A Mother’s Loss Inspires a Documentary as Debate Over Kratom Intensifies

A Mother’s Loss Inspires a Documentary as Debate Over Kratom Intensifies

NEW YORK—“Kratom.” That strange-sounding word was unknown to Patti Wheeler—until a dual tragedy struck. In an instant, one of her two sons was dead; the other was left with a horrifying memory and an unfillable void. “My heart was breaking into so many pieces, for so many reasons,” Wheeler says in a new documentary, recounting the devastating events of Oct. 25, 2022. With a thud, her son Wyatt Wheeler had collapsed against the bathroom wall of t…