Kratom is often much maligned as a some kind of narcotic substance to get users high. However, nothing could be farther from the truth. Kratom is (until recently) a regulated botanical herb thatshouldfall under the FDA's DSHEA which defines a supplement as:Kratom is estimated to be used by millions of people in this country daily - including men and women in uniform and military veterans who have, and continue to suffer pain from the battlefield that willnevergo away. For many of them, kratom is an alternate to deadly alternatives to Oxycodone, Hydrocodone, Morphine, Heroin, and etc thathas caused the death of 47,055 Americans, according to the CDC in 2014 alone. It is also used from everything to pain relief, depression, PTSD, anxiety, and a host of other issues. What it is absolutely not is a recreational drug. There is an epidemic of death from opiates/opioids in this country and the DEA wants to ban a botanical herb that has been used for hundreds to thousands of years safely and effectively without any debate and without any input from the people.

The Pain Networktook an informal internet study of kratom users and their reasons for using it and 50% said they used it for pain exclusively.

If you want to hear testimonials from users, and a simple search on social media -- especially YouTube of the hashtag #IamKratom will yield heartbreaking testimony from users who, without their daily intake of kratom, will be forced into a degraded quality of life to an extent beyond comprehension of people who have never experienced chronic pain. So, while the DEA searches for these "evidence-based medicinal benefits" people who are in chronic pain will be forced to look to deadly alternatives, such as the ones I mentioned above.

Here is one example:

Kratom: What You Need to Know - The Drug Classroom

Kratom Fact Sheets:[ul]

http://www.americankratom.org/facts

http://www.americankratom.org/aka_fact_sheet [PDF]

https://www.botanical-education.org/...MFACTSHEET.pdf [PDF]

[/ul]
Despite the DEA, FDA, and Dept. of Health and Human Services propaganda,[b]not one single case can be linked to the death of 1 human being to kratom directly[/b]. See here for the details:[URL=http://www.snopes.com/kratom-banned-by-the-dea/]http://www.snopes.com/kratom-banned-by-the-dea/[/URL]

All prohibition does is create a black market for the substance in question, which in turn fuels the profits of criminals and narcoterrorists who can readily supply whatever they're looking for extremely easily. It also creates an unsafe marketplace for these compounds that are often diluted and adulterated with more dangerous chemicals, putting the users of these substances in greater danger than before the prohibition was enacted.

The DEA tried to push this ban through as an "imminent threat to public health" and ban it without public comment, which is absolutely egregious. Except for mass action by the public, this ban would have gone through as scheduled on the 30th of Sept. However, the DEA is still promising to take action against it. Schedule I is the highest schedule and kratom has no merit being placed there. It should be kept regulated by the FDA and checked for impurities & adulterants like all other supplements, ensure GMP are followed and made available OTC for those 18 or 21 or older. Here is an example from the Cato Institute about the sheer ridiculousness of how scheduling under the DEA works:[URL=http://www.cato.org/blog/incoherence-schedule-i-0]http://www.cato.org/blog/incoherence-schedule-i-0[/URL]

If kratom is so dangerous, why did the State of Florida rule just prior to this action by the DEA that kratom posed no serious threats to its citizens?

The state of Florida had proposed to ban kratom earlier this year, but after testimony and an examination of common sense medical information, Florida came to the conclusion:

[QUOTE]“a review of information currently available through identified law enforcement and laboratory sources in Florida indicates that Kratom does not constitute a significant risk to the safety or welfare of Florida residents. The Florida Department of Health (DOH) reports no pervasive health issues attributed to the ingestion of Kratom products in Florida.”[/QUOTE]Source:[URL=https://www.botanical-education.org/florida-law-enforcement-recognizes-kratoms-positive-safety-profile/#]https://www.botanical-education.org/...fety-profile/#[/URL]

As journalist for Forbes magazine Jacob Sullum points out:
[QUOTE]“Kratom is abused for its ability to produce opioid-like effects,” the DEA says. “Kratom is misused to self-treat chronic pain and opioid withdrawal symptoms, with users reporting its effects to be comparable to prescription opioids.” So if you use kratom to relax, relieve pain, or get off heroin, that’s abuse.

