Class action lawsuit alleges addiction, financial loss from kratom-related compound 7-OH

As a cottage industry has sprung up around the extraction of a certain compound associated with kratom, accounts of opiate-level addiction to 7-hydroxymitragynine (7-OH) are simultaneously mounting. Recently, in California, the experiences described by four anonymous plaintiffs have culminated in what is perhaps the country’s first proposed class action lawsuit targeting 7-OH — or what the complaint describes as a “psychoactive chemical” — and two of the companies that distribute and market concentrated tablets of the alkaloid.

Plaintiffs: 7-OH means lost money, horrific withdrawal, rehab

On Oct. 7, attorneys for plaintiffs identified only as M.A., A.S., N.A. and J.R. filed a putative civil class action lawsuit against Thang Botanicals Inc. (doing business as 7ΩHMZ, 7- OHMZ or 7OHMZ) and FTLS Holdings LLC. Thang Botanicals does business as 7-OHMZ via the website 7OHMZ.com.

The companies face allegations of false, misleading, deceptive and negligent sales practices regarding their 7-OH tablets. The plaintiffs — one of whom lives in Oregon, another in Nevada, and the remaining two in California — allege the 7-OH tablets are sold without the necessary labeling to warn of the compound’s highly addictive properties.

The defendants even have authorized retailers or — in some cases, instructed them — to offer free samples of the tablets, “a signal to consumers that the product is safe and harmless,” according to the lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

Related:Vince Sanders of CBD American Shaman defends 7-OH products

“7-OH sellers advertise it [7-OH] is a substitute for coffee, a pain reliever, a treatment for opioid withdrawal, an antidepressant, an anti-anxiety supplement, and that it improves focus and gives users a boost of energy to get through the day,” according to the 31-page complaint. “Some even assure consumers that 7-OH is a nonaddictive way to deal with opioid withdrawal. These 7-OH companies universally reiterate these purported ‘benefits’ of 7-OH consumption, without disclosing any of the corresponding harms of 7-OH use.”

The plaintiffs claimed they unwittingly became addicted to the 14 mg pills, subsequently spending, collectively, thousands of dollars and undergoing horrific withdrawal symptoms, including (among other things) anxiety, depression, loss of appetite, restlessness and vomiting. One of the plaintiffs allegedly “managed to kick the habit by going to a clinic and getting on Suboxone,” a medicine to treat opioid addiction.

One plaintiff’s partner overdosed and had to be rushed to the hospital after taking just one of the 7-OH pills, the complaint maintained.

Related:Kratom groups, researchers sound alarm over 7-hydroxymitragynine products

The plaintiffs requested a jury trial, damages, restitution and disgorgement of profits, repayment of attorneys’ fees and a permanent injunction against the defendants, including some simply identified in the complaint as “Does 1-10.”

“Plaintiffs reserve the right to amend this complaint to set forth the true names and capacities of these defendants when they are ascertained, along with appropriate charging allegations, as may be necessary,” the lawsuit stated.

Gregory Dalli, the purported owner of FTLS Holdings and chief financial officer of Thang Botanicals/7ΩHMZ, joined The Kratom Advocacy Podcast in early September to discuss 7-OH. During that appearance, he said 7-OH is potent and thus serves as “a really perfect key for the MU opioid receptor. And the reason why that is such an important thing is you don't need to take as much of it to get an effect versus if you look at morphine.”

Kratom researchers have warned about the potential addictive properties of 7-OH. They have said it is not present in native kratom leaf material but may be found in small quantities when kratom is harvested and the leaves are dried.

As of Oct. 21, no lawyers had appeared as defense counsel in the lawsuit against FTLS Holdings and Thang Botanicals (7OHMZ), according to records in the electronic federal courts database known as Pacer. 7OHMZ did not respond to emails from SupplySide Supplement Journal (formerly known as Natural Products Insider).

Outtakes from 7-OH class action lawsuit

The first named plaintiff, M.A., lives in Highland Park, California. Per the lawsuit, he became addicted to 7-OH after he found it in a local smoke shop in January 2023. By the summer of 2024, M.A. was using three 7OHMZ tablets per day at a cost of $30 per pack. Each tablet is supposed to provide two servings. M.A., though, was taking the entire pack all at one time, according to the complaint. He has yet to kick the 7-OH habit, the lawsuit asserted, but he has been able to reduce his consumption to about one tablet per day. Trying to get off 7-OH completely has led to “anxiety, depression, sleep issues and extreme lethargy,” according to the lawsuit.

