It was about nine o'clock in the morning when I heard that kratom was going to be banned. I was listening to an online news show that I like which has mostly political news but also lots of other random news, and I guess that this counts as political news regardless. I was driving back to where I was staying from a gas station, and I remember just shouting expletives at the top of my lungs while driving down the freeway.
I couldn't believe what I was hearing - kratom, my ever-obscure ally who has long enjoyed ambiguity and lack of nearly any alarming side-effects, finally had the Administration's scheduling highbeams directly upon it.
I had already gone through a similar, perhaps more acute, anxiety when kratom had been banned in a surprise move with no prior public warning to the day of the laws passage. My state has a very simple and dictatorial mechanism for banning new substances: the Head of the Health Department can simply issue a statement that the substance is a public health risk, and voila it is a controlled substance.
Now the feds were moving in on my medicine.
I have had two spinal fusion surgeries, the first of which was a partial failure leading to the rod being flexed over time and eventually snapped. The second surgery was the really painful one, ever since the first moments I woke up from surgery in AGONIZING pain from lying about how bad my opioid problem had gotten (which was the dumbest thing I have ever done in my whole life) and I wasn't given enough post-op pain meds... it was like a torture. They tried to give me enough meds but it was too late the pain was there.
Since then I've had nothing but issues with my back, just lots of pain and lack of ability to bend over or pick up items more than 30 pounds at the absolute most. It seems like it wouldn't be as bad as it is, but not being able to bend over without significant pain is a really lame disability.
I have used a wide range (kinda) of opioids, both prescribed (en masse)and illicit, and kratom has helped me more thsn any of them. I say that not because it a superior painkiller but because it doesn't try to take my soul and control my life to the same degree, and it gives me a sense of normalcy whereas using the pills or shit was a daily weird struggle and usually not having enough or running out during dry spells or whatever. It's legal status has decriminalized many ex-opioid users who were involved in the illicit opioid market otherwise. That is one reason to not schedule I this plant, or its active constituents! It diverts people AWAY from the illegal opioids! -
The next reason for Schedule I placement is also BS.
Saying that since there is an opioid crisis and kratom alkaloids have activity at the same receptor, and since it is currently legal and unregulated, therefore it should be banned as a legal opioid.
anyone who has tried can tell you almost any other opioid has more analgesic efficacy (which often times coincides inextricably with a euphoric buzz) than kratom.
Kratom is very mild in comparison, and it has much fewer social side effects. Kratom never made me distant from people, it never made me part of an ostracized group, it isnt sold at the exorbitant prices that street drugs are, in addition to the lack of the really scary side effects, it also is an all-natural plant product which actually contains many other constituents than the two with opioid receptor activity, many of which have distinct medicinal applications, as well as being rich in antioxidants. It just seems like the healthy(er) choice. I've always maintained that there could be some unforseen health effects from kratom that we just dont know about due to lack of study, but as of yet even among heavy users there is little evidence for major health concerns. I would be among the study group, and if I ever develop a kratom-related illness I would be sure to let as many people know as I could. So far it hasnt seemed to have effected my health, except at times perhaps my diet. Kratom seems not to effect my mind in the same way or if so to a much lesser degree than the way standard opioids do. My mood is fine usually, I'm not very intoxicated at all. Just a mild buzz and a distinct reduction in my pain level. Not a total elimination of the pain, but a solid 50% reduction.
Whenever I use opioids, it always eventually begins changing me psychologically... I mean, how could it not. It's literally slowly changing the physical make-up of you brain, modulating the heart and eventually dampening the soul.
Heroin was by far the most seductive of the bunch (obviously) and it also had an oneirogenic quality which I guess all of them have to one degree or another, but heroin took the cake for that. That is the poppy's visionary gift - the gift of portentous dreams (morpheus!?). But with that one, it slowly became evident that the spirit I was communing with does not necessarily have my best interests at heart. I had dreams that I would be getting seduced by a repeating dream character, a beautiful woman like turn of the last century, abstinthe or european wine/beer poster girl, always with tons of heroin and poppy flowers in the dreams, red poppy flowers, and she would try to make love with me. I always refused, becase subcosnciously I knew that if I gave in, she would have my soul. And so I never did.
