The Federal Drug Administration is wrong to recommend rescheduling 7-hydroxymitragynine (7-OH), a compound derived from kratom sometimes used for pain relief and as part of recovery from opioid addiction. Banning 7-OH wouldn’t save lives. It would just make the opioid crisis even worse.

For years, I tried to figure out how to function with chronic pain. Painkillers left me foggy and miserable. Seven-OH (7-OH or 7-hydroxymitragynine), which is made from the kratom plant and is used by many people to help with chronic pain, lets me feel like myself again.

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I agree with Dan Lawton that Louisiana’s kratom ban is a blow to consumers who have come to rely on kratom products. However, his concerns about 7-hydroxymitragynine (7-OH) are misplaced. Despite years of use, there have been only two deaths where 7-OH products were present. In both cases, 7-OH was used alongside other substances, contravening instructions. By contrast, other kratom products have been linked in public health reports to more than 200 deaths.

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier’s sudden ban on 7- hydroxymitragynine (7-OH) is reckless, unfounded and cruel. The facts don’t support his claims of an “emergency.” According to the FDA’s own adverse event database, there are zero confirmed deaths linked to 7-OH alone. Yet Uthmeier has lumped it in with heroin.

Let’s say you’re presented with two substances. One has been linked to two confirmed deaths (and zero when taken on its own). The other is tied to over 200.

If I told you the one with two deaths is being branded a public health threat, you’d be suspicious. You’d probably assume someone making the substance linked to 200 deaths was trying to sell you something.

To the editor: The Food and Drug Administration’s call to classify 7-hydroxymitragynine (7-OH) as a Schedule I drug is unwarranted (“What to know about synthetic kratom, the supplement being banned in SoCal and across the U.S.,” Aug. 20). 7-OH is a natural extract from the kratom plant and the vast majority of deaths linked to use involved other drugs or contaminants. Regulators have not presented sufficient evidence of harm, yet they propose a ban that would deprive patients of relief.