The next named plaintiff, A.S., resides in Gresham, Oregon. He turned to 7-OH after a co-worker advised him it could help with anxiety and make it easier to talk to others. A.S. first tried 7-OH during a visit to a smoke shop while on his honeymoon.

After just a few weeks of use, A.S. “knew he was addicted,” according to the complaint. His addiction reached its height in August 2024, when he was spending about $700 each week on 7OHMZ, buying three of the three-pack tablets each day. A.S. turned to Suboxone treatments for help in weaning himself off 7-OH. Like M.A., “he would never have purchased” 7OHMZ had the packaging contained a warning about its highly addictive nature, the lawsuit alleged.

The third plaintiff, N.A., lives in Santa Monica, California, and started taking 7-OH products in October 2023. N.A. was almost four years clean from opiates and worked in an addiction treatment center. When he purchased the 7-OH products, he was advised they were “a nonaddictive, organic, functional supplement for those seeking to alleviate pain, get sober or maintain sobriety,” according to the complaint.

“N.A. thought he had found a miracle pill,” but as he began taking more and more of the tablets, he “soon found himself in the grips of addiction without realizing it,” the lawsuit asserted, citing the absence of adequate warnings on the 7-OH packaging.

“He had no reason to know it was defendants’ 7-OH product that was making him sick and anxious, that was causing him to vomit and experience dramatic swings in mood and body temperature, that had him doubled over in pain in the middle of the night, covered in sweat,” the lawsuit added.

It was allegedly N.A.’s partner who ended up in the hospital after taking one of the defendants’ 7-OH pills. Per the complaint, N.A. has committed to going into a rehab center to “regain control of his life.”

Finally, J.R., who lives in an unnamed city in Nevada, represents the fourth named plaintiff in the civil action. According to the complaint, J.R. started using 7-OH tablets in May 2024 for pain stemming from a 2017 leg amputation after being accidentally shot. J.R. had recovered from opiate addiction after being prescribed narcotics to combat the pain from the amputation, but he still suffered pain that delta-9 gummies did not resolve, the complaint stated.

When J.R. spotted defendants' 7-OH tablets on a shelf at the store where he bought delta-9 gummies, he asked about it. He was advised they would help with his leg pain without being addictive, and when J.R. tried the tablets for the first time, “he was amazed that such a product could produce such effects without being addictive, so he came back for more,” the lawsuit said.

J.R. was consuming between four and five of the tablets every day “because he had no reason to believe it was habit-forming,” according to the lawsuit. By June, however, J.R. had run out of cash. “He had been spending nearly his entire paycheck each week on the products,” the lawsuit noted. J.R. then went into withdrawal, which he compared to the struggle of getting off prescription opiates.

“This was the moment J.R. realized he had again fallen into addiction,” the lawsuit recounted. “J.R. could not believe that something without a warning could wreak the same havoc on his life that those pills did when he was an addict.”

While J.R. “is desperate” to stop using the 7-OH tablets, he “has been unable to kick his addiction so far,” the complaint asserted.

Overall, the plaintiffs accused Thang Botanicals/7-OHMZ and FTLS Holdings of knowingly making — given the “highly specialized lab” where they isolate and extract 7-OH from kratom — and selling an addictive product with no cautionary language. By omitting any warnings, the plaintiffs, and the nationwide class of consumers that the lawsuit seeks to represent, “paid for 7-OH products they may not have purchased, or paid more for those products than they would have, had they known the truth about 7-OH,” the lawsuit alleged.

Finally, the plaintiffs claimed the 7-OH products are exacerbating the opioid crisis rather than helping to relieve it.

“The United States is going through an opiate crisis that is shaking the foundations of our society,” the lawsuit stated. “Amid this crisis, defendants are creating more addicts for no reason other than to line their pockets, without adequate disclosure of their products’ risks through the use of false and misleading packaging and marketing. That cannot — and should not — stand.”