West Main Medical Clinic

08/22/2026

This problem is getting worse.
Call us, please.

Kratom-related reports to U.S. poison centers have exploded by more than 65-fold — and severe medical outcomes have risen alongside them.

A national analysis published in Addiction examined kratom exposures reported to U.S. poison centers between 2010 and 2023. Researchers found just 19 reported exposures in 2010, compared with 1,242 in 2023 — roughly a 6,500% surge.

The increase wasn't limited to the number of reports. In 2010, no severe outcomes were recorded. By 2023, 158 cases involved life-threatening effects, significant lasting disability, or death.

Across the entire study period, researchers analyzed 8,919 kratom-related exposures, and about 13% were classified as having a severe medical outcome.

Kratom comes from Mitragyna speciosa, a tree native to Southeast Asia. Its active compounds can produce stimulant-like effects at lower doses and opioid-like effects at higher doses. Researchers are particularly concerned about interactions with other substances, since kratom compounds may interfere with enzymes involved in drug metabolism.

The study also found that states where kratom sales were banned had significantly lower rates of reported exposures, severe outcomes, hospitalization, and healthcare use than states without bans. However, because the research was observational, it cannot prove that the bans themselves caused those lower rates.

One important distinction: these figures represent cases reported to poison centers, not the total number of Americans using kratom.

Source: Comstock, G., Gulotta, A. P., Rein, L. E., & Feldman, R. (2026). Association between state-level kratom regulations and poison center-reported severe medical outcomes and healthcare use: A United States national analysis. Addiction. DOI: 10.1111/add.70416.

As kratom becomes more widely available, should it remain largely regulated at the state level — or is stronger nationwide oversight needed?

07/31/2026

Struggling with kratom addiction?
It really is a real thing.
And we can help.
Call us, please.

07/03/2026

We are closing at noon today.
Happy 4th of July everyone!

06/17/2026

06/01/2026

REFLECTIONS ON FORTY YEARS

On this date forty years ago, I became a doctor. After three years of residency, I’ve been in private practice now for thirty-seven years. But wait, this is not a retirement announcement. I plan to keep working, and yes, retire one day. I just found out that as of next year, I don’t have to pay the $300 annual license renewal fee. And if you know me, you know I’m going to get some free years in.
I do plan to cut back to four days a week later this month. I have been taking off Wednesday afternoons for the last couple of years and now plan to take the whole day for myself.

I guess I have been thinking a lot this past weekend about my medical career and the enormous changes we have seen in healthcare over those years. So, if you don’t mind, I’m going to just wax philosophical and nostalgic for a bit. First of all, the thought of being a doctor never crossed my mind growing up. I had wonderful family doctors in Oxford, Dr. Holley and Dr. Murry, but the idea of being a doctor was not something I even remotely considered. I went to Ole Miss planning to be a college history professor, but my senior year I had second thoughts about that idea. I took off a year and worked for the Boy Scouts in Meridian. It was that year, on a weekend in Jackson hanging out with friends in med school, that I decided one day that I wanted to go to medical school. I realized I really did not have a clue about what being a doctor was, but I knew the path I needed to take.

And so here I am, many, many years, and thousands of patients later, and I think I’ve done the best I could do to take care of, and care for, my patients. To care for every one of your patients as you would care for your own family or yourself, to offer hope even where is none, to take time when you don’t have any more to give and to smile when you don’t have any smiles really left for the day—those are the things doctors are supposed to do. That caring, really caring, is one thing that I think we have lost in the field of medicine. There is nothing personal anymore, just numbers and money. And granted, I think doctors and providers today are driven by insurance rules and Medicare regulations and hospital oversight more than we ever were. Which leads me to my greatest regret, that being that I had so hoped in my lifetime to see affordable health care for everyone. That people get sick and die every day because they cannot afford to see a doctor is unacceptable. It simply should be a basic human right.

We’ve had extraordinary advances in research and medicines and surgery, but I think too many medical providers have lost sight of what the real goals are. It should not be how much money you can make. We have hormone clinics and weight loss clinics, and it seems there is an urgent care clinic on every corner. So, you went to urgent care and got tested for COVID, flu and Strep but had no symptoms of any of those? Well of course you did. And then they billed your insurance $400? But, of course they did. Another option would be to take a history and do a physical exam, but there’s not as much money in that. I always have tried to listen to my patients—to paraphrase a very famous old doctor, Sir William Osler, “If you listen to your patients, they will tell you what is wrong with them.” The stories I’ve heard, the tears and laughs I’ve shared, are all so worth that little extra time.

At any rate, I have been blessed to have done what I’ve done for so long, and I will keep going for a while. I’ll close with a quote from a special mentor, Dr. Peter Blake from UMC, who in medical school told us to just “Do the right thing.” I think I have done that. To my family and friends and many loyal patients, my eternal gratitude for your support and confidence. Many of you have insurance but still choose to see us at West Main Medical. And for my patients in our op**te addiction program, a special thanks for giving me some of the most rewarding clinic days, ever. God bless you all.

01/23/2026

Struggling with kratom addiction?
We can help.
We are having great results with buprenorphine (Subutex, Suboxone) for the treatment of kratom addiction.
Give us a call.

Here’s a link for more information on kratom:

12/31/2025

We are closing at noon today for New Year’s and will return Friday.
As the dawn breaks on a new year tomorrow , let us give thanks for all we hold dear: our health, our family and our friends.
Love and peace to you all.

11/25/2025

Hi friends we will be closed Thursday and Friday.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

10/13/2025

Hi everybody!
Guess who has a birthday coming up this weekend?
We are taking a vacation day this Friday to help her celebrate!
Y’all send birthday wishes her way!

09/05/2025

We offer a very affordable treatment program for op**te addiction. Give us a call.

National Recovery Month (Recovery Month), which started in 1989, is a national observance held every September to promote and support new evidence-based treatment and recovery practices, the nation’s strong and proud recovery community, and the dedication of service providers and communities who m...