Policy
How the Hell Is This Legal?
The 30-year-old loophole letting opioids and brain drugs pose as “dietary supplements.” Inside DSHEA’s failure and FDA’s powerless oversight.
Supplemental Reading
Quick, plain-English investigations from Mothers Against Herbal Abuse (MAHA). Each story exposes how gas-station highs and unregulated “supplements” evade the law and endanger families.
Week 1 • Hidden Highs Launch
Phenibut
Gas Station Xanax
Russian Roulette: The Gas Station Xanax
How Soviet-era pharmaceuticals like phenibut and bemitil slipped into U.S. vape shops disguised as stress-relief supplements.
Kratom
Public Health
Eat Pray Poo
The kratom Salmonella outbreak nobody wants to talk about. When “tested for fecal bacteria” becomes a marketing slogan, something’s gone wrong.
Week 2 • State Action and Synthetic Scams
Policy
California
California Leading the Way — How Your State Can Too
California became the first state to launch a full-scale crackdown on kratom and 7-hydroxymitragynine, showing how states can act now to protect families under existing consumer-safety laws.
Synthetic Stimulant
FDA Action
Botanical Bullshit — DMAA and the All Natural Lie
DMAA, once sold as a “natural” extract, is an amphetamine-like stimulant repeatedly linked to cardiac arrest and death. Learn how it was banned, why it keeps reappearing, and what you can do to stop it.
Retail Culture
Vape Shops
Tactics That Vape Shops Use to Lure Children — Borrowed From Big Tobacco
Flavors, discounts, and neon displays are no accident. Vape retailers use Big Tobacco’s playbook to capture new teen customers. See the tactics and how to push back with MAHA tools.
Week 3 • Concentrates, Culture, and Retail Reality
THC Concentrates
Parent Guide
Dabbing — What Parents Need to Know About High-Potency Concentrates
Dabbing delivers extreme doses of THC through vaporized concentrates that can exceed 90 percent potency. Learn how to recognize the equipment, understand the risks, and talk to teens about the dangers of high-potency products.
Mushrooms
FDA Warning
Amanita Muscaria — The Fairy-Tale Mushroom With a Dark Side
Why the red-and-white “toadstool” is being sold as a legal high in gummies and chocolate despite the FDA’s 2024 statement that Amanita constituents aren’t approved for food. Includes the Paul Stamets/Joe Rogan clip and a link to MAHA Letters.
Kratom
Georgia
Georgia Middle School Students Hospitalized After Kratom Ingestion
Multiple eighth-graders were hospitalized after kratom gummies on campus. Georgia’s 2023 KCPA set 21+ sales, but age limits aren’t enough. What happened, why “consumer protection” failed families, and how to press for a full ban using MAHA Letters.
Parent Action
Advocacy
How Parents Can Write Emails Lawmakers Can’t Ignore
Learn how to write short, powerful emails that move legislators to act. Based on the persuasion tactics of FDR, LBJ, and Ted Kennedy, this guide shows parents how to turn heart and credibility into real policy change.
Week 4 • Recalls, Regulation, and the Next Generation of “Wellness”
Kratom
FDA Recall
Eat Pray Poo Part Two — When the Recall Hits Home
Another round of kratom recalls exposes the same problem that started MAHA’s mission: fecal contamination and absent oversight. This follow-up revisits Upton Sinclair’s warning and asks why “natural” products still escape basic sanitation laws.
Functional Beverages
Policy
Beyond Energy Drinks — THC, Kratom, and “Functional” Beverages
Colorful THC, kratom, and kava seltzers are being sold as “functional” drinks beside sodas. Learn how these psychoactive beverages target youth through candy-like branding and why MAHA calls for stronger retail age controls.
Schools
Policy 5-45.1
What Could Be Allowed Under Policy 5-45.1?
Virginia Beach’s student drug policy looks strict, but loopholes allow hemp, kratom, and “wellness” products to slip through. MAHA explains the fine print and shows how parents can help schools close the gaps.
