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Policy & Funding

SAMHSA, HHS, DEA, CMS, state AGs, opioid settlement, Medicaid.

DEA Drew a Real Line on Kratom. Whether It Holds Isn't Decided Yet.

The public comment window on the proposed 0.05% 7-OH threshold closed September 10 — here's what's actually locked in, what's still a proposal, and why your state's kratom law doesn't care either way

The federal comment period on DEA's proposed 0.05% threshold for 7-hydroxymitragynine closed September 10, 2026. Here's the real state of kratom scheduling right now — and what it doesn't change.

Sep 123 minRead

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129 total in this section

02Policy & FundingSep 11

The Government Stopped Checking Whether Insurers Follow the Parity Law. It Just Said, Carefully, That It's Watching Again.

DOL's Employee Benefits Security Administration issued an interim enforcement roadmap for mental health and addiction parity law after a year-long enforcement pause — here's what it does and doesn't fix.

03Policy & FundingSep 10

The Federal Government Is Deciding Kratom's Fate Today. 32,000 People Already Told It What They Think.

The federal comment period on scheduling concentrated 7-hydroxymitragynine (7-OH), the potent kratom derivative, closes today with over 32,000 comments filed — as Pennsylvania and North Dakota fight the same battle at the state level.

04Policy & FundingSep 10

The House Majority Leader Called Cannabis a 'Gateway Drug.' The Federal Data Out the Same Week Told a Different Story.

A new GAO report on cannabis banking landed the same week House Majority Leader Steve Scalise called marijuana a 'gateway drug' — while a NORML read of FBI data shows it's still driving over half of drug arrests in some states.

05Policy & Funding

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Every piece in this section, most recent first.

Policy & Funding

DEA Drew a Real Line on Kratom. Whether It Holds Isn't Decided Yet.

More in Policy & Funding

The Government Stopped Checking Whether Insurers Follow the Parity Law. It Just Said, Carefully, That It's Watching Again.

The Federal Government Is Deciding Kratom's Fate Today. 32,000 People Already Told It What They Think.

The House Majority Leader Called Cannabis a 'Gateway Drug.' The Federal Data Out the Same Week Told a Different Story.

The Money Was Supposed to Bury Fewer People. A New Jersey Town Spent It on Cameras That Watch License Plates.

The FDA Just Cleared a New JUUL. That Makes 48 Approved Vapes — and Zero Approved Meth Medications.

The FDA's Next Psychedelic Hearing Skips the Question That Sank MDMA Therapy

Earlier in Policy & Funding

The DEA Already Banned Kratom's Cousin Chemical. In Three Days, It Decides How Much of the Original Survives.

You Have Four Days to Tell the DEA the Difference Between Kratom and 7-OH

The Strategy Says Test Strips Save Lives. The Letter Underneath It Says Don't Pay For Them.

The FDA Keeps Approving Nicotine Pouches Faster Than It Can Explain Why Teenagers Are the Ones Getting Hooked

The DEA Isn't Banning Kratom. It's Going After the Products Designed to Act Like an Opioid.

SAMHSA's Recovery Month Grants Restock a Shelf the Cuts Emptied

The DEA Isn't Banning Kratom Again. It's Betting a Decimal Point Can Do What a Blanket Ban Couldn't.

Congress Just Bought Delta-8 Another 29 Days. Nobody Selling It Thinks That's Enough.

SAMHSA Announced $77 Million This Week. The Outlet That Gave Harm Reduction Its Voice Couldn't Survive on Less.

Congress Called Xylazine a Public Health Threat in March. It Hasn't Voted Since.

The FDA Rejected MDMA Therapy Because It Couldn't Trust the Data. The New Application Doesn't Have New Data.

The Government's Own Lawyers Just Said Cannabis Can't Stay in Schedule I. The Judge Still Hasn't Ruled.

Louisiana Gave Sheriffs 20 Cents of Every Opioid Settlement Dollar. Nobody Made Them Prove It Saved Anyone.

