FDA Declares Popular Alt-Medicine Kratom an Opioid (nbcnews.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from NBC News: The Food and Drug Administration declared the popular herbal product kratom to be an opioid on Tuesday, opening a new front in its battle to get people to stop using it. New research shows kratom acts in the brain just as opioids do, FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb said in a statement. And he said the agency has documented 44 cases in which kratom at least helped kill people -- often otherwise healthy young people.

"Taken in total, the scientific evidence we've evaluated about kratom provides a clear picture of the biologic effect of this substance," Gottlieb wrote. "Kratom should not be used to treat medical conditions, nor should it be used as an alternative to prescription opioids. There is no evidence to indicate that kratom is safe or effective for any medical use." The FDA released detailed accounts of several of the deaths. The victims often had mixed kratom with other substances, including chemicals taken out of inhalers and found in over-the-counter cold and flu drugs.

Comments

Stupidity rules

[nospam007]

"The victims often had mixed kratom with other substances, including chemicals taken out of inhalers and found in over-the-counter cold and flu drugs."

So flu drugs and inhalers 'contributed' to their deaths as well as the child laxative used to dilute heroin.
Best to forbid everything.

People had taken up to _9_ different things and only 44 cases?
That's not science, that's anecdotes.

Re:Stupidity rules

[Anonymous Coward]

I came to inject my personal experience with Kratom a good decade back.

Due to an injury and a multi-month stay in the hospital for many surgeries, once out and a good way through recovery I found myself physically dependent on actual opioids, becoming unbearably sick whenever I just stopped taking them.

I found it was easier to lower my dosage by a certain percent every few days, and initially worked with my doctors to do just that.
About a month in they ended up simply cutting off my prescription while only down to 25mg/day from my original 100mg/day.

In absolute terror to feel like I did when cold stopping, I turned to a friend who somehow managed to remain prescribed a large quantity prescription that he was basically doing the same thing as I was, tapering down, but he wasn't working with his doctor for it and remained on the same dosage the full time.

This helped a lot to continue my plan, at least up until he was sent overseas for work for six months.

Not wanting to either go down the hardcore path, or the withdraw agony, it was suggested I try Kratom pills.

So here's the thing. They did work to trick the body and brain enough to not experience withdraws, so clearly there is something in the stuff that acts similar to the real thing.
But it is VERY mild. There is no high, no pain relief, no other effects.

However to get even the relief from withdraws, I had to take 6-8 giant capsules every 4 or so hours. Basically a $40 bottle a day.
I can totally see why someone would turn to shooting up instead of that crap.

These pills are like most "natural herbal" pills you see peddled, huge size "triple zero" gelcaps packed with powder. These are the kind that suck to take even one of, let alone 8 at once.
They also float, so its a bitch to swallow them with water so you don't gag and choke.
They also do quite a number on your stomach inducing cramps and all.

When they were suggested to me, the same person said it needs a larger than usual dose, aka 6-8 pills instead of what it said on the bottle. The funny part was 6 pills WAS what was suggested on the bottle.

I can't even imagine how many you would need to take at once to get any sort of recreational effects out of the things.
I'm not even sure I could physically get enough down at a time to get any more effect without throwing up.

I know people will go to some amazing extremes to get high, but damn!

Granted this is just my own experience, and I had a lot going on with my body at the time, but I find it a bit hard to believe that the Kratom itself is what caused these deaths.

Your comment about mixing it with other chemicals seems to me to be spot on.

Learning

[markdavis]

Learn something new every day. Never even heard of "kratom" until today.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

"is a tropical evergreen tree in the coffee family (Rubiaceae) native to Southeast Asia in the Indochina and Malaysia phytochoria (botanical regions). M. speciosa is indigenous to Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Papua New Guinea, where it has been used in traditional medicine since at least the 19th century. Kratom has some opioid- and stimulant-like properties."

Government For Sale

[CanHasDIY]

I'm just going to leave this here...

http://www.pogo.org/our-work/r...

Not Helping Further Public Health

[LeftCoastThinker]

The first part of the finding, that Kratom acts similarly to an opioid, is a reasonable, scientific discovery. The next step, stating that it is not useful in treating any medical conditions, is complete bullshit. From WebMD: "Advocates say the herb kratom offers relief from pain, depression, and anxiety. Scientists say it may hold the key to treating chronic pain and may even be a tool to combat addiction to opioid medications." https://www.webmd.com/mental-h...

The FDA has no damn clue if Kratom is medicinally useful. If the FDA were reasonably interested in promoting the general health and welfare of the population, the next step would be to temporarily ban Kratom while THEY perform historic investigation, investigate anecdotal accounts of medicinal properties, and then if warranted perform voluntary double blind clinical trials to validate or refute the historical and anecdotal evidence. I have never heard of this herb, let alone taken it, but many naturally occurring plant components have medicinal properties.

All drugs have side effects, all drugs can be dangerous. To pull a medicinal herb without any plans to properly study it while giving blanket statements condemning its use is dishonest and fuels the antivaxers and alternative medicine movements that have been steadily growing in the US.

Re:You know, if people want to....

[pr0fessor]

If you go to a doctor because you have scurvy he will prescribe vitamin c to get you better fast and recommend you change your diet so you don't have a problem with it again.

if you go to a doctor and he just happens to find a vitamin deficiency that's not causing an illness he will recommend changing your diet because that promotes long term health and only prescribe a supplement if that fails

If your doctor is having you follow up constantly prescribing medications that you would need to be on for the rest of your life instead of trying to find a way for you live without medication then you are very sick (maybe diabetes) or you need a second opinion.

Re:What the devil are you on about?

[drinkypoo]

The age of "racist drug policy" is long gone;

False.

the urge to ban substances is based on authoritarianism and dogooderism.

And it disproportionately targets blacks and other minorities (but especially blacks.)

Accusing people of racism where none exists weakens your case and makes you look like a fool.

Pretending racism doesn't exist where it totally does exist weakens your case and makes you look like a white supremacist.