[...]

Any medicinal use of kratom has to be abuse, the DEA figures, because kratom has not been approved for any indication by the Food and Drug Administration. Nor has the government approved kratom as a recreational intoxicant or a utilitarian stimulant (possibly because no such regulatory categories exist for new drugs), so those uses are also beyond the pale.

[...]

Since the DEA assumes there is no rational, morally acceptable reason to use kratom, it does not need to muster much evidence that kratom is intolerably dangerous. That’s a good thing for the DEA, because the evidence indicates that kratom is less hazardous than drugs that are legally used for similar purposes.

“Serious toxicity is rare and usually involves relatively high doses (more than 15 g) or coingestants,” says a 2014 article in the journal Pharmacotherapy by clinical pharmacologist Megan Rech and four of her colleagues at the Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, Illinois. “Fatalities typically involve coingestants…. Withdrawal has been described as less intense but more protracted than with prescription opioids.”
A 2015 literature review in the International Journal of Legal Medicine offers a similar assessment. “Kratom is considered minimally toxic,” write Florida forensic scientist Marcus Warner and two co-authors, although they add that “research evaluating its toxic effects on humans is limited, with the vast majority of studies involving animals.” Warner et al. say “withdrawal symptoms are generally nonexistent to mild, even for heavy users” and note that two Florida counties “have deemed kratom not ready for regulation due to the lack of information demonstrating the substance as being unsafe or hazardous.”

[...]

The DEA plays a similar trick when it cites a report on kratom-related calls to poison control centers that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published in July. From January 2010 through December 2015, the DEA notes, “U.S. poison centers received 660 calls related to kratom exposure.” It adds that “during this time, there was a tenfold increase in the number of calls received, from 26 in 2010 to 263 in 2015.” Reported symptoms included “agitation or irritability, tachycardia, nausea, drowsiness, and hypertension.”

An average of 110 cases a year may sound like a lot, but it’s not. It represents about 0.004 percent of the 3 million or so calls received by poison control centers each year. By comparison, exposures involving analgesics accounted for nearly 300,000 calls in 2014, while cosmetics and personal care products, cleaning solutions, antidepressants, and antihistamines each accounted for more than 100,000. The DEA not only fails to put the number of kratom-related calls in perspective; it does not mention that two-thirds of the cases were deemed “minor” or “moderate,” while only 7 percent (eight per year) were described as “life-threatening.” The CDC noted a single death in six years, “reported in a person who was exposed to the medications paroxetine (an antidepressant) and lamotrigine (an anticonvulsant and mood stabilizer) in addition to kratom.”
These numbers are pretty reassuring, especially since the DEA says “millions of dosage units” are imported into the U.S. each year. But the agency draws the opposite conclusion, saying “such alarming quantities create an imminent public health and safety threat.”[/QUOTE]The article can be read in full here:[URL=http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacobsullum/2016/09/01/the-deas-crazy-kratom-ban-dresses-pharmacological-phobias-in-scientific-garb/]http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacobsul...ientific-garb/[/URL]

The United States of America has the highest prison population[b]in the world[/b]a vast majority of those inmates being made up of non-violent drug offenders.

[p][img]http://i.imgur.com/07bszOX.jpg[/img][/p]Source:[URL=http://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2016.html]http://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2016.html[/URL]

All scheduling kratom does is turns previously law abiding citizens into felons overnight removing their right to vote, and severely impairing the ability to get a job once they are freed, amongst all the other negative consequences if they are convicted on a schedule I charge.. As I am sure most of you are aware,[URL=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hGZ7AMk39Q]President Obama recently visited a federal prison and has come to the conclusion that non-violent drug offenders should have their sentences reduced[/URL]and has pardoned a large number of them.

