DEA Redraws Its 7-OH Line: A 1-Milligram Test, a 100-to-1 Ratio and No Order Before Nov. 13

In July, the Drug Enforcement Administration’s line for 7-hydroxymitragynine, the kratom alkaloid sold in gas stations and smoke shops as 7-OH, sat at 0.050% of a product’s weight, or 1 milligram in the whole article for synthetic and processed products [3]. On October 14 it drew a different line [1]. The new test, recommended by the Department of Health and Human Services in an October 8 letter, reaches 7-OH and its chemical relative mitragynine pseudoindoxyl only above a set concentration or below a set ratio [1]. For police, sheriffs’ deputies, crime labs and prosecutors, that line will decide whether a tablet on a counter is a federal Schedule I drug.

What DEA put in the Federal Register

DEA published two notices of intent under the temporary scheduling power in 21 U.S.C. 811(h) [1, 2]. The first, Docket DEA-1570, covers 7-OH and mitragynine pseudoindoxyl, often shortened to MGPI [1]. In the same issue, DEA withdrew its July notice on 7-OH [1].

Under the new test, either substance alone, or the two combined, is controlled when it is “greater than 1 mg per gram (for solid powders, encapsulated material, or other solid forms) or greater than 1 mg per milliliter (for liquid preparations)” [1]. It is also controlled when the mass of mitragynine, kratom’s main alkaloid, divided by the mass of 7-OH and MGPI comes out below 100 [1]. Failing either test is enough.

The second notice, Docket DEA-1644, reissues the Schedule I placement of two related compounds, MGM-15 and MGM-16, without change [2]. DEA calls it a technical step to separate them from MGPI, which now gets a threshold of its own [2].

The order “will be published in the Federal Register on or after November 13, 2026,” the notice says [1]. It takes effect on publication and lasts two years, with a possible one-year extension while DEA runs the permanent scheduling process, for which it intends to ask HHS for a full scientific and medical evaluation [1]. Temporary scheduling orders are not subject to judicial review [1].

How the line moved

The July notice rested on an HHS threshold from July 2025 [1]. HHS opened a public docket on it, HHS-OASH-2026-0232, with comments due July 31 [5]. It extended that deadline to September 10 after a request for more time [6].

The Justice Department said on October 9 that HHS’s updated analysis aims to separate intentionally concentrated products from those whose alkaloids look like botanical kratom [7]. It said HHS found 7-OH occurs naturally in kratom at relatively low levels, and that MGPI may appear at trace levels in some kratom-derived products, though the science on MGPI is still developing [7].

By this column’s arithmetic, 0.050% works out to 0.5 milligram per gram, so the new concentration figure is twice the July one. DEA says plainly that the new threshold “would permit certain products to remain in the marketplace without being subject to schedule I controls” [1]. It adds that “neither HHS nor DEA has made a finding that these substances are safe to use at below-threshold levels” [1].

The crime lab carries this one

Once the order is published, anyone who manufactures, distributes, imports, exports or possesses covered 7-OH or MGPI products faces Schedule I controls and the administrative, civil and criminal sanctions that come with them [1]. The August order on MGPI shows what that means for a business: DEA registration, surrender of stock for anyone who cannot get registered, Schedule I security, labeling and inventory rules [4].

The harder part for local agencies is proof. The line is a number. A lab that identifies 7-OH in a seized tablet has not yet shown the tablet is covered; it needs the milligrams per gram, or the ratio to mitragynine. DEA’s own notice says forensic chemists often prioritize identifying mitragynine “rather than extending analysis to the identification minor alkaloids, such as 7-hydroxymitragynine” [1]. It adds that because 7-OH is not federally controlled, specific identification may be limited [1].

That caveat sits under the enforcement figures DEA cites. The National Forensic Laboratory Information System logged 42 reports of 7-OH from 12 states in 2025 [1]. For MGPI, the August order counted 19 reports, 15 of them from Arkansas [4]. Those counts measure what labs tested for as much as what officers seized.

There is also a timing question for MGPI. Since August 26 it has been in Schedule I at any amount, under an order running to August 26, 2028 [4]. That order stays in force until the threshold order is published and the old one withdrawn, which DEA says it is doing to avoid an enforcement gap [1]. Which order applied on the date of an arrest will matter in any case built on a small quantity.

State law runs alongside all of this. DEA says the federal action does not preempt more restrictive state law [1]. Its notice lists ten states that prohibit 7-OH, and names Arizona, Colorado, South Carolina and Texas as states that cap it as a share of total alkaloids [1]. Nineteen states, including Arizona, Colorado, Florida, New York and Texas, have enacted a kratom consumer protection act; Illinois has local bans [1]. A deputy in those states still works from the state statute first.

The market DEA describes is retail. It lists powders, tablets, gummies and sublingual films sold online and at gas stations and smoke shops, and it cites 165 poison center exposure cases involving 7-OH from January through July 2025 [1].

Where the sides stand

Attorney General Todd Blanche, announcing the change, said addictive opioids have no place at convenience store counters and that children and communities need protection from substances like 7-OH [7].

The American Kratom Association backs action against what it calls chemically manipulated products while defending leaf kratom. In August it sued DEA in federal court in the District of Columbia, Case No. 1:26-cv-02997, according to its release [9]. It asked the court to confirm that the MGPI order does not reach traditional kratom with only trace MGPI, and argued that MGPI needed an objective line like the one proposed for 7-OH [9]. On October 12 it announced a Capitol press conference and a congressional briefing on the decision to adopt the HHS thresholds, promising recommendations to protect consumers without banning natural kratom [10].

The R Street Institute’s Jeffrey S. Smith argued in July against temporary Schedule I placement altogether [11]. He wrote that the market’s problems “point toward a need for product rules rather than sweeping bans,” and favored labeling, testing and age limits [11]. He cited a review in which “14 of 15 studies linked stronger drug-law enforcement with more violence in illegal markets,” and noted that a temporary order on fentanyl-related substances was extended 10 times before Congress made them permanent [11]. His point: “an expiration date does not guarantee the end of tighter control” [11].

Congress has its own versions. The Congressional Research Service lists the END 7-OH Act, H.R. 8000, which would put 7-OH in Schedule I permanently but exclude what occurs naturally in kratom, and the End Gas Station Heroin Act, S. 5383 and H.R. 10272, which would schedule 7-OH and MGPI and reach commercial activity but not individual purchase or possession [8].

What I’m watching

November 13. The earliest date DEA can publish the temporary order [1]. Publication starts the two-year clock and swaps the no-threshold MGPI order for the new one [1].

The kratom association’s lawsuit. It asked for a line for MGPI, and DEA has now proposed one [1, 9]. Whether the case goes forward once the order is published is not yet on the record.