Gas station weed appeared alongside other drugs in dozens of fatal overdoses, former Allegheny County medical examiner says

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- As a group, it's known as gas station weed, because it's like marijuana and available just about everywhere -- at gas stations, convenience stores and vape shops. But while not illegal, substances like kratom and delta 8 are not regulated or FDA approved. Customers can buy them over the counter but use them at their own risk.

"You never know what you're getting and you never know how it's going to react," said recently retired Allegheny County Medical Examiner Karl Williams. 

Of all of these, the most popular is kratom -- a plant grown in Southeast Asia, which users say is good for pain, depression and opioid withdrawal. But the FDA warns kratom users are at risk of addiction and seizures.

In Allegheny County, autopsies revealed kratom to be present along with other drugs in 44 fatal overdoses in the past three years. While Williams says it's not clear that kratom contributed to those deaths, he says little is known about how kratom and delta 8 react with the brain.

"They call them cannabinoids, but they don't act the way marijuana does. They act on the same parts of the brain in unpredictable ways in many ways," Willaims said.

Kratom has been banned in six states and Pennsylvania has raised the purchasing age from 18 to 21. But addiction counselors say they're seeing a spike in teenagers and adolescents who have become addicted to kratom and are using it indiscriminately with substances like delta 8.

"Sometimes I'll ask patients what they're using as it relates to some of these over-the-counter products and they don't even know," said Brayden Kameg, an assistant professor at Pitt's School of Nursing.

But despite all the potential dangers and unanswered questions, sales are through the roof. Some reports say kratom sales have increased 600 percent in this country over the past five years, and kratom and delta 8 are staple products in vape shops that are springing up everywhere you look. 

In Allegheny County, the number of licenses to sell these non-tobacco products has tripled in the past five years from 114 to 332. Kameg says at a minimum, much more research is needed on their effects -- the potential benefits and potential dangers.

Kameg: "If we knew more, patients would be more empowered to make healthy choices and we'd be able to say, 'hey, maybe this dose and this frequency is safer than this dose and this frequency.'" 

Sheehan: "But right now it's sort of the Wild West."

Kameg: "It is the Wild West."

Short of making these products illegal, health officials believe they should be studied and regulated, though there are no bills to do that in front of the Pennsylvania legislature.