Kratom

[Larry of the Lawn]

So looks like the DEA is getting ready to classify kratom as a schedule I drug.  Pretty fucked up, IMO.  I've been using it 2-3 times a week, on and off as necessary, for probably 4 years, helped me recover from a severe neck sprain incurred from a car accident a few years ago without resorting to opiods (which I've had addiction/dependence/abuse issues with in the past).  I've taken it since for aches and pains or as a caffiene like stimulant.  When I run out of it it's never a big deal, there's no physical dependence, and I often don't get around to ordering more until I throw my back out at work 

Guessing this a big pharma move because there's no epidemic of people abusing this, the only deaths that have been linked to it have involved other drugs known to be lethal.  

Pretty bummed because in my line of work I am often dealing with a variety of injuries and pain and this has been something that's brought me comfort and helped me manage that without worrying about becoming addicted again or going through withdrawal afterwards.  And on too of that, I have friends that have been sober for years who attribute kratom as being instrumental to their getting clean from opiods.  

I'd urge anyone interested to do some research, talk to people, and if this comes up ask your representatives to fight this until evidence is presented that it's a danger.  I can say for sure that if kratom gets scheduled, it's going to turn a bunch of my friends who are have been clean and sober for years, who do tons of selfless volunteer work into criminals.  Anyway, if you haven't heard of this stuff, do your own research.  

I've gotten my life together in a way that I no longer use a bunch of illegal shit and now this.  Fuck you DEA and FDA.  Fuck you Dobald Trump.  

[Ramsay B.]

This is very disappointing to hear. I’ve struggled with opiates in the past and this stuff saved me in some of my darkest moments. It seriously is like a miracle cure for withdrawals. I actually used it the most when I was tapering off suboxen and would just be weak all the time.

Those idiots want their cut, of course. I’m surprised it took this long tbh.

[Zorral]

There is a large variety of medical marijuana products that help with a whole spectrum of pain.  These don't get you high, they don't make you dependent, they don't screw up your liver or other parts of your body.

The downside to legal medical marijuana are 3 -- 1) it's a real pita to get certified to buy it from a legal dispensary; 2) there may be no legal dispensary conveniently located -- or even a physician conveniently located to certify a patient to be licensed to use and buy, because one needs to be certified by a physician in order to register (and that being a government web site is also a real pita); 3) it's really expensive.  That latter is ridiculous since so many legal weed farmers have mostly gone bankrupt now that weed is so cheap due to so many going into the business in the states where growing and recreational weed are legal.

IOW, where this is legal and available, it's a license for everyone involved from the physicians certified to certify / license the patients, companies who raise the right sorts of plants for medical, the companies (which may be the same) that manufacture the products; and the dispensaries (which may be the same company too) that dispenses.  The state makes huge profits from this.  

OTOH, it really works for a very large number of people.  It's also very class-income biased.  There's a dispensary on a strip here that has been for longer than a century where the homeless, druggies, alkies, petty criminals and generally poor people have hung out and hustled.  Those people are still there, but the people walking into the dispensaries are so clearly not any of them, but guys from the high tech and financial industries, well-off elderly patients and so on.

However, the upside is seeing these elderly people who had been using Big Pharma for their pain conditions, who have dumped that for one or more of these MJ products, and how lively, alert and happy they are.  Those other drugs were screwing their cognition and so on. These products also seem to have somewhat of mood alteration capacity for some patients at least, which is great for people prone to loneliness and depression, they say.

So if one's state has legal medical mj, it might be worth looking into.  One can find online the information one needs, including finding certified physicians in your locality.

Maybe states themselves want kratom classified due to it cutting into their profits from medical mj?  I wouldn't put anything past state governments looking for revenue.  Though they could make even more revenue one might think if they made it legal in their states.  Though the states still have to deal with the feds' classifying cannibis / thc as a schedule 1 substance.  Feh.

[Tears of Lys]

In Michigan, AFAIK, kratom is legal, though there is a proposed bill banning it.   The senator who sponsored it retired last year, 2017, so it hasn't gone anywhere.  But who knows in this climate. 

https://thekratomconnection.com/kratom-legal-michigan/

This is the first I've heard of this particular plant or its properties, and I'm sure I'm not alone in that.  All the attention has been on medical marijuana, which is legal in Michigan.  In fact, recreational usage was just decriminalized in the last election period. 

If there's something out there to help all the folks suffering, I'm all for it.

 

Edit:  Michigan also has the lowest sales tax rate on it too - which is kind of ridiculous.  Don't you pass these sorts of laws to RAISE money??  Right now, most of the profits are going to the sellers.  And it sure doesn't mean it's any cheaper.