I am not disputing the absolute need to label ingredients - and warned the very subject of the stories years before this happened... but, I would not call K@ an "opioid" either. The primary actives in K@ have crossover-effects to various opioid receptors, but a ceiling on euphoria and respiratory depression. Additionally, they first have a bunch of andragenic activity before tooling with painkilling receptors. Find me one opioid or opioid peptide known that is similar to that.
Just as a point of information, there are opioid peptides present in K@ (Mitragynine, Mitragynine pseudoindoxyl, 7-Hydroxymitragynine) that do not posses any Adrenergic properties. I know that K@'s pharmacological profile is dose-dependent and opioid-like effects are only present in high doses (which might be the reason for all these "extracts").
That being said, there are other alkaloids without affinity on opioid receptors which include Raubasine, Corynanthine and Rhynchophylline. Interestingly, Rhynchophylline is a noncompetitive NMDA antagonist which is probably one of the many possible reasons for the lack of the development of serious tolerance and therefore, withdrawal symptoms with K@. Under my "How it Works" thread there are many links showing the affect NMDA has on craving, tolerance, dependence, etc. [
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12433591]
Like I've said before, I have never consumed K@ and won't pass any judgement on it because it is obviously a safer alternative to those in pain (lack of serious side-effects such as hypoventilation which is what causes opioid-related deaths). The nerd in me just needed to clarify that though.
We are all in this together, especially when K@ starts getting linked to Kava and vice versa. But anyways, back to kava and how we should, as a community, respond to not only the news reports like this, but also the kava bars. After all, we are a
kava forum. As much as I appreciate those here who value K@, I think we need to stay focused on the real issue here which is the future and public perception of kava.
