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[–]NuttinBuddaHoundDawg 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (6 children)

You might as well be asking us to allow people to sell pot on here.

No no no, Marijuana is ILLEGAL on the Federal level, it's a Schedule 1 Narcotic and has been since the 1930's. That's a ridiculous analogy. Pot IS much different than kratom, legally speaking.

Kratom, and other herbal / botanical products, or cuban cigars for that matter, may be illegal under some "State or Local" jurisdictions but that's not how laws work on The Internet. Unless you're going to run your website under the most restrictive legal environment out there ... lets say Mississippi, Indiana, Alabama.

Why stop there? People have been sued for all kinds of offensive speech too. All of those states BAN gambling too - you gonna disallow any discussion of betting on sports here? Promotion of drinking?

I mean ... I understand the Grey Market people connected to Silk Road / the "Dark Web" ARE involved in Federal crimes. There IS trading for Schedule 1 narcotics on the TOR network.. That's completely different from a legal medicinal herb which, has a following 40,000 people on reddit. Thank you.

[–]magnora7[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

We are considering allowing it since our servers are in Texas. But if someone from Alabama buys stuff from Mississipi on saidit, what is the actual legal liability of the site? It's hard to find a reliable answer to that question.

[–]NuttinBuddaHoundDawg 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

One: State laws would be enforced by each state Attorney General, based on who shipped a product into that state.. Obviously any enforcement is directed at the vendor who shipped. Where the consumer heard about the vendor, seems immaterial. Naturally, online vendors want to avoid trouble & be very careful where they SHIP an item. A good example for this is tobacco. Many tobacco vendors sell online. That is against the law in Washington State: http://www.atg.wa.gov/ban-internet-and-mail-order-tobacco-sales

Two: Congress today, is debating several bills regarding the "Opioid Crisis". A big target for today's action is the Silk Road, dark web, trading of fentanyl and other synthetic drugs. It's a huge problem, serious biz... Understandable that saidit.net does NOT want to be a source, or online portal.

Kratom, otoh, is barely on the radar in these discussions. There is an ongoing debate with FDA, AKA, and other organizations. IF the Federal DEA status of kratom were to ever change, I'd be outta here.. Vendors would be gone, in that case!

Oh.. there ARE many kratom vendors, and kratom Groups, active on Facebook. Direct selling from FB is discouraged. However posting Links, and Info seems fine .. Example: 1 vendor has 8000 subscribers: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Katskshop/

[–]magnora7[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Okay you convinced me. D3rr and I have talked it over and I will re-write the terms and services to allow for legal vending, and make it clear only illegal vending is not allowed. I see no reason to ban legal vending.

And as long as you're sticking to one substance it's easier to know the rules regarding it, as opposed to the myriad of substances on /s/greymarket. And since it's legal in Texas, which is where the server is, I see no reason to ban it, but I will make it clear in the TOS that the user is responsible for knowing the law that applies to their area. Perhaps you could put up a legality map showing "if you live in these states you are not allowed to buy" so that the users of your forum can follow the law easily, and thus saidit is protected as well. As long as you police your own users in this way and take this seriously, then kratom vending can exist on saidit and shouldn't cause issues because saidit won't be put in any legal jeopardy.

[–]magnora7[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

[–]NuttinBuddaHoundDawg 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

SITSA act

Yes, the SITSA bill has been floating around in Congress for a year. That "Alert" you reference, is for a Committee vote in the House today. So the final Bill is getting marked up & may get a House vote this week.. From there it would go to Senate. It's part of the ongoing fight, and everyone's watching it closely.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/06/16/congress-is-considering-a-bill-that-would-expand-jeff-sessions-power-to-escalate-the-war-on-drugs/?utm_term=.b7cc7200574e

[–]NuttinBuddaHoundDawg 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

It's also argued the SITSA Bill cannot apply to kratom, since the Bill is very specific about defining Synthetic Analogues. But we're watching it and AKA attorneys are on it.