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DEA Announces Kratom to become a Schedule 1 Substance

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Muskogee Herbman

Rising Star
Senior Member

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency has filed a notice of intent (PDF) to place the southeast Asian plant called kratom to the most restrictive classification of the Controlled Substances Act. The plant, Mitragyna speciosa, and its two primary constituents, mitragynine and 7-hydroxymitragynine, will be temporarily placed onto Schedule I on September 30, according to a filing by the DEA at 8:45 am Eastern time today. The full announcement is scheduled to be published in the Federal Register tomorrow, August 31

I know some people may not like kratom but no plant deserves to be murdered by humans. Defend the standing silent nation
 
This plant and its compounds were a needed aide to people in withdrawal from opioids, yes, it was used recreationally, but we are also in the middle of an opiate epidemic, and withdrawing opioid users at least could gain some relief and tough out the withdrawal using kratom.

Another plant falls victim to this runaway war on drugs.

...maybe people who consume these compounds should stand up for them, rather than be content to bow their heads and hide their stash and stay silent as one by one plants from humanities psychoactive garden fall victim to this unjust and misrepresented drug war.

-eg
 
Signed. No plant should be made illegal. Period. Could argue it either way, but really, ..a plant. :!: :?:

Must be cutting into the pockets of the dominator system and pharma ceos. That and the huge spike in popularity, it's no surprise.
 
Amazing. Rather than educate they move to eradicate as usual. Good god. I don't even use the stuff but of the ones i know that do they have not had any issues around it at all.
 
I sure hope some good lawyers start a RICO lawsuit against the DEA and those running it for Cannabis and Kratom prohibition and illegal scheduling. They would have a strong case once the science is brought in and shows it is completely contrary to DEA claims. Also the fact that there are US patents on Cannabis as medicine completely contradict DEA claims that Cannabis has no medical value.
 
The medicinal value should be a piece of cake to evince, stating that it has none is actually so utter ridiculous that it is a joke beyond jokes, and they pull this off ???
 
Mescaline is a schedule 1, yet trichocereus cacti are still sold and grown in clear daylight with nary a federal raid to date (just for having a cactus growing). DMT is a schedule 1, yet one can legally procure some M. Hostilis seed and grow it out right in front of a police station without getting so much as a spark, let alone a charge from the legs of Johnny law. Morphine is a schedule 2, yet there are hundreds of thousands of farmers & gardeners & landscapers all alike without so much as a day of medical training to their name growing millions of acres' worth of p. somniferum poppies in the plain legal light of day all across the land; when the popo drive by a poppy patch, they'll much more than likely not give such an industrial-sized opium grow-op so much as a second glance as they drive on by, minds racing faster than a formula one, jittery and jolty from their cafe con leches, adrenaline pumping, warrants in hand, guns locked and loaded and ready to ruin the life of a 20-something year old small-scale sess-salesman down the street, or perhaps the meth lab in the shed next door, leaving Mrs. American Pie all alone to water her funny flowers forever more. Lysergic acid amide is a schedule 3. yet I've seen a mighty fine fruiting Oliloqui vine growing all around a fantastic fellow's mailbox who has born witness to half a century, and in the 2 decades he's had that vine growing there, has not accumulated so much as single traffic ticket, let alone a felony drug manufacturing charge.

The point I'm trying to make is this: The DEA is banning mitragynine and 7-HO-mitragynine specifically; they are not banning M. Speciosa explicitly, as they have for cannabis, Iboga, E. Coca, Salvia and god-knows-what-else (hence why all the other controlled-substance manufacturies AKA plants are legal to grow for decorative/botanical/non-consumptive purposes, of course 😉 ); this line of logic, of criminalizing those suspected of manufacturing drugs, cultivating/growing the plant with the explicit intent of producing a controlled substance (which is VERY hard to prove in court unless extensive surveillance of manufacturing is witnessed via LE surveillance--too expensive and time-taxing to afford for all those guppies), and/or otherwise processing the plant material in order to administer the controlled compound(s) to a human being, all the while permitting and/or ignoring individuals who appear to be growing the plants/biomanufacturies of "dangerous" drugs for strictly botanical/ornamental/decorative/non-consumptive purposes; of course; it's insanely difficult and time-taxing for LE to prove an individual is indeed growing a plant with the purpose of procuring a controlled substance from it unless it is directly observed by extensive surveillance activities and/or is being conducted on a gigantic industrial scale (BIG FISH, not guppies), and thus, the piggies, who more-or-less haven't a clue as to how to identify kratom, let alone most psychoactive plants, wouldn't think twice about one cultivating a plant containing a controlled substance UNLESS that plant was cannabis and/or was explicitly scheduled (i'm basing this judgement/obeservation of mine based off of legal history as well as the fact that millions of Americans grow controlled substance-manufacturing plants in their yards, and only the stupidest of the stupidest have managed the Herculean task of providing LE a reason beyond doubt that they're growing the stuff for their own consumption.

