Ban gas station heroin: Three headlines, one deadly drug

Three seemingly unrelated headlines dominated the news in recent weeks: NBA star Brandon Clarke passed away, the family of a teenager who died from a drug overdose after prompting by ChatGPT sued OpenAI, and the resignation of FDA Commissioner Marty Makary.

But, there’s a disturbing thread that ties these disconnected stories together: Kratom — a deadly drug sold in convenience stores across America. For years, the government has failed to act. That failure has cost lives, and now is the time for a federal ban on kratom. 

Kratom, an addictive, opioid-like drug banned in many of the Southeast Asian countries from where it originates, has flooded American gas stations nationwide over the past fifteen years. In some forms, the drug is 13 times more potent than morphine. But kratom is federally uncontrolled; anyone of any age can legally buy kratom at corner stores across the country. It is a pharmaceutical-grade risk being