Why Banning Kratom May Make the Opioid Epidemic Even Worse

[Narrator] Arianna drinks this concoction

pretty regularly and not because of the flavor.

It's called kratom and it could help fight

the opioid epidemic in America.

I started doing heroin when I was very young.

When I was 15, I was doing it every day,

and that lasted until I was 19.

[Narrator] During some of her later relapses,

Arianna used kratom to ease her withdrawals.

It allows me to treat myself

and self-medicate responsibly,

and it's also very easy to adjust your dose

and come off of it.

[Narrator] And she's not alone.

Arianna is one of approximately five million

kratom users in the U. S.

They use it to treat pain, depression, anxiety,

and in the most extreme cases, opioid addiction.

For kratom is not technically an opioid.

It just binds to the same neurological receptors,

which was what got the DEA to take notice.

In August, the agency announced plans

to emergency schedule kratom,

which would have landed the drug

in the same category as heroin and LSD.

But a group of tenacious users

got the DEA to back down

and extend the public comment period until December 1st.

With almost 30,000 people dying every year

from opioid overdoses,

kratom could be an indispensable treatment.

So while we could still get our hands on some,

we headed down to the Twisted Thistle

in San Francisco to find out more.

Kratom most basically is a tree

that grows in Southeast Asia,

has been used there for hundreds of years.

[Narrator] And Ethan has no qualms

about selling this drug.

There have been a lot of people using kratom

for enough time where if there was a possibility

of acute overdose to the point of death,

it probably would have happened by now.

[Narrator] The truth is,

science doesn't know enough about kratom

because there's very little research on the drug.

But that's not to say nobody's studying the stuff.

This is Oliver Grundmann.

He's about to publish a survey of kratom users.

I certainly understand the DEA.

They do not want to have another drug out there

that could potentially contribute to

the already devastating opioid epidemic

that some communities are experiencing.

On the other side, we also need to consider

that the four to five million estimated

users of kratom may face a health crisis of their own

if kratom becomes scheduled

or placed into Schedule 1.

[Narrator] And if the DEA does schedule kratom,

it will get even harder to learn

about the drug's risks and potential rewards.

The problem then is that you get it stuck

in Schedule 1, it becomes difficult

to do research to show what the actual level of risk is.

[Narrator] And doing the studies on kratom's properties,

called pharmacology, could cost half a billion dollars

by one estimate.

Whether or not kratom becomes a pariah itself

or a weapon to fight the opioid epidemic

is up to how the DEA interprets those public comments.

And even if it bans the drug,

some users say they won't give it up,

no matter the risk.

People all over continue to use cannibis

in places it's not legal,

so I think I would still continue to use kratom.