Gas station shelves across Pinal County are stocking a substance that Pinal County Attorney Brad Miller says behaves less like an herbal supplement and more like a street narcotic. After an undercover operation sent investigators into stores to buy products marketed as kratom, Miller’s office concluded that many of them are something else entirely: synthetic formulas built around a compound called 7-hydroxymitragynine, or 7-OH, that he compares directly to fentanyl.
The hidden-camera operation, first detailed by ABC15, found that a number of the products on store counters weren’t traditional kratom leaf at all but synthetic formulas sold under the kratom name. Kratom itself is a natural herbal plant from the Mitragyna speciosa species, traditionally chewed, smoked or mixed into tea, and some users claim it helps manage chronic pain or boosts alertness, as PinalCentral reports. But investigators say some of what’s being sold under that label contains as little as 0.002% actual kratom leaf, with the rest made up of concentrated 7-OH.
“It’s really a synthesized plant that’s just as dangerous as fentanyl,” Miller told ABC15, adding that these products move through the market without any federal vetting. “There’s no FDA approval. There’s no look at to see whether this stuff is safe,” he said. While 7-hydroxymitragynine does occur naturally in kratom leaf as a minor component, per PinalCentral’s reporting, synthetic kratom products contain far higher concentrations of it — and the compound binds to opioid receptors with effects similar to synthetic opioids such as fentanyl.
Why the Receptor Science Matters
The medical reasoning behind Miller’s alarm tracks with what addiction specialists have told national outlets. Dr. Alta DeRoo explained to Stateline that 7-OH acts more specifically on the mu-opioid receptor — “the same receptor that morphine or fentanyl would hit.” That distinction separates concentrated 7-OH products from traditional kratom leaf, which Stateline notes is sold online and at gas stations, convenience stores and smoke shops nationwide.
The FDA has warned against using kratom for medical treatment and does not believe kratom or 7-OH products provide any actual medical benefit, PinalCentral reports. Miller described the products as marketed in a way that mirrors opioids, and said selling them openly would shock most reasonable people.
A Push to Make 7-OH a Narcotic
Miller’s office wants state lawmakers to classify 7-OH products as narcotic drugs alongside cocaine and fentanyl, a change that would allow prosecution of both sellers and buyers, according to FOX 10 Phoenix. Miller wants the proposed offense classified as a felony, and has said that selling a product containing a dangerous element would lead to prosecution under his approach. Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes has also called for stronger state laws on kratom.
A Pennsylvania bill would let registered retailers sell natural-leaf kratom to adults 21 and older while banning synthetic and adulterated products, including anything above 0.5% 7-OH. At least 31 states already regulate kratom in some form, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, and lawmakers in 36 states introduced kratom or 7-OH legislation during the 2025 and 2026 sessions, per Stateline’s review.
The Autopsy Gap
One of the harder problems Miller’s office has run into is forensic, not legal. Testing for 7-OH during autopsies is too expensive and isn’t part of standard medical examiner protocols, Miller said, which means it would be impossible to determine whether the compound was in someone’s system at the time of an overdose without a specific test for it. A Pinal County investigator put it more bluntly to ABC15: “They don’t test for it. There isn’t any test that they run.”
That gap is part of why Miller believes synthetic kratom has played a role in more community deaths than are currently recognized — a personal assessment, he has said, rather than a confirmed count, since the testing to establish it isn’t routinely done. Nationally, the National Poison Data System recorded 14,449 kratom-related exposure reports from 2015 through 2025 — about 1,200% more than in 2015 — including 3,434 in 2025 alone, according to Stateline. That data doesn’t distinguish traditional leaf products from newer synthetic formulations.
Retailers Respond, Unevenly
The Pinal County Attorney’s Office found that shops across the county carried kratom or 7-OH products, according to PinalCentral’s reporting. The response once store owners learned what investigators found has been mixed: some shops planned to remove the products from their shelves, while others kept selling despite being told about the possible dangers.
Miller has urged shop owners to reconsider stocking the products, while saying sales are currently legal until state law changes.
