Laura Bohn received the assignment to discover safer pain management medications back in 2012, as heroin began replacing prescription pills as the main catalyst for fatalities in the opioid crisis began. Funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, she and a team of researchers published findings in the journal Cell in 2017 demonstrating that several chemical compounds—most notably SR-17018—could alleviate pain in mice while avoiding respiratory depression, which is the specific biological process responsible for fatal overdoses.
But all of that came crashing to a halt in late August when the US Drug Enforcement Administration emergency-scheduled SR-17018 as a Schedule I controlled substance, placing it in the same category as heroin with “no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.”
For Bohn, who serves as senior associate vice president of research at University of South Florida Health, the move will make it much harder to do the research she’s been planning. Her research group secured a patent for SR-17018 after observing that test subjects administered the substance did not build up a strong resistance to it, and that morphine-dependent mice could take SR-17018 to lower their tolerance back down without experiencing agonizing withdrawal symptoms.
It’s a real hassle,
Bohn told WIRED regarding the sudden regulatory crackdown. Right now, I would like to have it tested for additional safety studies, and I can’t have it made, I can’t ship it, I can’t touch it. I can’t do anything.
Before federal authorities designated it a controlled substance, the medication lacked US Food and Drug Administration regulation but remained fairly simple to buy over the internet.
Members of online drug-using communities on Discord and Reddit often describe the substance as a miraculous gift that has assisted them in overcoming their opioid addictions. Yet, this consumer adoption occurred entirely outside traditional clinical oversight, as formal human trials on SR-17018 have never been conducted.
This action eliminates a prospective escape route from dependency for individuals attempting to transition away from opioids, even though human efficacy trials do not exist. Jim Bates, a 53-year-old kitchen manager from Duncan, Oklahoma, has been hooked on various opioids, including prescription pills, heroin, and fentanyl, since he was 25. Approximately 24 months ago, he developed a dependence on 7-OH, which is a potent derivative of kratom that stimulates opioid receptors in the brain.
That shit blew my head off,
Bates told WIRED, describing his introduction to the substance at a vape shop. It was a whole lot like heroin.
Now, with the DEA clamping down, academic researchers face hurdles in testing compounds, while drug users lose access to the substances they relied on.
