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October 27th, 2021

Senator Mike Lee and Congressman Mark Pocan recently cosigned a letter to the Biden Administration to stop kratom bans. 

AKA applauds U.S. Sen. Mike Lee, Congressman Mark Pocan for calling on Biden Administration to oppose efforts to ban Kratom

Lawmakers pen letter to Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield and HHS Secretary Becerra

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The American Kratom Association today applauded U.S. Sen. Mike Lee of Utah and Congressman Mark Pocan of Wisconsin for their efforts to prevent a potential international ban on kratom, an herbal supplement used by millions of Americans as an energy supplement and for pain management, specifically as an alternative to opioids and for opioid addiction treatment. Their letter calls on Biden Administration officials – specifically U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield and Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra – to oppose a move by the World Health Organization (WHO) that could add kratom to the 1971 UN Convention on psychotropic substances. Full text of the letter is included below.

“We are grateful for Sen. Lee and Congressman Pocan’s support in urging the Biden administration to oppose efforts at the international level to ban kratom,” said American Kratom Association Senior Fellow on Public Policy Mac Haddow. “American consumers, scientists, and lawmakers have previously and clearly voiced their opposition to domestic efforts to schedule kratom as a controlled substance. It is critical that federal officials at Health and Human Services and our representatives to the UN stand firmly in defense of the will of the American people and not allow the whims of international actors to dictate our domestic policy.”

“There is still no conclusive evidence that would warrant the United States voting in favor of an international control of this substance,” Lee and Pocan write in the letter. “Instead, the Food and Drug Administration encourages more research to better understand kratom’s safety profile, including the use of kratom combined with other drugs. Given the absence of data showing kratom’s purported harms, a vote in favor of controlling this substance would raise serious questions. If there is no scientific basis for control, Congress has not deliberated the need for control, and the clear interests of the American people are against control, then the United States should not be voting in favor of controlling that substance on the international stage.”

The World Health Organization (WHO) Expert Committee on Drug Dependency (ECDD) is currently reviewing kratom among other substances and may make a recommendation to the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs as soon as early December for kratom to be controlled under UN conventions. In accordance with 21 USC 811(d), if a substance is deemed controlled under the 1971 Convention, the United States’ treaty obligations require that such substance also be controlled domestically.

Full text of letter:

October 19, 2021

Linda Thomas-Greenfield

United States Ambassador to the United Nations

760 United Nations Plaza

Manhattan, New York City, New York 100017

The Honorable Xavier Becerra

Secretary

Department of Health and Human Services

200 Independence Ave, SW

Washington, DC 20201

Dear Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield and Secretary Becerra,

We are writing to ask that the United States oppose any effort to add kratom and its alkaloids to the 1971 UN Convention on psychotropic substances as a banned substance. The World Health Organization (WHO) Expert Committee on Drug Dependency (ECDD) is currently reviewing this issue and may make a recommendation to the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs as soon as early December for kratom to be controlled under UN conventions. It is our understanding that in accordance with 21 USC 811(d), if a substance is deemed controlled under the 1971 Convention, the United States’ treaty obligations require that such substance also be controlled domestically. This obligation forfeits the will of the American people, ties the United States to the whims of the majority of international actors, and diminishes the need for public health experts to thoroughly evaluate substances that lead to domestic decisions based on evidence and data.

In 2016, 145,906 Americans including consumers, scientists, and state and federal lawmakers, raised their voices in opposition to the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) proposal to schedule kratom as a controlled substance. However, due to many factors, “in part on new data, and in part on the relative lack of evidence,” the HHS decided in 2018 to rescind its request for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to schedule kratom as a Schedule I controlled substance under the Controlled Substance Act.

Since then, there is still no conclusive evidence that would warrant the United States voting in favor of an international control of this substance. Instead, the “Food & Drug Administration encourages more research to better understand kratom’s safety profile, including the use of kratom combined with other drugs.”

Given the absence of data showing kratom’s purported harms, a vote in favor of controlling this substance would raise serious questions. If there is no scientific basis for control,5 Congress has not deliberated the need for control, and the clear interests of the American people are against control, then the United States should not be voting in favor of controlling that substance on the international stage.

Sincerely,

Michael S. Lee

United States Senator

Mark Pocan

United States Congressman

October 26th, 2021

Major Kratom Announcement coming Wednesday Oct 27th. We're very excited to shared some postivie news on kratom internationally that will help American kratom consumers. Go to the kratom community page on Reddit at Noon Eastern on Wednesday the 27th- Reddit.com/r/kratom to find out the news first! 

We do want to note that this isn't related to the WHO ECDD meeting earlier this month. 

October 11th, 2021 

INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY SIGNALS OVERWHELMING SUPPORT FOR KRATOM DURING WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION ECDD VIRTUAL MEETING

AKA REQUESTS PUBLIC LINK TO INFORMATION SESSION

WASHINGTON, D.C — October 11, 2021 — The American Kratom Association (AKA) earlier today presented arguments to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Expert Committee on Drug Dependence (ECDD) which is currently holding a week-long critical review of 5 substances and a pre review of 2 substances. Today the committee heard from preregistered speakers regarding the substances being reviewed, particularly kratom. The AKA’s delegation expertly and articulately demonstrated that existing and emerging scientific studies confirm kratom should not be banned and that kratom has many merits for continued human use.

In the interest of transparency, the AKA has requested that the WHO ECDD provide a public link to today’s information session.

