Oklahoma –
A drive through Oklahoma will take you past dozens of gas stations and smoke shops selling a product that sits legally on the shelf, right next to the energy drinks — but state officials say it’s fueling a fast-growing overdose crisis that’s only about two years old.
The product is often labeled kratom, a natural plant supplement that’s been sold in Oklahoma stores for more than a decade without major incident. But health and law enforcement officials say what’s actually driving the recent spike in overdoses isn’t kratom at all. It’s synthetic 7-OH.
6 THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT KRATOM
- Kratom itself is legal and has been sold in Oklahoma stores for more than a decade. The recent spike in overdoses is being driven by the synthetic version of 7-OH, a lab-concentrated compound found only in trace amounts in the natural plant.
- Oklahoma’s medical examiner’s office has detected a kratom-related alkaloid in roughly 57 cases from January 2025 through June 2026 — and that number is rising.
- The Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics says the state has seen more than 100 kratom-related overdoses in the last two years, after seeing almost none for nearly a decade before that.
- Products above 1% 7-hydroxymitragynine are illegal to sell in Oklahoma, and stores that knowingly sell over that limit can face criminal charges, including homicide-related charges if a customer dies.
- The federal government has not made a final decision on 7-OH. The DEA filed notice in July 2026 of its intent to temporarily classify it as a Schedule I substance, and the proposal remains open for public comment.
- A New York Times investigation found that Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, a former Oklahoma senator, disclosed a financial investment in a kratom company that could benefit from the federal restrictions he has publicly supported.
WHAT IS 7-OH?
Kratom is a tropical tree native to Southeast Asia, where its leaves have been chewed for centuries — used traditionally as a stimulant in small doses and more like a sedative in larger ones. Inside the plant is a cocktail of dozens of compounds, one of which is 7-hydroxymitragynine, or 7-OH for short.
In its natural form, 7-OH makes up less than 2% of the plant’s total alkaloid content — a minor, trace component.
In recent years, manufacturers have found ways to extract and concentrate that compound, producing semi-synthetic products that are far more potent than anything found naturally in the plant.
“What we have now is this kind of changing landscape,” said Dr. Kacey Clyburn, a toxicologist with the Oklahoma medical examiner’s office. “It does not have the mitragynine, and it has some of these other semi-synthetic products, and they’re concentrating it down.”
Those concentrated compounds — including 7-OH and a derivative known as MGM-15 — are significantly more potent than the natural alkaloid, Clyburn said, and carry a real risk of respiratory depression that can be fatal.
“They are significantly more potent than the [natural alkaloid] alone,” Clyburn said. “They can have respiratory depression that ultimately leads to death, because these are more potent than something like morphine.”
A RAPID SHIFT IN CASES
Clyburn’s office has watched the shift happen in real time. In January 2025, she said, the majority of kratom-related cases her office handled involved mitragynine — the natural compound — alone. By October and November of that year, cases involving 7-OH and related synthetic derivatives began climbing sharply.
The medical examiner’s office has detected a kratom-related alkaloid in roughly 57 cases from January 2025 through June 2026, a number Clyburn said continues to rise.
“For the first time in a long time, this is kind of raising a lot of alarm in our office…We haven’t even seen it a year, and it is in a significant number of cases.”
Part of the danger, Clyburn said, comes down to dosing. Many 7-OH tablets are scored into four sections, meaning a single tablet actually contains four doses.
“Most people don’t recognize this is 16 doses of a substance,” she said, referring to a standard four-tablet package. “They’re just going to pop one tablet. Well, that’s four doses of a highly potent opioid.”
A MARKETING MACHINE
Part of what’s made 7-OH products so widespread, according to court records and marketing materials reviewed for this story, is how they’ve been sold: not as a drug, but as a wellness product. Products like Feel Free, made by Botanic Tonics, have been marketed as a “safe, sober, healthy alternative to alcohol,” sold at national retailers including 7-Eleven and promoted heavily by influencers and podcasters online.
