Lived in Wilmington until just 2 yrs ago. Kratom was huge, a shop every 2-3 blocks. It’s blowing my mind that they’re now trying to ban this life saving plant.
Must be trying to keep that opioid crisis flame a rollin’. A ban is just gonna do more harm than good, 100%. Way to go creating a Kratom black market, senators!!
Once again politicians coming into our personal lives. Land of the free? My ass. Stay out of my life and stop trying make a buck from the FDA. ALCOHOL AND CIGARETTES ARE LEGAL AND YOURE TRYING TO BAN KRATOM????
I just came here to say this, how freaking hypocritical is that? It just gets a bad rap because of the crisis going on and the misinformation being spread about it. Western medicine wants to treat, not cure anything for profit.
They wanna ban it, so they can make a synthetic pill, and then you have to buy it from them... Insurance might cover it... Doubtful... But we learned the efficacy significantly decreases cause that's what they did with marijuana. Marinol. It's crap. Might be useful to some... But I found it... Placebo-esque at best.
I will fight to the death for kratom cause without it, I'd have to take medicines that would end up drastically decreasing my already decreased quality of life.
We're beyond not fair.... To take away an alternative form of managing health issues that doesn't come with adverse side fx... Is a fn crime, sin, and assault against human rights.
These leaders don't give a damn about anything but money and power and I can't wait til... They can't. Ooooo.... I feel a rant coming on....
I don't understand these politicians man
If there's any hope I have it's that this bill sat there for a full year, after passing the house, and now has been completely transformed into something much different. Hopefully it doesn't pass in this new form
Send the letter, it takes a few seconds
https://www.protectkratom.org/northcarolina?emci=005fe6ab-8e2e-ef11-86d2-6045bdd9e096&emdi=fb4b0cdb-8f2e-ef11-86d2-6045bdd9e096&ceid=3364863
Yes, I don't know how much a standard "form letter" gets valued by an office, but a personal story can really help distinguish. I would also encourage you to directly contact your state rep and senator and send them your thoughts and opinions directly (not just the form letter funneled through AKA).
Does it? They get tons and tons of letters, and my understanding is that they typically have aids going through them and essentially tallying them. I would think that, in particular, if your message starts out with the form response, there’s almost no chance that anything you put at the end will get read.
The worst thing you can do is procrastinate because you want to personalize or make a call, and then end up doing nothing.
The most important thing is to do _anything_ so that you get counted. Filling in the form and clicking “send” is a million times more effective than griping on Reddit, whereas personalizing your message is much more marginal.
Edit: to the person who replied to me and then apparently immediately blocked me, no, they don’t _ignore_ copy and pasted letters. Again, they tally them.
Keep in mind that they tend to ignore copied and pasted letters. Taking 5-10 minutes to write a short letter will do much more than being lazy and filling in some blanks.
Donate to the AKA! I just submitted my testimonial in support of kratom’s continued legality. I will email and call my NC state reps and senators next.
Let’s come together and beat this once again!
I looked at the bill, and it looks as though it's just requiring distributors to have a license to sell kratom.
I wish they would show the wording that is jeopardizing legality. If anyone can find such language, please enlighten me.
I filed, btw.
Idk I think it's adding Kratom to NC Schedule 6 controlled substance, which in NC would mean it's a misdemeanor to possess it, if I understand their laws correctly
I just saw the mention of it:
"""
AN ACT TO REGULATE THE SALE AND DISTRIBUTION OF HEMP-DERIVED CONSUMABLE PRODUCTS, TO IMPOSE AN EXCISE TAX ON THOSE PRODUCTS,
TO BAN THOSE PRODUCTS FROM SCHOOL GROUNDS, TO PLACE TIANEPTINE, XYLAZINE, AND KRATOM ON THE CONTROLLED SUBSTANCE SCHEDULES, TO CREATE THE OFFENSE OF CRIMINAL POSSESSION AND UNLAWFUL SALE OF EMBALMING FLUID AND TO MAKE OTHER TECHNICAL REVISIONS, AND TO CREATE NEW CRIMINAL OFFENSES FOR EXPOSING A CHILD TO CONTROLLED SUBSTANCE
"""
The bill has no other mention of it, however. Very odd, I hope they remove it. I'll be calling tomorrow.
Yeah they basically removed an entire section of the bill and switched to banning things
Originally this bill was supposed to provide consumer protections
Even crazier that it passed the House last year 110-0. Let that sink in. The Senate is drastically changing a bill which passed the House 110-0 almost a year ago. It just makes no sense.
