Speech on Kratom at Bowtie Cinema

First, I want to thank Dean for putting this event together

Let’s give him a round of applause

Because I’ll tell you, as a legislator, sometimes you introduce a bill and you don’t know if anyone will notice

And every once in a while, someone shows up out of the blue and pours everything they have into it

Their time, their energy, their voice

And for this bill, that person was Dean

And HB360, our kratom consumer protection bill, was one of those bills

I didn’t think it would get much attention

I thought it would be fairly quiet

Because when you say “kratom,” most people still don’t even know what that is

And this wasn’t a ban

It was a simple idea: give consumers clear information and basic protections

So I thought, who would oppose that

And I found out the answer very quickly

The American Kratom Association

Within a week, they were in our office asking us to rewrite the bill

Then they came back again

Then again

Then every single day

And from day one, they didn’t just disagree with us

They lied

They said you can’t overdose on kratom

They said it can’t hurt you

They said mitragynine and 7-OH are completely different

(conveniently they always left out the part where mitragynine turns into 7-OH)

But what stuck with me most wasn’t just the misinformation

It was when it became personal

They'd tell me one thing and tell my chief of staff something completely different

They'd go to the chair of a committee and tell him that I agreed to some amendment they drafted

They'd lie to our Administrative Assistant about having meetings scheduled

They spread lies about Dean

They called his son a liar

They invented conversations that never happened

It’s one thing to believe strongly in your product

It’s another to try to manipulate everyone around you

Because when you do that, it shows something very clearly

You don’t actually believe in your product

If your product was the miracle you claim it to be, then you wouldn't need to spin lies

Because the truth is this

Kratom is not harmless

Kratom is not risk-free

Kratom as a drug, is classified as an opioid

And Virginians deserve to know that

The opposition loved to play games with language; they love semantics

“This doctor is affiliated with a prestigious institution”

But maybe not anymore

"This expert is doing groundbreaking work in their field and they think kratom is great"

But they receive a paycheck from the AKA

“This is an opioid”

But only chemically, just ignore that it binds to the opioid receptor in your brain

Always just enough ambiguity to confuse people

But here’s what I’m proud of

My colleagues, Democrats and Republicans, delegates and senators, saw through it

Law enforcement saw through it

Local leaders saw through it

And now, Virginians will be able to see through it too

Because this bill is now law

And in about 70 days, these protections go into effect

It will be illegal to sell kratom without clear warnings

And every package will carry this label:

“Kratom may cause dependence and opioid-like withdrawal.”

That matters

Because people deserve to understand what they are putting into their bodies

And an industry built on deception has no place in our commonwealth

We’ve taken an important step toward protecting Virginians

And we’re sending a message beyond our state

That enough is enough

Consumers deserve the truth

And I’ll be honest

There is still more work to do

This issue is not going away

And I’m looking forward to working with my colleagues on what comes next

Thank you all for being here

And thank you for continuing this fight