Week 5 • Congressional Spin, Gas-Station Stimulants, and FD&C Violations
Kratom
Congress
What Congress Wasn’t Told About Kratom — And Why The Science Briefing Backfired
Inside the September 24, 2024 “science” briefing that hid kratom’s 7-OH opioid chemistry, downplayed risk, and left lawmakers in the dark about what they were really legalizing.
Stimulants
Teens
Addall: The “Gas-Station Adderall” Sold With No Age Restrictions
A straight-talk guide to the yellow bottles and orange capsules promising “focus” and “brain boost” while quietly stacking unapproved stimulants and sedatives in doses no teenager should touch.
Law & Policy
FD&C Act
Are Vape Shops and Gas Stations Violating Your State’s Food, Drug & Cosmetic Act?
Gas-station highs aren’t loopholes — they’re already breaking the law. See how kratom, THC drinks, and phenibut products violate basic food-drug safety rules and what states can do today.
Week 6 • Hemp Reform, Amazon Stimulants, and Emerging Gas-Station Drugs
Hemp Law
Federal
The Hemp Revolution No One Saw Coming — Congress Just Ended the Gas-Station Drug Era
Section 781 of H.R. 5371 detonates the entire hemp loophole, banning Delta-8, THCA flower, HHC, THC-O, and every chemically converted intoxicant. A seismic shift in federal law that reshapes every vape shop and gas station in America.
Stimulants
Student Athletes
The Amazon Pre-Workout Crisis Every Parent of a Student Athlete Should See
A shocking investigation into high-stim powders sold on Amazon featuring yohimbine, rauwolfia, eria jarensis, and 400+ mg caffeine blends disguised as “fitness.” Teen athletes are the target — and the victims.
Emerging Drugs
Predictive Briefing
The Next Tianeptine — What Chemical Will Replace It in Gas Stations?
A MAHA predictive intelligence briefing identifying the next wave of “legal” opiate-like herbs and synthetic-natural hybrids: akuamma, picamilon, phenyl-GABA analogs, novel alkaloids, and the rise of “plant morphinics.”
Week 7 • Arecoline Vapes, Kratom Substitutes, and the Power of State FD&C Law
Emerging Drugs
Youth Trend
The New “Nicotine-Free” Lie — Arecoline Vapes & Chewables Targeting Teens
A shocking look at arecoline vapes, chewable “buzz beads,” JUUL-style pods, and Zyn-like pouches made from areca nut — a WHO-recognized carcinogen now being marketed as a “stress reliever” and “legal buzz” to kids.
Kratom Alternatives
Gas-Station Highs
Akuamma — The “Next Kratom” Slipping Into Gas Stations
A plain-English parent briefing on akuamma, the new plant-based opioid-like drug being sold as “pain relief,” “relaxation,” and a “legal buzz” in vape shops — mirroring kratom’s rise step-for-step.
Law & Policy
FD&C Enforcement
Adulterated Products — What It Really Means (and Why Your State Should Care)
An essential breakdown of how federal and state Food, Drug, & Cosmetic laws define “adulterated” products — and how states can seize, embargo, and remove kratom, phenibut, and other gas-station drugs immediately.
Week 8 • Accountability, Medication Safety, and Statutory Clarity
Week 8 Special
Law & Policy
New York’s Kratom Law and the Problem of Statutory Contradiction
A formal MAHA policy analysis examining how New York’s “consumer protection” approach conflicts with the state’s existing Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act adulteration standards—and why regulation cannot cure illegality.
Week 8 Special
Florida
Florida SB 994: A “Consumer Protection” Bill That Weakens Enforcement
A sharp statutory critique of SB 994 showing how it bypasses Florida’s existing Chapter 499 protections, shifts oversight to the wrong agency, funds accommodation over enforcement, and creates a reactive system where compliance is tested after harm occurs.
Law & Policy
Accountability
A Mother’s Question No One Can Answer
When unapproved smoke-shop products injure or kill, families ask who is responsible—and discover no one can pay. This briefing exposes the liability loophole and proposes a simple fix: real financial responsibility.
Parents & Schools
Medication Safety
ADHD Medications + Smoke-Shop Products: What Parents Should Know
A clear, parent-friendly guide to what happens when ADHD medications are mixed with kratom, 7-OH derivatives, phenibut/GABA products, high-caffeine shots, nootropic blends, and “legal mushroom” gummies.
