Kratom and DEA - Militarized arm of the Pharmaceutical Lobby

[algernon]

Synopsis:

'Kratom' is the word used for the leaf material of the Mitragyna speciosa tree. Kratom has a 1000 year history of medicinal use in southeast Asia and there are an estimated hundreds of thousands of Americans that use Kratom to treat their medical problems. Kratom is easily accessible and cheap.

There is a new opioid drug in the pharmaceutical pipeline that has already had successful primate trials using the name 'MGM-16'. This new contender poised to enter the multi-billion dollar prescription opioid market is synthesized from two of the alkaloids found in kratom, mitragynine & 7-hydroxymitragynine.

The media is reporting that the DEA will be banning Kratom in the USA at the end of this month by putting kratom on the schedule 1 drug list in response to the imminent public hazard that it poses.

What the DEA is actually doing is making two alkaloids (mitragynine & 7-hydroxymitragynine) in to schedule 1 drugs using the DEA's 'emergency scheduling' provision. A provision that eliminates the requirement for a public comment period and reduces their enforcement timeline down to 30 days from the day of their announcement (which was August 31st, 2016).

Interesting to note that although Kratom contains dozens of active alkaloids the DEA is only addressing two of them with this emergency action. The very two alkaloids that are used to make this new patentable pharmaceutical drug (trial drug name MGM-16).
 

Conclusion:
The DEA is acting as the militarized wing of the pharmaceutical lobby! It is currently engaged in a covert operation to keep the USA buying prescription opiods instead of using cheap and easily accessible plants. The DEA is preparing the US market for this new drug by outlawing the very plant material it is being synthesized from. Because of this there will be thousands of people with medical ailments in the USA unexpectedly forced off there medicine at the end of this month.

 

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Other things to note.

 

Over the last 5 years the poison control center has received approximately 600 calls from people who had believed they overdosed on Kratom, the DEA is using this as part of their reasoning for the "emergency" scheduling. 600 CALLS, not 600 deaths, not 600 cases of brain damage, 600 calls. The side effect of overdosing on Kratom is not feeling well and then throwing up.

 

Further info on the pharmaceutical connections.

 

One name: Chuck Rosenberg

 

Current position: Appointed Head of the DEA on 5/15/2015

 

Past Positions: - Was Counsel at Hunton and Williams (2000 - 2002) which have ties to Big Pharma (Source here: https://www.hunton.com/Life_Sciences/) - Partner at Hogan Lovells US LLP also known as Hogan & Hartson (2008-2013). This company here is very important to remember. We'll come back to it. (Source here: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/department-justice-announces-new-acting-administrator-drug-enforcement-administration)

 

It turns out that Hogan & Hartson does quite a bit of lobbying for Big Pharma.

Source here: https://www.opensecrets.org/revolving/rev_summary.php?id=70942

 

Now here's where everything ties together. This company "The Janssen Pharmaceutical Company" a division of Johnson & Johnson which is in the process of developing on what seems a synthetic version of Kratom named PZM21. https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2016/08/40...killer-scratch

 

As stated in the link above, Henry Lin is now principal scientist at The Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies, a division of Johnson & Johnson. Well it turns out that Henry Lin "H.L. (referring to co-lead author Henry Lin, PhD of UCSF) received a pre-doctoral fellowship from the PhRMA Foundation.

 

Johnson & Johnson and PhRMA have been old clients of the lobbying firm Hogan Lovells/Hartson since at least the year 2000 as seen in the PDF below. See Melissa Bianchi (https://ebdgroup.knect365.com/digitalmedicine-showcase/speakers/melissa-bianchi) page 20, Donna Boswell (http://www.hoganlovells.com/donna-boswell) page 21, Irene F. Chang (http://influenceexplorer.com/individual/irene-f-chang/228d5db223e442ae824474b5763d110d?cycle=2000) page 22, Stephan Lawton (https://www.bio.org/media/press-release/stephan-lawton-joins-bio-vice-president-regulatory-affairs-general-counsel) page 31, Warren Maruyama (http://www.hoganlovells.com/warren-maruyama) page 33 and many , many more. https://www.citizen.org/documents/pharmadrugwar.PDF

 

