Craze, a trendy sports supplement, contains a chemical that is very close in structure to meth, according to U.S. and South Korean researchers.
The U.S. researchers said they also found the same methamphetamine-structured product in Detonate, which is marketed as a weight-loss supplement. The compound apparently is not as potent as meth, but it is stronger than ephedrine.
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Craze is also marketed as all-natural, but the research indicates there is cause for concern.
“These are basically brand-new drugs that are being designed in clandestine laboratories where there's absolutely
no guarantee of quality control,” Pieter Cohen told USA Today. He co-wrote the article about what is contained in Craze that was published in the Drug Testing and Analysis journal.
This particular compound has not been studied in the human body, Cohen told USA Today, so risks associated with it are unknown.
Because of the government shutdown, the Food & Drug Administration wasn’t available for comment, USA Today said.
Craze has been popular and was named by Bodybuilding.com as the 2012 “New Supplement of the Year.” A USA Today July investigation also found problems with Craze additives, including compounds like amphetamines, and that resulted in several retailers pulling the product.
The Boston Globe reported that the Harvard researchers decided to test Craze after two athletes who used it were banned from international competition after failing drug tests.
Though the compound isn’t on the banned list, per se, it is close enough to amphetamines that athletes who are found to have used it can be disqualified.
The compound isn’t listed on the Craze label, and Cohen told the Globe that it’s a “dose you would expect to see in a pharmaceutical.”
Driven Sports makes the Craze supplement, and its owner, Matt Cahill, is a convicted felon for “introduction of a misbranded drug into interstate commerce,” and he faces federal charges on Rebound XT, a supplement that had a compound in it that reduced estrogen, USA Today said.
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