Lance Oliveri

While there are many “supplements” out there, these days, a very dangerous one is the one called Kratom. I know others have sent you their stories, and I would like to share mine with you. 

Since 2017 I have been hopelessly addicted to this substance. I started taking it as a relief for my sciatic nerve pain, ans within two months, I was hooked. As a prior recovering addict, the grasp that this drug has on me was quite intense, and has been. 

I had a great life going on; a great job, a beautiful, loving, awesome wife and two amazing kids. They were my world, yet the further I sunk into kratoms depths, the less they mattered. I became distant, isolated, empty, a shell of myself. I couldn’t be the husband she married, in many different ways, and she ended leaving the marriage. 

I lost my job due to theft for this stuff, and while I was lucky they just had me pay back the money, I lost a near six year career. I’m on the verge of bankruptcy, I’m getting divorced, won’t see my kids until next summer. 

Healthwise, I have lost 80lbs, hair has fallen out, I have had seizures, my heart got messed up, my liver enzymes are high and function is low. I was on suboxone to withdrawal but once off, I went back to kratom again. And again.

Now, my state of Ohio has benefits plagued by addiction and death. Kratom, by the American Kratom Associations beliefs, will help treat opioid addiction. Yet, look at me, I’m hooked. And I don’t want to be. Oh, I will never get my marriage back, and while my soon to be ex-wife is in my corner and supports me through this, she should never have had to deal with this. No one should. Does this sound like a supplement that will stop addiction? Absolutely not. 

Think of others like me right now, plus others that have died from this. Ohio, and the country itself does not need this. We have had enough misery and deaths. Can we at least help it heal a bit? 

Please consider this bill, and please focus on kratom in other ways. Ohio needs to banned, but we have to start small. Having the FDA do this is a step in that direction. 

Lance Oliveri