Mixing opioids and popular sedatives may be deadly

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/mixing-opioids-oxycodone-and-popular-sedatives-xanax-may-be-deadly/

They liberally throw around verbs and adjectives that makes one think that things are not only POSSIBLE.. but.. they suggest that bad/lethal outcomes are ABSOLUTE.  They go to a area that is KNOWN for high incidents of drug/substance abuse and claim that MORE PEOPLE are DYING from pts taking the combo of certain medications.. they DO NOT STATE.. if the pts were taking the combination of medications as prescribers OR was taking more than prescribed and combining them with other substances including alcohol.

They claim that 28,000 died from opiate OD in 2014… and HALF was from prescription opiates..  SO, 14,000 died from a OD of ILLEGAL OPIATES ??

More people died from prescription drug overdoses in 2014 than any other year on record.. WHAT MEDICATIONS were involved ??  Controlled med prescriptions typically account for 15%-20% of all prescriptions…  I thought this article was about the dangers of the opiate/benzo combo ?  Just throw in an  OBSCURE FACTOID ???  

The number of patients prescribed both an opioid pain reliever and a benzodiazepine increased by 41 percent between 2002 and 2014.. SOUNDS SCARY ?… that is only a average of a 3% PER YEAR increase.. Doesn’t sound so bad now ?  Our overall population increases abt 3%/yr.

This is NOT A LAW or a RULE… prescribing these two medications is still up to the prescriber and untold number of medications have a BLACK BOX WARNING from the FDA that prescribers use EVERY DAY.

Mixing prescription opioid painkillers with a class of drugs that includes popular sedatives such as Valium and Xanax can cause a fatal overdose, U.S. health officials warned Wednesday.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it will require “boxed warnings” on 389 different products to inform health professionals and the public of this potentially lethal drug interaction, FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf said during a media briefing.

Benzodiazepines — which include Valium and Xanax — affect the central nervous system, and are used to treat conditions like anxiety, insomnia and seizures, said Dr. Doug Throckmorton, deputy director of regulatory programs with the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.

If benzodiazepines are combined with opioid medications such as oxycodone (Oxycontin) and hydrocodone (Vicodin), a drug interaction can occur that could result in coma or death, Throckmorton said.

“Nearly one in three unintentional overdose deaths from prescription opioids also involve benzodiazepines,” said Baltimore Health Commissioner Dr. Leana Wen, who worked with the FDA to produce the new warning.

Products that will carry the boxed warning — the strictest one possible — will include benzodiazepines, prescription opioid painkillers such as oxycodone and hydrocodone, and cough medicines that contain opioids, the FDA said.

Combining these drugs can dangerously depress a person’s breathing and make them extremely sleepy, the FDA warned.

Califf said he heard about this threat during a recent trip to the Appalachians, a region hard hit by the prescription drug abuse epidemic.

“One thing really stood out to me, that I heard consistently from each place on our trip — benzodiazepines and opioids were an increasing threat for overdose as seen in their emergency departments​,” he said.

“This rise in overdoses and deaths due to the combined use of these products isn’t new,” Califf added. “Communities have been seeing this trend for some time, but ultimately we needed data in order to act today.”

A review conducted by the FDA identified a troubling trend in which patients are often prescribed these drugs in combination, even though they can interact in dangerous ways.

The number of patients prescribed both an opioid pain reliever and a benzodiazepine increased by 41 percent between 2002 and 2014. That translates to an increase of more than 2.5 million opioid painkiller patients also receiving benzodiazepines, Throckmorton said.

“We know approximately half of concurrent benzodiazepine and opioid analgesic prescriptions were dispensed to patients on the same day and prescribed by the same health care provider,” Throckmorton said.

More people died from prescription drug overdoses in 2014 than any other year on record, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Opioids killed more than 28,000 people in 2014, and at least half of those deaths involved a prescription drug, the CDC says.

Doctors routinely prescribe​ benzodiazepines along with opioids, unaware of the potential overdose risk, Wen said.

“If a patient was in a car accident and experiencing neck pain, a clinician might prescribe opioids for the pain and benzodiazepines for muscle spasms,” she said. “A patient who is on benzodiazepines for anxiety disorder might get prescribed opioids for pain relief, and vice versa.”

Wen urged doctors to heed the new warning, and patients to review the drugs they’re taking.

