Attorney General Mayes Sues Kratom Maker Botanic Tonics in First-In-Nation Consumer Protection Lawsuit

PHOENIX – Attorney General Kris Mayes today sued Botanic Tonics, LLC, a company known for its kratom and kava tonic “feel free,” for violations of the Arizona Consumer Fraud Act, including unlawfully promoting the 2-ounce kratom shots as energy drinks, obscuring feel free's kratom content, and failing to adequately disclose the risks of addiction and withdrawal from using the product.     

Feel free contains the psychoactive substances kratom and kava. Kratom produces opioid-like effects and is known colloquially as “gas station heroin.” Botanic Tonics has sold feel free throughout Arizona at gas stations, convenience stores, and other mainstream retail locations, as well as online, while allegedly marketing it as a wellness tonic, energy product, kava drink, and alternative to alcohol. Arizona Department of Health Services has identified 146 documented kratom deaths in Arizona between 2020 and 2023 alone.

“We allege that Botanic Tonics has repeatedly and willfully violated the Arizona Consumer Fraud Act and endangered the health and safety of Arizonans, including minors, by improperly marketing its kratom-containing beverage,” said Attorney General Mayes. “Arizonans should be aware that behind feel free’s appealing marketing, there is real danger of addiction and other mental and physical harm.”

The complaint, filed today in Maricopa County Superior Court, alleges that feel free presents serious risks that Defendants’ marketing concealed or minimized. Kratom can produce opioid-like effects and carries risks including dependence, addiction, and withdrawal. Kava also presents health risks, particularly when consumed in concentrated amounts or in combination with other substances. Feel free combines these two psychoactive substances in an easy-to-consume, flavored shot marketed for regular use and sold at the counter of convenience stores throughout Arizona.

Botanic Tonics used aggressive marketing efforts in Arizona and across the United States to quickly become a top selling kratom product. Through its youth focused advertising campaign, which has included the use of colleges and college students for marketing, the company has sold millions of Kratom shots in Arizona since 2020. 

A review of the company’s practices allegedly shows that feel free is purposely designed to appear innocuous, an appearance that is bolstered by:  

• Defendants’ attempts to obscure feel free’s kratom content and failure to adequately disclose its risks of addiction, dependence, withdrawal, and other adverse health effects.
• Defendants’ marketing of feel free as a benign wellness and energy product inconsistent with the risks they knew it presented.
• Defendants’ promotion of feel free as an alternative to alcohol—including to consumers seeking sobriety—without adequately disclosing that they were substituting one substance presenting risks of dependence and withdrawal for another.
• Defendants’ use of sales practices designed to encourage repeated and increased purchases of feel free, including recurring subscriptions, substantial discounts for subscription purchases, and a rewards program that provided increasing benefits as consumers spent more on feel free.

“It is clear that kratom products are addictive and can have lasting health consequences for children and adults. We will not tolerate companies that sell these products without adequate safeguards in place to ensure that consumers understand these risks,” said Attorney General Mayes. “We are taking Botanic Tonics to court to stop these practices and hold Botanic Tonics fully accountable under Arizona law.”
 

The Attorney General’s Office will be setting up a forum in the future for consumers to share their experiences with feel free and other kratom products. 

If you believe you have been a victim of consumer fraud or unfair practices, you can file a consumer complaint by visiting the Attorney General’s website at www.azag.gov/consumer. If you need a complaint form sent to you, you can contact the Attorney General’s Office in Phoenix at (602) 542-5763, in Tucson at (520) 628-6648, or outside the Phoenix and Tucson metro areas at (800) 352-8431.

The Attorney General's complaint is available.