Because of mandatory minimums on drug laws, judges don't have a choice on how to sentence non-violent drug offenders:

[QUOTE]While judges can vary from the sentencing guidelines, they can’t sentence below the mandatory minimums (except in very limited circumstances).[/QUOTE]Source:[URL=http://famm.org/sentencing-101]http://famm.org/sentencing-101[/URL]

So I encourage you, to please contact your representatives in Congress. This can be done via this simple form here. All you have to do is put in your personal information, and an email will automatically be sent:[ul]

Stop the DEA's War on Kratom - The Drug Policy Alliance

A Call to Action from the Botanical Education Alliance - Contact ALL Senators about the Kratom Ban (Scroll to the bottom of the page) (Some will bounce and you will have to email them manually from their websites if you want too)

WhiteHouse Petition to Stop the ban on Kratom - Although the petition has already reached its required 100k signatures, the more the better.

American Kratom Association (AKA) Call to Action to Contact the DEA, Call your Senators and Congressmen and women, Email the Assistant Secretary of Health, & Donate if you can. The AKA plans to sue the DEA, FDA, and HHS if this ban goes through.

[/ul]
Please also watch these short videos on the failure of the drug war and taking a new look at addiction in general.

[p][b]Why the War on Drugs is a Huge Failure[/b]
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/embed/wJUXLqNHCaI[/youtube]

[b]Taking a New Look at How Addiction Works[/b]
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/embed/ao8L-0nSYzg[/youtube][/p]
Any action you can take will be extremely helpful to keep this perfectly harmless substance off the DEA's scheduling list, so I ask for your help in making this happen. Even if you don't take kratom, there are men and women out there that will suffer immensely if this compound is taken off the market. Please take a minute out of your day and at least email your representatives.

Thanks so very much for taking the time to read my post & try keeping it bumped if you can,
pogue

[b]EDIT[/b]: Because there has been some questions about kratom and it's pros and cons I've included another video from[URL=https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmnRJ-G1Qq2kdOzIe5fBBaQ]The Drug Classroom[/URL]here to clear up some common misconceptions about kratom

[p][b]The Kratom Ban: Shedding Light on Misinformation[/b]
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/embed/zZ-t56-L50c[/youtube][/p]

They can take our lives, but they will never take our kratom.

Not unless we do something about it.

in. signed

Quality post, signed the petition

I was thinking why not stock up on kratom but then I realized you'll probably be charged with drug possession if it does become illegal

No medical use they said:

http://thefreethoughtproject.com/pha...om-dea-patent/

DEA must have missed when the FDA and patent office are allowing synthesized kratom alkloids.

Im sure DEA will rush to have those synthetics emergency scheduled as well.

Its weird I also think they dont know that there is THC available in pill form on their schedule 3 list. Someone should let them know, must be a mistake.

Why does this forum allow talk about this harmless herb but not another? Can there be a thread to fight to get said other herb declassified?

they can have it pogue because kratom is some weak ass sh2t

It's not meant to be a legal high. It's meant to help people who are in pain and suffering, and trying to get off synthetic opioids, etc.Thanks!YepThere's a conspiracy that the DEA is colluding with big pharma to allow them to make a synthetic version of the active kratom alkaloids, since natural plants can't be patented.

http://www.eraofwisdom.org/pharmaceu...d-mitragynine/

I don't control the rules of the board. If I did, I would allow it. But, I think that's a fight for another day. Plus, kratom is and has been a dietary supplement. MJ never has.Again, that's my entire argument. Obviously you didn't read my thread. It's not meant as a legal high. It's mean to reduce pain, depression, anxiety, PTSD, withdrawal symptoms from opiate/opioid addiction. There are many veterans using kratom because they don't want to use rx narcotics.