“I urge patients to look inside your own medicine cabinets and ask, ‘What is this medication for? Do I need it? What are the side effects? Could there be a dangerous combination?’ “ she said. “Please speak to your doctor if you have questions or concerns.”

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Hi Steve My name is xxx and i guess im reaching out for help, let me start off and tell you a little, about myself. Im a 45 year man, that got hurt on the job, had 85 pound package fall on top of me, i worked for ups! At the time of my accident, I was going to school to become a certify mechanic.and i was part owner of janitorial bisness. while going to school and putting in my hours at used car dealership intill i finished school, Yes i know your going to ask, how is it possible to work 3 jobs and go to class. and get enough sleep, i didn’t  get much, but all i wanted to do was better myself for my family, My family and friends are the most important things in my life, my other love was cars. building racing them. My accident happened in 1992, my injuries were so intense i was in a wheel chair for the first year. at one point that doctor i was with, said i may never be able to walk agin. i was 23 when i was injured. so i rehabbed for 5 years, and yes at one point i was put oxy cotton, being young and thinking ok he’s a good doctor, at the time i was persribed those meds, i didn’t know how additive they were. So my next vist i requested not to be put something so strong and so additive. i ask for hyrocodone, it seemed to help atleast enough for me too give some type of relief. So after a long law suit and 5 years of hard work!!!!!! and rehab  i was able to get back on my feet, but that’s about it. i won my law suit, but the kicker is i had to stop going to school and yes lost all my jobs, My family stepped up and took care of me. never reached out for a free ride

 never got medacade. So after several years went by. i never even asked for disabilitie, i found a job that fit the restrictions that my doctor told me not to step over.  and stayed on meds while making a whole life changes. eveything i did  to take care of my family  i couldnt do any more, So being im kinda independent person and i was raised to work hard and respect what god has giving. i stayed on the meds at that time of corse hyrocodone 10 500. and it was working, atleast enough to still be a proud father and provider for my family. well my doctor retired and closed his office, So im going to say maybe 3 or 4 years went by. I did my rehab and i even made the biggest mistake of my life, I need to know what my body could handle. i stopped tacking the meds. that lasted a very short time before my back gave out again!!!!!! Yes back to where i started back to not be able to walk. So i had a cropractor friend. that stepped up to help me, after having seeing all my ex rays and mri reading. he told me he didn’t feel comfortable with doing any type of that feild. due the damage that im suffering from eveyday day in day out. So the situation was ok intill just resent. My cropractor friend was able to get me in with a pain management doctor. ive been with this same doctor since 2009, we sat down and came up with a plan to get me though my bad painful days. All i asked of him is please dont give anything that my cause to be a junky. im just looking for some relief from being in so much pain, of corse surgery has been my biggest problem. the surgery there wanting to do, all my resuch and talking with other patients that had the same surgery. They all told me they hurt worse after the surgery. like 2 people said it helped. so after my resuch i didn’t feel comfortable with any surgey, due to the lack of positive feedback. So this were im at now, still in more pain then anybody should have to deal with, because im not looking to get high off the meds i just wanted to manage my pain. So ive been on soma and hyrocodone 7.5 knowing yes i could get way stronger meds, but this is working, yes im still in pain that never stops. i know i could get much stronger meds, but i choice not too. So now you know alittle about why im reaching out for help. My problems started last year, My doctor had me on somas and the pain meds since early 2010. well last year walgreens told me i couldnt have both its considered a cocktail. they told me one or the other.My first question was my doctor wrote me this script and your telling me NO, how does this make sense, if this the case why am i paying my doctor when can over rule what he thinks is best. of corse no answer that made any sense to me was giving. So because i was so scared of losing my pain meds. i took the hit. but wait i went back to my doctor on my normal monthly visit. he said don’t worry about it and wrote 2 scipts and sent me to his pharmacy,  ok no problems well that didn’t last long before they closed theres door’s. ok i know your going holly crap this a long email. but i dont know what to do. So in May 5 i went to my apointment like every month. took my scipt into the same walgreens like ive always have. the pharmacist ask me like 5 times are these the only meds you get, and said yes, and she kept asking that same question. So i told about a year  and half ago, you took my soma away,  she ask why, and i told her that walgreens says thats a cocktail. she said i dont understand why they took them away, its not a benzo. of cores, i asked whats a benzo she said couple names zan x and some other meds i can’t remember. So i asked so your telling me,  i can have my soma back if my doctor is ok with it. she said yes. So this is were we are at now, today was my opponment june 5 went in, spoke with my doctor about the somas. he had no problems. So i go to same walgreens, and this is we’re things get interesting. So the pharmacies, starts to explain that in the future there might be a problem in the near future we will not fill any of your scripts, i ask why this is a long trem injury. and this is how we’ve been able to manage my pain, all she would tell me is there rules have changed, i understand your rules have changed and im trying to respect them. but if you decide to take me off what my doctor is writing me, how can you say no, she agreed that my doctor is trusted and a good doctor. but your not going to fill my on time doctor’s persribed script.  I hope i gave you enough information to give some adivce. its so important to me that i get some kind of answers please feel free to call me tex email. xxx-xxx-xxxx. thanks for any help and your time have a blessed day 

