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Why is 7-OH Called ‘Gas Station Heroin’ but Caffeine and Alcohol Are Not?
    #29664567 -

Why is 7-OH Called ‘Gas Station Heroin’ but Caffeine and Alcohol Are Not?
September 9, 2026 - Pain News Network

I think it’s because I work as a manager at a truck stop that the phrase “gas station heroin” particularly pisses me off.

If you haven’t seen the coverage, “gas station heroin” is the favorite phrase used by the media and anti-7-OH groups to describe kratom and the alkaloid 7-OH (7-hydroxymitragynine).

But it’s not based on anything real, because kratom and 7-OH are not even close to being heroin.

So as the DEA nears a potential nationwide ban on 7-OH, and state and local governments ban kratom, it’s a good time to really look at the ways media and advocacy groups try to justify these bans. Notice how their labeling never extends to other substances like caffeine, nicotine, or alcohol.

Indeed, calling 7-OH and kratom “gas station heroin” is about as accurate as calling coffee and energy drinks “gas station meth.” Or calling beer “gas station LSD.”

Lots of mind-altering and addictive things are sold at gas stations. But something being a little addictive and a little bit mind-altering does not mean it should be lumped in with more dangerous and more mind-altering substances like heroin.

Take this New York Post article trying to scare readers about 7-OH. Large portions of it focus on the idea that 7-OH is sold at gas stations, as though that’s a reason to ban it in and of itself.

"People can buy 7-OH at vape shops and truck stops with little guidance on how much they’re actually supposed to take," the Post warned.

Okay, so does that apply to the nicotine products sold at vape shops? Or the alcohol sold at truck stops? I mean, there’s little to no guidance for those substances too.

The Post also includes a quote from Dr. Oliver Grundmann, a kratom specialist at the University of Florida.

“Even if 7-OH can help people wean themselves off stronger opioids, it has no business being peddled at bodegas,” Grundmann said. “It should be appropriately labeled and also only available in the hands of someone who can provide professional guidance, like a licensed pharmacist. Not a clerk at a gas station.”

Here again, we can easily flip this around to apply to the beer and cigarettes that are readily available at gas stations and “bodegas” – a fancy way of describing a neighborhood convenience store.

Imagine saying: ““Even if alcohol can help people relax, it has no business being peddled at bodegas.”

Or this: "Nicotine should be appropriately labeled and also only available in the hands of someone who can provide professional guidance, like a licensed pharmacist. Not a clerk at a gas station.”

In fact, when it comes to things like alcohol and nicotine, we as a society have decided that even if something causes thousands of deaths a year, it can still be sold at gas stations.

The thing is, kratom and 7-OH do not cause thousands of deaths a year. If they did, the DEA would no doubt have thousands of deaths they could point to to justify a ban. Instead, they had to really stretch to find any deaths to share. 

In fact, the DEA could identify only one man in Norway who supposedly died from using 7-OH. The only problem was the death occurred in 2014, long before concentrated 7-OH actually became available in the U.S. in 2022.

By that logic, caffeine should also be turned into a Schedule One drug. After all, a U.S. teen died from cardiac arrhythmia after chugging three caffeinated drinks in 2017. And a young woman died in 2022 after going into cardiac arrest hours after drinking caffeinated lemonade.

Oh, and in regards to the Norway death, that man also had a sedative, antidepressant, and anti-seizure medication in his blood and urine. So it was clearly a case of polysubstance use.

Someone having 7-OH or kratom in their system at the time of death should not be enough reason to classify those substances in the most restrictive DEA drug category.

Imagine if we tracked how many people had caffeine in their blood when they died. Or nicotine. We don’t even bother because when it comes to those drugs, we all understand that simply having a substance in your blood when you die does not mean that it caused your death.

I’m not saying kratom and 7-OH should be sold without any regulations or age restrictions. Rather, just the opposite. I believe the industry should be heavily regulated and nobody under 21 should be able to buy any kratom products.

The good news is that we already have a model for how to implement that: We just need to look to the other drugs already sold at gas stations, like nicotine, alcohol and caffeine.

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Re: Why is 7-OH Called ‘Gas Station Heroin’ but Caffeine and Alcohol Are Not? [Re: veggie] * 1
    #29664761 -

"Even if 7-OH can help people wean themselves off stronger opioids, it has no business being peddled at bodegas,” Grundmann said. “It should be appropriately labeled and also only available in the hands of someone who can provide professional guidance, like a licensed pharmacist. Not a clerk at a gas station.”

