A Letter From AKA Chairman Dave Herman:
Our Fight Against Last Week's FDA Warning & What It Means to the Kratom Community
November 20, 2017
Dear Kratom Warriors,
Last week, the FDA dropped the other shoe to ban kratom that we all knew was coming.
Faceless bureaucrats at the Food and Drug Administration told the new FDA Commissioner, Scott Gottlieb, to issue a ‘Public Health Advisory’ on kratom, justified by outright LIES that kratom carries similar risks as opiates, including addiction and death, and other mischaracterized scientific claims.
Major media outlets such as CNN, CBS News, NBC, NPR, Fox News and others picked up on the advisory, further spreading the FDA’s lies--all part of their campaign to threaten our hard work to keep kratom legal and available to you.
The most troubling coverage of the FDA Advisory came in the form of a CNBC interview with FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb, who lied on air and described kratom is an ‘opioid analogue, setting the stage to include kratom as a banned substance in the SITSA (Stop the Importation and Trafficking of Synthetic Analogues) Bill.
SITSA, if passed, would give Attorney General Jeff Sessions unchecked authority to ban any substance without any medical or scientific review; for a “temporary” period of FIVE YEARS, and exempt from a judicial or legislative challenge during that span.
FIVE YEARS!
AKA was criticized for ‘causing a panic’ by some in the kratom industry for coming out strong against SITSA, arguing the bill wouldn’t impact kratom given that it is not an analogue of an opioid.
…but we kept up the fight, confident that the FDA & DEA would make a move to classify kratom as an analogue so they could easily ban it under SITSA.
…And after issuing the public advisory last week, FDA Commissioner Scott Goetlieb went on CNBC and did just that.
Watch for yourself!
FDA's Gottlieb Lies to CNBC and Says Kratom is An Opioid Analogue
FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb lies on CNBC that kratom is an analogue of an opioid, setting the stage for DEA scheduling and subject to a complete ban through SITSA.
Help Stop The FDA's Campaign Against Kratom
We warned from the beginning that the FDA and the DEA are ready to ban kratom--- and classifying kratom as an opioid analogue would give them justification for doing so!
This video proves that the FDA will do whatever they can to lend support to an outright DEA scheduling, even if it means misrepresenting the science and lying to the public!
Without a doubt, the FDA’s Public Advisory was issued NOT out of the concern for the well-being of citizens, but for the sole purpose of influencing public sentiment, regulatory actions and ultimately, push forward legislation to ban the use and sale of kratom in states across the country.
Our lobbyists in Washington D.C. have told us that kratom opponents will use this advisory and these lies as fuel for their efforts to accomplish a complete ban and restrict your access to kratom completely.
Warriors, kratom opponents think they have victory in sight, but we can’t let them win!
This is our plan to fight back. Will you join us?
On November 18th, the AKA filed a formal petition to review and correct the FDA’s Public Health Advisory on kratom and then demand to reverse it completely.
Add to our team of lobbyists in Washington D.C., to reverse this FDA advisory. In New York, Florida, Illinois, and several other states our lobbyists will turn up the heat to stop any ban on kratom in those, while protecting your access throughout the rest of the country.
Reverse the state bans on kratom
Increase the pressure on legislators and government agencies, and we will provide you with tools to help us. We are facing fights at the federal level and in three states, and we will be calling on you to take action to respond to legislation and to dirty tricks like last week's FDA advisory, as they happen.
An aggressive Marketing/Communications effort to mobilize all warriors, social media followers, vendors, their customers and the general public concerned about America’s current health crises. Our strength is in numbers. We currently have 50,000 warriors who are turning up the pressure. We need many more!
More scientific research! We want to step up AKA’s investment in partnerships with the medical research community and be armed with scientific data that proves the benefits of kratom, and dispels the lies that the FDA & DEA want the public and lawmakers to believe.
A Media Campaign to counteract the false claims spread by the media and inject the personal stories of warriors like you whose lives have been changed by kratom
Publicize, through all channels, the science and truth behind Kratom. The science is on OUR side!
We simply cannot wait, and neither can you. We must act immediately and deploy our team across the United States to tell the truth about kratom, tell your stories to the media, put pressure on these bureaucrats and reverse this attack and these lies against kratom.
We have shown that together, we can win! We won our fight with the DEA when they wanted to criminalize kratom consumers last summer, and we will win against the FDA’s efforts to restrict the use of kratom if you support us in this biggest fight yet.
A war of this magnitude against lawmakers, bureaucrats at government agencies and outside influencers, isn’t going to be cheap, but we’ll do whatever it takes to win.
Will you?
Every dollar you can give gets us one step closer to winning this war.
Your contribution of $25.00, $50.00, $75.00, $100.00 – or even $500.00 will give us the ammunition to fight back immediately. A one-time gift will help, but a monthly contribution will help even more as this battle isn’t going to end soon. This FDA advisory is just one fight in their war against kratom, and we can’t stop.
We won’t!
We won't stop fighting until we guarantee that you’ll have unrestricted and legal access to kratom for as long as you need it without worry that it will ever be taken away.
DONATE
You have my personal commitment that I will continue to work as hard as I can and for as long as it takes to win.
Your donation helps us send a clear message to Commissioner Gottlieb of the FDA, the media and the opponents of kratom, and those faceless bureaucrats– that we are strong advocates for kratom, and we won’t stop until our right to live healthy lives is safe and guaranteed.
Thank you for being a part of the fight and for your continued support.
Gratefully,
Dave Herman
Chairman, American Kratom Association
#teamAKA
#keepkratomlegal
#IAMKRATOM
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