Seeing as the DEA is not scheduling M. Speciosa itself, but instead only two of its chemical constituents, I couldn't help but see why this would stop the kratom industry at all; So as long as they stamp a great big "NOT INTENDED FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION" label all over their products and plants, it would be just about as legal as it always was before this BS ban goes into effect (hell, just take a look at the san pedro cactus, poppyseed and psychotria shrub/leaf cutting markets as they are; so as long as human consumption isn't an intended use, it's perfectly fine to possess and grow as long as they can't prove you are intending to consume it!) I would like to ask the lawyers among us if this may hold true in the case of kratom as well, or if the entheobotanical community would just have to switch to growing another mitragynine-making miracle tree and/or novel/unsafe/untested mitragynine NPS (Novel Psychoactive Substances) just to maintain and make-up for the gap created from the scheduling of two of the most effective opioid replacement therapy compounds on the planet; either way, both options already have opened-up before us, and will proceed to be blown off their hinges if, for some god-forsaken-reason, growing kratom for ornamental purposes isn't allowed under this new legislation which has in the same token granted that privilege to countless other Controlled-substance manufacturing plants in the past).

I would like to know if this ban on only 2 compounds of the plant matter would really put so much as a dent on the exponentially expanding kratom industry, or on on the lives and families of those who cultivate this medicine? I would posit that, based on pre-existing information regarding Trichs & plalaris & poppy plant cultivation, all unscheduled plants which contain one or more controlled substances, it would be legal to cultivate and possess kratom so as long as (in the eyes of the law) it is not being used with the intent of being used in humans; this law, IMO, would be completely bogus under this hypothesis, and would only lead to nothing more than a brief disclaimer saying NO HUMAN CONSUMPTION on kratom trees and leaves (just for ornamental purposes from now on, ya hear me, kiddies? :lol: 😉 ;) :p :thumb_up: ), which would remain as they are now as they have always have been for the past 240 years of the USA's history: LEGAL.

If there is anything wrong with my argument, please please please point it out and back-up your statement with a valid counter-argument contradicting my own statements with facts and explicit cases & statutes in the legal code and system which would support such an argument; to quote Arnold Schwarzenegger: "The Time Has Come For Debate.

Selah,
-God

PS mods if this post breaks the rules, please edit and/or delete it as you so please; I just wanted to get this argument out into the open regarding this BS scheduling to see if it would indeed be valid; I apologize in advance if any statements in my argument have offended or otherwise broken the rules, and hope that my insight may help minimize, if not completely eliminate, the efficacy of this BS ruling from the least constitutional federal agency to ever be signed into law. I thank you in advance for your kindness, better judgement, advice and mercy.
 
Godsmacker said:
Seeing as the DEA is not scheduling M. Speciosa itself, but instead only two of its chemical constituents, I couldn't help but see why this would stop the kratom industry at all; So as long as they stamp a great big "NOT INTENDED FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION" label all over their products and plants, it would be just about as legal as it always was before this BS ban goes into effect (hell, just take a look at the san pedro cactus, poppyseed and psychotria shrub/leaf cutting markets as they are; so as long as human consumption isn't an intended use, it's perfectly fine to possess and grow as long as they can't prove you are intending to consume it!)
Technically, you're incorrect.

See: the CSA


(c) Unless specifically excepted or unless listed in another
schedule, any material, compound, mixture, or preparation, which
contains any quantity of the following hallucinogenic substances,
or which contains any of their salts, isomers, and salts of isomers
whenever the existence of such salts, isomers, and salts of isomers
is possible within the specific chemical designation:
(1) 3,4-methylenedioxy amphetamine.
(2) 5-methoxy-3,4-methylenedioxy amphetamine.
(3) 3,4,5-trimethoxy amphetamine.
(4) Bufotenine.
(5) Diethyltryptamine.
(6) Dimethyltryptamine.
(7) 4-methyl-2,5-diamethoxyamphetamine.
(8) Ibogaine.
(9) Lysergic acid diethylamide.
(10) Marihuana.
(11) Mescaline.
(12) Peyote.
(13) N-ethyl-3-piperidyl benzilate.
(14) N-methyl-3-piperidyl benzilate.
(15) Psilocybin.
(16) Psilocyn.
(17) Tetrahydrocannabinols.


