The Scheduling of Kratom and Selective Use of Data

Kratom is a traditional drug from Southeast Asia that has been an emerging new substance in the United States. On August 30, 2016, the DEA announced the intention to emergency schedule kratom into Schedule I. To support this decision, the DEA cited an increase in drug seizures of kratom and an incre...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of psychoactive drugs Vol. 50; no. 2; pp. 114 - 120
Main Authors Griffin, O. Hayden, Webb, Megan E.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States Taylor & Francis 01.04.2018
Haight Ashbury Publications
Subjects
Controlled Substances Act
Drug Enforcement Administration
drug panic
Federal regulation
Folk medicine
kratom
Psychotropic drugs
Drug Enforcement Administration
kratom
Controlled Substances Act
drug panic
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Summary:Kratom is a traditional drug from Southeast Asia that has been an emerging new substance in the United States. On August 30, 2016, the DEA announced the intention to emergency schedule kratom into Schedule I. To support this decision, the DEA cited an increase in drug seizures of kratom and an increase in calls to poison control concerning kratom. However, a short time later, on October 12, 2016, the DEA withdrew the intent to schedule kratom after public and congressional backlash. The withdrawal by the DEA was somewhat unprecedented. To better understand both decisions, the current article examines the evidence the DEA cited to support their decision to emergency schedule kratom and the degree and type of media coverage of kratom to determine if a media-driven drug panic occurred.
ISSN:0279-1072
2159-9777
DOI:10.1080/02791072.2017.1371363