Trump Administration’s Fake Crackdown Leaves Most ‘Gas Station Heroin’ on the Shelves
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Instead of cracking down on Kratom, the Trump administration has left dangerous kratom products on store shelves and even promoted them, according to a report released today by Public Citizen. Tonics and powders made from kratom, a plant native to Southeast Asia, have become widely available in the U.S. Commonly known as “gas station heroin,” medical examiners have linked scores of deaths to its widespread and growing use.
Among the deaths is a Florida man who consumed a kratom tonic sold by a company in which Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has taken a stake. According to March 2026 financial disclosures, Mullin invested between $500,001 and $1 million in Botanic Tonics, LLC, of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, the company that makes Feel Free Classic – the tonic found in the victim’s bedroom. Mullin reportedly urged officials to remove language from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) website warning of kratom’s harms.
“DHS Secretary Mullin needs to explain the details of his investment in this company and why he lobbied the FDA regarding its products,” said Peter Whoriskey, Health Research Group research director for Public Citizen and author of the report.
The FDA is seeking to ban only one of the opioids in kratom, 7-hydroxymitragynine (7-OH), which is found in trace amounts in kratom and sometimes sold in concentrated synthetic forms. The administration stopped short of seeking to ban kratom itself and imposed no limits on mitragynine, the opioid most abundant in it. Public Citizen is calling on the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to regulate both 7-OH and mitragynine.
Using toxicology reports, death certificates, lawsuits, and other public records, Public Citizen found 26 deaths over the last five years that coroners attributed to mitragynine, but toxicologists say there have been hundreds more that received little attention. News coverage typically reports on these fatalities one at a time, allowing kratom producers to dismiss them as anomalies. Public Citizen’s report shows the trail of the dead now crosses the country.
“The administration has sold its ban on 7-OH as protecting Americans, but it has left many products blamed for these deaths on the shelves,” Whoriskey added. “The continued sale of kratom products over the counter, as if they were just cans of soda, can only lead to more addiction and death.”