Home News International News The WHO’s ECDD Hears Arguments in Favor of Kratom

The WHO’s ECDD Hears Arguments in Favor of Kratom

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The WHO’s ECDD Hears Arguments in Favor of Kratom

The World Health Organization (WHO)’s Expert Committee on Drug Dependence (ECDD) held it’s 44th meeting on October 11. The meeting featured presentations from organizations, including the American Kratom Association (AKA), on preliminary research results in support of kratom. AKA is asking that the ECDD keep kratom off the international scheduled drug list. Otherwise, kratom will see research hindrance similar to what cannabis is going through in the U.S.

The Senior Fellow on Public Policy at AKA, Mac Haddow, spoke to the ECDD during the presentation. “All public presentations on kratom were clearly opposed to the international scheduling of kratom,” he said. “In fact, only one of the speakers addressed an issue other than kratom, demonstrating both how united the scientific community studying kratom is against a ban, and how unnecessary it was to include kratom in the WHO ECDD’s prereview process.” 

With the scientific community and advocates against the scheduling of kratom internationally, how has this naturally growing plant come to international attention?

FDA

Mac Haddow suspected the answer and said so during the ECDD presentation. “Clearly the anti-kratom sentiment is coming from one source: the FDA. Although we didn’t hear the anti-kratom speakers today, the FDA will have the ability to make their views on kratom known as a part of the member-state submissions. However, based on the strong presentations made on the science of kratom during the presentations this morning, I believe we have established the position that the FDA is unfairly biased against kratom.”

In the past, the FDA has tried to place kratom onto the controlled substance list in the United States. The former FDA commissioner during the Trump administration, Scott Gottlieb, tweeted about kratom, saying the substance is “fueling the opioid addiction crisis.”

Most recently, the FDA tried to ban kratom by shortening the time the public had to respond to a public question. The FDA would put kratom on the controlled substance list as a Schedule 1 drug, the same rating as cannabis. However, AKA and its supporters won an appeal. This appeal extended the response time to the standard length of response time (2 months). In that amount of time, they flooded the message board with hundreds of thousands of comments in favor of kratom. 

“Making [kratom] a prohibited substance is going to actually encourage people to go use more dangerous drugs,” said Dr. Albert Perez Garcia-Romeu, a professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine who studies kratom. This could become more harmful in the future for the general public’s health, Garcia-Romeu speculated. 

Future

For now, the EDCC hasn’t released any statement surrounding the potential international ban on Kratom. The AKA hopes their statements, along with others present on October 11, will have an impact on their overall decision. As more information becomes available, we will update you with the latest.

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