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00:01Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.
00:30Well, well, well, welcome to Last Week Tonight.
00:33I'm done over. Thank you so much for joining us.
00:36It has been a busy week.
00:37The Iran war hit the 60-day mark.
00:39My mom and dad came to visit the US.
00:42And last Saturday, a gunman charged
00:44the White House Correspondents' Dinner.
00:46And just hours later, Trump announced
00:47the big conclusion that he'd drawn.
00:50It's not a particularly secure building.
00:55And, uh...
00:56I didn't want to say this, but this is why we have to have
01:00all of the...
01:02attributes of what we're planning at the White House.
01:05We need the ballroom. That's why Secret Service.
01:07That's why the military are demanding it.
01:09Okay, first and least importantly, it is so weird
01:13to see those three men that dressed up and that serious.
01:17The two possible contacts for that image are
01:19Emergency of the White House Correspondents' Dinner
01:21or Father of the Bride and Two Groomsmen
01:24apologizing for accidentally giving the ring bearer cocaine.
01:27Also, for the record, just because someone wanted
01:30to shoot you at the DC Hilton doesn't mean
01:32you get to push for an unrelated personal ambition.
01:35To his credit, when Reagan got shot there,
01:37he didn't immediately say, see, this is what happens
01:40when you let air traffic controllers get notions.
01:43But I guess, kudos to Trump for now having
01:45the second most embarrassing fixation
01:47on the topic of presidential ballroom,
01:49with the most embarrassing still being when LBJ
01:52called the head of the Hagar Pants Company to say this.
01:54The crotch down where your nuts hang
01:57is always a little too tight.
01:59So, when you make them up, give me an inch
02:02that I can let out there, because they cut me.
02:05They're just like riding a wire fence.
02:08Let's see if you can't leave me about an inch
02:10from where the zipper ends,
02:14around under my, back to my bunghole.
02:17It's still so good.
02:20Every U.S. history textbook should include
02:22at least one chapter titled,
02:23That Phone Call, where LBJ discusses his big swingin' nuts,
02:27and then says the word bunghole out loud.
02:30With an immediate follow-up chapter called,
02:31Oh my God, wait, the burp.
02:33We almost forgot to talk about the burp.
02:36And I wish so much I could talk about that all night.
02:38But sadly, we need to talk about the fact that on Wednesday,
02:41the Supreme Court did this.
02:43Tonight, in a ruling that could reshape
02:45the future make-up of Congress,
02:47the Supreme Court limiting the use of race
02:49to determine how Congressional districts are drawn,
02:52slicing away at the landmark Voting Rights Act,
02:54signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965,
02:59at the height of the Civil Rights Movement.
03:01Yeah, the Supreme Court carved up
03:03one of LBJ's signature achievements,
03:05like it was, I don't know,
03:06just off the top of my head here,
03:08a nutsack riding a wire fence.
03:11That ruling basically gutted Section 2 of the VRA,
03:13which prohibits race-based discrimination
03:15when it comes to voting,
03:16including drawing election maps
03:18that dilute minority voting power.
03:20And in writing the opinion for the majority,
03:22Justice Alito took a bold swing.
03:25Justice Alito writing,
03:26the only time race can be a factor
03:28is when there's evidence the state
03:29intentionally drew its districts
03:31to afford minority voters less opportunity
03:34because of their race.
03:35Alito noting,
03:36vast social change has occurred throughout the country,
03:39and particularly in the South,
03:41which have made great strides in ending
03:42entrenched racial discrimination.
03:44Okay, that is obviously horseshit,
03:47especially given to the extent America's made progress
03:50on racial discrimination.
03:51It's been thanks in part to the law.
03:52He just fucking gutted.
03:54Still, credit to ABC for picking that photo of Alito,
03:58which has strong,
03:59this-school-dance-wasn't-supposed-to-be-integrated energy.
04:03He looks like he's angry about the existence of jazz.
04:07Experts predict this ruling will roll back decades
04:09of progress in minority representation
04:11at both the local and national levels,
04:13with some anticipating it could set up
04:14the largest ever decline
04:16in the number of black representatives on Capitol Hill,
04:19which sure feels like a few steps back
04:21from those giant strides forward
04:23that segregation Sammy here was talking about.
04:26Now, some states have already held
04:28their congressional primaries for this year,
04:30so they can't redraw their lines until 2028,
04:32but others are scrambling to take action.
04:35The governor of Louisiana suspended
04:37its congressional primary two days
04:39before the start of early voting,
04:41so that the state could redraw its map,
04:43with this being the expected result.
04:45Only one of Louisiana's six congressional districts
04:48will now be majority black,
04:50even though black voters make up one-third of the state.
04:53Congressman Cleo Fields represents the district
04:55now ruled unconstitutional,
04:57saying the decision will make it more difficult
04:59for non-white candidates to be elected.
05:01If you tell me I have to be white
05:03to serve in Congress from Louisiana,
05:06I can't do nothing about that.
05:08That is rough.
05:09And, of course, he can't do anything about that,
05:11because if he did,
05:12that wouldn't be a viable political strategy.
