The Federal 7-OH Ban: Dates, Scope, What It Means

DEA has filed notice to place 7-OH above a threshold, pseudo, MGM-15, and MGM-16 in Schedule I. The dates, the legal process, the public comment window, and what to do if you're still using.

Last verified against primary sources on July 3, 2026. This page tracks a live regulatory action; we’ll update it as things move.

When is this getting banned?

Nothing is banned yet.

Date	What happens
July 1, 2026	DEA signed and filed two notices of intent to temporarily schedule 7-OH and three related compounds. HHS and FDA announced their support the same day.
July 6, 2026	The notices publish in the Federal Register. This starts the legally required 30-day waiting period.
July 31, 2026	Deadline to submit public comments on the 7-OH threshold (see the comment window below).
August 5, 2026	The earliest date the ban can take effect. Federal law requires at least 30 days between publication of the notice and the scheduling order.

After August 5, DEA can issue the temporary scheduling order at any time. Both notices state the order “will be published in the Federal Register on or after August 5, 2026,” and that DEA intends to issue it “as soon as possible after the expiration of 30 days.” The ban takes effect the day the order publishes, with no additional grace period, and lasts two years, extendable by one more.

If you use 7-OH tablets, shots, or other concentrated products, you have roughly a month of legal retail supply left, and no guarantee of more notice than that.

Two notices, filed July 1

The DEA announced that it sent two Notices of Intent to the Federal Register on Wednesday, July 1, 2026, signed by DEA Administrator Terrance Cole:

Temporary Placement of 7-Hydroxymitragynine Above a Specified Threshold in Schedule I (Docket No. DEA-1570) — schedules 7-OH above a concentration threshold, not the molecule outright.
Temporary Placement of Mitragynine Pseudoindoxyl, MGM-15, and MGM-16 in Schedule I (Docket No. DEA-1644) — schedules the three related compounds entirely, with no threshold.

HHS and FDA issued a joint statement the same day supporting the action. HHS had recommended scheduling in a July 28, 2025 scientific review, and its Assistant Secretary for Health formally advised DEA in early 2026 that it had no objection to either placement.

A concentration limit, not a total ban

The 7-OH notice schedules 7-OH above a specified limit, adapted from the HHS recommendation. A product is covered if it is:

(A) botanical kratom material containing more than 0.050% 7-OH on a dry weight basis, or
(B) any other article, synthetic or processed from kratom (extracts, concentrates, edibles, pressed pills), containing 7-OH at more than 0.050% by weight or volume, or more than 1.00 milligram of 7-OH in the article.

A typical commercial tablet contains 5–30 mg of 7-OH, well past the 1 mg cap. Practically everything sold as 7-OH (tablets, shots, gummies, sublingual strips) is covered. If you use concentrated products, this is a ban.

Plain kratom leaf and leaf products below the threshold stay federally legal. In its natural form, 7-OH occurs only in trace amounts, and both DEA and HHS state the action is not intended to capture botanical leaf. That matters here because tapering with kratom leaf is one of the documented paths off 7-OH, and this action does not remove it. State law is its own patchwork: nine states (Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Ohio, Vermont, and Wisconsin) already prohibit 7-OH, and the federal order does not override stricter state rules.

Pseudo, MGM-15, and MGM-16: scheduled outright

The second notice puts three compounds fully into Schedule I, at any concentration:

Mitragynine pseudoindoxyl (MP / “pseudo”) — a rearrangement product of 7-OH sold in candies, tablets, and liquid shots.
MGM-15 (dihydro-7-hydroxymitragynine) — a synthetic 7-OH derivative with a long half-life.
MGM-16 (9-fluoro-dihydro-7-hydroxymitragynine) — a fluorinated analog of MGM-15.

None of the three occurs naturally in the kratom plant. HHS confirmed there are no approved or investigational drug applications for any of them, so nothing blocks Schedule I placement.

