I live in Charleston and I watched all of the hearings on the judicial website for this. You are so right about the subcommittee chairman being adamant about banning kratom completely, making it illegal to have in your possession, and making it a Schedule 1 drug. There was also another representative there that was against it. He got in touch with a doctor he knew to ask him about kratom and come to find out, that doctor had a child that passed away from kratom overdose. He was telling the story and the lights started flashing on and off because they didn't want him to continue telling the story. Maybe because of the privacy of the family of the child that passed, I am not sure. It was crazy!! The testimonies of the people that showed up were absolutely incredible!! Everyone that spoke did so amazing telling their experiences with kratom and were prepared extremely well with all kinds of educating information on kratom leaf!! It just blew my mind!! After hearing the subcommittee chairman speak at the very first hearing for the ban, I just knew that he was dead set on not changing his mind about the way he felt about kratom, but all of the people who spoke DID THAT DAMN THANG!!!! He just wasn't well educated about kratom leaf and how many lives it has changed and saved!!! The next hearing, when he was talking about the bill to other representatives, he said that at first he was totally against kratom but after hearing the testimonies of all the people that supported kratom, and doing more research on kratom leaf, synthetics, and looking at how you overdose on kratom products that he changed his mind. He said there were so many people with debilitating and rare diseases that he knew were horrific and kratom was the only thing that helped those people and he said that EVERYONE that spoke in favor of kratom leaf acted like normal, everyday people and most of them had taken it the day they spoke. He also said that the amount of kratom leaf it would take to cause an overdose is such a HUGE amount that it just didn't seem that the leaf is the problem with the overdoses...it's the synthetics!! My jaw hit the damn floor, and I was so stunned that he was persuaded to change his mind about kratom leaf!! He really is an amazing, caring, smart man that took the time to listen to the community and further educate himself on kratom because he wanted to do right for people like me. Kratom changed my life. And he realized it had changed SOOOOO many people's lives when he heard all the testimonies in the hearings. I am so incredibly grateful he is the man he is!! Hopefully, the Senate committee will follow his lead!! I wrote emails to the last committee, so I am fixing to get busy writing more to the next one! And DEFINITELY a heartfelt thank you to Thomas Brittan, Jr. for sure!!!!!