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Dea Going To Put Kratom On Schedule One


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It is true that Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee signed on to our Pocan/Salmon letter! Call your congressmen and Urge them to Please sign onto the Pocan/Salmon Dear Colleague letter Phone:Call before 4:30PM EST. Please do this before the end of the day Tuesday 
202 224 3121

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http://www.vox.com/2016/9/19/12941112/kratom-dea-ban

 

The Drug Enforcement Administration has received a torrent of backlash from patients with chronic pain and former opiate users after announcing plans to ban kratom, a plant gaining popularity across the United States for its opiate-like effects.

Kratom, which originates in Southeast Asia, has become more widespread in the United States in the past decade, fueled by online testimonials from users and a lack of federal regulation. Advocates say the plant — typically crushed and mixed or brewed with water — poses few health risks while helping users relieve severe pain and overcome addictions to powerful prescription painkillers.

 

A DEA spokesman told The Washington Post that the agency has received a surprising number of comments about the ban and could ease the restrictions after further research.

 

The DEA recently announced a temporary federal ban on kratom beginning Sept. 30. The active chemicals in the plant will be placed on Schedule 1 of the Controlled Substances Act, the most restrictive regulatory category, designated for substances with no medical use and a high potential for abuse.

The ban would automatically sunset after two years unless the DEA acts, and spokesman Melvin Patterson said he could see the agency moving kratom from the highly restrictive Schedule 1 to the less-restrictive Schedules 3 to 5, reserved for minimally addictive drugs with accepted medicinal use.

"I don't see it being Schedule 2 [or higher] because that would be a drug that's highly addictive," he said. "Kratom's at a point where it needs to be recognized as medicine. I think that we are going to find out that probably  it does."

He cautioned that research would be necessary to know for sure how to best regulate the drug, and it's safest to put kratom on Schedule 1 in the meantime. Still, Patterson noted that public response to the ban has been overwhelming.

 

"That was eye-opening for me personally," he said. "I want the kratom community to know that the DEA does hear them. Our goal is to make sure this is available to all of them.".

John Hudak, a drug policy expert at the Brookings Institution, says it's fairly common for the DEA to temporarily ban a drug and later ease the restrictions, often as a result of lobbying and research from pharmaceutical companies hoping to sell them. It's less common for a scheduled drug to be removed from the list of controlled substances altogether, but it does happen.

Still, Hudak said, the strict scheduling of kratom would make it harder for researchers to access the drug, which could limit the very research that the DEA says is necessary to determine whether it has medical benefits.

"A lower scheduling might actually spur that type of research for these natural substances," Hudak said. "It's not necessarily going to happen under Schedule 1."

 

 

I'm sorry but I don't think we want this plant put on any schedule!

 

It's funny that at the same time this is being forced upon us, I am taking a history course at university toward my bachelors degree and this excerpt shows exactly how our country was founded:

 

          Jefferson proclaimed a series of “self-evident” truths: “that all men are created equal”; that they possess the “unalienable rights” of “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness”; that government derives its “just powers from the consent of the governed” and can rightly be overthrown if it “becomes destructive of these ends.” By linking these doctrines of individual liberty, popular sovereignty (the principle that ultimate power lies in the hands of the electorate), and republican government with American independence, Jefferson established them as the defining political values of the new nation.

 

With this in mind, how is it the government is so darn powerful? How is it they think they can do what ever they want without the consent of the electorate? Why can't we throw these bums out???

 

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Well  Swamper  WE DID IT ,. Our Grass roots lobbying efforts have paid off Our Representative Daniel Benishek, M.D. - R - MI in the US Congress Listened  to us and he has signed onto the   Pocan/Salmon Dear Colleague Letter I have thanked him and you should call and thank him also,  Screw the nay sayers ........ Now does anyone else in this community support us?  If you support freedom and your right to herbal supplements please contact your US congressmen  Lets see some other Michigan Reps sign on  Swamper and I did our part  NOW HELP US OUT..  Can we get any help from this  Community ?????????????? Please??

