Osteopaths defend Kratom as opioid alternative

Over a year ago, trade reps for the kratom supplement business began calling everyone in media hoping to get scientific and political coverage for protesting a DEA ban they suspected was coming. Sure enough, it did, but much of the work that went into progress at that time is now bearing fruit for the kratom sales industry.

The Mitragyna speciosa plant, indigenous to Southeast Asia, has been used for centuries under the belief that it can relieve fatigue, pain, cough and diarrhea and, more recently, aid in opioid withdrawal. Anecdotal evidence has led to a Journal of the American Osteopathic Association report claiming a DEA ban on kratom would stifle scientific understanding of the herb's active chemical components and documented pharmacologic properties. The DEA was right, calls to poison control centers have skyrocketed as it has become popular in supplement stores.

There is little surprise that osteopaths and the alternative medicine community are rushing to support its continued availability.

The report cites the issues that are the concern for the medical community - pharmacologically active compounds including mitragynine, 7-hydroxymitragynine, paynantheine, speciogynine and 20 other substances. To drug experts, that makes it dangerous, it will kill Godzilla, as the American Council on Science and Health phrased it.

Walter Prozialeck, chairman of the Department of Pharmacology at Midwestern University Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine, says "Many important medications, including the breast cancer treatment tamoxifen, were developed from plant research."

"While the DEA and physicians have valid safety concerns, it is not at all clear that kratom is the culprit behind the adverse effects," said fellow osteopath Anita Gupta, DO, PharmD and special advisor to the FDA.

Kratom is currently banned in states including Alabama, Florida, Indiana, Arkansas, Wisconsin and Tennessee. The DEA decided to ban it but it is now scheduled to decide whether to place kratom on its list of Schedule 1 drugs, a classification for compounds thought to have no known medical benefit, such as marijuana, LSD and heroin.