If you found this site because your partner, son, daughter, sibling, parent, or close friend has been taking “gas station pills”, “7-OH tablets” or anything in that family, you’re in the right place. Take a breath. You don’t need to fix everything tonight.

This page is reference material; our Discord and subreddit are where people who have lived through what your person is going through gather to talk. The information below is meant to help you understand what you’re actually dealing with, because the marketing on these products has misled almost everyone.

What these products actually are

These products are sold in smoke shops, gas stations, and online as 7-OH and dozens of other names. Despite often being marketed as supplements or natural alternatives, they are far closer to prescription pain medications than to herbal supplements.

Specifically:

• The active compound, 7-hydroxymitragynine (7-OH), is a potent mu-opioid receptor agonist and produces effects in the same family as prescription opioid medications.
• Regular use produces dependence, tolerance, and a withdrawal syndrome that resembles classical opioid withdrawal.
• Many products on this market are even more potent semi-synthetic compounds (MGM-15, MIT-A, mitragynine pseudoindoxyl) that don’t appear on standard drug tests and weren’t designed for human consumption.

Your loved one isn’t taking a supplement.

The financial pattern is usually worse than they’ve shared

A common reality for families: spending on these products is much higher than the person has admitted. The pattern often looks like:

• Significant daily costs that scale up as tolerance builds
• Purchases hidden across different cards, in cash, or through ordering accounts the family doesn’t see
• Drained savings, missed bills, or possessions disappearing
• Defensive or evasive responses when money comes up

This isn’t because they’re a bad person. It’s because dependence rewires priorities. The substance becomes a daily survival need, and the brain produces increasingly creative justifications for spending on it. The person you love is not gone. They’re trapped in a pattern that is genuinely hard to break, and harder when no one in their life understands what they’re actually fighting.

This is not a moral failing

Your loved one didn’t fail at willpower. They got physically dependent on a compound that was sold to them as something safe. The withdrawal syndrome is medically real, miserable, and the main reason people keep using even when they want to stop.

The brain chemistry recovers. People in this community have done it.

Where to learn more on this site

• #withdrawal-symptoms and #what-to-expect — what they’re going through
• #7oh, #pseudo, #mgm15, #mit-a-dhm — what specific compound they may be on
• #suboxone-info and #tapering-with-leaf — paths out
• #cats-claw — products marketed under botanical names that contain hidden synthetics

Resources for you, specifically

• Al-Anon — peer support for family and friends. In-person and online meetings.
• Nar-Anon — the same model, focused on families affected by drug use.
• SMART Recovery Family & Friends — secular, evidence-based alternative.
• SAMHSA Helpline: 1-800-662-HELP — free, confidential, 24/7.

You’ll find more practical guidance in the next post: how to talk to them, what helps, what makes things worse, and how to take care of yourself.

🤝 How to Actually Help Someone You Love

Continuing from the welcome post above. This is the practical version: what tends to help, what tends to backfire, and how to take care of yourself while you’re walking alongside someone in this.

A note up front: there is no script that guarantees they get clean. People recover when they’re ready, not when we want them to be. What you can do is be a steady, informed presence in their life, set limits that protect both of you, and avoid the patterns that keep people stuck.

What tends to help

• Learn what they’re actually using. “Kratom” can mean leaf (mild), 7-OH tablets (potent), MGM-15 (extremely potent), or stacked synthetics. The compound matters for understanding withdrawal severity and recovery options. The compound pages on this site have details.
• Express concern without ultimatums. “I’m worried about you and I want to understand what’s happening” lands differently than “you need to stop.” Curiosity opens conversations; demands close them.
• Acknowledge that withdrawal is real. Telling someone to “just stop” when they’re physically dependent is asking them to do something genuinely difficult without help.
• Know that medical options exist. Suboxone (buprenorphine), used as a short-term taper or bridge, is the most evidence-based path. Telehealth makes it accessible. Your person doesn’t need rehab to start.
• Stay connected. Isolation deepens addiction. Even short, low-pressure contact keeps the relationship alive.
• Take your own support seriously. Al-Anon, Nar-Anon, or therapy aren’t optional. They’re how you stay healthy long-term.