Mark Pocan - D - WI

 

Matt Salmon - R - AZ

John Conyers - D - MI

Hank Johnson - D - GA

Tim Ryan - D - OH

Jared Polis - D - CO

Adam Smith - D - WA

Dana Rohrabacher - R - CA

Daniel Benishek, M.D. - R - MI

Steve Cohen - D - TN

Joe Heck, D.O. - R - NV

John Yarmuth - D - KY

Mark Sandord - R - SC

Mick Mulvaney - R - SC

Steve Israel - D - NY

Ted Poe - R - TX

Gerald E. Connolly - D - VA

Betty McCollum - D - MN

Earl Blumenauer - D - OR

Tulsi Gabbard - D - HI

Michael Honda - D - CA

Gwen Moore - D - WI

Brad Wenstrup, M.D. - R - OH

Tom Graves - R - GA

Justin Amash - R - MI

Barbara Lee - D - CA

Raul Labrador - R - ID

Peter DeFazio - D - OR

Scott Tipton - D - CO

Julia Brownley - D - CA

Call your congressmen and Urge them to Please sign onto the Pocan/Salmon Dear Colleague letter   We have until Friday 5 pm now,.

To call your Member of Congress: 
US Capitol Switchboard (202) 224-3121

 

 Please address your congressmen as The honorable. Thank you  

The list is growing .

Edited by cristinew
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Well  Swamper  WE DID IT ,. Our Grass roots lobbying efforts have paid off Our Representative Daniel Benishek, M.D. - R - MI in the US Congress Listened  to us and he has signed onto the   Pocan/Salmon Dear Colleague Letter I have thanked him and you should call and thank him also,  Screw the nay sayers ........ Now does anyone else in this community support us?  If you support freedom and your right to herbal supplements please contact your US congressmen  Lets see some other Michigan Reps sign on  Swamper and I did our part  NOW HELP US OUT..  Can we get any help from this  Community ?????????????? Please??

Mark Pocan - D - WI

 

Matt Salmon - R - AZ

John Conyers - D - MI

Hank Johnson - D - GA

Tim Ryan - D - OH

Jared Polis - D - CO

Adam Smith - D - WA

Dana Rohrabacher - R - CA

Daniel Benishek, M.D. - R - MI

Steve Cohen - D - TN

Joe Heck, D.O. - R - NV

John Yarmuth - D - KY

Mark Sandord - R - SC

Mick Mulvaney - R - SC

Steve Israel - D - NY

Ted Poe - R - TX

Gerald E. Connolly - D - VA

Betty McCollum - D - MN

Earl Blumenauer - D - OR

Tulsi Gabbard - D - HI

Michael Honda - D - CA

Gwen Moore - D - WI

Brad Wenstrup, M.D. - R - OH

Tom Graves - R - GA

Justin Amash - R - MI

Barbara Lee - D - CA

Raul Labrador - R - ID

Peter DeFazio - D - OR

Scott Tipton - D - CO

Julia Brownley - D - CA

Call your congressmen and Urge them to Please sign onto the Pocan/Salmon Dear Colleague letter   We have until Friday 5 pm now,.

To call your Member of Congress: 
US Capitol Switchboard (202) 224-3121

 

 Please address your congressmen as The honorable. Thank you  

The list is growing ....

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https://www.statnews.com/2016/09/23/kratom-ban-dea-congress/

 

Now members of Congress are getting involved.

A bipartisan group has signed a letter asking the DEA to delay the kratom ban, calling the decision “hasty” and pointing out that there was no opportunity for public comment.

By Thursday, about 25 UPDATE  35 House members had signed on, according to Representative Mark Pocan, a Democrat from Wisconsin who spearheaded the project with Republican Representative Matt Salmon of Arizona. The signatories include Representative John Conyers Jr., a Democrat from Michigan, the longest-serving congressman and a member of the House Judiciary Committee, and Republican Representative Dr. Dan Benishek, also of Michigan, who is a family doctor and general surgeon.

GettyImages-530276356-60x60.jpg

Pocan’s office plans to send the letter Monday, after collecting a few more signatures.

For Pocan, this political project is personal.

“We have a very close family friend in Colorado who has a number of ailments, but one is a mast cell disorder. Her hands get hard to move, it’s very difficult and painful for her,” he told STAT.

She tried a number of drugs, including steroids, but the only thing that helped was kratom, he said.

He became worried when he heard that the DEA was unilaterally classifying the substance as Schedule 1, which would make it as illegal as heroin, without any possibility for researchers and consumers to comment.