I would be nice if all healthcare professionals – especially pharmacists – were on the same page with the SAME ANSWER(S) !!!

Guess where the word/description “COCKTAIL” comes from ??? How about the DEA ?   They have stated that there is NO VALID MEDICAL USE for the combination of a opiate – muscle relaxant – benzo..

The “street name” for the combo of Hydocodone/Benzo/Soma is referred to as “The Holy Trinity”..  Other combinations – including with alcohol – have different “street names”.

Of course, there is always that rare incident that a particular pt would have a adverse reaction to just about any medication, or combination of medications. If a person is taking way above average of a combination of medications – and perhaps alcohol – almost certain serious adverse reactions – even death – can happen.

What seems to be at play here is that some pharmacists and chain pharmacies are taking the description of these adverse interaction and jumping to the conclusion that when taken as prescribed MAY, MIGHT, COULD, POSSIBLY cause adverse reactions and inserts the  “action word” for when people take excessive combinations of these medications “CAN” cause adverse interactions.

There are no BLACK/WHITE drug dosing problems when dealing with human beings… but.. these healthcare professionals apply the WORSE CASE to EVERY PT getting these medications in particular combinations.

Apparently their practicing “aggressive CYA”… if you JUST SAY NO…  there is no chance of anyone having an adverse reaction to the medications.. of course, the adverse reactions for a pt not having their health issues receiving proper therapy.  Of course, those healthcare professionals who are participating in this denial of care… WON’T FEEL A THING !!

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Two Utah doctors caught in spotlight of opioid lawsuits

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865681412/Two-Utah-doctors-caught-in-spotlight-of-opioid-lawsuits.html

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Drug War: Shutting down pill mills is only the start

https://www.newsandsentinel.com/opinion/editorials/2017/06/drug-war-shutting-down-pill-mills-is-only-the-start/

Buckeye State residents should, perhaps, take some pride in knowing the American Medical Association calls Ohio the top state in the country in terms of monitoring prescription drugs. The Board of Pharmacy’s Ohio Automated Rx Reporting System, established in 2006, has processed more than 24 million queries from doctors and other health professionals. In 2015, Gov. John Kasich had it integrated directly into electronic medical records and pharmacy dispensing systems.

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State of Addiction: DEA program works to make sure doctors aren’t over prescribing pain pills

http://www.koco.com/article/state-of-addiction-dea-program-works-to-make-sure-doctors-aren-t-overprescribing-pain-pills/9980504

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In Texas, Abstinence-Only Programs May Contribute To Teen Pregnancies

http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2017/06/05/530922642/in-texas-abstinence-only-programs-may-contribute-to-teen-pregnancies

To understand why teen pregnancy rates are so high in Texas, meet Jessica Chester. When Chester was in high school in Garland, she decided to attend the University of Texas at Dallas. She wanted to become a doctor.

“I was top of the class,” she says. “I had a GPA of 4.5, a full-tuition scholarship to UTD. I was not the stereotypical girl someone would look at and say, ‘Oh, she’s going to get pregnant and drop out of school.’ “

But right before her senior year of high school, Chester, then 17, missed her period. She bought a pregnancy test and told her mom to wait outside the bathroom door.

“I saw both lines came up,” Chester says. “I had tears and I remember just opening the door and she was standing there with her arms out and she just wrapped me up and hugged me. I just cried and she told me it’s going to be OK.”