05:14It would be, as we all know,
05:16the long-awaited sequel to 2004's White Chicks,
05:19and we don't want that.
05:21And it's not just Louisiana.
05:23Florida passed a new redistricting map
05:24the same day this decision was handed down,
05:27and the governors of Alabama and Tennessee
05:28have called special sessions
05:29to try to ram new maps through.
05:32And this state senator in Georgia,
05:33who's currently running for Lieutenant Governor,
05:36quickly urged his state to do the same.
05:39The last thing that Republicans need to do
05:40is be weak-kneed in this moment.
05:43This is a time to be bold.
05:44This is a time to be aggressive.
05:46And in Georgia,
05:47that means calling a special session
05:49and redrawing our maps.
05:51Yeah, Republicans,
05:52like radicalized Frankie Muniz here,
05:54are chomping at the bit to redraw maps.
05:58And all else aside,
05:59that guy's name is Greg Dolezal.
06:01Greg Dolezal.
06:03And he's trying to turn black districts white.
06:06So, finally,
06:07someone has managed to pull off a reverse Dolezal.
06:11And that is not easy to do.
06:13And look, so far, Georgia's governor said he won't sign off
06:16on redrawing its map for this election,
06:19and some new maps will face challenges on procedural grounds.
06:22But long-term, the harms are gonna be significant here.
06:24And while there will clearly be more to say
06:26about this going forward,
06:27the one thing we can say for sure right now
06:30is that this decision is yet another sign
06:32that the current Supreme Court
06:33seems to have pretty much the exact same goal
06:36as LBJ's Taylor.
06:37And that is to make things a lot more comfortable
06:39for a bunch of very unpleasant nuts and arseholes.
06:43And now, this.
06:45And now, kids speak their truth
06:48in KTVH's Weather Rookie segment.
06:51Good evening, everybody.
06:52I've got my new friend, Dustin.
06:54Look at that smile.
06:55That's a million-dollar smile.
06:57You must have, like, five girlfriends.
06:59I actually have, uh, two.
07:01Your class is gonna watch this tomorrow.
07:03You want to give a shout-out to anyone?
07:06Uh, can I say the names?
07:07Yeah, go ahead.
07:09Uh, Javis.
07:09Please be more responsible in class.
07:12How should people jump into that pond?
07:14Whatever they want.
07:16Whatever they want.
07:16What do you want to do?
07:17What would you do?
07:18Triple backflip?
07:20I don't think I'm capable of that.
07:22You said you've never been to Great Falls, but look at that.
07:24By the magic of television, we have transported you to Great Falls.
07:27How does it feel?
07:28Uh, good.
07:29It feels good.
07:30Yeah, or would you say it feels great to be in Great Falls?
07:33Well, technically, I'm not.
07:36Say hello to everybody.
07:38Hi, everybody.
07:39Hi, everybody.
07:40The entire state, the entire world could be watching this.
07:44How do you feel about that?
07:46Creeped out.
07:50Moving on.
07:50Our main story tonight concerns drugs.
07:53We've talked about all sorts of them before.
07:56From opioids, to compounded drugs, to psychedelics, to opioids again,
08:00to lethal injection drugs, to opioids for a third and final time,
08:03to of course, a bonus opioid story.
08:05But tonight, we're gonna talk about so-called gas station drugs.
08:08You know, the colorful products with weird names
08:10that you tend to see behind the counter at gas stations,
08:13convenience stores, and smoke shops.
08:14It's a whole weird world of poppers, whippets, questionable supplements,
08:19and boner pills.
08:20And if you are wondering who buys those last ones,
08:22I'll let this convenience store clerk fill you in.
08:25This is why I got to leave Circle K soon, bro, for real.
08:28Like, so today, I was just chilling, right?
08:30Working, whatever.
08:31This white dude come up.
08:32He's like, yo, you got any dick pills?
08:35Like, rhino dick pills?
08:36And he did this shit with his arm.
08:37I was like, we had these.
08:38And he's like, fuck it, bro, let me take him.
08:40I was like, all right, bet.
08:41And while he was paying and shit, he opened it,
08:45and he popped one.
08:47And he popped one in his fucking mouth.
08:49And I was like...
08:51And he was like, shit.
08:52Yeah. And then he popped another one.
08:54I was like, oh my fucking, what are you doing, bro?
08:57Why the fuck did you take two in a public area like this?
09:01You couldn't go home?
09:02You couldn't wait till you go home?
09:03Like, what the fuck is going on, son?
09:06Yeah. All valid questions.
09:08And I will say, after hearing that, I won't feel nearly as bad
09:11the next time I open a Gatorade at the register before paying.
09:14Look, I'll pay for it in a second, but trust me,
09:16this could be way weirder.
09:18But again, it's not just boner pills.
09:20These products are part of a sprawling industry,
09:23and they promise everything from increased energy
09:24to pain relief.
09:26And while you might assume that they're just snake oil,
09:28that's not necessarily true.
09:31Some of these drugs can be actively dangerous,
09:33presenting risks of addiction, just like controlled substances.
