Death Linked to New Opioid Included in San Francisco’s Latest Overdose Snapshot
San Francisco recorded 48 fatal drug overdoses in September, placing the total number of such accidental deaths this year at 399 — including the city’s first fatal overdose from a synthetic opioid sold at gas stations and convenience stores, officials said.
The kratom-derived opioid MGM-15 produces more potent effects than morphine.
“The products are not safe and can pose a risk of overdosing,” said Hillary Kunins, director of Behavioral Health and Mental Health with the San Francisco Health Department, at a press conference Friday. “People should avoid products that don’t come from reputable sources. And products that contain kratom and kratom-derived substances.”
Earlier this week, the health department shared a photo of the pill’s bright purple packaging, which was marketed as a “paradise blend” of “uncaria tomentosa extract” — an herbal supplement derived from a wild-growing woody vine found in the Amazon rainforest and other tropical areas of Central and South America.
It’s colloquially referred to as “cat’s claw.”
While very few high-quality scientific studies have been conducted on the drug, the National Institutes of Health’s website said it “appears to be safe when used orally for short periods of time.”
The packaging shared by the health department doesn’t appear to mention, at all, kratom or MGM-15.
The drug has been labeled as a schedule-1 controlled substance by the Drug Enforcement Agency and can cause physical and psychological dependence.
Officials in Utah and Washington have previously identified overdose deaths from MGM-15 in those states.
Anyone believed to be suffering an overdose after consuming MGM-15, health officials said, should be given naloxone, often called by its brand name Narcan.
According to the latest snapshot of the city’s overdose crisis provided by the medical examiner, the majority of the individuals who died in September were white men.
Nearly half of the deaths occurred in ZIP codes that include the Tenderloin, Civic Center and Mid-Market neighborhoods.
Overdose deaths have fallen in recent years, but they are still more common than they were before the pandemic in San Francisco, a city with a death rate that is among the worst in the U.S.