Tonight at 11:59 PM, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will close comments on the notice “Temporary Placement of 7-Hydroxymitragynine Above a Specified Threshold in Schedule I; Request for Information“.
The notice asks for specific information and scientific evidence about the threshold of 7-OH that should be allowable in kratom products. However, many of the nearly 30,000 comments submitted have focused on opposing the Schedule I status. A change.org petition to stop the ban organized by the pro-7-OH group, 7-Hope Alliance, has received nearly 60,000 signatures.
Documentary filmmaker Hamilton Morris recently appeared in a virtual rally hosted by 7-Hope Alliance on Wednesday, July 22. On prohibition, Morris said:
It doesn’t matter whether you like a drug personally or even whether you think a drug is good or safe or anything like that. Prohibition is simply not an effective control strategy. It doesn’t mitigate harms. It exacerbates harms. We’ve seen this again and again and again. And so even if you think that 7-hydroxymitragynine is a terrible substance, you still should be opposed to its prohibition because prohibiting it is not going to make things better. I can say that with absolute certainty. Ask any chemist who knows even a tiny bit about this, and they will be able to name 50 things that could take its place that will likely be less safe. It’s also going to interfere with valuable scientific research if there are outstanding questions about exactly how it interacts with the mu-opioid receptor or exactly what effects it may or may not have on respiration which are very complicated to study. That’s only going to get more difficult to study once this is prohibited. In fact, the tendency is for it to halt research entirely.
Morris referred to the support of bans of psychoactive molecules certain advocates don’t like in order to save ones they do like as “a sacrifice being made to an Aztec god, like where if we give them this…their hunger will be appeased”. “This is why we are sacrificing molecules to them so that scientists can’t research them? This is absurd,” he said.
On Tuesday, July 28, Morris released a new documentary showing the 7-hyrdroxymitragynine manufacturing process.
Columbia University psychologist/neuroscientist Carl Hart also appeared at the 7-Hope virtual rally along with his former student and Kratom Science Podcast guest Soren Shade.
Hart called out advocates who support the legalization of certain substances but not others, citing Joe Rogan as an example. Hart said Rogan has the ear of the president and has advocated for ibogaine and psychedelics, but not for ending the prohibition of other drugs.
Shade, owner of Top Tree Herbs that sells plain leaf kratom in tea bags, said that after years of advocates asking for federal regulations on kratom, “Whenever a select minority within the kratom space says, ‘We need to persecute our competition. We need to make them illegal,’ when it involves guns and handcuffs and putting people in cages, that’s when we get our response from the DEA. That’s when we get our response from the government, and they finally come in.”
A new short documentary on 7-OH by Chris Bell, the filmmaker behind the influential 2018 kratom documentary A Leaf of Faith, was also streamed during the 7-Hope virtual rally.
In an open letter to HHS, the American Kratom Association has accused 7-OH advocates of making multiple comments on the HHS docket using “ficticious identities”, and has accused 7-Hope Alliance of encouraging this practice. They’ve also accused commenters of undermining the process by not submitting answers to specific questions on the docket: “The integrity of this docket is particularly important because HHS did not issue a general referendum asking whether consumers like 7-OH products or whether they would prefer that those products remain commercially available. The Department expressly limited its request to scientific information…”
On 7-Hope’s page about the HHS notice, they urge anti-prohibition advocates to “Please only submit ONE comment per person or organization and try to include all of your story and comments in one submission.”
After the deadline, HHS will review comments. The DEA could decide to place 7-OH on emergency Schedule I as early as August 5. Once published in the Federal Register, the temporary scheduling order would take effect immediately, making the manufacture, distribution, and possession of covered 7-OH products subject to Schedule I restrictions. The temporary placement can remain in effect for up to two years, with a possible one-year extension, while the DEA pursues permanent scheduling through the federal rulemaking process.
7oh helps many of is with chronic pain from injuries, and hard work, in my case as a mason. It has also helped me to quit alcohol which was much worse for my physical and mental health. I support limits on advertising and availability in places like gas stations. Thanks
I have used 7oh to manage chronic back and neck pain for several years, it has allowed me a good quality of life. I work in tile and stone masonry trades which adds to chronic pain, and 7oh provides relief for me, and helped me to quit alcohol, which felt much worse for my overall health. A 7oh ban will probably lead to many people seeking harder and dangerous street drugs, i hope you reconsider and let 7oh remain legal, with limits on advertising and availability in gas stations. Thank you.