I am very lucky myself, as I have mostly watched kratoms story from the sidelines. I've never had an opiate addiction and I don't have any chronic pain or anything like that. I tried it originally just out of curiosity after reading some of the research, and still occasionally use it in small doses for the energizing effect. I don't find larger doses useful to me personally. But I've encountered many people that have had their lives saved due to kratom, and witnessing the way some politicians and authoritarians just so rabidly pursue anything because it's LIKE something else is disturbing. Milk has opioid receptor agonists in it. And we give milk to babies. The opioid receptors in our brains are not there as some sort of evolutionary boobytrap to enslave us to poppy plants. And there are a variety of different receptors to boot, with them not being equal.
I often do not mention kratom in public forums intentionally. It's odd. I do not hold my tongue about hardly anything, I am very talkative. But I am always afraid that one message about kratom will get read by a busybody with an axe to grind and they'll spearhead a movement to have it banned. I am glad to have seen the multiple places around the country where states tried to ban it but were met with both doctors and police stepping up and telling them "this is not a problem. Stop trying to make it one for your own aggrandizement."
But when I come across someone who deals with addicts, I always try to explain it as best I can.