Dangerous new drug could be next wave of the opioid epidemic and you can buy it at gas stations

The next fentanyl may not come from drug cartels and basement labs — but your local truck stop.Pharmacist TikToker Grant Harting recently bought a gas station pill with ‘super concentrated’ amounts of potentially deadly narcotic 7-OH — plus a cocktail of potentially toxic mystery chemicals.“This went from very sketchy and dangerous to incredibly super crazy sketchy and dangerous,” Harting said after sending the pill to a lab for analysis.The chemical comes from the kratom plant — a century-old medicinal herb manufacturers are now using to make a far more potent drug.“I knew it was going to be an absolute disaster on wheels, and sure enough, it was,” Dr.Sarah Kerrigan, who authored a milestone kratom research survey in 2021, told The Post.The drug isn’t technically an opioid, but it works similarly.Kratom-related hospitalizations and deaths have skyrocketed 1,200% in the last 10 years, as 7-OH — nicknamed “gas station heroin” — flood the market, according to the CDC.But it’s still legal in most states — packaged in gummies, drinks, and even ice cream warns the Food and Drug Administration, which called 7-OH drug “the next wave of the opioid epidemic.

Kratom, particularly 7-OH, is especially dangerous when mixed with alcohol and other drugs, which is the case in around 80% of kratom-linked fatalities, the CDC reported.Worse, users often have no idea if they’re buying normal kratom or a potentially addictive narcotic, as manufacturers aren’t required to reveal 7-OH on product labels in many states.“[7-OH] is sold as ‘kratom,’ but is not the leaf material.It is a lot more potent, meaning you need less of it to achieve the desired effect,” warned Dr.

Oliver Grundmann, a kratom specialist at the University of Florida.The full extent of the danger is still a mystery — which is a problem when people can buy 7-OH at vape shops and truck stops with little guidance on how much they’re actually supposed to take.The pill Hartin...