Beginning September 30, kratom will be considered a Schedule I drug, a substance that has “no now accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse”, the Drug Enforcement Administration announced today.
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In this week’s Federal Register, the DEA proposes designating the drug as Schedule I for up to three years.
Back in January 2015 FOX 46 Charlotte told you about this drug that many in our area take to overcome addictions to other illegal substances.
“I$3 n the majority of those cases, toxicology tests showed that kratom users who died also had signs of abusing other drugs or pre-existing health conditions”, The Huffington Post noted on Wednesday.
“Kratom has a high potential for abuse, has no now accepted medical use in treatment in the United States, and has a lack of accepted safety for use under medical supervision”, the defining characteristics of a Schedule I drug, the DEA said.
“They are going to take it away from all these addicts that it’s helped”. It has gained a following in the United States only recently, hawked by online merchants and head shops as an herbal medicine, “dietary supplement”, or legal high.
Imperial Kratom is not considered a drug trafficker yet. At higher doses, kratom is a sedative, producing opioid-like effects that tiresome pain. Health risks found in kratom abusers include hepatotoxicity, psychosis, seizure, weight loss, insomnia, tachycardia, vomiting, poor concentration, hallucinations, and death.
[Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images] Doctors are said to have become wary of prescribing the addictive medications out of fear of prosecution by the DEA. These calls, which came into the poison control center of the CDC, was a tenfold increase over prior years. Additionally, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published data in July 2016 stating that between 2010 and 2015, there were 660 reported cases of exposure to Kratom in the USA with “minimal signs or symptoms, which resolved rapidly with no residual disability”.
The ban against kratom, also called “herbal heroin” by those against the herbal supplement, is getting mixed reviews.
Ventura is very passionate about ending the drug war, and he has put complete legalization of marijuana atop his bucket list of things to do before the end of his life.
Officers on the street are most likely to encounter kratom as a greenish powder contained inside a clear capsule.
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There’s not much evidence that kratom represents a grave danger to the country.
