New DEA Banned Substance

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Kratom is found in a certain species of trees (from the leafs), it has been used to treat depression, chronic pain, and opiate addiction. At doses smaller than 4g, it has a stimulating effect similar to caffeine.

I think its wrong to criminalize any drug personally, even if many of them are harmful, people should be free to make their decisions. Kratom in particular isn't very harmful, it takes 8 grams before one risks overdosing.

There is a White House Petition to stop the ban. Its almost at 100,000 signatures, the whitehouse staff claim they will at least respond to any petitions with 100,000 signatures.

The war on drugs is only benefitting law enforcement careers and the criminal underground, its implementation is a tax drain; I am discouraged that knowing what we know about it, we are still allowing the DEA to extend its grasp and ban something being used to treat opiate addiction.

It's also almost exclusively used in brown-skinned people's cultures.

Did you know that marihuana was known as hemp before the prohobition era and then deliberately renamed to make it sound more foreign?

The war on drugs is a war on immigrant populations.

QFT.

The plural of 'anecdote' is not 'data'.

The classification of kratom as a Schedule I substance has nothing to do with the skin color of those who abuse it. Instead, the re-classification has every thing to do with the following:

1) Kratom is abused for its ability to produce opioid-like effects and is often marketed as a "legal" alternative to controlled substances. In addition, kratom has (a) a high potential for abuse, has (b) no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States, and has (c) a lack of accepted safety for use under medical supervision. These three factors alone constitute a Schedule I controlled substance according to the Controlled Substances Act passed by Congress in 1970.

2) Kratom causes tachycardia, nausea, drowsiness, and high blood pressure. Health risks occurring in kratom abusers include hepatotoxicity, psychosis, weight loss, insomnia, vomiting and death. Other adverse effects associated with chronic kratom use include loss of appetite and weight loss, delayed ejaculation, constipation, and darkening of the skin color of the face and bowel obstruction. Chronic users have also reported withdrawal symptoms including irritability, runny nose and diarrhea. One other study on chronic users of kratom (more than 6 months, estimated 276 mg of mitragynine daily) showed severe symptoms of muscle spasms and pain, sleeping difficulty, fever, decreased appetite and psychological withdrawal.

3) There is absolutely no legitimate medical use for kratom.

"Playing the Race Card" will change none of these facts.

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T minus 14 and counting.

I don't think we need to be banning anything new when banning things in the past has had ZERO measurable positive response

That's the wikipedia version, you're directly quoting the DEA. Kratom has the pain-relieving effects that opiates have, without the impaired cognition or gi function.

More people are going to be using opiates and heroin because of this kratom ban

The war on drugs is a miserable failure and the DEA would be the last to admit it. I wonder how many more lives prohibition has destroyed vs actual drug use.

If I'mr rememberming correctly, I think I tried Kratom once and it wasn't very strong IMO.

On the other hand DXM and diphenhydramine are legal which aremore dnagerous I think (the former being more dnagerous for addiction reasons and the latter being more dangerous for physiological effects). Easy to overdose on sleepng pills.

Other than that, the drug is safe....

One can abuse anything, there isn't anything less safe about this drug than say alcohol. I don't believe one can actually overdose on kratom, maybe very unpleasant but nobody is dying from it. Those side effects sound like the ones the pills my doctor gives me, it should not be banned. Just another thing to throw people in prison for.

Just wanted to comment, I was thinking about this more and it wasn't kratom I tried. It was something weaker. So I actually don't have personal experience with this (it's always been difficult to get)

I take about 1g of kratom during the work night, it keeps me alert longer than caffeine does and still allows me to sleep when I get home. I have experienced none of the symptoms wikipedia mentions. If I go to the VA and get back on zoloft, I'll have insomnia to worry about, as well as manic episodes.