'Gas station heroin' sold at Detroit stores, 10 times stronger than morphine

Drug that has been called 'Gas station heroin' available at stores carries dangerous risk

FOX 2 went undercover to learn more about the recreational drug that is 10 times as strong as morphine according to the National Institutes of Health.

FOX 2 - "Gas station heroin" that’s the street name for pills called 7-Hydroxy.

The backstory:

They are legal and you can buy the tablets at gas stations and smoke shops.

"When you take two to four, it would look like you were on heroin, basically," said Isaiah Zinser, a former addict to 7-Hydroxy.

"You could just go to the store right now and get some more," said Katie Bowers, another ex-addict.

"(It's called) Kratom, SZA SZA, gas station heroin," said Lt. Andrew Guntzviller, Detroit Police Narcotics.

Seven Hydroxy is banned in some other countries, and states in the US but here in Michigan, we found they’re all over.

Our FOX 2 photographer went undercover to learn more about the recreational drug that is 10 times as strong as morphine according to the National Institutes of Health.

"People only take like a quarter, and if they’re brave enough, they’ll take another quarter," said a store clerk.

"Brave" he says - that’s one way to put it.

What they're saying:

"It was very similar to the feeling I had on any other opiate," said Zinsner. "It was that warm, fuzzy feeling. That feeling of euphoria and being numb."

The Gainsville, Florida resident said he heard about 7-Hydroxy, from the famous YouTube streamer "Goblin" who smoked the drug.

"Three rips and honest to God I’m high," he said in a video. "Like I'm just going to say straight up, if you didn’t tell me what this was, if you handed me the pill form of this and didn't tell me it was 7-OH, I would have just thought you gave me a perk or an opiate."

The packaging almost always includes the word "Kratom" on it. Kratom is a tree from southeast Asia and 7-Hydroxy is a compound found in that plant, but it’s significantly more potent.

It binds to the opiod receptors in the brain, just like so many illegal narcotics.

Zinser calls them 7-OHs and says he was hooked immediately.

"It was a problem the first time I ever took it," he said. "Because of the ease of access and the availability of it. It was very justifiable for me to go and do it multiple times a day, every day."

He even picked up delivery jobs – just to pay for the addiction. As the pills took hold, he says, his life crumbled.

At his worst, he was taking 220 milligrams per day. The average dose is anywhere from 10 to 20 milligrams.

"My mom came down from Ohio to see me in Florida for the first time after seven months, and when she saw me on that stuff, she directly accused me of being on heroin," he said.

That visit was a wake-up call to quit cold turkey. While some of his friends had to use a drug called Suboxone used to help with opioid-like withdrawal symptoms.

"The withdrawal process was agony, awful," he said.

It might not be mainstream but people are hooked. FOX 2 found bare shelves at a Metro Detroit smoke shop.

FOX 2 Undercover: "Do you guys sell the 7-OH stuff?"

Smoke shop clerk: "Yeah, this whole cabinet. We're kind of low because every Wednesday is buy one, get one half off.

"People come and spend $200 bucks on this stuff."

FOX 2: "A day?"

"About every other day," she said. "There’s one guy, he comes in four to five times a day for them."

Our photographer voiced his concern over trying it, and the clerk agreed.

"I would say if you haven’t like, started, I wouldn’t," she said. "Just because people are going more towards it, and spending even more, and I see them more often now."

Katie Bowers from Bismark, North Dakota mom, says she was addicted to 7-Hydroxy after one dose.

"The withdrawal symptoms were so quick, by the next morning I was feeling the symptoms. So that's why it got so addictive," she said.

Bowers originally turned to it for relief from chronic back pain.

"I actually broke my back in 2004 in a dirt bike accident," she said. "For the last 20 years, I've dealt with back pain."

Admittedly, she was addicted to narcotics in the past – and this, she says, was just as bad she says - if not worse - because it is so easy to buy.

"Borrowing money, hiding things, asking ... lying, things like that," Bowers said. "DoorDashing just for money and being there when they opened, kind of thing."

After about seven months – she finally quit.

"I finally just admitted to my boyfriend and my sister that I wasn't doing well, and it just took that, asking for help," she said.

Why you should care:

Lt. Guntzviller said it has been banned in some of the European countries and in a few states.

"Coincidentally, it has been banned in a lot of the countries where it’s cultivated at," he said.

But it remains legal in Michigan.

"A lot of people feel comfortable with the fact that it’s a natural supplement or it's an herb or something like that," Lt. Guntzviller said. "But there's an awful lot of things that populate this earth that you can ingest, that will kill you that grow on a tree, or a flower, or whatever else."

Because 7-Hydroxy is legal – law enforcement's hands are tied. The only option right now, is outing the effects of the drug.

"I needed to do more research before I put it in my body rather than just take a sales person's word for it on something I'm putting in my body," Bowers said.

For now – it will stay on store shelves. The only requirement to buy it, is that you are 21 and up.

"It's very it's very dangerous," said Zinser. "Knowing like someone like my little brother actually can walk into a smoke shop and get his hands on something he has no business touching."

If you or someone you know is struggling with addiction or is impacted by 7-Hydroxy, there is help,

Contact Detroit Wayne Integrated Health Network online here or by calling 1-800-241-4949

The Source: Information for this story was taken from interviews with people who were addicted to 7-Hydroxy, a Detroit police lieutenant and from information by the National Institutes of Health.