Kaleb Allshouse struggled with addiction for years. Allshouse went in and out of sobriety and various recovery programs. At one point, his mother kicked him out of the house.

On July 6, Allshouse, 32, wound up at a smoke shop on the edge of Henrico County. With $8 in his pocket, he bought a black packet from behind the counter: a tablet sold by the distributor Pure Leaf Kratom. The store clerk who sold it to him confirmed the purchase and said he looked intoxicated during the transaction.

Two hours later, a neighboring shop employee noticed Allshouse’s body slumped behind the wheel of his van. Police arrived shortly after and pronounced him dead at the scene.

As police await a toxicology report, a cause of death remains unknown, and the Henrico Police Department would only say that drug

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