Recently the head of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) gave a briefing to congress on kratom.
The briefing by NIDA Director Nora Volkow came a little over three months after companion bills that would regulate kratom nationwide while restricting government agencies from prohibiting it were filed in both the US Senate and House of Representatives.
“So what do we know [about kratom]?”, asked Volkow early in her speech. “We do know that kratom is a plant similar to the coffee plant. It is a traditional medicine used for centuries in South East Asia”.
Beyond this, “unfortunately, we don’t know much”, said Volkow. To fix this, she says agencies have been allocating resources to conduct clinical trials to investigators the potential benefits of kratom’s key compound, including “for the treatment of drug addiction.” Volkow said her agency is “very much open” to the potential upsides of kratom.
The bipartisan Kratom Consumer Protection Act (Senate Bill 3039 and House Resolution 5905) is sponsored by Senator Mike Lee (R) and Senator Cory Booker (D) in the Senate, and Representatives Mark Pocan (D) and Jack Bergman (R) in the House. The proposed law would require the FDA to study the health effects of Kratom while prohibiting the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) from placing restrictions on the plant that are harsher than those placed on other food and dietary supplements.
The measure states that the government could not “treat kratom, or any product derived from or containing kratom, as an adulterated dietary supplement”, nor could it “require kratom to undergo requirements for notification as a new dietary ingredient.”
The legislation also requires the DHHS to conduct a public hearing on the potential risks and health benefits of kratom, and it would establish a Kratom Research Task Force.
You can view Volkrow’s full comments on the Facebook page for the American Kratom Association (who facilitate this briefing) by clicking here.
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