The Drug Enforcement Administration is revising its emergency scheduling approach for 7-hydroxymitragynine and three related opioid substances, using concentration thresholds intended to separate enhanced products from trace compounds found in botanical kratom.
The agency will issue new notices of intent covering 7-OH, mitragynine pseudoindoxyl, MGM-15 and MGM-16. The change follows updated scientific advice from the Department of Health and Human Services and is procedural rather than a final scheduling order for every substance.
Under the recommendation, 7-OH and MGPI would be subject to Schedule I control when either substance, or their combined amount, exceeds one milligram per gram in a solid product or one milligram per milliliter in a liquid. The same treatment would apply when the ratio of mitragynine to 7-OH, MGPI or their combined amount is below 100 to one.
Those thresholds reflect a legal and scientific problem. Low levels of 7-OH occur naturally in kratom, and HHS said MGPI may also appear in trace amounts. A rule aimed only at the names of the substances could therefore reach ordinary botanical material along with products deliberately fortified to produce a stronger opioid effect.
MGPI, MGM-15 and MGM-16 were temporarily placed in Schedule I in August. Those controls remain in force during the new 30-day notice period and until the DEA issues another temporary scheduling order. The agency has not yet issued a temporary scheduling order for 7-OH.
The Justice Department’s scheduling announcement explains the thresholds and the different procedural status of the four substances.
