BATON ROUGE, La. (KPLC) – After years of controversy, kratom is on its way to being banned in Louisiana. A bill banning the substance is currently on Gov. Jeff Landry’s desk to be signed into law.
Kratom advocates hosted a rally today at the state capitol to try and convince the governor not to sign the bill.
Lawmakers have argued that this green powdery substance causes more harm than good.
“It is causing greater drug addiction. It is causing psychosis. It is causing death. It is causing our babies to be born addicted,” State Rep. Debbie Villio said.
Mac Haddow, a senior fellow with the American Kratom Association and a longtime kratom user, led the rally at the Capitol this afternoon.
“The tide is for proper regulation on kratom, not banning it. Banning it is a horrible public policy,” Haddow said. “Unfortunately, everything that was done in that discussion, both on the Senate and the House side, contradicts what the scientists say about the safety profile of kratom.”
Haddow and his team wrote letters, which they will present to the governor, expressing their needs for the medicinal plant.
Haddow says he understands the regulation of the synthetic use of kratom, but banning and criminalizing the plant could affect thousands in the state.
“It’s an adulterated product, and there are products on the market today that are dangerous, that are synthetically derived from the natural kratom plant material. Those should have been banned, and that’s what the amendments that we offered to the legislature to consider, and they were rejected,” Haddow said.
Jimmy Vines, a Louisiana resident, says he has used kratom for years to deal with his body aches and pains. He says he’s fearful of what his future will look like without it.
“I get up in the mornings, I take my kratom. I can go for a number of hours without pain. I can’t go back to that old life. I finally, finally had a quality of life where I actually wanted to go on vacation and just enjoy it,” Vines said.
Gov. Landry has over a week to decide whether to sign this bill into law.
The only state U.S. that currently bans kratom, Rhode Island, is considering repealing the ban.
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