"I have worked around and with kratom for years, and I know everything about it. I have seen it save and help hundreds of people. People who have struggled with various addictions, illnesses, PTSD, chronic pain, anxiety and depression. This plant, which is in the coffee family, is a wonderful, much healthier and SAFER alternative to the readily available drugs and alcohol all around us. I’ve watched so many people overcome addictions to alcohol and popular street drugs with the help of kratom. I’ve seen many military veterans benefit significantly from using kratom! Kratom has personally helped me! If I hadn’t discovered kratom, I would very likely still be an alcoholic. It upsets me greatly reading all the awful articles on kratom if you search it online. The internet demonizes it. There’s so much fear and hatred towards kratom it blows my mind. How can our leaders POSSIBLY think it’s okay and normal to have alcohol legal and readily available (which kills SO MANY people every year) but they think kratom should be a controlled substance??! It literally makes no sense! Kratom has never killed anyone! You cannot overdose or die from kratom!  These leaders who want to make kratom illegal know nothing about it whatsoever. They’ve likely never even tried it! They fear what they don’t know, and this whole thing is about money and Big Pharma. They want people to stay hooked on actual opiates and other “acceptable drugs” instead of getting healthy and using safe alternatives.  I do think it would benefit all kratom consumers if it was regulated, but making it illegal?? Noooo. It makes no sense. If kratom is made illegal, then y’all better ban the actual harmful substances - alcohol, nicotine, caffeine and all the other culturally acceptable substances! Even recent studies completed by the FDA and National Institute of Health have shown kratom to not be harmful! I’m just blown away that this bill suddenly switched from regulating kratom to banning it. Thousands of people are livid and we will fight to keep kratom legal! 
If y’all make kratom illegal, you are dooming hundreds of thousands of people!  Thank you for reading!"

"I'm a veteran, an addict in recovery and have struggled with numerous mental health issues. Kratom has helped me with all of these issues and more!! Kratom saves lives!"

"Kratom has been a lifesaver for me as a disabled veteran. Due to a service-connected injury, I’ve been living in a world of pain, but Kratom helps! Because of the CDC’s opioid guidelines and pain management in the U.S. still being controlled by the DEA, the “Opioid Crisis” is officially over. Yet, I and many other legitimate chronic pain sufferers like me, are still under medicated. I can barely function on my prescription pain meds alone. I have been suicidal several times. But with the right strain of kratom from a provider certified by the American Kratom Association, where I can trust that the product has not been tampered with or adulterated, this miraculous God-given plant has improved my quality of life! I can take care of myself, my pets, and most things around my house. Unfortunately, legislators in the United States have very little knowledge of the effects of kratom. Rather than spend the money to study it, they would just as soon ban it. Please, don’t ban this natural substance with the God-given power to help us all.“

"I have severe cervical spine damage. I have had fusion surgery 8 years ago and Degenerative Disc Disease. My neurosurgeon expects more surgery within the next 2-3 years. I have constant pain but Kratom helps."

"I am a 64 year old female with lots of osteoarthritis issues. I have tried several otc and prescription meds to help manage my pain, but have found that Kratom works the best for me. I have used it almost daily since 2014, except when preparing for a couple of surgeries and I had no problem stopping at those times. My dose is the same today as it was in 2014. Kratom is a wonderful natural plant that has improved my quality of life and should not in my opinion be banned!"

"I suffer from chronic pain due to an auto-immune disease. Around 2016, I walked into our house one day and broke down crying. I simply said to my young son, "I hurt." It wasn't too long afterward that I read of a massive public backlash against a proposed DEA ban of this plant called kratom, and the DEA's resulting historic withdrawal of the ban proposal. I started reading about kratom's pain relieving properties and decided to try it. The day I found kratom was a life-changing moment. My pain has been under control since that day in 2016. I am a single mother with a 40-hour/week job, and it simply would not be possible to successfully be either without kratom. This wonderful plant has helped me with other issues like anxiety and insomnia as well. I am so thankful to have found kratom before I found something harmful like opiates. Kratom is a relative of the coffee plant, not an opioid. There is no high for me from taking kratom. None. And there's no joy in taking it, either. It tastes horrible. Kratom has also helped those dealing with opioid withdrawal and veterans who suffer from PTSD. I do recognize that there's a problem with adulterated kratom and unscrupulous sellers and vendors. That's why I'm glad the American Kratom Association (AKA) has established good manufacturing process protocols and lists vendors who it has certified as following them. To further protect consumers and provide access to safe kratom, they have worked tirelessly to pass Kratom Consumer Protection Act (KCPA) legislation, which numerous states have already adopted. Please keep safe kratom legal."

"I'm a recovering addict diagnosed with PTSD, GAD, Fibromyalgia and Hashimotos disease. Kratom has kept me flare free, energetic, and has helped with my anxiety. I've been taking kratom for 3 years. I just graduated college with honors as a medical assistant and I'm continuing for my associates in Science and then my bachelor's. I could not have done it without the help from kratom. I'd be in pain, depressed and in bed."

"There’s no harm in it, Kratom has helped alleviate the physical symptoms of my anxiety and made it easier to address my mental health issues. Banning it would be a mistake and couldn’t do anything other than make life harder for people with anxiety and depression."

