There is no health crisis attributed to kratom being legal but there will be a health crisis attributed to kratom being made illegal. Kratom keeps people from deadly fentanyl and tranq contaminated street drugs. Therefore kratom saves lives. People who take kratom come from all backgrounds and are functioning tax paying members that contribute to society.

Kratom saved my life. I was hopelessly addicted to prescription opioids for almost a decade. I have been clean for two years now, as I write this testimonial to keep the plant that saved my life legal. My addiction started with an automobile accident. I took the doctor's prescribed painkillers to heal. I kept taking them after I had technically healed to self-medicate persistent pain and my pre-existing anxiety attacks. Once the prescriptions ran out, I began sourcing the opioids from the street. This led me down a dark path. My life spiraled out of control. All that mattered to me was my next pill, bag-- my next high. I lost my job. I lost my family. I lost any true friend who genuinely cared about me. I lost everything. I was a criminal. It was only a matter of time before I ended up in prison or dead from an overdose. I wasted 10 years of my life like this, before an old friend reached out to me and told me about kratom and its potential to help me get clean. I had tried to quit my addiction to opioids many times over the years. I had been to rehab many times to no avail. I had attempted suboxone and methadone programs, but these substances were not much better than the drugs I was abusing and made my addiction worse. Kratom actually worked, though. Kratom alleviated my withdrawal symptoms just enough for me to function. It allowed me to clear my head and prioritize my life again. I never looked back from there. No relapses. I got my family back. Now, I have a beautiful little girl who just turned 2 years old, and my wife is pregnant with another child. I have a steady job, and I provide for my family and my loved ones. My wife and I own a home together where we are raising our children in a place that we love. We are part of a community that we love. It brings tears to my eyes as I write this and reflect on how far I have come. I couldn't have done it without Kratom. I would have been another overdose statistic in this tsunami of deaths that the United States has weathered over the past 10 years, amid this opioid epidemic. Kratom has saved my life and countless others. It is a wonderful medicine for many. I still use it occasionally to treat my anxiety and panic attacks. Kratom treats these conditions that I have suffered my entire life better than any medication prescribed to me by any doctor that I have sought for help. Kratom is a valuable aid against opioid addiction and the resulting death that has plagued our communities. To make it illegal would only fuel the ravenous fire that is the opioid epidemic. Please, hear the millions that it has saved. I am certainly one of them. And please consider keeping kratom legal in North Carolina and available to the many good people who need it.