Lawmakers urge Louisiana Department of Health to study kratom
May 16, the Louisiana House unanimously approved a resolution from state Rep. Frank Hoffmann directing the department to study the plant and products containing kratom.
locally, it’s only a minor issue on health officials’ radar — while they may be skeptical of the science of its medicinal use, its impact isn’t as dire as federal warnings suggest. Previous legislative attempts to ban kratom in Louisiana have failed, though current state law forbids minors buying or using any product containing kratom. Louisiana’s Poison Control Center has received 162 kratom-related calls between 2011 and 2017, and only two so far in 2018, according to center director Mark Ryan. Forty-two percent of those calls came from health care facilities — and the calls appear to have tapered off; there only were 22 calls in 2015, 11 in 2016, and four last year. Ryan says the apparent drop doesn’t mean fewer people are using kratom; physicians are likely making fewer calls into the center as they become more familiar with it… Eighty-seven percent of all those calls involved only minor, if any, effects.
Original Article (Best of New Orleans):
Lawmakers urge Louisiana Department of Health to study kratom: why?
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