September 2, 2026
The Drug Enforcement Administration placed three 7-hydroxymitragynine-related compounds — mitragynine pseudoindoxyl (MGPI), MGM-15 and MGM-16 — in Schedule I by temporary order published in the Federal Register on August 26, 2026 (91 FR 54948, Docket No. DEA-1644). The order took effect the day it published and runs until August 26, 2028. The Justice Department announced it on August 25 with a line that decides how retailers should read everything else: the action "is directed at deliberately manufactured and concentrated opioid products, not traditional botanical kratom."
Readers arriving from "DEA bans kratom" headlines should start there. Kratom leaf is not scheduled. Concentrated 7-OH is not scheduled either — not yet. Three specific manufactured molecules are.
DEA used its emergency authority in 21 U.S.C. 811(h), which lets the Administrator temporarily schedule a substance to avoid "an imminent hazard to the public safety" without the notice-and-comment rulemaking that permanent scheduling requires. The order states it is not subject to Administrative Procedure Act comment procedures and, in the alternative, finds good cause to skip them. A temporary order lasts two years and can be extended one more year if DEA has begun permanent scheduling under 811(a)(1). The order covers the three compounds and their isomers, esters, ethers and salts.
The interagency record is short. DEA notified the Department of Health and Human Services by letter dated December 15, 2025; the Assistant Secretary for Health replied January 20, 2026 with no objection and confirmed no investigational or new-drug applications were on file. The Federal Register order gives the full chemical names: MGM-15 is also known as dihydro-7-hydroxymitragynine, MGM-16 as 9-fluoro-dihydro-7-hydroxymitragynine. DOJ describes all three as potent mu-opioid receptor agonists; MGPI and MGM-15 are being manufactured and marketed for opioid effects, while MGM-16 has not been confirmed in the consumer market.
Two things. First, botanical kratom. DOJ says published literature has not established MGPI as a naturally occurring kratom alkaloid, and in a September 1 update to the release it added that the Department will exercise enforcement discretion where only incidental trace MGPI is confirmed in a product otherwise consistent with botanical kratom. That is discretion, not exemption, and it does not extend to MGM-15, MGM-16, or MGPI that is manufactured, fortified or intentionally added.
Second — and this is the detail most coverage collapses — 7-hydroxymitragynine itself. DEA published two notices of intent on July 6, 2026. One was for these three compounds and has now become an order. The other, Docket DEA-1570 (91 FR 40917), proposes to schedule 7-OH above a threshold: more than 0.050 percent by dry weight in botanical material, or more than 0.050 percent or 1.00 mg per article in processed forms. No temporary order has issued on that docket as of publication, and HHS extended the comment period on its related request for information to September 10, 2026. Concentrated 7-OH tablets and shots therefore sit today where they sat in July: subject to FDA's July 29, 2025 scheduling recommendation and a live DEA notice, but not to a scheduling order.
DEA scheduled the manufactured derivatives and spared the plant. Congress did the same thing to hemp. Section 781 of Public Law 119-37 redefines hemp effective November 12, 2026 and excludes products containing cannabinoids "not capable of being naturally produced by a Cannabis sativa L. plant," cannabinoids that are naturally producible but "were synthesized or manufactured outside the plant," and finished products with more than 0.4 mg total THC per container. Our guide to how the Farm Bill treats intoxicating hemp traces where that definition came from, and our 0.4 mg container cap guide covers the arithmetic.
The clocks diverged this week. On September 1 the House agreed 370–48 to the Senate's continuing resolution, H.R. 6500, which the Senate passed 90–6 on August 8; it now awaits the President. Section 2019 of that bill provides that "until December 11, 2026, the amendments made by section 781 … shall only apply with respect to products described in paragraphs (1)(C)(ii)(I) and (1)(C)(iv)(I)" — the not-naturally-producible exclusions. Read against the statute, that means only cannabinoids a cannabis plant cannot make lose hemp status on November 12 if the CR is signed. The naturally-producible-but-synthesized category, the total-THC redefinition and the 0.4 mg cap all move to December 11. Which bucket a given molecule falls into is a factual question the statute does not answer compound by compound, which is the sentence to underline in any inventory memo. See our tracker on the proposed delay to December 11 and the Section 781 regulatory cliff.
