The Food and Drug Administration’s crusade against Kratom is based heavily in bad science. And it’s going to make the nation’s continuing opioid crisis worse.

The FDA recently cited a whopping 36 deaths it associated with kratom use in a statement declaring the plant which is popular among Americans looking for alternative pain and addiction therapies unfit for human consumption.

From FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb’s statement:

It’s very troubling to the FDA that patients believe they can use kratom to treat opioid withdrawal symptoms. The FDA is devoted to expanding the development and use of medical therapy to assist in the treatment of opioid use disorder. However, an important part of our commitment to this effort means making sure patients have access to treatments that are proven to be safe and effective. There is no reliable evidence to support the use of kratom as a treatment for opioid use disorder. Patients addicted to opioids are using kratom without dependable instructions for use and more importantly, without consultation with a licensed health care provider about the product’s dangers, potential side effects or interactions with other drugs.

In other words, kratom doesn’t have the medical establishment’s seal of approval– so if you use it for alternative health treatment, you will die.

More importantly, kratom will kill you because it doesn’t make any money for the pharmaceutical industry or the government regulators in its pocket.

Gottlieb admitted this outright, saying: “To date, no marketer has sought to properly develop a drug that includes kratom.”

Because “no marketer” in the pharmaceutical industry is trying sell you kratom, the FDA says it can’t properly determine whether the herbal substance is safe.

Plenty of scientists do, however, agree that kratom isn’t a dangerous drug.