Washington D.C. – New reporting from the NYT sheds light on why RFK Jr’s HHS reversed course on plans to ban MGPI, a highly addictive semi-synthetic opioid derived from kratom leaves that has been “identified in at least 56 overdose cases, 48 of which were fatal, from February last year to this May.” The Trump administration’s policy retreat – now proposing to allow MGPI up to “500 times the levels currently found on the market” – came after several kratom companies identified MGPI in their products marketed as “natural”, with one large kratom distributor then mounting a “concerted lobbying push” while being involved in “several wrongful death lawsuits”.
The executive of that company and his wife “had been giving steadily to Republican candidates and campaign committees this year, reaching about $2.9 million on Oct. 12.”
Alarmingly, the Times notes, the Federal Register notice on the latest proposal acknowledged that “neither H.H.S. nor D.E.A. has made a finding that these substances are safe to use” at the levels the new policy allows. Dr. Andrew Kolodny, the medical director for the Opioid Policy Research Collaborative at Brandeis University, told the Times: “They’re not doing this because the science supports it. They’re doing this because the industry and the lobbyists are basically writing the policy.”
“The Trump administration knows MGPI products are life-threatening, yet now they want to allow levels of this harmful opioid up to 500 times higher than currently found in some kratom products marketed as ‘natural’,” said Brad Woodhouse, president of Protect Our Care. “The kratom industry threw millions of dollars at Republicans this year, and RFK Jr expects us to believe “science” guided his sudden change of heart on banning this dangerous snake oil often found at gas stations. Even the administration’s own Federal Register notice admits it hasn’t established that the opioid is safe at the levels its new policy would permit, so why put the public at risk? Because when poison-peddling industries send Republicans enough checks, this administration is more than willing to play Russian roulette with other people’s lives. If there’s one thing that routinely dictates Trump policy, it’s bags of industry money, and RFK Jr loves to partake in the culture of corruption almost as much as Trump himself.”
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