The family of a man who fatally overdosed on a kratom-based drink is suing those who sold it to him.
Adriana and Francisco Oliveira woke to find their 32-year-old son Kevin dead in their Tequesta home in April 2025. Medical examiners pointed to a lethal dose of mitragynine, the chemical compound known as kratom, as his cause of death.
“This drug is a poison. It’s worse than any other drug that I heard in my life,” said Franciso Oliveira, speaking at a West Palm Beach news conference June 4. “Except it’s not a drug. It’s just a supplement, according to them.”
In a wrongful death lawsuit announced June 4, Oliveira’s family accused Botanic Tonics, maker of the kratom-based “Feel Free” beverage Oliveira drank before he died, and several local smoke shops of knowing their customers are at risk of death but doing little to warn against the danger.
Neither Botanic Tonics nor the smoke shops — Rise N Vape, Global Mart and Glass Chamber — returned requests for comment.
Joseph Osborne and Andrew Norden, the attorneys representing the Oliveiras, say Botanic Tonics marketed the drink as a “plant-based herbal supplement” delivering “a clean energy boost without the jitters” and “a social lift without the booze.”
According to the lawsuit, the company ran targeted social-media campaigns using the hashtag #alcoholalternative, paid influencers to film themselves drinking Feel Free as a way to get or stay sober and sponsored college athletics programs at Kevin Oliveira’s alma mater, Florida State.
Botanic Tonics’ own website described the product as being no more habit-forming than caffeine or alcohol. The company’s founder, JW Ross, told The Guardian in 2023: “Anything that makes you feel good can be habit-forming: sugar, sex, whatever.”
“If Kevin had truly been warned about the true nature of the psychoactive components of this drug, he never would have used it,” Norden said.
It wasn’t until January 2024, after Kevin Oliveira had already been using the product for a year, that Botanic Tonics updated its back label to say kratom “can become habit-forming and harmful to your health if consumed irresponsibly.”
Symptoms that Kevin Oliveira, a musician who performed at local restaurants and weddings, displayed in his final months included vomiting, lapses in consciousness, delirium, seizures and psychosis. He moved back in with his parents, then checked himself into a Palm Beach County detox facility, which released him after two days.
He died in his bedroom 12 days later.
What is kratom?
Kratom is marketed at some bars across Palm Beach County as a cheap, safe alternative to traditional pharmaceuticals. The friends of a Boynton Beach nurse who fatally overdosed on it in 2021, Krystal Talavera, had pitched it to her as a dietary supplement.
At low doses, it causes a stimulant effect similar to coffee, often sold in the form of a pill, powder or tea. At higher doses, kratom can produce an opioid-like and euphoric state that has led to a steady growth of abuse worldwide, according to the federal Drug Enforcement Administration.
The Food and Drug Administration tested 30 different kratom products in 2019 and found “significant levels” of lead and nickel in them, which researchers said could cause heavy metal poisoning if consumed over the long term.
Stories of relatives coming home to find a loved one dead, a cocktail of kratom and orange juice in their hand, darken the all-natural image suppliers have concocted over the years. But the American Kratom Association, a trade and lobbying group, has helped snuff out attempts by the FDA to put Kratom in the same class of illegal drugs as heroin, LSD, marijuana and Ecstasy.
“Despite our warnings that no kratom product is safe, we continue to find companies selling kratom and doing so with deceptive medical claims for which there’s no reliable scientific proof,” said FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb in 2018.
Kratom advocates say the negative press and push to criminalize kratom are fueled more by corporate greed than actual health concerns. The supplement is lauded as a kind of miracle cure, cheaper and easier to come by than prescription pain medication. It’s found in gas stations, vape shops and kava bars across Palm Beach County.
The Oliveiras’ lawsuit is the latest in a series blaming suppliers and manufacturers for kratom-induced overdoses. Another, filed in 2023 by the same firm representing Oliveira’s family, resolved in November with a confidential settlement for the family of Palm Beach County chemist Patrick George.
Hannah Phillips is a journalist covering public safety and criminal justice at The Palm Beach Post. Reach her at hphillips@pbpost.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Lawsuit says ‘Feel Free’ kratom drink caused son’s fatal overdose
Reporting by Hannah Phillips, Palm Beach Post / Palm Beach Post
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Hannah Phillips, Palm Beach Post | USA TODAY Network
