Heroin abuse rates continue to soar. Drug-related violence in our nation's cities and cartel wars in Latin America exact horrific tolls.

And then there is the ever-present bully on the block, prescription drug abuse. More than two million Americans have become hooked on the pharmaceuticals that doctors prescribe to ease their pain. Opioids—both legal and illicit—killed a mind-boggling 28,647 people in 2014.

But not to worry: The Drug Enforcement Administration is on the case. "To avoid an imminent hazard to public safety," the agency said in a press release, it will be adding kratom, a medicinal herb that has been used safely in Southeast Asia for centuries, to its list of Schedule 1 substances, placing the popular botanical in a class with killers like heroin and cocaine at the end of September.