I don't live in Virginia, but I grew up there and have family members there. I do NOT support the scheduling or criminalization of kratom because restricting access to this plant would cause more harm than good. Although kratom is not completely risk free, it is much safer than opioid use, with one study finding that kratom has a risk of overdose death more than 1,000 times smaller than that of opioids [1]. I am concerned that restricting access to kratom would cause people to turn to much more dangerous street opioids like heroin and fentanyl. It would also unnecessarily criminalize people for merely possessing a plant and put significant restrictions on research of kratom.

What Virginia needs is regulation to ensure that kratom users can get pure, unadulterated, accurately labeled kratom, not a ban. This will reduce kratom-related adverse effects without restricting people's ability to use the plant. Please do not prohibit this plant that benefits so many people's lives.

[1] Henningfield JE, Grundmann O, Babin JK, Fant RV, Wang DW, Cone EJ. Risk of death associated with kratom use compared to opioids. Prev Med. 2019 Nov;128:105851. doi: 10.1016/j.ypmed.2019.105851. Epub 2019 Oct 21. PMID: 31647958.