Steve Robinson

I mean, in some contexts with Kratom, and I would assume 7-OH,

there have been withdrawal side effects.

I don't know if they're like debilitating flu-like with fentanyl and prescription opioids, but I would assume that it's one of those things where you've got to experience it to really know what it actually feels like.

But it's so new that we don't have a population of people who are 7OH

addicts who have gone into treatment who can describe what that process was like we don't have people who are in recovery specifically from 708 at this point who can describe what that process is like um because again they're new products but it is my fear that they're like the the they're

The kind of messages about where to buy the fake hemp that's actually cannabis spreads quickly in drug circles.

They've got stickers outside of hemp shops that can communicate where to buy the real weed that's fake hemp.

The idea about Kratom or 7-OH or any of these synthetic drugs, the message moves very quickly in drug-using circles.

And if the price of fentanyl starts to dry up because of the success that the Trump administration has had shutting down not just the southern border, but also the super labs on the Canadian border, then it's just, it's, you know, microeconomics.

The supply of fentanyl shrinks, the price goes up, and suddenly the $8 package of pills at the head shop looks much more attractive.

I think that the federal government is a little bit ahead of the curb in some ways because they've begun, like I said, the FDA is asking the DEA to schedule 7-OH.

They're sending letters to some vape stores and tobacco stores telling them, warning them, don't sell these products.

That's like a prelude to armed DEA agents kicking in your door and raiding your shop.

The same goes for some of the illicit cannabis that's being sold.

But really, it's like one kind of network of quasi-legal businesses that are hustling these synthetic drugs and quasi-legal drugs through the same system.

And you're starting to see more and more law enforcement actions from the federal level.

All the time, there's state-level raids of vape shops.

There were some vape shops hit recently where it was Operation Vape Trail.

This was a federal initiative shutting down some vape shops that were just selling good old-fashioned THC, and they were pretending that they were selling nicotine or CBD or something like that.

And three of them happened to be operated by Chinese nationals who just so happened to operate vape shops close to US military installations in Texas.