“All public presentations on kratom were clearly opposed to the international scheduling of kratom. In fact, only one of the speakers addressed an issue other than kratom, demonstrating both how united the scientific community studying kratom is against a ban, and how unnecessary it was to include kratom in the WHO ECDD’s prereview process,” said Mac Haddow, Senior Fellow on Public Policy at the AKA.

Haddow continued, “Clearly the anti-kratom sentiment is coming from one source: the FDA. Although we didn’t hear the anti-kratom speakers today, the FDA will have the ability to make their views on kratom known as a part of the member-state submissions. However, based on the strong presentations made on the science of kratom during the presentations this morning, I believe we have established the position that the FDA is unfairly biased against kratom.”

The ECDD will remain in non-public discussions over the next four days, and then the review of member state submissions between now and early December. Their announcement of any decisions related to will be made public at that time.

The committee could rule in several ways, which include taking no action at all or announcing a full, critical review of kratom. The AKA is fully prepared to present all facts and evidence necessary should a critical review be implemented.

September 16th, 2021

Official Release: 8-Factor Analysis findings demonstrate kratom poses no imminent threat, should not be banned by FDA or WHO

Access Updated 8-Factor Analysis Here 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – September 16, 2021 – The American Kratom Association (AKA) highlighted significant findings in a new analysis that confirms kratom's safety profile and clearly demonstrates that the World Health Organization (WHO) and U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) efforts to ban or restrict the herbal supplement are without merit.

“The recent 8-FA affirms what previous studies have concluded: that kratom is safe and that efforts by FDA and WHO to ban it are unfounded,” said Mac Haddow, Senior Fellow of Public Policy at the American Kratom Association. “We are encouraged to have these results finalized prior to the World Health Organization’s October meeting and hopeful that it and the tens of thousands of public comments gathered so far in support of kratom will put the brakes on efforts to schedule this supplement under the Controlled Substances Act. What the kratom community has long urged for is reasonable oversight by FDA to ensure its safe manufacture and usage in the U.S. so that its benefits can be realized to the fullest extent possible.”

“Our study concludes that there is no evidence kratom poses an imminent threat to public health and that kratom is not like opioids in its safety and addiction risks,” said Dr. Jack Henningfield, who oversaw the 8-Factor Analysis. “Furthermore, our findings confirm the conclusion made by former Assistant Secretary of Health Brett Giroir that millions of people who use kratom as an opioid alternative or to treat opioid addiction would be at risk of relapse and overdose should possession of kratom become criminalized. In order to ensure safe use of kratom and to limit its abuse and misuse, our report concludes that such issues are best addressed by allowing the legal sale of kratom with appropriate FDA oversight as a dietary supplement and ingredient.”

In summary, the report concludes:

• There is no evidence that kratom poses an imminent threat to public health, which is a requirement for emergency scheduling and a key consideration in permanently scheduling a substance.
• Thousands of people using kratom to combat opioid addiction would be at risk of relapse and overdose should sale of kratom be banned.
• Banning kratom would foreseeably lead to an illicit kratom market with increased problems related to contaminated and adulterated kratom products.
• Current problems with contaminated or inappropriately marketed kratom can be best solved by reasonable FDA oversight, whereas a scheduling ban would leave consumers hostage to illicit and unregulated kratom.

Dr. Henningfield’s findings reaffirm an earlier study from 2018. Since that study, there have been more than 100 new published scientific studies, reviews, and commentaries by leading kratom experts, and an accelerating research pipeline funded in part by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). These studies provide an increasingly strong evidence base for regulation and policy and provide a fuller characterization of how kratom works and how it provides the benefits that many people report as their reason for use, but without narcotic-like addiction and overdose risks.

The studies include the types of state-of-the-art animal abuse and physical dependence / withdrawal studies that FDA requires for new medicines and which DEA relies on for drug scheduling decisions. New clinical studies in humans provide initial assessments of kratom’s physiological health and safety related effects on liver, kidney, and cardiovascular function, as well as brain function, using magnetic resonance imaging techniques.

The AKA has long fought efforts from the FDA and now WHO to schedule kratom as a controlled substance. It is currently collecting comments ahead of an October 11-15 meeting of the WHO Executive Committee on Drug Dependency where a recommendation will be made on whether to implement international restrictions or a ban on kratom.

August 13th, 2021 

AMERICAN KRATOM ASSOCIATION SUBMITS OVER 50,000 COMMENTS TO THE FDA;
WINS TO EXTEND THE PUBLIC COMMENT DEADLINE CONTINUES

On August 9th the American Kratom Association (AKA) submitted over 50,000 comments to the FDA from kratom supporters opposing an international ban on kratom. This unprecedented level of public outcry comes after the news broke that the FDA has asked the World Health Organization (WHO) to consider an international ban on kratom. The AKA led the effort to collect tens of thousands of comments, even with an artificially compressed schedule to that only allowed the public 17 days to prepare and submit comments.

Earlier in the weekend, the AKA filed a complaint in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS); HHS Secretary Becerra; the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA); and Acting FDA Commissioner Woodcock. The complaint sought to extend the deadline for the comment period to a later date in August in order to give citizens a reasonable amount of time to comment.

After negotiations with the FDA and the U.S. Attorney’s office and the exposing of a clear kratom bias in the comment process, an extension of the deadline to August 24^th will start on August 16th. 

The AKA is still collecting comments via AmericanKratom.org and ProtectKratom.org