Arron Veysey credits marijuana, kratom and Roxanne Gullikson with helping him quit an opioid habit that was ruining his life.
“She basically saved my life,” said Veysey, 33, who works as a prep cook at a Portland retirement home. “I’m able to get up and go to work every day, and have a life. I don’t look at marijuana as a drug anymore.”
Veysey said when he was taking heroin, he was in and out of jail for various drug-related crimes, “homeless and miserable. I didn’t want anyone else around. I was always chasing the drug.”
Marijuana is calming and soothing, and helps him stay focused and get through each day, Veysey said. He said he has joined a church and repaired relationships with family members.
On March 1, Gullikson and her husband, Ron Figaratto, are opening Greener Pastures, a controversial residential treatment home in Portland. At a cost of $20,000 per month per patient, it will promote cannabis use for long-term treatment for opioid addiction and kratom for withdrawal from the powerful painkillers.
Kratom is a tropical evergreen that is dried and crushed into tiny leaves or a powder that people can purchase, often from online retailers. It is legal, but not approved by the Food and Drug Administration for any medical use. The federal government has import restrictions on kratom, and has been seizing some deliveries of the drug when it enters the U.S.
Greener Pastures, the soon-to-be-opened residential treatment home for female opioid addicts, is located on Washington Avenue in Portland. The facility’s owners, Roxanne Gullikson and her husband, Ron Figaratto, say they believe it will be the first marijuana- and kratom-based residential treatment center in Maine. Staff photo by Brianna Soukup
Critics say there’s no proof that any of it – marijuana or kratom –