DEA Emergency-Schedules Three Kratom-Derived Compounds as Schedule I

Why it matters

The classification makes selling these concentrated kratom derivatives a federal crime overnight, a shift that clinicians warn could push dependent users into withdrawal or toward more dangerous substitutes.

The big picture

The move follows a decade of federal back-and-forth on kratom scheduling, including a shelved 2016 DEA attempt, and builds on a year of escalating concern since HHS first recommended restricting concentrated 7-OH in July 2025. States including Florida, Ohio, Kentucky and California had already restricted the substances before this federal action.

Key findings

• DOJ/DEA classified mitragynine pseudoindoxyl (MGPI), MGM-15, and MGM-16 as Schedule I substances on an emergency, two-year basis effective Aug. 25, 2026.
• The order does not apply to natural, whole-leaf botanical kratom products, only to the semisynthetic derivatives.
• Addiction physicians report a roughly tenfold jump in dependency cases in the past year, from about one per week to ten per week at one Massachusetts treatment center.
• Separately, HHS extended public comment on a proposed 0.05% dry-weight threshold for scheduling 7-hydroxymitragynine (7-OH) until Sept. 10, 2026.
• Natural kratom is now regulated in at least 22 states and banned outright in eight, including Alabama, Connecticut, Ohio and Vermont.

What they say

"This action will protect our nation's children and communities from the dangers of drug addiction and abuse," Attorney General Todd Blanche said in the DOJ announcement.

Bottom line

**Federal regulators drew a hard line between whole-leaf kratom, still legal, and its concentrated derivatives, now treated like heroin and LSD.**