‘The Demon, the Devil, The Beast’: How ‘Gas Station Heroin’ Got Americans in a Headlock

Felix knew he had a problem when he started hitting the smoke shop five times a day.

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Previously, when he’d been taking kratom—a supplement derived from a Southeast Asian plant, often used to relieve pain and anxiety—he was visiting once daily, if that. But when he switched to the new drug 7-Hydroxymitragynine, which is a concentrated byproduct of kratom, his usage went through the roof. Soon, he was coughing up $200 a day for blue raspberry and watermelon-flavored pills containing the drug known colloquially as “7oh.”

A 46-year-old nurse based in Massachusetts, Felix (whose name has been changed to protect his identity) has a history of opioid abuse. However, for all his experience, it’s 7oh that he describes as, “The demon, the devil, the beast.” At the height of his addiction, he was dropping 1000 mg a day (a typical dose is 5-10mg). Initially, he says, the beast was beautiful. “All of your pain and stress and anxiety go out the window, and you’re feeling euphoric and blissful and comforted,” Felix explains over the phone. “It’s like being hugged by Jesus.”

That biblical embrace is something a growing number of Americans are becoming hooked on. Flagged by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) as potentially “the next stage in the opioid crisis,” 7oh induces a strong high but is widely sold in smoke shops and convenience stores across the U.S. as a non-psychoactive product, making it just as easy to buy as cigarettes or a sandwich. (The FDA has issued warnings about 7oh and recommended it be placed on the Schedule 1 controlled substances list. States including Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Vermont, and Wisconsin have banned it.) This fusion of potency and availability has earned it the nickname “gas station heroin.”

“7-Hydroxymitragynine is the primary active compound in kratom and so most responsible for the effects that people have historically used kratom for,” explains Ryan Marino, a toxicologist and assistant professor at Case Western Reserve University’s School of Medicine. Kratom, which has been enjoyed in its native Asia since the 19th century, has recently gained popularity in the West as a natural relaxant. It’s particularly favored by ex-opioid addicts trying to wean themselves off other drugs. But 7oh is much more potent than kratom. “It is an opioid,” Marino says. “It acts on your opioid receptors the same way as morphine or heroin or OxyContin would.”

Sold in party-friendly packaging—think strawberry vapes, blue raz tablets, passion fruit gummies, even fudge—7oh belongs to a rolling cast of drugs, like Galaxy Gas, that are marketed as a neon-colored, sweet-flavored way to get fucked up. There are parallels to the UK’s legal high era in the mid-2000s-to-mid-2010s, when cartoon-covered packets of uppers and downers were sold at market stalls alongside crystals and incense, and you could buy mephedrone in bulk on eBay.

Tyler* was one of the first people to get involved in the 7oh trade. Its origins are a little vague. Tyler says that initially two chemists isolated the 7oh alkaloid while trying to identify the element of kratom that made users feel relaxed. Then they took the drug to companies that distributed the product nationwide. After trying a sample, Tyler began selling the drug to smoke shops himself.

At that point “nobody knew [7oh] was addictive,” claims Tyler, though he soon learned the reality for himself. He went from selling the drug to using his own supply and quickly ramped up to taking 3500 milligrams a day—the highest dosage of any individual I spoke to for this article by far. He decided to get out of the 7oh industry after witnessing firsthand “how bad the stuff was” (though not before making the “most money I ever made in my life”). Many companies kept their hand in, ignoring the public health risks of fruit-flavored products designed to entice younger users.

“For all his experience [with opioids], it’s 7oh that he describes as, ‘The demon, the devil, the beast’”

“I started seeing it pop up around the summer of 2024,” explains Clara*, a smoke shop employee in Illinois. 7oh was described to her as “basically kratom.” Beyond that, she was told nothing about it or its addictive properties. 

Shockingly, at the behest of the suppliers, Clara’s smoke shop would hand out free samples of this highly addictive and untested new substance to customers, particularly those already purchasing kratom. At first, she didn’t notice anything, but then the regulars became… more regular. “We have customers who will come in the morning for an 800 milligram bottle, spend $125, then come back for another 800 milligram when I’m closing up,” Clara says. There are no shop regulations on how frequently or in what quantities a customer can purchase 7oh. 

After a while, customers would come in looking visibly exhausted, “like they had lost weight,” Clara says. One woman who came in every day broke down in tears. “She was telling me she just couldn’t get off the stuff… that she was miserable, and it was making her feel horrible.”

the Illegal Kratom-based ‘gas station heroin’ products above were still being sold in smoke shops across Orange County, california this month (Photo by Mindy Schauer/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images)

Part of what makes 7oh so addictive is its steep tolerance. “I can say without a doubt it’s the most addictive opiate I’ve ever taken,” Felix says. Most users begin with a small dosage, either from a free sample or cheaper low-dose tablets. The first high quickly becomes elusive, prompting users to consume greater amounts in a typically unsuccessful search for its return. At the height of addiction, Felix says, “You’re not getting high at all, you’re just trying to chase your baseline. And after that, you’re just chasing not getting sick.” At this point, he continues, “You turn into a shell of yourself. Your memory is not working well. You’re shaky. You’re not eating. You’re not doing all the things you love to do.”

