A ruling is imminent on the legality of a controversial drug that’s used to treat addiction — but some have called it a ‘dangerous opioid’
Hemby worries that the government’s ruling could make studying the plant and its key ingredients even harder than it already is, and he’s not alone [especially after the following research emerged]. In October 2017, the FDA broke out kratom’s two main components and studied them separately, ultimately recommending a ban on both of them, Stat News reported this month.
“Mitragynine, or MG, is thought to be the compound with the most therapeutic potential. It is also present in kratom in much higher concentrations than HMG. MG makes up roughly 60% of this type of compound in the plant, while HMG only makes up about 2%. Hemby’s study is the first to use rats to investigate how each of these two compounds affects the brain. He and his colleagues gave the animals the chance to self-administer each component of kratom by pushing a dial — first HMG, and then MG. They found that the rats quickly took advantage of the opportunity to give themselves the compound HMG, but they were completely uninterested in MG. “We stood on our heads to get them to self-administer,” Hemby said, adding that his team tried upping the doses of MG several times. “It just wasn’t working. It was almost like it was innocuous.” In other words, while one of kratom’s main compounds appeared to be addictive, the other wasn’t at all — in fact, it appeared to have the opposite effect.” LINK
“It’s like a cruel joke that I finally found something that works, and the FDA and DEA want it banned,” Bryce Avey, a 26-year-old California native told Business Insider this summer. Avey said he took kratom daily as a tea to help him stop using the opioids he became addicted to after wrist surgery … In stark contrast to what regulators have said about kratom, a growing cluster of physicians and researchers are beginning to suggest that the drug could have therapeutic potential. Some have said they understand why people looking to get off opioids might find the drug helpful; others have said that new research suggests the plant’s compounds could have untapped potential … One big reason is that the kratom plant’s two main ingredients — which can be thought of as similar to how marijuana contains both THC and CBD — appear to have very different effects on the brain. Of kratom’s two chief ingredients (MG and HMG), MG is thought to be the compound with the most therapeutic potential. There’s about 30 times more MG in Kratom than there is HMG … In other words, while one of kratom’s main compounds appeared to be addictive, the other wasn’t at all — in fact, it appeared to have the opposite effect.
Original Article (Business Insider):
A ruling is imminent on the legality of a controversial drug that’s used to treat addiction — but some have called it a ‘dangerous opioid’
Artwork Fair Use: Simone Martini
