First off, yes vendors will be taking advantage of this scare to raise prices but understand they're spooked themselves and probably looking to unload what they have on hand at maximum profit. The signatures mean nothing to the Government. If anything you're just showing them that Kratom has become widely known and it needs to be nipped in the bud so they can continue to make profits hand over fist on Suboxone, methadone, and traditional opioids. The DEA is allowed to schedule pretty much whatever they want and the FDA is allowed to conduct raids and charge people for not follow a strict set of rules. Anything of use will be classified and regulated in an attempt to profit from it. This is how the Government works. If they don't profit directly they profit on the other side (locking people up, kick backs from big pharma, kickbacks from tobacco/alcohol companies). Just look at the current attempt to ban flavored vape juice because it became so popular and has cut into the profits of the tobacco companies. Is it any wonder they'd do the same with Kratom?
The Government allowed opioids to flood into this country in the name of profits. When people started dying because they allowed so many citizens to become addicts they promoted suboxone as a cure which generates massive profits for the same people that profited from Oxycontin and other opioids. Kratom cuts into those profits because it allows people to maintain or quit without giving money away to these people. If you follow the money this all becomes very clear. If the DEA/FDA/Government didn't have this massive power to ban things willy nilly you could be growing your own opium on your property without fear of arrest. It's all the same thing. Haven't you ever wondered why possession or certain plants is highly illegal?
I will follow your vendor's advice here: Stock up, taper, try to clean out now while you still can. You don't want to wake up in a few months to discover that the supply has totally dried up and you're forced to go cold turkey or submit to suboxone/regular drug testing. Kratom was the last freely available opioid-like product that worked. If you're a non-believer just look at what happened with MXE. It's still legal in a bunch of places, highly popular, safer than ketamine and yet you can't buy it anywhere. Why would people with the means not be producing it unless they were threatened?
Unfortunately, I'm convinced that this sad situation we find ourselves in won't be changing any time soon. Signatures do not work, voting does not work, the only solution is overthrowing the current Governments. Until such time we're stuck with a Government that will ban anything in the name of profit. They don't care about you and me they only care about the size of their wallets.
Everyone thinks because I am obsessed with Kratom and psychologically addicted that I use daily and I'm totally dependent, but I never use more than a few days a week and WD never lasts me more than 3-4 days cold turkey max.
The fact that I used 5 out of the past 6 days is REALLY bad for me...so I'll be in WD for 4 days probably without using at all cold turkey, not counting one dose Monday for work.
I would never get myself into a situation where I need a taper at all, let alone suboxone which I have never used.
Not everyone thinks this is such a dire situation as you do.
I still don't see how it is possible for the DEA to ban things without ANY say from congress.
Don't ALL laws have to pass through Congress??
We stopped them when they tried in 2016 and maybe we can stop them again.
I know many things have been made illegal but usually there was no one to fight for them and there was no opposition.
However, I am so obsessed with Kratom I would probably be better off quitting period and while I haven't decided yet if it will be permanent, I only have a little more right now so when I'm out of that I will stop for at least a few months, and if I decided I don't want to quit permanently lets just say I am not completely incapable of getting a limited supply...
But really, I'd be smarter to do a "you can't fire me cause I quit" move.
Kratom has taken up too much of my energy and I'm too obsessed with it, so all I know is very soon I will stop for AT LEAST a few months, with a possibility of stopping permanently, but i REALLY hope it doesn't become illegal, and while they are trying and the FDA is messing with imports, I don't know necessarily why this scare of scheduling is worse than the past ones which have all failed.
Here's a post from someone who used to work for the AKA from another forum in response to my thinking this is "the end of the line for Kratom". He does NOT agree:
"No, this is NOT the end of the line for kratom, unless we all were to give up and believe that it is. There are millions of us who owe our quality of life -- or even our life, itself -- to this plant, and most are planning to FIGHT, not give up, not even worry.
Our government has been badly mismanaged for many years and this is just one more example of one powerful industry using bureaucrats like Gottlieb to harass other newcomers that have a better product. That shouldn't be allowed to happen -- and we are the ones to put a stop to it.
The AKA has legitimate ongoing expenses and they have just increased, due to the FDA's intensified disinformation campaign to try to get states and even individual cities to ban kratom. They are trying to run our very effective AKA out of money -- even while they may be cutting our supply (which allows our vendors to donate, if they can still sell product).
To wait until "this is IT" -- some mythical ultimate battle for legality --to donate is missing the point. The need for funding to fight this important battle for our future is real.
I was a founding Board member of the AKA and still support their efforts as our best way to win our freedom to have and consume this plant. If finances are an obstacle, I'd suggest -- if you can't donate to the AKA, at least buy from Vendors who DO donate.
Don't even think in terms of losing. Get mad and determine to do all you can to KEEP what should rightfully be yours: Your freedom to decide what you consume to support your health & wellbeing."
