ROSWELL, Ga. — Georgia drug treatment counselors say more people are getting addicted to Kratom-like drugs, as a probe continues into “Ole Miss” student deaths.
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Drug counselors in metro Atlanta say they are seeing a sharp rise in people getting addicted to synthetic Kratom products sold in gas stations and smoke shops.
“Just because it’s over the counter, you think, oh, they’re going to be regulating this. There’s going to be someone making sure it’s safe and OK, but it’s really harmful. The amount of people going to detox because of Kratom has been astronomical,” said North Atlanta Behavioral Health therapist Rachel Sills.
New documents released by investigators alleged a gas station convenience store and a smoke shop may have sold Kratom-like products linked to the deaths of two University of Mississippi students.
Robert Strang, a 20-year-old junior from Atlanta, and Aidan Hamilton, an 18-year-old freshman from Colorado, were found dead on Sept. 21 at different locations.
Investigators said they found similar pills labeled as “Smax, Pseudo-DBM” at both scenes, but toxicology reports for both students are pending.
ABC News obtained a copy of the new affidavit that was filed in court on Monday. It lists two stores near the Ole Miss campus: Puffs Vape, Tobacco and Beer Store in Oxford and Express Mart #7, a gas station convenience store in Yalobusha County.
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The affidavit says Strang purchased pills at Express Mart #7 on Sept. 9 and Sept. 11. ABC News reports that officers purchased similar pills to send off to a crime lab for analysis. No store employees or owners have been charged.
The affidavit also says that Hamilton made multiple purchases at Puffs Vape, including the day before he was found dead, and that a confidential informant went undercover at the store on Sept. 24.
The informant “specifically requested if the store sold 7-0H Kratom based pills,” and the clerk told him yes and pulled out a product package, according to the affidavit.
“The informant stated that is what he wanted, and the clerk pulled out multiple other similar packages and placed them on the counter. The clerk told the informant to be careful taking the pills because people were dying from them,” according to the affidavit.
North Atlanta Behavioral Health says about 30% of their patients are being treated for synthetic Kratom addiction.
“They don’t realize it’s binding to the opioid receptor in your brain and causes you to become addicted. It’s so widely available for everybody that they just get it, and they keep making it stronger and stronger, and then it builds up people’s tolerance to it,” said Sills.
“I think people in their heads just think, like you can buy alcohol in the store, they think they get it, and it will be fine, and it’s not,” said North Atlanta Behavioral Health Development Director Hallie Radler.
The deaths of Strang and Hamilton have raised conversations about Kratom products and the differences between natural and illegal products.
The American Kratom Association has already requested independent testing of the products that investigators recovered at the scene.
“These families deserve answers grounded in evidence, and the Ole Miss community deserves clear information,” said Mac Haddow with the American Kratom Association. “A package labeled ‘’ does not establish what was inside it, whether it was consumed, or whether it contributed to a death. Once authorities publicly identified those packages, explaining those limitations and establishing their contents became critically important.”
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