JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — You may have never heard of what’s known as “gas station morphine,” but until recently, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier says it was easily accessible to kids at gas stations and vape shops and highly addictive.

In a one-on-one interview with First Coast News, Uthmeier explained why the state is cracking down on products containing a concentrated form of what’s called 7-OH.

"It is a substance extracted from kratom, a Southeast Asian plant, and then it’s chemically enhanced where we’ve discovered it’s about 13 times as potent as morphine," Uthmeier said.

Over the past month, Uthmeier says nearly 18,000 illegal products containing 7-OH have been removed from store shelves across the state, everything from gummies to vapes to energy drinks.

The crackdown comes

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