SF man dies after taking kratom-like ‘gas station heroin’ as cops descend on smoke shops

A potent kratom-derived opioid known as MGM-15 is beginning to hit San Francisco with the first death reported Wednesday — just as police launched a crackdown on smoke shops selling kratom and other addictive drugs.

The San Francisco Department of Health issued a health alert about the opioid, saying in a news release that “ingesting too much MGM-15 can result in a fatal opioid overdose.”

The city’s chief medical examiner detected the drug in a fatal overdose involving an adult who died in late September, officials said.

MGM-15, a Schedule 1 substance, is illegal to sell but is found in products marketed as “uncaria tomentosa” or “cat’s claw,” sold in smoke shops and gas stations, officials said.

The packaging of the consumed MGM-15 is branded “Script botanicals x Maui labs” advertising four tablets with a “berry punch” flavor, according to photos shared by the health department.

The packaging makes no reference to kratom or 7-hydroxymitagynine and is different from the product that has been found in Utah and Washington, officials said.

Kratom, sometimes derided as “gas station heroin,” has become commonly used for pain relief and opioid withdrawal. However, kratom and concentrated amounts of 7-OH are considered to be unapproved and very risky, potentially resulting in seizures and substance use disorder, the Food and Drug Administration warned.

San Francisco police on Wednesday served warrants at multiple San Francisco “smoke shops” over recent weeks, seizing kratom products and also psilocybin, flavored tobacco, drug paraphernalia, nitrous oxide and hundreds of other illegal items.

Some smoke shops had hundreds of the illegal products, police said. Officers are working closely with the City Attorney’s Office on these investigations.

The shops seemed to brazenly violate laws against selling the products, with police noting that the items were in plain view under displayed price tags.

Police mentioned two smoke shops they busted —  one on the 1400 block of Haight Street and another on the 4600 block of Geary Boulevard, which apparently even did not have a license to sell tobacco products. 

The Bay Area city has suffered from a reputation of being overrun by druggies. Earlier this year, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data put the city second on the list of the highest number of fatal drug overdoses, trailing behind only Baltimore.

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