09:36And to hear some who've been addicted to them tell it,
09:38the very fact that that's been allowed to happen
09:40is pretty infuriating.
09:42It's a common sight in gas station convenience stores
09:45across the country.
09:46So-called natural supplements on display.
09:48Starting in like 2015, 2014, I had an opiate aisle.
09:53This is what Hooked looked like for Brandon.
09:56250 bottles consumed in one month,
09:59at the height of his addiction.
10:01There is so much that is alarming there,
10:03from the notion of a gas station having an opiate aisle,
10:06to the fact that I'm just gonna say,
10:08that is too many tiny bottles of anything
10:10to go through in a month.
10:11Whether it's gas station supplements,
10:13airplane bottles of vodka,
10:15or even travel size Olay body wash first.
10:18Buy full size, don't live like this.
10:20But also, that's just too many bottles.
10:22How dirty are you getting?
10:24I'm worried about you.
10:26And the thing is, stories like that are becoming more common
10:29as people increasingly seek these drugs out.
10:31For some, it may be for recreational use,
10:33because these products generally don't get detected on drug tests.
10:36But for others, it may be because they don't have access to healthcare,
10:39have a mistrust of mainstream science,
10:41or are self-treating anxiety, depression, fatigue,
10:44or opioid withdrawal.
10:45The problem is, though, these drugs exist in a regulatory Wild West.
10:50And in part, that is by their own design.
10:53Many of the companies behind them try to evade regulation
10:56with creative labeling, marketing them with language like,
10:58for research purposes only, or not for human consumption.
11:02But the most common tactic is simply labeling the product
11:05a dietary supplement.
11:06And that is because this 1994 law
11:08exempted the supplement industry from nearly all federal regulations.
11:12We actually talked about that before in our piece on
11:15Dr. Oz and nutritional supplements, which, by the way,
11:18ended with Steve Buscemi tap dancing in front of a kid's marching band,
11:21and just trust me, it made sense at the time.
11:24But thanks to that law, there is currently no central process
11:28whereby products calling themselves supplements
11:30are tested or approved before they hit the shelves.
11:34And while there are some rules they have to follow
11:36regarding ingredients and marketing, many simply ignore them.
11:39All of which means the FDA and other regulators
11:41are essentially playing an impossible game of catch-up.
11:44And the result of that can be a guy with a pile of bottles on his lawn,
11:48wondering how the fuck that was allowed to happen.
11:51And that's actually the least of the consequences here.
11:53So given all of that, tonight, let's look at gas station drugs.
11:57And to do that, we're gonna focus on three areas in particular.
12:00Sexual enhancement products, a substance called Crayton,
12:02and its associated compound 7-OH, and TNFD.
12:06And let's start with the sexual enhancement stuff.
12:09Products like boner pills can be hard to miss,
12:11especially because they often have over-the-top names
12:14and packaging involving an animal.
12:16For instance, there's Black Panther, Blue Panther, Black Horse,
12:20The Goat, Super Bowl, Ramit, Gold Lion, Super Cheetah, Anaconda,
12:26Rhino 8, Rhino 11, Rhino 69, of course, Rhino 96, Rhino 99,
12:33and my personal favorite, Bona Bears,
12:35which apparently contains a proprietary Bona Bear blend.
12:39A cursed series of words, and which features this image,
12:43which looks like what a Beanie Baby would see
12:46if it walked in on its parents having sex.
12:48But Bona pills actually demonstrate pretty effectively
12:52the extent to which gas station drugs
12:54can be made by just about anyone.
12:56And I do mean anyone.
12:58It's not like there's a single company making
13:01all of these dick pills and filling them with drugs.
13:04What actually happens is that the empty packaging
13:07for many of the most common sexual enhancement supplements
13:10gets purchased online from China.
13:12Then the packages get filled by an unknown number of entities.
13:16Finally, the pills show up in stores around the country.
13:19To show how easy it is to get into the dick pill business,
13:22we ordered a sample of empty Rhino packaging from Alibaba.
13:26Now, if we wanted to, we could fill them with oregano,
13:29or pop rocks, or dirt.
13:32We could also fill the pills with natural herbal supplements,
13:35as the labels advertise, or pharmaceuticals,
13:38both of which are sold on Alibaba.
13:40Yeah, that's not ideal, is it?
13:42You don't want a pill's ingredients
13:43to be essentially dealer's choice.
13:44And you would never tolerate that level of variance
13:47in other products.
13:48You would be justifiably annoyed
13:50if it turned out that some Cadbury cream eggs
13:52were filled with marinara sauce
13:54instead of what they're supposed to be filled with,
13:56the Easter Bunny's thick, thick cum.
13:59And if you, if you thought that clip was exaggerating,
14:02just watch what happened
14:04when they bought what looks like the same pill
14:06from two different stores right here in New York.
14:09The packaging on these products was exactly the same.
14:12But when we opened the pills, it was evident
14:14there was inconsistency between the contents' colors
14:17and textures.
14:18Yeah, those two powders are clearly very different.
14:21One just looks like sand, while the other
14:23looks more like cremated Snoopy.
14:25And obviously, I hope it's not that.
