Kratom is a plant that, according to users, relieves pain, reduces anxiety, and aids withdrawal from opioids like heroin.
The Drug Enforcement Administration, however, believes kratom is dangerous and has no valid medical use. So the DEA is placing kratom in Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, which effectively bans legal use of the drug.
The DEA’s decision prompted one user to send me this email:
Read the rest of this post →I’ve read many of your posts online, and remembered you today as I heard some news that, I fear, is going to change my life for the worse. I’m sure you are aware that very soon kratom is going to be banned nationwide.
Full disclosure: I do depend on kratom for anxiety and (very) occassional pain from back spasms. About five years ago kratom gave me my life back after finally weening myself from prescription pain medication. I take it every day, and I’ve never had to increase the amount. This amazes me.
I am a successful high school teacher, husband, and father. I have a master’s degree in education and I work hard to take care of my family. I have refused, and will continue to refuse, to become a ward of the pharmaceutical industry. Which I suppose, in the eyes of the DEA, now makes me a felon.
I am writing to ask you if you have any advice at all for how to fight this. I am writing writing writing … senators and health officials … posting on forums, donating money. This all feels quite futile.
So I guess I’m also, not so subtly, asking you if you believe there is any way you could help. You are an expert in this field. Your voice would be heard much more clearly than a high school teacher in Southwest Ohio. What you might say I do not know. But I do know there are thousands of people right now who are frightened and angry, and my gut tells me this ban could cause many to suffer. But of course I am also being selfish.