My request was for records on kratom-associated deaths since 2010. All incidents provided appear to have been submitted to FAERS, the FDA’s adverse event reporting system.
FOIA Docs Show FDA’s Data on Kratom Deaths is Complete Propaganda
As the FDA fearmongers over alleged Kratom associated deaths, documents on these deaths reveal that the American people are being lied to.
Last Month, Scott Gottlieb, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, issued a public health advisory on kratom, outlining concerns about its “deadly risks.” However, Nick Wing, a senior reporter at the HuffPost, submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the Food and Drug Administration to put a second set of eyes on these allegedly deadly associations. What the FDA released under the FOIA request is now raising serious concerns about the validity and perhaps the motive for this senseless government fear mongering.
In their report, the FDA cited 36 deaths associated with the use of kratom. But the data they released to HuffPost showed only eight. Of these eight reports, not a single one confirmed a death caused by kratom.
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As Wing noted, they requested all records on kratom associated deaths since 2010. All the incidents turned over to HuffPost appear to have been submitted through the FAERS, the FDA’s Adverse Event Reporting System.
Some of the data the FDA used to issue their warning over the ‘deadly risks’ associated with kratom use would be laughable if they weren’t going to be used to take this beneficial plant away from the countless people whose lives it saved by stopping their opioid addictions.
The report below shows how entirely absent of any real data the FDA’s claims are. “My son died after consuming kratom. Received it on Friday and died on Sunday. Prepared as a tea,” read the report.
Some are reports from medical professionals. Others from family members of deceased individuals, and are sorely lacking information. Here’s one from the mother of 22 yo white male, 248 pounds. pic.twitter.com/aBc6iRri3F
The above example shows absolutely no evidence that kratom caused this young man’s death, merely hearsay.
But it gets worse.
The FDA used these reports to associate death with kratom despite the far more life-threatening conditions contained in them.
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The FDA chose to associate kratom with the person’s death in the report below—despite the person having tested positive for tramadol and having a history of cardiac arrhythmia.
Some are reports from medical professionals. Others from family members of deceased individuals, and are sorely lacking information. Here’s one from the mother of 22 yo white male, 248 pounds. pic.twitter.com/aBc6iRri3F
Here’s another from a medical professional, which raises further questions. Individual tested positive for tramadol and had a history of cardiac arryhthmia. pic.twitter.com/vBsJe7Dvmt
For those that don’t know, agencies in Europe have just recommended moving tramadol to a much more dangerous drug classification because of the sharp increase in this pain killer’s association with deaths.
“Over the past number of years, there’s been a significant rise in the number of deaths linked to tramadol. There’s been more deaths from tramadol than any other drug at the present time,” State Pathologist Prof. Jack Crane told a court in Northern Ireland earlier this year.
What’s more is that the doctors filing these reports are clearly trying to shift blame to kratom in spite of other underlying health problems and taking other prescription medications.
As Wing notes, “Here’s another, from the wife of a man who died of a seizure. Medical examiner amended cause of death to “Toxic Effects of Mitragynine,” even though the husband had a history of seizures and was taking Dilantin (anticonvulsant) to treat them.”
Here’s another from a medical professional, which raises further questions. Individual tested positive for tramadol and had a history of cardiac arryhthmia. pic.twitter.com/vBsJe7Dvmt
Here’s another, from the wife of a man who died of a seizure. Medical examiner amended cause of death to “Toxic Effects of Mitragynine,” even though the husband had a history of seizures and was taking Dilantin (anticonvulsant) to treat them pic.twitter.com/xdypS48f6F
It gets worse, a 63-year-old man on multiple prescription meds—who smoked for 40 years—had a heart attack. Despite cigarettes being the number one cause of preventable death in the United States, his death was attributed to kratom.
Here’s another, from the wife of a man who died of a seizure. Medical examiner amended cause of death to “Toxic Effects of Mitragynine,” even though the husband had a history of seizures and was taking Dilantin (anticonvulsant) to treat them pic.twitter.com/xdypS48f6F
One more, from wife whose 63-yo husband died of a heart attack. She “suspects” kratom was the cause. He was taking 1 tablespoon of powder a day. Also other meds, smoker for 40 years. pic.twitter.com/uAcxXoUO91
In yet another case, the mother of a 27-year-old man who died in his sleep claimed that kratom killed him. The FDA associated the death with kratom use in spite of the fact that he had multiple preexisting conditions, he had SSRIs in his system and muscle relaxers.