UGLY
Community Awareness
Introducing UGLY — Why We Started Showing What Everyone Else Ignores
UGLY documents real smoke and vape shop storefronts exactly as they appear—no filters, no commentary—to interrupt normalization and force communities to ask one simple question: Why is this here?
Week 9 • Unregulated Opioids, State Endorsement, Enforcement — and Lobbying Exposed
Week 9 Special
FOIA Evidence
FOIA Evidence Packet: Lobbying Influence and the Policy Narrative
A primary-source MAHA Special publishing FOIA-obtained emails and attachments that document how industry lobbying coordinated travel, testimony, slide decks, and “science statements” to shape policy outcomes — in Congress, statehouses, and abroad.
Week 9
Emerging Drug Threat
Tianeptine: The “Gas Station Heroin” Threat and How We Can Act
An evidence-based overview of an opioid-acting drug sold as a supplement. This briefing explains its pharmacology, addiction and overdose risks, documented harms, and why regulators must act before harm escalates further.
Week 9
Law & Policy
Nebraska’s Kratom Registry: How the State Endorsed High-Potency Drug Products
A sharp policy critique showing how a state registry functioned as a government seal of approval for high-potency, dependence-friendly products — contradicting federal warnings and the state’s own food and drug laws.
Week 9
Nicotine Enforcement
Virginia’s “New” Nicotine Law Isn’t New — It’s Enforcement
A statutory explainer showing how Virginia’s 2026 nicotine law simply enforces long-standing FDA PMTA requirements, closes retail loopholes, and creates a clear, public legality test through the Attorney General’s directory.
Week 9 Special
Study Critique
Why the “Huestis Kratom Study” Should NOT Be Used to Justify Policy
A critical review of a January 2026 human tolerability trial now being cited to oppose regulation. This analysis shows how the study’s own data reveal toxicity signals, serious adverse events, and conflicts of interest that make it unsuitable as policy evidence.
Week 10 • Emerging Drug Substitutes, State Action, and Regulatory Clarity
Week 10 Special
FDA & Policy
If the FDA Didn’t Approve It, Why Is It Still Being Sold?
A plain-language explainer of the FDA’s New Dietary Ingredient (NDI) process, what Johnson Foods submitted for a kratom product, why the FDA rejected that submission, and how federal enforcement gaps still allow rejected kratom products to remain on store shelves.
Week 10 Special
Policy Analysis
Why the Ease of Alkaloid Extraction Supports Scheduling Kratom Powder
A MAHA policy analysis examining how readily kratom powder can be processed into drug-grade mitragynine and converted to far more potent opioid agonists. This briefing explains why ease of extraction, single-step conversion, and normalized industry methods support scheduling kratom powder as the appropriate upstream control.
Week 10
Emerging Drug Threat
Tetrahydropalmatine: The Next “Natural” Drug Slipping Into Vape Shops
A MAHA investigation into tetrahydropalmatine (L-THP/Corydalis), a dopamine-blocking psychoactive compound being sold as a supplement. This briefing explains its pharmacology, liver-injury signals, lack of FDA approval, and why it mirrors earlier unregulated drug failures.
Week 10
State Laws
States Are Taking Action on Nitrous Oxide — But More Is Needed
An overview of how states are responding to rising recreational nitrous oxide misuse, which laws are closing retail loopholes, and why weak age-only restrictions continue to leave youth and communities exposed.
Week 10
Law & Policy
Ohio’s Eight-Factor Analysis: What the Board Found — In Plain Language
A plain-language breakdown of the Ohio Board of Pharmacy’s eight-factor analysis supporting Schedule I classification, explaining each statutory factor, the evidence relied on, and what the decision means for consumers.
About Supplemental Reading
Supplemental Reading is MAHA’s editorial arm — a weekly blog that pulls back the curtain on the unregulated side of the “herbal” supplement market. We unpack the policies, loopholes, and marketing tricks that keep dangerous chemicals on store shelves.
Every post connects to our main mission: educating lawmakers, parents, and communities about gas-station highs that masquerade as natural health products.
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