Senate Republicans target kratom and its analogs, Massachusetts elected officials come out against an initiative to repeal commercial marijuana legalization and home grows, and more. 

[image:1 align:left caption:true]

Marijuana Policy 

Massachusetts Governor Says "No" to Marijuana Legalization Repeal Initiative. Gov. Maura Healey (D) said over the weekend that she will vote against Question 8, the initiative that would recriminalize marijuana sales and ban home cultivation. Voters approved legalization at the ballot box a decade ago. 

"We’ve got to keep recreational marijuana here in Massachusetts. It’s an important industry, the cannabis industry, and I hope the voters keep cannabis," Healey said in a radio interview. 

Healey is not the only Bay State political figure to embrace the state's existing legalization scheme. 

"Cannabis legalization and regulation is positive for small businesses, local communities, and restorative justice. And keeping marijuana legal in Massachusetts is both economic justice and racial justice policy," said Rep. Ayana Pressley (D-MA) in a statement released by the No on 8 campaign. 

The politicians are in step with public opinion, with recent polling showing the initiative is set to fail by a wide margin.

"There’s no ‘buyer’s remorse’ among Massachusetts’ voters when it comes to legalizing cannabis, and this fact will become even clearer come November," NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano said in a statement. "That’s because these policies are largely working as intended and because Massachusetts voters prefer legalization and regulation over the failed policy of marijuana prohibition."

Kratom

Conservative Senate Republicans Call on DEA to Immediately Ban Kratom Derivative and Move Toward Banning Kratom. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and U.S. Sens. Mike Lee (R-UT) and Susan Collins (R-ME) have issued a letter urging the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to issue an emergency scheduling order for 7-hydroxy mitragynine (7-OH) immediately.

They are also calling for placing the psychoactive compounds within kratom, including 7-OH, MGM-15, MGM-16, and mitragynine pseudoindoxyl, into Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, meaning they have no accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.

And they are calling for a permanent scheduling recommendation for the full kratom plant and its derivatives.

"We frequently hear from constituents and concerned parents who have lost loved ones, and recovering users who warn us constantly about the addictive nature of kratom and its analogues. We worry the availability of these products is providing consumers with a false sense of security because they are readily available and marketed as natural," the lawmakers wrote. "It is imperative that the final emergency scheduling order for 7-OH be expeditiously promulgated."

Kratom, which is derived from a Southeast Asian tree, is unscheduled and is sold across the country as an energy booster, mood lifter, pain reliever, or opioid substitute. Small doses tend to generate a stimulant effect, while larger doses produce states similar to opioids. Its analogs, including 7-OH, have been identified as more potent than Schedule II opioids. 

But the numbers around kratom overdoses are low. A 2019 Centers for Disease Control & Prevention study that looked at more than 27,000 overdose deaths found kratom implicated in only 91 of them, with the majority of the kratom-linked deaths also involved other substances. Fewer than a dozen death certificates list kratom as the sole cause of death in overdoses. 

Drug Testing

FDA Eases Path to Oral Drug Tests for Truckers. The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) on Wednesday issued a new rule that removes a regulatory hurdle to using oral drug testing methods on over-the-road truck drivers. The new rule exempts regulatory drug testing from the 510(k) clearance requirement, an FDA rule that requires a medical device to be shown as substantially equivalent to a legally marketed device already on the market.

The trucking industry likes this idea.

"A modern drug testing program is essential to keeping impaired drivers off the road and protecting the motoring public," said Henry Hanscom, American Transportation Association Chief Advocacy & Public Affairs Officer. "This long-overdue action creates a pathway for labs to develop and employers to access more accurate, less invasive, and harder-to-defeat testing methods, while making federal programs nimbler in responding to emerging drug threats. It is an important victory for highway safety and a critical step toward a stronger trucking workforce.

The FDA approved oral fluid testing in 2023, but the 510(k) requirement kept American laboratories from attaining certification.

The ATA claims that relying on urine drug testing has led to gaps in the system and widespread cheating. 

According to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse, more than 170,000 truckers have been fired for positive marijuana since 2020, with marijuana accounting for about 60 percent of all positive trucker drug tests.