Transcription
What is up, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls? It's your boy Goblin, and today we're back in Struggle Studios making another banger. It's the smoke shop sheriff, and I've walked out of the smoke shop with what is, in my opinion, the worst thing I could possibly get my hands on. Now, I hope you guys enjoy this one. Drop a like if you do.
First and foremost, there's two things I want to say: A) if you didn't see last week's video talking about the opioid vape, please go watch that before you see this because it's going to give a lot of background info; and B) if you're just here because you're mad at me—you know exactly what group I'm talking to—all I'm going to say is wait until the end of the video before you leave a comment, because I think your perspective on this whole situation is about to change very quickly.
I've received some inside information from someone who has described themselves as one of the founding fathers of the 7o industry. In the message that I'm about to share with you guys, he incriminated himself in the entire industry very, very heavily—in a message that I think his lawyer would probably put a hit on him for. So I'm not really going to waste too much time here, but before I show you guys that message, I need to get a little info out about what is 7o and what am I talking about here.
For those you guys who don't want to go watch last week's video, 7o is the newest smoke shop craze, and it's not like the other ones because this is a very, very addictive opioid. The companies that are selling these products to you and the smoke shops that are selling them to you are not properly warning you about what this product really can do to you, which is why I'm here today trying to do exactly that. So I hope you guys enjoyed this video. Drop a like if you do, and if you were ever considering going out and trying this product, trying 7o, I highly suggest you stay to the end of this video before you make that decision.
Now, briefly, what exactly is 7o? Well, 7o is short for seven-hydroxymitragynine, and it's a kratom alkaloid. However, it's very important to stress: this is not the same thing as kratom. 7o products are absolutely not kratom. Yes, this is an active ingredient found in kratom; however, that does not mean that this is the same thing as going and buying kratom powder or even going and buying a kratom extract shot. They are still different than this. I will show you why later in the video, but it's very important to stress that because kratom users, I get where you're coming from. I understand that kratom itself has very many benefits for opiate addicts who are trying to wean themselves off. Okay, this, in my opinion, is the opposite.
I've seen a lot of comments saying, "Well, Goblin, 7o is amazing for opiate addicts who are trying to recover and wean themselves off," and the problem is, whereas kratom is a legitimate step down from opiates in my opinion, this is just replacing one addiction with another. This is like showing up at your homie's house and saying, "Yo, bro, I quit oxies, I do perks now." All right, dude, congratulations, you're sure as hell not sober though, and you're definitely not getting sober anytime soon.
Now let me show you one of the absolute worst messages I think I could have possibly received. Let's go over to my desk now. Last week, after I made my video—pretty much within hours after releasing it—I got hit up by a good friend of mine who said that he has a connection in the 7o industry, particularly a connection at one of the leading brands in the space. Initially, he told me that this person he was connected to wanted to talk to me, kind of off the record. He had some—I guess the best way to put it—beans that he wanted to spill. Right? And initially, I was pretty open to him talking to me off the record; I was, you know, looking forward to getting some more information about 7o. However, he proceeded to send me a text message that—uh, I'm just going to be upfront—was way too egregious for me to go any further. There was no conversation to be had after I read this text message. Um, you're about to understand what I mean. Let's just go ahead and pull it up now.
The following day, I received this text message, and initially I didn't have this number saved under a contact. I wrote the company name, uh, just to protect the actual person's phone number. And in this message, this anonymous individual said, "I want to have a real conversation with you about the 7o industry. I was one of the people who helped set this whole thing into motion. I know more about it than 99% of people. There's things that, as a company, we can't legally say, but I don't want to have to watch my words because of liability reasons. So-and-so said you wanted to record the conversation, so that complicates things further, but I really just want to be real with you and give my perspective as someone with chronic pain, someone who was actively addicted to 7o, and someone who helped build this monster. Funny thing is, in the early days, I tried contacting you through your email because I wanted to send you some samples and get your opinion on what we were doing. So let me know if you have any ideas on how we can have a truly open dialogue where I don't have to watch my words or worry about our conversation biting the whole industry in the ass."
