Trump is coming for your poppers: Major producer closes amid FDA crackdown

The Trump administration has started coming for poppers.

Double Scorpio, a company that sells lube, clothing and accessories, as well as Double Scorpio Cleaner, a popular brand of poppers, has announced that it is stopping all operations following an FDA search and seizure at its offices. The FDA is currently under the purview of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who in the past has said that he believes poppers cause AIDS.

Double Scorpio wiped its social media and website and replaced it with a statement posted on March 13, 2025, saying, "Double Scorpio has stopped all operations following a search and seizure at our offices by the FDA" and that the company believes the FDA has "performed similar actions" towards other manufacturers and sellers of the product.

"Thank you to everyone who has supported us these last eight years. We’ve always cared about making an authentic product and being engaged with and supporting our community," the statement continues. "We are very proud that we managed to build a brand that people can trust, and we don’t want to see that trust exploited. The links listed here will be the only channels where we will communicate from going forward. Thanks for everything… and remember, keep supporting queer businesses, creators, and your local queens."

According to news site Fast Company, several other merchants they spoke to confirmed other companies experienced similar crackdowns. Pac-West Distributing, one of the producers of popular poppers brand Rush, has also wiped its website, replacing it with a graphic showing the company's logo.

Poppers, also known as alkyl nitrites, are a chemical that, when smelled, relax the smooth muscles in the body, including the sphincter muscles in the anus, and increase heart rate and blood flow, often leading to a sense of euphoria. They are a popular party drug, especially in gay communities.

The Food & Drug Administration is an agency within the Department of Health and Human Services that "regulates clinical investigations of products under its jurisdiction, such as drugs, biological products, and medical devices." And until now, it has mostly stayed away from poppers, leaving them to operate in a legal grey area.

In 2021, the FDA said it was "advising consumers not to purchase or use nitrite 'poppers' which can result in serious adverse health effects, including death." However, it never cracked down on producers in this way.

The FDA is currently under the guidance of Trump's new secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Kennedy is a known spreader of conspiracy theories, including that "HIV does not cause AIDS, that COVID-19 was designed to spare Ashkenazi Jews (those from Eastern Europe) and Chinese people, and that Lyme disease is likely a militarily engineered bioweapon," per The Advocate.

In one video, Kennedy can be seen saying that AIDS was not a virus, but was spread through poppers use among gay men.

"The virus is a passenger virus, and these people are dying mainly because of poppers," he said. "A hundred percent of the people who died in the first thousand [with] AIDS were people who were addicted to poppers, which are known to cause Kaposi sarcoma in rats. And they were people who were part of a gay lifestyle where they were burning the candle at both ends."

When asked about this statement in 2023, White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates told The Advocate that "AIDS is a horrible tragedy, and we can never insult the hundreds of thousands of Americans whose lives it has stolen with extreme conspiracy theories that dangerously undermine public health."

Many health experts and LGBTQ+ advocates have spoken out against Kennedy's appointment, with the National LGBTQ Task Force saying in a statement: "Mr. Kennedy's approach to public health is not in the best interest of our communities, nor does he intend to eradicate critical issues to safeguard health and safety for us all."

"We look to the Secretary of HHS to protect the health and well-being of all. RFK Jr. has consistently proven he is incapable of grasping, let alone upholding, the principles of equity and scientific integrity," a statement from Advocates for Trans Equality reads. "His disregard for scientific evidence and embrace of misinformation endangers vulnerable populations, including trans people, intersex people, people living with HIV, and low-income families relying on Medicaid."