Kratom WTF is it? And why they want it banned!
Well to start what is Kratom? It is tree grown in Indonesia, Thailand and South East Asia. It is within the coffee family. In the native cultures it usually consumed by chewing leaves or made into a tea. Mitragyna speciosa is a tree that grows between 4 to 16 meters in height.
It contains alkaloids. These create the feel good and psychoactive reactions that people are after as an escape or to mitigate pain. In low doses it acts as a stimulant and in higher doses opiate like properties.
https://www.kratomscience.com/forums/topic/list-alkaloids-identified-mitragyna-speciosa-kratom/
is a full list of the alkaloids and the properties they have.
With that in mind the basic properties that people derive from kratom are pretty simple, it relieves pain, helps with depression, gives energy boosting abilities, mental acuity and can have sedative effects. Now different leaves have different effects and not all can be found in one.
Take a moment to read that again – a natural plant that does all that very well. I can and will attest to the effectiveness of this.
In the past kratom has been used to ween people off of addiction to opioids It should be used now as well. The amazing thing is that it doesnt cause respiratory failure. No one has died from kratom. That isnt to say it hasn’t been in someones system with other drugs, but no one died from it unlike traditional opioids alone.
And since it does provide a slight euphoric feeling for short period of time it could be used by addicts in harm reduction. Maybe an extract could be used to increase the impact and give them a safer means?
For pain management it has reduced my pain medication by over 80%. Sadly I still get breakthrough pain but for the most part I stopped taking my prescription pain medication.
For Depression, I stopped all my antidepressants and haven’t felt better. Let me be 100% clear, coming off of this poison is and was hell. I feel it is on a level above that of opiate withdrawal due to the lingering effects that last for months and months after. As someone who has been prescribed everything under the sun pain wise antidepressants are very nasty drugs. After a few days you can generally get up and moving but not with antidepressants they keep you down for a long time.
Energy boosting – I am no longer as sluggish in the morning or tired. I don’t drink coffee, never have and don’t touch energy drinks. So this is very nice addition.
What does it do for other people well here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3G_WXr-06xs
I will say that when I reduced my Rx down I had no issues or withdrawal effects at all. And for those who do want to get off of the opioids then I would hesitate to recommend kratom as an alternative.
From what I have read and seen it doesn’t actually bind or screw into the receptors but slightly engage them in the literature. Maybe that is why it works.
http://speciosa.org/8-factor-analysis-of-kratom-performed-by-dr-hennigfield-submitted-the-deafda/
That is the 8 factor analysis of kratom by Dr. Hennigfield. It was for the defense of kratom against banning it in the USA. The basic conclusion is that it isn’t an opioid and that it partially binds to the receptors.
Now like most things it can be abused and dependence can be formed from it. That goes without saying. But does it pose a harm to the population? No I don’t think it does.
So why the ban? Simple profit motivations from pharmaceuticals, rehab clinics and jails. That is the trifecta of the industry.
Antidepressants a staple of the industry. 13% of Americans are on and usually stay on long term. Well that is a nice amount of stable income.
http://www.medicaldaily.com/antidepressants-arent-taken-depressed-majority-users-have-no-disorder-327940
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-rise-of-all-purpose-antidepressants/
Narcotics are something most people have and use. Although higher level ones are much harder to come by of course but the basic staple of Tylenol 3’s are a standard. Then we get into the big buck ones like Fentanyl and Oxy along with Percocet etc. These are also huge money makers for the drug companies especially when they have illicit black market uses. Oxy prices crashed after they changed the formula.
https://www.drugs.com/stats/oxycontin
Now look at the rehab market and the prices they charge. Not that rehab is bad but in Florida it appears to be nothing but a mill and insurance fraud going on there.
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Florida+rehab+fraud&t=ffsb&atb=v52-5ba&ia=web
But if kratom can get people off this stuff and help addicts with a little counseling on the side it would hurt the industry. However if you schedule it and make it banned, guess what? You need to come off it to! Now if someone is dependent on it then yes there are issues there just like a diabetic is dependent on insulin or another treatment.
Then there are the for profit jails and unions. (Yes I am usually a big believer in unions) but in this case if it is a crime to have kratom then without question that means more people to arrest and more people to jail long term. More jobs (Police, Jails, Support Staff) and sadly more profit. The drug war has failed. Weed is now legal in a few US states and will be legal here in Canada next year. I may not be a fan of weed but I sure understand the implications it brings and why it is needed.
So as you can see there are huge and powerful corporations and people who profit handsomely from these industries, should kratom be added to it that would continue but it would also take something away from the people.
Kratom is a tree from the coffee family located in South East Asia. It has been used for a thousand years traditionally, the past 20 or so in the USA,EU. It has antidepressant, pain killing and stimulant properties.
It is opioid like but not an actual opioid. It can’t kill you on its own but can make you sick it you take too much. It acts like coffee and codeine according to the study by the AKA. It shows great promise with addicts and getting people off of opioids. However a lot more studies need to be done.
The pharmaceutical corporations of the world and associated business don’t like it. They want it banned. It is clear why, it is a massive threat to their industries. A natural plant that is extremely cheap and has a profound effect on people.
Me, I would like to see regulation to the industry. A set of standards, more studies and actual acceptance by the governments of the world. For once listen to the people, we aren’t stupid. Alcohol and Tobacco are legal, Marijuana is about to be legal (more studies please also) and these can impair people far more than kratom can. All I can say is what it has done for me and the people I talk to. Anecdotal at best for now, the science is catching up but for something like this… is it not worth fighting for? To possibly help addiction, help drug addicts, help depression, the energy, the boost. All from a natural plant with little side effects. I think it is.
There are great pharmaceuticals out there and great rehab places that do incredible things but with most industries when given enough power they can abuse it. I think this is one of those times.
Research on kratom:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4425236/
https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/cpb/52/8/52_8_916/_pdf
http://www.emcdda.europa.eu/publications/drug-profiles/kratom
http://www.americankratom.org/science