Johns Hopkins Medicine, which is one of the most prestigious medical universities in the entire world, has released a study which concludes that Kratom needs to be studied and properly regulated rather than banned, since Kratom has numerous benefits while simultaneously having low potential for abuse and little side effects.
Specifically, Johns Hopkins surveyed 2,800 Kratom users and found that people are using Kratom to successfully treat drug addiction, chronic pain, and mental health issues, rather than using Kratom to get high. The results can be seen in the below infographic.
It was found that 91% of Kratom users take Kratom for pain relief, 67% use Kratom to treat anxiety, 64% use Kratom to treat depression, and 41% use Kratom to treat opioid dependence.
Further, out of those who were taking Kratom to treat opioid dependence, 87% reported that Kratom relieved opiate withdrawal symptoms, and 35% were free from opioids for more than 1 year. This data corroborates real-life stories about how people used Kratom to overcome synthetic opioid and opiate addiction which were previously posted on Kratom Cafe.
Also, this survey found that only 10% of Kratom users met the criteria for mild substance use disorder, with less than 3% meeting the criteria for moderate or severe substance use disorder. In other words, practically all Kratom users who were surveyed were not physiologically addicted to Kratom.
Overall, these results are remarkable, since they prove that Kratom effectively relieves opiate withdrawal symptoms in almost all cases, while simultaneously having little addiction potential. Further, Kratom has caused zero scientifically proven deaths in history, as opposed to synthetic opioids and opiates which kill 50,000 Americans every year, making it clear how switching to Kratom can save the lives of countless Americans.
Ultimately, Dr. Albert Garcia-Romeu from Johns Hopkins concludes “Kratom doesn’t belong in the category of a Schedule I drug, because there seems to be relatively low rate of abuse potential, and there may be medical applications to explore, including as a possible treatment for pain and opioid use disorder.”
Kratom users have collectively known this for over a decade, but when one of the top medical universities in the world starts saying it, it’s time for the government to start listening, and to study Kratom instead of trying to ban it.