Travis County Opioid Deaths Are Down 35 Percent, but Health Officials Warn Unknown Opioids and Kratom's 7-OH Are Rising

Travis County's opioid death toll is falling, and a different threat is rising in its place. A new city memo shows opioid-related deaths in Travis County down 35 percent, FOX 7 Austin reported, and officials credit expanded naloxone distribution and community harm-reduction investments for the decline.

The warning sits in the EMS data. 'We have seen an increase in unknown opioids that are causing non-fatal and fatal deaths in our county,' Dr. Desmar Walkes, the Austin-Travis County Health Authority, told FOX 7. Austin Public Health's concern centers on a potent opioid-like compound associated with kratom, the Southeast Asian plant product sold legally at gas stations, convenience stores and smoke shops and marketed as a natural remedy for pain, anxiety and withdrawal.

The chemistry is the problem, Walkes explained to FOX 7: kratom's own chemical, mitragynine, 'can be changed with chemical processes to something that's more potent called 7-OH,' a semi-synthetic opioid that can cause dependence, serious complications and potentially life-threatening overdoses, and that can require more Narcan to reverse when combined with other drugs. The products can come as candies, snacks and gummies, she said. Texas law caps 7-OH levels in kratom at 2 percent and bans sales to minors, and federal regulators have announced emergency scheduling targeting concentration thresholds, FOX 7 reported.

Austin Public Health's advice, as carried by FOX 7, is plain: read product labels carefully, keep these products out of reach of children, and never combine them with alcohol or other drugs. The concern is not only local - last month, two University of Mississippi students were found dead, and police said packaged kratom from a retail store was found during that investigation, FOX 7 reported.