Overview
- Monday reporting based on PunchUp’s investigation and coverage by The Daily Beast and Raw Story says Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin retains a reported investment of up to $1 million in Botanic Tonics and has not divested.
- Botanic Tonics founder J.W. Ross, who changed his name from Jerry Dale Cash, pleaded guilty to a 2010 federal fraud charge and was barred by the SEC from serving as a public-company officer or director.
- On a 2023 podcast Ross said he deliberately dosed himself at abusive levels and tracked his blood chemistry because he expected some customers to misuse the product.
- Feel Free is a kava-and-kratom shot that acts on opioid receptors, is widely sold in more than 24,000 stores with reported sales around $250 million, and is criticized by public-health observers as habit-forming.
- Mullin backed a July 2025 federal action that targeted potent 7-OH kratom concentrates while leaving whole-leaf kratom products like Feel Free untouched and DHS says he follows ethics rules and has not lobbied, which could prompt ethics reviews and renewed regulatory scrutiny of whole-leaf kratom products.