I don't know if anyone else keeps up on ethnobotanicals and medicinal /magical herbs, but one of the more useful ones has recently come under heavy fire. The ax is falling as we speak and this herb may be permanently out of reach for US citizens as early as next week. Kratom has gotten some bad press lately which is a true injustice. The reason being as it is often used as a base herb onto which all matter of synthetic chemicals(often K2 and Spice/synthetic cannabinoids) are sprayed and allowed to dry then marketed in smoke shops as a legal high, often times keeping the name kratom or including it on packaging as an ingredient. These products are then used by inexperienced, uneducated, buzz seekers who have a natural tendency to overdo things in the first place. A few of these kids have a bad experience while using a chemical slurry baring a false name(and often times many other drugs at the same time) This ends with a trip to the ER and supposedly death in a few extreme cases and congress is ready to pass emergency legislation to unjustly outlaw these simple tree leaves. The raw medicinal leaves are truly beneficial with minimal risks when related to comparable pharmaceuticals, and death is certainly not among these risks. I'm shocked and disheartened by what the foreseeable future holds for this remarkably useful plant.
The active alkaloid found in kratom is unique to the species, but works on some of the same neuroreceptors as caffeine as well as opiates, although the noticeable effects are much less than prescription pain killers. Even with it's lesser potency, it is still a wonderful natural alternative to traditional pill drug based pain management as well as a superior substitute for methadone and suboxone which are used to "treat" opiate addiction. I don't have any personal experience with opiate addiction but was told by friends who have gone through treatment, that the withdrawal symptoms from methadone and suboxone are far more unpleasant and longer lasting than the actual opiate they were addicted to. It doesn't make much sense from a treatment/ recovery standpoint, but it does appear to be a wonderful business model however. First, create the most potent painkillers the world has ever seen and prescribe them like aspirin. Then create the cure for the addiction caused, that's actually more difficult to stop taking than the painkillers. Finally, outlaw the safer natural alternatives to all these pills. While it is possible to develop a dependence on kratom, it doesn't cause the same loss of control a traditional opiate addiction causes and would be more like a tobacco or coffee addiction. Kratom has also shown promise in helping alcoholics from relapsing. Lastly all the medical applications aside, the effects are down right enjoyable from just a simple cup of tea, similar to the enjoyment that can be found in traditional tea, but IMO a little less jittery and more euphoric in nature.
I don't know if anything can be done to prevent what's about to happen, but I just had to voice my concerns. I watched this happen several years ago when they outlawed methylone(aka bath salts) and I said nothing, not this time. Many people are unaware that several medicinal/visionary plants were outlawed in the same emergency bill that outlawed bath salts, though the plants were rarely mentioned. If you've never even heard of Kratom, I think that alone proves the supposed dangers involved are not worthy of emergency legislation to save us from impending doom. The worst part is they are pushing to get it classified as a schedule 1 narcotic, which takes it off the table for further medical research into it's benefits. That pretty much ensures that once illegal it will remain so. If you suffer from chronic pain and take prescription opiates I urge you to try this herb(raw leaf/ non extract) as a substitute or supplement while it's still available. This has little to do with candidates or opinion poles, but rather another blatant loss/theft of personal freedom under the guise of protecting the public and marketed through fear. I don't know about you, but I don't feel all that threatened by an herb that has been traditionally used safely for hundreds of years. Much the same way tobacco was used, except there is actual scientific evidence of tobacco causing fatalities unlike Kratom which when taken alone hasn't caused a single one.
I know I'm skating a thin line with allowable forum content here and I really tried not to cross it. If I did happen to cross that line into politics please delete my post immediately, with no hard feelings on my end. It just seemed like the kind of info nature minded individuals should be made aware of.
