Advocacy Dr. McCurdy & UF receive 3.5M for Kratom Research

[bubbles]

University of Florida College of Pharmacy receives $3.5 million NIDA grant to bolster kratom research

12/10/2018

The National Institute on Drug Abuse has awarded researchers at the University of Florida College of Pharmacy a two-year, $3.5 million grant to bolster research on Mitragyna speciosia, or kratom, and its potential to treat opioid misuse and physical dependence.

UF College of Pharmacy researchers have studied kratom, which comes from the leaves of a tropical tree from Southeast Asia, as a potential therapy to wean addicts off heroin or prescription opioids. It activates the same opioid receptors and appears to satisfy the craving, while possibly lessening the risk of respiratory depression.

Next they will seek to identify the pharmacology of its 40 alkaloids, test the effects of these individual alkaloids on the brain’s receptors and continue to develop treatment strategies to help addicts quit opioids.

Principal investigators Lance McMahon, Ph.D., a professor and chair of the college’s department of pharmacodynamics, and Chris McCurdy, Ph.D., a professor of medicinal chemistry in the college, say the grant will renew and reinvigorate their research.

Estimates show between 2 million and 4 million people in the United States use kratom, although the substance is poorly understood.

Many government agencies have a vested interest in the grant, including the NIDA, the National Institutes of Health, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Food and Drug Administration. McMahon, McCurdy and their team have monthly meetings with the NIDA program officers to discuss progress of the UG3/UH3 grant.

“Chris McCurdy was a pioneer in the area of kratom research 10 years ago,” McMahon said. “This NIDA grant shows interest in the potential of kratom-based medicines, as well as concerns over the potential misuse of kratom-related substances.”

With new funding made possible by this and other grants, the size of the research team and infrastructure to study kratom have expanded. Quantities of samples that once took two to three months to generate can now be available in just one week.

The next stage of kratom research involves identifying the pharmacology of its chemicals. Bonnie Avery, Ph.D., a key co-investigator and clinical professor of pharmaceutics at the college, identifies kratom’s alkaloids through chromatographic methods, to determine where they go in the body and how they are broken down into metabolites.

After that, McMahon and Jay McLaughlin, Ph.D., an associate professor of pharmacodynamics, run in vivo pharmacodynamics tests to determine the effects of individual alkaloids on receptor targets in the brain.

The scientific team will continue developing treatment strategies to wean addicts off opioids, similar in the way the classically accepted drugs, buprenorphine and methadone, are currently prescribed. Although less dangerous than heroine and other prescription opioids, they are narcotics with the potential to be abused, which is why researchers are interested in safer alternatives.

The last main research objective is for McCurdy to change a natural substance in kratom to reduce symptoms of opioid withdrawal.

Other members of the research team include research scientist Francisco Leon, Ph.D., and research assistant professors Jenny Wilkerson, Ph.D., and Takato Hiranita, Ph.D.

(reddit discussion)

[herbalhippie]

That's awesome!! Excellent news!

Thank you for bringing it to us, db! <3

[BallzDeep9]

Yes, thanks DB for the News Flash here...

Well, here's my take. Nobody on Reddit has CONNECTED The Dots?? And I'm banned on r/Kratom so.... VERY simple:

NIDA would not make a $3.5 million Research Grant on any possible Schedule 1 by DEA !!

Now. Maybe the idiots on Reddit will breeze over here, to digest my Opinion on that.. AGAIN: NIDA would NOT be forking over 3.5 Mill if there was ANY possibility of a Federal Ban on kratom! Meaning.... Here's your PROOF there will be NO Schedule 1 Ban by the DEA, because Schedule 1 would also ban medical research. Sure, DEA could still give Schedule II (Opium, Morphine, hydrocodone,) Or maybe Schedule III (Tylenol with Codeine®, anabolic steroids.), however ALL other scheduling means that kratom is a "Controlled Substance" and is NOT banned.

QUOTE from Article:

“Many government agencies have a vested interest in the grant, including the NIDA, the National Institutes of Health, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Food and Drug Administration.”

[beathappening]

I feel like celebrating. And since it's a two year study we don't have to worry and stress out about it for awhile! someone tell Reddit!

I wonder if this will have any effect on all the seizures, or if they will continue to happen unabated.

[Kunlong]

I feel like celebrating. And since it's a two year study we don't have to worry and stress out about it for awhile! someone tell Reddit!

I wonder if this will have any effect on all the seizures, or if they will continue to happen unabated.

We will see......because it is GLARINGLY clear that this "study" is to generate excuses for them to ban people and look for thier own inferior gypsy drech as high priced pills that AGAIN, humans are reduced to begging some other bent monkey for.
Note:

“Chris McCurdy was a pioneer in the area of kratom research 10 years ago,” McMahon said. “This NIDA grant shows interest in the potential of kratom-based medicines, as well as concerns over the potential misuse of kratom-related substances.”

