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I have read, loved, and respected Scientific American Magazine for many years. They generally go beyond the research that the normal trained researcher might do. Today, things changed. They wrote an article about kratom which was meant to appear neutral and show both sides of the story. But they, like so many criminals who “really want to get caught” left a number of clues to inform us they are on the side of demonizing kratom. How do I know? This author left numerous clues. And why is it important to me that fair nonpolitical articles are published on kratom? Because I’ve read the research too; know it is as harmful as its cousin plant coffee (actually a bit less so; people get very addicted to coffee, and have actually died from it). There are no reports of anyone dying or even overdosing on kratom. But instead of the 48 states that have kept kratom legal because of sanity reasons (knowing it is a safe plant with research showing it is heart healthy, lowers blood pressure, boosts the immune system, works better than St. John’s Wort on anxiety and depression, and is harmless. But Scientific American does not mention those states. They ONLY mention Indiana who “has outright banned it”. WoooOOOooo. This is exactly how the demonization of marijuana was done, and it’s amazing that American journalists, of all people have not learned their lesson, and are helping America be doomed to repeat history. They give one clue away in their first paragraph naming all the countries in which it is illegal due to its “psychoactive properties”. I use kratom for chronic severe pain instead of opiate drugs that any doctor would and did happily prescribe. I take the proper amount. There are no psychoactive properties, no euphoria, and no hallucination (all of which could occur on occasion with actual opiate drugs). Then the author gives away his big-time lie. He says that the DEA lists kratom as a “drug of concern”. Nothing could be further from the truth for several reasons. Like St. John’s Wort, kratom is an herb or plant. It is not a drug and the DEA knows that and lists it, like thousands of other plants as a “substance of concern”. Keep in mind marijuana is on that list too. And keeping people who needed marijuana for over a century by a bigoted drug czar in the 1930’s did so to make a name for himself, that Mexican men were bringing “Locoweed” into America, introducing it to our women and kidnapping and raping them, never to be seen again. Within a month marijuana became a schedule 1 drug, in the same league as cocaine and heroin. Millions have suffered because doctors, without even caring of the science that the government already had, that marijuana was not only safe but protected the brain, and the U.S government even got a patent on marijuana for that very reason as we learned on Dr. Sanja Gupta’s “Weed” on CNN. Don’t believe me, Google it “U.S. Government patent on marijuana”. It still has it, and its even on the NIH site with the patent number and why the government had it, while demonizing, lying etc about it to the public. Wonder how they think that worked out for them? Though I will give credit that researchers are studying kratom for its ability to wean meth addicts in Thailand off of the drug, it fails to make the analogy that kudzu, which grows wild in America (and southeast Asia) has already proven to wean alcoholics off that substance. Does that make kudzu dangerous. People drink kudzu tea all the time. I’ve heard of no pandemic addiction or deaths from it. But the author either doesn’t know that or has decided not to mention it. He also mentions that kratom was criminalized in Thailand 70 years ago, but he doesn’t tell why. Does he not know? Does he not know that it was cheap, very available (grows on trees everywhere) and was interfering with their legal opium trade. Now they admit that might have been a bit sinful and are reconsidering it, very much like America is reconsidering marijuana. Again, no mention of that in Scientific American. It’s also being studied and some proof has already evolved that it could help cure diabetes 2. Totally ignored in Scientific American. He mentions how he “got interested in kratom. He spOKe to a few academics and before he knew it he heard about a kratom abuse case at Massachusetts General Hospital. A man who had thoracic outlet syndrome had been taking hard opiates for years. His wife demanded he stopped so he read about kratom and ordered it. Next thing he knew he mixed it with Modafinil, an FDA approved stimulant and he was having a seizure and was in the MGH ER Room. Kratom abuse? Excuse me but I’ve known people who have taken Modafinil and water and ended up in the ER room from horrendous side effects. It was prescribed to me once and I felt suicidal for 2 days. I never feel suicidal. That was before I’d ever heard of kratom. But of course to the Scientific American author, this was clearly a case of kratom abuse. Not enough proof yet that this man was/is on a mission with an agenda. But wait there’s more. Then he adds that the patient was spending $15,000 annually on kratom. What a surprise given that he’d taken oxy, hydro and all the other heavy opiates for years. This man was an addict. Not a kratom addict. Kratom saved his life, and got him off the dangerous deadly opium drugs. The only reason he had odd effects was his combining it with a stimulating drug we already know is dangerous (and can be deadly). Kratom can’t be deadly. Because its not. If someone has dies from pure kratom leaf, please let me know, as it will be the first report ever of us knowing anything about kratom in contemporary history which is about 1000 years of Thai and SE Asian history. Ok you would think the author would know were were onto him after all these journalistic faux pas. But no. He decides to go to NIH (National Institute On Drug Abuse) who still lobbies for marijuana to be a schedule one deadly drug similar to heroin and cocaine, and has never in it’s history done anything to help research on medicinal herbs which might heal unless it is to find something negative. And they don’t give grants for kratom because they consider it a “drug of abuse” (whatever that means). We also learned from Dr. Gupta’s CNN “Weed” that our American government will not grant to study medicinal plants unless it is to find something negative. We also learned that the medical community of Israel (considered one of the best in the world), in fact does grant money for the good