14:29Unless, that is, Snoopy's will specifically directed his heirs
14:32to shove my remains into a gas station dick pill.
14:34In which case, I'm thankful his final wish was fulfilled.
14:38Woodstock, may his memory be a blessing.
14:40The point is, these pills could contain literally anything,
14:44including, as they just said, actual pharmaceutical ingredients.
14:48Though, importantly, not necessarily in careful or consistent dosages.
14:52Some rhino pills have been shown to contain sildenafil
14:55and tadalafil, the respective active ingredients
14:58in Viagra and Cialis, and sometimes at extremely high doses,
15:02which isn't good, given that both drugs can lower blood pressure
15:05to dangerous levels, particularly if they interact
15:08with other medications.
15:09So, someone who can't get Cialis from their doctor
15:13for good reason might turn to these supplements
15:16without knowing they're about to get a megadose of it.
15:19One pill was found to contain 14 times the amount
15:22of active ingredient contained in a Cialis pill.
15:25Meanwhile, others were found to include dyes and filler,
15:28like blue printer ink and drywall.
15:30So, on one hand, these pills could end up poisoning you,
15:33but on the other, if your printer runs out of blue ink,
15:35just jam a few boner pills in the cartridge,
15:38and you can finish printing off your smurf porn.
15:41And because the FDA is basically...
15:44You know, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop.
15:45Uh, stop, stop, stop, stop.
15:46Take it down, take it down.
15:47Because the FDA is basically powerless
15:50before a problem emerges.
15:52The main action it often takes
15:54is to simply offer public warnings
15:56to avoid certain products.
15:58That is why you can come across an official FDA release,
16:01like this one, which reads,
16:03FDA continues to advise consumers
16:05not to purchase or use schwing products.
16:08Which is embarrassing enough, even before you realize
16:10that the release included this image of the packaging
16:13featuring the brand's mascot, seen here answering the question,
16:15what if Alfred E. Newman got heavily into gooning?
16:19The FDA's also publicly warned against,
16:21and these are all real,
16:23my steel woody, willy-go-wild, big penis,
16:27Australia kangaroo essence, strong horses,
16:30bull's genital, and bigger, longer, more time, more sperms,
16:33which is just immaculate.
16:36AMC, please bring back Mad Men,
16:39because I so badly want to see an entire episode
16:42about Don Draper pitching a bigger, longer,
16:45more time, more sperms ad campaign.
16:47It's not a dick pill. It's a carousel.
16:50What I'm saying is, these pills can be subject to far less oversight,
16:55and be much more dangerous than you would reasonably hope.
16:58And that is also true of the next product
17:00that we're going to be looking at tonight, Kratom.
17:03It's made from the leaves of the Kratom tree in Southeast Asia.
17:06In its natural form and smaller doses,
17:08it's generally considered safe and acts as a stimulant.
17:11But in higher doses, it becomes more of a sedative,
17:13with addictive opioid-like properties.
17:15Kratom's become increasingly popular,
17:18with millions of people estimated to use it nationwide.
17:21And it speaks to its growing popularity,
17:23that at trade shows for smoke shops,
17:24Kratom companies will happily brag about their expansion plans.
17:28This show is huge for Kratom now.
17:30We just got into edibles and some drinks and things like that.
17:34Jelly 70H Botanicals is our newest line of Kratom gummies.
17:38I'm with this company Hydroxy.
17:40We're a single alphaloid Kratom extract company,
17:42and we're going to be the strongest, most purest on the market right now.
17:45We're the first extract-enhanced powder and capsule on the market.
17:49We want it to be a soccer mom brand,
17:50you know, just to get your energy in the morning
17:52instead of something else, you know what I mean?
17:54Yeah, I do know what you mean, brah.
17:57And I've got to say, there's a lot that is off-putting there,
18:00from the way Colby here talks about soccer moms,
18:02to this guy being so wet,
18:04to the unappealing flavors of Kratom on display,
18:08including fresh grape, mocha taffy, and Dave's Brew.
18:11If your product is referring to Dave,
18:13and I don't know who the fuck Dave is,
18:16I'm not feeling inherently confident in it.
18:19Kratom products are usually marketed as an energy booster,
18:22a mood lifter, or a pain reducer,
18:23but there are a number of potential problems,
18:26starting with the fact that,
18:27because many states have no requirement for labeling
18:29when it comes to these products,
18:31it can be hard to know exactly what you are buying.
18:34When the Tampa Bay Times ran an investigation on Kratom,
18:37they tested 20 products,
18:39and while some came in proper packaging, like these,
18:42others, like this one, labeled Trainwreck,
18:44were just powder in a bag.
18:46And if you think Trainwreck looks alarming,
18:49may I introduce you to Red.
18:50Just Red.
18:52A bag of something with the word Red Sharpied on it.
18:57The Times found that of the products they tested,
18:59five had no information about ingredients,
19:0111 had no dosing instructions,
19:03and 13 had no details about potency,
19:05which probably shouldn't be that surprising,
19:07given, again, one of those products was a bag of something called Red.
