In the last few months, proving their loyalty to the dangerous opioid giants—responsible for tens of thousands of deaths a year—the Department of Health and Human Services, along with multiple state boards of pharmacy, have moved to classify the kratom plant as a schedule 1 drug.
This movement against the plant by Big Pharma loyalists has been increasing and it came to a head this month in Ohio as police began raiding stores in which kratom is sold. In October, the Ohio Board of Pharmacy became the latest group to jump on the ‘ban kratom bandwagon’ and classified kratom as a schedule 1 drug.
This followed a move by the FDA—who falsely declared kratom to be an opioid earlier this year. Because kratom has similar effects as opioids—which happen to be vastly safer and milder—the FDA declared it to be a dangerous opioid drug. Kratom is not an opioid.
Opiates are derived from poppies and opioids are man-made opiates. Both opiates and opioids depress the respiratory system and are deadly in this respect as related to overdoses. Kratom is in the coffee family and it does not have any properties of opioid-induced respiratory depression.
This is why millions of people take kratom every day and none of them die. But these facts have no bearing on those who wish to keep their monopoly on pain treatment as well as profit from banning this highly beneficial plant. Earlier this year, referring to naturally wild growing kratom plant as a “street drug,” Scott Gottlieb, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, claimed that he and the FDA are acting “in the interest of protecting public health,” and will therefore attack a plant used by millions to enrich the police state, foster the drug war, and ensure a lifetime of profit for the pharmaceutical industry which has addicted the nation to its dangerous and extremely deadly synthetic opioids. This is now coming to a head.
Over the Thanksgiving break, police in Ohio carried out a series of raids on stores who were selling kratom. Despite the fact that the plant is currently legal in the state, SWAT teams raided these places as if they were human traffickers or meth dealers. “They had like 10 police officers, the chief of police, it was crazy,” one store owner Jack Smith told HuffPost.
The officers didn’t confiscate anything, but they did lock down Smith’s inventory after accusing him of selling an “unapproved” substance, he said. At least 10 more stores across central Ohio received similar visits, the Ohio Department of Agriculture told HuffPost. *** All of the kratom businesses hit last week were found to be in violation of state law, said Mark Bruce, a spokesman for the Ohio Department of Agriculture, which supervised the raids. In Ohio, any product that does not have a “generally recognized as safe” approval from the FDA can’t be sold or marketed for human consumption in a food or drug, Bruce explained. “If a business is selling kratom and their packaging or website or marketing materials associated with it indicate or infer that it’s to be ingested by humans, we consider that to be an adulterated product,” he said.
While the state of Ohio claims that this is not a crack down on kratom and only a move against those who are failing to label it as ‘not for human consumption’, moves across the nation indicate that there is indeed a crackdown. The Free Thought Project has spoken with multiple kratom importers who have explained that the DEA is now seizing shipments of the plant as it comes into the country and are holding it for months and even destroying it. TFTP has seen the writing on the wall and predicted this move by the state to attack this beneficial plant which, without a doubt saves lives.
As an occasional user and full-time advocate of kratom, I can attest to the benefits personally. When I underwent surgery for a broken wrist last year, instead of taking opioids, I took kratom. Instead of being groggy and sleepy from the pain pills, the kratom killed the pain and allowed me to maintain normalcy. I have also personally watched a dozen people kick their dangerous opioid addictions in exchange for kratom, eventually quitting the plant as well. But this is junk science and lies, according to the big pharma loyalists in the FDA.
As TFTP reported in February, blatantly lying to the public, director Gottlieb wrote that there is no known science behind the use of kratom to treat opioid withdraw.
We have been especially concerned about the use of kratom to treat opioid withdrawal symptoms, as there is no reliable evidence to support the use of kratom as a treatment for opioid use disorder and significant safety issues exist.
But this is a lie. Before taking over the FDA and using his position to enrich his fellow legal drug dealers, Gottlieb was a member of GlaxoSmithKline’s product investment board. And, as TFTP has previously reported, GlaxoSmithKline owns a patent on a kratom alkaloid designed for the very purpose of treating pain, thereby alleviating dependency on opioids. One of Kratom’s alkaloids—Speciofoline—was researched decades ago by Gottlieb’s former employer and its effects have been widely studied and reported on.
It just so happens that a patent was filed for Speciofoline on August 10, 1964. The patent claims the “alkaloid has useful pharmacodynamic activity, particularly analgetic and antitussive activity.” But that’s not all. Other studies—which the FDA says do not exist—have been conducted for the specific task of treating opioid dependency. Aside from a patent on Speciofoline, US 20100209542 A1 is an application that was entered for University Of Massachusetts Medical School, University Of Mississippi in 2010.
The application specifically recognizes kratom as a treatment for opioid withdrawal. US 20100209542 A1 goes on to claim that kratom could be used to help withdrawals from other drugs as well. In fact, three synthetic opioids were synthesized from the alkaloids in kratom from 2008- 2016: MGM-9, MGM-15, and MGM-16.
They were synthesized from kratom’s alkaloids Mitragynine and 7-Hydroxymitragynine: to make what is essentially patentable, pharmaceutical kratom. These patents are essentially useless right now as the natural version of the plant is legal. Only through prohibition will pharmaceutical companies be able to peddle their synthetic versions which will undoubtedly be far more dangerous and more expensive than the natural version. What’s more, the FDA is ranting and raving about the alleged deaths associated with kratom.
As TFTP previously reported, a FOIA request on the cause of death for the alleged 36 deaths associated with kratom illustrated that none of them showed enough evidence to prove that they were actually caused by kratom. In fact, the FDA even admitted this in their report, noting, “Overall, many of the cases received could not be fully assessed because of limited information provided.”
Now, even though they admit their data is flawed, the FDA is touting a new number of 44. Even if this number were real—which it is not—it is laughable considering the fact that FDA approved drugs kill tens of thousands of Americans every single year. FDA approved synthetic opioid drugs alone kill thousands more Americans every year than all homicides combined. Not only will its ban push kratom into the black market, it will create an entirely new stream of revenue for the police state. The millions of innocent people who currently use kratom will be turned into criminals — literally overnight.
If we remain silent and do not speak out against this move by the government, the raids in Ohio will be just the tip of the iceberg. If we do not stop this, we can expect to see armed raids on cancer patients and other people treating their pain with this plant. We can expect to see asset forfeiture rise and the wholesale theft of property in the name of enforcing the FDA’s ban.
More dogs, kids, and adults will undoubtedly fall victim to the police state as it carries out the will of their corporate masters — laying waste to all those in their path. And, all of this tyranny, prohibition, theft, and violence, will be deemed necessary — to keep you safe — in the Land of the Free, unless we act now. The American Kratom Association has a list of actions you can take right now to fight this tyranny. If you’d like to get involved, you can do so at this link.