Opioid Users Found a ‘Miracle Drug’ to Help Them Quit. Then the DEA Banned It
Source: Wired ·
On Reddit and Discord, people addicted to opioids say SR-17018 can remove withdrawal symptoms. Despite its potential, the DEA has placed it in the same category as heroin.
From the source
In 2012, as the driver of deaths in the opioid crisis began moving from prescription pills to heroin, Laura Bohn was tasked with finding safer drugs to manage pain. Funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, in 2017 she and other scientists revealed in the science journal Cell that several compounds—including a particularly promising one called SR-17018—could relieve pain in mice without causing respiratory depression. That’s a big deal, because respiratory depression is typically what causes people using opioids to stop breathing and die. Bohn, senior associate vice president of research at University of South Florida Health, says her team filed a patent on SR-17018. They went on to discover that mice using the chemical did not develop a high tolerance for it and that mice already dependent on morphine—a powerful opioid—could consume SR-17018 to reset their tolerance without suffering from painful withdrawal symptoms. It’s no longer just mice who use SR-17018. On Reddit and…
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