Currently, most of the eyes in the world are glued to all the political shenanigans happening in the United States. And that’s not unexpected. The American government and its military apparatus have controlled global affairs for close to a century. So the political climate of our nation has residual effects on the other countries, too. But the process is taking forever. The election occurred on the 3rd of November, 2020. Yet, the results are not likely to be determined for a few weeks. At the moment, the race is so close that both campaigns are willing to contest the results.
Regardless of the political winds in America, kratom supporters always unite together. In the past decade, kratom advocates have come together on more than one occasion to stand up for the cause. And the kratom movement has people from all walks of life. That means they have various political ideologies they support as well. Yet, it doesn’t stop them from working together to make sure a safe, natural plant is available for those that need it.
We utilized our combined efforts to stop the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) from placing kratom on its Scheduled List of Controlled Substances back in 2016. And we’ve battled the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) misinformation campaign every year since then. That proves that whenever we put aside our differences, we’re able to accomplish great things together. It’s the underlying principle of a nation formed out of a melting pot of various cultures.
Bipartisan Support for Kratom Exists on Capitol Hill
Back in 2016, the action of the DEA met with resistance inside Capitol Hill, too. Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah wrote a letter to his colleagues, urging them to consider standing up to the federal agency and ask it to postpone the emergency ban. He at least wanted the agency to allow the citizens of the nation a comment period to address the issue. Plus, he believed the DEA should provide Congress with an outline that justified its proposed scheduling through evidentiary standards.
Elected officials returned Senator Hatch’s plea with direct action. Letters from a bipartisan group of senators answered his call. They wrote and cosponsored letters to the DEA that announced the Senate’s concern over the move. Then, a combined group of 51 US representatives banded together to sponsored a letter to the Obama administration, urging the director of the Office of Management and Budget to use his authority and stop the DEA from moving forward with its plan until the issue could get sorted out. It was a bipartisan move. The letter had signatures from a large pool of Republicans and Democrats.
Americans from across the political spectrum joined forces to sign a White House petition that asked the Obama administration to stop the agency from moving forward. Plus, a large number of constituents met in the District of Columbia to protest the agency’s action. And nobody cared about political ideologies that day. We were too worried about our rights that were currently on the chopping block.
What a Possible Trump Administration Might Look Like
Our current sitting President is none other than Donald Trump. As a business mogul, he needs no introduction. His name is his brand and legacy. It’s known all over the globe, plastered across his empire of buildings and resorts throughout several countries. He owns a vast network of capitalistic ventures. His projected net worth is a few billion dollars. And he went on to become the most powerful man in the United States when he won the election in 2016.
Trump has kept several federal agencies in check. He recently created an executive order that tightened the reigns around all the federal agencies, including the FDA. It’s supposed to go into effect this month and possibly stop the unlawful Import Alerts on kratom. In time, we’ll witness how it plays out. Trump also greenlighted the FDA to fast-track studies that used the alkaloid psilocybin, found in psychedelic mushrooms, for fighting depression and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). His administration took industrial hemp off the scheduled list, creating a thriving industry of CBD products. Yet, he shunned the discussion of removing marijuana from the scheduled substances.
A second term means he wouldn’t have to worry about reelection. That means things could change drastically and without notice. Trump has also condemned the use of drugs in the past. Trump even went on record to say that he supported the death penalty for drug traffickers. He’s kept everyone guessing for the past four years: that wouldn’t change for the next four.
What a Possible Biden Administration Might Look Like
At the moment, it appears Joe Biden may take the bid for the White House. He’s in the lead at the moment. The results might get contested. But if the past rate of voter fraud gives any indication of what to expect, then deceptive voting practices are nonexistent. The probability of fraud out of all the cast ballots is on par with getting hit by an asteroid. But placing Biden behind the Big Chair doesn’t necessarily mean that things would get any worse than where they already stand. Former Vice-President Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders worked together to create a task force composed of members that support decriminalizing and rescheduling cannabis. Hell, Sanders once introduced the first bill in the Senate looking to remove weed from the Controlled Substance Schedules.
Still, Biden is no savior for the beaten and the damned. His past political indiscretions in office prove otherwise. He helped to usher in some of the most stringent pieces of legislation in the form of anti-drug laws that America has ever seen. The Comprehensive Control Act of 1984 restricted access to bail, expanded civil asset forfeiture, and it eliminated parole for convicts. The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 lengthened the sentences of those convicted for drug charges. And it also created a large discrepancy in the punishment between those caught with crack versus those with cocaine. The black communities primarily dealt with crack products during that era, so their demographic felt the most impact from the new laws.
The Kratom Movement Needs to Remain United
As is the case with most elections in America, both parties clash head-on for the next few months to a year over dissenting opinions. That leads to each party splintering into various smaller factions out of the larger groups. Hostility usually follows. It usually blew over somewhat quickly—for the most part. But with the advent of the internet and social media, that’s no longer the case. They’ve designed those platforms to manipulate a deeper divide between the masses. Social media platforms use algorithms that maximize engagement from their audience. And nothing influences a person to interact than expressing their perspective by venting to others that have differing outlooks. So media moguls latch on to that need to be heard and harness more information from its users. After all, they’re in the business of selling your data to the highest bidder.
We all know how social media works. So we should make sure to put aside our political differences in the coming months. The FDA might use the opportunity to try to force its will on the people. If we’re all fighting each other over the election results, then it’s the perfect storm of distraction that the government needs to pass any unlawful agendas. And we can’t allow that to happen. We must continue to work together as a kratom community. It’s where our power resides.
In America, our strength will always lie in our unity. As Abraham Lincoln once famously said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”