“They really haven’t done what I would consider due diligence,” he said. “With Schedule 1 there is supposed to be no medical use. … And there are at least three patents pending for medical uses.”

ErosDervishi_KratomFinalFlat-60x60.png

The DEA can temporarily outlaw a substance that constitutes a “public health crisis” without any outside input if the Food and Drug Administration has not approved the drug. Over the next two or three years, the Department of Health and Human Services then determines whether the drug is indeed a threat. If so, the ban becomes permanent; if not, it is reversed.

Pocan, however, is concerned that the DEA hasn’t done its research thoroughly enough.

He wanted to learn more, so he invited Susan Ash, the director of the American Kratom Association, to his office.

“It was unique,” said Ash. “I’ve been a lobbyist for much of my life, and I’ve never had an [congressional] office directly reach out asking for a face-to-face meeting.”

Edward-Boyer-05-60x60.jpg

Last week, the night before she would lead the march in front of the White House, Ash told Pocan her own story of chronic pain, opiate addiction, and redemption through kratom. It was just one story of many that members of Congress have been hearing from constituents. They have called in to talk about using kratom as an alternative to opioids. Calls have also come from veterans who use the plant — either swallowed as a powder, taken as a pill, or drunk as a tea — to control their post-traumatic stress disorder.

The members of Congress noted that once kratom becomes illegal — even temporarily — it will be hard for research on the substance to move forward, as it has been for medical marijuana.

In early September, a DEA spokesperson told STAT that the temporary ban is “definitely going to happen as early as September 30.” The agency said it would respond to the letter from members of Congress, but would not comment until it was received.

 
 

Eric Boodman can be reached at eric.boodman@statnews.com 
Follow Eric on Twitter @ericboodman 
 

CONGRESS

 

DEA

 

KRATOM

 

 We have 42 signees now!

 

Edited by cristinew
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I have to wonder whether or not the DEA is picking on kratom due to its similarity to marijuana. It seems to treat the same conditions, is non-toxic, and the DEA is using the same underhanded tactics to keep it out of the hands of citizens. WTF is going on here? Is it really about big pharmaceutical profits or is there something else afoot? Maybe they really are ultimately out to ban sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll... and feeling good.

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you guys know this is repeating history with cannabis, right?

 

the parallels are just incredible.

 

 

 

But this time around, we'll be in awe as this happens to us, we'll talk of conspiracy theories, repeating histories, bad big pharma, bad big business too. We'll keep investing our cash into these monsters' schemes, keep collecting our dividends, and keep paying whatever they ask for the products they produce. We'll be sure to continue voting the way we always have, and keep getting the same family of corrupt politicians we always got, and strangely, the same oppressive policy making.

 

hey, wait a minute, thats what we always have done .....during the times we wonder why nothing changes......

 

who needs the FDA?

who needs the DEA?

Neither one has protected us from anything. Both take our money, jail and kill our loved ones too. Both are financially supported by every tax payer.  maybe one day...some group of humans will come up with a new different way to approach our repeating history. :angry:

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you guys know this is repeating history with cannabis, right?

 

the parallels are just incredible.

No not at all There was not one congressmen that signed onto any letter when the dea scheduled  cannabis

 

I have to wonder whether or not the DEA is picking on kratom due to its similarity to marijuana. It seems to treat the same conditions, is non-toxic, and the DEA is using the same underhanded tactics to keep it out of the hands of citizens. WTF is going on here? Is it really about big pharmaceutical profits or is there something else afoot? Maybe they really are ultimately out to ban sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll... and feeling good.

It cures heroin addiction too. they need addicts to jail and treat with failed suboxin,

 

npp9v6.jpg 

Edited by cristinew
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 maybe one day...some group of humans will come up with a new different way to approach our repeating history. :angry:

 

If going through the proper channels afforded the citizenry such as the White House Petition,  contacting our representatives (45 Congressman Ask DEA Not To Ban Kratom.),  and any legal action brought by organizations such as the American Kratom Association to halt this oppression, does not work then what is left? Civil disobedience, guerrilla tactics, armed conflict? We need to stand up and defend our rights because they keep taking them away!

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who needs the FDA?

who needs the DEA?

Neither one has protected us from anything. Both take our money, jail and kill our loved ones too. Both are financially supported by every tax payer.  maybe one day...some group of humans will come up with a new different way to approach our repeating history. :angry:

FDA are the only ones enforcing the lead in water laws.

