Government protecting the interests of big business? Seems like there's a lot of profitable legal drug related business to be lost if kratom use was to become widespread. It smells a bit like the history of kratom in the country where it used to originate, Thailand. There it became a threat to the government sponsored opium trade and was made illegal many years ago [1]
[1] http://entheology.com/news-articles/why-kratom-was-banned-in...