I am currently a Ph.D. student at a Virginia university and in the process of moving to Virginia from Maryland to be closer to my university, but I may have to rethink this decision if this measure passes. I have multiple disabilities including a very serious mobility impairment and I rely on kratom to allow me to function, as do many people with various disabilities and health conditions. This scheduling decision would serve to make my life, career, and educational goals very difficult to achieve. People who supposedly die from using kratom tend to have other drugs in their system at the time of death, including mixing the drug with alcohol or other psychoactive substances. This is an issue of individual choice, bodily autonomy, individual responsibility, and disability justice.I recently testified before the House and Senate in Virginia about the need to resist legalizing assisted suicide because of the way in which those laws discriminate against people with disabilities. This is another attempt at disability discrimination, making it more difficult for people who need this drug to access it, particularly as most medical professionals are not knowledgeable enough about the drug to prescribe it even for those whom it benefits. We ought to have learned from our nation’s experiences with alcohol, marijuana, and other psychoactive substances that criminalization/scheduling is not the answer and that individuals need to have some freedom over the decisions they make with their lives and bodies. I’ll be watching this very closely and making decisions about residency accordingly.