So a convenience store or smoke shop carrying delta-8 gummies next to 7-OH shots is facing two separate legal machines built on one principle — plant material stays, manufactured derivatives go — running on different calendars, administered by different agencies, with different definitions of "natural." That framing is absent from wire coverage, which treats the DEA order as a kratom story.
States moved before DEA did, and in three different directions. Florida's Attorney General signed an emergency rule on June 22, 2026 placing 7-OH, MGPI, MGM-15, MGM-16 and related compounds in the state's Schedule I, with an exception for leaf products at or below 1 mg per gram that also contain at least 100 times more mitragynine by mass. Louisiana went further, adding mitragynine itself and 7-OH to Schedule I under Act 41 of 2025, with penalties effective August 1, 2025 — a whole-plant ban. Georgia took the opposite model: its Kratom Consumer Protection Act (O.C.G.A. § 16-13-121) regulates leaf kratom by age-gating, and the minimum purchase age rose to 21 on January 1, 2025.
North Carolina is the state to watch because it bundles both stories in one bill. The conference substitute for HB 328 would add G.S. 14-401.28, making it unlawful to sell or possess a "synthetic kratom product" — defined to include synthetic 7-hydroxymitragynine — with under-21 sales barred and a Class 2 misdemeanor penalty; the same bill conforms the state's hemp definition to the federal total-THC standard and bans finished hemp products over 0.4 mg total THC per container, effective November 12, 2026. The Senate adopted the conference report 37–6 on July 2, 2026. The House has not voted on it; the last action on the House side was a re-referral to the Rules Committee on July 30. Our earlier coverage of North Carolina's hemp and kratom bill sets out the bill's structure; its status as of today is pending in the House, not on the Governor's desk. The state posts that already rank for 7-OH questions — Missouri and New Jersey — show how hemp and kratom enforcement have already merged at the state level, a pattern our state analog-ban map traced for HHC, THC-P and THC-O.
| Botanical kratom (leaf) | Concentrated 7-OH products | MGPI / MGM-15 / MGM-16 | Hemp-derived delta-8 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | Mitragyna speciosa leaf, powder, tea | Tablets, shots, gummies with isolated or enriched 7-hydroxymitragynine | Manufactured 7-OH-related opioid compounds | Delta-8 THC, typically converted from hemp CBD |
| Federal status today | Not scheduled; DOJ enforcement discretion for trace MGPI | Not scheduled; DEA notice of intent (DEA-1570) pending; FDA recommended scheduling July 29, 2025 | Schedule I, temporary order effective August 26, 2026 to August 26, 2028 | Hemp under 7 U.S.C. 1639o until §781 takes effect |
| Key date | None federal | September 10, 2026 (HHS comment close) | August 26, 2028 (order expires unless extended) | November 12 or December 11, 2026 depending on the CR and on which exclusion applies |
| Who regulates | States (age-gating or scheduling) | DEA, FDA, states | DEA | USDA/FDA definition; states; DEA for scheduled analogs |
Did the DEA ban kratom?
No. The August 26, 2026 temporary order covers three manufactured compounds — MGPI, MGM-15 and MGM-16. The Justice Department states the action is directed at manufactured and concentrated products, not botanical kratom.
What is 7-OH?
7-hydroxymitragynine, an alkaloid present in small amounts in kratom leaf and sold in concentrated form. DEA has proposed, but not yet ordered, scheduling 7-OH above a 0.050 percent threshold under Docket DEA-1570.
Is 7-OH legal to sell after this action?
Concentrated 7-OH is not federally scheduled as of publication, but several states have scheduled it and a DEA notice of intent is pending. MGPI, MGM-15 and MGM-16 are Schedule I now. Consult counsel on any inventory on hand.
How long does emergency scheduling last?
Two years from August 26, 2026, extendable by one year if DEA initiates permanent scheduling.
Does this affect delta-8 or hemp products?
Not directly. Hemp is governed by Section 781 of Public Law 119-37, effective November 12, 2026; the pending continuing resolution would defer most of that section to December 11 while leaving the exclusion for non-naturally-producible cannabinoids on the November date.
What is MGPI?
Mitragynine pseudoindoxyl, a 7-OH-related compound DOJ describes as a potent mu-opioid agonist that published literature has not established as naturally occurring in kratom.
This is regulatory journalism, not legal advice — talk to your counsel.
