The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has taken a major step toward placing concentrated 7-hydroxymitragynine (7-OH) products under Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), while exempting natural leaf kratom that does not contain enhanced levels of 7-OH.
The agency published two notices of intent in the Federal Register this week. One notice would temporarily place in Schedule I synthetic 7-OH products containing more than 0.050% 7-OH by weight/weight, weight/volume, or volume/volume, or more than 1.0 mg of 7-OH per article. This threshold is intended to distinguish highly concentrated or synthetic 7-OH products from botanical kratom, which contains only trace amounts of naturally occurring 7-OH.
The other notice would temporarily place three synthetic 7-OH-related derivatives — mitragynine pseudoindoxyl, dihydro-7-hydroxymitragynine (MGM-15), and the 9-fluoro derivative of 7-OH (MGM-16) — in Schedule I.