Since the person who created the bill for the ban shared some links, I (someone who has been in the industry for almost a decade) would like to share some as well! 

I have watched SO MANY people turn their life around by using kratom as an alternative to opiates for their pain. I can't imagine banning something like this. I could maybe understand regulation (lab testing, child proof packaging, warnings, ingredient lists, etc) but to schedule it in the same category as Heroin and Crack is to attack the entire Chronic Pain community. 
DONT BAN HARM REDUCTION

"Natural Herb Kratom May Have Therapeutic Effects And Relatively Low Potential For Abuse Or Harm" 

https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/newsroom/news-releases/2020/02/natural-herb-kratom-may-have-therapeutic-effects-and-relatively-low-potential-for-abuse-or-harm-according-to-a-user-survey

"It looks to be a very safe and efficacious product in the model we used and in the more traditional-inspired form of medication that we used."
https://pharmacy.ufl.edu/2020/10/20/kratom-tea-study-stirs-up-new-support-for-relieving-opioid-dependence/

"In 2016, the DEA briefly recommended criminalizing kratom possession and distribution, before withdrawing the proposal." <-- BECAUSE TOO MANY FEDERAL LAW MAKERS USE KRATOM THEMSELVES!!
https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/news/story/study-pokes-holes-in-kratoms-bad-rap

"The herbal supplement can be abused, but given the explosion in opioid deaths, eliminating this safer substitute will almost certainly lead to more deaths"
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-fda-shouldn-rsquo-t-support-a-ban-on-kratom/

"The dual pressures of deregulation in the health sector of the economy and the dominance of Big Pharma, has the consequences of proliferating the use of non-sanctioned forms of health care." <-- People don't trust big pharma and as adults they have the right to choose which treatments they wish to utilize for their ailments.
https://api.mountainscholar.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/e1cb6a37-c752-4f84-ab05-3deae944cec4/content

Most recent count of how many Virginians are without health insurance just to show that not everyone has access to healthcare to allow them to receive the proper pain management that they NEED. (The number is 544,000 Virginians without health insurance as of 2022)
https://www.vhcf.org/data/profile-of-virginias-uninsured/