A small caveat to fellow readers: Unfortunately there are unscrupulous individuals who sell the melanotan peptides that go around on the internet and rave about what it can do and downplay side effects. The melanotan peptides (melanotan-1 "afamelanotide" and melanotan II) are not "supplements" but indeed they are drugs that are administered via subcutaneous injections (in virtually an identical way as the peptide drug insulin is administered). The simple fact to the matter is that as of right now these peptide drugs have never been licensed for human usage outside of health agency sanctioned clinical trials. As such there are no regulated laboratories manufacturing these drugs. The reason this is a problem is that one cannot have the highest degree of confidence that what they will purchase on the internet is indeed what it was sold as without having independent testing done on the product. It is true that the FDA has approved drugs for human usage that later proved to be too toxic for general usage (and were subsequently removed from the market) but individuals should never discount what they do out of hand. The FDA does it's best to establish the safety of drugs and to authorize drugs for given usages according to a risk vs. benefit ratio. The FDA examines large volumes of information and employs specialist doctors and medical scientists to better understand how drugs work in determining whether a drug will be approved for usage or not. In the overwhelming number of cases the FDA gets it right but in the end the organization is not a machine and therefore is subject to human shortcomings. Given these facts it should be in the minds of those who use drugs that regardless of a drug's license status it can still potentially be harmful even when used as directed. By the same token just because a drug or food product is not licensed by the FDA does not immediately mean that it is dangerous but rather that it's level of danger in usage is officially unknown to the FDA. Folks should look upon glowing reports about usage of the melanotan peptides with skepticism and be quick to question the conflicts of interest that the person doing the glorifying may have (ie: are they involved in sales of the peptides?). At the same time when someone is talking about the peptides in a negative light their conflicts of interest should also be examined (ie: are they part of sales of DHA based tanning products or just anti-drug in general?). In both cases the more that a given individual can cite scientific and/or medical texts to support what they are saying the more that what they are saying should be given weight. Sincerely, Scott Stevenson
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Posted to Is Melanotan Injectable Tanner safe? on 9 Jul 2009
A small caveat to fellow readers: Unfortunately there are unscrupulous individuals who sell the melanotan peptides that go around on the internet and rave about what it can do and downplay side effects. The melanotan peptides (melanotan-1 "afamelanotide" and melanotan II) are not "supplements" but indeed they are drugs that are administered via subcutaneous injections (in virtually an identical way as the peptide drug insulin is administered). The simple fact to the matter is that as of right now these peptide drugs have never been licensed for human usage outside of health agency sanctioned clinical trials. As such there are no regulated laboratories manufacturing these drugs. The reason this is a problem is that one cannot have the highest degree of confidence that what they will purchase on the internet is indeed what it was sold as without having independent testing done on the product. It is true that the FDA has approved drugs for human usage that later proved to be too toxic for general usage (and were subsequently removed from the market) but individuals should never discount what they do out of hand. The FDA does it's best to establish the safety of drugs and to authorize drugs for given usages according to a risk vs. benefit ratio. The FDA examines large volumes of information and employs specialist doctors and medical scientists to better understand how drugs work in determining whether a drug will be approved for usage or not. In the overwhelming number of cases the FDA gets it right but in the end the organization is not a machine and therefore is subject to human shortcomings. Given these facts it should be in the minds of those who use drugs that regardless of a drug's license status it can still potentially be harmful even when used as directed. By the same token just because a drug or food product is not licensed by the FDA does not immediately mean that it is dangerous but rather that it's level of danger in usage is officially unknown to the FDA. Folks should look upon glowing reports about usage of the melanotan peptides with skepticism and be quick to question the conflicts of interest that the person doing the glorifying may have (ie: are they involved in sales of the peptides?). At the same time when someone is talking about the peptides in a negative light their conflicts of interest should also be examined (ie: are they part of sales of DHA based tanning products or just anti-drug in general?). In both cases the more that a given individual can cite scientific and/or medical texts to support what they are saying the more that what they are saying should be given weight. Sincerely, Scott Stevenson