Apparently, the Olde North State of North Carolina is hell bent on snatching the mantle of shame and ridicule from Florida and making us the national mockery the Sunshine State has enjoyed for the past few years. Sorry, Floridian seeders, just an observation from the HB2 shit storm and beyond.
Like most government intervention, the NC Senate attempt to criminalize Kratom, is born of absolute ignorance and realized in the most ham-fisted arbitrary manner possible. My personal thoughts on the role of government aside, this is a pretty important issue that needs to be addressed. No plant should be criminalized.
Everyone in my area has seen handmade signs advertising Kratom. They generally focus on pain relief and addiction mitigation and while I confess I have never called and ordered any, they are EVERYWHERE. Seeing them makes me smile. They make me smile because I appreciate this type of relentless hustle and I know that even more people will find pain relief and addiction mitigation from a powerful plant healer.
1st – THE IGNORANCE –
As previously noted, Kratom is not derived from opium, the active constituents are indole alkaloids. However, I will concede that Kratom would fit the definition of opioid, in that it acts on one or more of the nervous system’s opioid receptors.
With this in mind, the existing language of the statute is ignorant, in that it criminalizes, “Any of the following opium derivatives” and then proceeded to list natural and synthetic opioids, many of which are not derived from opium at all.
I realize this point is pedantic but it underscores a fundamental lack of awareness when drafting legislation that affects so many people. Do better research. Craft better legislation.
2nd – THE HAMFIST-
First term senator, conservative small business owner Tom McInnis appears to favor “common sense legislation.” Please indulge me for a minute, what exactly is common sense legislation? Is that the law forcing me at the barrel of a gun to wear a seat belt while driving on the public roads of my state? What about the ban on unpasteurized milk? Is it legislation so common sense that any moron should be able to perceive the ‘right’ thing to do and act accordingly? If that is the case, we should know better than to legislate, enforced by the underlying threat of violence, behavior that is common sense in the first place. Presumably people who use this term must also distinguish uncommon senseless legislation, which I would argue is enforcing things that any moron should be able to ascertain as ‘right’. It is an illogical argument, better served up to the slobbering constituent that is convinced the other side is full of “low information voters”.
However, Senator McInnis, has spent his first year giving us all sorts of common sense legislation, as the primary sponsor of nine bills and co-sponsor of nearly seventy more. I am not sure if the NC legislature lacked common sense before but we can thank Senator McInnis for such gems as the School Safety Act, a law that will require registered sex offenders to provide written notice to community colleges prior to attending and prohibit the sex offender from attending any “early college programs”. I guess it is safe to assume that recent high school graduates, while capable of military service and voting, need extra protection from sex offenders. I think it also makes a case for the scarlet letter but I am digressing here.
The truly in artful contribution of Senator McInnis is the SB830, Add Kratom to Controlled Substance List. I could go on here with the tried and true arguments against prohibition and the overwhelming anecdotal evidence that Kratom is effective at mitigating opioid withdrawal, but I won’t because nothing illustrates the ham-fisted approach of this bill better than Senator McInnis himself, "I believe this has the potential of the next greatest epidemic."
Scary stuff, I mean we can’t have another epidemic like the prescription drug abuse currently gripping our Nation. No sir, stop this epidemic in its tracks! This would almost seem reasonable if Senator McInnis wasn’t sounding the claxon because of, "Twenty-three bodies they’ve had on the slab over there have tested positive for kratom,". Twenty three bodies, over a six year period in the State coroner’s office. ***At this point I am doing my best Lancaster, SC accent and pulling a hanky from my seersucker to fend off the vapors, real Senator Lindsey Graham style.*** “oh my word, think of the chilren!”
Twenty three dead bodies is a three day weekend in Chicago and this guy is crying epidemic. Look I realize life is precious but this type of sound the alarm doomsaying is tiresome and unhelpful. It is the precise tool of governance that elicits knee-jerk reactions.
Continuing with his chicken little routine, Senator McInnis educated his colleagues, "We don't know where it's produced, how it's produced, what other chemical attitudes are in it," McInnis said. "It's sold in beautiful, bright packages with sexy names with no limit to quality, quantity, or age. Easily available to children, sold on the streets, convenience stores and over the internet." This may be 100% true. We have to credit the Senator for his hard work here and I think this is all worthy of consideration, however criminalizing Kratom will have absolutely zero effect on these important considerations.
In fact, making Kratom illegal will just mean more uncertainty from the buyer as to the origin of the plant material or its chemical composition. If DARE taught me one thing (and be honest one thing is a stretch) it is that drug dealers love to give free drugs to kids. Criminalizing Kratom means every playground in NC is going to have some sketchy Kratom dealer giving out grams to children. There he is, next to the man giving out LSD laced stickers!
Prohibition has the opposite effect, we all know this Senator McInnis.
Now to close with something strong, the words of Senator McInnis himself, “My pet peeve is that in both Washington and Raleigh, we have given knee jerk reactions to problems that have created bigger problems that create unintentional consequences. When we create a new law, we need to understand what will be the end result to the masses.” So there you have it folks, common sense legislation really means a knee jerk reaction that will drive a market underground and at the same time criminalize citizens who dare to wean themselves from opiates.
Give Senator McInnis a call or email and help him figure this thing out;
(919) 733-5953
Tom.McInnis@ncleg.net
https://www.facebook.com/Tom-McInnis-NC-State-Senate-658238950913695/
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Topic: Defend Kratom in NC (Read 6897 times)