Now you guys can probably read my response there. I was not very happy, and let me explain myself here. You see, I'm not willing to conversate if it's not on a recorded line. I'm not going to sit down in this video and give you guys hearsay. Every single fact that I present in this video, everything, every statement that I claim someone else has made in my content, I'm gonna have proof for that. I'm not going to give someone the opportunity to say, "Goblin made this up." No, I'm gonna show you that this happened. So I was not open to having a conversation if it wasn't on a recorded line, and I made that very clear in my response. I was never responded to ever again.
Now, the reason that this text message is so significant is actually, there's three reasons I think so. First and foremost, this person identifies themselves as one of the people who set this whole thing into motion—that thing being the 7o industry. He implies that there's things that they, as a company, can't quote-unquote legally say, which, at least in my opinion, heavily implies they're doing things that might not be legal. I can't say for sure, but I mean, come on, based off that text message, what other conclusion am I supposed to draw? Really, genuinely, just a couple lines later, he claims that he is someone who is actively addicted to 7o. That is arguably the most important piece of this message. You're going to see why in just a couple minutes. He also goes on to say that he is someone who helped build this monster, describing their own product that they actively sell in smoke shops across the country and all over the internet as a monster. They have no problem monetizing the monster, though, apparently.
So after I received this message, I was kind of curious who this actually was, and obviously they weren't going to identify themselves to me, so I went on to my business email and I did some digging, and I typed in all the key terms that I could think of, and I typed in 7o, and I scrolled and I didn't—ever—getting an email about 7o, and it's because this bad boy was in my spam. I had to dig it up. Okay, and in this email, you can see right here—you know what, let me just move myself a little bit down—this is from the company 7OHS. They sent this from their official email address, and they said, "Hey Goblin, first off, I just want to say that we love your YouTube channel and all the reviews you do. We are a new company in the kratom industry, and we just released our flagship product. It's an isolate of the most potent kratom alkaloid, 7-hydroxy. Based on your reviews, we think you'll really love our product, and we would like to send you some free samples to try. If you're interested, shoot me a reply with your address, and we'll get a package with some samples in the mail out ASAP."
Now I'm just going to be upfront: when I saw this message, I got very mad very quickly, for one reason: they had the nerve to send an email to someone who is very publicly a recovering drug addict and offer me a drug that they fully know is very addictive and will activate my opioid reception, and then chose to not warn me about it whatsoever. Just like, "Hey, man, you want to try a sample of this? We, we'd love to give it to you to try, man. We, we really hope you like it," knowing damn well that there's a very good chance that I'd probably be hooked out of my mind on this. So once I found this email, I got a lot more angry, and I decided I'm going to do some more research on this company. First and foremost, what's the deal with this industry, and what's the deal with the warning labels on the packages? Because, as you guys just saw, we just had a founding member of one of the leading brands in the space claim that they themselves are addicted to the substance, so surely you would think they have to be warning people about this addictive potential, right? Well, let's take a look at this article I found on the Tampa Bay Times.
Now, this article was published in December of 2023, right around when this email was sent to me, and this article, front and center, the very first brand they talk about is Sevenes—the exact people that reached out to me. Now, specifically, there's two things in this article that I think are really, really important to highlight. First and foremost, the front and back of the packaging. I actually went to one smoke shop today and I bought that other box you guys saw in the beginning of the video because I wanted to show you guys the packaging. I was not able to find this brand, but I also wasn't going to look around and support them with my money. I was willing to go to one shop and one shop only. You only have to go to one nearby smoke shop because every shop under the sun is selling 7o right now because it makes them a ton of money because it's horrifyingly addictive.
