Shounak Dharap
A wellness drink marketed as an alternative to alcohol caused a man recovering from alcoholism to relapse because it contained the psychoactive ingredient kratom, a new lawsuit claims.
California resident Romulo Torres, who filed the suit on March 28 in the Northern District Court of California, said he achieved sobriety from alcohol in 2014, but developed an addiction to the Feel Free wellness tonic, produced by Santa Monica-based firm Botanic Tonics, in 2022.
Torres stated in the suit he drank 10 Feel Free beverages a day and spent $300 a month on the product. He eventually turned to alcohol to cope with the the severity of his withdrawal symptoms when attempting to quit Feel Free, and eventually underwent medical detox and entered rehab to curb his dependence.
"We believe the suit is without merit and we will vigorously defend our product in court," Ashlie Keener Kuehn, head of government relations and communications at Botanic Tonics, said in a statement to Insider.
Torres discovered the drink through social media posts marketing Feel Free as an alternative to alcohol, the lawsuit states. Botanic Tonics' Instagram includes posts on the benefits of not drinking, and uses the hashtag "alcohol alternative" on posts about Feel Free.
The rise of the "sober curious" movement has led to a new market for drinks that resemble cocktails but contain no alcohol. Some alcohol-free beverages replace booze with other mind-altering ingredients like CBD or, in Feel Free's case, kratom.
Kratom is a psychoactive compound derived from a plant in the coffee family that is native to Southeast Asia, Insider previously reported. Though the Food and Drug Administration classifies kratom as an opioid, the plant can be used as an ingredient in supplements and supplement beverages like Feel Free.
Since the FDA has loose restrictions on supplement regulation, supplement brands can get away with legally using kratom as an ingredient.
Shounak Dharap, an attorney representing Torres, told Insider he believes Botanic Tonics purposely hides mention of kratom in advertising and marketing. Botanic Tonics' website mentions kava, a drink from Fiji that can induce a mild buzz, as the main ingredient in Feel Free, though the ingredient label said the tonic contains a 2600 milligram blend of both kava and kratom leaf.
Shounak Dharap
On Botanic Tonics' website, the company claims that anything that "makes you feel good can become habit-forming," including its beverages. "Only use Feel Free in the recommended quantity and dosage," the company states. "If consumed responsibly, Feel Free has not been shown to cause any serious physical or social harm."
Torres isn't the only Feel Free user who said they became dependent on the tonic, Dharap said. The suit includes more than a dozen social media posts from users who said they experienced withdrawal symptoms, like itchiness, insomnia, and mood changes, when attempting to stop drinking Feel Free. The Reddit community "Quitting Feel Free" has 200 members as of April 10.
"A large number of people who choose not to drink alcohol do so because of personal struggles with sobriety, and those folks are particularly vulnerable to addictive substances," Dharap said. "To advertise something specifically that can target those folks ... the moral wrong associated with that is extremely high, and the benefit really only profits the company."
