As the precedent has already been set I think there is nothing you can do to keep it from being scheduled, it is just a matter of time. In south east asia (where kratom comes from) it is one of very few plants that are illegal and has been for a very long time.

The active mitragynin got scheduled here last year too (sweden) but the plant is still legal as long as its not for consumtion...

I ordered a few cuttings so in a few years i should be self sufficient with this medicine...

Wow this is the first time ive heard about kratom being laced with something. And ill never buy it from a head shop, its 3x the price and half the quality.

I havnt been to the kratom forums in a while, maybe ill go check in.

Ive said it before kratom saved me and helped me get off heavy opiates. I doubt the pharm companies want you to be able to grow your own cure for opiate withdrawls... i mean jesus its like the safest plant/med for treating pain. Of coarse safer than narcotics but even safer than OTC pain meds.

The laced Kratom was some headshop variety from somewhere in Scandinavia I believe and it was actually laced with o-desmethyltramadol, which is the primary active metabolite of tramadol a weird synthetic opioid receptor agonist/SNRI. It was called kryptonite Kratom or something like that. That was the only product that had it. I've never heard of it being laced with 7-oh-mitragynine... Seems counter-intuitive seeing the price of 7-oh AND the difficulty of isolating it.

I'll have more to add when I'm at a computer

To be fair the laced shit is kalled kryptom so most shops selling it pointed out the difference, still nasty stuff that killed a few people by the way of overdose.

Yeah it is really despicable to put something like O-desmethyltramadol in a kratom product... there's no real way to OD from kratom (maybe 5g IV 7-oh-mitragynine would kill?, but ODing from THAT stuff is a real possibility... I dunno that's just bad news bears.


I wish there were some way that users of this kind of stuff could rally against it being sold in headshops and other such places, but of course there isn't. Like most things that need to be changed in this world, they aren't single-issues and they are all interconnected, and they all come from the same source (Capitalism&TheState). I think HiyoQuicksilver brought up a really good point that the best way for Kratom to stay underground/less questioned by the "authorities" it's going to have to stop being such a recreational drug! But, at the same time, if it was widely being used for its medicinal purposes then I can see the "authorities" getting just as (if not more!) upset about it. They'd rather keep making synthetic drugs over a plant (as we have seen so often with Cannabis).

I do have one clarification request, Hiyo - what did you mean by this sentence:
.
By "we aren't running a crusade" did you mean the State or the community? Sorry that sentence just threw me off.

But yes indeed the only way to make sure that one has a responsible relationship (and a continued one!) with Kratom, or any plant really, is to grow it. I want to grow kratom one day, along with everything else.

I am a medicinal user of kratom. I have really chronic and acute pain due to spinal fusion and recurrent scoliosis. But I can't honestly say that I don't enjoy it, so I guess my use straddles the line between recreational and medicinal (as so many pain-sufferers on opioids are). I know it shouldn't be used for chronic pain, no opioid should, but it does help, even with my tolerance.

Anyway, yeah, I don't think we'll be able to keep this out of headshops, as stupid as that is! At least you can' take a video of your friends tripping like with salvia. Well you could but it would be a really slow boring video... that'll add a year or two to it's legality, methinks.

I'm going to say a few things here. Kratom is from a tropical tree, and I imagine there might be difference in the strength and effectiveness of leaves of young plants, which from an indoor grow would have to be killed and replaced regularly, and would be unlikely to survive winters outdoors in most locations.
More to the point, if you have kept up with the bans of "bath salts" in various states and federally, you may have noticed they have included a crapload of psychedelics which have not been shown to be harmful to individuals or society, and of which possible medical applications have not been explored. You may not be aware that the anti-depressant bupropion (Wellbutrin) belongs in the groups "substituted amphetamines" and "substituted cathinones" and is very similar structurally to the banned cathinones. Perhaps some of the banned cathinones may have medicinal value. Also notice the all-time injustice, marijuana, including non-psychoactive hemp, is Schedule I, defined as having no medical value, unlike cocaine, morphine, and opium oil, which are all Schedule II substances.
The conclusion being- substances are often made illegal irrespective of value or harm, or responsible usage- only by the chance that it may further politicians interests and give law enforcement power and increased funding.
That said, there have been a couple of attempts to ban kratom in Massachusetts and they both failed, I don't think it will be attempted in this state anytime soon.

Actually very specifically banned in Thailand, "kratom was first scheduled for control in 1943 under the Kratom Act. At the time, the government was levying taxes from users and shops involved in the opium trade. Because of the increasing opium costs, many users were switching to kratom to manage their withdrawal symptoms. However, the launch of the Greater East Asia War in 1942 and declining revenues from the opium trade pushed the Thai government into action to curb and suppress competition in the opium market by making kratom illegal" from Kratom in Thailand: Decriminalization and Community Control? Proposal by the Thai Office of the Narcotics Control Board
Reasons for outlawing kratom were rather nefarious.

The kratom forums are very sad these days.

What do you mean by "sad"? Talk of a ban or just lots of recreational users or what?

In some ways, i'm surprised that kratom has managed to stay under the legal radar for so long. It remains one of the very last legal psychoactives that genuinely works for the majority of people who try it. And beyond the opiate-addition replacement therapy that it works great for, it is also a fantastic & healthier alternative to alcohol.

There is a huge difference in good vendors and bad vendors too... ANYONE who creates or sells those awful 'get high' branded products should be boycotted & exposed. The kratom connoisseurs forum is doing a great job of that, but they are not well known. They have even contacted some of the get-high brands and explained that their behavior is going to shoot them in the face.

A good vendor should sell kratom as a plant material, make no reference to its effects, insist on non-consumption, and avoid taking out get-high advertising. This is a winning combination in my eyes. These vendors, even if they get big and sell a lot of kratom, have done their best to remove themselves from the "chain of blame".

As a medicinal user of kratom I was beginning to get rather worried that my ally (which allows me to live an active life in which I can still do physical labor despite my high daily level of pain) was going to be prosecuted and taken down as the "next legal high", in many ways due to the irresponsible marketing strategies of some vendors. It is also simply getting swept up with the RC's that were starting to cause problems.

I found a website for the "kratom-association" //www.kratomassociation.org/ , which is apparently a lobby group to keep kratom legal and available to those who need it. Apparently these guys were instrumental in keeping kratom from being illegalized in the U.S. states of Louisiana and Virginia http://www.kratomassocia...l-news-and-developments by sending in as many letters as possible to the (clearly misinformed) lawmakers and it succeeded, wih Louisiana making kratom 18+ (which is A-ok with me!). However the same tactic failed in Iowa, which became the first U.S. state to ban the leaf outright - due to its appently "dangerous and hallucinogenic effects"... If you look at the politician behind this's statement, he clearly knows nothing about the plant and began trying to ban it3 hours after finding out it existed. CLEARLY the man has his people's best interests at heart (bah humbug).

But the fact that 2/3 of the states in which it was a question decided to NOT ban the plant was heartening to me! Perhaps there is some hope and ill be able to stay off of synthetic painkillers!