Poison control center

So speaking of which, let's talk now about a state that moved to ban kratom leaf and 7OH outright and the outcome as of now.

North Dakota Governor Kelly Armstrong declared a public health emergency in early August, citing 23 Kratom-attributed deaths in the state since 2019 and poison control calls that roughly tripled from 7 to 22 in just one year, mostly among men in their 20s and 30s.

His emergency order banned Kratom and 7-OH outright, effective August 5th, and he called a special legislative session to make it permanent.

Getting the criminal policy correct on this is especially important.

Like, I...

I should call poison control.

So I called poison control.

You know, so the girl's going through things with me and she's, well, how much did you eat? And I said, well, probably about like a small cookie amount.

And then I heard the last thing that you want to hear from poison control.

Oh,

Were the kids inside at this point? This panic is just happening alone.

And I'm like, my mouth feels so bitter.

As more and more people use GLP-1 drugs for weight loss, the number of calls to poison centers about these medications has also been on the rise.

To learn more, I'm talking with the clinical director of the Upstate New York Poison Center, Gina Maroffa is also a professor of pharmacology and emergency medicine at Upstate.

Welcome back to HealthLink OnAir, Dr. Maroffa.

Thank you for having me.

A study of calls to poison control centers in the United States showed that before mid-2021, they were getting 1,000 to 1,500 calls each year regarding GLP-1s.

But after semaglutide or Wigovi was approved, call volumes nearly doubled, and by 2023, poison centers were logging about 8,000 GLP-1-related calls per year.

Is the upstate New York Poison Center getting lots of GLP-1-related calls as well?

Yes, similar to national data, our poison center has had an increased number of calls and cases about these GLP-1 or even these GLP-1 combination medicines.

North Dakota Governor Kelly Armstrong called a special session after he temporarily banned kratom by executive order last month.

People use the drug recreationally and to help with pain, but it has various side effects, and kratom-related calls to North Dakota's Poison Control Center tripled last year.

Armstrong calls it a public health crisis and wanted a total ban.

The North Dakota legislature held a three-day special session last week and banned synthetic versions of the drug, but a ban on weaker natural versions failed.

And that was something we had to change a while ago.

I've also done work with Poison Control Center, which is amazing.

When parents call me, I call them first to get the information.

And Ibuprofen still has a different dosing, but also when families travel to Canada and other countries, the dosing is different as well.

You're not gonna get sick.

If your kid, you know, obviously you don't wanna just sit there and chug this stuff, but I'm just saying, if your kid accidentally got a little bit in their mouth, you don't have to call Poison Control, right?

Well, w-

Like, and, and what people don't realize is your, your cleaning products in your home, even capped...

Reynolds said that between 2015 and 2025, U.S.

Poison Center calls involving Kratom increased by over 1,200%, and during the same time period, 233 Americans died from Kratom-related exposure.

Even though Iowa has one of the nation's lowest drug overdose death rates, our own communities are experiencing a similar trend, Reynolds said.

Since 2024, Kratom calls have increased nearly 500% in Iowa, and there have been 45 confirmed Kratom-associated deaths in our state, spanning 23 counties.

A real doctor, licensed, white coat, eight years of medical school, once told a patient who got bleach in his eye, and I'm quoting this directly, "Sounds like you will be fine.

Take two aspirins and call me tomorrow." Then handed him the number of poison control and hung up.

Fast, awkward, done talking.

A robot asked the exact same question, wrote back practically a Hallmark card with a medical license, apologized, explained why he probably was not going to be blind, gave him seven sentences of real advice, and wished him well, all with a sincerity of a machine that doesn't not actually have feelings.

The chatbot responses averaged 211 words, four times as long.

That bleach in the eye example from the top of the show is real, straight out of the study.

The actual doctor wrote something close to, "Sounds like that you will be fine," and passed along the poison control number.

End of the response.