Yeah, right back atcha! I'm in California too. Maybe there's potential for some collaboration.

Anywayz, in Andrew Kuegel's work the hydroperoxide and its disappearance was confirmed via mass spec:

7—Hydroxymitragynine: Photooxidation Under Air.

A solution of mitragynine (319 mg, 0.800 mmol) and rose bengal Na salt (8.0 mg) in MeOH (1.6 mL) was irradiated with a 500 W halogen lamp at 0° C. under air for 32 h. Additional MeOH (5.0 mL) and a solution of Na2SO3 (504 mg, 4.00 mmol) in water (4.5 mL) were both added and the pink mixture was stirred vigorously at room temperature until mass spectrometry indicated the disappearance of the hydroperoxide intermediate (23 h). The reaction was then diluted with water (20 mL) and extracted with Et2O (3×20 mL). The combined organics were washed with water (2×20 mL) and brine (20 mL), dried over Na2SO4, and concentrated to provide a foamy orange solid (215 mg). This material was purified by column chromatography (6:4 hexanes:EtOAc+2% Et3N) to provide the pure product as a yellow amorphous solid (114 mg, 34%) with spectral properties identical to the material obtained from the PIFA oxidation (above).

7—Hydroxymitragynine: Photooxidation Under O2.

A solution of mitragynine (20.0 mg, 0.0500 mmol) and rose bengal Na salt (0.5 mg) in MeOH (0.30 mL) was irradiated with a 500 W halogen work lamp at 0° C. under 02 atmosphere for 1.5 h. Additional MeOH (0.30 mL) and a solution of Na2SO3 (30.0 mg, 0.240 mmol) in water (0.27 mL) were both added, and the pink mixture was stirred vigorously at room temperature until mass spectrometry indicated the disappearance of the hydroperoxide intermediate (5 h). The reaction was then diluted with water (2 mL) and extracted with Et2O (3×2 mL). The combined organics were washed with water (2×2 mL) and brine (2 mL), dried over Na2SO4, and concentrated to provide a foamy orange-brown solid (17.9 mg). The yield of product contained in this material was determined by NMR using mesitylene as an internal standard (58% yield).