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Deadly synthetic kratom is being sold in smoke shops across New York City, despite containing lethal compounds banned by federal laws, a Post investigation has found.
Over a two week span, The Post visited 52 shops across the city and found eight stores — about 15% — peddling products containing two synthetics banned nationwide by the Drug Enforcement Administration in an August emergency order: mitragynine pseudoindoxyl, known as MGPI, or dihydro-7-hydroxy mitragynine, known as MGM-15.
That emergency order classified those synthetics as federal Schedule I controlled substances, and anyone found selling them can face up to 20 years in prison.
Synthetic kratom products have come under increased scrutiny after authorities found an illegal form of the drug at the scenes of the suspected overdose deaths of University of Mississippi students Aidan Hamilton, 18, and Robert Strang, 20.
Two men have been charged with selling the narcotics to the students.
One of their defense attorneys said in court Friday that one of the men died from a combined use of various substances, including cough syrup, and that the other man died from inhalation asphyxiation, WMC-TV reported. A federal filing in the case says a toxicology report found mitragynine, MGM-15 and MGPI in the systems of both men, who died Sept. 21 in separate incidents.
And this week, Utah officials issued an urgent warning after four deaths were linked to a substance called “cat’s claw,” which contained “dangerous semi-synthetic kratom chemicals.”
“When’s it going to end?” asked Kratom Danger Awareness founder Wendy Chamberlain, whose son Joseph Chamberlain, 38, died in his upstate New York home in 2020 from an accidental kratom overdose.
Kratom, a plant from Southeast Asia, mimics the effects of stimulants and opioids, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Small amounts of the drug can spark a surge in energy, while larger amounts act as a depressant or sedative. Synthetic variants can be tens to hundreds times stronger.
The Post visited smoke shops, convenience stores, and dispensaries to see what dangerous and illegal substances lined their shelves—or were hidden behind their counters.
Employees at several Big Apple stores boasted that their most powerful products contain MGPI or MGM-15 — either unaware or indifferent that they’re peddling an illegal substance.
Each product containing MGPI or MGM-15 also contained 7-Hydroxymitragynine, 7-OH — a kratom-derived compound legal in New York that is 13 times stronger than morphine and widely known as “gas station heroin.”
Varieties that contained MGPI available for purchase across the boroughs included 1,000 mg packs of a Kama brand product called “7-Hydroxy+Psuedoindyl,” which were proudly promoted at New City Smoke Shop on the corner of Park Place and Church Street in lower Manhattan.
An employee at East Village Smoke Shop along First Avenue in Manhattan promoting the same product tried enticing the Post reporter by saying it’s now “hard to find” because “it’s about to be banned.”
The exact breakdown of its components is unclear, but MGPI is an eye-popping 31 times stronger than 7-OH, according to the National Library of Medicine.
A worker at New City Smoke Shop reluctantly admitted customers opt for the MGPI-containing Kama product because it’s much stronger than other varieties – but a health inspector warned the store a few months ago that the tablets would soon be illegal.
He said he didn’t know the current legal status of any of the substances — a sentiment shared by employees at multiple other stores.
An Astoria business called Ditmars Organic Convenience selling Kama and similarly illegal pseudoindoxyl-containing products from a brand called Opia seemed well aware that they were selling contraband.
Instead of displaying the products out in the open, an employee pulled out an iPad to show off the illicit selection.
East Village Smoke Shop also sold dangerous tablets containing 7-OH, MGPI and MGM-15 from a brand called Rush.
A worker said they were going to become illegal soon — unaware that they already are.
Customers love how the stuff makes them feel.
“I asked [customers] why are they taking this and they say that it makes them feel stronger, stay awake, focused,” the man, who only identified himself as Rifa, said.
“[But] when you see him [after they take the tablet] they’re too f–king weak. Literally you can see them too weak. If you push them, maybe they’re going to fall down,” a worker at an Astoria shop said.
The ingredients in the products found by The Post were similar to those of the “SMAX Pseudo-DHM” tablets linked to Hamilton and Strang’s deaths, which officials said contained MGPI, MGM-15 and 7-OH.
“We are licensing these places [and they’re] like crack houses,” Rich Marianos, a former ATF boss who founded the Tobacco Law Enforcement Network, warned of smoke shops.
“No synthetic narcotic producing a euphoric high like heroin should ever be sold without a doctor’s authority.”
Greg Kiesow, founder of Kratom Anonymous and a former user, was 18 years sober before getting hooked on 7-OH — which he had no idea was an addictive drug.
He said he started dabbling with kratom leaf powder before progressively finding himself needing more to get his fix and landing on 7-OH products.
“It hollows you out. It makes you a ghost of yourself. You aren’t really capable of feeling joy, love, peace, and connection with others,” Kiesow, of Illinois, said.
“You completely isolate. And that’s what I did. I I just spent 10 months on my back porch staring at the birds with my bird feeder thinking my life is perfect.”
Products created using botanical kratom are technically legal on the federal level, but they are fully banned in nine states. Malaysia, Singapore and Myanmar, three of the countries where kratom originated, have made consuming it illegal. Exporting it is not.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that between December 2024 and December 2025, 1,221 drug overdose deaths involved kratom. Some 24 million Americans have used kratom, an industry expected to be grow to whopping $7.80 billion by 2032.
The New York State Health Department reported 100 overdoses linked to kratom from 2023 to 2024. It contributed to 45 overdose deaths from 2024 to 2025, but a spokesperson noted there were other substances involved in some of these cases as well.
Flashy colorful packages of pills and powders with 7-OH are readily available at 34 of the stores The Post reporter visited — but that may soon change.
The Department of Justice announced Friday plans to ban 7-OH, adding it to the federal Schedule I controlled substances list — which means, like MGM-15 and MGPI, anyone caught selling 7-OH could face up to 20 years in prison once the ban goes into effect.
Meanwhile, a veto-proof state bill outlawing 7-OH remains in legal limbo as Gov. Kathy Hochul reviews it.
Lead sponsor Assemblyman Phil Steck (D-Schenectady) expects a signature early next year, but blasted Hochul’s previous kratom warning labels as “watered down” due to industry lobbying. Hochul spokesperson Nicolette Simmonds defended the governor’s record on kratom.
Local lawmakers are demanding a tougher fight too. Long Island Republicans want a total statewide ban on all kratom, while counties like Albany, Oneida, and Nassau have already outlawed the substance entirely.
Anti-kratom advocates said the product in all its forms must be pulled from the shelves.
“What you see with these synthetics is your predictable opioid-like toxicities. You see respiratory depression. You see withdrawal, you see death,” Jennifer Brandt, a Virginia-based pharmacist, told The Post.
“With the kratom leaf …you still have the opioid withdrawal…. seizures, cardiac abnormalities, liver failure.”
Chamberlain, who has dealt with hundreds of people of all ages struggling with kratom addictions, is begging lawmakers for immediate intervention.
“You can’t have one without the other—if you get rid of the entire plant, then you’re not going to have the synthetic or semi-synthetic,” she said.
Another grieving mother, Dana Knox, of South Carolina, whose 26-year-old son Micah accidentally overdosed from synthetic kratom in June, slammed the drugs as “just like fentanyl and heroin.”
She asked: “If it’s going to be just as addictive as those, why are we selling it over the counter?”
The DEA did not return requests for comment.
