Allen Frances, Professor Emeritus from Duke University writes about how the DEA is wrong in its targeted attacks about the popular botanical, Kratom:
Kratom, a tree that grows in many countries in southeast Asia, is a member of the coffee family. Its leaves, generally brewed into a tea, have stimulant and relaxing properties that have long been prized by farmers and indigenous peoples and used in traditional medicine.
Kratom’s active ingredients bind to opioid receptors, but not nearly so powerfully as do the much more dangerous opioids produced by the drug industry and by the drug cartels.
Not surprisingly, Kratom has begun to achieve some popularity in the US among chronic pain patients trying to avoid the opioid compounds so often dispensed carelessly by doctors. It is also used by people trying to withdraw from opioid or alcohol dependency.
Read the full story at the Huffington Post