Editor’s note: This column was sent to the Northside Sun by End it For Good, a Jackson non-profit dedicated to reducing the destruction caused by the criminalization of substances.
I have had pain for as long as I can remember. When I was nine, I was diagnosed with scoliosis in my spine, and the pain got worse when I took a factory job when I was 18 and again several years later after a car accident. After decades of treatments, therapies, and 26 different medications, including opioids, I found kratom. The Mississippi legislature is considering banning kratom, a natural supplement that has saved me and many others. Instead, they can protect us and let us continue to make the best choice for our health.
Throughout my 20s and 30s, I was on so many different prescription medications, just trying to find a way to live. None of them brought my symptoms to a functional level. I was severely overweight due to stress and medication side effects. In my 40s, my husband was diagnosed with Parkinson’s, and later that year, my dad had a stroke. My father became my child that day, and I became a caregiver for both of them even while struggling with my own poor health.
The stress of my life, plus the FDA forcing my doctors to cut back on the medication that provided me some pain relief while I cared for my husband and father, took its toll. Even though I was never a drinker, I started to drink. I had a glass of wine at night when my men went to bed because it helped my pain and anxiety. Wine became vodka, and I quickly spiraled into full-blown alcoholism. For eight years, I drank every day.
My husband saw how badly off I was and made it his mission to help me. I tried to stop drinking, but my physical pain was so bad. Now, I had alcohol withdrawals to fight, too. I went to rehab three times and tried suboxone for a while, but I was never able to function for long without alcohol to take the edge off.
My husband heard about kratom, a natural supplement made from the leaves of a tree in Southeast Asia, and I tried it for the first time on December 26, 2017. I remember the day because it started a new chapter in my life. He heard that it could help manage pain, and within 30 minutes, it gave me more pain relief than any pill or shot had ever given me in my 50-year journey as a pain patient. It was unreal. I found that it also stopped my craving for alcohol. Today, I am seven years sober from alcohol, have lost 150 pounds, and am off all medications. I hunt, fish, garden, and am an active grandma to two amazing grandchildren. I have never been as physically fit as I am right now at 61. My husband and I run a locksmith service, and I’m able to do all the work, thanks to kratom.
All I want is the choice to buy a supplement that I believe saved me and has given me the best seven years of my life with my family. No lawmaker should take that away from the citizens of Mississippi.
Sherry Owings lives in Amory with her husband.
