National CALL TO ACTION to #SAVEKRATOM #KRATOMSAVESLIVES #IAMKRATOM

Here are things you can be doing until we hear details about the public comment period. In quotes are examples of what to say:

1) KEEP calling the DEA (202) 307-1000

“I am a responsible adult who consumes Kratom to improve my health and well-being and I urge you not to emergency place it into schedule 1, but to go through a rigorous public and scientific comment process instead.”

For Domestic Field Offices nearest you:

Atlanta Division (404) 893-7000
New Jersey Division (973) 776-1100
New England Division (617) 557-2100
New Orleans Division (504) 840-1100
Caribbean Division (787) 277-4700
New York Division (212) 337-3900
Chicago Division (312) 353-7875
Philadelphia Division (215) 861-3474
Dallas Division (214) 366-6900
Phoenix Division (602) 664-5600
Denver Division (720) 895-4040
San Diego Division (858) 616-4100
Detroit Division (313) 234-4000
San Francisco Division (415) 436-7900
El Paso Division (915) 832-6000
Seattle Division (206) 553-5443
Houston Division (713) 693-3000
St. Louis Division (314) 538-4600
Los Angeles Division (213) 621-6700
Washington, DC Division (202) 305-8500
Miami Division (954) 660-4500

2) KEEP calling and e-mailing your congressperson and Senator (202) 224-3121. Press #1 for Senate and #2 for House. BUT! Please make sure you also call your local district office sin ce Congress is now in recess.

For e-mails – Find your Rep – here http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/

And your Senator here – http://www.senate.gov/senators/contact/

Send copies of the letters (all in the files here). If they signed on to any of the letters, tell them thank you and ask if they could personally follow-up by calling the DEA directly for a response. If they didn’t sign any of the letters ask if they would be willing to send one of their own (if they have questions you can’t answer, let us know in this thread which we’ll keep bumped and we’ll have AKA or our lobbyists follow up).

3) Find out where your Congress people are going to be for public events, town halls, election events, etc. (because they are in your state campaigning right now) and SHOW UP dressed professionally (or looking sharp in one of the many #iamkratom shirts out there – no signs, these types of events don’t usually allow anyone to bring signs). Take copies of the 4 congressional letters to try and hand to them. Be prepared to ask a question about Kratom publicly or face-to-face before or after the event.

“There is a move right now by the DEA to emergency schedule Kratom, a botanical used safely throughout the world for hundreds of years to improve health and well-being, as a schedule 1 controlled substance; the most restrictive category claiming no medicinal value. Kratom helped give me my life back and is saving the lives of tens of thousands throughout the U.S. during an opioid epidemic. What’s your take on the DEA trying to schedule a plant and turn me into a felon, further mucking up our already overtaxed criminal justice system, for using something that’s drastically improved my life and the lives of hundreds of thousands of others?”

4) Start drafting what you would like to submit during the comment period. We will try and come up with some template letters.

KEEP calling and e-mailing your congressperson and Senator (202) 224-3121. Press #1 for Senate and #2 for House. BUT! Please make sure you also call your local district office since Congress is now in recess

For e-mails – Find your Rep – here http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/

And your Senator here – http://www.senate.gov/senators/contact/

Send copies of the letters (all in the files here). If they signed on to any of the letters, tell them thank you and ask if they could personally follow-up by calling the DEA directly for a response. If they didn’t sign any of the letters ask if they would be willing to send one of their own (if they have questions you can’t answer, let us know in this thread which we’ll keep bumped and we’ll have AKA or our lobbyists follow up).

3) Find out where your Congress people are going to be for public events, town halls, election events, etc. (because they are in your state campaigning right now) and SHOW UP dressed professionally (or looking sharp in one of the many#iamkratom shirts out there – no signs, these types of events don’t usually allow anyone to bring signs). Take copies of the 4 congressional letters to try and hand to them. Be prepared to ask a question about Kratom publicly or face-to-face before or after the event.

“There is a move right now by the DEA to emergency schedule Kratom, a botanical used safely for hundreds of years to improve health and well-being, as a schedule 1 controlled substance; the most restrictive category claiming no medicinal value. Kratom helped give me my life back and is saving the lives of tens of thousands throughout the U.S. during an opioid epidemic. What’s your take on the DEA trying to schedule a plant and turn me into a felon, further mucking up our already overtaxed criminal justice system for using something that’s drastically improved my life and the lives of hundreds of thousands of others?”