From mother of 27-yo male, who died in his sleep. Was taking kratom to detox, for anti-anxiety. Medical examiner excluded preexisting conditions, presence of SSRI and muscle relaxant.
To show just how ridiculous some of these claims are, we can look at a recent case out of Washington state. John Harden tragically lost his wife last month and reported her cause of death as kratom use. However, after further investigation—by the Thurston County Coroner—kratom was not found in his wife Wendy’s system at the time of her death.
When Gottlieb issued this dire warning last month he claimed there was “clear data” on these harms. However, given the above cases, this ‘clear data’ is clear propaganda and is being used to demonize this most beneficial plant that directly competes with big pharma’s grip on the treatment of pain.
This notably isn’t a shift. Health officials have called these kratom “associated” — not “caused” — deaths. But even the less direct term seems questionable.
Still, seems a bit strange that FDA appears to be basing a potentially huge decision on data that admittedly suffers from severe limitations
What’s more is the fact that this is the second time the government has been caught falsely associating deaths with kratom use.
As TFTP reported last year, the DEA attempted to claim that 15 deaths were attributed to Kratom. However, the American Kratom Association consumer group conducted an independent investigation and found that this was also disinformation.
The AKA actually hired a toxicologist who reviewed the cases and found that there was no evidence to support the assertion and that most, if not all, of the deaths, may have been tied to other drug use.
But that’s not all, as TFTP reported last month, in order to understand why this push for a ban is happening, we can simply look at who is spearheading it: FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb.
For those unaware, before he was appointed as the commissioner of the FDA, Gottlieb was a resident fellow at the neoconservative think tank, the American Enterprise Institute. AEI has long pushed for the war in and US occupation of Afghanistan—which, since the US invasion, has become the world’s number one source of poppies.
AEI’s officers and board members are made up of warmongers like Dick Cheney, as well as Big Pharma insiders like Raymond Gilmartin, former CEO of Merck & Co., and mega bankers like Harvey Golub, the retired chairman and CEO of the American Express Company.
Gottlieb, himself, prior to assuming his role in making decisions on what people can and can’t put into their bodies, was an independent director at Tolero Pharmaceuticals and Daiichi Sankyo Inc. and a member of GlaxoSmithKline’s product investment board.
Yes, the head of the FDA was a director at Tolero Pharmaceuticals which was charged and forced to pay a $39 million fine for paying physicians ‘kickbacks’ to push their drugs, in violation of the False Claims Act, an anti-kickback statute.
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Now, here’s where things get really interesting. Looking past GlaxoSmithKline’s plethora of unscrupulous acts, we can focus on a patent they filed—which happens to one of Kratom’s alkaloids—Speciofoline.
It just so happens that a patent was filed for Speciofoline on August 10, 1964. The patent claims the “alkaloid has useful pharmacodynamic activity, particularly analgetic and antitussive activity.”
The patent was filed by Smith Kline, of Glaxo Smith Kline, & French Laboratories.
Now, as we see the head of the FDA who was a former director at a pharmaceutical company charged with bribing doctors to push drugs and a member of GlaxoSmithKline’s product investment board—who patented one of Kratom’s alkaloids—the motive for banning this highly advantageous and healing plant becomes entirely clear. Hint: it’s not for your safety and will, in fact, lead to more opioid deaths and a slew of crime.
Not only will its ban push kratom into the black market, it will create an entirely new stream of revenue for the police state. The millions of innocent people who currently use kratom will be turned into criminals — literally overnight.
We can expect to see armed raids on cancer patients and other people treating their pain with this plant. We can expect to see asset forfeiture rise and the wholesale theft of property in the name of enforcing the FDA’s ban. More dogs, kids, and adults will undoubtedly fall victim to the police state as it carries out the will of their corporate masters — laying waste to all those in their path.
And, all of this tyranny, prohibition, theft, and violence, will be deemed necessary — to keep you safe — in the Land of the Free.
This post appeared first at The Free Thought Project and is published with permission
