NEWSWEEK
Published Jun 28, 2024 at 8:45 AM EDT : https://www.newsweek.com/my-company-sells-products-containing-kratom-government-should-regulate-us-opinion-1918462
A slew of recent news headlines have focused on something that many Americans had never heard of—kratom. A Chicago suburb passed an ordinance to ban it just as Rhode Island took steps toward lifting a ban. National Geographic published a piece about how little information is available on kratom despite its use by about 2 million Americans—quite possibly more, as Newsweek has reported. And Indonesia, a leading exporter, announced its own new regulations.
I come at this with a unique perspective. I’m a health fanatic, and a couple of years ago, became CEO of a company that sells kratom products. Many people are surprised when I tell them where I stand. I want the government to regulate any and all products that include kratom. Doing so would be best for people’s health and safety.
It would also be the best move for business. The global kratom market is valued at $1.9 billion and expected to triple by 2030. Bans leave parts of the United States out of this lucrative industry; regulation would help ensure safety and maintain the tremendous benefits of kratom while minimizing the risks.
To understand why, it’s important to start with kratom is—and isn’t.
As the National Institutes of Health explained, kratom is a tree in the coffee family. People in southeast Asia have long used its leaves for traditional medicine. Two compounds from kratom “interact with opioid receptors in the brain,” the NIH said. Users “have reported both stimulant-like effects (increased energy, alertness, rapid heart rate) and effects like those of opioids and sedatives (relaxation, pain relief, confusion). Some people in Western countries use kratom to try to treat pain or manage opioid withdrawal symptoms.”
The Food and Drug Administration called it a “new dietary ingredient for which there is inadequate information to provide reasonable assurance that such ingredient does not present a significant or unreasonable risk of illness or injury.” Under FDA rules, it may not be marketed as “a drug product, a dietary supplement, or a food additive in conventional food.” The Cleveland Clinic, meanwhile, warned that “in extreme cases, kratom has even caused death.”
But selling kratom outside of “conventional food” is still legal. Why, given these warnings? In no small part because many people have experienced profound positive effects from it.
As Maia Szalavitz, author of Undoing Drugs, explained in Scientific American, “Kratom does appear to be far safer than all illegal and most prescription opioids. … Given the large number of people who regularly use it and the low number of fatalities, researchers estimate that it is more than 1,000 times less likely to kill than typical prescription opioids. Moreover, in nearly all overdose deaths associated with kratom, it was accompanied by stronger drugs that kill more often, so it is not clear that it actually played a major role or even any at all.”
Mason Marks, director of Harvard Law School’s Project on Psychedelics Law and Regulation, wrote in STAT that kratom “fills an important niche in the public health ecosystem.” Among the fans of kratom are U.S. veterans, who say it has helped them with PTSD.
So what’s the solution? Stripping away everyone’s legal access to kratom isn’t it. But neither is the current situation, in which anyone can pick up products containing kratom at all sorts of stores. Since the substance is unregulated, people often don’t know how much kratom is in any product, whether it’s safe for them, and whether it could interact with medicines they take.
If the government were to reclassify kratom as a supplement, the FDA could regulate it. This would require product manufacturers to follow certain rules, including in how they label products.
This month, a group of scientists from Johns Hopkins University, the University of Florida, and Thomas Jefferson University published a study calling for FDA regulation. Noting that “many kratom consumers in the United States and globally report improved health, wellbeing, and quality-of-life from taking kratom,” they wrote that research showed “there is presently an adequate epidemiological and basic science evidence base to initiate regulation, as is already occurring in many states, and which could be expertly developed by FDA’s Office of Dietary Supplements.” The study also noted that some people find it “life-saving” but also “habit-forming,” and that some self-report “addiction,” a term used in a colloquial sense rather than as a diagnosis.
It’s not all up to the government. At my company, we have chosen to revamp our packaging to fill it with warnings and QR codes encouraging people to get more information. If we see that a customer orders a lot within a short time frame, we call them to make sure everything is OK. Businesses should do all this and more.
Plant-based medicines are filled with potential. We should be looking for ways to deliver that potential to Americans while mitigating the risks. I have no doubt that this can be done.
Ryan Niddel is CEO of MIT45.
The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.
