Just a week ago, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) announced that an herb called kratom will be added to the list of Schedule 1 drugs at the end of the month. This category is defined as substances “with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse,” including such drugs as heroin, LSD, and marijuana.

You may be wondering, what exactly is kratom? How can a drug you have never heard of be scheduled as such a dangerous substance?

Kratom is the name for both the tree and its leafs. The leaves may be sold in whole form to make teas or smoke or ground into a powder in capsules to ingest. Kratom produces effects on the body due to two active ingredients, mitragynine and 7-hydroxymitragynine, that act on opioid receptors. While kratom has been used for centuries in Eastern medicine, its popularity in the United States has recently increased for a variety of uses, both recreational and medical. Depending on the dosage of kratom, it may induce a calming effect, lending itself to treat anxiety, or increase focus in low doses acting as a stimulant, but it can also have greater effects at high doses that allow to drug to be used to manage pain on the same level as many commercial painkillers that have a higher level of abuse. Some have even claim that the drug has helped them through addiction to more powerful opioids by easing withdrawal.

Overall, the potential for abuse seems to be lower than that of other opioids considered to have current medical applications such as oxycodone. Long term effects of kratom use have not been extensively studied though potential for physical dependence has been noted through case studies of chronic users. However, this potential seems negligible when one takes into account that an estimated 2.1 million Americans suffer from abuse of prescription opioids that are classified in lower categories by the DEA. This herb could be used as a substitute to help eliminate patients from experiencing the same side effects many commercial pain killers give.

So why schedule the herb at all?

I see the DEA as having two major reasons for scheduling kratom. 1) Scheduling kratom can help to protect big pharma from losing profits as patients turn away from expensive prescriptions to the cheap plant. 2) The American war on drugs has led to fear of alternative medicine before any conclusive results of long term effects are cemented. This same fear is what drives many away from accepting the uses of medical marijuana. Scheduling kratom will only lead to more arrests for a substance that does not require the level of control Schedule I drugs do.

Kratom may not be a wonder herb that can solve everyone’s problem; for some it might even be the problem. But ignoring possible medical applications to place kratom with other Schedule I drugs is taking things a step too far.