Banned synthetic kratom kills University of Mississippi students

By Josie Calloway · Reporting from Pittsburgh ·

Young men were found dead in Mississippi from synthetic kratom, showing how profit motives override human care at the cash register.

The chart does not lie about what killed two boys in Oxford

Aidan Hamilton was a freshman from Englewood, Colorado. Robert Strang was a junior from Atlanta. Both were students at the University of Mississippi. In September 2026, both young men were found dead from suspected drug overdoses, according to the BBC and The Guardian. When law enforcement searched their rooms, they found opened packages of kratom derivatives labeled "Smax" with pills missing, according to The Guardian and CNN. Federal prosecutors stated both deaths appear consistent with drug overdoses.

Bank records show Aidan Hamilton made multiple purchases in September from an Oxford vape shop. In September, a DEA informant purchased kratom-based pills from store clerk Yahya Mohamed Mosleh. DEA special agent Michael Dassance stated in an affidavit that Mosleh warned the informant to be careful. He said people were dying from the pills. Mosleh also told the informant to be quiet when other customers entered. He pushed the pills out of sight. Mosleh and his son, Islam Yahya Mosleh, were charged each with possession with the intent to distribute a controlled substance. A magistrate judge ruled that there was sufficient evidence to charge them. The Lafayette county metro narcotics unit stated the investigation remains active.

We watched this exact playbook during the bath salts crisis

The mechanism driving these deaths is identical to the bath salts crisis. Journalist Natasha Vargas-Cooper wrote about this crisis in publications like The New York Times and The Guardian. Chemical companies create synthetic analogs of natural plants to bypass laws. They sell potent stimulants in retail stores until deaths occur. Smoke shops today stock shelves with designer compounds masquerading as harmless herbs. Natural kratom is a tree leaf from Southeast Asia, but the products killing kids today are industrial creations.

The US Department of Justice and the US Drug Enforcement Administration banned MGM-15 and mitragynine pseudoindoxyl in August. They made them Schedule I controlled substances on an emergency basis. CNN reports that these semisynthetic derivatives are significantly more potent than morphine and natural kratom leaf products. Preclinical studies show MGM-15 is about 50 times more potent than morphine. MGM-16 is about 240 times more potent than morphine. Dr. Kim Aldy, director of the ToxIC program at the American College of Medical Toxicology, stated these products are more potent because they are isolated. This leads to dependency and overdose via slowed breathing and stimulant toxicity. Dr. Kim Aldy also stated some patients experience withdrawal syndromes similar to heroin or fentanyl.

Store clerks know they are selling poison across the counter

Attorneys Scott Davis and AE Harlow Jr, representing the elder and younger Mosleh respectively, declined to comment via email. But the evidence sits plainly in the federal affidavits. The clerk warned the buyer that people were dying from the exact pills he slid across the counter. Eleven states have banned kratom. Mississippi regulates it by requiring buyers to be 21 or older. The city of Oxford has a complete kratom ban. Yet these products remain widely available in states without bans. They sell them at gas stations, smoke shops, and convenience stores as powders, teas, capsules, tablets, and concentrates.

Nora Volkow, Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, stated in a briefing that NIDA is very concerned about the accessibility of certain kratom products. She also noted concern for other substances with strong opioid effects. Signs of poisoning by kratom or its derivatives include high blood pressure, vomiting, and heart attack. Other signs are tremors, seizures, delusions, hallucinations, liver damage, and tachycardia. When profit motives override human care at the cash register, young people pay with their lives. We cannot regulate our way out of a body count by trusting convenience store clerks to police industrial opioids.

Sources

  1. The Guardian: Shop clerk and son charged with selling illegal kratom after two Ole Miss students die from suspected overdoses
  2. BBC: Father and son smoke shop workers arrested in Mississippi students' suspected kratom deaths
  3. CNN: What’s the difference between kratom and drugs like 7-OH? Explaining the products found near dead Ole Miss students