If you’ve been a kratom buyer and supporter for some time, you’ve likely come across news about the American Kratom Association, or AKA for short. So, you may be interested in what the American Kratom Association is, what it does, and why it is necessary.

Let’s take a closer look at the most important organization in the kratom world.

What Is the American Kratom Association?

The American Kratom Association, or the AKA, is a Virginia-based non-profit corporation. Established in 2014, it works to ensure that kratom remains legal and accessible to American buyers.

AKA Mission

The AKA envisions a world where kratom is easily and safely accessible to anyone who’d like to benefit from it. On its website, the American Kratom Association lists five goals in which it would like to achieve that:

• Support buyers. The AKA works to ensure that kratom is entirely legal and that buyers only get access to pure, clean, as well as unadulterated kratom.
• Educate. The AKA aims to educate all American people about the beneficial properties of kratom. It includes everyone from legislators to people who are unfamiliar with kratom.
• Make kratom voices heard. The AKA aims to spread kratom stories that otherwise would remain unheard.
• Spread global awareness about kratom. The American Kratom Association aims to demonstrate to other countries globally how regulating kratom and approaching it responsibly can be useful people.
• Protect kratom’s natural resources. The AKA advocates sustainable practices when harvesting kratom, aiming to protect rainforests.

Notable Work

While the American Kratom Associations has done numerous acts in favor of kratom and kratom community, two are particularly important:

• Introducing and lobbying the Kratom Consumer Protection Act (KCPA). The KCPA is a set of regulations that states pass to ensure that kratom products are pure and adulterated and adequately labeled. Selling, possessing, or distributing kratom that does not meet these requirements can lead to punishment such as fines or imprisonment. In 2019, the AKA managed to convince four states to pass the KCPA. These are Utah, Nevada, Georgia, and Arizona. The AKA is discussing the KCPA in a number of states, including Wisconsin, where kratom is currently illegal. The organization aims to increase the number to 21 in 2020.
• Establishing the Good Manufacturing Processes (GMP) program. Because the FDA does not currently regulate kratom, the AKA came up with its own seal. It demonstrates to the buyers that the kratom product is pure and unadulterated. The GMP is a voluntary program. To become eligible, companies must allow independent third party audit their facilities, lab-test each batch of kratom, as well as disclose the quantities of mitragynine and 7-hydroxymitragynine on product labels.

How to Support the American Kratom Association?

As a non-profit organization, the American Kratom Association is able to continue its work due to donations from individuals who support kratom.

If you’d like to support the AKA, you can do that in two ways:

• Donate: Donations from the kratom community enable the AKA members to travel around the United States and meet the state representatives. The AKA representatives do it to educate them about kratom, suggesting options that would most benefit kratom buyers. The AKA also uses donations to aid scientific research on kratom. You can donate to the AKA here.
• Volunteer: If you’d like to help the AKA to spread the good word about kratom as well as with other activities that it may be organizing in your state, you can become a volunteer.

If you are not yet ready for either one of the options, there are other ways to support kratom. Learn the different ways in which you can become a kratom advocate.

To connect with the AKA, you can follow it on Facebook and Twitter as well as subscribe to its newsletter.