Kratom Consumer Council Advocacy Toolkit

Once you have confirmed a call or meeting with the Member or their staffer, confirm the name and email address where you can send some briefing materials. Then cut and paste the following email to send to that staffer:

Dear [insert name of staffer]:

Thank you for agreeing to take time from your busy schedule to discuss the kratom issue. In preparation for our meeting, I wanted to provide the following information that will help make our discussion as efficient as possible:

• A background paper on kratom to help you understand its history and why there are as many as 15+ million kratom consumers in the U.S. today.
• A copy of an infographic on a 2020 Johns Hopkins study of Adult Kratom Users in the U.S.
• The FY2021 Appropriations language related to kratom.
• A copy of draft Kratom Consumer Protection Act.

Here is the link where these documents can be accessed:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/dyjzwu8tsa4kvh5/AADlSsbw1RF_wZYa4Yl1dtOEa?dl=0

I am looking forward to this discussion.

Sincerely,

[insert your name]

The single most important message you want to convey is your personal story on how kratom has improved the quality of – or saved – your life. Tell your story about kratom right up front. Personal stories are impactful and should be the main message to convey.

Here are the main talking points:

• The FDA is attempting to ban kratom just like they wanted to ban vitamins and dietary supplements in 1994. Congress had to stop them with the unanimous passage of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) that required the FDA to regulate dietary supplements, not ban them.

• The FDA can only recommend to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) that kratom be scheduled, but the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) delegates scheduling decision exclusively to the DEA. The FDA has made multiple recommendations to the DEA to schedule, beginning in 2016 and again in 2017. The DEA has refused to accept the FDA recommendation to schedule kratom. If kratom were as unsafe as the FDA claims, the DEA would immediately schedule kratom.

• The Congress clearly stated the best policy on kratom in the FY2020 and FY2021 Appropriations Bills, but the FDA has repeatedly refused to accept this direction.

• New science has also supported the position of the Congress, and the recent Johns Hopkins report on kratom consumers and how they use kratom is an excellent example of that and shows the promise of kratom to help alleviate the opioid crisis that has taken the lives of so many Americans.

• Finally, please ask the member/staff to look for an email from Mac Haddow, the AKA Senior Fellow on Public Policy, to follow up to your conversation.

Immediately following the meeting, complete the KCC “Elected Official Contact Form” using the form below on this page Fill in the information on the report on your discussion with the Member or staffer. This is a critical step so the AKA can immediately follow up with the Member or staffer to solicit their support as a co-sponsor and supporter of the KCPA.