that medicinal plants can do. And they’ve helped scientists discover that pot helps with Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s; so it is freely administered in assisted homes and nursing homes to those who need it. And it works, when drugs don’t come close to working. Kratom will never get a “fair shake” by allowing American government agencies to study it; our agencies simply are not set up that way. We can learn from the many studies from Thailand and S.E. Asian country’s universities who have studied it in a truly neutral way. And the results have been very good and kratom when taken responsibly, is very safe according to these studies. If we ever want accurate American studies that reflect the real plant kratom, the studies, like most of the ones that found marijuana to not only be safe but extremely healthy, we will also have to find private, neutral non-corporate, non-governmental studies. Until that time (and probably past that time) we can expect blatant demonization reports on kratom, or more subtle demonization like this one by Larry Grenemeier, who may or may not have known he was merely a puppet in the further demonization of kratom. In either case, he will not go down as one of the journalistic heroes, when the truth emerges regarding the safety of kratom, same as the early journalistic pioneer heroes who tried everything they could to inform the public of the safety of marijuana in the 1930s, often risking their lives and careers. I have nothing to lose and nothing to gain by telling my story. But if one person is able to stop taking deadly prescribed opiate drugs because something they read encouraged them to try a more natural path, I can go to my grave, knowing I did something right. If I’m forced to go back to opiates for my severe pain, I will die. I know that. Kratom does the opposite. So am I just some Joe Schmo who sits around and drinks kratom tea? I have no interest in any kratom distributorship or provider. I just want to make sure the real story gets out to at least a few, amid the thousands of kratom demonization reports, such as the one in Scientific American which cloaks itself as "fair and balanced" by telling that there's a few good things about kratom in that it might get meth addicts off of meth etc. Sorry, but I don't buy it that much if any real research was done, and surely the writer did not want the whole story revealed. Before calling me wrong, I encourage all to go back to the stories in the 1930s when our government was getting doctors, science and others on board to demonize marijuana, even though they knew it was, in fact quite a healthy herb that could save lives and relieve unimaginable pain. I hope the author understands he is contributing to the same type of program; and, is going to go down on the wrong side of history, sadly. And I hate to see Scientific American, one of my favorite periodicals, also go down on the wrong side of history. Very sad for me to see that. I am a person who takes 2-8 grams of kratom daily, depending on the severity of the pain. The threshold is the same as the first day I took it so I’m not addicted to it anymore than I am coffee; I still drink 1.5 cups of coffee, same as I did the first day I drank it in my teens (I’m 59 now). I used to have pain so severe from neuralgia, I couldn’t get out of bed. Now I mountain hike with my wife about 10-15 miles per week. I love and explore nature. I had partial dentures but there’s no need to wear them as it does not hurt me in the least to chew food with the few spaces of gums. It used to be unbearable. Did I just sit and stare at the walls melting? Well no. I returned to college (a very good one) and studied business technology. I opened 6 businesses (in my 50s). I got married and my wife and I are very much in love. We are the stewards of the National Park of which we live on the edge. We volunteer in the community. We create our own line of products (over 200,000 items in all of our trademark). None of that was even possible before kratom. I’ve quit it several times when I ran out and had to reorder. Was it uncomfortable? Well of course. Same as when I’ve run out of coffee. Did I feel as if I would die? Of course. Same as if I run out of coffee…in other words, jOKingly “yes”. It’s a bit less painful than being out of coffee. My advice. Don’t use kratom recreationally, and I say that not because its dangerous but because one is going to be quite disappointed (if they are used to drugs or marijuana). The euphoria is nonexistent in the doses I take. I imagine there is an amount one can take to see visions, but I’m not into that and I imagine it would be very expensive. But the same is true of sniffing Lysol (which we tried in our teens) so, I guess Lysol should also be on that DEA “Substance Of Concern”, and so should most household cleaners, and chemicals for vehicles, and the list goes on and on. Anything can be abused if one wants to abuse it. But of all those things I mentioned, even if kratom is abused, it is the only one that want kill you, or even hurt you other than nausea and/or sleep (I’m told); I’ve never abused it so I can’t tell you positively. More advice. If you suffer from chronic severe pain, you know and I know the medical community is going to put you on opiate drugs the rest of your (most likely) short life of very poor quality. In this case, get on the web and please do yourself a favor (unless you live in Indiana or Tennessee (the author left out Tn. Where it became illegal last July), and order some kratom. It is an amazing analgesic that can last for up to 8 hours; usually 4 but when you have that kind of pain, 4 hours of relief is like heaven. But that’s only my advice. I happen to believe in mother nature (which has been substantially researched for decades) over deadly opiate drugs which we know kills someone ever 18 seconds or so last I heard. Kratom has killed nobody. You do the math. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rick London is an author, songwriter, designer and cartoonist. He is also an outspoken advocate for keeping the medicinal herb kratom legal. He says the most potent kratom can be found at a west coast firm called Kratom-K.com. In addition to their high quality and low prices, London says they offer another 15% off one’s total order if you type the word “kratom” into the coupon code at checkout. London is best known for his Google #1 ranked offbeat cartoons and funny gifts at RickLondonGifts.com
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