Reddit Answers suggested heroin and kratom for pain: what we know

Updated on October 3, 2026

In October 2025, Reddit Answers surfaced kratom and heroin advice in medical subreddits; moderators had no off switch, and Reddit changed placement only.

In October 2025, 404 Media reported that Reddit Answers, the company's AI-powered conversational feature, had surfaced suggestions to try heroin and kratom for pain management. The answers appeared as "Related Answers" under a thread in r/FamilyMedicine in the official mobile app, and a user flagged them in r/ModSupport.

A moderator of the Family Medicine community said the feature was automatically replying to posters with content related to what they had written, and that it "has been spreading grossly dangerous misinformation", as Slashdot summarized. The sticking point: moderators cannot disable it.

The suggestions appeared beneath ordinary threads in the mobile app, where readers may take them for community-endorsed content.

What exactly was suggested

One answer pointed to a post urging people to stop prescribed medication and take high-dose kratom, per Engadget, which also reports potentially dangerous advice on neonatal fever mixed with some accurate actions. The FDA warns against kratom because of risks including liver toxicity, seizures and substance use disorder.

On heroin, attribution matters. 404 Media and Engadget say Reddit Answers suggested it for chronic pain; the healthcare worker quoted by Slashdot describes one answer warning about addiction and linking to crisis resources, while another linked to a user's post claiming heroin controls their chronic pain. So part of the problem is the AI choosing which user posts to elevate, and presenting them in a medical community without the community's endorsement.

What Reddit did next

A Reddit spokesperson told 404 Media that Related Answers on sensitive topics will no longer be displayed on post detail pages. An admin had earlier said Reddit changed where Answers appears based on the feedback and would keep tweaking. But Reddit has not said which topics count as sensitive, and in the sources we found there is no confirmed moderator opt-out. The subreddit's own banner states that it cannot endorse Reddit Answers.

Our reading: this is a design problem, not a one-off glitch. A system trained to retrieve and summarize community posts will sometimes retrieve the worst of them, and placing the result under a medical thread lends it borrowed authority. Hiding the box on some pages narrows exposure; it does not give the people who answer health questions every day any control over what speaks in their name.

Opinion · If I were…

If I were Reddit, I would hand moderators of medical communities a real off switch before shipping anything else. Right now they cannot opt out, and the subreddit banner saying it cannot endorse the feature is a workaround, not a fix.

I would also say publicly which topics count as sensitive. A vague promise to hide some answers is not a policy.

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Original source: 404 Media

Produced with AI support and reviewed by the newsroom

Falcon · Signals analyst · Riyadh

“Hiding the box on sensitive pages is a patch; the moderators still have no say over a bot speaking under their community's name.”