19:11And the thing is, even when products are packaged,
19:15and have dosing information,
19:16the packaging itself may not encourage proper usage,
19:19as this expert points out.
19:21Can you read this label here?
19:23So at the very bottom,
19:25it says to not consume more than one-third of that bottle
19:28within a 24-hour period.
19:30But it's sold as a shot.
19:32Right.
19:33And that's clearly a problem,
19:35because everybody knows a bottle's type dictates
19:38how you drink its contents.
19:39If it's in a tiny shot bottle, you drink it all at once.
19:42If it's in a big, tall bottle, you pour it into a glass.
19:45And if it's in a Bud Light lime bottle,
19:46you throw it directly into the trash.
19:48These are the basic rules of beverage consumption.
19:52We even found one Kratom-derived product
19:54that claims a single tablet contains eight servings,
19:58meaning you'd have to break it into eight pieces,
20:00even though it's only scored into four.
20:03And the thing is, because these products can seem low-risk,
20:06people can feel way too comfortable taking much more
20:09than the recommended dose.
20:10Just listen to this exchange that Joe Rogan had with a guest.
20:14I was on this discussion about Kratom.
20:17Are you familiar with this?
20:18I'm on it right now.
20:19Oh, wow.
20:20Yeah, I just took some.
20:21I fucked my knee up the other day.
20:22I did something.
20:24And it's been stiff and painful,
20:26so I iced it before I came here,
20:28and then I just took six of them.
20:31Let's see what happens.
20:31Wow.
20:32I took ten once.
20:33Oof.
20:34Now I get why people might think it's a drug.
20:37It is a drug.
20:38Yeah, for sure.
20:39But when I took four, I was like,
20:41well, I took two for, the first time I took it,
20:43I took two, and then a couple times I took two,
20:45and I'm like, this is like a mild stimulant.
20:46But then when you get into the range of eight to ten pills,
20:51it's like, oh, this will fuck you up.
20:53This stuff.
20:55The stuff I take is Urban Ice Organics,
20:58and, um...
21:01See, it says...
21:03It says take two.
21:06Joe.
21:08Joey.
21:10Josephine.
21:12What the fuck are you doing?
21:14You didn't even know the name of the pill
21:16or how many you were supposed to take.
21:17What did you know?
21:19Because it seems the main knowledge you had about those pills
21:22before taking them was that they were pills.
21:25And that was apparently enough for you to happily toss
21:27half a dozen of them back.
21:28But it really is worth knowing exactly what you're ingesting
21:32and the potential dangers, because the truth is,
21:35Kratom products can be addictive, as this woman found.
21:39Amy has been addicted to Kratom for nearly a decade,
21:43and she didn't buy it from a dealer or off the street.
21:48Instead, she got these tiny bottles of Kratom extract
21:52known as K-Shots from a place many of you frequent every day.
21:56I worked in the gas station behind my house,
21:58trying not to take opiates, because opiates are bad.
22:01And it was in a little display right beside me.
22:04Ninety percent of my money goes to this.
22:06The average price of Kratom is around $15 to $25 per bottle
22:10or for the two-pack of pills.
22:13Amy admits she spent more than $100,000 in one year on this substance.
22:19If you think about it, that is the price of four Honda Civic LX sedans
22:23or a high-end RV.
22:27I mean, yeah, I guess that is true.
22:32But it's also a pretty strange way to illustrate the purchasing power
22:35of $100,000.
22:38Because you don't expect the takeaway from that story to be,
22:40if this woman wasn't addicted to Kratom,
22:42she'd be rolling in Honda Civics right now.
22:45Also, for all it's worth, I don't need the news
22:47to tell me the price of high-end recreational vehicles.
22:50I'm well aware of the cost. And so, by the way, is Clarence Thomas.
22:54Now, a key reason some Kratom products have the potential for addiction
22:59is because certain components of the Kratom plant, like mitragynin,
23:04interact with the same receptors in your brain as opioids.
23:07And while there is mitragynin in Kratom in its natural state,
23:10some manufacturers will concentrate it in their products.
23:13And others will go even further by synthesizing a compound from Kratom
23:16called 7-hydroxymitragynin, or 7-OH.
23:20It's a substance that researchers have found binds to the opioid receptors
23:23at least seven times stronger than morphine.
23:26As one researcher put it, the difference between natural Kratom and 7-OH
23:29is like the difference between drinking a Miller Lite
23:32versus drinking 12 ounces of Everclear.
23:35Some products have now even ditched the word Kratom completely
23:38and just put 7-OH front and center, and sales have exploded.
23:42Here is the head of one company who expanded from CBD products to 7-OH,
23:47marveling at just how quickly his new product line took off.
23:50I've truly never seen a product with the type of sales this has.
23:56You know, we had a 10-year lead with cannabis products,
24:00and I've just never seen anything move like this does.
24:05We are actually doing more sales with 7-OH than we are all the cannabis products combined.
24:12Wow.
24:12And we're talking about something we've been doing for a few months versus a decade.
24:15Yeah, it turns out 7-OH products are as popular as that man's shirt is,
24:20distractingly red.
