Rachel Carlson

It's really tricky.

A similar question came up almost a decade ago, August 2016.

The Drug Enforcement Administration, or DEA, wanted to make those two active ingredients in kratom we talked about, metragynine and 7-hydroxymetragynine, controlled substances.

Meaning Kratom would go from being widely available to highly restricted.

And there was a huge wave of protest following that announcement.

People were sending letters, writing comments.

Saying, like, don't touch our Kratom.

Don't regulate it.

Right.

And after getting all those comments, the DEA decided not to move forward.

Wow.

So it's possible 70H could follow a similar path.

But for now, it's up to states.

There are some, like Ohio, Florida, Rhode Island, Vermont, Indiana.

They have either bans, limitations, or age restrictions on either Kratom or 70H.

There are also some countries where Kratom products are illegal, including Australia, Sweden, France.

And after reporting all this, I feel like we're in ethical and legal limbo.

Where are the lines when you're weighing the risks of a drug against its potential rewards?

Ultimately, whether or not 7-OH is scheduled will be up to the DEA.

So I'm interested to see where they draw this line and what happens next.