The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Herbs, Headshops, and Heroin: Understanding Kratom, 7-OH, and Emerging Opioid-Like Substances
What is sold as natural kratom leaf is often something far more potent, and the products sharing the shelf with it are multiplying fast. This webinar is a practical guide to kratom and the substances marketed alongside it. Dr. Kristina Domanski, an emergency physician and medical toxicologist, will walk through the alkaloids found in the natural leaf, how leaf products differ from concentrated and semisynthetic 7-OH extracts, and how synthetic opioids are obtained and used. She will also cover what opioid withdrawal looks like, why standard urine drug testing often misses kratom use, and the recent regulatory changes to 7-OH products, including the challenges those changes may create for both patients and the clinicians who care for them. Attendees will leave better equipped to understand what people are actually using, what the labels do and do not tell them, and how a shifting legal landscape is likely to play out.