Article: Is 7-OH Banned Now? The DEA's New 1 mg per Gram Threshold (October 2026)

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Is 7-OH Banned Now? The DEA's New 1 mg per Gram Threshold (October 2026)

The DEA rewrote its 7-OH plan this week. A notice published in the Federal Register on October 14 replaces the July proposal with a hard number: 1 milligram per gram. Also this week, the FDA asked for input on how ibogaine trials should be run, the comment window on five tryptamines closes October 23, and two more towns took up kratom sales bans.

Is 7-OH banned now? Not yet. Here is what the DEA published

On October 14 the DEA published a notice of intent to temporarily place 7-hydroxymitragynine and mitragynine pseudoindoxyl above a threshold in Schedule I. The threshold comes from an October 8 letter by Assistant Secretary for Health Adm. Brian Christine. HHS announced the recommendation on October 9, and the Justice Department announced the new notices the same day.

Under the notice, 7-OH or MGPI, alone or combined, would be controlled when a product meets either test:

More than 1 mg per gram in a powder, capsule or other solid, or more than 1 mg per milliliter in a liquid.
A ratio of mitragynine to 7-OH (or MGPI, or the two combined) below 100 to 1.

In lab terms, 1 mg per gram is 0.1% by weight. The ratio test catches products where 7-OH has been boosted relative to the mitragynine, even when the total amount is small. HHS said the numbers are meant to target enhanced products and leave out botanical kratom, which can carry 7-OH at trace levels. This notice does not place mitragynine itself in Schedule I.

When could the 7-OH order take effect?

Not before November 13, 2026. The notice says the temporary order will be published on or after that date. A temporary order takes effect when it is published and runs two years, with a possible one-year extension. Until then, 7-OH is still not on the federal schedules. State and local law is a separate question, and several states already restrict it.

The new notice withdraws the July 6 notice on 7-OH. The August 26 temporary order that put MGPI in Schedule I with no threshold stays in force until the DEA replaces it. In a companion notice published the same day, the DEA said it will reissue its order for MGM-15 and MGM-16, two synthetic 7-OH derivatives, without changes. Both stay in Schedule I in the meantime.

The DEA notice cites its own toxicology data: 85 cases involving 7-OH since 2019, 55 of them fatal, and at least 31 overdose cases involving MGPI between February 2025 and February 2026, 25 of them fatal.

For anyone selling kratom, the federal line is now a lab number. A label that says "kratom" does not tell you which side of 1 mg per gram a product sits on. A current certificate of analysis that reports 7-OH and mitragynine as separate lines does.

How should ibogaine trials be run? FDA is taking comments until November 20

The FDA published a request for information on early-phase ibogaine trials on October 6, one day before our usual window, with the comment period still open. The notice sketches one possible design. Starting doses would not exceed 10 mg/kg. Participants would be dosed one at a time in ascending groups, in an inpatient unit equipped to manage a life-threatening arrhythmia, with continuous heart rhythm monitoring for as long as 36 hours. Dosing would pause for review if, for example, a participant's QTc stays above 500 ms for more than two days.

The FDA wrote that the 5 to 20 mg/kg doses seen in published reports "lack adequate safety margins based on available nonclinical data." The notice states it is not guidance and sets no requirements. Comments are due November 20, 2026, under docket FDA-2026-N-10429.

DEA tryptamine proposal: comments close October 23

This one is not new, but the deadline is close. On September 23 the DEA proposed placing five tryptamines in Schedule I: 4-OH-DiPT, 5-MeO-AMT, 5-MeO-MiPT, 5-MeO-DET and DiPT. Comments and hearing requests are due October 23, 2026, docket DEA-2026-1585. The agency proposed the same five in 2022 and withdrew that rule in July 2022 to get an updated evaluation from HHS. This is a proposed rule. Nothing has been scheduled.

Which towns are voting on kratom bans this month?

Arlington, Washington. The city council was set to take up an ordinance on October 12 that would bar the sale, distribution and advertising of products containing kratom, mitragynine, 7-OH, synthetic kratom alkaloids or related derivatives, according to the Lynnwood Times and KIRO 7. Personal possession and use would not be covered. We found no recorded vote as of this morning, and the city's posted draft would not load for us. Treat it as proposed.

Streator, Illinois. The council's committee of the whole discussed an ordinance on October 7 that would ban synthetic kratom, set concentration limits for mitragynine, 7-OH and total kratom alkaloids, and require retailers to keep a certificate of analysis on file. Sales of natural kratom to adults 21 and over would still be allowed. It goes to the full council on October 21. That is reported by Shaw Local; we have not confirmed the primary source.

Healing Herbals sells kanna, kava, blue lotus, Amanita muscaria, wild dagga and akuamma. We do not sell kratom or 7-OH, and we cover it because the rules written for it keep reaching the rest of the botanical shelf. Adults 21 and over.

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Written by Herbal Healings