[mikemackle]

Unfortunately, there are almost no effective treatments for chronic pain available other than opiod painkillers and there is significant vested interest in the pharmaceutical industry to keep it this way.

Whenever I see an article like this, it is frustrating as there is an alternative to opiods for chronic pain management that is just as effective, carries no risk of overdosing, minimizes the the chance for dependence (and in fact is often used by those looking to break opiod dependence) and at scale, could be available for fractions of a penny. As a bonus, it can also serves as an actual replacement to ADD and antidepressant medications as well as serving as an effective tool against other types of addiction (e.g. alchoholism) and has 100s of years of "clinical trials" in the real world to support its safety. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/should-kratom-be-l...

Unfortunately, the powers that be have no interest in changing the status quo particularly when it would undercut patented money making drugs currently available, so very little research is conducted into this area and those who wish to do so are often actively thwarted to the point one has to conclude that there is not actually a real desire to address this problem.