Kratom (Mitragyna Speciosa Korth) is a natural plant with many properties and uses. People use kratom for different purposes: mood improvement, motivation, focus, energy, relaxation, soothing, and calmness, to name a few. At least, kratom has spread in America since 40 years ago. and in the last 20 years to date, kratom users in the world have increased rapidly. this of course illustrates that kratom is very much accepted by many people, and of course it has a very helpful positive effect.
The US has the world’s most sophisticated and multi-pronged substance abuse and product safety monitoring network detecting signals of gateway drug use and ways in which one substance may contribute to the abuse and risks of another. US monitoring systems include the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), Monitoring the Future (MTF), Treatment Episodes Data Set,and the DEA’s National Forensic Laboratory Information System (NFLIS). It also includes the Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN)which reported a variety of potential signals of emerging substance threats while kratom use was rapidly increasing from the 1990s through its pre-2012 reports, as well as the “new” DAWN system that reported on 2021 data in its 2022 report. None of these systems, nor more than 20,000 comments to the DEA, suggested that kratom contributed to the opioid epidemic.
Kratom was also never listed in DEA’s annual National Drug Threat Assessment, though DEA routinely monitors kratom as a “chemical of concern” Despite over 10 years of monitoring, DEA has not listed kratom or mitragynine or 7-hydroxymitragynine as a national drug threat.
