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

Pseudo, MGM-15, and MGM-16 are Schedule I as of August 26, 2026. The 7-OH threshold order is still pending. Dates, scope, the closed comment period, and what to do if you're still using.

Updated

Last verified against primary sources on September 17, 2026. This page tracks a live regulatory action; we’ll update it as things move.

Status: three compounds banned, 7-OH not yet

As of September 17, 2026, 7-OH is not banned. DEA has not issued the threshold order. The 30-day waiting period expired on August 5, so the order can publish on any business day, and it takes effect the day it publishes.

Pseudo, MGM-15, and MGM-16 are banned. DEA issued the temporary scheduling order for those three on August 26, 2026. It took effect the day it published and runs until August 26, 2028. Possession of any quantity is now unlawful, and consumers got no grace period.

DateWhat happened
July 1, 2026DEA 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, 2026The notices published in the Federal Register, starting the legally required 30-day waiting period.
July 31, 2026The public comment window on the 7-OH threshold closed with 32,145 comments submitted.
August 5, 2026The earliest date either order could take effect. It passed with no order issued.
August 26, 2026DEA’s order for pseudo, MGM-15, and MGM-16 published and took effect the same day. HHS separately reopened the 7-OH comment window through September 10 (see the comment period below).
September 10, 2026The extended HHS comment period on the 7-OH threshold closed.
September 17, 2026Latest check against the Federal Register: still no order on the 7-OH threshold.

Both notices stated the order “will be published in the Federal Register on or after August 5, 2026,” and that DEA intended to issue it “as soon as possible after the expiration of 30 days.” For pseudo, MGM-15, and MGM-16, that took 21 days. The 7-OH threshold order is still pending on the same authority. It takes effect the day it 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, the remaining legal retail window has no schedule. It could close this week or drag on for months, and the only notice you’ll get is the order itself appearing in the Federal Register.

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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.

The second notice became a final order on August 26, 2026. The first has not.

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: Schedule I since August 26

The temporary scheduling order published on August 26, 2026 and took effect that day. It runs through August 26, 2028 and covers three compounds at any concentration, along with their isomers, esters, ethers, and salts:

  • 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 blocked Schedule I placement.

What the order changes in practice: retail sale of these three is over, because Schedule I substances cannot be sold to the public at all. Possession of any quantity in an unauthorized manner on or after August 26 is unlawful. The 30-day compliance windows written into the order cover DEA registrants working through labeling, inventory, and recordkeeping.

Labels were never reliable here. Lab analyses have found pseudo in products sold as something else, so a package doesn’t tell you which side of this order its contents fall on.

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.

For pseudo, MGM-15, and MGM-16 that point has passed: manufacture, distribution, sale, and possession are subject to the criminal, civil, and administrative provisions of the CSA as of August 26. Covered 7-OH products reach the same point the day their order publishes.

Public comments: closed September 10

The HHS comment period closed September 10, 2026. OASH had reopened it on August 26 after receiving a request for more time. Previously submitted comments remained in the docket.

Alongside DEA’s notices, the HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health ran a Request for Information (Docket No. HHS-OASH-2026-0232) seeking public comment on the 7-OH threshold. The window closed July 31, 2026, with 32,145 comments submitted.

As of September 17, the docket showed 30,346 comments posted.

The docket reported 35,946 submissions received on September 12, 2026.

The scope did not change with the extension. OASH asked two questions only:

  1. 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?
  2. Is there data supporting a different way of measuring the threshold?

OASH did not seek comments on permanent scheduling, on the general safety or usefulness of kratom products, or on whether the ban should happen at all, and it repeated that limit in the extension notice. HHS forwards the submissions to the Attorney General for consideration before the order issues.

This RFI was the only formal comment channel. DEA’s own notices were 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. For pseudo, MGM-15, and MGM-16 that already happened on August 26. For 7-OH the order can publish any day, so if you’re dependent, the planning has to happen on supply you already have.

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

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 or Suboxone) is a decision to make now, not the day the order publishes.
  • Stockpiling has a legal cliff. For pseudo, MGM-15, and MGM-16 that cliff is behind you: possession has been a federal offense since August 26. For 7-OH it arrives the day the order publishes. What you do with that fact is your call; we want you to know it before the order lands, 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.

Sources

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