The DEA looks to crack down on Kratom

There is a drug that some consider just as dangerous as heroin and meth, the DEA is looking to crack down on the substance Kratom.

Recently, it’s been sold in local health stores, smoke shops, across the U.S. and on the internet. It derives from a tree, Mitragyna Speciosa its native to southeast Asia.

According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine the plant was made into a tea by field workers in southeast Asia to combat fatigue and improve work productivity.

The Federal Drug Enforcement Administration see’s this substance as a legal high for people and wants to make it a schedule one drug which would put it in the same catagory as heroin, LSD and ecstasy.

Federal officials say there are those who abuse Kratom because it has an opioid like effect and because of that the FDA wants to make it a controlled substance.

According to the DEA, “Law enforcement nationwide has seized more Kratom in the first half of 2016 than any previous year and easily accounts for millions of dosages intended for the recreational market.”

The agency says from 2014 to 2016 over 55,000 kilograms of Kratom were encountered by law enforcement at various U.S. ports. Another 57,000 were offered for important.

The Idaho Poison Control Center reports the number of Kratom related exposures increasing. From 2011 to October 2016 Kratom has been on the rise.

The DEA reports that the side effects from taking Kratom can result in seizures, hallucinations and death. Fifteen deaths were reported from 2014 to 2016. However, according to Idaho Poison Center Kratom wasn’t the only substance found other drugs were mixed in.

Kathryn Lane who works at a local smoke shop in Idaho Falls said the store she works at decided to discontinue selling Kratom until the DEA and the FDA make up their mind on the issue of Kratom.

Lane who suffers from back pain and had back surgery has tried Kratom she said the sensation she felt was calming.

“I did take a lot of Hydrocodon for my pain because I hurt all the time. And when I took them it made all the stress that I normally feel go away,” Lane said.

She also added,”There are addictive drugs out there that doctors prescribe such as pain killers. Those are addictive and plenty of people abuse them.”

Lane said the DEA and FDA need to crack down on pain killers and not Kratom,”Use your time a little better, stop wasting your time on something so ridiculous.”

Idaho Recovery and Detox Clinical Director Karl Winegar said some people are using Kratom to detox off opioid addiction but said he’s concerned because Kratom is not regulated.

Winegar said,”You know we don’t have any medical studies done to indicate any medical indications for Kratom at all in the U.S. which one of the reasons the DEA was so quick to jump to trying to ban it and make it a schedule one drug.”

However, Susan Ash who has made it her mission to fight legislators on the banning of Kratom said the drug is actually helping people. Ash who runs a non-profit called the American Kratom Association is lobbying to keep Kratom legal.

Ash who suffers from Lym disease and struggle with opioid addiction in the past takes Kratom everyday.

“There are these people out there in their 30’s, 40’s, 50’s and 60’s using this product safely and responsibly for things like Fibromyalgia, arthritis and even Lyme Disease which I suffer from. And it’s helping them, people who take it to help them with anxiety and depression,” Ash said.

Ash also said Kratom is helping U.S. Veterans who struggle with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and are taking Kratom.

“Our U.S. Veterans are people who have found Kratom to be the only thing that has helped them with all the medications that the VA has given them to treat PTSD,” Ash said.

The bottom line said Winegar, “We just don’t know enough about Kratom and it’s risky to take.”

In a letter to the Senate, Utah Senator Orrin Hatch said,”Congress granted emergency scheduling authority to the DEA based on the need for law enforcement interdiction for new and previously unknown illegal synthetic street drugs.”

The DEA has backed down on making Kratom illegal at this point.