Is 7-OH Banned? The 2026 DEA Scheduling Tracker

By Ryan Carter. I check this page against the DEA, the Federal Register, and the FDA directly, and I date every change in the update log at the bottom. If something here is out of date, the primary sources linked throughout are the source of truth, not me.

The Short Answer

No, 7-OH is not banned yet, and kratom is not being banned at all. On July 1, 2026 the DEA sent two Notices of Intent to the Federal Register proposing to temporarily place concentrated 7-hydroxymitragynine into Schedule I. They were published on July 6. A temporary scheduling order cannot issue before roughly August 5, 2026. A Notice of Intent is a statement of what an agency plans to do, not the thing itself.

I want to be blunt about why this page exists. When the news broke, the headlines I saw were some version of "DEA moves to ban kratom." That is not what happened, and the difference is not academic if you are sitting on a kilo of powder wondering whether you just became a criminal. You did not. Here is the actual scope.

The Timeline

Note the DEA is not required to act on August 5. That is the earliest it can. Temporary scheduling can also be extended. I will date any change here as it happens.

What the Two Notices Actually Cover

Notice 1: 7-OH above a threshold

This is the one people are talking about, and the threshold is the whole story. It would place 7-hydroxymitragynine into Schedule I only above a specified concentration. For botanical material of Mitragyna speciosa, that threshold is more than 0.050% 7-OH on a dry weight basis.

That number was not chosen at random. It was chosen so the plant falls outside it.

Notice 2: the semi-synthetic analogues

The second notice covers mitragynine pseudoindoxyl, MGM-15, and MGM-16. These are not meaningfully present in the leaf. They are made in a lab. There is no "but my powder naturally contains some" argument to be had here, and honestly, there shouldn't be. These do not belong in a consumer product.

Is My Kratom Affected?

This is the only question most people actually came here for, so here it is in a table.

If you buy plain powder or capsules, which is what most long-term users do and what I do, nothing in your cabinet is affected by this.

7-OH vs Mitragynine: Why the Distinction Is the Whole Point

Kratom leaf contains dozens of alkaloids. Two of them matter for this conversation.

Mitragynine (MIT) is the main event. It is the most abundant alkaloid in the leaf by a wide margin, and it is what makes ordinary kratom powder do what it does.

7-hydroxymitragynine (7-OH) is present in the raw leaf only in trace amounts, but it is dramatically more potent at the opioid receptor than mitragynine is. In the plant, that does not matter much, because there is so little of it. The problem arises when someone isolates it, concentrates it, and puts a large dose of it into a gummy.

That is the product category the DEA is aiming at, and I will say plainly that I think they are aiming at the right thing. I have been using kratom for ten years and I have watched high-7-OH products flood into gas stations over the last couple of years, sold next to the leaf as if they were the same category of thing. They are not. A 7-OH tablet is to kratom powder roughly what a shot of grain alcohol is to a beer, and it has been marketed with none of that honesty. The FDA sent warning letters over exactly these products in 2025.

My concern with this action is not the target. It is that "kratom banned" headlines will push ordinary powder users toward panic, and that regulators historically have not been careful about the distinction. So far, on paper, this one is.

How to Check What You're Actually Buying

Whatever happens on August 5, this action has already done something useful: it has made vendor labeling a lot easier to judge. Here is what to look for.

The label should state the alkaloid, in milligrams. Not "extra strength." Not "ultra enhanced." A number, attached to a named alkaloid. The vendors who saw this coming already do this. Kraken, for example, markets its Zenith chewable tablets explicitly as "NO 7OH" and specifies 100mg of mitragynine per tablet, and its bulk tablet lineup is labeled the same way, by mitragynine content:

Their liquid extracts are specced the same way, in milligrams of MIT per bottle rather than in marketing adjectives. That is the standard, and it is not a high bar.

If a product will not tell you its 7-OH content, don't buy it. That is my position regardless of what the DEA does, and it was my position before any of this. A vendor who is vague about the most potent alkaloid in their product is a vendor who is vague about everything, including the things you can't see, like heavy metals. Read my guide to reading a kratom lab report if you want to know what a real certificate of analysis should show you.

What This Means If You Buy Kratom

If you use plain powder or capsules: nothing changes. Buy as you always have. If anything, this is a good moment to buy from a vendor who publishes batch-level lab results, because the market is about to sort itself into vendors who label honestly and vendors who don't.

If you use extracts: check whether yours is mitragynine-based or 7-OH-based. Most reputable extract lines are MIT-based. The gas-station gummies and the "ultra potent" tablets are where the 7-OH lives.

If you use high-7-OH products: understand that these may become Schedule I substances in a matter of weeks, and that there is no announced grace period for existing stock. I'm not a lawyer and this isn't legal advice, but I'd want to know that rather than find out.

If you're in a banned state: none of this changes your situation, which is governed by state law. See my state-by-state legality guide, which I keep updated separately.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is 7-OH banned?

Not yet, as of July 14, 2026. The DEA published Notices of Intent on July 6, 2026 proposing to temporarily place 7-OH above a specified threshold into Schedule I. An order cannot issue before roughly August 5, 2026. Until it does, 7-OH is not federally scheduled.

Does this ban kratom?

No. Kratom leaf and plain kratom powder are not covered. The threshold for botanical material is more than 0.050% 7-OH by dry weight, and natural leaf contains only trace amounts, far below that. This action targets products deliberately concentrated to high 7-OH content.

What is the difference between 7-OH and mitragynine?

Mitragynine (MIT) is the primary alkaloid in kratom leaf and the one ordinary powder works through. 7-OH is a minor alkaloid present in trace amounts in the leaf, but far more potent at the opioid receptor. The DEA action targets 7-OH, not mitragynine.

When does it take effect?

No earlier than about August 5, 2026, roughly 30 days after Federal Register publication. The DEA is not required to act on that date, and the timing could move.

What happens to 7-OH products I already own?

If an order issues, the manufacture, distribution, sale, and possession of covered 7-OH substances become subject to the criminal, civil, and administrative provisions of the Controlled Substances Act. There is no announced amnesty or grace period for existing consumer stock. This is not legal advice, and if this affects you, talk to someone qualified.

How do I know if my extract contains 7-OH?

Check the label and the certificate of analysis. A reputable vendor states alkaloid content in milligrams of mitragynine per serving. If a product won't tell you its 7-OH content, that alone is reason enough to avoid it.

Will this lead to a full kratom ban?

Nothing in these notices does that, and the 0.050% threshold appears deliberately written to exclude the leaf. The DEA did attempt to schedule kratom itself in 2016 and withdrew after significant public backlash. I'm not going to pretend to predict what regulators do next, but the trend at the state level has been toward regulation rather than prohibition, and this federal action is aimed at concentrates rather than the plant.

Update Log

I'll add a row here every time I re-check, including the times nothing has changed. A tracker that only updates when there's news is a tracker you can't trust the silence of.

Primary Sources

• DEA press release, July 1, 2026
• Federal Register: Temporary Placement of 7-Hydroxymitragynine Above a Specified Threshold in Schedule I
• Federal Register: Temporary Placement of Mitragynine Pseudoindoxyl, MGM-15, and MGM-16 in Schedule I
• FDA: Hiding in Plain Sight, 7-OH Products
• HHS: FDA supports DEA 7-OH scheduling

Note: I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice. This is a fast-moving regulatory situation and a Notice of Intent is not a final order. Verify current status against the primary sources above before making any decision. Last updated July 14, 2026.