{"id":68118,"date":"2023-08-30T12:18:41","date_gmt":"2023-08-30T20:18:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2023\/08\/30\/federal-lawmakers-are-preparing-to-reintroduce-legislation-to-regulate-kratom-amid-pushback-to-fda-proposed-ban\/"},"modified":"2023-08-30T19:46:18","modified_gmt":"2023-08-31T03:46:18","slug":"federal-lawmakers-are-preparing-to-reintroduce-legislation-to-regulate-kratom-amid-pushback-to-fda-proposed-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2023\/08\/30\/federal-lawmakers-are-preparing-to-reintroduce-legislation-to-regulate-kratom-amid-pushback-to-fda-proposed-ban\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal Lawmakers Are Preparing To Reintroduce Legislation To Regulate Kratom Amid Pushback To FDA-Proposed Ban"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

As federal lawmakers prepare to reintroduce a bill to regulate kratom, a former Trump administration drug czar stressed the need to beat back \u201cmisinformation\u201d from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which has attempted to ban the substance in the U.S. and abroad<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Members of the American Kratom Association (AKA) said during a webinar Tuesday that they expect federal legislation to regulate the drug \u201cwill be filed shortly\u201d in Congress and could be taken up later this session.<\/p>\n

The text of the forthcoming bill \u201cwill be word-for-word the same\u201d as congressional legislation introduced last session<\/a>, said Mac Haddow, a senior fellow at AKA. The title, however, will be updated to the Kratom Consumer Protection Act, a nod to model legislation that AKA has been lobbying for at the state and federal levels<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sponsors will include, on the Senate side, Sens. Mike Lee (R-UT) and Cory Booker (D-NJ), who also sponsored last session\u2019s bill, the Federal Clarity for Kratom Consumers Act. In the House, lead sponsors will be Reps. Mark Pocan (D-WI) and Jack Bergman (R-MI). Pocan sponsored last year\u2019s bill in the House, while Bergman is a new addition.<\/p>\n

The forthcoming legislation\u2019s bipartisan sponsorship in each chamber\u2014specifically pairing a \u201cvery liberal\u201d elected official with a \u201cvery conservative\u201d one\u2014is designed to highlight \u201cthat this is not a partisan issue,\u201d Haddow said. \u201cThis is about good policy.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the bill becomes law, it would require FDA to take further steps to evaluate the health and safety of kratom and would also prohibit the agency from regulating kratom products in a way that\u2019s more restrictive than regulations for food or dietary supplements.<\/p>\n

Neither chamber took action on the proposal last session, but AKA expects more traction\u2014and more sponsors\u2014on this year\u2019s bill.<\/p>\n

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Haddow spoke alongside former Trump drug czar Jim Carroll and John Shinholser, co-founder of the recovery organization The McShin Foundation, during an AKA-hosted webinar on Tuesday. Much of the discussion centered on FDA\u2019s attempts to outlaw kratom federally, which advocates so far have managed to prevent.<\/p>\n

Carroll, who separately spoke to Haddow earlier this month about his efforts as drug czar to push back on FDA\u2019s past anti-kratom recommendations<\/a>, said the agency is uniquely responsible for perpetuating overblown fears about kratom.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was at the epicenter when this issue came up in 2018,\u201d he said, \u201cFDA came and, really unilaterally, tried to ban kratom.\u201d<\/p>\n

During a presentation to his office, he said, the agency presented \u201can incomplete picture of the facts that were out there,\u201d suggesting that kratom had no redeeming value and carried serious risk of injury or death.<\/p>\n