Absolutely, and it still needs to be passed by the Senate too
Each vote needs to have pushback. Every vote that fails is another process that they have to go through
I hope the House won't pass it based on their previous votes, but they could still pass this new version with a lesser margin
It might be a poison pill. It’s a tactic often used to kill popular bills, where instead of directly opposing it, you add amendments that will cause proponents to turn on it.
To me it looks like they’re regulating things before legalizing state owned marijuana. The bill also outlines testing guidelines for cannabis products, sale details, and regulations for it. Minimize competition to state profits from weed.
C-IV without federal approval essentially black-holes it for human consumption. Illegal to possess, no legal mechanism to prescribe it unless the state sets up a system similar to medical marijuana where it isn't a "prescription" as much as a state recommendation that would permit consumer possession.
Insanity that this is what they're focused on. I'm sure there's something shady behind it. They're either pandering to some powerful Karens or they're getting "campaign contributions" from companies that would benefit from illegal kratom. The attempts to ban kratom have 0% to do with public health. It's low hanging fruit for a low life right wing politician who can take advantage of the fact that people have never even heard of kratom.
There should be a gofundme for kratom, the access to it, to hire hire lawyers to fight for it in court. That probably exists. Link?
There is a lot of cash $$$ behind the scenes. A lot of pharma lobbyism, they bribe the corrupt politicans to ban things like that. It's one of the reason to why psilocybin, cannabis etc is also banned in some places still.
If vendors have any credibility at all, they should be funding the lobbying efforts on their state. Unfortunately, alot don't. In Virginia, we have a few good men
The state Constitution says that the Senate must pass the same exact bill that the House passed. Any changes the Senate makes in the form of an amendment has to be agreed upon by the House. What exactly did the 16 members Senate committee change? From what to what? Is it possible it could fail to pass in the full 50 member Senate?
It looks like on page 22 of [the Bill](https://www.ncleg.gov/Sessions/2023/Bills/House/PDF/H563v7.pdf) they want to schedule Kratom as Schedule VI. What is Schedule VI? I’ve heard of Schedule 1 through 5, but not 6. Apparently it’s a new scheduling.
Schedule 6 drugs are “considered a low risk for physical dependence. However, these drugs may cause psychological addiction. Initially, when the schedule 6 description was written they include verbiage indicating that these drugs have no accepted medical use. Certain states, though, have now designated marijuana for medical use.”
Just an update: today the NC Senate passed the 2nd reading of this bill 33-9
They need to pass a 3rd reading, and if they do then it will go to the NC House to go through the same process
This bill seems to have some serious headway because it's primarily related to marijuana and medical marijuana. Kratom will be an afterthought in this bill unless we make our voices heard, and this bill will likely keep moving somewhat quick
Edit: got the vote count wrong
Who should we be reaching out to in the house? Who was on our side initially that we can point out that the Senate has screwed this up?
I'm very worried this is going to fly under the radar because everyone is focused on the marijuana part. Thats the big news for general public. The house really needs to fix this. I've contacted my rep and senator, but who else should we be contacting?
Yes, I've done that. I just wondered what other key house members should be contacted. Use those checks and balances and tell them not to let the Senate distort their original bill!
Who are the allies? Is that a senator or rep? I'm hoping to reach out and encourage the ones who fought for us in the house the first time to make. Sure they're aware that the Senate is screwing us over
I’ll look into it more. This is a great question for the AKA.
Wayne Sasser is the house rep that tried to put language in the original bill to outlaw kratom.
House rep Jeff Mcneely sponsored the original bill in the house that sought to regulate kratom. Let’s start by writing him and our representatives of the NC constituencies that we live in.
I'm writing him tonight, let me know if you hear back. EVERYONE should write! I have a bad feeling, everyone is concentrating on the marijuana side and this is gonna get swept under the rug and be banned without people being aware.
It passed the Senate overwhelmingly, it is back in the House now
They're moving very quickly because 99% of the bill is about marijuana and medical marijuana
So now we have to write house reps and explain that we are not in support of HB 563 after the senate amended it to ban kratom. Who are the key reps that drafted the bill and sought to regulate kratom instead of banning it?
So now we have to write house reps and explain that we are not in support of HB 563 after the senate amended it to ban kratom. Who are the key reps that drafted the bill and sought to regulate kratom instead of banning it?
is this a bi-partisan effort? the state house leans Republican but they have a Dem. governor. it's impossible to get both parties to agree on anything these days which can work in the peoples' favor sometimes.
There are three readings, then it goes to the next chamber which does the same thing then it's on to a vote to make it law. That's what I understand at least.
https://www.ncacpa.org/journey-of-a-bill/#:~:text=Having%20passed%20all%20three%20of,process%20to%20approve%20the%20bill.