Emergency scheduling under § 811(h)

Both notices rest on the temporary (“emergency”) scheduling provision of the Controlled Substances Act, 21 U.S.C. § 811(h). The mechanics:

The Attorney General (delegated to the DEA Administrator) may place a substance in Schedule I for two years without the normal scheduling process, on a finding that it is “necessary to avoid an imminent hazard to the public safety.” § 811(h)(2) allows a one-year extension if permanent scheduling proceedings are underway when the temporary order expires.
The order “may not be issued before the expiration of thirty days” from publication of the notice of intent in the Federal Register and from notice to HHS (§ 811(h)(1)). Publication is July 6, 2026, which is where August 5 comes from.
Temporary scheduling skips the formal rulemaking and hearing that permanent scheduling requires, and under § 811(h)(6) a temporary order is not subject to judicial review. Court challenges that might slow a permanent rule have no direct route here.
Temporary orders can only place a substance in Schedule I, the same category as heroin: high abuse potential, no accepted medical use, no accepted safety under medical supervision, as the statute defines it.

Once the order takes effect, manufacture, distribution, sale, and possession of covered products become subject to the criminal, civil, and administrative provisions of the CSA.

Public comments close July 31

Alongside DEA’s notices, the HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health opened a Request for Information (Docket No. HHS-OASH-2026-0232) seeking public comment on the 7-OH threshold. Comments are due July 31, 2026.

The scope is narrow. OASH is asking two questions only:

Is there scientific data supporting the proposed threshold or an alternative one? In the docket’s words: what concentration or quantity of 7-OH in a product constitutes an imminent hazard to public safety?
Is there data supporting a different way of measuring the threshold?

OASH says explicitly that it is not taking comments on permanent scheduling, on the general safety or usefulness of kratom products, or on whether the ban should happen at all. Comments about personal experience with 7-OH dependence or recovery are outside the docket’s stated scope; data about concentrations and measurement is inside it. After the comment period closes, HHS forwards the submissions to the Attorney General for consideration before the order issues.

To comment: once the notice publishes on July 6, go to regulations.gov, search for docket HHS-OASH-2026-0232, and use the Comment button. (The docket page goes live with publication; before July 6 the search returns nothing.)

This RFI is the only formal comment channel. DEA’s own notices are not open for comment: the temporary scheduling law works by order, not by the usual notice-and-comment rulemaking.

If you’re using 7-OH right now

Supply is going to disappear on a schedule you don’t control. Running out abruptly means unplanned cold-turkey withdrawal. If you’re dependent, the month of notice is the planning window.

The paths off are the same ones this site has always documented:

A structured taper or planned stop — start with How to Quit 7-OH, and if you’re already in withdrawal, Withdrawal Help.
Tapering with kratom leaf — leaf below the threshold stays federally legal, so this path survives the ban.
Suboxone or SR-17 — the two medication-assisted paths the community has documented. SR-17018 is not named in either notice, but it is its own legal grey area; read its page before relying on it.
Cold turkey with helper medications and the quit kit.

A few cautions specific to a ban deadline:

Don’t compress a taper into a panic. A rushed, steep taper fails more often than a planned one. If you can’t finish a taper before supply dries up, a bridge (leaf, Suboxone, SR-17) is a decision to make now, not in August.
Stockpiling has a legal cliff. Once the order takes effect, possession of covered products is a federal crime. What you do with that fact is your call; we want you to know it before August, not after.
Post-ban street supply is a different product. When retail channels close, what replaces them has no labeling at all. Lab analyses have already found undisclosed compounds like pseudo in products on the market; that problem gets worse after a ban. Mixing 7-OH or any opioid with alcohol, benzodiazepines, or other depressants is where the real danger concentrates. If that’s your situation, withdrawal needs professional supervision. Call the SAMHSA Helpline (1-800-662-4357) or use findtreatment.gov.

For the live conversation (what people are seeing in stores, how they’re planning around the date), the Discord and r/quitting7oh are where the community is talking it through.

DEA’s stated rationale

From the notices themselves: DEA cites the proliferation of high-concentration 7-OH products in gas stations and smoke shops (one survey counted 250 products between September 2024 and February 2025, at 1 mg to 700 mg per serving), rising poison-control calls (165 exposure cases in the first seven months of 2025), FDA adverse-event reports, and seven FDA warning letters issued in June–July 2025 over unapproved drug claims and candy-like packaging. In December 2025, federal marshals seized about $1 million of 7-OH products from three Missouri firms.

This site doesn’t take a position on the ban (see Where the Site Stands). We care that the people affected by it have accurate dates and a plan.