By The Epoch Times | Created at 2026-10-13 16:21:56 | Updated at 2026-10-13 17:16:05
57 minutes ago
The United States is proposing revised emergency restrictions for four opioid-like compounds associated with kratom, a plant from Southeast Asia.
Federal regulators have been scrutinizing kratom for about a decade after reports of addiction, injury, and overdose. Users and distributors have long opposed efforts to regulate it, saying kratom could be a safer alternative to opioid painkillers that sparked the ongoing drug addiction epidemic.
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is targeting 7-hydroxymitragynine (7-OH), found naturally in kratom, and three chemically related substances: mitragynine pseudoindoxyl (MGPI), MGM-15, and MGM-16.
Products containing 7-OH are increasingly marketed as gummies and drinks, including at gas stations and convenience stores across the United States. MGPI, MGM-15, and MGM-16 are already Schedule I substances. 7-OH has not yet been federally scheduled.
The measures aim to distinguish natural botanical kratom products with trace amounts of 7-OH from those with intentionally enhanced or concentrated compounds, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said in an Oct. 9 statement.
A 2019 study published in the journal Medicines said kratom was traditionally consumed by people to improve work performance and to withstand intense heat.
“Its use is now widely as a drug of abuse, namely as a new psychoactive substance, being a cheaper alternative to opioids that does not require medical prescription in most countries,” the authors noted.
The DEA says kratom can have a stimulant effect in low doses, and a sedative effect in high doses, and notes the abuse of kratom—sometimes known by the street name thang—has increased markedly in recent years in the United States.
In August, the DEA temporarily placed MGPI, MGM-15, and MGM-16 in Schedule I, making their unauthorized distribution a federal offense. Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act applies to drugs with a high potential for abuse and no accepted medical use in the United States.
Rep. Rob Bresnahan (R-Pa.) urged the DEA in March to use its emergency authority to temporarily classify chemically manipulated 7-OH as a Schedule I controlled substance.
Rep. Rob Bresnahan (R-Pa.) speaks during the Republican National Midterm Convention at the American Airlines Center in Dallas on Sept. 9, 2026. Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images
HHS has now recommended that 7-OH and MGPI be subject to Schedule I control when the substances exceed 1 milligram per gram in solid products, or 1 milligram per milliliter in liquid products, or when the ratio of mitragynine to 7-OH, MGPI, or their combined amount is less than 100 to 1.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. said his department is drawing a clear line between natural kratom and dangerous, enhanced opioid products.
“We listened to the public, followed the science, and developed a clear recommended threshold for temporary scheduling that targets concentrated 7-OH and MGPI without sweeping natural botanical kratom into Schedule I,” he said in an Oct. 9 statement.
Prosecutors Charge Shop Clerk, Son With Selling Illegal Kratom
Earlier this month, federal authorities charged a store clerk and his son with selling an illegal kratom product, prosecutors said.
In September, an informant sent to the store by investigators purchased kratom-based pills from the clerk, Yahya Mohamed Mosleh, 51, who warned the informant to “be careful taking the pills because people were dying from them,” U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent Michael Dassance said in an affidavit.
Mosleh and his 18-year-old son have since been charged with possession with the intent to distribute controlled substances in connection with an investigation into the death of two students.
The Epoch Times reached out to Scott Davis and A.E. Harlow Jr., attorneys for Mosleh and his son respectively, for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.
Attorney General Todd Blanche said in an Oct. 9 statement that dangerous and addictive opioids do not belong behind convenience store counters.
“Our nation’s children and communities deserve protection from harmful substances like 7-OH and other powerful synthetic drugs,” he added.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
