he “was still able to function” as a husband and father.

“It wasn’t until Jeremy got ahold of kratom, a substance he thought to be natural, that I began to see a significant and drastic change in him,” Marie Cochran told the Mississippi House Drug Policy Committee meeting on Jan. 28. “I watched him become distant, detached. He developed poor hygiene and anorexia, hallucinations and paranoia, and even lost all of his teeth. In one year, Jeremy spent $50,000 on kratom alone.”