Kratom is an amazing and safe natural alternative for those like myself that suffer from chronic pain. I have an extra vertebrae and two reversed ones that cause me daily pain. I was crippled with three herniated discs for an entire year and became addicted to Vicodin in 2014. The Vicodin helped me be able to function enough to barely keep working but lost its effectiveness quite quickly unless I took more and more. After months and months of therapy I got better but remained addicted to the Vicodin. I read about different ways to quit Vicodin and opiate addiction online and first read of Kratom. I ordered some and tried substituting Kratom for the Vicodin and to my amazement I quit the Vicodin cold turkey and the Kratom two weeks later with zero withdrawals. A few years later my back went out again. I suffered for months without any pain relief other than upping my daily Naproxen intake until I happened to run across the Kratom I’d used a few years ago. I decided to try it for the pain and to my amazement it actually worked. I started taking it daily instead of Naproxen after reading of the deaths and liver damage caused by daily use of over-the-counter pain medication. Since switching to Kratom my quality of life has been improved beyond words. I’ve stopped taking it cold turkey several times with no withdrawals and recently had a full physical with blood work. All my labs came back amazing. Also I never have to increase my dose. Thousands of people are harmed and die from using over-the-counter pain medication let alone the millions from opiates every year. Why on earth would anyone want to ban a safe natural alternative to such harmful pharmaceuticals is beyond my comprehension. Please listen to the countless people like myself whose lives have been changed for the better with utilizing Kratom. Also please look into the science and history of safe usage by millions of Americans.