What is the true motivation behind the DEA’s decision to ban kratom? Could it be the fact that enormous swathes of researchers are trying to develop synthetic opioids, patentable, profitable drugs to replace such things as kratom or pharmaceutical painkillers?
Three synthetic opioids in particular were synthesized from the alkaloids in kratom from 2008- 2016: MGM-9, MGM-15, and MGM-16.
They were synthesized from kratom’s alkaloids Mitragynine and 7-Hydroxymitragynine: to make what is essentially patentable, pharmaceutical kratom.
The first study, published in 2008, took Mitragynine and used it to synthesize “MGM-9”.