24:21That is Vince Sanders, one of 7-OH's loudest proponents.
24:25Fun fact, he was once a car salesman slash large-scale illegal marijuana dealer.
24:29And even fun of fact, after he was arrested in 2000,
24:32his attorney argued in court to void his prison term,
24:35citing, among other things, the tax revenue lost from having the
24:38number one Acura salesman in the US behind bars.
24:41And I shouldn't go to prison because I'm America's number one Acura salesman.
24:45Might be the saddest sentence of all time.
24:49Aside from, I shouldn't go to prison because I'm America's number two Acura salesman.
24:54And while some manufacturers position their products as pain relievers,
24:57or even as an off-ramp for people from more dangerous drugs,
25:01just as many seem to market them with a knowing wink to consumers
25:05about their similarity to illicit substances.
25:08There is dopium, which is pretty on the nose,
25:10but also opiate and perks and bars,
25:14as well as Roxy, Droxy and Moxie.
25:17And the addictive nature of these products can be especially rough
25:20for people like this woman who'd already been through an opioid addiction
25:23and thought in 7-OH that she found something safe.
25:27This month, Madison McManus found herself in a place
25:30she never wanted to see again, drug rehab.
25:33Really disappointed in myself.
25:35I didn't think that I would be there again.
25:37Um, yeah, it was really hard, you know,
25:41lying in the detox for, I think, three days, just catatonic.
25:45My body was just, I mean, everything was on fire at her.
25:49I just didn't want to do it anymore.
25:51She was six and a half years clean from heroin
25:53when a friend suggested she try 7-0 to help with anxiety.
25:57Products like these.
25:59As soon as I took that 7-0,
26:01it was like taking heroin again for the first time.
26:04Wow. It was like taking heroin.
26:07Look, you expect people to say that about doing things like fentanyl
26:10or watching a Halloween dog parade
26:12or getting the push alert that Henry Kissinger died.
26:16Inject that straight into my veins until I happily die.
26:20But not about taking a drug that's readily available
26:23at gas station convenience stores.
26:25In working on this story, we've seen so many people
26:27see clips of people talking about how hard it is to quit these products.
26:31Yet, some in this industry will try to direct people
26:33away from those examples and instead tell them to focus on the positive.
26:37Like this guy in Mississippi whose business is called Dr. Kratom.
26:40If you Google Kratom and you Google,
26:42what are the downfalls, what are the negative effects of Kratom,
26:44that's what you're gonna get, is the downfalls and the negative effects of Kratom.
26:48If you Google, what are the pros and the positives and the good points of Kratom,
26:51that's what you're gonna get. You gotta learn how to Google.
26:54I mean, Google or Google non-biasedly and you'll get the truth.
26:59Sure, but...
27:00You know, you could also say that about anything, right?
27:03If you Google, what are the good points of mountain lion attacks,
27:07you might find some upsides to getting mauled by a mountain lion,
27:10though the results may also be from websites secretly made by mountain lions.
27:15And then you're really just getting the mountain lions version of the truth.
27:19But the thing is, if you don't just rely on how you Google,
27:22troubling patterns do begin to emerge.
27:25When the Washington Post went through government statistics,
27:27it found that in a recent three-year span,
27:29medical examiners and coroners had listed Kratom as contributing to or causing
27:32at least 4,100 deaths in 44 states and DC.
27:36Now, to be fair, most cases did involve other substances,
27:39but Kratom was listed as the sole substance causing death in 182 of those cases.
27:45And there is every chance that that is an undercount,
27:47given these substances are new enough that death investigations
27:50don't always test for or detect Kratom or 7OH.
27:54The fact is, despite how ubiquitous these products are,
27:58they really haven't been tested properly for safety,
28:01as the former number one Acura salesman in the country readily admits.
28:05So, 7OH hasn't had any, like, human trials,
28:10like, for regulations or anything like that?
28:11That is correct. Yeah, I mean, the human trials have been
28:15people choosing to use it.
28:16Look, look, I hate to second-guess that man.
28:20I'm afraid of the impact it would have on the global economy.
28:23But that's not how human trials work.
28:26That's just selling people shit, then seeing what happens.
28:30And what happened in his case is that the Missouri AG
28:33has sued his company for deceptively marketing 7OH.
28:357OH and Kratom as safe products.
28:38Incidentally, during that investigation,
28:39it was noted his company recalled more than 3 million pills
28:43after a bottle of tablets that were marketed
28:45as containing 7.5 milligrams of 7OH,
28:48turned out to contain around 34 milligrams.
28:51Over four times as much.
28:53And while apparently, I have to tell you,
28:55the company insists it makes substantial efforts
28:58to ensure its products are safe and reliable,
29:01and that this appears to have been an isolated outlier.
29:03First, I think we might disagree on what the word substantial means,
29:07and that statement appears much less reassuring to me
29:11than I think they want it to sound.
29:13It's basically given 34 milligrams is more than double
29:16the maximum recommended dosage on the package.
29:19And double the maximum dosage is one of the more alarming reasons
29:23for a recall.