Insurers Got a Year and a Half of Breathing Room on the Law That's Supposed to Cover Your Treatment

Kratom's Civil War Just Reached a Cabinet Secretary's Investment Portfolio

The Global Stimulant Boom Is Hitting a Treatment System Built for Opioids

Morgan Godvin Found Her People in a Newsroom. Washington Turned Off the Money, and the Newsroom Died Too.

Cannabis Just Split Into Two Different Drugs — And the Label Doesn't Tell You Which One You're Buying

The FDA Isn't Just Approving Nicotine Pouch Flavors — It's Approving Big Tobacco's Next Business Model

Methadone Clinics Loosened the Rules and Retention Jumped 17%. HHS's New Toolkit Buries That.

The DEA Rescheduling Hearing Excluded the People It Was About — Don't Call the Outcome Legitimate Yet

Weed Is More Popular Than the Politicians Running From It

FDA Approved a True Claim About Zyn — Then Let the Industry Aim It at Kids Who Never Smoked

HHS Built Its Case Against Housing First on a Study Whose Authors Say the Opposite

Washington Fast-Tracked Psilocybin This Year — Your Local VA Still Can't Prescribe It

Colombia's New President Is Importing a Drug War That Already Killed 221 People and Didn't Work

The White House's New Homelessness Rules Make Sobriety the Price of a Roof. Its Own Data Says That Gets People Killed.

Massachusetts Bans All Kratom, Going Further Than the Feds Just Did

CMS Wrote a Medicaid Rule That Punishes People for Staying in Recovery

The Federal Hemp Ban Isn't About Weed. It's About Who Gets to Decide What Counts as Medicine.

The FDA Just Approved Four More Nicotine Pouches. A Courtroom Is About to Ask If That Was a Mistake.

The Senate Just Bought Hemp THC Products One More Month. Nobody Thinks a Month Fixes This.

The FDA Approved Cappuccino-Flavored Nicotine Pouches for Smokers. Teenagers Will Find Them First.

DC's Opioid Settlement Money Just Became a Medicaid Patch — And That's the Whole Scandal

The White House Wants More Time for the Hemp Products Congress Already Voted to Ban

35 State Attorneys General Just Told the White House Not to Delay the Hemp-THC Ban. The White House Wanted To.

The FDA Said Flavors Were the Problem in 2020. In 2026, It Approved Four More.

The DEA Just Banned Five Benzos Nobody Had Heard Of — And That's the Whole Problem

DEA Erases Gas-Station Opioids in Four Days — and Erases an Off-Ramp Some People Were Actually Using

The Medicaid Work-Requirement Rule Takes Effect Today. Its Recovery Exemption Has an Expiration Date Built In.

DEA Wants to Schedule Concentrated 7-OH Kratom Like Heroin. The Comment Window Closes Today.

The Cannabis Rescheduling Hearing Ended. Only One Side Got to Argue.

Washington Told Treatment Programs What They Can't Say to Get Federal Money. The Deadline Was Yesterday.

The DEA Is Conflating a Real Drug-Safety Problem With a Ban on People's Last Off-Ramp

Washington Will Pay to Reverse Your Overdose. It Won't Pay to Help You Avoid One.

The DEA Gave Kratom Sellers 5 Weeks. Your Corner Store Kratom Isn't What They're Talking About.

Washington Will Still Pay for the Antidote. It Won't Pay for the Warning.

The DEA Started a 30-Day Clock on Banning Concentrated Kratom Extracts. Whole-Leaf Kratom Isn't What's on Trial.

SAMHSA Just Put $281 Million on the Table. Read the Fine Print Before You Celebrate.

The Alcohol Lobby Worked the Dietary Guidelines for Years. In January, the Warning Label Disappeared.

The DEA Banned Ibogaine in 1970. This Week, Three Federal Agencies Bet on It Anyway.

A Pharmacist Could Now Legally Save Your Life. Arizona Hasn't Said Yes.

The FDA Killed Flavored Vapes and Approved Flavored Nicotine Pouches in the Same Six Weeks. Nicotine Didn't Get Safer. The Delivery Device Did.