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- Lisha Adcock writes that kratom helps her take care of herself and her family. If the Mississippi Legislature bans it, she says the restriction will greatly hurt her family.
If the Mississippi legislature bans kratom, thousands of Mississippians like me and my husband will be forced to live with chronic pain or take opioids that have hurt us in the past, and more people will be hurt as kratom moves to the black market. Pass the Kratom Consumer Protection Act instead, so there are age restrictions, tested products, and warning labels. People like us who use kratom are fighting tooth and nail to keep our God-given right to choose a plant over pharmaceuticals to treat chronic pain and to get off opioids.
In 2010, I had a lot of kidney stones after my second child was born, which led to the doctors finding a precancerous tumor. I got hooked on pain pills because it was very painful, but I had to work so my family could eat. I’m a hairstylist, and the pain pills helped me stand 8 to 12 hours a day. Opioids became my best friend. I started spending every dime I made on pills and about lost everything I worked for. I switched to suboxone, which helped me stop using pills, but it was expensive, and I had a lot of side effects. After two years, I stopped cold turkey and said I would never use anything again. But three weeks later, I relapsed and went back to the pills. My mind couldn’t turn off the depression, and I still wanted to be numb the way I felt.
In the meantime, my husband found kratom, an herbal supplement made from the leaves of a tree in Asia. People usually take the powder in a capsule or mix it in liquid to drink. My husband is a plumber and needs double knee replacement, but we don’t have insurance. The doctors said he should find another career, but we have mouths to feed and a mortgage to pay. He started taking kratom because he didn’t want to take opioids and risk ending up addicted like I was. The kratom helped his pain, allowed him to work, and it didn’t give him any feeling of being high. He encouraged me to try it, and I’ll never forget that day. It was like God himself put his hands on me and broke the chains that had been on me for so long. I remember just sitting down and crying. I was so relieved. I wasn’t high, I wasn’t in pain, and I stopped craving opioids for the first time in a very long time. I felt like myself again. That was seven years ago. For seven years, kratom has helped me want to get up and start my day and accomplish something. I continue to struggle with long-term chronic pain from several medical conditions, and if I didn’t have kratom, I truly don’t know what I would do.
Today, I am much more active than I was before I found kratom. I’m outside gardening and caring for my chickens. I can pay my land taxes on time, and I’m also building a shop at my home to continue my business as a hairstylist. Kratom helps me take care of myself and my family. If the legislature bans kratom, it will greatly hurt my family. I will have to start taking opioids again, and I’m afraid I won’t survive. That terrifies me.
Kratom has been studied by Johns Hopkins, the National Institutes of Health, the University of Florida, and at one time our own Ole Miss. We know from research that this plant can be helpful, but those of us who are helped by it struggle to have our voices heard over the doctors, rehabs, and law enforcement who only see the people who become addicted to it. Yes, some people become addicted to kratom. People can
become addicted to almost anything, including opioids and alcohol, but that doesn’t mean they should be banned. A ban will only create a black market and cause deaths from contamination. Regulate kratom through the Kratom Consumer Protection Act that other states have adopted. I may not have degrees behind my name, but my voice counts, too. I am an expert in lived experience with chronic pain as well as addiction, and I have years of experience with this plant. Without it, I may not be here.
I believe that God put this plant on the earth to help heal my body and help my husband endure pain no man should have to deal with. All we want to do is make the best choice for our health so we can live our lives, provide for our kids, and be active in our community. Please let us do that.
