As Big Pharma continues to make synthetic derivatives of kratom, will these products be safe for consumers?
Big Pharma has a lousy track record for drug safety. Lucky for them, the FDA approves many of their products based on biased “research” done by Big Pharma companies.
In general, when you isolate chemicals of an herb in a lab, and synthesize them, artificially produce them, you don’t end up with what nature intended. This is why it’s better, for example, to eat mineral rich foods rather than mineral supplements.
Nature puts chemicals in packages that are fit for our body’s needs. Nature includes synergistic chemicals that all work together harmoniously. Vitamin C in an orange will always be better for your health than vitamin C in a supplement lozenge or tablet. Some people find supplements to be more convenient and easier to take, but they lose the overall range of health benefits delivered by the natural substance.
Whenever science comes along and tries to “perfect” what nature produces, the results are typically not so great. The scientific alteration or distillation of natural herbs, fruit, vegetables, vitamins, minerals, enzymes, etc. gives us products that may be effective to some degree, but basically not as complete or optimized as the natural substance.
Another consideration is that Big Pharma wants to develop kratom-like medicines that, as a favor to their suppliers, will contain chemicals that probably should not be in them, but will be profitable for certain companies. By dumping these extraneous chemicals into their concoctions, Big Pharma makes more money.
Big Pharma will take something like cannabis, figure out how to artifically synthesize THC, and make a medicine that mimics natural THC, but is actually less healthy, even dangerous or fatal. This is one reason why you don’t see many THC pills being sold. The product sucks.
What is Big Pharma doing in the realm of kratom?
The Shoomery forum has this entry by Black Widow:
“The
herb Kratom — Mitragyna speciosa — has become surprisingly popular
for a growing number of Americans with various conditions that the
pharmaceutical industry has poorly served and often ignored.
Fibromyalgia, depression, diabetes, PTSD, anxiety, and chronic pain
due to arthritis and injuries are some of the conditions where
patients are turning to kratom out of frustration with pharmaceutical
drug side-effects and lack of benefit.
Of
course, the pharmaceutical companies are not pleased with the loss of
revenue that this humble herb is causing them. With their financial
pull they seem to be behind a nationwide, state-by-state campaign to
demonize the herb with lurid TV news reports and simultaneous
legislative moves to ban the herb.
For
those who know and use kratom daily, without incident, this David vs.
Goliath battle is almost comical in its heavy-handed distortion of
the truth — and plainly reminiscent of past media campaigns against
marijuana, which also turned out to offer relief for many conditions
(and is now belatedly receiving respect and increasing legal
recognition as a non-problem).
While
it is not completely accurate to say that Big Pharma “hates”
kratom, they seem to prefer to take it apart and sell it piece by
piece, as new drugs. Ultimately, their plan appears to be to patent
beneficial alkaloids contained in kratom, while using the force of
law to deny access to the natural herb.”
https://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/19966963
Matt
Agorist in an article in The Free Thought Project, on September 8,
2016, stated:
“Currently, the pharmaceutical industry is
using kratom alkaloids to manufacture synthetic opioids.
As Cassius Kamarampi points out, three synthetic opioids, in particular, were synthesized from the alkaloids in kratom from 2008- 2016: MGM-9, MGM-15, and MGM-16.
They were synthesized from kratom’s alkaloids Mitragynine and 7-Hydroxymitragynine: to make what is essentially patentable, pharmaceutical kratom.
Mitragynine is a major indole alkaloid isolated from the Thai medicinal plant Mitragyna speciosa that has opium-like properties, although its chemical structure is quite different from that of morphine. We attempted to develop novel analgesics derived from mitragynine, and thus synthesized the ethylene glycol-bridged and C10-fluorinated derivative of mitragynine, MGM-9 [(E)-methyl 2-(3-ethyl-7a,12a-(epoxyethanoxy)-9-fluoro-1,2,3,4,6,7,12,12b-octahydro-8-methoxyindolo[2,3-a]quinolizin-2-yl)-3-methoxyacrylate]. We hypothesized that a dual-acting mu- and kappa-opioid agonist could produce potent antinociceptive effects with fewer rewarding effects compared with mu agonists.”
Read the PubMed government report here:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18550129
So, to answer the question: “Will the Big Pharma versions of kratom be safe to use?” – Probably not.
Big Pharma analogues and derivatives of kratom will be dubious, to say the least. At worst, Big Pharma may load the fake kratom products with truly addictive substances or chemicals that will cause health issues further down the line for those who use them.
But Big Pharma unduly influences the FDA to try to make natural kratom illegal…while Big Pharma is obtaining patents on various alkaloids found in kratom. It’s a really sick and disgusting affair if you look into it deeply.
Do what you can to help keep kratom legal, and to decriminalize it where it’s not lawful. Advocate for kratom. Share your knowledge with others. Share posts on your Facebook page that promote the benefits of real, authentic, naturally grown kratom.
We must fight for our right to use plants that God (or the Big Bang) put here for our wise and moderate use. We must not let Big Pharma come in and ruin a good thing, like they tend to do.
