Senator Mike Lee and Congressman Mark Pocan recently cosigned a letter to the Biden Administration to stop kratom bans. Original Letter is available to download here.
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
