Feb. 11, 2019 -- At the age of 27, Kim DeMott says, her life was looking bleak. After being diagnosed with lupus, she had infections, rashes, and incredible pain all over her body. Over the next several years, her health declined as new diagnoses came: fibromyalgia, osteoarthritis, and Sjogren’s syndrome. Her pain became so severe she started using a cane to walk, and she says at her lowest point, she was taking 28 medications a day, including several opioids for chronic pain.

“I wasn’t able to be a good mom to my kids. I wasn’t able to function. I had zero quality of life. I was just miserable,” the California mother of two says.

Then in 2016, DeMott learned about kratom from a friend taking it for lupus symptoms. She decided to give the herbal supplement a try. She ordered some online and brewed it into a tea. Relief came with the first cup, she says.

“It helped so much better than anything else I had ever tried, including being on the pain medications -- and I was on a lot of them: morphine, oxycodone, benzodiazepines, and muscle relaxers,” she says. “The same day I tried kratom for the first time, I went for a mile walk with my son. I was able to pick my kids up from school. It’s been really amazing. It’s given me my quality of life back.”

DeMott says she still has chronic pain and health issues, but kratom dulls the pain enough that she can function. That’s why she’s organized two rallies -- one in California and one in Washington, D.C. -- to push the government to keep the herb legal. She and other kratom users and advocates are growing more concerned about news that the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is considering labeling it as a Schedule I drug -- a category that includes heroin, ecstasy, marijuana, and LSD. It would also make the drug illegal on a federal level.

Federal officials have said they are concerned that kratom can be abused because of its opioid-like effects. It’s now illegal in six states and the District of Columbia, and it’s been on the DEA’s list of drugs and chemicals of concern for several years.