I am a retired disabled person with chronic pain. Kratom makes it possible for me to do regular activities, including housework and the PT suggested by my doctors.

While I do not live in Virginia, I have friends and family members who live in Virginia. Criminalizing the possession of the legal medications I use would make it impossible for me to visit these people, or otherwise spend money in Virgina

No medication or dietary supplement is suitable for all patients, nor is every food to be found in supermarkets. There are several OTC medications I’ve been advised to avoid—including some that make an alternative approach to pain management necessary. Consumers have never had more access to neutral information about products that they may choose to take, or decide to forego even if they may help.

Individuals across the US should have the personal freedom to try this valuable resource if they choose to.

The decision to ban kratom is going to severely harm some of the states’ most desperate and vulnerable individuals who cannot get adequate pain management or are trying to stop the use of deadly street drugs, causing far more death and misery than its continued legality risks.

Placing it in C-I completely contradicts the available science on this medication, and is the reason the FDA has not met its legal burden to include it, and the WHO Expert Committee on Drug Dependence determined it it not warrant critical review.

I find this action ableist and extremely offensive.