Hundreds of years ago, somebody in a Southeast Asian jungle decided to gnaw on a leaf. It gave him a burst of energy, and he told all his friends about it. For centuries afterward, people in Southeast Asia used the plant, called kratom, for a wide array of medicinal purposes, often brewing it into a form of tea. At low levels kratom produces a sort of sugar-rush euphoria, something akin to Adderall. At higher levels it acts more like a low-grade opioid and can lead to addiction, according to the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).
Kratom came to America after the Vietnam War, brought by returning soldiers and refugees, but it wouldn’t catch on until the 2010s, when bodegas and vape shops started selling it in the form of pills, fruity drink mixes, and even gummies, following trends in the burgeoning legal weed industry. As kratom became tastier and more accessible, its popularity boomed.
By 2023, CBD American Shaman, a company that sold a variety of cannabinoid products, including gummies, face creams, and oils, was chemically oxidizing mitragynine, the psychoactive ingredient found in kratom. This new substance was called 7-hydroxymitragynine, or 7-OH. Experts I spoke to told me it’s more powerful than morphine, is produced in shoddy, unregulated laboratories and, more often than not, it’s deceptively labeled. The internet has named it “gas station heroin,” and yet it is completely legal in many states. It can be purchased at vape shops, bodegas and, yes, gas stations across America.