To emphasize: "any material... which contains any quantity" of a schedule I drug is itself a schedule I drug under the law.

Human consumption has nothing to do with it. It's a question of selective enforcement and they can enforce whenever and against whomever they wish.

And to be clear, the numerous plants you listed as "legal" in your post are not actually legal in the US. They are illegal, but rarely enforced. An important distinction, imo.
 
I like how an organization with the power to make a drug illegal is also the ONLY group that stands to benefit from a drug being made illegal.

What are the chances that the petition will actually make a difference?
 
I found out the news this morning and as someone who has been using kratom almost daily for a year and half I feel like this plant has many beneficial qualities. I know not many studies have been done, but the the DEA should have to prove that kratom has no medical benefits before putting it in Schedule 1. I know this most not be a policy because if multiple studies were done there would be a large number of studies that show contrary to the idea of "having no medical benefit".
 
According to an email from BotSpir, this is being done so that it will be scheduled while a drug containing a synthetic version of the active will be sold. This drug has already been produced. Here's the email :


.
Kratom Schedule I in 24 Hours Help Us Fight It

We regret to tell everyone that uses Kratom to improve their life whether it be mental or physical, that one of the most corrupt actions we have ever witnessed has occurred and the result will be this amazing plant being added to the list of Schedule I drugs in the USA. In advance I would like to apologize for any spelling or grammar errors in this email but due to the time-sensitive situation here, we're not going to spend a bunch of time editing as we want to get the facts out there ASAP! I am going to lay out the facts of what has happened to lead to this terrible event and the majority of it is based on complete government corruption under the spell of the pharmaceutical industry. Quickly, for those of you who do not know Kratom has been praised for its incredible pain relieving abilities as well as helping people with mental issues, anxiety, depression etc. It also is very well-known for its ability to assist in getting people off hard drugs as well as addiction to pharmaceutical drugs (which right away we all can see the first problem for Big Pharma with this plant).

So without fear of their intimidation tactics we are going to step up and tell you all exactly what has happened. A group of companies have now gotten together with their lawyers to assist in exposing these criminals, and we are all going to work together, because this is about far morethan money - its about the right to use nature to heal ourselves and not be forced on to dangerous pharmaceutical drugs. I will break it down as best I can to make it easy to take in the whole scope, it has been a two year battle against the FDA, Customs and now DEA is involved all on behalf of the greed-driven pharmaceutical industry that has somehow managed to get a stranglehold on the US Government.

