There is a lot of disinformation and stigma around this medicinal plant that is leading to a lot of reactionary, fear based actions that help no one, and harm people who really need it.  Please look at ALL the science, because there is much clinical science available now that shows that Kratom does NOT pose the risks that were feared earlier.

Kratom has been literally life saving for me.  I suffer multiple comorbidities, including Fibromyalgia, severe arthritis, and long COVID, which has exponentially exacerbated the pain and fatigue cause by the Fibromyalgia and arthritis.  I cannot take any of the pharmaceutical drugs that are usually prescribed for fibromyalgia, due to side effects that cause problems with other comorbidities.  

For me, and so many who are in similar circumstances with chronic pain, safe, therapeutic doses of kratom have literally meant the difference between my being literally bed ridden much of the time and actually being able to participate in life, being able to manage my home (I live alone and don't have family or much other help), and being able to work at least some to keep my basic survival bills paid.

I would welcome some kind of sensible quality regulation as a supplement, so we don't have impure/poor quality supplements on the market.  But to make kratom illegal and take away access to this life saving plant would be, in many cases for many of us, death or at least the end of any kind of productive life or any quality of life.  I can't tell you how many times before I began to use kratom that my life was so unmanageable, and I was so completely unable to function and take part in life with other people, working to support myself, or doing any of the things that bring me some joy in life, that it would bring me to a place of deep despair and hopelessness, and a loss of will to live.  Let's learn the lessons from the criminalization of cannabis.  Often, natural, plant based medicine is superior to pharmaceauticals for many of us, especially for those of us with ailments that Western Medicine and Big Pharma haven't figured out how to deal with, or don't even yet fully understand.  Let us live in harmony with nature and use the medicinal plants that nature has given us, especially when there are no other cures or remedies for the ailments we suffer.