Kratom News

From: The Washington Post | Wonkblog

By Christopher Ingraham

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“The DEA’s decision to place kratom as a Schedule I substance will put a halt on federally funded research and innovation surrounding the treatment of individuals suffering from opioid and other addictions — a significant public health threat,” the letter states. Mitigating the effects of the national opioid epidemic — which along with heroin killed close to 30,000 people in 2014 — has been a major goal of the Obama administration’s drug policy.

In the letter to the Obama administration, spearheaded by Mark Pocan (D.-Wi.) and Matt Salmon (R.-Az.), the representatives representatives urge the director of the Office of Management and Budget to use his authority to delay the DEA’s action.

The American Pharmacists Association published the following article titled, “Prescription analgesics are more widely used than tobacco, new federal study finds.” The article reads as follows;

The Daily Coffee News released an article titled, “Coffee’s Funky Little Cousin Kratom is About to Become an Illegal Drug.” The article reads in part as follows;

“Coffee’s funky little cousin kratom may finally be banned by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, graduating to a controlled substance from merely being a “drug or chemical of concern.”

The plant and its derivatives have been used for recreational and medicinal purposes in Southeast Asia for as long as anyone can remember, and the DEA’s proposed criminalization of kratom has sparked protests in Washington, D.C., and a petition with more than 120,000 signatures.

The Huffington Post published an article titled, “Why Kratom’s Getting Banned- And How We Can Stop this Drug War Madness.” The article reads in part as follows,

“The DEA’s recent move to prohibit and criminalize kratom, a medicinal plant used for millennia in Southeast Asia, shows us just how far we are from the drug war’s ultimate demise. Without any serious scientific analysis, the DEA intends to subject anyone caught with any quantity of kratom to long prison sentences, while obstructing scientific investigation into the plant’s medical benefits.

The Washington Post released an article titled, “What it’s like to be high on kratom, according to the people who use it.” The article reads in part as follows:

“The Drug Enforcement Administration has said it will ban the kratom plant for two years because it can produce effects similar to opiates. Although it’s been used for centuries in Southeast Asia, its use is relatively new in the United States, spurred in large part by users sharing reports of their experiences with the drug on online forums.

Circa.com released the following piece titled, “The DEA is cracking down on kratom. People that use it as medicine are ‘terrified’.” The information is listed in part as follows;

“Last week, the Drug Enforcement Agency ruled that it would consider kratom, a plant-based stimulant, a Schedule I drug, putting it on the same level of illegality as marijuana and heroin.

Schedule I drugs are considered highly abusable with no medical benefits.

But some users claim there are very powerful benefits, like treating opioid addiction and PTSD.”

Click here to view more information.

The Guardian published the following article titled, “Federal crackdown on drug some say treats opioid addiction faces backlash.” The article reads in part as follows;

“When the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) announced last week that it intended to impose its strictest regulations on a drug that many claim can help treat opioid addiction, the public outcry was immediate.

“This hit us out of the blue,” said Susan Ash, the founder of the American Kratom Association. At the end of August, the DEA announced its intention to define kratom, a south-east Asian plant, and its active chemical components as a schedule I drug under the Controlled Substances Act, along with cannabis, heroin, and other drugs that are deemed to have a high potential for abuse and no recognized medical use.

From the Huffington Post

One watchdog is now questioning how the ban materialized. In a letter published Thursday, the Center for Regulatory Effectiveness, a for-profit think tank that has been a persistent thorn in the side of government regulators, asked the DEA for a copy of the administrator’s correspondence with the Department of Health and Human Services. The DEA says it informed HHS of its plan to ban kratom in May, and that the assistant secretary of HHS didn’t object. The Center wants to make sure the process complied with the Data Quality Act, a controversial statute that requires federal regulatory actions to be based on “quality” data.

From  RT

Because the petition surpassed 100,000 signatures, the White House will have to respond to it, but this is not expected to happen before kratom is newly classified at the end of this month

To read the entire article please read this page.

From the Guardian

You can read all about this remarkable decision by the drug police. There’s a tidy article in Forbes, there’s lots on YouTube, and the DEA site succinctly states their rationale:

To read the entire article, see this page.