I really dislike reporting like that, but I expect little less from HuffPo...

In the six years from January 2010 to December 2015, U.S. poison centers handled 49 cases associated with kratom that involved “life-threatening signs or symptoms, with some residual disability.”

Sounds to me like people shouldn't be selling it on the street.

Not too many people have been killed by "bath salts" either, but that doesn't mean that it's Ok to use or that the government should turn a blind eye to it.

Just because something is "natural" doesn't mean that it's harmless. Too often these things are assumed to be harmless, or even safe, to use because they're "herbal supplements" rather than "drugs" and "if they were dangerous, the government wouldn't let them sell them..."

If you want to know what the DEA thinks about it, in complete sentences, then it probably makes sense to go to the source rather than reading HuffPo.

My $0.02.

Cheers,
Scott.