After conferring with a colleague, Brett Giroir, then the assistant secretary of health at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Carroll said he and others were able to scuttle the proposed ban. \u201cAll of the facts were presented, and the FDA ban was quickly shot down,\u201d Carroll recalled, \u201cbecause in fact, they\u2019re missing a lot of the story.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among the myths FDA perpetuated, he said, was the idea that kratom had been linked to a significant number of deaths, when in fact those deaths were later attributed to hazardous contaminants in kratom products. AKA\u2019s model legislation would help avoid that by requiring lab testing for pesticides, heavy metals and other adulterants, advocates say.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve told so many people the same nonsense,\u201d Haddow said of FDA, \u201cand it\u2019s been rejected, including at HHS, by the DEA, by the U.S. Congress [and] by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The lone wolf is the FDA, and they continue to propagate their disinformation about this.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to federal legislation, AKA is also working to better hold FDA accountable for its apparent failure to provide accurate information about kratom.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re doing a couple things,\u201d Haddow said. First, AKA \u201calong with some other colleagues and friends in the dietary supplement industry\u201d are planning to launch a website that will allow people to report FDA disinformation on kratom.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to report them to Congress, and we want to report them to the Federal Trade Commission about the disinformation they\u2019re circulating,\u201d he explained, \u201cbecause it\u2019s obvious that their embarrassingly poor evidence and data needs to be called out.\u201d<\/p>\n

AKA is also pushing members of Congress who oversee FDA to send letters to the agency \u201cto hold them accountable for their current actions,\u201d Haddow said.<\/p>\n

At the state level, the organization has already successfully reversed some kratom bans<\/a>, for example in Vermont. Other states, however, still have bans in place\u2014including Arkansas, where the daughter one of the webinar\u2019s attendees was recently arrested for possessing 11 grams of kratom after moving from Texas, where the plant is legal. (\u201cYou need to get a good attorney for your daughter immediately,\u201d Haddow said.)<\/p>\n

Ideally, AKA would like to see kratom producers licensed, products tested and retailers required to check IDs and sell only to consumers 21 and older, according to the group\u2019s statement of principles<\/a>. The organization says unlicensed, unregulated producers perpetuate stigma against kratom by selling to minors, failing to accurately label products and, in the worst cases, introducing potentially dangerous additives.<\/p>\n

So far 11 states have passed some version of the Kratom Consumer Protection Act, although state lawmakers have sometimes departed from AKA\u2019s core principles. The latest version of the bill in Florida\u2019s legislature, for example, does not include any product testing requirements.<\/p>\n

Carroll said it\u2019s time for FDA to step in and, rather than try to ban kratom, go after bad industry actors. He noted that several years ago, when FDA began considering how to regulate e-cigarettes, \u201cthe industry was not regulating itself, so the government took that action.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe same should be true here,\u201d he said. \u201cKratom should not be sold and marketed in a way that\u2019s intended for children. It shouldn\u2019t be cartoon characters on there, it shouldn\u2019t be candy-flavored and it shouldn\u2019t be sold to minors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kratom is used by people for various purposes, including relaxation and anxiety relief. It\u2019s also a popular tool for helping reduce symptoms of opioid withdrawal, which has earned it attention amid the nation\u2019s ongoing epidemic of opioid overdose deaths. Shinholser said he\u2019s witnessed firsthand how powerful kratom can be in easing opioid withdrawal, comparing it to alternatives such as suboxone or methadone.<\/p>\n

Earlier this summer, the American Medical Association updated its position on kratom<\/a>, adopting a resolution that said people \u201cwho are using kratom only for personal use should not face criminal consequences.\u201d It further said that kratom \u201cshould be regulated by the [Food and Drug Administration], and its safety and efficacy should be determined through clinical trials before it can be marketed or prescribed as a treatment for any condition.\u201d<\/p>\n

While advocates want consumers to be able to continue to purchase kratom over the counter from retailers, AKA said at the time that the resolution was a step in the right direction, departing from a more aggressive, criminalization stance.<\/p>\n

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Top Federal Health Agency Says Marijuana Should Be Moved To Schedule III In Historic Recommendation To DEA<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Photo courtesy of Wikimedia\/ThorPorre<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The post Federal Lawmakers Are Preparing To Reintroduce Legislation To Regulate Kratom Amid Pushback To FDA-Proposed Ban<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n


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\nRead More: Federal Lawmakers Are Preparing To Reintroduce Legislation To Regulate Kratom Amid Pushback To FDA-Proposed Ban<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As federal lawmakers prepare to reintroduce a bill to regulate kratom, a former Trump administration drug czar stressed the need to beat back \u201cmisinformation\u201d from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which has attempted to ban the substance in the U.S. and abroad. Members of the American Kratom Association (AKA)Continue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68118"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68118"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68118\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68119,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68118\/revisions\/68119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}