Los Angeles County health officials are inspecting smoke shops, convenience stores and gas stations for kratom and 7-OH products that can be addictive as opioids and are illegal, and must be removed from the shelves, the county reported.
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (DPH) this week began cracking down on the sale of these products that are illegal dietary supplements and are being used as substitutes for opioid drugs, such as Oxycontin and fentanyl by addicts looking to get high.
Ingestion of the highly concentrated version of kratom, known as 7-Hydroxymitragynine (7-OH), has been tied to six overdose deaths of people between the ages of 18 and 40, county DPH reported.
“Kratom and 7-OH products are sold as natural remedies, but they are illegal and unsafe,” said Dr. Muntu Davis, the county health officer. “They are sold in gas stations, smoke shops, online, and other retailers. People should avoid using these products, and store owners/operators must remove them immediately to prevent harm.”
Most likely the deaths involved users who mixed 7-OH with alcohol or other illicit drugs including benzodiazepines, a class of depressant medications prescribed to treat conditions like anxiety, insomnia, seizures, and alcohol withdrawal. The mixing of the synthetic, concentrated 7-OH can significantly slow breathing and cause death, Davis said.
Many who buy these over-the-counter, yet unregulated, substances don’t know their concentrations, making accidental overdoes more likely. “The safest choice is to avoid all 7-OH products,” he said.
Orange County outlawed the sale of synthetic kratom products on Aug. 26, but only in unincorporated areas, not in cities. Violations are misdemeanors and punishable with a fine of up to $1,000 and/or up to six months in the county jail.
Kratom, an herbal medicine, comes from evergreen tree leaves in Southeast Asia and has opioid and stimulant effects. Authorities warn the drug can be addictive and lead to psychosis in high doses. Kratom and 7-OH comes in liquid shots, the most potent form, as well as tablets, gummies, pills and powders.
The product is sold as a pain reliever, mood booster and stimulant, often with the words “natural” written on the packaging. The chemical compound binds to opioid receptors in the brain and can have mood-boosting effects in high doses.
Its side effects can include nausea, itching, sweating, dry mouth, constipation, vomiting, loss of appetite and more, according to a Justice Department fact sheet. Its users can also experience anorexia, insomnia, seizures and hallucinations.
In serious and rare cases, deaths have been associated with kratom use, according to the Food and Drug Administration. At lower doses, 7-OH acts as a stimulant while at higher doses it acts like an opioid, reported LA County DPH.
Some are making analogies to fentanyl poisonings of young people when unsuspecting teenagers or twenty-somethings purchase drugs on SnapChat or other social media sites for anxiety — but actually receive 100% fentanyl pills.
Jaime Puerta of Santa Clarita found his son, Daniel Puerta-Johnson, 16, unconscious in his bedroom in 2020, learning later he took a counterfeit pill that looked exactly like a blue M30 Oxycodone pill. His son “unknowingly ingested an illicitly manufactured counterfeit opioid made of nothing more than filler, a binding agent and illicit fentanyl that killed him,” Puerta said during U.S. Senate testimony in February.
Puerta, reached at his Santa Clarita home on Monday, Nov. 10, said he just learned about kratom and the more potent 7-OH on Oct. 29 during a symposium at Valencia High School led by Cary Quashen, owner of Action Drug Rehab. The seminar was put on for parents, students, teachers and administrators at Hart School District.
“It is ludicrous to me that this is actually available to the public – something that is as potent as Oxycontin or Percocet. It is just unbelievable,” Puerta said. “It can be bought at a gas station and it can actually kill you. Unbelievable.”
This illicit, over-the-counter drug is different, in that buyers know it is a stimulant, used for relaxation or a way to get high. Many teens who died of fentanyl poisoning thought they were buying a pain killer or treatment for anxiety or ADHD, but were mailed 100% fentanyl made to look like a totally different drug.
“With kratom, you know the risk. But non-regulated substances being sold at smoke shops and gas stations are quick ways to self-medicate,” Puerta said. “Why are we even allowing these products to be sold?”
Quashen brought packages of kratom and 7-OH with him to the school symposium, to show how easy it is to buy these products without a prescription.
He said at higher doses, kratom and 7-OH are as addictive as any other opiates and he’s seen people in his clinic go through protracted withdrawals. “Some people buy this stuff to relieve anxiety or give them energy, not knowing it can cause physical and emotional addiction. It can get you addicted just like heroin,” Quashen said.
After talking to the clerk at a smoke shop trying to locate a man who was high on the over-the-counter drugs a week before, the clerk told him he had not been back. He had died.
“It is the next crisis for young people,” he said.