The DEA’s contrived Kratom crisis
“Patterson, the DEA spokesman, said the reaction to the ban “was eye-opening for me personally.” He added that “I want the kratom community to know that the DEA does hear them.”
The DEA describes all kratom use as “abuse.” It was therefore easy for the agency to conclude that the plant has “a high potential for abuse,” one of the criteria for Schedule I. Since the DEA assumed there was no rational, morally acceptable reason to use kratom, it did not need to muster much evidence that the drug is intolerably dangerous. It claimed there have been “numerous deaths associated with kratom,” by which it meant 30. In the whole world. Ever. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, alcohol causes about 88,000 deaths a year in this country, while 28,000 deathswere attributed to heroin and opioid painkillers in 2014. Kratom looks pretty benign by comparison. Another point to keep in mind: “Deaths associated with kratom” are not necessarily caused by kratom. “Kratom is considered minimally toxic,” noted a 2015 literature review in the International Journal of Legal Medicine. “Although death has been attributed to kratom use, there is no solid evidence that kratom was the sole contributor to an individual’s death.” As further proof of kratom’s dangers, the DEA noted that “U.S. poison centers received 660 calls related to kratom exposure” from 2010 through 2015, an average of 110 a year. By comparison, exposures involving analgesics accounted for nearly 300,000 calls in 2014, while antidepressants and antihistamines each accounted for more than 100,000.
A traditional healer preparing Kratom for use as a pain-reliever with thousands of years of use as a pain reliever.
Original Article (Reason Magazine):
The DEA’s contrived Kratom crisis
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