Caffeine is grandfathered in as a Generally Recognized as Safe food additive. If energy drink companies had to go through clinical trials with no patent protection for each drink formula, they wouldn't make them.
I think the current regulatory regime in many US states allows companies to make a killing off of selling naturally occurring bioactive substances as dietary supplements with few regulatory hurdles.
Kratom, CBD, and delta-8 THC are naturally occurring bioactive substances that are newer to the US market. Both have carved out a pretty nice economic niche with a bunch of claimed health benefits.
A couple of years back, I saw a sign outside a fancy legal highs shop in Fishtown, Philadelphia touting the benefits of kratom as a pre-workout supplement. The insanity that a business was advertising an addictive opioid to healthy, opioid-naive people for better gains in the gym almost makes me want more regulation in this area.
Isn't it relatively easy to sell anything "naturally occurring" as a supplement? I think there is very little regulation (of course if you want to claim it's a drug and presumably charge much more for it it's another matter).
Even synthetic research chemicals are generally legal as long as you add a "not for human consumption" label (and they aren't explicitly banned or analogous to other illegal/regulated drugs).
throwup238|1 year ago
Centigonal|1 year ago
Kratom, CBD, and delta-8 THC are naturally occurring bioactive substances that are newer to the US market. Both have carved out a pretty nice economic niche with a bunch of claimed health benefits.
A couple of years back, I saw a sign outside a fancy legal highs shop in Fishtown, Philadelphia touting the benefits of kratom as a pre-workout supplement. The insanity that a business was advertising an addictive opioid to healthy, opioid-naive people for better gains in the gym almost makes me want more regulation in this area.
pqtyw|1 year ago
Even synthetic research chemicals are generally legal as long as you add a "not for human consumption" label (and they aren't explicitly banned or analogous to other illegal/regulated drugs).
catigula|1 year ago
nepthar|1 year ago