The DEA is withdrawing a proposal to ban another plant citing public outcry
&gt; Schedule I substances are those that have the following findings:<p>&gt; 1. The drug or other substance has a high potential for abuse.<p>&gt; 2. The drug or other substance has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States.<p>&gt; 3. There is a lack of accepted safety for use of the drug or other substance under medical supervision<p>Kratom doesn&#x27;t meet any of those requirements, let alone all three. The scheduling process requires reform, and this impacts a large part of the world since drug scheduling (and patent protection on pharma) are part of American trade agreements.<p>Almost every action the DEA has taken has worsened the opioid epidemic and benefited the Mexican cartels. They didn&#x27;t require doctor licensing or tracking for lower-level pain medication, they were then slow to crack down on the pill mills - once a large part of the population was addicted, they were then very slow to license more methadone programs and suboxone doctors for the fresh wave of addicts, and now they want to shut down one of the only free and working treatment options (Kratom)<p>The only result you can expect from the DEA&#x27;s actions are more and more opioid deaths. It is up to 18,000 a year now - over 3x as many Americans who were killed in Iraq in total - so 3 Iraq wars <i>per year</i>.<p>The NYTimes has an excellent series of stories on the opioid epidemic - the video of the woman overdosing in a supermarket while her child attempts to wake her up are shattering:<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nytimes.com&#x2F;2016&#x2F;09&#x2F;28&#x2F;us&#x2F;addicted-parents-get-their-fix-even-with-children-watching.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nytimes.com&#x2F;2016&#x2F;09&#x2F;28&#x2F;us&#x2F;addicted-parents-get-th...</a><p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nytimes.com&#x2F;2015&#x2F;11&#x2F;08&#x2F;opinion&#x2F;sunday&#x2F;how-doctors-helped-drive-the-addiction-crisis.html?_r=0" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nytimes.com&#x2F;2015&#x2F;11&#x2F;08&#x2F;opinion&#x2F;sunday&#x2F;how-doctors...</a><p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nytimes.com&#x2F;2016&#x2F;10&#x2F;13&#x2F;well&#x2F;family&#x2F;opioids-may-interfere-with-parenting-instincts-study-finds.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nytimes.com&#x2F;2016&#x2F;10&#x2F;13&#x2F;well&#x2F;family&#x2F;opioids-may-in...</a>