Now let's take a closer look at their packaging here. Okay, let's actually zoom in a little bit. Now take a look on the front and the back. It's a little blurry, but don't worry about it; I'll read it to you. On the front here, it just says the ingredients and the milligrams per tablet, other ingredients as well. On the back side here, it says, "Not for sale to minors. Keep out of reach of children. Product contains naturally occurring plant compounds from kratom. The directions: okay, consult with a healthcare provider to determine if this product is right for you and if so, how to use it safely. May cause discomfort. Always start with a lower dose and increase as needed." Do you notice something missing on here? I haven't seen anything, any sort of addiction warning on here yet. Let's read a little further. Disclaimer. Surely here it is, right? "By using this product, you assume full responsibility for any adverse events and/or health complications that may result from its use. Manufacturer or reseller assumes no responsibility for the misuse of this product. This product has not been evaluated by the FDA. For full disclaimer warning, visit our website," and then distributor info. I don't even think I saw the word "addiction" on the package on either side of it yet. One of the founding members of the company is reaching out to me telling me that he is addicted to it right now and describes it as a monster. It's a monster because the companies in this space are willingly allowing it to be that way. Obviously, you can make a valid argument that there's potential for this for opiate addicts. You can make the argument that maybe this should be dispensed out of clinics in a similar way of methadone or Suboxone, but right now this is dispensed out of smoke shops by people who have no idea what the hell they're selling to people and by vendors who don't give a what they're selling to people.
Now I'm not done yet, ladies and gentlemen. Now, heading back over to the Tampa Bay Times article, uh, we have right here: "This product…what had…what researchers considered to be extreme levels of seven-hydroxy…came with three tablets. The suggested serving was half a tablet. The pills were so strong that Abashi Sharma, a University of Florida scientist, likened them to legal morphine. He said he believed they shouldn't be sold to consumers. To create the potent products, Sharma suspects that the company used a chemical reaction to convert mitragynine into seven-hydroxy," which is—true, that is—that is an accurate assumption. However, I think the most important part of this—there's two parts—the package, the product was sent in, came with a printed-out sheet showing testing results for mitragynine, seven-hydroxy, heavy metals, and bacteria. A section of the report showing who ordered the results was blacked out. So they're modifying test results, which is not a good start. On top of that, I think the bottom line here is very telling because I got the same exact response when I told them that it was going to be a recorded line. It says here, "A representative for Seven OHS hung up on a reporter when reached by phone. The company did not respond to multiple interview requests sent by text and email." These people like to ignore any inquiries. Okay, they like to play, you know, feign ignorance. Okay, um, there's something in court called plausible deniability, okay, and what that is is—even if you've broken a law or done a no-no—if you can go to court and present to the judge that you plausibly were not aware that you were doing this and in your be you were acting in your best faith, there's a decent chance you can get away with it. Now, the text message that this individual just sent me has evaporated all the plausible deniability that this company has to say that their product is not getting people hooked. I'm gonna imagine they're going to be in some deep pretty soon, but I want to stress and really clarify that this is not just about this one brand. Every single brand in the space seems to be a bad actor at this point, and honest to God, after showing you—after showing you all what I'm about to show you—and after reviewing and researching, I think this company might actually be one of the better actors in the space, as terrifying as that might actually be. Let me show you why.
Now, before I actually show you guys some of the even worse actors in this space, we're going to take a look at a video that was submitted to me by a viewer. And by the way, I just want to say I really appreciate all of you guys sending me all this information to prepare for this video. Okay, this is from a website that is—seeming to bring some awareness about 7o—and this is an excerpt from an interview with Dr. Chris McCurtie, PhD. He's a professor of medical chemistry at the University of Florida, and he is one of the world's foremost experts on kratom, allegedly, according to this website. Now let's listen into this video.
