VICE: The Downside of Banning Kratom
Recently VICE published an article, "Why Banning the Controversial Painkiller Kratom Could Be Bad News for America's Heroin Addicts" by Maia Szalavitz depicting all natural kratom in a more positive light than previous articles. The article discusses the benefits all natural kratom offers to people suffering from addiction. Szalavitz writes how a "growing number of Americans are finding it [kratom] to be a useful alternative to heroin and prescription pain relievers". Based on my experience, and the experiences of the people we serve I know this to be the truth. With so many articles negatively depicting kratom, it's nice to read an article showing the positive side of all natural kratom.
Szalavitz interviewed Mark Swogger, an assistant professor at the University of Rochester Medical Center, who along with the help of his team reviewed 161 'experience reports'. Mr. Swogger states, "I think it's pretty safe to say that kratom has at least some addiction potential". However, he goes on to say, "'overall, we found that it's really mild compared to opioid addiction and it didn't seem to last as long'. The most commonly reported negative experience was nausea or stomach pain, which 16 percent of the users experienced". When considering the side effects of most pharmaceuticals, nausea and stomach pain are not major health concerns. Yet, state by state kratom is being banned with no regard for those who's lives and wellbeing have been greatly improved.
Susan Ash, from the American Kratom Association, was also interviewed by Szalavitz. Mrs. Ash is the leading force behind kratom advocacy, and has dedicated the past several years of her life to promoting the truth beneath the leaf.
Despite the all of the benefits of kratom the State of New York has introduced legislature to ban kratom.
We need to stand together to stop the State of New York! Please take a few minutes to voice your opinion to members of the New York state legislature. Even if you do not live in New York you can still help by sharing the truth about kratom with the New York state legislature. The American Kratom Association has made it easy to voice your opinion with templates, and information needed on their New York Action Alert page.
Please take a few minutes to help the plant that has, and will continue to help so many of us!
~The Major
Comments
Thank you for this new update, MK – the issue is personal because I was a New York resident for 20 years, and have many family members who still live there. I’ve sent an email to the group of legislators, urging them to keep kratom legal in NY.
January 22 2016 at 03:01 PM
I was injured in the military and after 5 failed surgerys taking place over the course of about 2 years, during that time i was prescribed pain killers consistently and i became dependant on them to do anything i needed them to sleep i needed them to wake up it was horrible and i became very depressed, after my final failed surgery i was medically seperated from the military and with that went my consistent prescription for pain killers, i was given a VA doctor that clearly saw i was addicted to pain killers and would not prescribe them to me any more even though i was still in pain, so i went through horrible withdrawal and after i was done with withdraw i could deal with the pain but i then was diagnosed with restless leg syndrome and i could not deal with restless leg syndrome so i tried to get my prescription for pain killers back but no doctor would give me a prescription due to my addiction to them after doing some online research i found out about kratom and decided to order some and try it and it worked i was finally able to feel normal again, i now live a happy life as a hardworking electrician, I take kratom about 1 to 3 times a day in small doses just to take away my restless leg pains and it is the only thing I have found that works, kratom changed my life in a very positive way I also have a buddy that served with me in the military after he got out he became addicted to heroin so i told him about kratom he tried it and has been clean from heroin for almost a year now so not only has it help me in a great way it has helped my friends also, kratom is not dangerous and is all natural and should continue to be legal it helps people and if you take that away from them they’re just going to go back to doing illegal drugs so keep kratom legal it helps people
January 22 2016 at 07:01 PM
Doesn’t it seem weird that these states are trying to ban kratom but at the same time they are trying to legalize marijuana? Don’t they realize if they outlaw Kratom, “only the outlaws will have it”???? Those outlaws will include my wife and I? I take it for migraines and she takes it for arthritis. We are both senior citizens, we are not hippies!!!! I have a masters degree and besides that over the years my wife and I have devoted thousands of hours to the Boy Scouts,the high school out children went to, and to the Civil Air Patrol. We are loyal hard working Americans, we do not want to become criminals
January 29 2016 at 11:01 PM
This plant has literally saved my life. Suffering from back, kneck, knee, and what I thought to be fibromyalgia had me in really deep with prescription drugs. The plant has also aloud me to drop the use of prescription drugs for not only pain but drugs for blood pressure, anxiety, and insomnia.
Please do your research before condemning this gift from God.
February 10 2016 at 04:02 AM