Patti Wheeler’s son died of a kratom overdose in 2022. She is now turning his story into a documentary to shed light on a growing industry.<\/p>\n
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Patti Wheeler is sounding the alarm about kratom and 7-OH after she says her son died of a kratom overdose.<\/p>\n
Wheeler had never heard of Kratom until she got a call from one of her sons in 2022. Her twin boys were living in Texas at the time.<\/p>\n
“Gannon asked him if he wanted to play video games and Wyatt had said, ‘sure, bud, let’s play.’ And Gannon walked downstairs. He sat down. And he was just about to put his headset on, and he said he heard a thunderous commotion above him,” Wheeler explained.<\/p>\n
Wheeler\u2019s son Wyatt had a seizure and died. She said the toxicology report showed his number one cause of death was mitragynine toxicity. Mitragynine is a chemical compound derived from kratom.<\/p>\n
Wheeler remembered asking Wyatt about a kratom product she found in his bathroom several weeks before his death.<\/p>\n
“I didn’t ask him how long he had been taking it because I never in a million years thought this was something addictive. It was an herbal supplement. I mean, I didn’t have any clue until I had read the stuff online. And 18 days later, he had started using OPMS concentrate. Not the powder. The concentrate liquid. And he died,” Wheeler said.<\/p>\n
Since that day four years ago, Wheeler has dedicated her time to spreading awareness of the dangers of certain kratom products and 7-OH. That advocacy work led her to produce a documentary called: \u2018A Beautiful Life Stolen.’<\/p>\n
“They are renowned directors, Jason and Jamie Neese, and so we just got together and started talking about how we would approach this documentary. And for us it was very important to be sort of bipartisan and tell both sides. We didn’t know a lot about kratom when we started,” Wheeler said.<\/p>\n
Kratom comes from a leaf found in Southeast Asia. It has been used in teas and herbal supplements for years as a natural way to help with pain and anxiety.<\/p>\n
For the last decade, a highly concentrated part of kratom called 7-OH has hit the shelves of smoke shops and gas stations. The FDA has warned that 7-OH is highly addictive and mimics the effects of opioids.<\/p>\n
Mike McCormick works with Florida Poison Control. He said the agency documents kratom overdoses.<\/p>\n
“What I think the real confusion with kratom and kratom products is that because you can buy it in gas stations and smoke shops, you can buy it online and it’s labeled natural, that people think natural means that it is safe. Natural does not necessarily mean that it is safe,” McCormick explained.<\/p>\n
McCormick added there were 264 calls statewide for kratom exposure in 2025. That is about the same number of calls they received in just the first six months of 2026, which was 218.<\/p>\n
“What we’ve seen over the last two years is a real explosion in the amount of products that are out there and any time we get more products we then start to see more calls,” McCormick said.<\/p>\n
That increase is being seen across the country. America\u2019s Poison Center reported a 93% increase in average monthly cases of kratom and 7-OH exposure in 2026 so far compared to 2025. Of those exposed to 7-OH, nearly 38% have serious health problems, 64% were treated at a healthcare facility, and 18% were hospitalized.<\/p>\n
The Jacksonville Outpatient Detox center is on the frontlines of helping people addicted to kratom and 7-OH products. Rob Hauser is the Director of Business Development.<\/p>\n
“We’ve seen people that are in long term recovery for opioids that have not used an opioid in seven years that took this as a supplement for many different reasons. We’ve seen people that were told it’s good for energy,” Hauser explained.<\/p>\n
Hauser said they have designed outpatient treatment to help people who still want to maintain their daily lives.<\/p>\n
“There’s nothing that we haven’t seen or heard. People that are struggling with this just need to raise their hand,” Hauser said.<\/p>\n