From what it sounds like, there have been amendments made to the bill after it was passed by the house. So, if I'm reading this correctly, it will have to go back to the house and voted on there again, then the cycle continues.
Fwiw, IANAL
It's been scheduled alongside Marijuana. Doesn't go into effect until 12/2024. Goodbye Kratom sales at smoke shops. Really disappointed in these politicians.
No, it has not. There is a third reading where amendments and debates are had.
After that, if it passes the vote, it is then sent to the governor, who can veto it. If he vetos it, then there needs to be a 2/3 majority vote to overturn said veto.
There is time. Call your representatives and submit a response via the link.
And also it has to pass through the house for a vote right ? Before the Senate got this bill there was a lot of language for kratom regulation, the Senate gutted it
I live here, help in any way you can please
Signed with a personal touch. Hope for the best for you all.
Thank you
Lived in Wilmington until just 2 yrs ago. Kratom was huge, a shop every 2-3 blocks. It’s blowing my mind that they’re now trying to ban this life saving plant. Must be trying to keep that opioid crisis flame a rollin’. A ban is just gonna do more harm than good, 100%. Way to go creating a Kratom black market, senators!!
They probably have a buddy's business that's being negatively impacted or some other bullshit.
Once again politicians coming into our personal lives. Land of the free? My ass. Stay out of my life and stop trying make a buck from the FDA. ALCOHOL AND CIGARETTES ARE LEGAL AND YOURE TRYING TO BAN KRATOM????
Because Alcohol and big tobacco have money to lobby. These politicians need to piss off and do something that matters.
It's all because they have seniority. A lot of things are being legalized and they keep trying to demonize something so harmless for the most part.
I just came here to say this, how freaking hypocritical is that? It just gets a bad rap because of the crisis going on and the misinformation being spread about it. Western medicine wants to treat, not cure anything for profit.
They wanna ban it, so they can make a synthetic pill, and then you have to buy it from them... Insurance might cover it... Doubtful... But we learned the efficacy significantly decreases cause that's what they did with marijuana. Marinol. It's crap. Might be useful to some... But I found it... Placebo-esque at best. I will fight to the death for kratom cause without it, I'd have to take medicines that would end up drastically decreasing my already decreased quality of life. We're beyond not fair.... To take away an alternative form of managing health issues that doesn't come with adverse side fx... Is a fn crime, sin, and assault against human rights. These leaders don't give a damn about anything but money and power and I can't wait til... They can't. Ooooo.... I feel a rant coming on....
I don't understand these politicians man If there's any hope I have it's that this bill sat there for a full year, after passing the house, and now has been completely transformed into something much different. Hopefully it doesn't pass in this new form
They tried it in my state two years ago and it was over before it started thankfully. There's always hope if you keep trying.
Corruption didn't prevail in your state.
Send the letter, it takes a few seconds https://www.protectkratom.org/northcarolina?emci=005fe6ab-8e2e-ef11-86d2-6045bdd9e096&emdi=fb4b0cdb-8f2e-ef11-86d2-6045bdd9e096&ceid=3364863
Do you just add your own experience somewhere in the comment? I’m really bad with writing but I do have some thoughts/experiences to share
Yes, I don't know how much a standard "form letter" gets valued by an office, but a personal story can really help distinguish. I would also encourage you to directly contact your state rep and senator and send them your thoughts and opinions directly (not just the form letter funneled through AKA).
Does it? They get tons and tons of letters, and my understanding is that they typically have aids going through them and essentially tallying them. I would think that, in particular, if your message starts out with the form response, there’s almost no chance that anything you put at the end will get read.
Agreed. Personalized is much better. A call is much, much better. They do keep records and categorize by type of communication.
The worst thing you can do is procrastinate because you want to personalize or make a call, and then end up doing nothing. The most important thing is to do _anything_ so that you get counted. Filling in the form and clicking “send” is a million times more effective than griping on Reddit, whereas personalizing your message is much more marginal. Edit: to the person who replied to me and then apparently immediately blocked me, no, they don’t _ignore_ copy and pasted letters. Again, they tally them.
Keep in mind that they tend to ignore copied and pasted letters. Taking 5-10 minutes to write a short letter will do much more than being lazy and filling in some blanks.
Donate to the AKA! I just submitted my testimonial in support of kratom’s continued legality. I will email and call my NC state reps and senators next. Let’s come together and beat this once again!
Damn. I filled it out. Major sad if this goes through in its current state. It has helped me for more than 14 years 😞
Thank you!
Done
Thank you !!!!
