You left out one important aspect to this story. Many chronic pain sufferers in the US are no longer given pain medications or are treated like criminals if they are prescribed. So many have turned to Kratom because they cannot get real relief elsewhere. Kratom has saved my chronically ill husband's quality of life and we do live in fear that this lifeline will be taken away. It probably needs to be regulated, but we hope it is not banned. Opioid addiction is a sad state, but pain patients deserve support. Pain can rob so much of a person's life and livelihood.

As a former opiate addict, I can 100% vouch for kratom. Like many, I was very skeptical at first, but it has changed my life. I don’t even think about taking pills anymore. I would like to eventually stop taking kratom but I don’t want to ever go back to my old life.

I'm the biggest skeptic on the planet. With everything. I've watched people super close to me get off opiates that they were VERY addicted to. Their addiction was so bad they were ruining their lives. But they were terrified of withdrawals. They went through them before. Kratom stopped withdrawals and got them off heroine and pain pills. Also, the pharmaceutical company really wants it off the market. Why? Because it works.

I was a severe Alcoholic and with that came very many consequences and regrets. I take Kratom on a regular basis and I have completely quit drinking and no longer enjoy alcohol. I don't hear much about this but it has influenced my decision to give up Alcohol and my life has improved.

I got myself off of a six year morphine habit with kratom and then kratom was fairly easy to put down. It gave me my life back. I was pissed I didn't find out about it way earlier.

I was an opioid addict for 10 years. I went as far as using fentanyl and kratom saved my life. I went to rehab and was given suboxone. When I wanted to cut down my dr insisted I needed to be on it for at least 3 years and I hated the idea of paying $600 a month to just be okay and continue to be dependent on a substance so I learned about it. I started cutting my sub doses in half and used kratom for my second. I eventually quit using the subs and stopped rehab. Now after 4 years I still have no issues avoiding opioids and only take kratom when I am hurting. It’s a life saver and the US wants to take it so they can control the money from addiction and pain reduction.

I’m a brain tumor survivor and I suffer chronic migraines and I find Kratom as a godsend when I’m suffering a 3 day migraine.

Ya know the funny thing about opioids?  When I finally kicked them, the physical withdrawal pain was worse than the pain I was originally prescribed the opioids for….

I've been "living" with chronic pain for well over a decade now and I can't find any kind of pain relief that isn't considered a felony. I always hear "You're too young" every time and I'm labeled as a pill seeker. Oddly, I've never once asked for any kind of pills. That exact phrase landed me on the operating table at 25 because no one would take my pain seriously. By the time someone did, the disc at the base of my spine had completely collapsed and caused some permanent nerve damage. My surgeon told me "You have two options at this point: You can have your spine fused and we can try to mitigate any further damage to the nerves. You can also choose not to have surgery and, if you're lucky, you'll only lose the use of your legs permanently. Your spine has zero stability and I'm amazed you're still able to move at all." Turns out, I have a genetic condition that made me extremely prone to the injury and, had someone taken me seriously when I first complained of the pain, it could have been caught before the disc ruptured and collapsed.

Now, I'm in my mid-30's and I'm bound to a wheelchair any time I leave the house. I can get by with a cane and a little help from my spouse while I'm at home. No one wants to listen, even though I have multiple x-rays, MRI's, and enough metal in me to open my own hardware store. Still told I'm "too young to have that kind of pain". I once had a doctor look at my imaging, examine the 12 inch long scar that runs up my lower back from my spinal fusion, see the discs in my upper back bulging, see that my spine is crooked, and then call me a lair straight to my face. This is what it's like to have chronic pain before you're 60. You're called a liar and treated like a drug addict. Doctors judge you before they ever walk into the room. My physical ailment diagnosis list reads like a Billy Mays commercial script. "But wait! There's more!"

Honestly, I'd swing a dead cat over my head under the light of a full moon while whistling Dixie with a turnip shoved up my ass and a rabid badger stuffed in my pants if I thought it would help. Maybe I should look into Kratom and see what happens. I've nothing left to lose because my quality of life has long since vanished. Best case: it helps. Worst case: it kills me. I've reached the point where I'm fine with either outcome. It would be nice to go out and have fun with my kids, though. Right now, I'm not living, I'm just existing.

I’m a disabled veteran with epilepsy from a brain injury. Last year I had a really bad seizure ad pulled several muscles and ligaments. I was going to be off my feet for weeks but they only prescribed me a weeks worth of pain medication. Kratom was recommended by a fellow veteran and it took away all the pain without making me useless like pain pills did. The number one rule like all things however is moderation…..avoid the concentrated versions and only use it when you need it and make sure you detox from it periodically

I'm incredibly grateful people with chronic pain and opioid issues are able to get relief for their vastly more serious problems but as a person with severe depression and anxiety, a low dose of Kratom gives me the energy and charisma to work in busy restaurant without panic attacks. Moderation in everything, including moderation.

Kratom saved my life too. I was a homeless drunk for over a decade, but I was finally able to get sober after starting kratom powder. Not only did it help to alleviate the detox (going from 1+liter vodka / day to none), but it elevates mood as well, which helped me combat some of the underlying issues that led me to addiction in the first place. That being said, I agree that there are some problems with the current unregulated products. The potency can vary widely between different strains, different distributors, and even different bags of the same product (depending on the distributor).
I'm also concerned about the extract due to its potency. I used powder, and any time I'd ended up taking too much at once, I would get extremely nauseous and end up quickly vomiting up the majority of it. The concentration of the extract bypasses that natural defense, and I can absolutely see how easy it might be to overdose.
My account is only an anecdote, so make of it what you will. That said, I'm confident I would have died years ago from either liver failure or suicide if I hadn't been introduced to kratom.

Kratom saved my life from pain killers as well as many members of my family and almost all of my friends. It's amazing that we all made it out alive

I’m a former opiate addict… (Heroin/Fentanyl). I don’t take kratom anymore, but at one point it did help me quit the drugs. Years prior I had been on methadone.. but that was just a way to substitute the heroin.. legally. I wasn’t ready to quit. Now I am 8 months clean and kratom helped with the early phase of withdrawal.

Have been involved with this plant for 20 years. Part of the team that brought it here, defended it and developed most of the most well known products in the market today. Supplied 75% of the US vendors for well over a decade. This plant saves. It is the future and will need to be defended for years to come. Please support.

To call Kratom "unappealing ground powder" is like calling Surstromming "a little fishy"...

I sold kratom and actually started taking it a few years ago and can vouch that you guys really did your research when it came to this. I wish you had explained a little more about how much effort the feds have put into tryong to ban it, and how everytime they try they see a noticable uptake in new users as soon as people learn about it. The entire process really speaks to how little the US is willing to trust it's Pharmaceutical companies or even our Government

I've witnessed both sides of the story with two different friends. The female merely added it to her list to alleviate withdrawals until she can get harder drugs. The male, however, not only quit heroine, but also quit drinking as well. It has improved his life considerably.

As a kratom user for 12 years, I started taking it due to a 5 year pain pill addiction from a prescription thanks too my doctor. I have a ruptured disc in my lower back. It’s saved my life and I urge others to try it if they are on pills. I haven’t ever overdosed, because if you take too much, you will throw it up. If they try and stop it here in the US, I’ll buy pounds of it before they do and stockpile it. I know how much to take to regulate my back pain. Thanks for doing this one guys.

To answer your question: "yes" however, big corporations HATE it and want it banned!