Canton police say a joint inspection at a Canton-area tobacco shop turned up hundreds of kratom and highly concentrated 7-OH products, along with hundreds of THC items allegedly being sold illegally. The case is now headed to the Wayne County Prosecutor, and officers warn it may not be the last shop to face scrutiny.
According to ClickOnDetroit, Canton police conducted the inspection last Friday alongside the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development and Michigan State Police. The Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development seized the kratom, 7-OH and THC products found on site, and Canton police said more local enforcement could follow based on allegedly illegal sales and other violations uncovered during the inspection.
Canton police are cracking down on shops selling kratom and highly concentrated 7-OH products as part of the effort, the station reports. Kratom is a tree native to Southeast Asia, and its leaves contain several alkaloids, the primary one being mitragynine. 7-hydroxymitragynine, or 7-OH, is a naturally occurring chemical found in the kratom plant, but natural leaves contain only much smaller amounts of it compared to the synthetically concentrated extracts now sold in tobacco and smoke shops.
How 7-OH Differs From Raw Kratom
7-OH is more potent than mitragynine and interacts with opioid receptors in the brain and nervous system, producing opioid-like effects including relaxation, pain relief, and sedation, per the same account. It can be produced or concentrated from kratom extracts and shows up on shelves as tablets, gummies, powders, shots or liquid extracts. Natural raw kratom leaves contain less than 2% 7-hydroxymitragynine relative to total alkaloid content, while commercial 7-OH products sold in smoke shops use synthetic concentration methods that activate mu-opioid receptors far more potently than natural leaf or even morphine, according to Hoodline.
The health risks tied to 7-OH range from unpleasant to dangerous. It can cause nausea, vomiting, dizziness, constipation, confusion, and drowsiness, and high doses may increase the risk of slowed breathing, loss of consciousness, and other serious complications, the article notes. Combining 7-OH with alcohol, prescription opioids, benzodiazepines or other sedating drugs may increase the risk of those serious complications further.
A Regulatory Gray Zone in Michigan
Michigan has not enacted a statewide ban specifically making 7-OH illegal, which leaves local agencies leaning on food-safety law rather than criminal statutes to pull products off shelves. State regulators say kratom and other unapproved psychoactive substances cannot legally be marketed as food or dietary supplement ingredients under current Michigan law, a position the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development has laid out under Michigan Food Law, classifying such products as adulterated because they lack Generally Recognized as Safe status.
That authority is what allowed regulators to seize the products found in Canton, even though no state criminal ban exists yet. Michigan lawmakers have debated two very different paths forward: House Bill 5537, passed by the Michigan House in a 56-48 vote in March, would criminalize the growth, synthesis, sale, distribution or import of kratom and synthetic 7-OH as a misdemeanor, with up to a year in prison for repeat sales to minors, according to LegiScan. That bill remains pending in the Michigan Senate. A competing measure, House Bill 4969, proposes a Kratom Consumer Protection and Regulatory Act that would license vendors under LARA, set a minimum purchase age of 21, and require mandatory lab testing rather than an outright ban, per the Michigan Legislature.
Federal Scheduling Looms Separately
The state regulatory push is separate from proposed federal action. The Drug Enforcement Administration is considering whether to place 7-OH under Schedule I of the federal Controlled Substances Act, and on July 1 the agency announced its intent to temporarily schedule 7-OH above specified concentration thresholds, citing high abuse potential and no accepted medical use, per the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Weeks later, on August 25, the U.S. Department of Justice and DEA issued an emergency order placing three synthetic 7-OH-related compounds — mitragynine pseudoindoxyl, MGM-15 and MGM-16 — into Schedule I effective the next day, after determining the manufactured compounds act as potent mu-opioid receptor agonists.
Michigan has been down this road before with kratom, though for a different reason. In 2018, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services and MDARD warned residents against consuming kratom after a multistate Salmonella outbreak tied to the product infected three Michigan residents and hospitalized 38 people nationwide, prompting mandatory recalls once samples tested positive for bacterial contamination.
A Growing Health Burden
The public health stakes of high-potency 7-OH use have become increasingly visible beyond Canton. The Berrien County Health Department issued a warning in February after local emergency departments reported a rise in patients suffering severe symptoms and opioid-like withdrawal linked to concentrated 7-OH products, noting that consumers often mistake high-potency extracts for mild herbal remedies. Addiction medicine specialists at Michigan Medicine reported in August that users frequently escalate from raw kratom to high-potency 7-OH products, leading to rapid physical dependence and severe opioid withdrawal that requires clinical treatment, with physicians noting an uptick in patients seeking specialized addiction care after trying to quit.
An estimated 1.7 million Americans aged 12 and older consume kratom products, and public health agencies warn that unregulated commercial manufacturing creates widespread risks of mislabeled dosages and heavy metal contamination. Similar crackdowns have played out elsewhere this year, including a Naperville ban tied to a death and a Florida convenience store raid near a school over banned 7-OH stock. For now, Canton's case moves to the Wayne County Prosecutor, while state lawmakers and federal regulators work out whether Michigan will follow suit with a formal ban, according to Hoodline.
