Kratom and concentrated 7-OH products are sold beside energy drinks, vapes and snacks, but doctors, poison centers and state officials now warn that some products marketed as “natural” may act like opioids creating dependence, withdrawal and a regulatory crisis moving faster than the law.
NEW YORK - Filed at 1:31 p.m. Eastern time
The product does not look like the beginning of an addiction crisis. It can sit near the register at a gas station. It can be sold in a vape shop. It can come as a brightly packaged shot, gummy, tablet, capsule, drink mix or liquid extract. It may be advertised with soft language: plant-based, botanical, natural, calming, energizing, focus-enhancing, mood-lifting.
That is part of why public-health officials are alarmed. Across the United States, kratom and newer concentrated products containing 7-hydroxymitragynine, known as 7-OH, have moved from niche herbal counters into gas stations, smoke shops, convenience stores and online marketplaces. They are being blamed by some doctors, poison-control specialists, families and state officials for a widening pattern of dependence, withdrawal, emergency-room visits and fatal overdoses.
The debate is complicated because not every product is the same. Kratom comes from the leaves of a Southeast Asian tree. Traditional kratom leaf contains mitragynine and trace amounts of 7-OH, compounds that can interact with opioid receptors in the brain. Some users say botanical kratom helps them manage pain, anxiety or withdrawal from stronger opioids. Many advocates argue that banning all kratom would punish adults who use leaf-based products as a harm-reduction tool.
But the products driving the newest alarm are often not traditional kratom tea or plain leaf powder. They are high-potency extracts and isolated or enhanced 7-OH products sold in modern retail packaging, sometimes with concentrations far beyond what naturally occurs in the plant. Doctors and regulators say those products can behave more like opioids than herbal supplements.
That distinction now sits at the center of America’s newest “gas station drug” fight. The Food and Drug Administration has warned consumers about products containing added or enhanced 7-OH, saying they can cause serious harm and are sold online and at smoke shops and gas stations. The Drug Enforcement Administration has begun the temporary scheduling process for certain 7-OH products above a specified threshold and for synthetic related substances. HHS and FDA officials have supported the DEA move, framing it as a response to concentrated products that threaten public health.
The industry’s own divisions have sharpened the issue. Some companies that sell botanical kratom support federal action against concentrated 7-OH products, arguing that synthetic or enhanced versions are giving the broader kratom market a dangerous reputation. Critics respond that ordinary kratom leaf is not harmless either and that the entire category has been allowed to grow in a regulatory gray zone with too little labeling, age control, dosing consistency or medical oversight. That gray zone is where the crisis has grown.
In many communities, the first point of contact is not a doctor, pharmacist or treatment center. It is a convenience-store counter. A person struggling with pain, fatigue, anxiety, alcohol use or opioid withdrawal sees a legal product marketed as natural and available without a prescription. The first purchase may feel safer than buying illicit drugs or returning to prescription opioids. The packaging may make the product seem closer to coffee, vitamins or energy shots than to an addictive substance.
Then tolerance can build. People who become dependent describe needing more to feel normal, waking up in withdrawal, spending more money than planned, hiding use from family, and feeling trapped by a product they originally believed was mild. Treatment providers are increasingly seeing patients who arrive with kratom or 7-OH dependence and withdrawal symptoms that resemble opioid withdrawal: sweating, restlessness, nausea, muscle aches, anxiety, insomnia and intense cravings. That is why the location of sale matters.
When a product with opioid-like effects is sold in places associated with casual impulse purchases, the public receives a message: this is ordinary. It is another legal stimulant, relaxant or wellness aid. Gas stations sell cigarettes, caffeine, lottery tickets, alcohol in some states, energy drinks and vapes. Kratom and 7-OH products slip easily into that environment, especially when the packaging avoids language that sounds medical or dangerous. The retail setting can lower the psychological barrier to first use.
It also makes enforcement harder. Unlike pharmacies, gas stations and smoke shops are not built around medication counseling. Clerks may not know the difference between botanical kratom, extract shots, 7-OH tablets, synthetic derivatives or products mislabeled as supplements. Customers may not receive accurate warnings about dependence, drug interactions, pregnancy risk, liver toxicity, respiratory depression, seizure risk or withdrawal.
The result is a marketplace where the consumer often becomes the safety test.
The data are becoming harder to ignore. Poison centers have reported a sharp rise in kratom-related exposure calls over the past decade, with record levels in 2025 and continued concern in 2026. Reports involving multiple substances have been associated with higher rates of hospitalization, serious outcomes and death. America’s Poison Centers has warned about serious illnesses involving kratom and 7-OH products, noting that 2026 exposure reports were on pace to exceed 2025 levels.
Those numbers do not mean every exposure is a severe overdose. Poison-center calls can include a wide range of situations, from mild symptoms to life-threatening emergencies. But the direction is clear enough to concern toxicologists: more people are being harmed or frightened enough by these products to seek help. State officials are responding unevenly.
California health officials have warned retailers and the public that kratom-derived products and 7-OH are illegal to manufacture or sell for consumption under state law and have been associated with addiction, serious harm, overdose and death. North Dakota’s governor and attorney general moved this month to declare a public-health emergency and remove kratom products from store shelves, while an emergency rule classified 7-OH as a Schedule I controlled substance under state action. Kansas City and other local governments have also moved against synthetic kratom or related gas-station drugs.
