DEA Adds Kratom, a Plant Substitute for Prescription Opiates, to Schedule 1 List Alongside Heroin

Editor’s Note: We all know what this is about, just like when the DEA refused to take the non-psychoactive components of marijuana off the drug schedule as well. It’s about corporate profits, plain and simple. Specifically big pharma’s. It’s not bad enough that opiates are killing people en masse. The DEA wants to make sure there are no “legal” natural alternative painkillers left.

by Brandon Turbeville

Fresh on the heels of the CDC labeling kratom as an emerging “public health threat,” the notoriously fascistic U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency has filed a notice of intent to not only list it as a controlled substance, but the DEA is planning to add it to the most restrictive classification possible.

Mitragyna speciosa, aka kratom, and its two primary constituents, mitragynine and 7-hydroxymitragynine are going to be placed onto schedule 1 temporarily beginning on September 30th.

This information comes from a filing from the DEA on August 30th, but the full announcement is scheduled to be published in the Federal Register on August 31st.

Kratom is not an opiate but functions in a similar manner, i.e. attaching to activating opioid receptors. The substance has been shown to alleviate chronic pain and anxiety as well as aid in overcoming addiction despite its own “euphoric effects.”

Studies in mice have actually demonstrated impressive results in overcoming addiction to cocaine. Many kratom users have also sung the plant’s praises in regards to heroin addiction. Kratom users claim that the substance is an excellent substitute for prescription pain medication as well as the addiction that comes with prescribed opiates.

The DEA is making its move after a few states toyed with the idea of placing kratom on their own controlled substances lists statewide, but failing to do so after public outcry got in the way. Never known for its attention to democracy, individual liberty or individual choice, the DEA is simply doing on a national level what Big Pharma and Big Government couldn’t do on a state level.

It is absolutely astounding even for the DEA that kratom is now listed alongside heroin. According to the DEA, kratom, due to its schedule 1 classification, has no known medical use and a high abuse potential.

With the swipe of the pen, the DEA has driven in the final nail to what little credibility it had left … and that might be the only bright spot in the whole situation. On the other hand, it has doomed many Americans to live in pain and anxiety and force many more back into the arms of Big Pharma. Perhaps that is the whole reason for the DEA’s decision to begin with.