Chester’s mother had also been a teen mom, and so had her grandmother.

Traditionally, the two variables most commonly associated with high teen birth rates are education and poverty, but a new study co-authored by Dr. Julie DeCesare, of the University of Florida’s OB-GYN residency program in Pensacola, shows that there’s more at play.

“We controlled for poverty as a variable, and we found these 10 centers where their teen birth rates were much higher than would be predicted,” she says.

Shots – Health News

Drop In Teen Pregnancies Is Due To More Contraceptives, Not Less Sex

DeCesare, whose research appears in the June issue of the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology, says several of those clusters were in Texas. The Dallas and San Antonio areas, for example, had teen pregnancy rates 50 percent and 40 percent above the national average.

Research shows teens everywhere are having sex, with about half of high school students saying they’ve had sexual intercourse. Gwen Daverth, CEO of the Texas Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, says the high numbers in Texas reflect policy, not promiscuity.

“What we see is there are not supports in place,” Daverth says. “We’re not connecting high-risk youth with contraception services. And we’re not supporting youth in making decisions to be abstinent.” The state needs to emulate more progressive policies found in other states, she says.

 

Chester with her then-boyfriend Marcus Chester and sons Ivory and Skylar. They have since married.

Courtesy of Jessica Chester

For years, California has invested in comprehensive sex education and access to contraception, Daverth says. There, the teenage birth rate dropped by 74 percent from 1991 to 2012. The teen birth rate in Texas also fell, but only by 56 percent.

In South Carolina, young women on Medicaid who have babies are offered the opportunity to get a long-acting form of birth control right after they give birth. They’re also trying that approach in parts of North Carolina. And Colorado subsidizes the cost of long-acting birth control. There, both abortions and teen birth rates are dropping faster than the national average.

Texas makes it hard for teenagers to get reproductive health care, Daverth says.

In Texas, if a 17-year-old mom wants prescription birth control, in most cases she needs her parents’ permission. “Only us and Utah have a law that if you’re already a parent, you are the legal medical guardian of your baby but you cannot make your own medical decisions without the now-grandma involved,” Daverth says.

That’s part of the reason, she notes, that Texas has the highest rate of repeat teen pregnancies in the country.

After Skylar was born, Chester wasn’t given contraception counseling and still wasn’t sure where to go for help. Three months later she was pregnant again. She and her then-boyfriend, now-husband hadn’t realized she could get pregnant so soon after having a baby. She was a full-time student at UT-Dallas at that point, double-majoring in molecular biology and business administration. But the education Chester never got, she says, was sex ed.

“In hindsight,” she says, “It’s like, ‘Dude, what were you all thinking? I came in 17, pregnant, why weren’t you all lining up the chart and showing me [my] options?’ “

Chester’s high school taught abstinence-only sex ed, and the majority of schools in Texas, either do that or don’t offer any sex education at all. But more districts do seem to be adopting “abstinence plus” — which still encourages abstinence but also includes information on other pregnancy prevention methods and sexually transmitted diseases. Still, abstinence-only education is king, and of course, some parents aren’t comfortable discussing sex with teens, much like Chester’s mother wasn’t.

Nicole Hudgens, a policy analyst with the socially conservative Texas Values public policy group, supports abstinence-only education and says there are plenty of options for young moms who become pregnant.

“There are so many places like crisis pregnancy centers that are able to help these girls that are in need,” Hudgens says.

Crisis pregnancy centers provide counseling and support for pregnant teens but don’t offer abortions or contraception.

Studies show access to contraception is key to reducing the teen pregnancy rate. And according to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, teen pregnancies in Texas cost the state $1.1 billion each year. Gwen Daverth says the costs are due to lost wages and an increased reliance on social services.

“One of the things we know is that 60 percent of teen parents will not graduate from high school and only 2 percent will go on to graduate from college,” Daverth says.

Jessica Chester did graduate from college. Her mom helped her through it, and she did end up taking out loans for day care, but she got a degree and at age 30 now has a job doing community outreach and family planning.

“I have a lot of support with my mother alone,” Chester says. “I had the example in front of me of [that getting pregnant young] doesn’t have to derail your plans, it doesn’t have to stop you from getting an education and a career.”

Chester and Marcus got married in 2010 and in 2014 planned to have another baby — Kameron, now 21 months.

