What’s All The Fuss About Kratom, And Why Haven’t I Tried It Yet?

What’s All The Fuss About Kratom, And Why Haven’t I Tried It Yet?

By Kurtis Bright

The Lowdown On The DEA’s Latest Whipping-Boy

If someone you trusted told you there was a plant out there, a plant that is perfectly legal and has been used for centuries not only to make textiles, but also to treat maladies ranging from diarrhea, muscle pain, fever, coughing, hypertension, and fatigue to depression, would you consider trying it?

In case you’re not sold yet, in addition workers used this plant in small doses to provide an extra kick of energy, much like the caffeine in coffee. And counterintuitively, in larger doses it provides a euphoric, sedative effect that works as a legit substitute for opiates--without the nasty addictive qualities, and with no known reported overdoses.

In fact this plant has recently been employed in exponentially growing numbers to treat opiate addiction with great success, as well as to treat chronic pain, PTSD and anxiety. So what do you say, are you interested in learning more about this miracle plant, perhaps even in trying it for yourself?

If you’re the DEA, the answer is a resounding, knee-jerk (just say) No.

Kratom is of course the miracle plant, one that is the Drug Enforcement Agency’s latest whipping-boy du jour, taking a place of honor next to that perennial bane of psychotically myopic drug warriors, marijuana.

In spite all the positive benefits--and let’s be very clear, the utter lack of a known downside, in that there have been no known overdoses on kratom, nor is addiction to the substance an apparent factor--kratom is still being considered for the DEA’s Schedule 1 listing. This is the section of drug regulation where the most dangerous drugs are, those with “no known medical benefit” and a high potential for abuse, drugs like meth and LSD.

The evidence clearly demonstrates that kratom is anything but. However, as most observers realize, logic and evidence have never been in the DEA’s armory of weapons.

With an understanding of the false information you will be exposed to in the mainstream press that is fed to the dutiful stenographers there by the government, here are a few actual facts to keep in mind regarding kratom.

• It is a native plant in Southeast Asia and has been used there for hundreds of years, if not longer. While some countries in Asia have some light restrictions on its use and sale, it is nonetheless widely accepted, to the point that it is often brought out at family gatherings and other semi-public events.
• Much like with marijuana, there is no such thing as an overdose on kratom, and certainly no deaths have ever been recorded as a result of using it. Dear Mr. DEA Man: contrast that goose-egg with the 75,000 yearly deaths that are directly related to alcohol alone in the U.S. and get back to us on exactly what you mean by the phrase “high potential for abuse.”
• Kratom is related to coffee. It’s botanical name is Mitraganya speciosa, and it is a member of the Rubiaceace family. Also, kratom is the only known source of opioid alkaloids aside from the poppy plant. 
• Kratom can be smoked, chewed, or steeped in tea. As mentioned above, at low doses it is used for its stimulating effect, whereas higher doses have an opiate substitute effect--with one important difference: at high doses it doesn’t impair breathing, as opioids do. This, along with the fact that it has no addictive properties is a vital factor in its use as a way to wean opioid addicts off their poison: recovering addicts can use it with no fear of death nor of simply substituting one addiction for another.
• The DEA has recently made noises claiming that the proposed designation for kratom on Schedule 1 is only temporary. However, once a drug is listed there, it can “temporarily” remain illegal for years, if not forever. Witness how difficult it has been to pry the DEA’s scaly claws off of marijuana, despite all the advances that have been made in medical uses for the plant. By the way, the rumors that pubic outcry forced the DEA to cancel its proposed schedule change were only rumors: while the original date for rescheduling kratom has come and gone, the proposed prohibition is still very much on the table.

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The Kids Are All Right: Changing U.S. Marijuana Laws Have Had No Effect On Teen Marijuana Use

The Kids Are All Right: Changing U.S. Marijuana Laws Have Had No Effect On Teen Marijuana Use

By Kurtis Bright

Adult Marijuana Use Outpaces That Of Teens, According To Latest CDC Study

The long, strange trip that U.S. citizens have been forced to endure regarding the outlawing of marijuana finally appears to be winding down.

Currently there are 25 states that allow some form of legal, regulated medical marijuana use, and there are now four--Colorado, Washington, Oregon and Alaska--that allow recreational use. Nearly a dozen states entertained pro-marijuana initiatives in this November’s election, including the most populous state in the union, California which passed a law legalizing recreational use of up to an ounce per adult user.

No doubt Harry Anslinger, the regent of reefer madness, the prophet of prohibition, the man who kicked off the marijuana mania Americans suffered under for so may decades starting in the 1930s is rolling over in his grave.

Support for legalization is “rapidly outpacing opposition” according to one recent Pew poll--which is quite stunning news when you consider the modern era of anti-drug wars that have been fought so hard and so viciously and which have employed such tremendous resources devoted to propaganda.

