Kratom for pain relief vs. Oxycontin? On first glance, this seems impossible. How could an herb compete with a powerful opioid?
Kratom is growing in popularity for pain management for two simple reasons: Kratom works and its side-effects are minor and pleasant, compared to prescription alternatives. So say the many users who have switched, having experienced opioid painkillers on a long-term basis.
Hundreds of thousands of Americans are discovering the hard way that Big Pharma has little to offer them in terms of real solutions for many diseases. The ultimate remedy that medical doctors can offer for idiopathic (“We don’t know what causes this“) diseases is opioid painkillers, which cause more misery for chronic pain than they do relief.
Fibromyalgia, Multiple Sclerosis, and Rheumatoid Arthritis Are Good Examples of Idiopathic Diseases.
One humble herb is providing the first clue to the blindness of our pharmaceutical-centered, money-motivated system of medicine. That herb is called kratom — Mitragyna speciosa — and is thriving despite a non-stop barrage of lies that appear to be directed by kratom’s commercial competition. A “coalition of the conniving” financial interests that wish to shore up the status quo, wounded by the growing acceptance and legalization of the demonized weed, cannabis indica, for medical and even — Gasp! — human pleasure have assembled to stealthily do battle against this new, powerful contender for the nature-based health championship.
On the far frontiers of pain management a harsh truth is revealed to those who have followed the prescribed synthetic remedies for chronic pain.
The harsh truth that those with the worst pain have learned is that this humble herb, kratom, does a much better job controlling their pain than all the opioid drugs they have tried. With this realization, people in pain learn that Big Pharma no longer holds the key to the pain relief money-machine they have created.
Former prescription pill addicts are no longer customers for life for Big Pharma. They no longer are prisoners of anxiolytic and antidepressant drugs, either. There is no need of in-patient stays at spendy rehab facilities, because kratom is helping Oxycontin addicts and even heroin addicts break the spell of evil drugs at home!
Some Lawmakers Are Saying, “There oughta be a law against it!”
As hundreds of thousands of Americans have taken their pain-control business to kratom, Big Pharma seems to be fighting back with its allies — the presstitute media, the drug addiction rehab centers which are also losing business due to kratom, and the local and national prison industry that are beginning to suffer financially from the loss of marijuana “criminals”.
Who knows? Perhaps even the Inebriation Industry (alcohol) feels threatened, as well it should. Some of their best customers have quit using alcohol to quell anxiety and social discomfort with kratom.
As the battle to squelch the growing move to kratom for pain management and its other benefits mounts, Pharma & Company’s media attacks on the herb are only serving to attract more devotees to kratom. This is only fitting.
Kratom is a very complex herb — a wide array of alkaloids that work synergistically — that provides both fans and haters much to inflame their passions.
This diversity of alkaloids, which differs depending on where the herb is grown and the genetic heritage of the strain, and probably other factors, provides advocates many reasons to love this herb and adversaries many reasons to hate it.
The Big Pharma camp knows clearly what they are fighting to defend, their franchise for supplying dependable, unquestioned medical solutions to every physical, emotional, and psychic ailment of mankind. Whether the remedies they supply are dependable is mostly a matter of public perception, not proven results.
The embarrassing truth revealed by kratom is that Pharma’s patented remedies, in the final analysis, are making the problems of disease worse. Those relegated to long-term pain management on opioids like oxycodone, hydrocodone, and oxymorphone, become depressed — and not very impressed — to the point of considering suicide as a better option.
Fortunately, many are finding kratom before they accidentally or purposefully arrive at death’s door.
There, they are ecstatic to learn that a non-fatal herb can knock out their underlying pain and mental anguish better than pharmaceutical opioids. At the same time, they are amazed to learn that this same plant can render the dreaded withdrawal symptoms a non-issue.
This would be no surprise to the natives of Thailand and Malaysia where kratom has been used as a substitute for opium and a medicine for pain control for centuries. This comes as a shock to Westerners who have lived immersed in the mythology that modern scientific synthetic medical remedies are undoubtedly superior than crude plant medicines from “primitive” societies.
Some strange and unpredictable behavior has been noticed in the laissez-faire approach the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and even the DEA have taken with regard to kratom. Both seem to be taking, for the most part, a hands-off, wait-and-see policy toward kratom.
(Most observers would have automatically thought that the FDA would side with Big Pharma and close the ports to import of tons and tons of kratom. This has not happened, as long as the bureaucratic language is used the way they like it — “Not for human consumption.”)
Meanwhile, the TV news’ campaign of lies, innuendos, and suppositions about the purported dangers of kratom are sending hordes of desperate pain relief seekers and those seeking real help for PTSD, anxiety, depression, PMS, fibromyalgia and much more, to online forums to enquire about this magic herb.
On the state level, we are seeing legislative bills to criminalize and regulate kratom popping up and, for the most part, being defused as attorneys and lobbyists for the incipient kratom industry explain the remarkable pain relief and other benefits kratom users are finding — after decades of miserable and incapacitating results from prescription drugs.
When we step back and take into account the failure of the pharmaceutical industry to deliver on their decades-old promises that they will — any minute now! — find a cure for cancer, MS, MD, CVD, the arrival of one more herbal competitor on the scene may signal that a trend leading to the end of Big Pharma’s dominance has been established.
Just as health is a natural condition, so also the solution to non-health will not be found in synthetic oil-based chemicals, but in nature, itself.
Kratom is another door, opening onto a pathway back to natural healthiness with which our body is familiar. It is very different than medical marijuana, in that it doesn’t bring with it the far-out distortions of perception that can make cannabis so humorous and somewhat incapacitating.
Kratom, on the other hand, allows one to transcend pain and go about the daily business of life. It puts things in perspective, without the confusing kaleidoscopic cascade of thoughts often unleashed by cannabis.
Kratom is a strong contender that can add to the natural health sector a new appreciation of the alternatives to the painful and dangerous remedies that Big Pharma offers.
America appears to be at the crossroads — with one direction leading us further into increasingly expensive, technical fixes for simple dietary deficiency diseases — and the other direction leading to a mass awakening that the way to health leads back to Nature and its herbs, natural foods, and supplements that the ancient healing traditions of all primitive cultures have long advocated.
The Pharmaceutical approach of Allopathic Medicine has had a good, long run of profitable products, but our Health has objectively worsened — What Gives?
The battle over the legality of kratom (threatened again last week in Michigan) will determine whether our society will decide to pursue its health in Big Pharma’s pricey realm or with a newly-enlightened appreciation of Nature’s gifts.
Big Pharma, faced with allegations of scientific fraud, lawsuits over promoting dangerous opioid painkillers to the general public, and generally failing to deliver on their glowing promises of cures, is not looking so good, anymore. Massive layoffs are taking place as the industry is delivering few new products for the billions they spend on R & D.
When enough money shifts its allegiance over to kratom for pain relief, we may see — as we have seen with cannabis — the pharmaceutical industry’s allies desert them.
The smart money seems to be shifting their bets to favor kratom.
Sources:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/should-kratom-be-legal/
http://www.jaoa.org/content/112/12/792.full.pdf
http://paulkemp.hubpages.com/hub/Will-Kratom-Be-a-Turning-Point-in-US-Health-Care
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