DEA Comments on Kratom and Its Current Legal Status

Working link.

But kratom is being marketed and sold as a "legal high" and unregulated novelty drug. And this has already got the attention of the DEA. Ramona Sanchez, spokeswoman for the DEA's Phoenix division, says she thinks kratom could fall under the Federal Analog Act. The act allows substances that are "substantially similar" to controlled substances to be treated the same as the controlled substance.

Sanchez also says that because kratom is not considered a federally controlled substance, any data the DEA has is anecdotal. But she emphasizes that kratom "is nowhere near being good for you. Even though it is not a controlled substance, we would not recommend anybody taking this . . . It is not good at all."
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Ramona Sanchez, spokeswoman for the DEA's Phoenix division, says she thinks kratom could fall under the Federal Analog Act. The act allows substances that are "substantially similar" to controlled substances to be treated the same as the controlled substance.
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Nonsense. Notice she does not mention which controlled substance kratom may be substantially similar to. This is an indication that she is full of monkey dung.

The standard for substantial similarity has been set rather high. See Microgram article:

http://www.justice.gov/dea/programs/forensicsci/microgram/journal_v3_num34/journal_v3_num34_pg6.html
 
"I'd be curious if the stuff they're selling on the Internet is actually kratom or crushed-up Percocet or something,"
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^ from the article lol.

Really crushed up percocet? how would that be profitable? and why would they throw acetaminophen in there as well? Really if this guy wasn't such a douche he'd have said that a vendor may instead add o-desmethyltramadol; which actually happened. Don't want to give him any tips however. This is another good reason to regulate it, not ban it, which only creates a larger black market that is unregulated.

Why are they even bothering with kratom; why not go after some of the highly potent synthetic substances that are being made, like 7-hydroxy-mitryganine (which they even mention in the article). At least then kratom should stay legal as san pedro cactus is legal despite containing mescaline. It's not an analogue anyway. The article also likes to reference that 7-hydroxy-mitryganine is kratom but it's not; it's simply one of many alkaloids, just because 7-hydroxy-mitryganine is shown to be potent and addictive (no shit) doesn't mean anything for kratom.

Luckily, this is just bullshit and it would take the DEA forever to ban kratom; they can't even ban the RC's quick enough to keep up, so they are shooting themselves in the foot finally and I think it's becoming more and more obvious.
 
Thanks for finding that link, Na'vi.

Pretty silly article, I thought.
I (mostly) knew more about kratom years ago. Like the fact that it is addictive in humans (the article cites a study of mice).
And the whole analog thing is ridiculous.

I "liked" how the article said that kratom is legal in the US, but then cited ten countries that have outlawed it (the implicit assumption being that, if they outlawed it, we should as well. Gotta keep up with the neighbors!)
 
I would love for all drugs to be legal. Then the DEA would be dissolved and all of these people trying to "protect" us would have to do something better with their time.
 
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