Other good news for those who support marijuana law sanity--and what may be the final nail in the coffin for opponents--is a recent Centers for Disease Control report showing that middle-aged parents are now more likely to smoke marijuana than their teen children.

Which turns the perpetual question of busybody Maude Flanders of Simpsons fame on its head: what about the children?

Indeed, Maude, indeed. What about the children?

It turns out that decriminalization and outright legalization, far from a deadly scourge that might lay waste to a generation of teens and turn them all into instant heroin addicts upon taking their first hit of weed--as some of the more rabid anti-marijuana literature would have you believe--has instead led to a decline in use among the younger generation.

Between 2002 and 2014, over 8 percent of adults between the ages of 35 and 44 reported smoking marijuana regularly. And marijuana use doubled in U.S. adults age 45 to 55, actually quadrupling for those 55 to 64--and tripling for those aged 65 and older.

So the kids are all right, it would seem, in that they haven’t turned en masse like a pack of rabid lemmings to wolfing down copious amounts of weed in response to the opening up of legal avenues with which adults can acquire it, despite the querulous warnings from Maude Flanders’ real-life counterparts.

Indeed, one wonders why, with so many people using marijuana to treat chronic pain, anxiety, and even a large number of veterans using it to treat PTSD, the Drug Enforcement Agency’s recently rejected the proposal to re-classify the plant from a Schedule 1 drug. Those are the substances that are considered most dangerous and have no known medical value, like heroin and LSD.

In fact it is downright madness that this designation continues in light of current knowledge and changing mores.

As there are now so many aging baby boomers reaching for the bong as opposed to the predicted wave of schoolkids, we eagerly await hearing some panicky anti-drug warrior to cry out: “What about the elderly? Won’t someone think of the elderly?”

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Marijuana Law Misery: Stunning Numbers of Americans Still Subject To Arrest

Marijuana Law Misery: Stunning Numbers of Americans Still Subject To Arrest  
By Kurtis Bright

Despite 25 States Legalizing Medical Use, A Stunning Number Of Americans Are Still Being Arrested For Pot

This strange election year of 2016 will go down in history for a number of reasons. But regardless of what you think about the outcome of the presidential election, in the annals of drug law reform this was a banner year.

Even before November, marijuana was already legal in 25 states for medical purposes, and expanded marijuana legalization and decriminalization ballot measures passed in nearly a dozen states.

Even kratom users--who often count on the southeast Asian plant to treat everything from PTSD to anxiety to seizures--are taking an approach of cautious optimism as the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency seems to be backing down on its rush to make the plant a Schedule 1 drug.

However despite this uncharacteristic wave of enlightenment over drug laws sweeping the nation in recent years and months, a disturbing number of Americans are still subject to arrest and even jail time over petty pot offenses.

The FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program shows quite plainly that the drug warriors haven’t quite hung up their spurs just yet, even in the face of popular and scientific dissent with the very basis and tenets of their myopic battle. In other words, drug possession and use--even of marijuana--are still significant causes for arrest in the United States.

The Bureau’s data on arrests for violent crime and property crime as culled from the records of local police departments reveals that an alarming number of arrests for simple possession of drugs--primarily marijuana--still continue unabated across the country, despite the changing laws and attitudes toward drug use.

For instance, there were nearly 1.5 million arrests in 2015 alone for “drug abuse,” a catch-all term that includes selling and trafficking as well as simple possession of drugs.

Particularly alarming is the fact that drug arrests are the largest category of arrests overall through all of 2015. With some 10 million arrests recorded in total across the country in 2015, the drug abuse category made up 1,488,707 of them. Property crimes were a close second, and drunk driving came in third at 1,089,171.

The FBI attempted to explain away some of these arrests, suggesting that some of them might well be detentions of the same individuals more than once, people who get caught up by the long arm of the law on a regular basis: “...arrest figures do not reflect the number of individuals who have been arrested,” the report reads. “Rather, the arrest data show the number of times that persons are arrested.”

Given that the drug warrior’s loudly proclaimed  raison d’etre of “stopping traffickers” is at the heart of this massive number of arrests, it is perhaps surprising to some that, even when you include street level drug sales arrests along with those for trafficking, you still only get 16.1 percent of all drug arrests, about 240,000.

That leaves possession arrests making up 83.9 percent of the total, a whopping 1,249,025 of the total arrested for drug offenses. And marijuana offenses made up nearly 40 percent of all “drug abuse” arrests.

That works out to around 1,500 people a day on average being arrested for possession of a plant that is completely legal in four states, and conditionally legal in 25.

It is shameful that the White House and Congress haven’t taken a firmer lead in offering guidance on the prosecution of drug laws in this country. A lame-duck blanket legalization of marijuana nationwide would be a welcome first step, but don't hold your breath.

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