Eventually I got busted, gave up the heroin and eventually gave up the pills too and switched back to Kratom and OTC pain meds for my spine issues.
The Schedule I drugs are supposed to have a high potential for abuse... another area in which kratom fails to meet the criteria.
Kratom is less addictive by an order of magnitude from the poppy opiates. Withdrawal from any of the popular opioids of choice is an excruciating affair, one of the most painful states for a human to be in without being in actual physical danger. When a person has been taking kratom daily for a long period of time, and abruptly stops, there is usually a period of withdrawal that is similar to, but much less severe than, withdrawal from a standard opioid. I've been through both many times, and before I had really withdrawn from opiates I thought the kratom withdrawals were bad - but now I know that they really aint sh*t compared to heroin or hydrocodone or oxycodone or morphine withdrawal. After those, the kratom w/d's are short, mild, and altogether bearable. But still, they exist, you can feel them; but then again so are caffeine withdrawals... those suck pretty bad.
But to the DEA, all use of kratom is "abuse". People using it A) to treat pain from injuries, surgeries, or conditions and B) to cope with Opioid withdrawals and to Replace Opioids in a Therapeutic manner - these are not evidence of legitimate medical applications, these are evidence of various manners of ABUSE!?
The way these gargantua of Government think and operate just baffles the mind.
One more thing on the B) above... The FDA has approved two medications for this very purpose - METHADONE and BUPRENORPHINE
... they have legitimized Opioid replacement therapy as a viable tactic to end the crisis - I agree, but why then destroy this third, natural, non-pharmaceutical medicine? Because it eats in to their PROFITS! If people can just get kratom, then why both with the methadone clinics and their rules, and the high cost of Suboxone clinics? Many, including myself, wouldn't!
In fact, it wasn't until my state banned kratom that I went back to the pills, and then after I couldnt stand that anymore I went into a suboxone program. Let me tell you, Buprenorphine is a weird b8tch. It is an extremely potent partial agonist with a very high binding profile and a looong halflife. I was somewhat confused by this stuff which seems to be EXTREMELY powerful to opiate-naive people, but barely noticeable to addicts... but now I realize, that the way this stuff "helps" is by A) giving the patient a normal life without resorting to the streets for their drugs which is the main way I think this therapy helps, and B) it also pummels the opioid receptors into submission until you have such a high tolerance that you don't even feel it if you relapse. And also, the high, competitive binding profile prevents any other opiate from getting in as long as the bupe occupies the receptor, and the long half life means that takes days to wear off....
Which leads to a person is just as, if not more, addicted to the Suboxone as they were the Opiates. Supposedly then you wean the person off the subs, but often it goes on for years and sometimes never stops.
Kratom in this application actually has LESS of an effect on the brain and therefore LESS addiction even as you replace the opiate for daily use.
"Must Pose an Eminent Threat to Public Safety"
I'm pretty sure both mitragynine and 7-ho-mitragyine, but maybe just the former are only partial agonists of the mu- and delta- opioid receptors, preferring the G-protein pathway which is associated with less respiratory depression and constipation, meaning that they do not pose the nearly the public health risk that the standard opioids do. Also, I'm pretty sure mitragynine has only negligible activity at the mu-opioid receptor, with most of its activity being confined to the delta subgroup which, IIRC, doesn't result in near the level of desensitization and resultant change in receptor density due to the saturation with exogenous ligands AKA less Opioid Use Disorder in frequent, medical use.
You can tell by the way they tried to do it, in both the cases I am talking about, sur prising people in a swoop to ban without giving the public a chance to weigh in on the decision making process. Typical, I guess, but sad.
Anyway, I've been writing this all day... but I really care about this issue and it just really sucks I remember Kratom being so obscure NO BODY knew what it was... I knew it blowing up was a double edged sword...
Cross your fingers and toes that the delay is permanent! Thanks to all the senators who signed against the ban