That's reasonable, as the medical industry has already been so successful at getting people off drugs, played no part in creating the opioid epidemic, and everyone has access to affordable healthcare.

I don't even think, under optimal conditions, that kratom extracts and analogs should be sold freely OTC; only whole leaf kratom. But, we are FAR from optimal conditions.

And the hypocrisy and lack of logic from those trying to ban kratom based products is astounding.

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Re: Why is 7-OH Called ‘Gas Station Heroin’ but Caffeine and Alcohol Are Not? [Re: Holybullshit] * 1
    #29664836 -

I think you should be able to buy mushrooms at walmart tomorrow.

But for the sake of compromise, internet only sales would be acceptable. It's just wild, 7OH comes on the market in a massive way in late 2023. What also happens around that same time. Opiate overdose deaths start to drop. From 2023-2026 overdose deaths are down almost 30% nationwide. In some localities they're down almost 50%. In places with 7OH banned, they're either still rising or not down as much. So let's ban it, and other opioid receptor agonists that don't recruit beta-arrestin, like MGM-15 and SR17018, because they COULD be the 4th wave of the opioid epidemic.

Brother, they've been around long enough, if they were causing deaths, we'd have seen it.

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Re: Why is 7-OH Called ‘Gas Station Heroin’ but Caffeine and Alcohol Are Not? [Re: AlChemicalResearch]
    #29664887 -

I don't think they are causing deaths, they are causing dependency.

And there is nothing to indicate 7OH had anything to do with fatal overdoses dropping.

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Re: Why is 7-OH Called ‘Gas Station Heroin’ but Caffeine and Alcohol Are Not? [Re: Holybullshit]
    #29664890 -

Holybullshit said:
I don't think they are causing deaths, they are causing dependency.

And there is nothing to indicate 7OH had anything to do with fatal overdoses dropping.


They are causing dependency, hence why its WILD that SR17018 was also banned. But it's not causing deaths, and that is a HUGE step.

There is some casual evidence, like states that banned 7OH early aren't seeing the drops in overdose deaths at the same rate where states that 7OH is wildly popular in. This isn't a very strong correlation, there are outliers, but it's there.

It's also very coincidental though that 7OH comes on the market and overdose deaths start dropping, all things considered. Absence of evidence, isn't evidence of absence. I mean the Trump admin wants to credit it with the closing of the border and stopping the flow of fentanyl. There is a stronger case for 7OH than for closing the borders. Making narcan over the counter is another candidate. Sure that could be the case, it's very plausible. I was talking to a few junkies about this though and they put it to me like this. Sure if someone finds you OD'd and they either have narcan or call an ambulance to narcan you, it will help. But if you are a junkie, and have narcan on you, it doesn't matter. If you're overdosing you can't administer narcan to yourself, and most junkies are shooting up alone. It's not a social drug.

Someone I was talking to about this also said, its cause all the junkies are already dead. Which to me is silly, there have been people overdosing since the 90s when this all started. That's 30 years ago. There's plenty of new junkies every year.

There's been over 2 billion doses of 7OH sold since 2023. Who knows how many MGM doses have been sold in the last year. To me it seems like it's a large reason why overdose deaths are down.

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Re: Why is 7-OH Called ‘Gas Station Heroin’ but Caffeine and Alcohol Are Not? [Re: AlChemicalResearch]
    #29664907 -

If you want to believe correlation is causation that's up to you. The difference in scale between people habituated to fentanyl to 7oh is too great for it to be the primary driver imo. Personally I attribute it to fewer new users, adoption of smoking as the standard roa vs injecting, cartels making a more consistent product, more access to narcan, maintenance therapy, and generally increased efforts at harm reduction and treatment. Pretty much in that order.

Quote:
like states that banned 7OH early aren't seeing the drops in overdose deaths at the same rate where states that 7OH is wildly popular in.


That's interesting, can you provide a citation for this? Of course even if accurate there are other factors at play, for example the types of states that ban drugs early are also the types of states that take a similar view to drug addiction/abuse and how to deal with it...if you catch my drift.

And opioid abuse becomes a solitary habit, it rarely begins that way. I say this as someone who was a heroin addict for many years, before switching to opioid RCs when fent took over the streets, who has used kratom for maintenance in the past and have used kratom extracts, 7oh, and mgm15. Though I am now on bupe. Just so you are aware that I'm not just some random asshole reading and writing about the opioid epidemic online without having lived through it.

