Fear and Worry Living in 7-OH Limbo
/By Crystal Lindell
Ever since the Trump Administration announced on July 1 that it planned to make the kratom alkaloid 7-OH a Schedule One controlled drug, people like me who use it have been living life in a horrible anxious limbo.
I’ve had a deep feeling of dread in my stomach that a text or alert could bear the news I most fear: “7-OH is now illegal nationwide.”
The original 30-day public comment period offered by HHS was set to end on July 31. We all expected the official ban to come shortly after that, sometime in early August. But then we got a respite when the comment period was extended through September 10.
Another month has come and gone, and the comment period ended weeks ago. But an official federal ban by the DEA still has not been announced. So 7-OH users like me are still unsure of what's happening.
Don't get me wrong. I would much rather live in this dark unknown limbo than have the ban be imposed.
But it's all very stressful.
While I have tapered down on my dose, I do still use 7-OH. It’s too much of a life-changing drug for me to stop when it is still legal where I live.
But that means if the DEA does make it Schedule One, in the same category as heroin and LSD, I’ll be stuck either going into instant physical withdrawal or becoming a felon.
I have had chronic pain from intercostal neuralgia since 2013. When concentrated 7-OH products became available a couple years ago, they seemed like an answer to a prayer I was reciting for over a decade.
7-OH instantly treats my pain anytime I take it, and helps fight the fatigue I developed from living with chronic pain for so many years.
As such, it has allowed me to have so much of my pre-chronic pain life back. I can wake up early. I can shower in the morning. I can pretty much show up to any and all plans that get made. So many little things that healthy people take for granted.
But it’s also the big things. 7-OH has allowed me to work full-time for the first time in four years. It has allowed me to show up as the happy, bubbly person I used to be before pain destroyed my spirit. It has saved me.
I don’t know what my life will look like if and when the federal ban goes through. I don’t know if I’ll be able to continue working full time. I don’t know how bad the full withdrawal down to zero will be. I don’t know how quickly I’ll be forced back to my pre-7-OH life.
It’s not just me I’m worried about. I have multiple loved ones who also use 7-OH for their chronic pain, and I’m very worried about them as well. I’m worried how they will treat their pain once 7-OH is illegal, and I’m worried about how they will handle the withdrawal once they aren’t able to buy any more of it.
Sometimes, when I’m alone with my thoughts at night, I let myself believe that maybe there’s a chance the DEA and HHS will reverse course. It’s not a completely crazy thought, either. There’s precedent. In 2016, when the Obama administration announced plans to make kratom leaf a Schedule One drug, it dropped them a few months later after a public outcry.
My deepest, most sincere hope is that the same thing will happen with 7-OH now too. But I know I can’t count on that.
Truth be told, I’ve been scared to even write this column for fear that it will somehow jinx things.
But this is my life right now with chronic pain. I’m in 7-OH limbo. I could either lose the most effective treatment I’ve ever found for my chronic pain, or I can risk being arrested for felony drug possession.
For now, all I can do is anxiously wait.