Email the Assistant Secretary of Health
E-mail Karen B. DeSalvo, the Assistant Secretary of Health. E-mails and letters must be documented by all federal agencies for proof, phone calls are effective, but aren’t documented in the same way. Please send any information you have from doctors, nurses, researchers, or papers from PubMed.

Email: [email protected]

Donate to the American Kratom Association and buy a shirt!
We must raise an unprecedented amount of money to pay for our legal team, a public relations firm, lobbyists, scientists and more, but we also must raise money to keep our organization running if the ban goes into place so that we keep our doors open and work to reverse it.https://americankratomassociation.nationbuilder.com/donate or http://www.iamkratom.com/ for t-shirts. Click on AKA Fashions as we have more options available.
Share this AKA Fact Sheet
Share the AKA Fact Sheet: http://www.americankratom.org/aka_fact_sheet
Send these documents/link to journalist, legislators, law enforcement, friends and family so hopefully we can educate everybody including those higher up to better understand where Kratom stands as a medicinal herb.

Join our Facebook Group for up-to-the-minute updates and join the #iamkratom photo & video campaign

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Letter Template*

*It’s important not to copy and paste, please use your own words

We need YOUR help to fight the DEA’s Intent to Schedule Mitragynine and 7-Hydroxymitragynine, which would make Kratom (i.e., Mitragyna Speciosa) a controlled substance. Below is a letter template you can use to write to your Senator, your Congressperson, the Department of Justice, the Attorney General, the Office of Diversion, Drug Enforcement Administration or the (ASH) Acting Secretary for Health.

Dear Congressman ______ and Senator ________, etc. OR If writing to a committee member, for example, the House Judiciary Committee, use Honorary Committee Member (committees listed at the bottom)

Find your Senator: http://www.senate.gov/senators/contact/

Find your Representative: http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/

My name is ________, I’m a __-year old _________ from _________ and I’m your constituent (when writing your Congressman and Senator).

I’d like to voice my opposition to the DEA’s Intent to Schedule the alkaloids Mitragynine and 7-Hydroxymitragynine, which would make Kratom (Mitragynaspeciosa), a schedule 1 controlled substance with no medicinal value. This would put kratom, a plant helping millions of people suffering chronic and acute mental and physical conditions that is also safely easing the nation’s opiate epidemic problem naturally, on the same level as illegal drugs like heroin. It would also prevent further research which, to date, has shown kratom to be an effective painkiller that does not cause respiratory depression; the main cause of death from opiate overdose.

-How you came to use kratom….. (did you learn about it in a chronic pain support group, etc?)

-What ailments you suffer, what treatments haven’t worked (prescriptions, surgery, etc.), how long you’ve been dealing with your condition, how long you’ve been using kratom and how many/what medications you’ve been able to quit.

-What kratom means to you (has it given you your life back, have you gone back to work, can you play with your, exercise or travel, etc., something anecdotal about why kratom is important and should be available).

-Conclusion: Kratom is a safe alternative to pharmaceutical drugs with important medicinal uses and has changed my life. I’m asking you to please contact the DEA. Please send a letter or request an oversight hearing asking to delay this emergency action. I fear this action by the DEA will only lead to more tragic deaths of victims of the opiate epidemic, maybe even my own (if you think this may lead to a replace and illicit drug use). I know that my own quality of life as a productive member of society will not be the same without kratom.

If you have questions about kratom, please visit www.americankratom.org. Thank you for your time and service to the state.

Sincerely,

— Include your name, address and phone number.

Please be professional and polite, keeping it as short as possible.

These are all the committees that have jurisdiction over the DEA. House and Senate Judiciary being most important. Message all members!

House Judiciary https://judiciary.house.gov/ subcommittee/full-committee/

Senate Judiciary https://www.judiciary.senate. gov/about/members

House Energy and Commerce https://energycommerce.house. gov/about-ec/energy-commerce- committee-members

House Commerce, Justice, and Science Appropriations Subcommitteehttp://appropriations.house. gov/about/members/ commercejusticescience.htm

Senate Commerce, Justice, and Science Appropriations Subcommitteehttp://www.appropriations. senate.gov/subcommittees/ commerce-justice-science-and- related-agencies

House Oversight and Gov’t Reform Committee https://oversight.house.gov/ subcommittee/full-committee/

Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committeehttps://www.hsgac.senate.gov/about