[Video excerpt plays]
There's a couple really important things that I heard here, and one of the most addictive alkaloids in kratom, seven-hydroxymitragynine, or 7OH, is flooding the market. We've learned that mitragynine has this unique pharmacology; it doesn't activate opioid receptors fully; its metabolite, 7-hydroxy, does. That's an important distinction right there, uh, because the mitragynine that he's talking about—I know I'm mispronouncing it—mispronouncing it—I just heard him say it the right way, but whatever, for the sake of the video—the mitragynine that he's referring to is primarily what you're finding in the kratom leaf. Okay, it's not the same thing as the 7o products. You're not getting high on the mitragynine in the 7o products. Okay, uh, so that's an important distinction because he says that uh 7o activates the opioid receptors in a way that the mitragynine does not. Okay, let's keep listening in. "Chemically, mitragynine is the most abundant alkaloid in kratom. Seven-hydroxymitragynine, while sharing a similar structure, has crucial differences. 7OH features an additional oxygen atom binded to a hydrogen atom at the seventh position of the molecule, which has a profound impact on its pharmacological profile." So I think an important thing here, uh, for those of you stoners out there watching the video, a good way for you guys to understand this is—7o seems to be to kratom what Delta-8 is to cannabis. And what I mean by that is Delta-8 is found in trace amounts naturally in cannabis plants, the same way that 7o is found in trace amounts naturally in the kratom plant. However, these products are created by synthesizing—creating a synthetic chemical reaction to create more of that chemical than you can naturally harvest uh in a realistic manner. So Delta-8 carts, for example, they're not like produced all naturally; that Delta-8 is synthesized. Same thing is occurring with 7o products. Okay, that's at least, in my brain, an easy comparison to make for these. Okay, all right, let's keep it rolling. "…it enhances seven-hydroxymitragynine binding affinity to opioid receptors in the brain, making it significantly more potent and addictive than mitragynine alone. We've called it a legal morphine because it is actually only interacting with opioid receptors and it's activating them very [Music] strongly. We got rats addicted to morphine, and we simply took away their morphine and replaced it with mitragynine; they actually didn't have any interest in administering mitragynine into themselves. However, we did the same thing with seven-hydroxy, and it—boom—absolutely substituted for morphine." So that is one of the most important points of this entire clip I think, guys, uh, and that really shows the difference between these regular kratom products and seven- and when you walk into a smoke shop, if you're an uneducated consumer and you walk in and try to purchase a 7o product, a lot of the time the person behind the counter will tell you, "Oh, it's kratom; it's like a kratom extract," because the person behind the counter themselves isn't educated on it, and I think that these 7o brands kind of want to keep it that way. They don't want the average consumer to be educated about what this product actually is, and they're just like, "Oh, yeah, it's addictive, man; it's like kratom," you know? No, no, no, kratom users out there, stick with it; don't graduate to 7o, please. I'm begging you. Okay, um, right here, you don't got to hear from me; hear it from a scientist who is calling this quote-unquote "legal morphine." Okay, we got a qualified son of a saying this now.
Now we're coming up to what is probably my favorite part of this entire video, where it's time for me to show you just how egregious and terrible and predatory all of the brands in this space are. I'm going to show you how some of the most popular 7o products market themselves to people. Keep in mind that the most common uh kind of cope response to this that I see from a lot of these companies is, "Oh, well, we're helping opiate addicts wean themselves off and recover." I want you to ask yourself, as you're watching these products that I'm about to show you, why are none of the companies marketing these products that way? Why are none of these brands advertising these as like a recovery brand? There is not one brand on the market that I can find on the internet that is out there marketing themselves as a fully recovery-oriented brand. They're very clearly targeting a specific type of consumer—consumer, pardon me—and I'm going to let you guys decide what type of consumer that is.
Now we're going to start pretty light here, okay, guys, uh, we're going to start pretty tame. Okay, um, how would you guys like to try some Dozo Perks? Hm, Perks? That's a little weird. Perks? Uh, you guys ever heard of Perks before? I don't know. Well, that's not that bad; I mean, it just says Perks on the packaging, right? Does this remind you guys of anything? Does this—the seven-hydroxy watermelon slush—does that—does that label remind you guys—and it actually says here on the label—I don't know if we can zoom in any further—"Sippers only," it says "Sippers only" right here on the label. Now that's not even the only brand that's using that method of marketing. Okay, we also have the Straight Heat Sipping Syrup, ladies and gentlemen. Remember, this is a recovery product. Okay, this is totally just for—to help people recover. They're totally not targeting young people walking into smoke shops that want to get high. Okay. Now honestly, if—if this—if what I'm showing you right now is a roller coaster, we've just reached the top of the hill; the drop is about to hit, and it's a 90-degree drop. Okay. Here are some of my personal favorite brands on the internet. How about Roxy? These guys don't give a; they didn't even try to re—it; they're like, "It, dude." What about Roxy? Just call it Roxy, dude. That looks good to me. We have our wonderful flavor selection. Look, dude, three different flavors of Roxies. How about Press? What does that look like to you, ladies and gentlemen? That blue pea pill, does that look familiar? Some of you guys might be arguing, "Well, I mean, there's a lot of things out there that resemble other things," and to that I say, please let me show you what their branding previously was before they changed it. Ladies and gentlemen, I ask you once again, what type of consumer are all of these brands targeting? All of them. I implore you, after you're done with this video, go look up the other brands I didn't show you in this video. You're going to realize pretty quickly I didn't leave out other brands that look good to make a point. I left out the less hilariously comically awful brands. Okay, there is so much out there that is just predatory, targeting the absolute most vulnerable consumer here. Okay.
