SAN DIEGO, Calif. — Health officials are sounding the alarm about a string of deaths that have been linked to a popular product that’s marketed as an all-natural way to get rid of pain.
Across San Diego County, kratom gummies, shots, tablets and mock ice cream cones are sold openly in smoke stores and gas stations despite local laws that have banned the products from going on store shelves.
“If you went to a gas station or you bought pure mitragynine (kratom’s primary alkaloid compound) online, it might have fentanyl in it. I mean, that would give you the same opioid effect that you were trying to get with it,” said Dr. Richard Clark, medical director of the California Poison Control System in San Diego.
Clark told Team 10 the poison control center has received well over 1,000 calls about suspected kratom product overdoses in the past decade. He said the most troubling calls are about someone who’s mixed kratom with alcohol or an opiate like fentanyl.
"Those are the ones that cause the most morbidity and mortality,” he said.
Kratom is a plant from Southeast Asia that’s been used as a healing medicine for hundreds of years. In low doses, it can have a stimulant effect and in higher doses it can act more like an opioid.
Last summer, the FDA started issuing warning letters to companies selling concentrated products marketed as kratom as the Trump administration began a push for a nationwide ban.
“Our focus is not on kratom – it’s on 7-OH, which according to the Journal of Medical Chemistry is 13 times more potent than morphine,” said former FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary.
Manufacturers are taking 7-OH, a powerful chemical found in trace amounts in the kratom plant and using it to create highly addictive products.
7 deaths so far in 2026
“In excessive amounts, it could result in death,” said Clark.
At least 31 deaths since 2023 have been linked in some way to kratom, according to the San Diego County Medical Examiner’s Office:
2026 - 7 deaths
2025 - 9 deaths
2024 - 8 deaths
2023 - 7 deaths
The office noted this year's death toll could grow as there may be more cases that are not finalized yet.
Federal health officials also warn deaths from products marketed as kratom are likely underreported nationwide due to inconsistent toxicology testing and a lack of awareness about 7-OH among doctors.
The City of San Diego banned kratom and 7-OH products from being manufactured or sold a decade ago, but some smoke stores have continued to sell the items.
This week, the City Attorney had enough and filed a civil lawsuit against the owner of 11 smoke shops, alleging undercover investigators were able to purchase kratom products from Wadeea Wadeea’s stores earlier this year.
The lawsuit said the products were sold openly and at least one location advertised kratom on the business’s window.
When Team 10 asked why the office didn’t pursue a criminal case, a spokesperson told us civil actions can result in more meaningful outcomes, especially when dealing with business activities.
“The court can impose compliance requirements that extend beyond criminal probation. Those compliance requirements keep businesses within the law, protect consumers, and prevent operators from gaining an unfair advantage over competitors who play by the rules,” the spokesman said.
Wadeea didn’t return a request for comment on Instagram or messages left with employees at his stores.
One employee at a smoke shop on Federal Boulevard, who didn’t want to be named, showed us an empty case that he says was filled with kratom products until the lawsuit got filed.
“I became an addict because it was so available, but I still had to go to Harlem, or I had to go to South Bronx, or I had to go to the Lower East Side, and now you can go to any gas station,” Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told reporters last summer.
Clark said people are surprised after becoming quickly addicted to kratom products they’ve bought at gas stations and smoke stores.
He said the withdrawal symptoms are miserable and on par with opioid withdrawal.
“I often hear it called the worst case of the flu that somebody's ever had because they get terrible body aches and joint pains. They get nauseated and will vomit and they have bad diarrhea,” said Clark, who has decades of experience working the frontlines of overdose response in his role as toxicology director at UC San Diego.
The DEA is now working to get synthetic 7-OH products listed as Schedule 1 drugs, putting them on par with heroin and LSD.
If approved, the change could come into force later this month.