I would say it has, just never legally. Kratom is definitely legit though, I used it to help stop taking painkillers after two shoulder surgeries.

I could have swore ive saw people online saying withdrawals were personally bad for them

Will I get repped if I provide proof??

Good post op, repped and signed

If you read my thread, the studies show the w/d from kratom was much more tolerable than other opiates/opioids. They might have been bad or unpleasant, but probably no more unpleasnt than quitting smoking cigarettes or stopping caffeine.I thought about doing this, and I would love to do it for everyone, but since I'm no longer an admin, I can't rep people endlessly like I used too. However, I'll make an exception in your case since you asked, but I'll only have a couple more reps left. Just make sure and blur out your personal info and take ALL the action in the 2nd thread (or at least as much as possible). If you call your local DEA, record it and complain I will 100% rep you.

******* ass DEA at it again. Prescription bottle full of synthetic death - that's ok the pharma execs who bought the politicians are getting their cut. Garden full of unregulated botanicals humans have been using for thousands of years - you're going to prison for a long time you criminal scumbag.

I read the OP but i have saw in the last couple of years people on different forums say they had bad withdrawals such as anxiety, uncontrollable crying, aches and restlessness.

I know its anecdotal but it still can be bad for some

That's possibility true, but it's all in how much you use. I've heard of people getting addicted to phenibut and all sorts of OTC supplements that are perfectly safe when used in moderation and as intended.

Kratom does activate the opioid receptors in the brain, but it does it in a different manner that regular opioids do, in that it doesn't suppress breathing and it doesn't seem to having as strong binding affinity to those receptors as say morphine or things like that does.

But, my argument isn't about that so much as it is that it's going to create a black market. It's going to turn law abiding citizens into criminals, and it's going to take a supplement off the market that's helping literally hundreds of thousands of people kick prescription opiates which are at anepidemiclevel in this country. Watch the first video of that poor lady in the first post I made, and then watch the one about addiction at the bottom. We still don't understand all the complexities of the brain and how it works -- even placebos have shown to work as well as anti-depressants. So, for me, it's not a matter of getting addicted to kratom. It's a matter of personal choice.

I'm libertarian when it comes to drugs. I believe anyone should be able to put whatever they want in their body as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else or infringe on their rights. I realize this isn't something everything else agrees with, but go up and watch the war on drugs video too and you'll see that instead of trying to ban and eradicate a substance, we need to use new tactics of harm reduction to treat addicts instead of throwing them in a cage in a warehouse.

I went to a kratom bar in Boone Nc with an open mic and it was one of the most chill venues I've been to. Don't see why the chit would be illegal of alcohol is still legal...

Pharma.

trying to find the best price/quality and then i'm going to stock up like crazy

kratom is one of the only recreational plants that doesn't **** with your gainz. it's enjoyable enough to not need anything harder and light enough for infrequent use. not to mention the therapeutic benefits for people in pain and those who are trying to kick opiate addiction. I know a guy injecting H daily and also know he spent 14 days in withdrawal trying to break the cycle. it is an absolute horror and the only thing pharma can do is give suboxone which makes it worse!! tapering down on kratom is the only way to be safe and healthy
all depends on the dose and frequency. half life after 24 hours is 10% residual so if people are heavily dosing the liver is working hard all day every day and STILL unable to keep up.

Depression ? May have to look into this...

srs question if it gets banned does it become illegal to discuss it on the misc?

that appears likely as the other popular herb is taboowithin 5 minutes of drinking the tea you'll be filled with an optimism that the depressed simply can't achieve. you'll want to make new friends, work hard, goals and dreams you once had and dismissed... they are all now possible because you believe it!

Been making Kratom milk for years. Decent stuff for anxiety mostly. Helps with opioid withdraw as well....i little..

This, worse branch of government ever created. Can't even appeal the regulations. And now kratom is going to be Schedule. 1, the worse ranking of the bunch?
Signed OP.