Protesters fight ban on herbal pain killer
http://www.wtsp.com/news/health/protesters-fight-upcoming-ban-on-herbal-pain-killer/317975492
Thousands of people claim it has changed their lives, but the federal government says it dangerous. Kratom is an herbal supplement that will be reclassified at the end of the month to a schedule 1 drug.
That will mean it will be as illegal as heroin or meth.
A protest in Tampa on Tuesday is just a small portion of the people gathered across the country at Drug Enforcement Administration headquarters in different cities and the White House in Washington, D.C., where people are trying to get the federal government to stop the ban on kratom at the end of the month.
“I take it everywhere I go. It’s all in individual serving sizes,” says Tina Saylor as she holds up her kratom powder outside the Tampa DEA offices. If it were Sept. 30, she could be arrested on felony drug charges, because that’s when kratom will be as illegal as heroin or meth. “I’ve got enough to last me two years. Friday when I get my paycheck I’m getting more. Put me in jail then you have to take care of my pain. ”
Saylor is just one of a dozen protestors in Tampa. She says kratom has replaced prescription painkillers in her life and doesn’t leave her feeling high or like a zombie.
Heather Kelly was the first to arrive Tuesday, ready to protest hoping the DEA will reconsider its decision and do more research on kratom before banning it. “It doesn’t make me high, it doesn’t make me non functioning. It doesn’t make me stupid. I mean its safer for people to drink a kratom tea than it is to go to a bar and have a shot of vodka or tequila.”
The reason the DEA has decided to make kratom a schedule 1 drug, right alongside heroin, is because the agency says it has no medical use and a high potential for abuse. However, many of the people protesting say it has changed their lives.
Filed under: General Problems
The other thing that bothers me about this besides the obvious willful ignorance to the truth that kratom is indeed safe to use (5 year kratom consumer and counting!!) is the fact that decent upstanding citizens who are vendors of kratom will either be put out of business or have their lives destroyed (both, really) for simply providing the public with something harmless and helpful against the opiate addiction epidemic. Their sales tax DOES pay the government!! How could it not? If they sell it in the USA, is sales tax not included in the price? Am I wrong about that? Also, this will create a black market, and fuel more inevitably violent drug crimes and even contribute to mafia and terrorist activities! It’s not like kratom vendors are thug drug dealers on the street, or mob guys or terrorist sympathizers…YET. They are decent people who have mortgages to pay, car payments and college tuition to think about. They have children and elderly relatives to care for and the government is going to force them out of business. True, there are some unscrupulous vendors out there and they should be scrutinized, but the rest? Leave them alone, and leave kratom alone..unadulterated, in full whole leaf form. Not broken down to the molecular level to it’s active components and sold back to us in pill form. NO. Just as it is and has been for thousands of years. The way Mother Nature intended for her children to use!
So tired of being unable to live my life without the government trying to step in! Seems like they want me to go back on SSI instead of being a tax paying citizen, the government ( John q public really) paying my medical bills, food stamps, etc…. NOPE, taking care of myself… Working full-time, real medical insurance, being able to go out to dinner when I want, Kratom saved my life, Kratom gave me a life!!!
The DEA is a fascist organization and should be eliminated.
Kratom is very hard to abuse if you take too much you won’t die, you just get ill vomiting and not feeling well. This I have read up on kratom. I’ve tried it before as well. It is very weak , nowhere near strong as morphine, but then again I’m opiate tolerant.
I thing t he government is mad they ‘re not making money and hasn’t been able to tax it. Just imo
People with chronic pain on opioids , we need to mobilize to fight for ourselves in large numbers like this group is doing.