TAMPA, Fla. — A Florida mother has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against a Tampa gas station after she claims the station's market sold her son "defective capsules" of kratom, which led to his death.
Laura Lamon filed the wrongful death lawsuit filed against Sligh Petrol Mart operated by Anjiya C- Store Inc., on May 18 for selling her 27-year-old son Christopher Waldron the herbal supplement capsules.
Lamon is suing Sligh Petrol Mart for negligence. Count three of the filing claims that Slight Petrol Mart displayed “the capsules next to over-the-counter oral medications and selling the capsules as a product taken orally when the capsules were not safe to orally ingest.”
The lawsuit LAO alleges that “Sligh Petrol Mart failed to provide its customers, including Mr. Waldron with any reasonable warnings or instructions or with the capsules. The failure to provide a reasonable warning or instructions made the capsules unreasonably dangerous.”
Waldron died on July 7, 2017 from what the Hillsborough County Medical Examiner’s Office autopsy report says was “intoxication by Mitragynine (kratom)."
The toxicology report shows that Waldron’s levels for Mitragynine were 1.8 mg/L — levels that are considered extremely high.
According to Associated Medical Examiner Leszek Chrostowsk, if Waldron didn't take kratom, he'd be alive today.
Lamon said her son struggled with an addiction to prescription painkillers for more than a decade. When she got the phone call from Tampa Police that her son might have died from an overdose; she assumed it was from a prescription painkiller.
“I was shocked, I thought it would for sure be opiates, for sure. I had no idea about this,” Lamon said.
According to Lamon, the capsules Waldron took before he died were labeled "Optimized Plant Meditated Solutions (O.P.M.S.) Gold." The front of the packet identifies the supplement as Mitragyna Speciosa Botanical Extract. The back of the package says the product contains Mitragyna Speciosa Leaf Extract and that it contains 60mg of Mitragynine.
There are no instructions on the packet, just a warning that claims the pills are “only for use as a botanical specimen. Manufacturer of this product takes no responsibility for the misuse of this product.” The packet also contains a link to O.P.M.S. website for another disclaimer.
"If it were properly labeled than he would've had a chance, you know, to say OK I shouldn’t take this amount,” Lamon said. “Again, I don't know how much he took, but it was enough to kill him.”