We also have Trevena Inc, which is also in the trial phases with their own Mitragynine-mimicking synthetic (similar to PZM21). And of course, Trevena has ties to pharmaceutical company "Glaxo Wellcome", which are also clients of Hogan & Hartson. More info on Trevena's Kratom like synthetic TRV374 here: http://www.trevena.com/TRV734.php

 

Just check employees profile from Trevena and quite a bit of the worked for Glaxo such as Maxine Gowen (https://www.linkedin.com/in/maxine-gowen-2711259?trk=pub-pbmap) and Conrad Cowan (https://www.linkedin.com/in/conrad-cowan-2808849)

 

So in a nutshell... Chuck Rosenberg (Head of the DEA) just very recently used work for Hogan & Hartson which lobby's for the pharmaceutical industry. Hogan & Hartson's big Pharma client list includes Johnson & Johnson, PhRMA and Glaxo Wellcome. The Janssen Pharmaceutical company (Division of J&J) is in the process of creating a synesthetic version of Kratom. The principal scientist for PZM21 (Henry Lin) works for Janssen Pharmaceuticals and also received a pre-doctoral fellowship from the PhRMA foundation.. which again are both clients of Hogan & Hartson, which the head of the DEA Chuck Rosenberg recently used to work for.

 

And the cherry on top.. Hogan & Hartson tie to the FDA

http://www.law360.com/articles/43211/hogan-hartson-adds-partner-to-pharma-practice

https://www.hoganlovells.com/en/service/pharmaceutical-and-biotechnology-regulatory-law

 

 

 

Here is the DEA proposed ruling - https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2016/08/31/2016-20803/schedules-of-controlled-substances-temporary-placement-of-mitragynine-and-7-hydroxymitragynine-into

 

It's mind numbing to read. Apparently they don't have to have sources for anything, they just say

 

- People abuse it (whatever that means)

- It's dangerous (whatever that means)

- Large quantities are imported

 

Therefore

 

It's dangerous, abused and tons of it are on the street, we need to ban it ASAP!

 

Something else to consider, the DEA like any other government agency is a parasite, and once it grows it does not willingly shrink. There are almost 5000 DEA field agents in the USA, if something like Cannabis were to be removed from their schedule 1 list (the most dangerous level a drug can achieve) how many people would no longer be needed and lose their job? If 75% of their "work" is enforcing these "laws", once something is added, such as Kratom it can never be removed, they will add the personnel and infrastructure to enforce it. The prison industrial complex depends on it, the judges the courts, the DEA agents that get a paycheck for putting people in cages.

 

They will not allow them self to be eliminated by removing their ability to enforce these things.

[Mister Mister]

Sad and predictable.  How many people have died/suffered because they didn't have access to prohibited substances?

[RamynKing]

Thanks for reporting on this.

Npr has been buzzing about kratom for a few days so i can tell theres an operation going on lol.

 

Cant mention national propaganda radio enough.

[A4E]

Stuff that works on cancer is also banned. Like apricot seeds. Hemp oil.

 

The world would be quite different without governments banning everything.

 

Did you know Alcohol is the most dangerous drug?

[algernon]

The media is disgusting. Search Youtube for news clips on Kratom. They all received the same memo, "It's dangerous, unregulated, no medical use and causes people to commit suicide". What's quite amazing is the fact that every single media clip from all over the country I found had the same leaning, zero research, zero actual reporting, just repeating the party line. How many people did they interview that took it and allowed them to completely stop taking dangerous opioid drugs and help with their physical addiction and reduce pain? Zero.

 

There was one clip of a mother so happy it was being banned, her son committed suicide while taking Kratom, of course no mention of any other drugs he might have been taking, or why he was depressed and suicidal to begin with, only the Kratom was mentioned, and the mother was able to place blame elsewhere and not on herself.

 

What I find mind blowing about this entire thing is the fact that it doesn't even make you high! The propaganda since before I was born was Cannabis makes you high therefore = bad. Growing up in a religious household and in churches it was always said high = bad. Now no one even tries to do that, it's just "We're doing it for your safety".

 

I have a friend who uses about 1g of Kratom per day to help with medical issues, there is no high, no impairment, it just makes the pain manageable. There are no side effects like other Opioid drugs, and no addiction. Of course the pharmaceutical lobby can not have this - http://www.aol.com/article/2016/09/19/a-searing-new-report-claims-opioid-drugmakers-spent-8-times-as-m/21475187/