7-Eleven: Stop Selling Deadly Kratom Products
The Issue
My son Joe was 38. He was my only child, a hardworking contractor, and a dad to three beautiful boys who adored him. On August 30, 2020, he sat down in his recliner to watch TV, drifted off to sleep, and never woke up. His boys lost their father that night. I lost my whole world.
What killed him wasn't bought in a back alley. It was kratom, sold in 7-Elevens and convenience stores across the country and labeled "natural." In reality, it’s a gas station opioid.
Joe started taking kratom in 2017 because he was told it was a safe, healthy pick-me-up, better for him than energy drinks. It hooked him. A little turned into more and more every day, until he was stirring four or five tablespoons into his water just to keep going. His toxicology report listed one cause of death: mitragynine toxicity. Mitragynine is the main drug in kratom. It was the only substance in his body.
Kratom hits the same receptors in the brain as heroin and morphine. People get hooked. They go through opioid-like withdrawal when they try to stop. And some of them, like my son, never wake up.
The dangers of kratom are real, yet walk into a 7-Eleven and you'll find kratom products like Feel Free sitting by the register right beside the gum and energy drinks, dressed up as "clean energy." Nothing about that little bottle tells a parent it works like an opioid.
Every time a dangerous kratom product gets sold, 7-Eleven profits and another person is in danger.
7-Eleven knows the very real risks. They were named in a 2023 lawsuit accusing it of misleading customers about Feel Free's addiction risk. When California banned kratom this January, 7-Eleven pulled it from California stores, but only because the law forced their hand. In every other state, it's still on the shelf.
The FDA says the concentrated kratom compound 7-OH has a "significant potential for abuse." The DEA has moved to put three kratom compounds on Schedule I. Grieving families like mine are fighting city by city and county by county, while kids and young adults keep walking into 7-Elevens and walking out without knowing their 7-Eleven purchase could kill them.
7-Eleven has done the right thing before. In 1986, it pulled adult magazines out of thousands of stores because parents demanded it. If 7-Eleven can protect kids from a magazine rack, it can protect them from an opioid-like drug sitting at the register.
Mauricio Leyva became CEO of 7-Eleven at the beginning of August, and he operates roughly 13,000 convenience stores in North America. He can fix this with one decision.
Mr. Leyva, as a parent, I'm begging you: pull every kratom and 7-OH product off your shelves, in every store, now. Don't wait until Washington makes you. Do the right thing today.
I can't bring Joe back. But I can fight so no other mother has to bury her child over something they bought at a convenience store.
Wendy Chamberlain, Joe's Mom, Founder of Kratom Danger Awareness
2,456
The Issue
My son Joe was 38. He was my only child, a hardworking contractor, and a dad to three beautiful boys who adored him. On August 30, 2020, he sat down in his recliner to watch TV, drifted off to sleep, and never woke up. His boys lost their father that night. I lost my whole world.
What killed him wasn't bought in a back alley. It was kratom, sold in 7-Elevens and convenience stores across the country and labeled "natural." In reality, it’s a gas station opioid.
Joe started taking kratom in 2017 because he was told it was a safe, healthy pick-me-up, better for him than energy drinks. It hooked him. A little turned into more and more every day, until he was stirring four or five tablespoons into his water just to keep going. His toxicology report listed one cause of death: mitragynine toxicity. Mitragynine is the main drug in kratom. It was the only substance in his body.
Kratom hits the same receptors in the brain as heroin and morphine. People get hooked. They go through opioid-like withdrawal when they try to stop. And some of them, like my son, never wake up.
The dangers of kratom are real, yet walk into a 7-Eleven and you'll find kratom products like Feel Free sitting by the register right beside the gum and energy drinks, dressed up as "clean energy." Nothing about that little bottle tells a parent it works like an opioid.
Every time a dangerous kratom product gets sold, 7-Eleven profits and another person is in danger.
7-Eleven knows the very real risks. They were named in a 2023 lawsuit accusing it of misleading customers about Feel Free's addiction risk. When California banned kratom this January, 7-Eleven pulled it from California stores, but only because the law forced their hand. In every other state, it's still on the shelf.
The FDA says the concentrated kratom compound 7-OH has a "significant potential for abuse." The DEA has moved to put three kratom compounds on Schedule I. Grieving families like mine are fighting city by city and county by county, while kids and young adults keep walking into 7-Elevens and walking out without knowing their 7-Eleven purchase could kill them.
7-Eleven has done the right thing before. In 1986, it pulled adult magazines out of thousands of stores because parents demanded it. If 7-Eleven can protect kids from a magazine rack, it can protect them from an opioid-like drug sitting at the register.
Mauricio Leyva became CEO of 7-Eleven at the beginning of August, and he operates roughly 13,000 convenience stores in North America. He can fix this with one decision.
Mr. Leyva, as a parent, I'm begging you: pull every kratom and 7-OH product off your shelves, in every store, now. Don't wait until Washington makes you. Do the right thing today.
I can't bring Joe back. But I can fight so no other mother has to bury her child over something they bought at a convenience store.
Wendy Chamberlain, Joe's Mom, Founder of Kratom Danger Awareness
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Petition created on October 7, 2026