The Tennessee Attorney General only recently clarified an opinion on the law that named kratom constituents that had been considered to effectively ban the South East Asian plant used by millions for a host of conditions. Seems Tennessee region kratom users are not yet out of the woods yet, though. Unfortunately, a vote last night on House Bill 1832 was unanimously in favor of the bill which would ban the plant. It was just December that <a href="https://www.tn.gov/content/dam/tn/attorneygeneral/documents/ops/2017/op17-055.pdf">Opinion 17-55</a> granted Tennesseans the right to consume kratom without fear of legal recourse. Previously, the plant had been believed to be made illegal due to constituents in it (mitragynine and 7-hydroxy-mitragynine) being named in a bill regarding synthetic drugs. The synthetics bill (rightly) made cathinones ("bath salts") and synthetic cannabinoids ("spice" or "incense") illegal due to their immediate threat to public health. In December, before the Attorney General's ruling, one of the bill's authors, Representative Tony Shipley made it clear that he did not feel that the kratom leaf or leaf powder should be considered illegal.
https://thegoldwater.com/news/18046-Delegation-Of-Scientists-Warn-Trump-Against-Kratom-Ban#18083
HB 1832 is just the first step, so there is still time to mobilize in the state. Tennesseans interested in helping can call Governor Bill Haslam and ask him to remove kratom from HB 1832 and it's companion bill in the upper house, SB 2258. A <a href="http://chapact.com/2018/02/tennessee-cta/">link to a sample letter</a> that can be used as a guideline exists for those who wish to make their voices heard. Two heads of the <a href="Everyone needs to contact the criminal justice committee members who will be hearing the bill next. The two heads of the committee were in the hearing with us today. http://www.capitol.tn.gov/House/committees/criminal-justice.html">Criminal Justice Committee</a> were at the hearing yesterday.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">FDA releases kratom death data, undermining its own claims about drug's deadly harms <a href="https://t.co/u9TDFclzp5">https://t.co/u9TDFclzp5</a></p>— Nick Wing (@nickpwing) <a href="https://twitter.com/nickpwing/status/961273649079742465?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 7, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Kratom has been safely used for hundreds of years and despite misinformation from the FDA that has been <a href="https://thegoldwater.com/news/17701-Scientists-Call-Into-Question-FDA-Claim-Kratom-Is-a-Dangerous-Opioid">called "junk science" by Johns Hopkins University's Dr. Jack Henningfield</a>, former head of the National Institute of Drug Abuse, it has never been implicated in any deaths. A list of state representatives and members of the Criminal Justice committe is available at the following link: http://reddittt.com/post/7t6idy/
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