Now the next one I'm about to show you is the one that I'm probably the most angry about because the rest of these products are straight up in who they're marketing to; they're not trying to hide this one. However, made me very, very angry when I found it. This is an official Cheech and Chong product on their official website. This is not sold through a third-party distributor, and you know what the worst part about this is? Is they were really clearly marketing this in a very deceptive manner, and I think clearly targeting young people with the marketing. However, since I highlighted that and posted it on my Twitter, they have deleted most of that section from when you would scroll down on this product page. Unfortunately for them, I have it all screenshotted. I'm about to show it to you, but let's just see what this product looks like and what it still says. "Cheech and Chong's Cosmic Ludes. Cosmic Ludes. Feel your whole body say 'ah' with Cosmic Ludes. The ultra-potent 7o alkaloid gives our strongest, most euphoric, full-body relaxation we've ever felt." Okay. Now I want to really, really stress that it says nowhere on this product page anything about addiction. There is no warning about taking this in moderation on this product page. I scroll all the way down, absolutely nothing here about any of it. Okay, none of that. Now it's about to get even sweeter. Let me show you what the old product page said about this before they deleted it, probably to cover their asses because I think the way they were marketing this opened them up to a real nasty lawsuit potentially. Let's take a look at my screenshot here. "What are Cosmic Ludes?" This whole section was deleted, by the way. "Cosmic Ludes are our strongest ride yet, man. Some say they're better than their namesake from 50 years back. Honestly, there's no way to tell now, but they are still pretty fun." This brand, Cheech and Chong themselves, are putting their name on a product that is trying to convince you it's the new version of Quaaludes, directly saying on their product page that "some say they're better than their namesake from 50 years back." I don't know how much egregious, blatant, and just terrible the marketing for these products can get before someone steps up and says, "Hey, maybe we should get rid of this." Okay, because here's my problem. Okay, this, out of all the products I've shown you today, probably targets young people the most, in my opinion, because who is Cheech and Chong's audience? Not old people. All the people who were alive and old enough to see their movie when it came out are probably dead or in a nursing home. Okay, their movie came out in like the 70s. All right, I was—these guys—I wasn't alive for 20 more years when these guys' movie came out. Okay. Okay, and now are calling me "Unk." That puts it in perspective. Okay, Cheech and Chong are some of the most shameless grifters in the space that have absolutely no problem slapping their name on any accessory that makes them money, and this is probably the crown example of that. Okay, um, however, that's once again not what this video is about; it's more so about the fact that these are willing to look you dead in the eyes and say to you, "Wow, man, I think these 7o tablets are better than Quaaludes. Some might say, haha. We're not going to warn you that they're addictive, but uh, him now, idiot." Thanks, Cheech and Chong. Now, probably my favorite part of the entire thing is if you go to the lab result section on their website, uh, all the way at the very, very bottom—allow me to show you—they hide their Cosmic Ludes. Why do they hide their Cosmic Ludes, do you think? Because they don't actually test them? They don't have any test results? The test results somehow are coming soon, but the product is not coming soon; they'll sell it to you right now. So explain that to me, Cheech and Chong. Where's the test results? How do we know what we're eating here? You're calling this Quaaludes, and we don't even know what the hell is in it. Come on now. But guys, I know you're old and senile and maybe can't think straight, but I also am smart enough to know that you aren't the ones making this website, so whatever, on your team is, let's maybe fix it up a little bit.
