The Deadly Drug You Can Still Buy Right Next To Candy Bars
This story raises questions about governance, accountability, and American values.
A green powder called kratom sits on a convenience store shelf right next to the Skittles and Snickers. That's how it's sold in too many American towns, and it took two Ole Miss students dying with the drug found at the scene for a policy group to launch a campaign called "Football, Not Funerals" urging President Trump and Congress to finally ban it. Good name.
New Republican Times Editorial Board
A drug policy group is launching an ad campaign urging President Donald Trump and Congress to ban kratom days after the drug was found at the scenes of two Ole Miss students’ deaths. The Foundation for Drug Policy Solutions announced Tuesday the new campaign titled “Football, Not Funerals,” calling on the president and Capitol Hill
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New Republican Times Editorial Board
A green powder called kratom sits on a convenience store shelf right next to the Skittles and Snickers. That's how it's sold in too many American towns, and it took two Ole Miss students dying with the drug found at the scene for a policy group to launch a campaign called "Football, Not Funerals" urging President Trump and Congress to finally ban it. Good name. But it shouldn't take a slogan to get the FDA to do a job it should have done years ago.
The drug policy group is right to put this at the White House's doorstep. Kratom has a shifting public story: some people swear by it for pain, others chase a high, and too many parents have no idea their kids can buy it legally. The same permissive attitudes that pushed marijuana legalization are now treating kratom like a harmless supplement. It isn't. Two dead students is all the evidence we need. A ban is common sense, not a culture war.
It's encouraging that President Trump has shown a willingness to crack down on dangerous substances regardless of the lobbyists. Congress should take up the call. And if the agencies have been dragging their feet, the president should order them to move. Kratom belongs nowhere near candy. Not in Mississippi, not anywhere. Write the rule, make the call, and get this stuff off the shelves before another family gets a phone call they never expected.
Commentary written with AI assistance by the New Republican Times Editorial Board.