So the fight has to go on about OUR rights, the irrelevance of whether or not THEY like it and the FREEDOM to make ones own choices.

This was pot:
Any university that would publish horrific propaganda got LOTS of free money ("deformed babies and your ears will fall off!")
Any university that told any truth about pot LOST thier gov money and were pre-threatened they would. It was complete fraud.
(Like they are doing now with humans)

But at least the primary argument that actually matters can still be fought all along the way, so even IF this "research" comes out devastating, it can only mean a warning sticker like a pack of ciggerettes.

We could also be rid of gotlieb by then? Fda/dea offices are cash cows who seem to more frequently change directors, either so someone else can have a turn to rake cashola for a season or because it gets too ugly and false even for a thing like them? Probably both at times. New administration, new lil petty cronies to make thier friends rich.

We have time to press that kratoms alleged effects, from any alleged study, are wholly secondary to adult American rights and not sit thinking "this study will fix it" because that is a gamble that remains unclear and they absolutely will try to buy studies that say stuff like "Kratom makes big holes in your brain" (those faked up brain scans from years ago. They were impossible, yet all over news as "alarming truth!" until it got around enough that it was a big fake

Our gov buys many "studies" to say what they want them to and get away with stuff like making jail money off bodies 50 years after we knew about pot, that got buried over while millions of our lives did too.

[DrPsilocybong]

Yes, thanks DB for the News Flash here...

Well, here's my take. Nobody on Reddit has CONNECTED The Dots?? And I'm banned on r/Kratom so.... VERY simple:

NIDA would not make a $3.5 million Research Grant on any possible Schedule 1 by DEA !!

Now. Maybe the idiots on Reddit will breeze over here, to digest my Opinion on that.. AGAIN: NIDA would NOT be forking over 3.5 Mill if there was ANY possibility of a Federal Ban on kratom! Meaning.... Here's your PROOF there will be NO Schedule 1 Ban by the DEA, because Schedule 1 would also ban medical research. Sure, DEA could still give Schedule II (Opium, Morphine, hydrocodone,) Or maybe Schedule III (Tylenol with Codeine®, anabolic steroids.), however ALL other scheduling means that kratom is a "Controlled Substance" and is NOT banned.

QUOTE from Article:

“Many government agencies have a vested interest in the grant, including the NIDA, the National Institutes of Health, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Food and Drug Administration.”

What will this mean for the import ban? Do you think we will be able to order from Indonesia again?

[WotAnAtti2d]

Honestly people, I wouldn't get all in a happy uproar because of this. Do you really think that after all of the bullshit that we've gone through and what with customs now seizing kratom at the borders, they're just going to do this and say, "Okay, we're done!" If you think that way, that's just fucking ridiculous. A government research facility is going to study kratom, and you think that's for our benefit? I'm not going to say one way or the other, I just wanted to put that out there so you have another way to look at this.

Maybe it won't go schedule I, but that doesn't mean that they can't make it as another scheduled drug.... one that Big Pharma will have to prescribe to you. I'm not trying to be Debby Downer here, but please, consider all of the facts before you give in to all of the happy hype.

[BallzDeep9]

Maybe it won't go schedule I

yeah that's all I am saying... Proof there will be No Schedule 1. Yes, that is a victory! That doesn't mean there are no "other problems" for kratom. The FDA issue with Imports is separate from the DEA scheduling.

[NMKrato]

This is awesome! I love NIDA! I've spent the last few days heavily on their website writing a research paper about harm reduction and maintenance drugs. Boy I wish I could've put kratom into the paper! This is a step in the right direction, but I do think that there may be a day that kratom is put into a pill and the prices will be jacked up high. (Damn greedy pharm comps) I believe whole heartedly that it should be at the forefront of the harm reduction conversation, and maybe this will jump start that discussion. I know we all like our kratom to be our little secret and keep this as "our" special plant, but I think the good that this plant can do has barely scratched the surface.
I'm a drug abuse counselor for inmates and I hope that one day i can share my Kratom story with my clients without the fear of my supervisors' misinformed criticisms of Kratom.

[WotAnAtti2d]

Proof there will be No Schedule 1. Yes, that is a victory!

How is that a victory? If they make it any kind of scheduled drug, you won't be allowed by law to have it in your home without having a prescription for it.

[beathappening]

It's a step in the right direction.

[Maxxx]

Too soon to think of this as a "good thing." At best it's interesting, but after reading the press release, it sounds to me like they're looking for official "proof" that Kratom is dangerous and bad for society. Considering the FDA and big pharma's record, we have to assume that this is going to be used to bolster their stance that it should be illegal, and that when the study is finished they want to have something concrete they can use to push their agenda through to law after failing to schedule it a couple years ago. They did this kind of thing with marijuana many times over to keep it illegal, and there's too much money at stake to believe Kratom will be any different.

