ATLANTA – State Representative Vernon Jones (D-Lithonia) announced that he was recently appointed by Speaker David Ralston (R-Blue Ridge) to the House Study Committee on Risks Associated with Kratom. Rep. Jones also sent a letter to the chairs of the House and Senate Study Committees on the Risks Associated with Kratom, citing reports that call into question the accuracy of the statements made by Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Scott Gottlieb about kratom, and asking the committees to review these reports.
“These newly released studies give us an opportunity to get to the truth about kratom,” said Rep. Jones. “We have seen too many instances where bureaucrats in Washington think they can tell the states what we should do and feed us misinformation to justify more regulation. The people of Georgia are smarter than that.”
Rep. Jones noted that a study released by Jane Babin, Ph.D., Esq. showed flaws in the death reports released by the FDA in order to justify its recommendation to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to schedule kratom as a Schedule I drug. Rep. Jones also highlighted that the study reported that the deaths attributed to kratom were actually the result of a homicide, several suicides, unrelated health conditions, polydrug use, and adulterated and contaminated products.
“Our Study Committee on kratom is going to have to carefully separate the facts from the misinformation campaign by the FDA,” said Rep. Jones. “Our own local coroners and law enforcement officials apparently have been fed a steady stream of inaccurate information about this natural plant that have obviously influenced some of our own reports on the causes of deaths.”
The study committee will hold public meetings to accept input from the public, and Rep. Jones expects that these public hearings will allow those who safely use kratom to offer their perspective, as well as experts who can provide assessments on the conflicts in the science on kratom.
“There are nearly five million kratom consumers across the United States,” Rep. Jones concluded. “There is no doubt that we have tens of thousands of Georgians who use kratom safely for maintaining their health and well-being, and we owe them an unbiased review of what is true about kratom, and what is not.”
For more information on the House Study Committee on the Risks Associated with Kratom, please click here.
Representative Vernon Jones represents the citizens of District 91, which includes portions of DeKalb and Rockdale counties. He was elected into the House of Representatives in 2016, and currently serves on the Budget and Fiscal Affairs Oversight, Human Relations & Aging, and Transportation committees.
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