The DEA banned a drug some opioid users called a miracle
Researchers say the Schedule I ban could kill studies of a promising opioid treatment.
In 2012, as the number of deaths from opioid overdoses surged from prescription pills to heroin, Laura Bohn was assigned the task of discovering safer medications to alleviate pain. Backed by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, in 2017 she and her colleagues published a study in the scientific journal Cell, detailing several compounds, including a particularly promising one named SR-17018, capable of providing pain relief in mice without inducing respiratory depression - a crucial factor since respiratory depression often leads to fatal opioid overdoses.
Bohn, who is the senior associate vice president of research at the University of South Florida Health, disclosed that her team had applied for a patent on SR-17018. They further discovered that mice treated with this chemical did not develop tolerance to it over time, and that those already dependent on morphine, a potent opioid, could use SR-17018 to restore their tolerance levels without experiencing severe withdrawal symptoms.
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