The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is planning on updating and expanding the CDC Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain, and is asking for public comments in order to help with the process. Further, these public comments are being published permanently in the public record on Regulations.gov.
Specifically, the CDC is looking for experiences and perspectives on the benefits and harms of opioid use, how effective opioid pain treatment is in general, as well as experiences regarding opioid addiction and overdose resulting from chronic pain treatment.
This is highly relevant to the Kratom community, which is largely comprised of people who have chronic pain issues, since as of now the government does not approve the use of Kratom for chronic pain or anything else, simply because the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) refuses to review Kratom until someone pays a $1.2 million fee for the application.
Therefore it would be good for the CDC to directly receive public comments about how Kratom is a good solution for chronic pain, so that the CDC can keep Kratom in mind and perhaps one day add it to the Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain, rather than continuing with the belief that synthetic opioids and opiates are the only opioid painkillers available, which is fanning the flames of the Opioid Pandemic which has killed 500,000 Americans since 1999.
Indeed, a recent article on Kratom Cafe presents a collection of real-life stories about how Kratom can be used to effectively manage the pain from even the most severe chronic pain conditions, including Fibromyalgia, Herniated Discs, Scoliosis, Nerve Pain, injuries, Arthritis, Degenerative Disc Disease, Endometriosis, and Cancer.
A few Kratom users have already commented on this CDC call to action, but right now there are only 3 Kratom related comments out of 630 total comments, so it would be good for Kratom users to leave some more comments at this link.
On a final note, imagine how many lives would be saved if before prescribing synthetic opioids and opiates, doctors gave patients Kratom, and waited to see if Kratom worked before prescribing dangerous synthetic opioids. It is theoretically possible that the CDC could add such instructions to the CDC Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain, since it would be quite logical to do so, although due to red tape and FDA misinformation and belligerence, it could be many years before that happens.