New York City store clerks are now under scrutiny after an O’Keefe Media Group investigation accused multiple shops of allowing customers to use Electronic Benefit Transfer cards to buy Kratom, a drug like herbal product that is not covered under the federal food stamp program.
According to the report, James O’Keefe and his team recorded store workers allegedly processing purchases of Kratom with cards tied to government benefits.
If accurate, it is another ugly peek inside a welfare system that taxpayers are constantly told is tightly managed.
Kratom is commonly sold in powders, capsules, and liquid extracts.
Supporters often market it as an energy booster or pain relief option, while the Mayo Clinic has warned that people who use it can place themselves at greater risk of addiction.
Federal rules are not exactly mysterious here. SNAP and EBT benefits are supposed to be limited to eligible food items, not drugs, alcohol, tobacco, or whatever questionable product a corner shop wants to slide across the counter.
OMG reported that its undercover journalists went into several stores and watched clerks allegedly attempt to process Kratom purchases by selecting “EBT Food” or “EBT cash.”
That is not a clerical typo. That is exactly the kind of loophole hunting that makes working Americans wonder who is minding the store.
The outlet also said it called the number on the back of a New York EBT card for clarification.
“A call to the number on the back of a NY EBT card produced further clarification. A representative stated that EBT cards cannot be used to purchase any drugs. However, the same representative acknowledged that once cash is withdrawn from an EBT account via an ATM or terminal, the funds can be spent without restriction,” the report stated.
That admission is the kind of bureaucratic fine print that turns reform talk into a necessity.
The card cannot be used for drugs, but once the money is pulled out as cash, the government apparently throws up its hands and wishes everyone the best.
O’Keefe confronted one clerk over the alleged transaction, and she reportedly asked him for proof.
He then produced a receipt showing the purchase had been run as “Benefit: Food.”
The report said employees denied wrongdoing when confronted.
“When confronted, store employees denied processing the transactions. One location closed its door on our undercover journalists. Our investigation notes that even the attempt to accept SNAP benefits for ineligible items constitutes a crime under New York Penal Law,” OMG stated.
WATCH:
The accusations land at a time when national attention on EBT and SNAP abuse is already growing.
Americans keep hearing that fraud is rare, yet the stories keep arriving like clockwork from one state after another.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has said SNAP is full of “fraud and abuse and corruption” and needs serious reform.
She reviewed data from 29 states and reportedly found EBT cards carrying balances of more than 10,000 dollars, cards left unused for years, and benefits issued to people who did not exist.
That is not a rounding error.
That is a flashing red light for a program spending massive sums of taxpayer money every single day while politicians lecture voters about compassion and pretend accountability is somehow cruel.
Rollins has said nutrition programs at the Department of Agriculture spend about 400 million dollars in taxpayer funds each day.
When that much money is flowing through a government program, the public has every right to demand clean books, strict enforcement, and consequences for abuse.
Vice President JD Vance’s Task Force to Eliminate Fraud has also been working on efforts to address systemic SNAP problems.
The question is whether Washington will finally treat welfare fraud like a real issue instead of a public relations inconvenience.
The Kratom angle adds another layer of concern.
Police in Florida recently said two adults were arrested after the death of a toddler was attributed to her consumption of Kratom pills, a grim reminder that this is not just a harmless checkout line controversy.
If the OMG findings hold up, New York officials should not shrug and move on.
Taxpayers did not sign up to bankroll drug purchases through a program sold to the public as food assistance for needy families.
