By Judi Plumley.

The FDA is heightening its warning to consumers and healthcare professionals, first made in a public health advisory in November, that kratom presents a safety hazard and holds the potential for abuse. For chronic painers who find Kratom to be useful it’s another example of the federal government ignoring or even railing against alternative treatment that might help.

Judi Plumley

I am saddened and angry at what I see happening with the DEA and the FDA in consideration to the so called opiate crisis.  I am 60 years old.  I have been a part of, and watched this senseless war on drugs since 1980.  In a lot of ways, nothing has changed.  No matter what laws you enact, no matter what measures you take, you are only filling the coffers of corporations and organizations, and you aren’t doing anything to help either the people who are addicts and or those in chronic pain.  It’s obvious to us all that our government couldn’t care less about the people it serves.  It is only interested in making money.

I have never lived in a world where cannabis was legal.  It has been a horrible injustice to the American people that a botanical that shows such promise was made illegal on a whim.  Yet, all those years alcohol, which kills more and more people each year, has remained legal.

They made cannabis a cash cow by making it illegal and in the process, persecuted millions of Americans.  It looks like now, finally, someone let that genie out of the bottle, and you can’t put it back in again.  That is a good thing. It should never have been illegal in the first place.

Over the last few years, another herb, kratom, has come on the horizon and now thousands of people across the country are finding it helpful to deal with pain. It calms withdrawal symptoms, it elevates mood, and promotes sleep.  Most people who use it are over 40, and now that you have systematically made it more and more difficult for people to manage pain, more people are using kratom safely and effectively.  The drug companies don’t like kratom any more than cannabis, and the FDA is passing out lies about kratom, sharing misinformation that no one who actually uses kratom believes.  Of course, there are those who will believe anything the government says, and all I can do is hope and pray our leaders will actually look over the evidence, and leave the kratom alone.

It seems to me that the CDC, DEA, FDA and DOJ all have something against poor people.  It seems like every single law and directive that has been passed in the last year targets the poor more than any other class of people.  You all know very well, that the poor in this country cannot get the medical care they need.  They are treated like convicts in emergency rooms and pain clinics.  They can’t call an attorney when they have been cheated or thrown out of a pain clinic.

They can’t afford the copays, deductibles, and drug tests, so what does someone do?  What do you expect them to do?   They get drugs off the street, fentanyl, or heroin, they overdose, they die, and you call them drug addicts and say they are a part of the statistic of the opiate epidemic.  This has not changed in 40 years!!!!

Like I said, along comes kratom.  Many of us use it and cannabis to control pain and a host of other illnesses, and have been successful.  We had to do something.  Our government leaders let us down, refused to help us.  All they want to do, it seems, is put us in jail, and take away what little we have left.  So now you guys can’t stand it and you want to ban kratom.

How about this?  I challenge you to go to a vape shop and buy some, doesn’t matter what strain.  Mix about a half tsp in some pudding or make it into tea, but be sure to add sugar.  The stuff is bitter.  Within 30 minutes of drinking it you should feel like you had a cup of coffee.  Aches and pains will diminish.  That’s it.  That’s all, No, it’s not scientific, it is evidence based.  Just ask anyone who uses it.

Judie Plumley was born and raised in Memphis who lived there   for 47 years, then moved to GA, where she now lives with her husband and mother. She is the mother of two and grandmother of four.