Sitting in the couch at her home in Garland, Chester admits it can be tough watching friends graduate with medical degrees or who are further along in their careers. Sometimes, she says it can feel like she failed.

“Like I gave up on my goals and dreams or messed them up. But when I look at my children I don’t regret a thing. I’m not sad,” she says through tears. “It’s just the reality of knowing my life is completely altered because of decisions I made as a teenager.”

Then Chester hears her older boys laughing upstairs, wipes her tears and goes to cheer them on.

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With These 4 Words, the DEA Head Shut Down Any Hope of Legalizing Marijuana Anytime Soon

http://host.madison.com/business/investment/markets-and-stocks/with-these-words-the-dea-head-shut-down-any-hope/article_f21ee453-5b16-51d9-a666-3bd1c9afad4c.html

In recent years, growth in the marijuana industry has been phenomenal. In fact, you’d struggle to find an industry that could deliver comparable growth over an extended period of time, which is a prime reason why investors have flocked to marijuana stocks.

Last year in North America, according to cannabis research firm ArcView, net sales of cannabis were an estimated $53.3 billion. Of this amount, just $6.9 billion was conducted through legal channels. The remaining $46.4 billion stands as a pie-in-the-sky opportunity for the pot industry to attract new customers through legal means. This, along with record-high approval ratings for marijuana in Gallup’s and CBS News’ most recent polls, is what’s pushed many marijuana stocks higher by at least 100% over the trailing 12-month period.

Also noteworthy is the fact that our neighbors to the north and south could be readying to expand the use of legal marijuana. In Canada, where medical cannabis has been legal since 2001, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau introduced legislation that would make recreational weed legal for adult use by next summer. Meanwhile, legislation made it through Mexico’s Congress that would legalize medical marijuana throughout the country.

Where’s the U.S. while this is going on, you ask? Mostly stuck in neutral.

Federal scheduling of marijuana is holding the industry back

In terms of state-level legalizations, the U.S. has made marked progress in recent years. As of the end of 2016, more than half of all states (28) had legalized medical cannabis, and residents in eight states have voted to legalize recreational marijuana since Nov. 2012.

However, and this is the big “however,” the federal stance on marijuana remains the same today as it’s been for decades. Namely, cannabis is a schedule I substance, meaning it has no medical benefits and is entirely illegal — the same as heroin or LSD. This stance was considered acceptable to many back in the 1990s when, according to Gallup, just a quarter of respondents wanted weed legalized nationally. With approximately three out of five survey-takers wanting to see pot legalized nationally today, Congress’ view on marijuana isn’t all that popular.

In fact, categorizing marijuana as a schedule I substance has some pretty adverse impacts on companies that operate legally within the industry.

For example, most weed-based business have little to no access to basic banking services, ranging from obtaining a loan or line of credit to something as simple as getting a checking account. Since most financial institutions report to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, a federally created entity, and the federal government lists cannabis as schedule I, any banking institutions that offers services to pot-based businesses could, under a strict interpretation of the law, be guilty of money laundering.One option is to check out the top information of different loan sources and see if there are options of your business.

Furthermore, businesses involved in the marijuana industry face some pretty stiff tax disadvantages. IRS tax code 280E disallows businesses that sell federally illegal substances, like marijuana, from taking normal corporate tax deductions. The result is pot-based businesses get stuck paying tax on their gross profits (should they be profitable), as opposed to net profits like normal businesses.

You can essentially kiss any chance of legalization goodbye under the Trump administration

Though the public is holding out hope that lawmakers on Capitol Hill will take notice of the shifting tide toward marijuana, the chances of that happening are slim-to-none, and commentary from the chief of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) last week supported that view.

DEA Chief Chuck Rosenberg reinforced his previous view on weed in just four words last week, saying that “marijuana is not medicine” while speaking at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio.

Despite acknowledging that medical marijuana has demonstrated some positive benefits in terms of treating childhood epilepsy, Rosenburg said, “If it turns out that there is something in smoked marijuana that helps people, that’s awesome. I will be the last person to stand in the way of that. But let’s run it through the Food and Drug Administration process, and let’s stick to the science on it.”