CORRUPT ACTIONS OF GOVERNMENT AGENCIES:
1.
We have witnessed many actions all documented by our lawyers. It all started with the Import Alert that was put on importation of Kratom whereby any entity importing kratom as a dietary supplement or bulk dietary ingredient is subject to detention of their shipment without notice. Meaning, in simple terms that the FDA does not want this brought in as a consumable. They state it is unsafe, many side effects etc. (with all sarcasm intended; we all know that the drugs they deal do not have side effects right?). What is so disturbing about this is that they have absolutely no statistics of abuse, dangers or anything, so who is telling them to say it is dangerous? hmm. There has never been a single death or accident resulting in injury or death due to Kratom use, while their drugs kill millions of people.
2.
The FDA and Customs have violated several laws in their efforts to stop the import of Kratom. When importers brought the material in for other uses that were not for consumption, everything was done properly within all FDA regulations, the FDA began stealing shipments. We have evidence of over 80 metric tons of material that was confiscated illegally. Also, there are clear laws that they should abide by such as providing a formal legal letter tothe importer informing them about the shipment being detained so that they can provide any assistance to the FDA/Customs to assist in the release of the material, but instead the FDA took it on themselves to not provide this letter and simply steal the materials. We are quite confident that material was likely offered to pharmaceutical companies for free research of development (this will be followed up with as we go along). Their were also several instances where they had a time limit that they legally needed to release, destroy or return the shipments and they violated the law. As it is very important for importers to abide by the laws of the country, I think it is just as important for them to do likewise, no?
3.
FDA entered into the warehouse of one or more companies without a warrant. With very unethical behavior of one agent especially, obviously the person put in place to throw her "power" around- Melanie Small in her efforts to prove she was right stated several times unprofessionally to the owner that Kratom was illegal, and he is not allowed to sell it. As the owner rebutted with the truth about the law, she continued to demand he stop selling it. Which of course, all this was intimidation only, but to those who know the laws and abide by them, she wasn't really all that scary, sorry Melanie, that kind of behavior is not appropriate.
4.
The FDA intercepted a shipment going from one warehouse to a client that was in the hands of FedEx. They did not have a warrant to search the shipment but along with local law enforcement (so was told to us by an FedEx worker), they sat and discussed how they could get into the boxes. The sender was not informed of any stoppage of the shipment, and lets not forget, why is it being stopped when its not even an illegal material? Something not right about that...
5.
Using DHL, the FDA attempted to have a box delivered to one recipient when it should have gone to a completely different State, they misdelivered a package to prove that these two individuals were linked somehow, since one had been added to the import alert without any cause. The manipulation of couriers without any court order is completely immoral and illegal.
6.
With the FDA clearly failing at stopping the import and sale of this plant material, and probably getting in major sh*t from whichever pharmaceutical company was paying them to interfere with free trade between Indonesia and USA, which again is a serious international criminal offense, they brought in the DEA to take over and introduce the "Intent" document to add Kratom to the list of Schedule I drugs in the USA. Now, interesting how this formal intent document was created in mid May 2016 but somehow remained hidden from the public until two days ago where we and other companies were bombarded with warnings from lawyers letting us know they delayed the publicity of this so that there was no time to fight back against such corruption. Literally 36 hours before the law would be introduced they knew this wouldn't be much time for people like us to raise hell over it. As they say the substance is so dangerous, why would they hide such a document from the public, all those people could be getting hurt, or killed or whatever crap they are feeding the public... its because they know this is not a dangerous substance!
7.
Let me set the scene of this one. An innocent employee of a large Kratom supplier is opening the door to the warehouse when several FDA and Police cars come skreetching in, jumping out and pointing guns at the scared employee. Forcing him to open the door at gunpoint he couldn't get the key to work, whether it was because something was wrong with the key or he was just to nervous and not used to having guns shoved in his face. He requested they lower the guns since he's not armed and all do except one hero who keeps aiming the gun at him. They finally get into the warehouse and walk in and take the material they came for, walking out without arresting anyone. A simple theft, Gestapo style. What is so pathetic about this is if the agents told him the material was under bond and they were confiscating it, he would have simply handed it over to them without problems, but to make themselves feel like heroes and tough guys, they used this intimidation tactic. It was soon discovered why they did this, it made the media about what they did, making the supplier look like a criminal, but again let me remind everyone KRATOM IS NOT ILLEGAL. How disgusting is that? Torment and intimidate innocent people to swindle the perspective of the public.

NOW THE MEAT AND POTATOES
"Schedule I" means that the substance has absolutely no medicinal value, is addictive and a major threat to the public. Strangely though, the FDA along with Universities are doing studies on the benefits of this plant. They have been synthesizing the alkaloids and there has even been a Drug released containing the actives of Kratom. This drug is called "PZM21". So, what the DEA is now stating will be in place is Kratom shall be listed as Schedule I, but what is super important for everyone to understand is they are setting it up so that this scheduling has a two year length, meaning, anyone who imports, possess, sells or distributes this plant material will suffer the same penalties as if it were heroin, crack cocaine or meth. So, lets look at it from the DEA, FDA and most importantly Pharmaceutical industries perspective and its very simple... bye bye Kratom. Bye bye competition and hello opportunities! You may ask, how is this an opportunity if its Schedule I and even the drug companies aren't allowed to handle the alkaloids or their analogues, well, remember the two year expiry on that ban, so its simple once all the competition (Kratom suppliers) are out of the picture, the drug companies pay the DEA to change the Kratom Schedule to lower schedule where the plant is still illegal, but they can now use the alkaloids and their analogues under prescription and BOOM market takeover and they get all the profits from the now outlawed Kratom, but in this movement they have also turned the natural safe chemicals in the plant into synthetic, addictive, dangerous ones and what does that mean for them, big surprise, even more profits! Ah yes, Fascism at its worst... we often end our emails with "The true meaning of Fascism is not being able to see a clear line between Government and Corporate interest" and once again this stands true. And how many people are going to suffer from having this plant taken away from them? How many people is their new dangerous version of Kratom going to kill or addict, only time can t
 
Interesting e-mail, null. Has there been any sort of independent corroboration of this? These are some very strong accusations to be making.

Also, as a scientist, that last line made me roll my eyes.

Also, PZM21 doesn't look a whole lot like mitragynine, so the claim that it's a 'synthetic kratom' may be unfounded.

Could anyone use a FOIA request to get all the e-mails pursuant to the scheduling of Kratom? I'd love to know what the day-to-day communication in the DEA about this looks like.

Blessings
~ND
 
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