Why the Kratom Ban matters

In a troubling press release the DEA announced it's intent to make Kratom a Schedule 1 illegal drug, the same class as heroin and cocaine. For those of you who don't know Kratom is a none-Nootropic performance enhancer, I don't use it a lot myself but a lot of people find it tremendously helpful.

As much as I'd like to go all Alex Jones about how the government wants us to all be sick and is shutting down competition to the opioid based pharmaceutical drugs, I think there's probably a whole lot less diabolical explanation. Kratom was never demonstrated in human studies as being beneficial.

I think this decision shows that the government bureaucrats don't consider public sentiment or ancedotal evidence of the benefits of a given substance, which is kind of what you would expect.
They wouldn't be treating Kratom like Cocaine if watching my videos about Kratom or reading any of the thousands of user reports posted in various forums online had any barring on their decision. If all you did was read the abstracts of the Kratom studies on Pubmed and the Poison Control Centers reports you too would end up thinking that it was a public safety hazard.

I've signed this Whitehouse.gov petition to urge the authorities to reconsider this ban and I hope you'll do the same! Seriously, it takes all of about 10 seconds to add your signature.

So while the Kratom community is going to make a lot of noise screaming about government over reach, they share some responsibility for this happening because they discussed but never made an effort to fund a study demonstrating the usefulness of Kratom.

For many years the Kratom community enjoyed the low price and convenience of ordering Kratom online. Despite it being on the DEA's chopping block for quiet a while, the Kratom users never banded together to fund the necessary human studies demonstrating it's benefit. Now those for whom Kratom was a bastion from the affliction of chronic pain will have to most bear the high cost of the low price of Kratom.

You maybe thinking...
So what! I don't use Kratom... The Nootropics I use have solid science supporting them.
This decision by the DEA is a sobering reminder that freedom is not free, in this recent book review I argue that human rights are antithetical to human nature.

What's clear now is that Kratom users were not paying for their freedom. Perhaps their petitioning and marching will work and they'll #savekratom but more likely it will be banned Sept 31, and those who self medicated with Kratom will either have to switch to pharmaceutical medication or get Kratom from the black market, either way they are going to be paying a whole lot more.

In my recent discussion with Steve Cronnin we discussed how we are likely at Peak Biohacking Liberty; how government power rarely shrinks and in the future we can expect governments around the world to further restrict our usage of benign and useful Biohacking tools; especially not evaluated by the FDA supplements. What are they going to go after next?
The Racetams
Adapotgenic Herbs
Modafinil
We can continue to enjoy the relatively low prices of our Nootropics and Biohacking tools and just hope that government doesn't flippantly decide to take them away from us. We can sit by while industries like big pharma and the medical industrial complex contribute generously to politicians who legislate favorably on their behalf...
Or we can take some defensive action...

How can we prevent further constriction of our Biohacking liberties?
I'm a big fan of voluntarism so I propose a voluntary 15% contribution towards protecting our Biohacking liberties, made while checking out online at the various ecommerce stores where we acquire our performance enhancers. This Fifteen for Freedom would go towards working through the system and taking political action to ensure we get to continue to make our own decisions about what performance enhancers we choose to use.
I'll admit this a little out of my depth but here is how this would work practically: When you bought some Biohacking products online you would be given the option at checkout to contribute 15% of purchase price of your order to a political action campaign. Now I realize that privacy is a major concern and that political contribution laws are a bit draconian, which is why it would be the vendors of the products themselves that would be officially making the contributions. This would require a degree of trust but if you're trusting a company enough to consume their cognition enhancing products, you likely trust them to use your 15% contribution towards ensuring that you can continue to do so.

I'm eager to get your feedback here...
Would you pay Fifteen for Freedom? Does that seem like a reasonable bet to make to ensure that we get to continue to use the performance enhancers we want to?

Right now I'm penning a similar email to various Nootropic vendors that I have relationships with. The more of your speak up that you would contribute Fifteen for Freedom or buy from vendors who did the better the case I can make to them, which will facilitate the formation of a loose coalition of influence which can sway democracy in favor of our continued Biohacking.

Get involved
Sign the Whitehouse.gov petition
There's going to be a Kratom march on the capital Tuesday Sept. 13. If you're in the Washington D.C area why not join it?
This article by Good Looking Loser, has some further instructions for contacting those in the US government who maybe able to influence this decision.

Finally...
Kratom (which does have a dark side) can only be purchased legally this month. The sources (which may or may not be sold out by the time you are reading this) I recommend are
Island Lion Herbals
KRATOMCrazy
Living Botanics
After this month, if things remain unchanged with the DEA's plans, it will be illegal to possess or distribute it. Burn it if you got it.

I'm hoping you'll meditate on the maintenance of liberty and get back to me!