The drug also has severe withdrawal symptoms. Ex-users report brutal waves of anxiety, nausea, sweating, shaking, restless leg syndrome, and an inability to eat or sleep. “It was the worst I have ever felt my entire life,” Manny*, a 25-year-old one-time addict also based in Massachusetts, tells VICE. “I would rather kill myself than go through that again.” His cravings for 7oh were so bad he had his brother lock him in his room. Felix also says he felt “a sense of doom screaming at you to re-dose.”

“Sold in party-friendly packaging, 7oh belongs to a rolling cast of drugs that are marketed as a neon-colored, sweet-flavored way to get fucked up”

7oh isn’t cheap, especially compared to Percs or oxys. Although 7oh poses less risk of a fatal overdose than fentanyl or nitazene, Kratom ODs have been known to cause seizures and respiratory failure. There’s also a high risk of dependency. Clara says that a customer once came in with a full 30-pill bottle (around $150) asking to swap it for a different flavor. When Clara checked the bottle, she noticed it had been opened and sealed shut again with glue. It was filled with normal pharmaceutical pills. The guy came in the next day attempting to do the same. “I guess [that’s] how desperate people will get,” she says. As a result of 7oh, Clara is currently looking for a new job. “I don’t feel comfortable working around it.”

Manny had dabbled with oxys and Percs before, but he knew the risks associated with them upfront. When he started using 7oh, he was flying blind. His intro to the drug came through a free smoke shop sample. “You gotta try these out,” the employee told him. Initially, Manny loved the euphoric feeling, similar to a Perc. “I felt like it was pretty safe,” he explains. Like many others, though, he quickly became addicted and started taking 200mg a day. “There’s no research at all. Nobody knew anything. I was like, really fucked up here,” Manny says.

Kama is one of 7oh’s largest distributors. The lack of information—or misleading marketing, depending on who you ask—is one of the key complaints in a class-action lawsuit that was brought against the company. In court documents obtained by VICE, Kama was accused of relying “on the Products’ vague packaging and consumers’ limited knowledge of 7-Hydroxymytragynine to get unsuspecting people addicted to the Products and reap substantial profits from these addictions.” The case was eventually settled out of court, the fee that Kama paid undisclosed.

Kama isn’t the only distributor that has faced legal intervention. 7Tabz has also received a letter from the FDA, which expressed safety concerns and flagged issues with marketing. It sold tablets in an array of flavors and strengths (up to 65mg for “maximum potency”) in what the FDA describes as “packaging and labeling [that] may appeal to children.” It has also promoted free samples on social media. Some of these samples were given out to people at Country Thunder Festival in Florida, where 7Tabz had a tent to distribute their addictive wares. 

7Tabz is owned by Jonathon and Zachary Daye, two twentysomething entrepreneurs with a background in the vape and smoke industry. Before 7Tabz, the pair founded Flying Monkey, a cannabis brand offering strawberry dream THC vapes, “knockout gummies,” and “boutique” pre-rolls. The FDA has sent letters to the Dayes about both companies, saying that Flying Monkey’s Delta-8 THC (a stronger chemical than typical THC) products violated FDA protocols and used marketing and packaging that may appeal to children.

Looking at 7Tabz’s website and packaging before it vanished from the web, there was little mention of 7oh’s addictive capacity or opioid-like effects. Instead, it was described as a “small-but-mighty compound” that is “uniquely effective at relieving pain & enhancing mood, even in low doses.” The only reference to its risk was hidden deep on the website and on small print at the back of the packaging, which states that 7oh “may be habit forming.”

The FDA complaints seem to have shut down 7Tabz and the Dayes. Their 7oh products don’t seem to be available to buy from retailers, and 7Tabz did not respond to VICE’s request for comment. 

Currently, 7oh is at a tipping point in America. Individual states have been banning sales, while the FDA is planning a similar federal policy and a crackdown on distributors. There has also been a swathe of high profile news reports on deaths attributed to 7oh. Since spring 2025, at least six people in Los Angeles County have died after ingesting products containing the compound—though whether 7oh was the cause is a different matter, Marino points out. “From most of the reports I’ve seen, [7oh] is not [causing] deaths on its own,” he explains. “We do not have much good scientific clinical data on the [effects of] kratom or 7-Hydroxymetragenin, in combination or in isolation in people.”

Some 7oh users fear that an outright ban would simply push the drug underground, both restricting further research and driving consumers towards the black market. This concern is echoed by organizations like Doctors for Drug Policy Reform. “I don’t think a ban is going to help because those people are then going to be much more likely to turn to things like fentanyl,” Marino adds.

“Currently, 7oh is at a tipping point in America”

While further crackdowns  at the state level seem inevitable, Trump appears to be turning the other way. In a recent press conference, the President announced that “We’re looking very seriously at natural 7-OH and getting that approved, natural 7-OH.” This is a characteristic U-turn for his administration, where last July, his Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., called for the DEA to make 7oh a schedule one drug.

Whatever occurs regarding 7oh’s legal status, consumption will continue. In states like Pennsylvania, distributors have begun slightly tweaking formulas by a molecule or two to evade 7oh bans. At some smoke shops, suppliers have already found another workaround, hiding the product in return boxes in the back. In-the-know customers can come in with a wink and get their supply. As one user says, “It’s readily available, wherever you go.”

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