WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--As the 4th of July holiday nears, the Kratom Information & Resource Center (KIRC) is launching a major effort to round up videotaped stories from the ranks of America’s 13 million consumers of the coffee-like botanical kratom. The holiday-themed Kratom Nation initiative asks kratom consumers to talk about their rights and freedoms as they relate to kratom. All are welcome to submit videos, but KIRC hopes Kratom Nation will find special resonance with veterans, who are a significant portion of kratom consumers.
KIRC is collecting the videos in response to the No. 1 request it gets from journalists, which is to have more “real people stories” to illustrate how kratom is consumed and who consumes it. The collected videos will be archived on the Kratom Information & Resource Center website and used directly with journalists. Submitters of 10 qualifying videos to Kratom Nation will be selected to receive a sweatshirt featuring the new Kratom Nation logo.
With Independence Day in mind, Kratom Nation video submitters are asked to address such questions as:
- Do you feel like your rights to consume a legal product are being respected?
- Do you feel as though there is too much government interference when it comes to kratom?
- How do your feelings about being an American come into play when you think about the people who want to take kratom away from you?
The landing page for Kratom Nation on the KIRC Web site features a video testimonial from a kratom consumer identified as “Jolene from Ohio”. A former nurse, Jolene is a Gold Star widow with two children in active military service. She explains why she consumes kratom and expresses concern about the government interference with kratom consumption. Jolene says: “People have given their lives for our freedom ... if we allow [the attack on kratom to continue] they'll whittle away our freedoms until there is nothing left."
The need for the Kratom Nation initiative is apparent in the extent of unfair and unbalanced reporting today about kratom. A KIRC media analysis published on May 22nd showed that an astonishing 92 percent of nearly 2500 stories about kratom published between February 1-May 17, 2019 were unfair and unbalanced.
The Kratom Information & Resource Center analysis of 2,500 kratom stories over the roughly 15-week period looked at how kratom was covered and where: “Kratom faces a tsunami of unfair and unbalanced media coverage today: 92 percent of kratom coverage is negative, with little or no balancing information. Only about 6 percent of kratom coverage was found to be neutral/balanced. Negative coverage of kratom is driven by local media, which tend to be more unfair/unbalanced in their approach than national reporters. 90 percent of all kratom news coverage is local.”
A wealth of expert contacts and resources are available at the KIRC website at www.KratomInfoCenter.org. The new watchdog group intends to directly confront members of the news media who cover kratom in an unfair and unbalanced way.
ABOUT THE KRATOM INFORMATION & RESOURCE CENTER
The Kratom Information & Resource Center is an independent, media watchdog organization devoted to fighting for the truth about kratom. KIRC undertakes research, education and direct one-on-one outreach to promote fair and balanced news coverage of kratom. Support for KIRC efforts are welcome from the kratom industry and other sources, however KIRC maintains 100-percent editorial control over its activities and materials. www.KratomInfoCenter.org @KratomFact on Twitter
All key individuals associated with the Kratom Information & Resource Center also were involved in the successful 2016 campaign to stop the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s push to schedule kratom as an illegal drug.
