CRISIS DEEPENS AS OLE MISS STUDENTS DIE NEAR NEWLY BANNED KRATOM INGREDIENT

Liberty Check

• Federal authorities acted swiftly to ban a dangerous synthetic kratom compound after it was linked to tragic student deaths
• Local businesses and the company behind the product face serious legal consequences for distributing a now-illegal substance
• Parents and communities have every right to demand stronger oversight of products sold near college campuses

Two young Ole Miss students were found dead near tablets listing an ingredient the federal government just made illegal.

Officials discovered 18-year-old Aidan Hamilton and 20-year-old Robert Strang on September 21. Hamilton showed signs consistent with drug overdose while Strang was found cold to the touch at his nearby home.

Packaging recovered at both scenes carried the Modus brand name and listed pseudoindoxyl and MGM-15, substances now classified as Schedule I drugs. The DEA moved to ban mitragynine pseudoindoxyl on August 26, making its sale unlawful nationwide.

“It would be unlawful for anyone, whether it’s a drug dealer or a gas station convenience store owner, to sell MGM-15 after it was categorized as Schedule I,” former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani told Fox News Digital.

Two employees at a local Oxford vape shop were arrested on drug distribution charges after Hamilton made several purchases there in the days before his death. Meanwhile, Strang reportedly obtained his tablets at a gas station thirty minutes outside town.

“There’s no doubt that Modus and any company that distributed this drug can face civil, even criminal, liability,” Rahmani said. “If you put out a dangerous product, doesn’t matter if it’s a pharmaceutical, street drug, or really, frankly, anything else.”

Modus, which maintains offices in Florida and California, does not list the implicated Smax Pseudo tablets on its website. Calls to the company for comment went unanswered.

The Oxford mayor warned that selling kratom products amounts to “rolling the dice on death.” Toxicology results are still pending and could determine whether these young men died from the newly banned compound.

Our freedoms depend on staying vigilant.