The Drug Enforcement Administration placed three 7-hydroxymitragynine-related compounds — mitragynine pseudoindoxyl (MGPI), MGM-15 and MGM-16 — in Schedule I by temporary order published in the Federal Register on August 26, 2026 (91 FR 54948, Docket No. DEA-1644). The order took effect the day it published and runs until August 26, 2028. The Justice Department announced it on August 25 with a line that decides how retailers should read everything else: the action "is directed at deliberately manufactured and concentrated opioid products, not traditional botanical kratom."
Readers arriving from "DEA bans kratom" headlines should start there. Kratom leaf is not scheduled. Concentrated 7-OH is not scheduled either — not yet. Three specific manufactured molecules are.
DEA used its emergency authority in 21 U.S.C. 811(h), which lets the Administrator temporarily schedule a substance to avoid "an imminent hazard to the public safety" without the notice-and-comment rulemaking that permanent scheduling requires. The order states it is not subject to Administrative Procedure Act comment procedures and, in the alternative, finds good cause to skip them. A temporary order lasts two years and can be extended one more year if DEA has begun permanent scheduling under 811(a)(1). The order covers the three compounds and their isomers, esters, ethers and salts.
The interagency record is short. DEA notified the Department of Health and Human Services by letter dated December 15, 2025; the Assistant Secretary for Health replied January 20, 2026 with no objection and confirmed no investigational or new-drug applications were on file. The Federal Register order gives the full chemical names: MGM-15 is also known as dihydro-7-hydroxymitragynine, MGM-16 as 9-fluoro-dihydro-7-hydroxymitragynine. DOJ describes all three as potent mu-opioid receptor agonists; MGPI and MGM-15 are being manufactured and marketed for opioid effects, while MGM-16 has not been confirmed in the consumer market.
Two things. First, botanical kratom. DOJ says published literature has not established MGPI as a naturally occurring kratom alkaloid, and in a September 1 update to the release it added that the Department will exercise enforcement discretion where only incidental trace MGPI is confirmed in a product otherwise consistent with botanical kratom. That is discretion, not exemption, and it does not extend to MGM-15, MGM-16, or MGPI that is manufactured, fortified or intentionally added.
Second — and this is the detail most coverage collapses — 7-hydroxymitragynine itself. DEA published two notices of intent on July 6, 2026. One was for these three compounds and has now become an order. The other, Docket DEA-1570 (91 FR 40917), proposes to schedule 7-OH above a threshold: more than 0.050 percent by dry weight in botanical material, or more than 0.050 percent or 1.00 mg per article in processed forms. No temporary order has issued on that docket as of publication, and HHS extended the comment period on its related request for information to September 10, 2026. Concentrated 7-OH tablets and shots therefore sit today where they sat in July: subject to FDA's July 29, 2025 scheduling recommendation and a live DEA notice, but not to a scheduling order.
DEA scheduled the manufactured derivatives and spared the plant. Congress did the same thing to hemp. Section 781 of Public Law 119-37 redefines hemp effective November 12, 2026 and excludes products containing cannabinoids "not capable of being naturally produced by a Cannabis sativa L. plant," cannabinoids that are naturally producible but "were synthesized or manufactured outside the plant," and finished products with more than 0.4 mg total THC per container. Our guide to how the Farm Bill treats intoxicating hemp traces where that definition came from, and our 0.4 mg container cap guide covers the arithmetic.
The clocks diverged this week. On September 1 the House agreed 370–48 to the Senate's continuing resolution, H.R. 6500, which the Senate passed 90–6 on August 8; it now awaits the President. Section 2019 of that bill provides that "until December 11, 2026, the amendments made by section 781 … shall only apply with respect to products described in paragraphs (1)(C)(ii)(I) and (1)(C)(iv)(I)" — the not-naturally-producible exclusions. Read against the statute, that means only cannabinoids a cannabis plant cannot make lose hemp status on November 12 if the CR is signed. The naturally-producible-but-synthesized category, the total-THC redefinition and the 0.4 mg cap all move to December 11. Which bucket a given molecule falls into is a factual question the statute does not answer compound by compound, which is the sentence to underline in any inventory memo. See our tracker on the proposed delay to December 11 and the Section 781 regulatory cliff.
