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Letter to the Editor: Banning Kratom Will Do More Harm than Good
By Christina Dent
Ridgeland, MS
christina@enditforgood.com
What in the world is Kratom and why is it in the news?
The answers to these questions and how we respond to them will either increase public safety in Mississippi or undermine it.
First, what is Kratom?
Photo via Wikimedia Commons.
It is the dried and ground leaves of a tree found in parts of Southeast Asia. It has been used for hundreds of years for a variety of health reasons, and has become popular in the U.S. recently, often sold as a dietary supplement. In low doses, people who use it report mild pain-relieving qualities and more energy. In large doses, it can act as a sedative. Some people also find that Kratom halts the body’s opioid withdrawal symptoms, helping them discontinue opioid use.
So, why is Kratom in the news? Last April, a number of media outlets covered a report by the Centers for Disease Control that had analyzed over 27,000 overdose deaths in 2016-2017 and indicated 91 of them could be linked to Kratom. What the CDC report mentioned, but was rarely included in the media reports, is that virtually all of those 91 people had other drugs in their system.
Kratom is not illegal under federal or state law, but several Mississippi counties have recently made it a crime to use or possess Kratom, with more considering it under pressure from law enforcement and some concerned citizens.
While I sympathize with their concern for public safety, turning a person who uses Kratom into a criminal and putting that person in jail is the wrong approach. Just like any other substance, legal or illegal, Kratom can be misused and we need to treat that misuse as a public health issue and not as a criminal matter.
If we treat it as criminal, we will undermine public safety. Here’s why:
First, banning a popular substance does not make it disappear. It simply transfers the substance from a legal market, where we have the option to regulate it, to the black market where we have zero regulation. This market transfer increases crime by providing a revenue stream that entices people to break the law to get a share of the profits. This decreases public safety.
Second, criminalizing a substance makes it more available to our children. In a regulated market, we can set age limits for purchasing. Certainly, some youth find their way around that, but most legal retailers are checking IDs. On the street corner, no one is. A 13-year-old and a 33-year-old have the same access to prohibited substances, and those substances are available on the streets of every town in America today. This decreases our children’s safety.
Read about Oxford’s efforts to ban Kratom.
Lt. Eddie Hawkins, with the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics, was recently quoted in The Daily Times Leader stating his concern over the way Kratom is currently sold. “There’s no quality control, no dosage limits, no age limits.” He’s right, but criminalizing it ensures that those things continue.
Third, the black market sells any concoction they want, with a strong profit incentive to pack the biggest punch in the smallest package to avoid detection while smuggling. This lack of regulation over purity and potency is how we got fentanyl-laced substances on the street.
In a recent interview published by the Hattiesburg American, alerting the public to fentanyl-laced meth in the Pine Belt, John Dowdy, Director of the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics, said, “People need to understand – if you’re buying any kind of narcotics on the street – whether you think it is a legal prescription or not – you’re basically playing Russian Roulette.”
While we may categorically disagree on the best path forward, I wholeheartedly agree with him that using unregulated substances is like playing Russian Roulette. This reality should make us take a long pause and ask ourselves why on earth we want our loved ones playing Russian Roulette with yet another substance, when we’re losing so many people to overdoses already from unregulated drugs they bought on the street.
It is human nature to want a quick and simple solution to every problem. But the quickest path to making Kratom dangerous is to send it into the free-for-all of the black market. If we want to reduce harm and increase public safety, we have to keep Kratom legal. Let’s age-restrict it behind a counter, not send it to the street corner.
Christina Dent is Founder of End It For Good, a conservative nonprofit advocating for health-centered approaches to drugs. She lives with her family in Ridgeland.
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Herman Allmaras
May 8, 2019 at 6:24 pm
Finally, a fair assessment of kratom. Aspirin is more dangerous.
Nelson
May 9, 2019 at 3:49 am
WELL DONE Christina! Big Pharma would rather keep us on their meds and make a profit rather then letting us utilize a natural alternative thats allready helped tens of thousands of people get off AND STAY OFF hardcore opiods. Like anything else in life, follow the money trail. Big Pharma, DEA, dont give a sht about our health. Big Pharma donates to politicians, politicians ban substance citing DANGER! NO ONE HAS EVER DIED FROM KRATOM. Same as marijuana….If they schedule kratom, many people will go back to the real danger…..
Chuck Domingues
May 10, 2019 at 6:44 am
Thank you Kratom is a hugh help in me putting down Suboxone and ending the opioid rat race in my life. #cleanlifecomingmyway
Kratom is safe
Linda
May 10, 2019 at 9:17 am
I have seen Kratom save lives. If they ban kratom that will just put it into the black market where the real danger will occur! Haven’t they learned their lesson yet with the opioid epidemic? Kratom is not an opiate
And they should not treat it as such. What I am seeing is it being a threat to Big Pharma. When Kratom is used properly and from the right resource it is a very helpful supplement! I have witnessed the positive effects from it in several people I love. It has helped in opioid withdrawal and kept them from ever using again! I have seen it help in pain relief with no side effects and I have witnessed someone who has been incredibly helped with anxiety. I have seen many Pharmaceuticals do far more damage than pure unadulterated Kratom could ever do!
Phillip Ray
May 10, 2019 at 9:43 am
Thank you for an honest fact filled response to this issue.
Bill MacDonald
May 10, 2019 at 10:02 am
I agree… aspirin for pain gave me tinnitus.
N
May 10, 2019 at 10:58 am
Kraton has saved my life and 6 other people that I know very very well
Desiree
May 10, 2019 at 12:43 pm
Don’t knock it,,, till Yu try it!!!!
Jeff Roderick
May 10, 2019 at 5:04 pm
Kratom has made me the man I am today! I was bad abuse and today I can say no its not worth it I’ll just take a little kratom for my pain!
Lori McKibben
May 10, 2019 at 7:26 pm
Thank you for your article. I was addicted to prescription drugs for nearly 10 years. When I decided to finally get off that nightmare of a rollercoaster I found Kratom. I am finally back to the land of the living. Being addicted to hydrocodone felt like I was a slave. Going through hundreds of withdrawals felt like I was dying every month from running out of the drug. Now I finally have my life back. I take Kratom purely for pain reasons. Well documented by doctors and neurosurgeons. If I didn’t have some kind of pain relief like I get from Kratom i don’t know what I would do. I know I will never go back to prescription drugs. NEVER. They ruined my life. Kratom has given my life back.
Fred
May 10, 2019 at 8:43 pm
Please make sure you vote in you local elections for people who want to help keep Kratom in the open market.
I have used it to stop opioid withdrawal when I stop taking my prescription to help lower my opioid dose.
Nathan
October 19, 2019 at 5:35 am
Kratom has changed my life for the better in many ways. I was very sad to realize it was just recently banned right before I moved here. I believe only the selling of it is legal and not possession but the ban will only stigmatize kratom in the eyes of those unfamiliar with it. Not a very comforting thought for people like me who use it medicinally. I’m all on board for getting synthetic kratom off the shelves, but the pure organic leaf is no threat to public safety.
Nathan
October 19, 2019 at 5:36 am
illegal*