The Kratom plant, also known as Mitragyna Speciosa, has been used for centuries by many people because of its high medicinal value. It has been used as a completely natural treatment for a number of diseases, as well as for enhancing one’s mood and boosting energy. It has helped countless people improve the quality of their life and it still continues to do so even today.
In order to truly understand this amazing plant and its effects, you need to understand its history first. The history of Kratom and its usage throughout the centuries is exactly what will make you realize its high value and the impact it can have on the people who prefer kratom, instead of addictive mainstream pharmaceuticals.
Where It All Began
The Kratom tree is indigenous to Thailand, where it has been harvested for centuries to be used in traditional medicine by the locals in the south of the country. Apart from Thailand, it is also native in Southeast Asia in the Indochina and Malaysia floristic regions.
When people discovered the multiple health benefits of the Kratom leaves, they started using it to treat anxiety, depression, insomnia, diabetes and many other serious diseases. It has helped them improve their immune systems, provide their bodies with more energy, improve their sleep and mood, as well as relieve pain.
Due to these multiple uses of the Kratom leaves, it became an integral part of the Southeast Asian people’s daily life and it remains to be as such to this day.
The History of Kratom Use in Thailand
For thousands of years, men and women in Thailand have been using Kratom on a daily basis. One of many ways to ingest Kratom was, primarily, chewing raw leaves, just as some cultures do with tea or coffee. However, on August 3, 1943, Kratom was banned by the government in Thailand, making the possession and consumption of Kratom leaves illegal.
Since the Kratom tree is indigenous to the country, the government took drastic measures and they cut down and burned forests in order to destroy every single Kratom tree. Those kinds of eradication campaigns destroyed not only Kratom trees, but also many other trees, as well as wildlife in those regions, which is horrifying, to say the least.
Why such drastic measures? Because, at the time, when the health benefits of Kratom were getting a lot of attention in the country and its usage was becoming greater, the demand for opium was starting to decrease. Opium was bringing a lot of revenue to the table at the time and Kratom stood in the way of the government filling their pockets with opium money.
One of the reasons why Kratom use was becoming even greater was because its leaves are an extremely powerful tool for breaking addictions. Those addicted to opium started to substitute it with the much safer, completely natural and less expensive Kratom that actually provided them with health benefits. Kratom is also amazing in that there are no withdrawal symptoms when using it to break an addiction, especially when using it to break heroin addiction.
The government was definitely not a fan of Kratom, since it interfered with the opium trade and this resulted in a decline of tax revenues, which is why they passed the Kratom Act 2846, banning Kratom and dubbing it a controlled substance in the country.
The Use of Kratom Today
The 1943 the ban of Kratom in Thailand remains effective today, but there have been many talks about decriminalizing this plant, especially since the Thai Office of the Narcotics Control Board proposed it in 2010. The Board stated that the prohibition is unnecessary and counterproductive, since the plant provides no harm to health and was actually banned for economic reasons, instead of health concerns. It proposed a threat to the opium tax revenue, not a health threat. It is likely that the law will change due to the undeniable effects of Kratom, but if and when it will happen still remains to be seen.
In recent years, Kratom has been gaining a lot of awareness worldwide, especially in the United States, where only several countries have not made it legal, although there has been a lot of talk about changing that. In some states in the US, it has been put on the controlled substances list, but there have been no regulations against the sale and use of Kratom, as you can purchase it online wherever you are.
Since the use of Kratom continues to increase both in the United States and worldwide, the current regulations and prohibitions will most certainly not last for too long, as there is no proof that Kratom is addictive and bad for your health. It is actually less addictive than coffee and tea, and it represents a powerful tool for addiction withdrawal, the proof for which actually exists.