Rosenburg’s commentary may refer to GW Pharmaceuticals’ (NASDAQ: GWPH) Epidiolex, an oral cannabidiol solution that wowed during multiple phase 3 trials in two rare forms of childhood-onset epilepsy, Dravet syndrome and Lennox-Gastaut syndrome. With statistically significant reductions seen in seizure frequency, Epidiolex is on track to potentially gain FDA approval, partially debunking Rosenburg’s thesis on medical marijuana (i.e., it’s cannabinoid-based, not smokable marijuana).

The DEA’s scheduling of cannabis, however, makes FDA-approved clinical trials of medical marijuana very difficult to run. It’s the ultimate Catch-22: the DEA needs more clinical evidence to consider altering marijuana’s scheduling, but the FDA keeps a tight lid on the number of clinical trials that can be run on medical cannabis.

Marijuana stocks could struggle

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Christopher Miller Plans To Challenge Legality of Kratom in Tennessee

www.inquisitr.com/4263043/christopher-miller-plans-to-challenge-legality-of-kratom-in-tennessee/

Clarksville native Christopher Miller was recently arrested in Nashville, TN for attempting to sell kratom. Kratom is an herb that recently faced up against a possible DEA ban. Luckily for the thousands who use kratom for pain, depression, anxiety or even to wean off of opiates, bipartisan support of congress and medical doctors, ethnobotanists, pharmacologists and even one of the foremost addiction specialists, Johns Hopkins professor Dr. Jack Henningfield, the DEA was forced to back down, a literally unprecedented occurrence in the history of the agency. Unfortunately, due to a great deal of misinformation, some of which comes from sources that are questionable at best, Nashville’s Metro PD were misinformed about the plant.

Metro PD’s release was made public by WZTV after a deluge of comments from Reddit users who were concerned with the inaccurate material in the original article. Kratom is listed as a synthetic substance and an opiate. The southeast Asian plant, related to kratom, is actually a perfectly natural substance that has been used in folk medicine for hundreds of years and has dozens of clinical studies related to its potential benefits for conditions as disparate as depression, anxiety, PTSD, chronic pain, addiction as well as being a more potent antioxidant than green tea that stimulates the immune system.

A Gofundme account was set up by a friend of Chris’ also in the kratom community. Jacky Ross said the following.

“Christopher miller is extremely passionate and knowledgeable about our beloved plant and has been catapulted into the spotlight by news agencies demonizing our plant. Now, he has an oppurtunity that our community has never had before, he has an opportunity to raise awareness for our plant in a very, very large way.”

Culpepper Botanicals is sponsoring a 5 kilo giveaway for donations currently and several other kratom vendors, such as Clean Kratom have been stepping out to support him and his cause.

According to the Affidavit, Miller is accused of attempted sale of a controlled substance analogue. There are some issues with this though. By definition, kratom is not an analogue. Unlike opiates, there is no overdose potential and it’s chemical structure is completely different. As far as it having an “opioid like effect” the same has been said of cheese, caffeine and bacon.

Nashville’s WKRN news had previously reported the headline, “Man charged with selling synthetic opiate Kratom in Nashville.” I contacted WKRN news and finally got a response this week. News director Elbert Tucker in an email explains, “The Metro Nashville police department identified Kratom in this case as ‘synthetic.’ In our follow up with them, they told us it is considered synthetic because, in state law, it is included with synthetics. The spokesperson told us that even though it is naturally occurring, it is considered a synthetic by law.”

A rose by any other name, most likely would smell as sweetly and botanically speaking, regardless of how the Tennessee law books view kratom it is an organic, plant substance.

The affidavit is further evidence that the Metro PD are unfortunately misinformed. Both the affidavit and the press release that WZTV published after the Reddit comments came pouring in refer to it as “an opiate synthetic substance.” There is even some possible gray area in the law itself. I contacted the State Attorney General’s office 2 years ago to bring up the fact that the “kratom bill” references only the constituents of kratom and does so in a bill that is specifically and solely (in title and language) related to synthetics. I had asked governor Haslam if this meant that I would be able to sell kratom as a raw herb. He said he would forward my concerns and questions and get back to me. As of this writing, Governor Haslam never responded and hasn’t responded to an attempt to get a comment on the current case here.

“I don’t believe kratom is illegal in the state of Tennessee,” Christopher Miller told us in conversation online.

” I plan to challenge the legality of the plant in the state of Tennessee.”

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