Federal / DEASchedule I, Synthetics Only

The DEA published a temporary scheduling order in the Federal Register on August 26, 2026 placing mitragynine pseudoindoxyl, MGM-15 and MGM-16, with their isomers, esters, ethers and salts, into Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act. The order states it is effective August 26, 2026 until August 26, 2028, and the DEA grounded it in a finding that scheduling was necessary to avoid an imminent hazard to public safety. Some trade coverage gives August 25 as the effective date; the Federal Register document itself says August 26.

The order describes all three as synthetic, made by chemically modifying purified mitragynine or 7-OH. Any product containing them is now a federal controlled substance, with criminal exposure attached to manufacture, distribution, importing and possession. Hudson Valley Botanicals sells whole-leaf and powdered kratom only and has never sold any of the three, so nothing about our catalog or our shipping changes.

One question is still open. The order makes possession of any quantity unlawful and sets no exception for trace amounts, and the American Kratom Association says modern testing may detect naturally formed traces of mitragynine pseudoindoxyl in ordinary leaf products. In late August 2026 the AKA asked the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (No. 1:26-cv-02997) to confirm that the order does not apply to botanical kratom containing only such traces. It does not ask the court to set the order aside. On October 9, 2026 the court stayed the case. The AKA says it welcomes the resolution of its litigation, and its lawyer told Pain News Network the case will be dismissed once the DEA publishes the new order. No dismissal has been entered yet: the stay runs through November 13, 2026, when the parties owe the court a joint status report, and on October 14, 2026 three individuals asked the court to let them intervene and to dismiss the case.

On October 9, 2026 the DEA withdrew its July 2026 7-OH notice and announced a new one that would place 7-OH in Schedule I above 1 milligram per gram (1 milligram per milliliter for liquids) or below 100 parts mitragynine to 1 part 7-OH, and no temporary order can take effect before November 13, 2026. The same limits would apply to mitragynine pseudoindoxyl, alone or combined with 7-OH, while MGM-15 and MGM-16 stay in Schedule I at any amount. The new notice is based on an October 8, 2026 letter from the HHS Assistant Secretary for Health, written after HHS reviewed the comments on its Request for Information (docket HHS-OASH-2026-0232, closed September 10, 2026). HHS says the recommendation responds to questions about how scheduling could affect natural botanical kratom products that may contain trace amounts of mitragynine pseudoindoxyl. The notice was published in the Federal Register on October 14, 2026 (91 FR 65370), and it states that "neither HHS nor DEA has made a finding that these substances are safe to use at below-threshold levels."

On October 7, 2026, Senators Chuck Grassley, Mike Lee and Susan Collins wrote to the DEA and the FDA. They asked the DEA to issue the 7-OH order immediately and to begin proceedings to permanently schedule "all harmful substances found in kratom," and asked the FDA to send the DEA a permanent scheduling recommendation "for the full kratom plant." A letter from senators does not change the law.

One local overlap worth noting for New York readers: Dutchess County Resolution 2026136 names these same three compounds, so the county restriction and the new federal prohibition now cover identical substances.