Now you guys might notice in this video I'm kind of pissed off, and truth be told, I'm very pissed off, okay, because this is the exact kind of thing that my stupid younger self would have walked into a smoke shop and gotten hooked on, and this would have ruined my life. I have watched opiate addiction destroy a lot of my friends, and the thought of an uneducated consumer like my younger self walking into a smoke shop and buying this product without being fully informed on what he's consuming and getting addicted to it, developing an opiate addiction, and then eventually having to graduate from the 7o products—because, by the way, tolerance builds for this stuff very, very quickly, and eventually you're probably going to reach that point where it's time to graduate—and then you're really in some trouble if you've never done other opiates, because let me ask this: after 7o, what do you graduate to? If this is supposed to be the miracle substance that people are weaning themselves off with, even though uh it's kind of not—what are you supposed to do when you go the other direction?
Now the other concern I have is opiate addicts. Listen, I have sympathy for the opiate addict that is weaning themselves off; I really do. I wish every opiate addict who is trying to get clean the best of luck. I hope it works for all of you, and I don't care how you find that sobriety. I genuinely hope it works out for you, but the other thing here is, in my personal opinion, this is almost no better than Suboxone or methadone. Okay, okay, this is for an opiate addict trying to wean themselves off. You are replacing one addiction with another, just like you would be if you were on Suboxone or methadone. Okay, the problem is opiate addicts have multiple choices to quit. Okay, you have that option of Suboxone, you have that option of methadone, you have that option of 7o. I'm not saying that any of those options are good, okay, but you have choices. Do you know who doesn't have choices in this situation? The uneducated consumer walking into the smoke shop, developing a new opioid addiction off of this product. That is exactly who I make my content for, and that's who I made this video for: the uneducated idiot consumer. If you've watched enough of my videos, you probably know that that's me. Okay, that's why all the content on this channel exists, because I make all of my content through the scope of what would have helped my younger self stay safe, and I'm telling you right now, if my younger self was doing drugs and alive in 2025 instead of when I was a decade ago, I would have overdosed and died 100%. I'd be dead by now, no doubt in my mind, with all this out there; I would have been. And this plays a major role in that.
Now, a lot of you guys out there watching at home might be wondering what you can do to help fight this issue. First and foremost, if you're a smoke shop employee—which I know a ton of you out there watching this are—you need to be informing all of your customers about the potential dangers of these products. If someone walks into your store and asks to buy a 7o product, you should be asking them if they know what they're purchasing, and if not, you should be informing them so they can make an informed decision as to whether or not they want to purchase these. Clearly, these brands have no interest in informing their customers properly because it makes them more money when they don't, so you guys need to play a role and step up to the plate and help inform some people. Me, personally, I'mma keep doing my thing in informing people, and if you see any homies who bring a 7o product home or bring it out of the shop, or they ask you if you want to try it, do everyone a favor and everyone around you a favor and smack that right out of their hands.
Ladies and gentlemen, because this is the devil, in my opinion. This product is horribly addictive and doesn't disclose it. It—it binds to your opioid receptors in a way that normal kratom doesn't. Yet the products like to liken themselves to kratom to seem less serious and make more people willing to try them because kratom has been around for longer. And I think the worst part about this is there's a lot of just innocent kratom users out there that are going to get caught in the crossfire. There's a lot of former opiate addicts who are legitimately, uh, you know, medicating themselves with kratom that are potentially going to get caught in the crossfire of this issue, and I have sympathy for those people; I really genuinely do. I also have sympathy, like I said earlier, for the opioid addicts and the opiate addicts who are trying to wean themselves off with 7o, but I think it's time to be real about it and admit the fact that if you're doing that, you are replacing one addiction with another, and in my opinion, that's not—that's not recovery; that's not treatment; that's not sobriety; that's not recovery. Some may disagree, and that's your damn right, ladies and gentlemen. Hope you guys enjoyed this video. Drop a like if you did. Do yourselves a favor. Throw that 7o in the trash. Oh, I'll see y'all in the next one. Deuces.