What’s With All This Kratom “Lingo”?

You may notice that Kratom users on forums and other websites use certain words when discussing this compound, rather than explicitly saying they “ingest” Kratom. Here I’ll explain the reason for this and provide a quick glossary with their definitions.

Basically, Kratom isn’t approved for consumption by the FDA in the United States so it can’t be sold as a “food” or orally taken product. It is not illegal to ingest it and it’s not illegal to talk about taking it, where Kratom is legal to buy of course, but sellers can’t sell it as a product for consumption. Please check the laws of your Country or State on the legality of Kratom. I certainly don’t advocate buying it or taking it in a Country or State where it is illegal to buy.

As it isn’t officially approved for consumption, Kratom vendors typically sell it as incense. You’ll notice this on the website I recommend you buy it from. The bags they sell it in even say “not for human consumption” but this is just to protect themselves legally.

To avoid saying they ingest it and potentially getting in trouble, people will use phrases such as “burn” and “aroma” when referring to Kratom, as if they are using it as incense.

Glossary of Kratom Lingo

Incense – What Kratom is legally sold as

“Red vein Thai is my favourite incense”

Burn – The act of taking Kratom

“I intend to burn Bali on Saturday” or “I burned 4g about 2 hours ago”

Aroma – The effects of Kratom

“That Hyper Hippo strain has an awesome aroma!”

Burner – How you use/burn Kratom

“My friend uses juice in his burner”

SWIM – Someone Who Isn’t Me

“SWIM took 3g yesterday with great results!”

The SWIM phrase gets on my nerves a bit because it’s annoying to read and it just seems obvious that you’re talking about yourself so, in the same sense, you could just say “my friend” or “someone I know”.

Summary

I hope this is helpful and puts things in context for you. It doesn’t hurt to use this lingo when discussing Kratom and it’s worth knowing just so you don’t get confused when people use any of the above phrases.

SWIM definitely loves to burn Kratom!