What tends to backfire

• Rescuing them from consequences. Paying off debts, calling employers, smoothing things over. Each rescue removes a reason for them to seek help. This is the hardest one.
• Surveilling them. Searching their phone or accounts rarely works and damages trust. There’s a difference between protecting shared finances (reasonable) and monitoring them (corrosive).
• Bargaining or ultimatums you won’t follow through on. Empty ultimatums teach them that consequences aren’t real.
• Lecturing during use or active withdrawal. Their brain literally cannot process information well in those states. Save important conversations for stable moments.
• Becoming their entire support system. You can’t be sponsor, therapist, and partner all at once. They need a wider network.

Warning signs of escalation

• New compounds entering the picture (especially synthetics: MGM-15, MIT-A, pseudo)
• Combining with alcohol, benzos, or other depressants — this is the overdose risk pattern
• Increasing isolation, withdrawal from family/friends
• Sudden financial emergencies, missing money
• Talk of hopelessness or being a burden — take this seriously, ask directly, stay connected

On Naloxone (Narcan)

Naloxone reverses opioid overdoses. Have it. It’s available without a prescription at most pharmacies. Knowing how to use it is the single most concrete safety step you can take.

You may read online that 7-OH and kratom-derived products “don’t cause respiratory depression” and therefore Narcan isn’t necessary. That claim comes from limited research on isolated mitragynine in animal models, and it ignores several real-world factors:

• Many products are mixed. Stacked synthetics, adulterants, or contaminants may behave very differently from pure mitragynine.
• Combinations are dangerous. Mixing with alcohol, benzos, gabapentinoids, or other depressants can produce respiratory depression even when the kratom product alone might not.
• The semi-synthetics are different. MGM-15, MIT-A, and pseudoindoxyl are more potent and less studied. The “no respiratory depression” claim doesn’t reliably extend to them.
• Narcan is essentially harmless if given to someone who didn’t need it. Worst case is mild withdrawal symptoms; that’s not a real downside.

As one paramedic put it: no EMT has ever been upset at someone for using Narcan. If your person is unresponsive, breathing slowly, or you can’t wake them, give the Narcan and call 911. You don’t need to be sure it’s an opioid overdose. You don’t need to second-guess yourself. Use it.

How to actually use it

Most pharmacies sell Narcan as a nasal spray, which is the easiest form for non-medical people to use:

1. Recognize the signs. Unresponsive, slow or stopped breathing, blue lips or fingertips, gurgling sounds, pinpoint pupils.
2. Call 911 first. Even if Narcan works, they need medical evaluation. Narcan wears off in 30 to 90 minutes; the substance in their system may last longer, and they can re-overdose.
3. Give the Narcan. Tilt their head back, insert the nozzle into one nostril, press the plunger fully. One spray.
4. Lay them on their side (recovery position) so they don’t choke if they vomit.
5. If no response in 2 to 3 minutes, give a second dose in the other nostril.
6. Stay with them until paramedics arrive. They’ll likely come to feeling sick, confused, or in withdrawal. That’s normal.

Carrying Narcan is not a vote of no confidence in your person’s recovery. It’s a piece of safety equipment, like a fire extinguisher. You hope you never use it, and you’re glad you have it if you do.

Take care of yourself

You can’t pour from an empty cup. People who burn out trying to rescue someone often end up unable to help when their person is finally ready.

The unglamorous basics:

• Sleep, eat, move your body, see your friends. None of this is selfish. All of it is non-negotiable for staying functional through a long process.
• Therapy with someone who understands addiction in families is worth the cost. The dynamics are specific and a generalist therapist may not catch what’s happening.
• Al-Anon, Nar-Anon, SMART Recovery Family & Friends are real options, not afterthoughts. The links are in the welcome post above. Even one meeting will introduce you to people who get it.

What to expect emotionally:

• Hypervigilance. Constantly watching for signs they used. This is exhausting and not sustainable.
• Resentment. Especially when they relapse, lie, or take you for granted. This is normal. Suppressing it doesn’t help; processing it with someone who understands does.
• Hope and despair on the same day. Recovery isn’t linear. Their good days and bad days will jerk you around emotionally if you let them. Building your own emotional baseline that doesn’t depend on their state is one of the most important things you can do.
• Grief. For who they were before, for the relationship you had, for the time and money lost. This is real and it deserves space.

Their recovery is not on your timeline. This is the hardest sentence in this post. You cannot will them into being ready. You cannot love them into recovery. You can be present, informed, and steady, and you can take care of yourself well enough to still be standing when they’re finally ready to walk this out.

A reminder

The person you love is still in there. Opioid dependence is loud and ugly and steals their personality temporarily, but it does not erase who they are. People in this community have come back from this. Your loved one can too.