 

i dont get why people forget this. why you forget flint already, tric?

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FDA are the only ones enforcing the lead in water laws.

 

i dont get why people forget this. why you forget flint already, tric?

sure, I get it, but a few "good" calls , by these previously employed monsanto, big pharma, et al, monsters does not erase the years of poisoned meds and foods allowed into our diet, sorry. I dont forget Flint, but what will the fda do to the criminals that allowed the mass poisoning of a city.

 

will the fda enforce the chromium levels found in EVERY city water supply? when?  why is any amount of mercury allowed into our mouths by dentists? its got to be one of the top 5 most toxic substances known to man.   I aint buying it t, this group is just another gang of criminals and crooked politicians accepting cash for faulty studies and allowing the poisoning to continue, in the name of corporate cash already.

my2c is all

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DEA spokeswoman Barbara Carreno,

"It's not that the DEA is unsympathetic to people who have chronic pain or who are addicted to opioids," she says. "We are people just like everyone else who get in a car accidents and break our femurs and get cancer and have surgery and are in need of pain medicine. … It’s just that science says this is a problem and we need to keep people safe."

 

http://www.usnews.com

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URGENT!!! SENATOR HATCH DEAR COLLEAGUE LETTER!!!


Senator Hatch is one of the longest serving senators and is probably the most well-known leader on dietary supplement issues in the country! We do have a draft copy we can't share until it's finalized tomorrow morning.


This is IT!!! We likely only have TWO days to get signees, but so many have already shown interest thanks to all who have made calls and sent e-mails already!



Call, tell them your age and occupation, that you are a responsible consumer of the botanical kratom because it has *helped you by ______ and ask that they sign the Hatch Dear Colleague letter asking the DEA to delay the proposed scheduling of Kratom "to allow for both a public comment period and sufficient time for the DEA to outline it's evidentiary standards to the Congress on the justification of this proposed action."


In the morning he may have an original co-signer making it a bipartisan effort, so it may become the Hatch ® and ________ (D) letter) .


Call 202-224-3121 and press option #1 for Senate. Find and e-mail your senator here http://www.senate.gov/senators/contact/


ENDLESS PRESSSURE! ENDLESSLY APPLIED!




Peters, Gary C. - (D - MI)

Class II

724 Hart Senate Office Building Washington DC 20510

(202) 224-6221

Contact: www.peters.senate.gov/contact/email-gary

horiz_content_break.gif

Stabenow, Debbie - (D - MI)

Class I

731 Hart Senate Office Building Washington DC 20510

(202) 224-4822

Contact: www.stabenow.senate.gov/?p=contact
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http://www.hatch.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/keeping-supplements-safe-for-all-americans?page=180

 

Keeping Supplements Safe for All Americans

Health specialists and dieticians have long sought to provide food-based products with certain health benefits to consumers in a safe and legal manner. To that end, Senator Hatch teamed with key regulators, industry stakeholders, and concerned citizens to create the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA). This bipartisan legislation created a clear definition for dietary supplements and established the framework for their regulation as foods.

DSHEA defined the term "dietary supplement" as a product taken by mouth that contains a "dietary ingredient" intended to supplement the diet. The "dietary ingredients" in these products may include: vitamins, minerals, herbs or other botanicals, amino acids, and substances such as enzymes, organ tissues, glandulars, and metabolites. Dietary supplements can also be extracts or concentrates, and may be found in many forms, such as tablets, capsules, softgels, gelcaps, liquids, or powders. They can also come in other forms such as a bar, but if they are, information on their label must not represent the product as a conventional food or a sole item of a meal or diet. Whatever the form, DSHEA places dietary supplements in a special category under the general umbrella of "foods"—not drugs—and requires that every dietary supplement be labeled as such.

Over the years, Senator Hatch and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have sought to clarify misconceptions about dietary supplement regulation. While dietary supplements are regulated differently than drugs, they are responsibly regulated by the FDA, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and state government agencies in each of the 50 states. In fact, the FDA and FTC oversee nearly all aspects of dietary supplement manufacturing, labeling, and marketing with extensive regulations and enforcement actions.

The materials below have been compiled from Senator Hatch’s own work as well as from materials provided by the FDA.

Edited by cristinew
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