Kratom safety bill is a good idea

Kratom is an herb that has been hailed as highly effective for pain relief, opioid withdrawal, anxiety reduction and much more. It’s also inexpensive.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the

U.S. Food and Drug Administration have attributed a few dozen deaths to kratom, much fewer than occur in a single day from opioids, and most were in individuals who had other drugs in their system. Pain patients who have switched to kratom from opioids have found that it works better for pain, and their quality of life improved.

The only real threat from kratom is to the bottom lines of pharmaceutical companies. Yet the FDA has tried to get kratom banned in the United States and, when that effort failed, tried to get the World Health Organization to ban it internationally. Both efforts failed because of a lack of evidence that kratom is harmful, and tens of thousands of patients testified that it helped them.

Passage of a state kratom safety bill is a good idea because there are some bad actors selling adulterated products. However, the American Kratom Association has a list of online companies on its website that have passed strict standards for lab testing and good manufacturing processes.

If more people were using kratom instead of prescription drugs, I’m sure many deaths could be averted, much suffering could be reduced and the savings to our health care system would be immense.

Cindy Perlin

Delmar CEO, Alternative Pain Treatment Directory