And from what I've seen the number of people who graduates from kratom based opioid abuse to harder opioids outpaces the number of addicts who use them for harm reduction. Though both are in the minority, by a large margin.

Edited by Holybullshit (09/10/26 10:25 AM)

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Re: Why is 7-OH Called ‘Gas Station Heroin’ but Caffeine and Alcohol Are Not? [Re: Holybullshit]
    #29664929 -

Holybullshit said:
If you want to believe correlation is causation that's up to you. Personally I attribute it to fewer new users, adoption of smoking as the standard roa vs injecting, cartels making a more consistent product, more access to narcan, maintenance therapy, and generally increased efforts at harm reduction and treatment. Pretty much in that order.

Quote:
like states that banned 7OH early aren't seeing the drops in overdose deaths at the same rate where states that 7OH is wildly popular in.


That's interesting, can you provide a citation for this? Of course even if accurate there are other factors at play, for example the types of states that ban drugs early are also the types of states that take a similar view to drug addiction/abuse and how to deal with it...if you catch my drift.


Correlation not equaling causation doesn't mean, if something is correlated its not causal. All things causal are correlated, just that some things are correlated that are not causal.

I would agree with you, but with the exception of narcan access, all of those things have existed for longer than 3 years. And I don't think cartels make a more consistent product. All I've heard for the last 10 years is, oh everything has fent in it, now its the xylezine (sp).

I'm at work right now, but if I get some time I'll look around for that. A few months back I had a list of links that mildly supports the 7OH vs overdose death claims. But yea I get what you're saying with states that ban 7OH probably have a similar view on drug addiction/abuse HOWEVER they were seeing similar rates of increase of overdose deaths all throughout the opioid epidemic. I mean it's a common trope, drugs won the war on drugs.

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Re: Why is 7-OH Called ‘Gas Station Heroin’ but Caffeine and Alcohol Are Not? [Re: AlChemicalResearch]
    #29664940 -

With time comes experience. They have a vested interest in keeping their consumers alive. The limited data available from LE and research organizations does point circulating opioid supplies meant for consumption having more consistently low(relatively) levels of fentanyl than in the past, though hard data on homogeneity is unavailable anecdotal reports support the idea that it has improved as well.

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Re: Why is 7-OH Called ‘Gas Station Heroin’ but Caffeine and Alcohol Are Not? [Re: Holybullshit]
    #29664946 -

Holybullshit said:
With time comes experience. They have a vested interest in keeping their consumers alive. The limited data available from LE and research organizations does point circulating opioid supplies meant for consumption having more consistently low(relatively) levels of fentanyl than in the past, though hard data on homogeneity is unavailable anecdotal reports support the idea that it has improved as well.


Yea maybe, but correlation doesn't mean causation, right? I mean you can still overdose and die on the product fent is being cut into

Edited by AlChemicalResearch (09/10/26 10:28 AM)

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Re: Why is 7-OH Called ‘Gas Station Heroin’ but Caffeine and Alcohol Are Not? [Re: AlChemicalResearch]
    #29664952 -

You are as entitled to your opinions as I am to mine.

I think this discussion has run its course, but I will add that the impact of narcan isn't just limited to junkies reviving each other. There was an instance in the past where I had to call 911 for a friend who ODd and told the emt/paramedic what had happened. They were just going to load them up in the ambulance and cart them off...I had to be the one to instruct them to administer naloxone. I wouldn't call EMTs medical professionals and paramedics aren't much better(and I have multiple family members who work for a local ambulance company).

If that scenario repeated today I doubt it would have played out the same.

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Re: Why is 7-OH Called ‘Gas Station Heroin’ but Caffeine and Alcohol Are Not? [Re: Holybullshit]
    #29664958 -

Holybullshit said:
You are as entitled to your opinions as I am to mine.

I think this discussion has run its course, but I will add that the impact of narcan isn't just limited to junkies reviving each other. There was an instance in the past where I had to call 911 for a friend who ODd and told the emt/paramedic what had happened. They were just going to load them up in the ambulance and cart them off...I had to be the one to instruct them to administer naloxone. I wouldn't call EMTs medical professionals and paramedics aren't much better(and I have multiple family members who work for a local ambulance company).

If that scenario repeated today I doubt it would have played out the same.


Yea I mean the thing is, certain things are out of the scope of opinions. Some things are caused by other things regardless of your opinion.

Better training and narcan availability is probably a better explanation than the cartels are using less fent in their already dangerous products.

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