Curious, but isn’t kratom (krokofil) abuse a big issue in Russia (in addition to alcohol)? Or is that issue exaggerated?

I think you're referring to krokodil, poorly made clandestine desomorphine, which is a lot different from kratom.

There was a spate of videos that circulated starting around 2012 and later, as sort of a sequel to the bath salts panic, showing horror stories but seem to have been debunked as a eith a hoax campaign, or rare oddities.

Videos still float around, but they seem to have this voyeristic leer to them (like malign scared-straight after school specials) that genuine footage or journalistic coverage usually doesn't carry.

On top of that, there aren't many people actually owning up to being involved in the footage that does surface, and people who claim to have witnessed instances or met individuals affected by it, only seem to be the kind to tell tall tales.

This leads me to wonder if it was largely a media campaign to get in front of a problem, and head it off, before something like its portrayal emerged.

That’s pretty interesting to see. One could say disinformation campaigns can have a social benefit (if things played out as you speculate).

  One could say [...] benefit?

Hardly. Awareness campaigns litter the history of pop culture, and are usually regarded as a nerdy loser's sexual advances toward a prom queen way out of his league.

But more to the point, people are helped by information, and not perversions thereof.

If it were helpful it would neither be called disinformation nor misinformation. It would just be accurate information, applied in a practical manner.

You mean krokodil? Completely different drug.

Ah ok. Thanks for clarifying.