#iamkratom

As a Kratom user who has been following the attempted DEA ban very closely, I wanted to chime in and provide a bit of additional information. First off, as many have pointed out, classifying Kratom as a schedule I drug is ridiculous and likely done for the reasons many have mentioned - more control, more arrests, 'protection' for the Pharma industry, etc. In fact, Big Pharma has several patents pending for some of the alkaloids in Kratom - no medical benefit, eh?For people that suffer from chronic pain, anxiety, depression, PTSD, and a host of other issues, Kratom is a god-send. It's not a street drug and Kratom users are largely productive members of society - veterans, teachers, mothers, and others from all walks of life.It sounds like there are quite a few who use Kratom on ATS, but for those of you who don't or who aren't familiar with it, I wanted to provide a few links where you can learn more.The American Kratom Association is the group that tries to protect our rights to treat ourselves as we see fit, and have been instrumental in fighting (and defeating) proposed legislation to ban Kratom in several states. They are also leading the fight against the DEA ban, and have hired a law firm and lobbyists to assist - and we are making progress:The petition to stop the ban is over 130,000 signatures - I'm told that over 200k lawmakers start to pay more attention so hopefully we get there. If any of you want to sign, that would be great:There is also a 'Dear Colleague' letter that is being sponsored by Representatives Pocan (D-Wis) and Salmon (R-Ari) and making the rounds in the House asking the DEA to postpone or cancel the proposed ban. If this gains traction in the House it will at least open discussion amongst our lawmakers and hopefully force the DEA to look at the facts rather than the blatant lies and BS they are citing as reasons for the ban. Currently 6 other Representatives have signed the letter, so that's a good sign.Finally, if any of you really want to hear about how Kratom has helped people there are 100's of videos up on Twitter with the hashtag. These are regular people telling their stories about how Kratom has helped them - not drug addicts, but regular people who are clearly not criminals.Hopefully they won't become criminals due to this ban - funny how that works, isn't it? TPTB can pass a law and overnight thousands if not millions of law-abiding citizens become criminals through no action of their own.Anyway, sorry for the long post (hopefully some of you read it) but this is something I'm passionate about for many reasons.