29:24It's right up there with,
29:25it's actually horse meat,
29:26and sometimes it just explodes.
29:29Oh shit, oh shit, another one's gone.
29:31Oh, you know what?
29:32I'm sure it's fine.
29:34Elon's a genius.
29:35Now, I should say, some states are taking action.
29:39For example, as of January,
29:41all of these had some form of regulation on 7.0H or Kratom,
29:44ranging from age restrictions and labeling requirements,
29:47to outright bans.
29:48But, I admit, this is complicated.
29:51Because first, as we've talked about multiple times before on this show,
29:55in general, full-on prohibition and criminalization
29:58just isn't great drug policy.
30:00And second, when it comes to this particular industry,
30:03whenever one drug is banned,
30:05another can quickly take its place.
30:07All of which brings us to our final type of gas station drug,
30:10Tieneptine.
30:10Remember that guy you saw earlier with the big pile of bottles?
30:14Those weren't Kratom.
30:16He'd already kicked an addiction to that after his state banned it.
30:19Only for him to then get hooked on Tieneptine.
30:22It's actually sold as a pharmaceutical in Europe as an antidepressant,
30:25but has not been approved by the FDA for any medical use here.
30:29Instead, it's been marketed as a nootropic or cognitive enhancer
30:33in products like Neptune's Fix, Zaza, and Tiana.
30:36And I will say, it is not a great sign that Tieneptine
30:39quickly picked up this catchy nickname.
30:42You can find it online, at convenience stores, even gas stations.
30:46But experts are sounding the alarm, calling what's in these bottles and pills
30:50gas station heroin.
30:52Yeah, gas station heroin.
30:55And I know, on its face, that sounds like the title of a pretty good
30:58Lana Del Rey song, but it's also a real nickname for a widely available drug
31:03that can be incredibly dangerous, because Tieneptine's been linked
31:06to hundreds of reports of harm, including overdoses and deaths.
31:10Alabama actually banned it a few years ago, but in true whack-a-mole style.
31:14A similar product called Frenzy quickly replaced it on shelves,
31:18with at least one store there even labeling it as from the maker of Tiana.
31:22And even when states pass laws, the truth is they don't always get well enforced,
31:27meaning that Tieneptine still wound up sitting on shelves for people to buy.
31:30And that has led to some tragic outcomes, like this story from a few years ago in Ohio.
31:36It was at this Midwestern gas station that Chris Hagerty bought a bottle of Neptune's Fix,
31:41even though the product contained Tieneptine banned a year earlier by the state of Ohio.
31:47I miss him dearly.
31:50In an interview with the I-Team almost four months ago,
31:53Hagerty's mother billed gas station heroin as death in a bottle.
31:57$15 a bottle. How many people bought it besides my son?
32:03It was for sale at the gas station, just right next to the lottery tickets and the cigarettes.
32:10Yeah, that is terrible. And it is hard to believe that something so immediately dangerous
32:15could be sold to the gas station next to lottery tickets.
32:18It would be like finding out that PetSmart sells hand grenades next to the hamsters.
32:22Come on, PetSmart.
32:24You know everyone always swings by the hamsters.
32:27You're getting people at their weakest point.
32:31And frustratingly, behind closed doors,
32:33some in this industry seem well aware that the products they're selling can be dangerous.
32:37The reason that I know that is that one of our producers actually went to a trade show
32:41like the one you saw earlier, and to answer your first question,
32:43yet of course she saw a Kratom-themed Cybertruck in the parking lot.
32:46Of course she saw that.
32:48You could practically hear the Limp Bizkit music wafting out of it.
32:53The whole convention was honestly a pretty good glimpse into an industry clearly already planning for what comes next.
32:59A lot of vendors seemed ready for 70H to be banned as they were already marketing newer products like this
33:05one,
33:05whose marketing material said the future of Kratom,
33:07compliant in all Kratom legal states,
33:10seven hydroxy replacement,
33:11three to four times stronger than 70H.
33:14She also spoke to a rep from a distribution company that sells boner pills,
33:18who got surprisingly honest about the fact that while some of their products are kind of bullshit,
33:23others could be actively dangerous. Take a listen.
33:25These are the gas station stuff.
33:27Okay.
33:28It's cheap, it doesn't work.
33:29Black ones are dangerous, though.
33:31How so?
33:32Yeah, they are, they are so potent.
33:34So, this is 200 milligram.
33:35I would not advise selling these to people more than 50 years old.
33:39Oh, okay, okay.
33:40These ones are safe.
33:42Wow.
33:43I wouldn't advise selling these to people over 50.
33:46That is a reasonable thing to say if you're selling tickets to an Olivia Rodrigo concert,
33:52but not when you're talking about your company's unregulated dick pills.
33:55And it does feel like don't consume if you're over 50,
33:58is the kind of thing that shouldn't be whispered at trade shows,
34:01but slapped in massive lettering on your packaging.
34:03This is a photo of that man's table.
34:06And these are some of the pills that he told us were super potent.
34:09They're called Mr. Bull tablets.
34:11And their tagline is, do it like pro.
34:13So, we actually ordered some and sent them to this lab to be analyzed.