"After taking opioids for my back pain for years, and being physically addicted to them at one point, I no longer need any opioids for pain after discovering Kratom. I also went from having to get 3 or 4 cortisone shots in my back every year to only one or less per year. Please, keep Kratom legal. It truly has been a blessing for a lot of people like myself."

"I started taking kratom regularly to aid in alleviating debilitating burning headaches. I had no idea the alkaloid profile would also completely prevent and treat my dystonia and tardive dyskinesia. Now I can function, work, everything. It’s quite evident kratom does far more help than harm. Please, for all those this medicine helps, keep kratom legal."

"Kratom has been great for my chronic pain over narcotics that my doctor would have to give me, in which, I don't want to use. I have used Kratom with all positive results. Please don't ban this therapeutic herbal tea, that has helped me tremendously with pain. My doctor is happy with the results of me using Kratom with no bad side effects or any other issues. This ban would interfere with my pain relief that surgery would be too dangerous to perform on my spine. I know several veterans that would also be hurt by banning. Please do not include in the ban with Tianeptine.... Kratom is safe and I have used it for years now without any addiction issues and my doctor finds it safe."

"Kratom saved my life. I was hopelessly addicted to prescription opioids for almost a decade. My addiction started with an automobile accident. I took the doctor's prescribed pain killers to heal. Once the prescriptions ran out, I began sourcing the opioids from the street. This led me down a dark path. My life spiraled out of control. All that mattered to me was my next pill, bag-- my next high. I lost my job. I lost my family. I lost any true friend that genuinely cared about me. I lost everything. It was only a matter of time before I ended up in prison or dead from an overdose. I had tried to quit my addiction to opioids many times over the years. I had been to rehab many times to no avail. Kratom alleviated my withdrawal symptoms just enough for me to function. It allowed me to clear my head and prioritize my life again. I never looked back from there. No relapses. I got my family back. Now, I have a beautiful little girl that just turned 2 years old, and my wife is pregnant with another child. I have a steady job, and I provide for my family and my loved ones. My wife and I own a home together where we are raising our children in a place that we love. We are part of a community that we love. It brings tears to my eyes as I write this and reflect on how far I have come. I couldn't have done it without Kratom. I would have been another overdose statistic in this tsunami of deaths that the United States has weathered over the past 10 years, amid this opioid epidemic. Kratom has saved my life and countless others. It is a wonderful medicine for many. I still use it occasionally to treat my anxiety and panic attacks. Kratom treats these conditions that I have suffered my entire life better than any medication prescribed to me by any doctor that I have sought for help. Kratom is a valuable aid against opioid addiction and the resulting death that has plagued our communities. To make it illegal would only fuel the ravenous inferno that is the opioid epidemic. Please, listen to the millions that kratom has saved. I am certainly one of them."

"I suffered heavily with Crohn's Disease and had to move back to my home state of NC to continue my education online. Thankfully, the education eventually was completed, however, the pain management aspect of my condition was a big factor. A wound and on-and-off CRPS were unbearable! Due to the reluctance of providers able or unwanting to prescribe opioids, and even some being snobby or unpleasant if such a request was even a possibility, I continued to suffer. The healthcare system doesn't truly know how to treat patient pain. I came to a breaking point due to a chronic wound on my lower lumbar. Street drug intervention? No, too risky. Watch videos on YouTube for accidental fentanyl overdoses as an example. Tylenol? Yeah, been there so many times I hope I still have my liver by the time I'm 50. Plus, after a while, that medication became ineffective due to frequent use. CBD/THC? No, drug screens & altered mental status were all concerns. Kratom? Unknown. Not FDA Approved. As a Nationally Registered EMT, training in vitals and clinical care offered safety guidelines, and due to the present pain, I took that chance. Such guidelines are available to all with the proper resources. I administered 1 cap per day. Nothing. 3? Nothing. 5? Ah, there it was. I [had a] euphoric feeling similar to that of Tylenol 3 or perhaps Tramadol? Couple that with Tylenol and one may believe a narcotic has been administered. That's the freedom of Kratom. You'd add to the problem far more than a foreseeable solution with the removal of the Kratom."

"Thanks to kratom I'm free from back pain. It gave me life back!! I came off pain pills and other meds thanks to this herb. I have bulging discs in my lower back L1-L5 also degenerative disc disease. Also thanks to Kratom I didn’t need back surgery. I’ve taken kratom safely now for 7 yrs without any side effects."

"My name is Brian, I served in the Army Reserves from 1997-2004. Was in a Combat Engineer unit. We made a lot of things go boom and ran the heck outta heavy equipment. Did a lot of PT over those years. The pain in my knees in part caused me to use opiates. Like a lot of people I got addicted to the pills. Choose to quit pills in 2014. Have used Kratom on a daily basis since then and never had a problem, even if I don't have it. Please, this is the worse opioid epidemic in history. Please don't take away something that is not highly addictive, doesn’t slow the respiratory rate , and something that is almost impossible to OD from. This is all I feel safe taking in 10 years no problem. Help me keep it that way please!”