The patchwork is familiar. America has seen this pattern before with synthetic cannabinoids, bath salts, tianeptine and other substances sold through retail loopholes before regulators fully understood the public-health consequences. A product emerges. It is marketed as legal, natural or not for human consumption. It spreads through convenience retail and online channels. Poison centers and emergency rooms begin seeing cases. State lawmakers scramble. Federal agencies debate scheduling. Manufacturers alter formulations. The market moves again.
Kratom and 7-OH fit that pattern but with one important difference: there is a real population of users who believe the products have helped them avoid more dangerous opioids. That makes a blanket crackdown politically and medically sensitive.
Some addiction specialists warn that banning all kratom could drive dependent users toward fentanyl or illicit opioids if they lose access abruptly. Some researchers say more study is needed to distinguish the risks of whole-leaf kratom from high-potency extracts and isolated 7-OH. Advocates argue that regulation age limits, testing, labeling, potency caps and bans on synthetic adulteration would protect consumers better than prohibition.
Public-health officials counter that a loosely regulated market is already causing harm. The hardest question is not whether kratom has risks. It does. The harder question is how to regulate a broad category that includes traditional plant material, commercial extracts, highly concentrated alkaloids, synthetic derivatives, drinks, shots, gummies and products that may be mislabeled or contaminated.
A serious policy response would likely have to separate the categories. Plain botanical kratom should not automatically be treated the same as a concentrated 7-OH tablet. A product containing trace naturally occurring 7-OH should not be regulated the same way as one engineered or enriched to deliver a far stronger opioid-like effect. Products sold as energy drinks should not be allowed to hide pharmacologically active substances behind lifestyle branding. And no product with dependence potential should be marketed to minors or sold without clear warnings.
The FDA’s current focus on enhanced 7-OH reflects that distinction. Federal officials have tried to separate 7-OH products from the kratom plant leaf, even as the agency continues to warn broadly against using kratom for medical treatment because no kratom product has been approved by the FDA for any medical use.
That message is narrower than a full kratom ban but stronger than the status quo. The problem is that consumers may not understand the distinction. To most shoppers, it is all “kratom.” A bottle, tablet or gummy may not clearly explain whether it contains leaf powder, extract, added 7-OH, synthetic derivatives or a mixture. Even when labels disclose ingredients, many people do not know what the chemicals mean. A phrase like “7-hydroxymitragynine” does not instantly communicate opioid-like risk to a casual buyer.
The industry has benefited from that confusion. So have retailers. Gas stations and smoke shops can profit from repeat purchases without carrying the same responsibilities as pharmacies or licensed treatment providers. High-potency products can be expensive, and dependence can turn occasional buyers into daily customers. That creates a dangerous commercial incentive: the more habit-forming the product, the more reliable the revenue.
That is the business logic public-health officials fear most. The human cost is harder to measure than sales. Families describe people who believed they were using a safe supplement, then spiraled into dependence. Emergency physicians describe patients arriving with agitation, withdrawal, vomiting, sedation or complications from mixed substances. Addiction clinics describe patients who need medical help to stop. Poison centers describe rising calls from consumers, families and clinicians trying to understand what was taken.
Meanwhile, the public debate often becomes too simple. One side says kratom is a natural lifesaver. Another says it is the next opioid crisis. The truth is more uncomfortable: some people may use certain kratom products without catastrophic harm, while others become dependent or die, especially when products are concentrated, combined with other substances, mislabeled or used by vulnerable people.
That nuance should not be used as an excuse for inaction. A product does not need to harm every user to require regulation. Alcohol does not harm every drinker. Prescription opioids do not addict every patient. But society regulates them because the risks are known, the consequences can be severe and consumers deserve accurate information before exposure. Kratom and 7-OH products have reached that point.
The next phase should include strong age restrictions, mandatory third-party testing, clear alkaloid labeling, bans on synthetic or enhanced 7-OH products outside approved medical pathways, adverse-event reporting, limits on health claims, restrictions on youth-friendly packaging, retailer penalties for illegal sales and more treatment guidance for people already dependent.
The medical system also needs preparation. Doctors and emergency departments need better education on kratom and 7-OH withdrawal. Addiction-treatment providers need protocols that acknowledge opioid-like dependence while avoiding stigma. Public-health agencies need surveillance systems that can distinguish kratom leaf from enhanced 7-OH and other synthetic derivatives. Toxicology testing needs to catch up so overdose investigations can identify these substances more reliably.
The goal should not be panic. It should be clarity. Consumers deserve to know that “herbal” does not mean harmless. They deserve to know that “legal” does not mean safe. They deserve to know that products sold next to candy and energy drinks may still carry dependence and overdose risk. And people already dependent deserve medical help, not shame.
The gas-station herbal boom has reached its reckoning because it entered ordinary retail faster than ordinary safeguards could follow. That is the warning.
America does not have to wait for another addiction crisis to become undeniable before deciding that opioid-like products should not be sold casually, vaguely labeled and poorly understood.
By the time a product is everywhere, the damage is already local. At the register. In the emergency room. In the treatment clinic. In the family trying to understand how something marketed as natural became impossible to quit.
Reporting and sourcing transparency note: This article is based on current public reporting from The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, the Associated Press, The Guardian, the FDA, HHS, DEA, CDC, America’s Poison Centers, California health officials and state-level reporting from North Dakota and other jurisdictions.
Health information note: This article is for news and public-health information only. It is not medical advice. People experiencing severe symptoms, overdose signs or medical distress should seek emergency help immediately. People struggling to stop kratom or 7-OH should contact a qualified health professional or addiction-treatment provider; poison emergencies in the U.S. can be directed to Poison Help at 1-800-222-1222.