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posted by CoolHand on Thursday September 06 2018, @05:11PM   Printer-friendly
from the more-science-needed dept.

Dr. Steven Novella has an article on the current state of the science on kratom and its potential as a source of new medicines. He gives an overview of the current state of the scientific study that has been done on kratom so far, and concludes that it is very promising but the scientific research done on it as of now is woefully insufficient. However, recent attempts by the FDA and DEA to schedule it on the one hand, and its continuing use as an unregulated supplement on the other may serve to stifle serious scientific research.

You may never have heard about kratom (though if you're a regular reader, you probably have), but there is already a thriving market for this Southeast Asian herb, and groups dedicated to the business of selling kratom. Kratom has also come onto the radar of the FDA and DEA, who would like to regulate it (it currently is essentially unregulated, except as a supplement). This has sparked a controversy over whether and how kratom should be regulated, fueled partly by a lack of clear scientific studies.

[...] I do not think that kratom should be classified as schedule 1, which the FDA and DEA did try to do two years ago, but had to back off due to public and political backlash. Schedule 1 is for substances with abuse potential but no legitimate medical use. The problem with this categorization is that it will frustrate scientific investigation, and that is exactly what we need right now.

It may be too late because it is already widely available as an herbal supplement, but kratom should be considered an investigational new drug, and properly scientifically studied. We desperately need more options in treating pain, especially chronic pain, and any addition to our toolkit is extremely welcome.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 07 2018, @03:08AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 07 2018, @03:08AM (#731619)

    But how do you get such a drug patent? It's very expensive and very risky R&D to go from scientific research to clinical trials and finally to market, and the pharma companies engaged in this sort of research have to wade through potentially hundreds of dead ends to find an avenue of investigation that leads to a drug that makes it to market. I'd think that taking such huge risks warrants compensation to those who dare it, else no one would do it. The alternative is to publicly fund investigational drug research, and while that happens to some degree and is probably better and more efficient from a societal standpoint, it flies in the face of the capitalist ideology that rules the world today, so much so that would produce knee-jerk cries of "communism" in the US.

  • (Score: 2) by ikanreed on Friday September 07 2018, @01:53PM

    by ikanreed (3164) Subscriber Badge on Friday September 07 2018, @01:53PM (#731746) Journal

    Well, you can Martin Shkrelli it and negotiate a degenerification agreement with other companies.