So a convenience store or smoke shop carrying delta-8 gummies next to 7-OH shots is facing two separate legal machines built on one principle — plant material stays, manufactured derivatives go — running on different calendars, administered by different agencies, with different definitions of "natural." That framing is absent from wire coverage, which treats the DEA order as a kratom story.
States moved before DEA did, and in three different directions. Florida's Attorney General signed an emergency rule on June 22, 2026 placing 7-OH, MGPI, MGM-15, MGM-16 and related compounds in the state's Schedule I, with an exception for leaf products at or below 1 mg per gram that also contain at least 100 times more mitragynine by mass. Louisiana went further, adding mitragynine itself and 7-OH to Schedule I under Act 41 of 2025, with penalties effective August 1, 2025 — a whole-plant ban. Georgia took the opposite model: its Kratom Consumer Protection Act (O.C.G.A. § 16-13-121) regulates leaf kratom by age-gating, and the minimum purchase age rose to 21 on January 1, 2025.
North Carolina is the state to watch because it bundles both stories in one bill. The conference substitute for HB 328 would add G.S. 14-401.28, making it unlawful to sell or possess a "synthetic kratom product" — defined to include synthetic 7-hydroxymitragynine — with under-21 sales barred and a Class 2 misdemeanor penalty; the same bill conforms the state's hemp definition to the federal total-THC standard and bans finished hemp products over 0.4 mg total THC per container, effective November 12, 2026. The Senate adopted the conference report 37–6 on July 2, 2026. The House has not voted on it; the last action on the House side was a re-referral to the Rules Committee on July 30. Our earlier coverage of North Carolina's hemp and kratom bill sets out the bill's structure; its status as of today is pending in the House, not on the Governor's desk. The state posts that already rank for 7-OH questions — Missouri and New Jersey — show how hemp and kratom enforcement have already merged at the state level, a pattern our state analog-ban map traced for HHC, THC-P and THC-O.
| Botanical kratom (leaf) | Concentrated 7-OH products | MGPI / MGM-15 / MGM-16 | Hemp-derived delta-8 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | Mitragyna speciosa leaf, powder, tea | Tablets, shots, gummies with isolated or enriched 7-hydroxymitragynine | Manufactured 7-OH-related opioid compounds | Delta-8 THC, typically converted from hemp CBD |
| Federal status today | Not scheduled; DOJ enforcement discretion for trace MGPI | Not scheduled; DEA notice of intent (DEA-1570) pending; FDA recommended scheduling July 29, 2025 | Schedule I, temporary order effective August 26, 2026 to August 26, 2028 | Hemp under 7 U.S.C. 1639o until §781 takes effect |
| Key date | None federal | September 10, 2026 (HHS comment close) | August 26, 2028 (order expires unless extended) | November 12 or December 11, 2026 depending on the CR and on which exclusion applies |
| Who regulates | States (age-gating or scheduling) | DEA, FDA, states | DEA | USDA/FDA definition; states; DEA for scheduled analogs |
Did the DEA ban kratom?
No. The August 26, 2026 temporary order covers three manufactured compounds — MGPI, MGM-15 and MGM-16. The Justice Department states the action is directed at manufactured and concentrated products, not botanical kratom.
What is 7-OH?
7-hydroxymitragynine, an alkaloid present in small amounts in kratom leaf and sold in concentrated form. DEA has proposed, but not yet ordered, scheduling 7-OH above a 0.050 percent threshold under Docket DEA-1570.
Is 7-OH legal to sell after this action?
Concentrated 7-OH is not federally scheduled as of publication, but several states have scheduled it and a DEA notice of intent is pending. MGPI, MGM-15 and MGM-16 are Schedule I now. Consult counsel on any inventory on hand.
How long does emergency scheduling last?
Two years from August 26, 2026, extendable by one year if DEA initiates permanent scheduling.
Does this affect delta-8 or hemp products?
Not directly. Hemp is governed by Section 781 of Public Law 119-37, effective November 12, 2026; the pending continuing resolution would defer most of that section to December 11 while leaving the exclusion for non-naturally-producible cannabinoids on the November date.
What is MGPI?
Mitragynine pseudoindoxyl, a 7-OH-related compound DOJ describes as a potent mu-opioid agonist that published literature has not established as naturally occurring in kratom.
This is regulatory journalism, not legal advice — talk to your counsel.
