Our family has been through a lot over the past few years. One constant has been PAIN.
Chronic physical pain changes a person. There's not a single soul I've met who wasn't a different person after having suffered long term pain. Aside from the change in physical abilities, it changes a person's whole image of self, and it's not just one person who is sick, it becomes a whole family.
In mid 2017, the crackdown on pain medication finally "hit home" when our prescribing doctor (in our case, a Lyme Disease specialist) announced he would no longer be able to provide any opiate medications whatsoever.
For those that live with chronic pain, this is devastating. Not everyone who takes an opiate on a regular basis is an addict, and for those that live with pain on a daily basis, taking away the one thing that can help them when the pain finally becomes intolerable is simply cruel. But that's where we are. I've watched as a vibrant, active person with so much to offer the world has been reduced to a bedridden, weeping, suicidal mess.
Needing a medication and abusing a medication are two very different things, but we're all lumped together now.
I try not to take all the conspiracy theories about the pharmaceutical industry too dramatically or speak of them too loudly; in short order, people dismiss you as a wearer of foil hats and a prophet of doom. But when it comes to natural products like weed or kratom, which have proven effective and less dangerous, there are entities that seem to act pretty quickly to regulate or ban them. It's hard to ignore that plants we can cultivate and process ourselves DO pose a threat to the bottom lines of some big corporations.
I'm not going to go deep on that discussion here; entire areas of the web are dedicated to describing, understanding, and fighting that situation. I mention it because several states have moved to ban Kratom, while others are finally leaving people alone about it. Just this past December, for example, Tenessee finally wrote into law that "Possession of the kratom plant in its natural botanical form should not subject a person to potential criminal prosecution," and that the plant was not a prohibited controlled substance. New York State started strolling down the path to prohibition, but so far it remains legal here.
There hasn't been a single death related to Kratom yet, at least not where Kratom alone was the culprit, if at all. Anytime a person has become seriously ill or died, they had other substances in their bloodstream. It's hard to ignore the fact that certain media outlets will jump on the story as a Kratom-related death, however, just because it's a New Thing That Nobody's Heard Of Yet. It's the media "getting the all important first scoop" on something, so it's twisted and blown up.
I'm not against some oversight into what we ingest; but I'd love to see it applied lightly and uniformly. The number of other "supplements" on the market that have ZERO FDA approval and yet walk right on the line with regards to their usage claims, safety, and results is concerning. You can walk right into a CVS or a WalMart and buy Niacin, which in even moderate dosages taken incorrectly or by the wrong people can FUCK YOU UP. But you can buy it in big ol' bottles, and the FDA doesn't give a rat's ass.
In that regard, Kratom is just another supplement. If it is to be regulated in any way, so should all the others; quality, purity and safety are not bad things to ensure across the board, are they? Prohibition is not the answer except for the most dangerous of drugs, but by banning such products as marijuana and kratom, we've proven how screwed up our priorities are right now.
Kratom actually has a proven track record of SAVING lives - of directly easing the symptoms of withdrawal from opiates, without replacing one physical addiction with another. When obtained from a quality source, it is safe and effective. In powder or capsule form, it is easy to ingest and digest, and measure out a dose that is right for you. While it can be used recreationally (as indicated by its availability in smoke shops and head shops everywhere it is legal - though it is certainly not cheap in those places), its effectiveness for pain relief, and even depression or anxiety are truly remarkable. Like weed, there are a variety of strains, all with their advantages.
This plant has helped in relieving pain here. On the worst days, Oxycodone would be the only thing that would actually work best, but for the regular "undertow" chronic pain, Kratom offers some relief without the side effects that opiates, acetaminophen, ibuprofin, or even aspirin can bring about. Kratom does work. Yet every day, we wonder when it too will be banned. In the meantime, we are grateful that we have access to Kratom that is safe and effective.
Finding a pain doctor who understands that yes, physical therapy and other techniques CAN work, but opiate pain relief for the worst days still should be an option, is going to get harder. In fact, the last moron we saw literally said "I want you to try X" but wouldn't offer any source to get X, or provide any information about X in his office. "Just Google it," he said. This is the state of medical treatment in the United States now. Greatest country in the world, indeed.
He literally washed his hands of us, and of the "product" he was recommending, expecting us to bear the responsibility. He was just going to hook us up with "his guy" and "see how it worked" from there. It was disgusting, and confusing - he should just be pursuing the ability to prescribe medical marajuana and be done with it.
Many merchant services/banks don't allow Kratom sales anymore. That means that legitimate online businesses can't easily take your money in exchange for the product, because no credit card company will accept the sale. Websites are cut off from their banks or merchant accounts as soon as they are discovered. The saving grace has been cryptocurrency... purchasing product using Bitcoin, Litecoin, or others is now possible; that's how we get ours now, and while not quite as easy for beginners, once the process has been completed once or twice, it gets easier. As crypto gets more popular, hopefully it will also become more user-friendly and less volatile, and the barrier should fall even further.
If you suffer from chronic pain, I'd love to hear from you in the comments - your story, and your solutions. Kratom has been a pretty important aspect of self-care for us, but I'm sure there's still more to discover. In the meantime, if you hear about any laws in your state regarding the regulation or outright banning of Kratom, we encourage you to contact your representatives and tell them... well-sourced, quality Kratom is not dangerous, and it's all some people have left for pain relief, to live any sort of normal life. It would be absolutely cruel to yank yet another means of relief away from those who are already suffering.