Liberty for Me, But Not for Thee: Louisiana’s Kratom Ban Exposes GOP’s Big Government Hypocrisy

Editor’s note: Kratom is about to be banned if advocates don’t act now. It’s Big Easy Magazine’s position that a ban will cause much more harm than good. We encourage advocates to make their voices heard. Please email your story via the following site:

https://www.protectkratom.org/louisiana 

Buried deep beneath the avalanche of legislative chaos at the Louisiana Capitol is a quiet war being waged. It’s not a war on fentanyl. It’s not a war on alcohol. It’s a war on a leaf. A bitter, earthy leaf. Kratom.

It doesn’t make headlines. It doesn’t have big pharmaceutical lobbyists throwing cocktail parties in Baton Rouge. But for tens of thousands of Louisianans—estimated conservatively at 78,000—it’s a daily ritual. A tea. A relief. A bridge off heroin, a shield against the siren call of alcohol, a second chance.

And yet, as you read this, the Louisiana Senate, in its wisdom, has chosen to ram through SB 154—a blunt-force bill that would criminalize kratom entirely, tossing its users into the same cages where we once locked away marijuana users. Only now, those same Republicans who tell you they’re for small government, for liberty, for the right of the individual to make personal health choices—they’re the ones leading the charge to outlaw it.

On May 6, the Louisiana State Senate—without much fanfare or public outrage—voted 26 to 11 to criminalize kratom entirely, passing SB 154. Twenty-six Senators, nearly all of them Republicans who campaign on slogans about freedom, liberty, and small government, decided that drinking kratom tea should be a felony punishable by prison and fines up to $50,000. You can read their names. You should read their names. Every one of them stamped their hypocrisy into the permanent record.

At the same time, HB 253, a bill that would take the reasonable approach of regulating kratom—setting age limits, safety standards, and requiring lab testing to keep dangerous additives off the market—is languishing quietly in the House Appropriations Committee. A bill that says: let adults make informed choices, let us ensure safety without criminalizing people for what they put in their bodies. That bill? Ignored. Buried.

It’s almost as if the Senate never wanted safety. They just wanted control.

This is the same crowd who screamed against mask mandates, arguing that the COVID death rate was exaggerated, that people with comorbidities were being counted unfairly. Now? Those same Republicans want you to believe that kratom is a menace worth erasing from Louisiana society—even though toxicology reports show that only 43 deaths in our entire state have been tied to kratom, and nearly all involved other substances. That’s not one percent. That’s not one-tenth of one percent. It’s five one-hundredths of a percent. Statistically insignificant.

But don’t let facts get in the way of a good drug war.

Here’s the truth they won’t say in their press releases: if kratom is banned, people will suffer. Businesses will close. Communities will fracture. Euphorbia Kava Bar? Gone. Small vendors who sell kratom products legally? Criminals overnight. Mothers and fathers who’ve clawed their way out of opioid addiction with kratom’s help will face a grim choice: go back to the streets, or face jail for sipping a tea.

And make no mistake, the alcohol lobby will toast to their success. Because the bottle kills far more Louisianans than kratom ever will. Alcohol is woven into the fabric of our state’s culture, despite its well-documented carnage—DUIs, liver disease, broken homes, lost lives. Yet nobody dares suggest banning it. Because that would be inconvenient. That would upset the status quo.

But kratom? Kratom is easy to criminalize. No corporate sponsors. No polished lobbyists. Just ordinary people. Veterans. Survivors of pain. The working class. The invisible.

A 52-year-old grandmother from Houma, told Big Easy Magazine through tears, “Kratom gave me my life back. I buried two brothers to opioids. I was headed the same way until I found this plant. Now the state wants to make me a criminal? For surviving?”

This is not about public health. This is about control. About maintaining a failed drug war that locks up poor people for the crime of coping.

If Louisiana Republicans want to call themselves small government conservatives, then they should act like it. Because there is nothing conservative about SB 154. It is the epitome of big government overreach—a knee-jerk ban that will do nothing but create more criminals, ruin more lives, and push people back toward the very substances that kill in far greater numbers.

Libertarians, where are you? This is your fight, too. It’s time to stand up, organize, and expose these “small government” frauds for what they are—hypocrites willing to grow the carceral state at the expense of the most vulnerable among us.

Louisiana deserves better. The people deserve better. Our lawmakers should stop pretending to protect us while they tighten the chains.

Ask yourself: how many does alcohol kill? How many does kratom kill? If you still think SB 154 makes sense, maybe it’s not about the facts at all.

Maybe it never was.

Author: Evangeline