34:18And they found that when that guy said the pills were super potent, he wasn't lying.
34:23Because each contained 180 milligrams of dipoxetine.
34:25That's three to six times the prescription dose of a drug for premature ejaculation
34:30that's not been approved for use here in the US.
34:32And they contained 270 milligrams of sildenafil, the active ingredient in Viagra.
34:38That's nearly three times the maximum prescription dose.
34:41That is a lot.
34:43And worryingly, none of those ingredients were listed on the package,
34:47which instead claimed it's an all-natural herbal supplement,
34:50containing stuff like cinnamon bark, licorice, and deer root.
34:54All of which just sounds like the ingredients on sleepy time tea.
34:58And there is a reason that the sleepy bear isn't rocking a massive hard-on on that package.
35:03So, what do we do?
35:07Well, first, take care of it.
35:09But also, RFK and his FDA director have actually been talking about the dangers
35:15of some of these products, which I guess is good.
35:18I do worry RFK is either going to say they cause autism
35:21or suggest they somehow be replaced with ground-up raccoon carcass,
35:25but still, it's something.
35:26Now, unfortunately, though, any good moves that they take
35:29are likely to be undermined by the fact that they've gutted the FDA,
35:33which, even before they came along, wasn't exactly well-staffed.
35:36Meanwhile, some states are taking a more proactive approach.
35:38Missouri's AG, for instance, has launched an investigation
35:40into major crater manufacturers and retailers
35:43for potentially dangerous and illegal practices.
35:45That is how they came to be suing this guy.
35:48Although it shows how slippery this industry is,
35:50that he said that if 70H is banned,
35:53his company already has another product ready to replace it.
35:56Look, something clearly has to be done with this industry,
36:00but the key thing is to do it very carefully.
36:03Because in the case of products containing kratom,
36:0670H, and T-neptine,
36:07a lot of people have now become dependent on them.
36:10And one thing I want to be absolutely clear about is,
36:12if states are going to start banning some of these drugs,
36:16that should only happen alongside a plan to help people
36:19who cannot suddenly stop using them.
36:21Whether it's because they're using them to treat pain
36:23or because they've become addicted.
36:25Because if we learned one thing from the opioid crisis,
36:29is that every family fortune is built on the blood of strangers.
36:32But if we learned two things,
36:34is that when you take something very strong off the market,
36:37not everyone can just quit cold turkey.
36:40So there has to be a harm reduction plan to go alongside any potential ban.
36:45And I know there are plenty of substances out there
36:47that are addictive or dangerous.
36:49Alcohol, tobacco, prescription drugs.
36:51But with those things, we've tried over the years,
36:54and not always perfectly,
36:55to match the level of regulation around them
36:59to the level of risks they present.
37:01To make sure that, at the very least, you know what you're getting
37:03and what risks you're taking when you choose to consume them.
37:06What we haven't done, though, is let it be a total free-for-all,
37:10where companies can just sell whatever they want
37:12to anyone who wants it and lie about what it contains.
37:15And unfortunately, right now, it's become incumbent upon all of us
37:18to make ourselves aware of the potential dangers here,
37:21because these products can be much more addictive than you think,
37:24more powerful than you may even want them to be,
37:27and contain things you did not sign up for.
37:29So if I may quote Joe Rogan something I really don't love to do,
37:35it's crucial to know that this stuff could, in his words,
37:38fuck you up.
37:39But unlike Joe Rogan, it's just as crucial
37:42to not then swallow ten of them.
37:45Because while gas station drugs may look fun and low-risk,
37:48especially when they're sold in familiar environments,
37:51the truth is, you could easily wind up addicted
37:54and losing tens of Honda Civic's worth of money to them,
37:57or indeed, far, far worse.
38:00And now, this.
38:01And now, coming up on Inside Edition.
38:06Next, Grammy Gamers.
38:09Give me the kill shot.
38:10And Gator Faceoff.
38:12No.
38:13Get it.
38:13Plus, worst first pitch ever.
38:18And identical triplets.
38:21They do everything together, including hair transplants.
38:25Plus, bickering on Kiss Cam.
38:28Plus, underground serenade by the guy they call the sewer singer.
38:34Plus, attacked by a giant crab on live TV.
38:39And...
38:40Jessica!
38:41What's so magical about the name Jessica
38:44that instantly brings temper tantrums to a halt?
38:47Next, what are all these people in white hazmat suits doing?
38:51And is that a former star from TV's Baywatch?
38:54And the greatest kitchen hacks of all time.
38:58Then, agony of defeat.
39:00Selena Gomez's husband's dirty feet drama.
39:04And this can't end well.
39:11That's our show.
39:11Thanks so much for watching.
39:13Good night.
39:15All right, tell everybody the headlines.
39:18There's a storm strikes.
39:22Then, please be careful.
39:24Hot.
39:25Then, that's so cool.
39:27Cool.
39:27Cool air is cool?
39:29Yeah.
39:29Are you going to come back and do this at 10 o'clock here tonight?
39:34You're having so much fun, we're going to do this at 10?
39:37Probably not.
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