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RE: Scientists Blast FDA, Warning a Ban on Kratom Would Cause More Opioid Deaths
There is a lot of confusion with this... The FDA does have a valid point with regard to protecting those who would become addictive and seek other "mu-related" family of alkaloids... Its a tricky situation because some patient reaction is very different an there may be a case of tolerance and genetics playing a hand... would like to see how this case plays out
FDA has a valid point, really? What is the confusion here, people might get addicted to kratom? Most people use kratom when they try to quit their opioid addiction. What does FDA offer instead? Rehabs that cost 20-30 grand? More opioids like methadon, suboxone? You know how much those cost or how addictive they are? you probably do not. Kratom is cheap and it does help. addictive qualities of kratom is not very well studied, however it is a known fact that other so called medicines approved by the FDA are definitely addictive and much much harder to quit than even heroin. Even if you get addicted to kratom, trust me its much better to be addicted to kratom than to fda approved methadon or suboxone.
Opioid in general are very addictive... Everyone experience is different.... Its not that simple for the FDA to just jump on the Kratom train, America is going through an opioid crisis, these decisions have to be taken with many studies not just some recommendation... The opioid family is very addictive, they have been with us for hundred of years once we discovered it had pain relieving properties, it was widely use... On the biochemical side, these alkaloids affect the "mu" receptors which makes them 1000 times more addictive, then you have to take into account idiosyncratic reaction of the drug like Kratom which is not well document.... For now our main method of opioid withdrawal treatment is methodone, as it is well document, not the best but what we have available... These things take time, the subject now is very much political which makes it even more difficult, probably a better approach is removing all the opioid family of drugs but even that would leave many people suffering, so we need to take time... The cheaper drug isn't necessarily the better drug... I certainly get your point and big pharm and their profiting characteristics but we should be more calculated about jumping to a conclusion in this case... It interesting point to make a note here, probably we can now explore the pain relieving properties of drugs like Marijuana, not to best but probably a better alternative, in islands like Jamaica, these options are actively being explored
It is funny how you say we should explore marijuana as an alternative when it is been scheduled as class I drug! So I guess we have to fight for years for kratom to be legalised again too ha? Oh by the way, you are treating kratom (mitragynine ) as an opioid, if you do a little bit more research (as long as you dont only read what the fda says), you will see that it actually is not, as it acts completely different than opioids when they bind to mu receptors.
Alright lets get some background information so we understand the points, opioid basically describes drug related to morphine. We know that morphine one of the basic application is the treatment of pain and the side effect is addiction. Opiates are natural compounds obtained from opium poppy. Now there are three main receptors where these family of drugs act, they are known as mu, delta and kappa. In cases where all three are acted upon it is known as a full agonist. Now our point here need to zero in on the "mu" receptors because it is these receptors that make these 1000 times more addictive compared to other anesthetic agents. We can also explore other classification of agonist + antagonist and also full antagonist where act against all three receptors. The problem that the FDA and America is having are all these drugs are widely use morphine, codeine, meperidine, fenatnyl, alfentanyl, methadone, oxycodone and others are widely used and has been mainstream for years. Naturally after people would overcome the health problems requiring these medication, they become addicts, because of these biochemical processes associted it. Adding Kratom further adds to the list, while it is worthy of attention, we need more research to understand fully how our young people are behaving. If I had the power, I would put the hammer on the pharm groups because they push these drugs in the first place....We can't afford to have young people sitting in the middle of the night thinking like they are on Mars or whatever weird euphoria they get...Its not just people who have pain taking this drugs, regular professional, quite a few in the medical profession are rushing for these high...Big pharm would continue to sell them because at the end of the day, they are about bringing value to their shareholders...Kratom probably has a future but we need more research, there is alot more I could digest here but I hope you understand where I am coming from
I only had a problem with you saying "The FDA does have a valid point with regard to protecting those who would become addictive". On one hand you are saying you would put the hammer on big pharma for all those opioids they make available for people but you have no problem with FDA approving all of them?? how is this even possible? If FDA really cared about people they would be doing something about all those drugs first, not banning kratom! Also you say probably kratom has a future but more research should be done. Are you aware that this is not even possible if FDA bans it? I can now understand you are confused but writing looooooong comments trying to explain what opioids are has nothing to do with this issue of trying to ban kratom!
Trying to present a balance case, neither for and against Kratom, what I am saying, time is needed to way the advantage or disadvantage... I sense you are against big pharm and their profiting characteristics and we probably on the same page but more research needs to be done now, lets at least get the Opioid crisis under control before you add further fuel to the problem... We are still learning about all these drug interaction, nothing is efficient... I could be dead wrong but I am just sharing my views....