Mike Uchka of CaraMax Corp. displays lighted signs in September at the CHAMPS Trade Show in Austin. The three-day business-to-business trade show focuses on the counterculture, smoke shop and cannabis-related industries.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman
The trial over a death blamed on largely unregulated supplements sold by a company linked to a far-right social media influencer will stay in Austin.
Brave Botanicals, a company that packages and sells kratom in the city, is being sued by the family of Seth Hamilton, a Lubbock resident who allegedly died after using the company’s products.
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Though it wanted the wrongful death case moved to Bastrop County, state District Court Judge Sherine Thomas said there was enough evidence to keep it in Travis County.
The suit says Hamilton died after taking Brave Botanicals’ Green Maeng Da, Super Green Dragon and OG Bali kratom powders.
Such substances have caused increasing anxiety among researchers, regulators and families of those who’ve become addicted and as overdoses, hospitalizations and deaths have increased. It’s sold at vape shops and gas stations across the country, often marketed as a supplement that can offer relief from pain and anxiety.
“I mean, they call it gas station heroin,” said David Bright, attorney for Hamilton’s mother Jessica Castro, who filed the suit. “It’s poison.”
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The Tarrant County medical examiner said Hamilton’s accidental death was due to mitragynine toxicity, one of the active ingredients of kratom.
The products are derived from a Southeast Asian tree that has stimulant properties at low doses but acts as a depressant at high doses.
Hamilton’s is one of an increasing number of wrongful death cases filed against resellers and marketers of the products. His family is suing for breach of implied warranties and strict product liability, alleging Brave Botanicals’ products were defective, lacked warnings, were marketed as safe and weren’t tested.
Attorneys for Blush Family Enterprises, which does business as Brave Botanicals, Live Free Now LLC, and owner and social media influencer John David Bush argued in court filings that Hamilton’s own behavior and negligence contributed to his death and that he may have had pre-existing conditions that contributed. Both should mitigate any liability and or damages, they argue.
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The details of Hamilton’s use of kratom were not listed in court filings.
What to know about kratom
Kratom in various forms has been consumed for hundreds of years in Southeast Asia and saw a burst of popularity in the past 15 years in the U.S., especially as regulators began to lock down access to opiates amid an addiction epidemic.
The FDA says 1.7 million Americans aged 12 and older used kratom in 2021 and the number has grown to as many as 15 million today.
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Brave Botanicals packaging for one of its kratom products. “Imported from Indonesia and packaged with love in Austin, TX,” it says.
Court filing
It comes from the evergreen Mitragyna speciosa tree found in, among other countries, Indonesia. The FDA says the product is not approved to be used as a drug, not lawfully marketed as a supplement and is unsafe.
“7-OH (one of the active ingredients found in kratom) is a potent opioid that poses an emerging public health threat,” the FDA said in a recent report.
It has psychoactive properties and can depress respiration much like opioids. The FDA has found its effects on the process can be three times stronger than morphine.
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a report this week that hospitalizations from a single kratom exposure had jumped 1,200% from 2015, from 43 to 538. Serious negative outcomes from its use had also risen from 76 in 2015 to 919 in 2025, with 233 associated deaths among the 7,287 serious medical outcomes through the 10-year period.
Many of the hospitalizations and overdoses have been associated with recreational use.
The substance is often used in combination with other drugs, making it difficult to link a death to kratom.
It’s especially dangerous because the products sold in the U.S. often have far more 7-hydroxymitragynine than occurs naturally.
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Texas has passed limited regulations on the product since 2023, prohibiting its sale to minors and restricting the amounts of 7-OH allowed in the products. Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office has sued companies found to be selling the product with excessive amounts of the chemical.
Live Free Now
The kratom Hamilton ingested came from Brave Botanicals. The company is owned by Bush, a far-right influencer and self-described “radical activist.” The packaging features a cartoon version of him, soul patch and all.
John David Bush is seen on his “Live Free Now” podcast. A judge has ruled a wrongful death suit against his company Brave Botanicals will be heard in Travis County.
Screengrab of Youtube
Bush is a do-your-own-research, extreme limited government, personal-freedom loving kind of guy, according to his website and podcast. His podcast “Live Free Now” is largely focused on tips for removing ones self from modern society. Its description: “Exit the Beast System and Enter the Private Realm.”
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Kratom promotion and sales appear central to his ideology.
Self-sufficiency, homesteading and cryptocurrency communities typically aren’t welcoming to law enforcement or other government influence, and Bush has been associated with ideologies like sovereign citizens, a movement that doesn’t accept state and local governments. Participants have at times made their own license plates, ID, taken over other people’s property and had numerous violent altercations with police.
Bush, though, has rejected violence, according to previous news reports.
His attorney argued in court documents that Travis County was not the right place for the trial, as neither Bush nor his companies are housed in the city.
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Hamilton’s attorney, though, cited the labeling of the products as well as other online representations that state the kratom was imported to Austin and packaged there.
The judge agreed, ruling Monday the case would stay in Travis County.