West Palm Beach, FL, May 28, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NEWMEDIAWIRE -- Ethema Health Corporation (OTCQB: GRST) (“Ethema” “GRST” or the “Company”), a provider of healthcare services, today announced that it has agreed to a letter of intent to purchase an interest in IC Pharma, LLC and its group of companies. IC Pharma has offices in Auburn Hills, Michigan, and specializes in the extraction, processing, and bottling of extracts from natural plants such as coffee, industrial hemp, and kratom. IC Pharma has developed advanced manufacturing equipment and processes that make their production efficient, economical and highly scalable. IC Pharma group’s products are sold through distributors and retailers and will generate sales at retail of approximately $50,000,000 dollars per year with a 30% growth rate. The agreement is subject to standard due diligence and will require a formal agreement and a valuation to support the purchase price.
The agreement with IC Pharma will be beneficial to the Company for two reasons. The first is that it gives the Company the exclusive right to the use of certain products relevant to addiction treatment for opioid withdrawal. The second is that IC Pharma is a rapidly growing company that is generating significant revenue and profits and will bring great value to the Company. There is a growing backlash against pharma companies and their part in creating the opioid epidemic. There is an increasing amount of evidence that synthetic drugs sold for the treatment of pain anxiety and sleeplessness are not as safe as they have been represented. The response to this has seen a growing amount of interest and support of plant-based products to resolve these problems.
One plant-based product comes from the leaves of the Mitragyna Speciosa tree (“kratom”). The use of kratom for relieving opiate withdrawal symptoms is nothing new. For many centuries, people suffering from severe opiate addictions have turned to this natural herbal product for relief. Recently, researchers have confirmed what has been well documented anecdotally – the plant’s potent natural alkaloids can soothe the most intense symptoms. This makes kratom one of the best treatments for opiate withdrawal side effects. This is potentially incredible news for the millions who battle with opiate addiction worldwide.
“Our Company has been committed to substance abuse treatment, education and research. It is our dedication to research that has brought us together with the IC Pharma group,” said Shawn Leon, CEO of the Company. He added, “With the severity of the opioid crisis gripping our countries we need to be at the forefront of addiction treatment, and we need to be involved in the scientific research on kratom that is underway at a national level. This arrangement with IC Pharma will significantly advance the Company and its patients.”
Andrew Krause, CEO of IC Pharma, said, “We are the only company I know of that can extract purified mitragynine from kratom economically and at scale. Our processing equipment and technology, which is also just as effective at extracting CBD from industrial hemp, enables us to be leaders in supplying these highly beneficial ingredients to researchers and to the mass supply as that happens. We are very happy to be engaged with Ethema Health and look forward to the breakthroughs we will be achieving together.”
About Kratom
To understand how kratom works for managing opiate withdrawal, we first must review how opiates create a dependency in the body. The opiate chemicals fully bond with cell receptors and stimulate the sympathetic nervous system. This stimulation results in increased levels of endorphin production, which not only generates a sensation of feeling “high” in the user, it also sets up a dangerous dynamic. Over time, the body adjusts to these new levels of function and feeling. But, the body cannot maintain this level of endorphin production on its own, so receptors require more of the opiate chemicals. If the user stops using opiates, the receptors and the entire now-depleted nervous system experiences a severe crash. The subjective experience of this can be so intense that a user will naturally wish to take more opiates to stave off the bad feelings. Hence, an addiction is born.
Kratom is not an opiate. The naturally occurring plant alkaloids in kratom only partially interact with the body’s opioid receptors, so they do not generate a severe crash and therefore have no serious long-term dependency or addiction. Kratom has a soothing effect on “needy” receptors, easing them via natural stimulation back into a more balanced state.
Some of the assistance that kratom can provide for withdrawal sufferers:
· Return of normal appetite.
· Relief of muscle pain associated with withdrawal.
· Ability to sleep.
· Easing of nausea.
· Help with depression-related thoughts.
History of Kratom Use for Opiate Addiction
Beginning in 1897, the first published studies promoting kratom for opiate withdrawal began to appear. Today, kratom is frequently used in methadone detox programs, and has been recommended as a course of action against drug addiction withdrawal by hospitals like the National Institute of Thai Traditional Medicine in Bangkok. Recent research points to the mitragynine alkaloid as the main partial agonist responsible for soothing withdrawing receptors.
Kratom and Methadone
Many users have reported strong success in using kratom for opiate withdrawal as it applies specifically to methadone. Long prescribed as a safer alternative for heroin addicts, methadone itself went on to become a lifelong addiction for many opiate-dependent sufferers. Trading one chemical addiction for another is at best a lateral move. However, by introducing kratom into their systems, methadone users are able to release the deep chemical grip on their systems.
Kratom, acting as a partial mu receptor agonist in the body, allows the user to transition to an opiate-free lifestyle much more quickly than attempting to taper off via methadone alone. As has been observed, some methadone users are never able to perform this tapering, not even over many years. Some opiate or methadone users will still experience symptoms of withdrawal as they make their transition, but kratom users report that their side effects are far more mild and manageable than what is commonly experienced from methadone alone. For this reason, using kratom for withdrawal from methadone could be a viable new alternative for those who are caught in a chemical addiction cycle.
About Ethema Health Corporation
Ethema Health Corporation (OTCQB: GRST) operates in the behavioral healthcare space specifically in the treatment of substance use disorders. Ethema developed a unique style of treatment over the last six years and has had much success with in-patient treatment for adults. Ethema will continue to develop world-class programs and techniques with its expansion in the United States. The Company currently has under twenty employees and operates in West Palm Beach, Florida. For more information, you can visit our website at www.ethemahealth.com and www.ariafl.com
About IC Pharma
IC Pharma has two facilities in Auburn Hills, Michigan (a 30,000 square feet product packaging and bottling facility and a 36,000 square feet research and production facility). IC Pharma has many pending patent applications for protecting its unique abilities to economically extract specific alkaloids from plant material at very large scale.
Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
The information contained herein includes forward-looking statements. These statements relate to future events or to our future financial performance, and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, levels of activity, performance, or achievements to be materially different from any future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements since they involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which are, in some cases, beyond our control and which could, and likely will, materially affect actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. Any forward-looking statement reflects our current views with respect to future events and is subject to these and other risks, uncertainties and assumptions relating to our operations, results of operations, growth strategy and liquidity. We assume no obligation to publicly update or revise these forward-looking statements for any reason, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future.
For information please contact:
Ethema Health Corporation
855-266-9944
shawn@ethemahealth.com
