Bloomfield kratom death highlights concerns about drug's safe use

Hanna Webster / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

While not the only person to die in Allegheny County with kratom in his system last year, Jeremy Gorniak was the only individual for which the drug was the sole cause of death.

The 37-year-old’s passing on Nov. 7 in a Bloomfield home has highlighted concerns about the drug’s safety.

Kratom is an extract of a tropical tree, Mitragyna speciosa, native to Southeast Asia and has been used medicinally for thousands of years. One of its active components is mitragynine, which was listed as Mr. Gorniak’s cause of death, via a Friday release from the Medical Examiner’s office. The drug is usually consumed as leaves crushed into powder and mixed into a drink, brewed as tea or put into a capsule. In low doses, it has stimulant effects, and in high doses, sedative effects.

An estimated 1.9 million Americans used kratom between 2021 and 2022, the latest data available from a national survey with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. According to the survey, people 18 to 25 years of age made up the biggest proportion of users.

A primary concern with kratom is that it partially activates opioid receptors in the brain, which can lead to dependence. There’s evidence that it’s sometimes used to treat opioid addiction from heroin or fentanyl, as well as withdrawal symptoms.

Lewis, a Pennsylvania native whose last name is being withheld for privacy reasons, said he quickly switched to kratom after trying to get off heroin.

“It got to the point that I just kept taking more and more until I took a step back and thought about it,” he told the Post-Gazette during a September 2023 interview. “I’m like, ‘This is nuts.’ I became extremely dependent on it. I was spending more money on that than I ever did on drugs.”

Although it’s not listed as a controlled substance by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the agency has listed it as a “drug of concern” due to its susceptibility for abuse. The Food and Drug Administration has not approved kratom for medical use in the U.S.

“Over time, people who use kratom may get cravings for it and need the same medicines used to treat opioid addiction,” said the Mayo Clinic on a web page about kratom and opioid withdrawal.

The Mayo Clinic also warns against buying synthetic or unauthorized kratom at smoke shops because the FDA does not regulate supplements —  therefore, products could contain higher concentrations of the drug than listed and include other harmful substances like bacteria and heavy metals.

Allegheny County officials don’t think Mr. Gorniak’s death is indicative of a trend, and overdoses from the drug are rare. Out of hundreds of fentanyl deaths in Allegheny County in 2024, just five people had mitragynine in their system at the time of death, the medical examiner confirmed.

Mr. Gorniak was the only person whose sole cause of death was mitragynine, per 2024 Medical Examiner reports for the year to date, whereas the other four also had some combination of fentanyl, xylazine, cocaine, fentanyl analogs and pain medication in their system. 

Cara Cruz, spokesperson for the City of Pittsburgh Department of Public Safety, said via email Friday that Pittsburgh Police and staff of the city’s ROOTS program are not seeing an uptick in kratom involved in overdoses.

The Medical Examiner’s office agreed.

“This case of a death solely due to kratom is uncommon,” said Ariel Goldschmidt, chief medical examiner. “We have not seen this as a trend.”