DEA Delays Kratom Ban

Forbes has the details. A snippet:

“The alkaloids [in kratom] have been known for over a decade to possess some modest opioid [narcotic] actions, but their potential benefit for patients with chronic pain and substance dependence was overlooked in the notice of intent to place the botanical chemicals in the same class as heroin, LSD and mescaline.

Meanwhile today, Senator Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) sent a two-page letter to DEA Acting Administrator Chuck Rosenberg calling for the agency to delay this scheduling order. The senators objected to the emergency, temporary scheduling order that could be enacted within 30 days without “a robust process of stakeholder input and discussion of medical, public safety and scientific considerations.”

In the intervening 30 days, kratom advocates and researchers have voiced concern that the botanical dietary supplement does indeed have legitimate medical uses, although not as an FDA-approved botanical drug. Most vocal on the scientific side have been researchers at Columbia University and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. The teams have independently and collaboratively published two papers on kratom-derived chemicals and their potentially beneficial constellation of complex actions on human opioid receptors.”

Source: DEA Delays Kratom Ban, More Senators Object To Process And ‘Unintended Consequences’

BTW, I’ve never taken kratom and don’t know anybody who has. I don’t have a dog in this particular fight, but I generally object to politicians and bureaucrats interfering with personal liberty when it’s not justified.