Please support product safety regulations and the Kratom Consumer Protection Act instead of banning and criminalizing Kratom.

2016 was my rise and fall. I was at the height of my volunteer advocacy career. I had also fallen to rock bottom when my prescribed medications were denied or delayed on a regular basis by my workers compensation carrier. I had been with my Pain Management Doctor for 12 years when I was abruptly dismissed by his Physicians Assistant while he was on vacation. My fire letter states Physician/Patient breakdown.  No other reason was given for the dismissal.

I had been a model patient and in full compliance until that day when I told her I had attempted to end my life.

I’m a former California Ambassador, Executive Board Member, Advocacy Director, Healthcare Advisor, and Legislative Speaker for the International Pain Foundation. 

I recieved 2 prestigious awards that year for my advocacy. The Medtronic Bakken Award and the iPain Hero of Hope Award.

I left advocacy abruptly due to repeated major depressive events as a result of the unmanaged physical pain of CRPS and comorbidities.

My Complex Regional Pain Syndrome also known as Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy Syndrome is a painful, often progressive debilitating neuro inflammatory auto immune related illness, nicknamed a “suicide diseade” This condition was acquired as the result of a work related injury 22 years ago. Initially diagnosed as a sprain it was later determined that the tendons were torn from the bones of my right foot. A midmetatarsal separation of bone fractures, tendon displacement and ligament tears. I had a Lisfranc fracture. I underwent 2 surgeries, and intense long term physical therapy. I had to learn to walk all over again. 

I had a permanent spinal cord stimulator implanted on my spine in 2006 to help disguise pain signals and reduce the symptoms of nerve damage. I was taking a low dose opioid with an antidepressant, anti seizure medication, muscle relaxer and a benzodiazepine for several years. The Benzo and Opioid were not always prescribed together.

I had tried Kratom about 15 years prior, yet hadn’t taken it often at all. 

To this day, medical care for my work related permanent injury to my right foot or Spinal Cord Stimulator has not been re established. 

I began taking Kratom after my dismissal from medical care but it was on a light to moderate basis, not every day.

I’ve now taken Kratom for the last 4+ years as my main medicinal support for chronic pain and other illnesses. During the years that I was a patient, my blood pressure was consistently high. I was taking 2 blood pressure medications prescribed by a primary physician unrelated to my workers comp pain management physician. Kratom has significantly reduced my blood pressure, and I haven’t taken the Lisinopril or Hydralazine since approximately 2017. I was being treated for Sleep Disorders, Narcolepsy and mixef/complex apneas. Kratom also assists my Narcolepsy. I haven’t returned for a refill of my Nuvigil medication since 2018.

Kratom offers me a life preserver each day, and it’s imperative it remains an option. Without it, I surely wouldn’t be functional on any day.

Some days making dinner is my only achievement and on others I can get in 10-15 minutes of exercise because of it. This is huge considering there had been too many bed ridden days.

I haven’t been suicidal since drinking tea. I skip a few days here and there and I’ve had no adverse reaction other than a rise in pain and chronic illness symptoms which is normal for my conditions.

I should add that I abused alcohol to relieve intractable chronic pain before ever taking Kratom regularly as dual analgesia plus a fatigue reducer.

My heart says Kratom has helped with continued abstinence. When I stopped consuming alcohol I hadn’t began having the tea daily yet.

I’m 4 years and 5 months sober now.

If Kratom wasn’t available to relieve my pain and symptoms I don’t know where I’d be today or if I’d have attempted suicide again. That sounds horrid. Being in so much pain one could even consider it is even more horrible. We shouldn’t live in suffering. Kratom is why I’m able to hang on, stay above water and keep myself from drowning.

I’m under no physician care and my Spinal Cord Stimulator hasn’t worked since 2018. It had become damaged a week prior to my dismissal from pain management. I have 2 leads/wires and 16 electrodes on my spine. Its hasn’t been managed by a physician at all since I was let go as a patient.

In lieu of medical treatment, Kratom has been my crutch.

Life’s hard, pain’s hard, and without this life preservong leaf it would be unbearable for me.

Sincerely, 

Twinkle VanFleet, 54, Sacramento, CA. Twinklev.strongerthanpain@gmail.com

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My brief summary statement for Legislators in less than 250 characters.

Please support product safety regulations instead of banning and criminalizing Kratom.
Kratom offers me a life preserver each day, and it’s imperative it remains an option to manage multiple health conditions that include incurable neuro-inflammatory and autoimmune disorders with chronic intractable pain.