Botanic Tonics paid an $8.75 million class-action settlement after a lawsuit alleged the company failed to disclose the addictive nature of its kratom ingredient. As part of that settlement, the company was required to add new warning language — not just to its product labels, but to its social media advertising — stating the product “can become habit-forming.”
THE ENFORCEMENT SIDE
The Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics has tracked kratom for more than a decade, according to agency spokesman Mark Woodward. The agency considered pushing to outlaw kratom back in 2013, when other states were doing the same — but at the time, Oklahoma wasn’t seeing overdoses tied to the substance.
That changed dramatically in the last few years.
“In the last three years, it is really shot up tremendously…You’re literally talking about over 100 overdoses in two years, because a new variation of kratom has shown up.”
That variation, Woodward said, is the synthesized version of 7-OH now being manufactured and sold in gas stations — a product he said can be 10 to 30 times more potent than natural kratom. Many of the users affected, he said, are teenagers or young adults in their early 20s.
The substance has picked up a nickname in recent years: gas station heroin.
“It can have the same type of effect on the body as an opiate,” Woodward said, “sold in gas stations, where it is oftentimes easier to access for teenagers and young adults.”
Under Oklahoma law, any kratom product testing above 1% 7-hydroxymitragynine is illegal to sell in the state. Woodward said stores that knowingly sell over that threshold are exposed to criminal liability — including potential homicide-related charges if a customer dies.
“If they know that they’re selling one of these illegal products, they continue to sell it, and somebody ends up dying,” Woodward said, “absolutely, they’re going to be looking at charges related to that homicide.”
Woodward described cases in which the drug has triggered violent behavior in otherwise stable people. In overdose cases, he said, the symptoms often mirror those of a traditional opioid overdose — labored breathing, loss of consciousness — and emergency responders have in some cases successfully used Narcan, the opioid-overdose reversal medication, to treat it.
A FAMILY’S LOSS
In a piece from CBS, a mother named Kimberly Bell said that the crisis isn’t abstract. Her son, Zachary, died at 27 after taking kratom for pain following a shoulder injury. She said he began having seizures that ultimately led to a fatal heart attack.
“It has been devastating,” Bell said. “My son’s not here. I’m missing birthdays. I’m missing holidays. You’re hearing from a mother who is heartbroken. It wasn’t just my son. He was my friend.”
Watch the full story here.
Bell is now calling for kratom products to be banned.
“I have trouble sleeping at night,” she said. “It’s just the worst thing that a parent can ever go through. And I don’t want to have to see anybody else go through this.”
A DECISION STILL PENDING — AND A CONFLICT OF INTEREST
The federal government has yet to make a final decision on how to regulate 7-OH. In July 2026, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration filed notice of its intent to temporarily place 7-OH and three related compounds into Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, a move that would classify them alongside drugs the federal government considers to have high potential for abuse and no accepted medical use.
Read more here.
That process has drawn scrutiny of its own. According to a New York Times investigation published in June 2026, former Oklahoma senator and current Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin disclosed in March 2026 that he had invested up to $1 million in Botanic Tonics, the maker of Feel Free — a company that markets natural kratom as a safer alternative to synthetic 7-OH products. Mullin has publicly supported federal restrictions on synthetic 7-OH, a policy change that, according to the Times, could benefit his own investment. He has not filed paperwork showing he has divested from the company.
Griffin Media reached out to Botanic Tonics, maker of Feel Free Classic, for comment on this story. The company had not responded as of publication.
Until a federal decision is made, the legal status of 7-OH products will continue to vary state by state. In Oklahoma, products above the 1% threshold remain illegal to sell — but Clyburn and Woodward both say the products are still turning up on shelves, and in autopsy reports.
“If nothing changes,” the medical examiner’s office says, that number of kratom-related deaths in Oklahoma will continue to increase.
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance use, the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services offers treatment and resource information.
