Crunchy Frog
Crunchy Frog's JournalKratom Drug Ban May Cripple Promising Painkiller Research (Scientific American)
Although the kratom compounds have yet to be clinically studied in humans, Andrew Kruegel, a pharmacologist at Columbia who was not involved in Varadis study, says the results hold promise for better designer painkillers. Those compounds alone may already be superior to codeine and oxycodone. At a minimum, if you can get rid of respiratory [problems] then you can save thousands of lives, Kruegel says. But we can tweak their properties to make them even better than the natural starting point. Or they would do so if the research were able to legally continue, he adds.
Scientists can obtain a license to study Schedule I drugs but they are hard to acquire and significantly slow down research, says Chris McCurdy, a kratom researcher at the University of Mississippi. I dont oppose it being regulated, I just oppose Schedule I, he says. Thats where the frustration comes in, realizing you have to shut everything down because we dont have a Schedule I license.
At the moment, neither do several other kratom researchers, including Majumdar. Well have to destroy all our samples in the lab, Kruegel says. The DEAs emergency scheduling of kratom will expire after two years if the agency does not move to make the scheduling permanent. But for that to happen, Kruegel thinks scientists will likely need to show further proof that kratom is medically useful. That well have any progress in the next two years is very unlikely, he says.
Much more at link.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/kratom-drug-ban-may-cripple-promising-painkiller-research/
This policy kind makes a mockery of all the recent handrwinging about the "opioid epidemic"
Signed the petition. Thank you for posting.
I've never tried it, and only recently become aware of its existence, but am nevertheless following this story very closely. It seems like this herb is helping an awful lot of people who would otherwise be in intractible pain, have substance abuse or addiction issues, or problems with depression and anxiety.
As someone who suffers from chronic, treatment resistant depression and anxiety, it's possible that I could have gotten help from this, where I have not been helped by any pharmacueticals out there, and now I will probably never have the chance to find out.
Some good places to follow this issue:
https://www.reddit.com/r/kratom/
The facebook page for the American Kratom Association, https://www.facebook.com/Americankratomassociation/
A couple of good videos:
This should be of interest to anyone who is concerned about the overreach of th DEA and the drug war, whether or not you're an active user. Let's keep this kicked.
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