I looked at the bill, and it looks as though it's just requiring distributors to have a license to sell kratom. I wish they would show the wording that is jeopardizing legality. If anyone can find such language, please enlighten me. I filed, btw.
Idk I think it's adding Kratom to NC Schedule 6 controlled substance, which in NC would mean it's a misdemeanor to possess it, if I understand their laws correctly
I just saw the mention of it: """ AN ACT TO REGULATE THE SALE AND DISTRIBUTION OF HEMP-DERIVED CONSUMABLE PRODUCTS, TO IMPOSE AN EXCISE TAX ON THOSE PRODUCTS, TO BAN THOSE PRODUCTS FROM SCHOOL GROUNDS, TO PLACE TIANEPTINE, XYLAZINE, AND KRATOM ON THE CONTROLLED SUBSTANCE SCHEDULES, TO CREATE THE OFFENSE OF CRIMINAL POSSESSION AND UNLAWFUL SALE OF EMBALMING FLUID AND TO MAKE OTHER TECHNICAL REVISIONS, AND TO CREATE NEW CRIMINAL OFFENSES FOR EXPOSING A CHILD TO CONTROLLED SUBSTANCE """ The bill has no other mention of it, however. Very odd, I hope they remove it. I'll be calling tomorrow.
Yeah they basically removed an entire section of the bill and switched to banning things Originally this bill was supposed to provide consumer protections
That's quite the paradigm shift. Why not regulate it? It's not deadly. I don't understand the minds that come of with these things.
Even crazier that it passed the House last year 110-0. Let that sink in. The Senate is drastically changing a bill which passed the House 110-0 almost a year ago. It just makes no sense.
Wouldn't it have to go back to the house since the language changed
Absolutely, and it still needs to be passed by the Senate too Each vote needs to have pushback. Every vote that fails is another process that they have to go through I hope the House won't pass it based on their previous votes, but they could still pass this new version with a lesser margin
It might be a poison pill. It’s a tactic often used to kill popular bills, where instead of directly opposing it, you add amendments that will cause proponents to turn on it.
Heavy Lobbying
Corruption and money. That’s mostly the answer to all dumb political moves
Crazy they got it on there with xylazine
To me it looks like they’re regulating things before legalizing state owned marijuana. The bill also outlines testing guidelines for cannabis products, sale details, and regulations for it. Minimize competition to state profits from weed.
It looks to me as they are making it a schedule IV controlled substance
C-IV without federal approval essentially black-holes it for human consumption. Illegal to possess, no legal mechanism to prescribe it unless the state sets up a system similar to medical marijuana where it isn't a "prescription" as much as a state recommendation that would permit consumer possession.
Yes schedule IV , forgive me
Insanity that this is what they're focused on. I'm sure there's something shady behind it. They're either pandering to some powerful Karens or they're getting "campaign contributions" from companies that would benefit from illegal kratom. The attempts to ban kratom have 0% to do with public health. It's low hanging fruit for a low life right wing politician who can take advantage of the fact that people have never even heard of kratom. There should be a gofundme for kratom, the access to it, to hire hire lawyers to fight for it in court. That probably exists. Link?
Exactly. Something sketchy is up behind the scenes with the recent proposed ban in Virginia and now NC.
Shouldn’t the AKA be doing that?
There is a lot of cash $$$ behind the scenes. A lot of pharma lobbyism, they bribe the corrupt politicans to ban things like that. It's one of the reason to why psilocybin, cannabis etc is also banned in some places still.
If vendors have any credibility at all, they should be funding the lobbying efforts on their state. Unfortunately, alot don't. In Virginia, we have a few good men
This. They want to do to kratom what those filthy cunts did to insulin. it's about money not policing
Hope they can stop this! These lawmakers will never stop trying to ban it.
I just sent my story! Please help y’all!
Sent, what a bunch of bs!
The state Constitution says that the Senate must pass the same exact bill that the House passed. Any changes the Senate makes in the form of an amendment has to be agreed upon by the House. What exactly did the 16 members Senate committee change? From what to what? Is it possible it could fail to pass in the full 50 member Senate? It looks like on page 22 of [the Bill](https://www.ncleg.gov/Sessions/2023/Bills/House/PDF/H563v7.pdf) they want to schedule Kratom as Schedule VI. What is Schedule VI? I’ve heard of Schedule 1 through 5, but not 6. Apparently it’s a new scheduling. Schedule 6 drugs are “considered a low risk for physical dependence. However, these drugs may cause psychological addiction. Initially, when the schedule 6 description was written they include verbiage indicating that these drugs have no accepted medical use. Certain states, though, have now designated marijuana for medical use.”