If you take a step back and look at the anti-Kratom push happening in the press, how they've basically made it illegal to import, and now this official study of which the DEA and FDA have a "vested interest" in the results, it's hard not to believe that they're building their case.

The only good thing about this news is that they can't schedule it right now, but this study isn't going to stop them from tightening up the borders even more to try and keep it out of the country until they can manipulate their findings to serve their financial interests.

I hope I'm wrong.

[beathappening]

Hopefully the AKA will address this in their webinar tomorrow. We'll just have to wait and see.

It may not turn out to necessarily be a good thing, but I don't see how it can be construed as bad.

[WotAnAtti2d]

Maxx,

I think what's going on now is similar to what's happening in the UK. They made it legal to have it, but illegal to import it. It's a shitty thing to do, but it appears that since the government can't make it illegal here (or just not soon enough), they'll just choke it off at the ports of entry, and when everyone's stash is gone, it's gone. I'm fairly sure that at the state level, they'll continue to be asshats.

[Kunlong]

I can be really oblivious verging on thick, but, I have always wondered?
What precisely is an asshat?

[mescalien]

Too soon to think of this as a "good thing." At best it's interesting, but after reading the press release, it sounds to me like they're looking for official "proof" that Kratom is dangerous and bad for society. Considering the FDA and big pharma's record, we have to assume that this is going to be used to bolster their stance that it should be illegal, and that when the study is finished they want to have something concrete they can use to push their agenda through to law after failing to schedule it a couple years ago. They did this kind of thing with marijuana many times over to keep it illegal, and there's too much money at stake to believe Kratom will be any different.

If you take a step back and look at the anti-Kratom push happening in the press, how they've basically made it illegal to import, and now this official study of which the DEA and FDA have a "vested interest" in the results, it's hard not to believe that they're building their case.

The only good thing about this news is that they can't schedule it right now, but this study isn't going to stop them from tightening up the borders even more to try and keep it out of the country until they can manipulate their findings to serve their financial interests.

I hope I'm wrong.

I Agree we should be skeptical of taking this as good news. NIDA has funded questionable studies in the past on controversial drugs to prove their own confirmation bias. Remember Dr. George Ricaurte and the scandal of his botched research? Dr. Chris MrcCurdy is a much more reputable authority that Ricaurte but he's also very wary of kratom as a supplement and said so himself in a video that he doesn't think it should be on the market for consumption at all right now. We need to be vigilant and take this with a grain of salt. This could very possibly ultimately lead into placing kratom into schedule II so only researchers and prescription holders will be able to obtain it or worse...patents for synthetic, stripped down versions of the alkaloids that become the only access to anything from this unique class of drugs in the future.

[BallzDeep9]

he's also very wary of kratom as a supplement and said so himself in a video that he doesn't think it should be on the market for consumption at all right now.

I think most of us feel pretty confident that Dr. McCurdy will be professional and factual in his research.

The old idea, that kratom would be just another "herbal supplement" sold at Walmart OTC... is probably not realistic ? Too much "drug" bullshit going on.. A million addicts saying it's a Opiate Alternative.. Head shops selling super-potent extracts = Legal High. Yes it seems likely, they'll go with a higher DEA Schedule/ a Controlled Substance category of some kind... AKA needs to push for keeping it Legal / Behind The Counter sales just like tobacco & alcohol.

I'd have NO problem with legal kratom sold Behind The Counter.. And sold at legal Cannabis shops (Note: New York State will be a BIG one for Legal Weed.) Big Losers will be the "Head Shop Industry", the current bunch of sketchy drug makers in Florida .. does anyone think, DEA will just allow the current situation to continue? Probably not.

[Kunlong]

Coffee isn't sold behind the counter?

Kratom is not a volatile solvent, demonstrated to be heavily physically destructive with its own "AA" ?

I don't jump up and volunteer or try to "negotiate" by offering up ground in the hopes of gaining the field.
They're cheating to do what they are doing, so that is a pretty big sign its about mass money and a poisonous industry and corrupt agency grinding on Americans purely for thier private profits and as many hooked on subo or suicides as they can get.

I have a big problem putting simple botanicals behind the counter. Whats next? Signing for coffee? ID to buy flowers because they might, if ingested, have a noticeable effect?

If thats what it comes down to, "alcohol laws" on kratom, thats more loss than people should put up with. Now its a racket of only the cities biggest donors get liscense, no free enterprise cutting thousands out and organized price control and racketeering.

If the big bucks is going to get away with that insult again, they are going to have to earn it.

[Mourningair777]

Glad research is going to be done. I noticed that the seizures seem to be a bit down. Hmmm

[beathappening]

Will this be affected in any way by the government shutdown?

[WotAnAtti2d]

What precisely is an asshat?

It's a synonym for asshole, jerk, idiot, etc.