Industry lobbying amid push for new restrictions on substances

Reminder: Three months ago, federal health officials announced that they planned to ban kratom derivative mitragynine pseudoindoxyl (MGPI). Officials said the substance was highly addictive, sold as energy boosters and pain relievers in convenience stores and vapes shops, and needed to be banned “to avoid an imminent hazard to public safety.”

But: In October, the government reversed course, with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) saying it “followed the science” and decided to allow some levels of the compound.

The bigger picture: The reversal came after a number of kratom companies discovered the substance in products marketed as “natural” in recent months and launched a lobbying effort.

• For example, David Gabbay, the manager of a large kratom distribution company, was faced with evidence of the compound in products at the center of several wrongful death lawsuits against him. As of October 12, he had given about $2.9 million to candidates and campaign committees. Mac Haddow, the leader of advocacy group American Kratom Association (funded heavily by Gabbay’s company), pleaded Gabbay’s case at the White House.
• HHS and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) officials then announced that MGPI would be allowed at certain levels, reasoning that “trace” amounts appear in otherwise natural products.

Why it’s important: The new policy would still ban the most concentrated levels of MGPI, but the allowable amounts are hardly traces – they are 25-500 times the levels currently found on the market.

• The Federal Register notice for the proposal acknowledged that neither HHS nor DEA “has made a finding that these substances are safe to use” at the levels the policy allows.
• MGPI is a semi-synthetic opioid that has been found in lab tests to be far more powerful than morphine. Scientists are still exploring how it emerges in otherwise natural products.

Meanwhile: Top alcohol companies have pushed state attorneys general to keep the heat on Congress to close the loophole that has allowed hemp products to proliferate.

• Reminder: A law that would close the loophole passed last year, but it’s implementation was delayed and is now set to go into effect Dec. 11 unless Congress acts to reverse the restrictions before then.
• Alcohol industry lobbyists encouraged state officials to hold firm in their support for the new restrictions, citing dangers of hemp products. Some hemp beverages are competing with alcohol industry products.
• The alcohol industry’s communications with state officials highlight the lobbying clash between hemp and alcohol interests that is set to come to a head when lawmakers return after the midterms.

Read more: Trump Administration Backs Down on an Opioid Ban After Kratom Industry Lobbying; Alcohol companies pushed state AGs to urge hemp restrictions