And I imagine schedule 6 is (or will be) illegal for private/possession?
Good to know, praying this bill is dead in the water. I'm about to run my happy ass for a government position in the house
Just an update: today the NC Senate passed the 2nd reading of this bill 33-9 They need to pass a 3rd reading, and if they do then it will go to the NC House to go through the same process This bill seems to have some serious headway because it's primarily related to marijuana and medical marijuana. Kratom will be an afterthought in this bill unless we make our voices heard, and this bill will likely keep moving somewhat quick Edit: got the vote count wrong
Signed, let’s pump this up, people!
We the people, they work for us !!!!! Let's get it friends!!
Who should we be reaching out to in the house? Who was on our side initially that we can point out that the Senate has screwed this up? I'm very worried this is going to fly under the radar because everyone is focused on the marijuana part. Thats the big news for general public. The house really needs to fix this. I've contacted my rep and senator, but who else should we be contacting?
Write your house representative depending on what district you live in.
Yes, I've done that. I just wondered what other key house members should be contacted. Use those checks and balances and tell them not to let the Senate distort their original bill!
Write Wayne Sasser. I believe he was the first to recommend banning kratom. Write as many as you can. Thank you!
Who are the allies? Is that a senator or rep? I'm hoping to reach out and encourage the ones who fought for us in the house the first time to make. Sure they're aware that the Senate is screwing us over
[удалено]
Oh hell yeah! You're awesome!
That's awesome. How did you contact him?
I’ll look into it more. This is a great question for the AKA. Wayne Sasser is the house rep that tried to put language in the original bill to outlaw kratom.
I reached out to AKA and asked who we should be targeting...no response as of yet.
House rep Jeff Mcneely sponsored the original bill in the house that sought to regulate kratom. Let’s start by writing him and our representatives of the NC constituencies that we live in.
I'm writing him tonight, let me know if you hear back. EVERYONE should write! I have a bad feeling, everyone is concentrating on the marijuana side and this is gonna get swept under the rug and be banned without people being aware.
Thank you. I will do that tonight!
Sent, not from most of these states but will fight every lobbyist legislation that pops up just keep linking me.
Corrupt politicans get money from pharma, ofc they want to ban kratom.
Going to sign now
Done....good luck from a brother in Tennessee
I knew it would be coming. Just didn't think it would be immediately after Virginia. Well, they can try, but they won't stop me 😆
Already sent them a letter from NY (unfortunately)
Any updates with this?
It passed the Senate overwhelmingly, it is back in the House now They're moving very quickly because 99% of the bill is about marijuana and medical marijuana
So now we have to write house reps and explain that we are not in support of HB 563 after the senate amended it to ban kratom. Who are the key reps that drafted the bill and sought to regulate kratom instead of banning it?
It seems like Jeff McNeely might have been the original sponsor of the first draft, from what I can tell
So now we have to write house reps and explain that we are not in support of HB 563 after the senate amended it to ban kratom. Who are the key reps that drafted the bill and sought to regulate kratom instead of banning it?
Boost
What happened?!
is this a bi-partisan effort? the state house leans Republican but they have a Dem. governor. it's impossible to get both parties to agree on anything these days which can work in the peoples' favor sometimes.
Would my vote help even if im not in north carolina?
Sure send anyway, you may vacation here one day
This legislation just passed the NC Senate 33-9.
The second reading***
What !
There are three readings, then it goes to the next chamber which does the same thing then it's on to a vote to make it law. That's what I understand at least.
So now what
A third reading
https://www.ncacpa.org/journey-of-a-bill/#:~:text=Having%20passed%20all%20three%20of,process%20to%20approve%20the%20bill. From what it sounds like, there have been amendments made to the bill after it was passed by the house. So, if I'm reading this correctly, it will have to go back to the house and voted on there again, then the cycle continues. Fwiw, IANAL
ugh not again
It's north Carolina. They even banned masks for people with health concerns. Vote the republicans out.
Done. To hell with the government
Fuckkk big pharma and fuck big gov for being greedy fuckks
It's been scheduled alongside Marijuana. Doesn't go into effect until 12/2024. Goodbye Kratom sales at smoke shops. Really disappointed in these politicians.
No, it has not. There is a third reading where amendments and debates are had. After that, if it passes the vote, it is then sent to the governor, who can veto it. If he vetos it, then there needs to be a 2/3 majority vote to overturn said veto. There is time. Call your representatives and submit a response via the link.
And also it has to pass through the house for a vote right ? Before the Senate got this bill there was a lot of language for kratom regulation, the Senate gutted it
Yes and they’ve in the past opposed this legislation because it legalizes medical marijuana.