Clarifying the opioid substitutes that the Center for Science in the Public Interest did investigate
When Hofstra University's departments of earth sciences and geology helped put together a teaching guide for GeoTeach to sort out the facts from science fiction in the "Jurassic Park" movies, they acknowledged that the filmmakers got many things right ... and a few facts wrong. For example, a Pteranodon - the name itself means "wings with no teeth" - couldn't have swooped down, teeth bared, plucked a 12-year-old boy off the ground and flown away!
Well, we also made a mistake when we said that the Center for Science in the Public Interest included kratom in their investigation titled "Crackdown Urged on Supplements Marketed as Opioid Withdrawal Aids." Their study specifically excluded kratom, the opioid substitute that's also being touted on the internet as a healthy alternative. This product, which we were focusing on in our column, was the target of a Food and Drug Administration warning to consumers; it wasn't part of the CSPI investigation, and we want to set that record straight.
What CSPI did urge authorities to crack down on were companies that produce products such as Mitadone Anti Opiate Aid Plus, Opiate Detox Pro and TaperAid Complete. Both CSPI and the FDA stress that there are three FDA-approved, medically assisted treatments for opioid addiction withdrawal: methadone, buprenorphine, and naltrexone. These are treatments consumers can depend on, and we hope that others come along.
Consider this our "Redactyl" to our Pteranodon, and we look forward to the continued good work the Center for Science in the Public Interest accomplishes year in and year out.
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