Source: The Blade
Excerpt:
Toledo City Council is rushing to ban kratom. On behalf of people like me, I’m begging them not to. For many people, kratom and its derivatives, like 7-OH, are all that’s keeping us from falling back into the nightmare of addiction and pain.
I know because I’ve lived it. Years ago, I was in a single-car rollover crash as a back-seat passenger. I fractured a vertebra, and the pain followed me everywhere. In prison, that pain led me to use smuggled suboxone, and I became addicted. When I was released, I turned to kratom to get off it. But when I started working again, the pain was still unbearable. Kratom alone wasn’t enough.
That’s when I found 7-hydroxymitragynine, or 7-OH. It made the difference. Without it, I doubt I could have kept my job. With it, I can work, stay active, and be healthier than I’ve been in years.
Banning kratom and 7-OH won’t prevent tragedy. It will just push people toward the street drugs that are actually killing people in Toledo: fentanyl and counterfeit pills.
Toledo’s council members should think hard before they vote. If they ban kratom, they won’t be saving lives. They’ll be condemning people like me to lose the lives we’ve fought so hard to rebuild.
JEFFREY LONES
Ada, Ohio