Letter to the Whitehouse Oversight committee

First go to the form located here:  https://oversight.house.gov/whistle/
Next, fill in the agency name as the DEA.
Then paste in this letter, add any additional reasonable thoughts:
Despite overwhelming scientific evidence and first hand testimony of millions of Americans in support of kratom’s safety and efficacy, the DEA Administrator Chuck Rosenberg is trying to classify this TRADITIONAL TEA LEAF as a Schedule 1 drug. This would effectively turn millions of Americans using this plant into felons overnight costing taxpayers millions while obliterating current federal research on the plant. Harsh penalties, such as a felony charge for possessing Kratom (Mitragyna Speciosa) are ineffective, and they severely limit future prospects for jobs, housing, voting rights, food assistance, and education-Prospects that can be permanently damaging, while costing American citizens tax revenue that is better spent on serious crime. The DEA is more interested in maintaining failed drug policies than in making decisions based on scientific evidence. The drug war is a failure. Kratom is a safe alternative with important medicinal uses and has changed the lives of so many Americans. Please contact the DEA. Please request an oversight hearing asking to delay this emergency action. I fear this action by the DEA will only lead to more tragic deaths of victims of the opiate epidemic by effectively casting them back into the current opioid and heroin epidemic. Tragically everything stated above is just the beginning. The grim aftermath of the DEA’s decision is something to seriously consider because we will ALL have to suffer for it. Apart from the issues listed above that we as a nation will be immediately dealing with as a result of this type of ignorant action, there will be a tsunami of copycat synthetics that will flood into the US. This new class of synthetic will be the only choice afforded to those who were originally peacefully taking a historically safe natural plant. It goes without saying how dangerous synthetic drugs are but if elected officials, organizations, and the American public do not act now, a dark new chapter in the failed War on Drugs will spur the overwhelming opioid/heroin epidemic into a spiral that will leave current and future generations of Americans in despair. Take action now and preserve your right to nature’s most precious gifts.