But on that Tuesday in April 2022, a compound in the substance called mitragynine took McKibban’s life, an autopsy report later showed. //
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Our sons died taking an ‘all-natural’ supplement you can buy at gas stations — people don’t realize it’s so addictive and dangerous
By Anna Medaris
Published Aug. 6, 2025, 8:00 a.m. ET
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Months before Jordan McKibban collapsed in his bathroom and never woke up, the 37-year-old prepared smoked salmon and home-grown canned peppers to entertain his big, blended family in their quiet Washington state community.
Weeks before, he told his mom, Pam Mauldin, things were getting serious with the woman he was dating — his “one big desire” to have kids was finally in reach, Mauldin recalled.
Days before, he helped a friend plant a flower garden for a baby shower. “He loved life. He loved doing things outdoors,” Mauldin told The Post.
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Then, on the day of his death, McKibban went to his longtime job at an organic food distributor. When he got home, he mixed a tablespoon of a powdered kratom supplement into his lemonade.
Jordan McKibban preparing meat at a campsite
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Jordan McKibban died at age 37 while taking kratom, an “all-natural” supplement available online and in stores.
Courtesy Pam Mauldin
Large family group photo including
Jordan McKibban (center in a red baseball cap) and his mother (second from right)
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Jordan’s mom, Pam Mauldin (second from right), spoke to The Post to warn other parents — and thinks kratom should be pulled from shelves.
Courtesy Pam Mauldin
Marketed as an “all-natural” way to ease pain, anxiety, depression and more, kratom can appeal to health-conscious people like McKibban, who Mauldin says wouldn’t even take ibuprofen for the arthritis in his hands.
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But on that Tuesday in April 2022, a compound in the substance called mitragynine took McKibban’s life, an autopsy report later showed.
When Mauldin broke into his bathroom after a call from her grandson that day, she found McKibban lifeless. She performed CPR on her own son and shielded her eyes when medics carried his gray body away.
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“I’ve lost my son. I’ve lost my grandchildren that I could have had, I’ve lost watching him walk down that aisle, watching him have a life that I get to watch with my other kids. I’ve lost enjoying these years with him,” Mauldin said.
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“I have to go to the cemetery, and I hate going to the cemetery. He shouldn’t be there,” she added.
From dizziness to nonresponsiveness
Kratom products — sold in powders, gummies and energy-looking drinks — come from a plant native to Southeast Asia and can act like a stimulant at lower doses and a sedative at higher ones.
“Kratom does act like an opioid, and people can become addicted to it and have withdrawal from it and overdose on it.”
Dr. Robert Levy, addiction and family medicine doctor
While they’re readily found online, in brick-and-mortar stores and even gas stations as catch-all solutions to everything from fatigue to opioid withdrawal, the Food and Drug Administration says kratom and its key components are “not lawfully marketed” in the US as a drug product, dietary supplement or food additive. //
Experts are especially concerned with a highly potent, highly addictive kratom offshoot called 7-hydroxymitragynine, or 7-OH, which seems to have infiltrated the market in the past few years, said Dr. Robert Levy, an associate professor at the University of Minnesota who’s board-certified in both addiction and family medicine. //
just last week, the FDA recommended classifying 7-OH as an illicit substance.
“7-OH is an opioid that can be more potent than morphine,” FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, said in a press release. “We need regulation and public education to prevent another wave of the opioid epidemic.”
In the meantime, according to Levy, parents should be having open conversations with their kids about the appeals, dangers and addictive potential of kratom — and the fact that “all-natural” or “plant-based” doesn’t necessarily mean safe. “Arsenic is also from a plant,” he says.
