Ole Miss deaths spark drug use conversation on college campuses
Mississippi Public Safety Commissioner Sean Tindell discusses the ongoing investigation into the deaths of two Ole Miss students as safety concerns grow over the herbal supplement kratom. Tindell suggests that parents have open and honest conversations with their children about drug use.
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An Oxford, Mississippi vape store clerk told a confidential informant that “people were dying” from the kratom being sold there, according to court records showing that one of the two Ole Miss students found dead had bought products from the same store.
Ole Miss students Aidan Hamilton, 18, and Robert Strang, 20, were found dead on Sept. 21, both with similar packages of kratom or synthetic kratom found to be in their possession, according to the court documents. Officials detailed that Hamilton “could have died due to a Pulmonary Edema,” which would be consistent with a drug overdose. Strang was found “cold to the touch” when first responders arrived at his house near campus.
Packaging on the kratom items found near both men were labeled “Smax, Pseudo-DHM” tablets, which is a “Kratom like substance at gas stations or tobacco shops” that people buy for the “narcotic like effect,” according to the court documents.
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Robert Strang and Aidan Hamilton in a split image provided by their families. (Strang family, Kathleen Hamilton/Facebook)
Hamilton made several purchases in September at Puffs Vape, Tobacco and Beer Store in Oxford, where workers Yahya Mohamed Mosleh, 51, and Islam Mohamed, 18, were arrested and face a charge of possession of a controlled substances with intent to distribute. Officials did not say in the court documents that the kratom found near him when he died came from that store. One of the purchases was made one day before Hamilton was found dead.
A confidential informant to law enforcement went to Puffs Vape, Tobacco and Beer Store and asked if they sold “7 O Kratom based pills,” to which a store clerk said “yes” and opened a drawer from under the register and pulled out a package of kratom, according to the court records.
Mosleh allegedly told the informant to “be quiet” about the pills and to be careful taking them because “people were dying from them.”
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A package of Smax Pseudo-DHM tablets, a synthetic kratom-derived product, that authorities say was found near Aidan Hamilton when paramedics arrived. (Court records)
Over 500 units of kratom was seized from the vape store along with THC cartridges, gummies, pre rolls, and other suspected THC substances.
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Hamilton’s roommate told officers that Hamilton often smoked marijuana but that he did not know him to use any hard drugs.
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One hour after finding Hamilton dead, police were dispatched to a house near campus and found Strang dead. A package of the “Smax, Pseudo-DHM” tablets were found on his night stand, along with 20 to 30 Nitrous Oxide cans, known as “whippets,” which Strang’s roommates said he used daily. Strang’s roommates told officers that he was watching football and took a Xanax bar the day before being found dead.
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Packages of synthetic kratom products, including Smax Pseudo-DHM and Smax Pseudo tablets, that authorities say were found at the scene where Robert Strang was discovered dead. (Court records)
Officials said the synthetic kratom-derived product Strang had bought was purchased at a gas station about 30 minutes away from Oxford.
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It remains undetermined what role kratom played in Hamilton and Strang’s death.