Ohio Board Of Pharmacy Recommends Ban On Kratom

WASHINGTON, — Dave Herman, Chairman of the American Kratom Association, strongly denounced the action by the State Board of Pharmacy on October 1, 2018, to commence the process to schedule kratom as a Schedule I controlled substance in Ohio.

“The findings of the Ohio Board of Pharmacy today parrot the false propaganda of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in their crusade to ban kratom. The FDA attempted the same scheduling process in 2016, and that recommendation was rejected by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) because the FDA data failed to meet the required standards for the scheduling of kratom at the federal level,” Herman stated.

“Since their failure in 2016, the FDA has launched a broad-based campaign to demonize this natural plant by consistently misstating the science and the actual pharmacologic activity of kratom,” continued Herman. “The FDA has flooded state regulators, including the Ohio Board of Pharmacy with false claims and disinformation about the addiction profile and safety of this safe botanical plant.”

The FDA Commissioner, Scott Gottlieb, has repeatedly stated that kratom is an opioid, but credible scientists strongly dispute that statement showing that kratom’s pharmacologic activity is distinctly different than classic opioids where the respiratory system of the user shuts down and leads to overdoses that have created the opioid crisis that we are in today.

Continue Reading at Biospace