Comment · Wed, November 27, 2013 · Ceretropic
Cerebral Health Pyritinol (New Test Results)
Original post in this thread
MisterYouAreSoDumb · 137 points
We have finally identified the substance that Cerebral Health was selling as pyritinol, which has sent one person to the hospital, and caused adverse reactions in half a dozen other people so far. The results are very surprising, as I never would have guessed it. It turns out the substance is diphenhydramine, also known as Benadryl. Diphenhydramine has anticholinergic and serotonergic effects, and has been known to cause seizures in higher doses. So essentially people were overdosing on a deliriant. You can read reports of people taking large doses of it online, and it does not seem like a very pleasurable experience.
So far Cerebral Health has not taken any steps to address the issue. I've gone back and forth with the owner Doug on Longecity for a while now, and the exchange has pretty much been a PR disaster for him. Not only has he been rude and dismissive, but he has threatened myself and the lab manager of the first lab we used to do the testing with litigation. On top of that, he insulted the lab managers education, and generally has been a total asshole throughout this whole incident. It's definitely not the…
What they were answering
Toptomcat · 8 points
Consider what your options are at this point.
1. Report them to the government. This risks making the nootropics community look like drug dealers.
2. Publicize the fraud. This has two possible outcomes: you do it effectively and lots of people find out, or you do it ineffectively and few people find out. If the former, then at least one person is bound to give the FDA a call, which has the risks of 1. The latter has the risks of 3.
3. Sweep it under the rug. This risks further people being poisoned. Also, should it come out that you found this out and then did nothing, for fear of attracting federal attention to us, it makes the nootropics community really really look like drug dealers.
I dislike the drug war, its negative effects on civil liberties, and its spillover effects on this community as much as anyone. But I think it's the lesser of all possible evils at this point.
If you were really jonesing for a middle ground, then you might try informing all of their business associates- their suppliers, their shippers, the people who run the buildings they rent office space in. Emphasize that it puts them at serious risk to work with CH, both legally and by reputation. If even one or two of them believes you, this will force them to either take the problem seriously or go out of business. And provide the test results to the redditor's family and urge them to use i…
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb · Ceretropic
Well we already let the community know the moment we found out. The post is stickied to the top of the subreddit, and there are multiple posts on Longecity.
Letting the FDA know is going to be a different decision. I am not sure what the downstream effects from that would be. However, I would think it would lead to more scrutiny for everyone.
The person in question has already been in touch with an attorney. What happens with that is out of my hands.