“but keep the euphoria, wouldn’t that be better?” Not if what you want is to restore people’s ability to work and study as usual—it’s probably easier to do those things if you can get pain relief but not feel high.
Thank you. I certainly agree that in most occupations (operating large machinery, doing difficult cognitive tasks) and studying, it is not of benefit to feel high on the job. However, I would note important to note that 1) partial opioid agonists have significantly more mild euphoriant properties than full agonists and 2) Kratom, which contains a partial mu-opioid agonist, has traditionally been used in Southeast Asia by field laborers as a ‘labor enhancement’ to enjoy their work more and combat their pain problems (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4657101/). For individuals who spend the majority of their lives in grueling conditions and who appear to be facilitated rather than harmed by the effects of partial agonist opioids, I see more benefit than harm to having a slightly euphoria-inducing agent. For other occupations, this makes less sense.
“but keep the euphoria, wouldn’t that be better?” Not if what you want is to restore people’s ability to work and study as usual—it’s probably easier to do those things if you can get pain relief but not feel high.
Thank you. I certainly agree that in most occupations (operating large machinery, doing difficult cognitive tasks) and studying, it is not of benefit to feel high on the job. However, I would note important to note that 1) partial opioid agonists have significantly more mild euphoriant properties than full agonists and 2) Kratom, which contains a partial mu-opioid agonist, has traditionally been used in Southeast Asia by field laborers as a ‘labor enhancement’ to enjoy their work more and combat their pain problems (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4657101/). For individuals who spend the majority of their lives in grueling conditions and who appear to be facilitated rather than harmed by the effects of partial agonist opioids, I see more benefit than harm to having a slightly euphoria-inducing agent. For other occupations, this makes less sense.