DEA Temporarily Bans Three Synthetic Kratom Compounds in Schedule I

The Drug Enforcement Administration placed three synthetic kratom compounds into Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act on August 26, 2026, an immediate and temporary ban that makes the substances illegal to manufacture, sell, or possess anywhere in the United States. The temporary scheduling order covers mitragynine pseudoindoxyl, MGM-15, and MGM-16, all lab-made derivatives of 7-hydroxymitragynine, the potent opioid alkaloid in the kratom plant.

The order took effect the day it published, with no phase-in period. Anyone who currently handles the three compounds must either hold a DEA Schedule I research registration or surrender existing stock, and retail sale to the public is barred outright. The ban runs through August 26, 2028, and DEA can extend it by one year while it runs the slower permanent-scheduling process.

DEA based the move on a finding that the substances pose “an imminent hazard to public safety.” The agency pointed to 56 overdose cases tied to mitragynine pseudoindoxyl between February 2025 and May 2026, 48 of them fatal, and 17 overdose cases tied to MGM-15 between February and April 2026, 16 of them fatal. MGM-16 has not yet appeared on the consumer market, but DEA found at least one vendor listing it for upcoming sale and argued that scheduling the other two without it would “create a regulatory loophole that manufacturers are already poised to exploit.”

What These Compounds Are and Where They Were Sold

All three are semi-synthetic opioids produced by chemically modifying purified mitragynine or 7-hydroxymitragynine, not naturally occurring alkaloids from the kratom leaf itself. Mitragynine pseudoindoxyl first turned up in consumer products in 2024; MGM-15 followed in September 2025. By early 2026, according to the order, both were being sold in gas stations, smoke shops, corner stores, and online under brand names like Kama, Hydroxie, Fruity Perks, and Happie Tabs, often in flavored chewable tablets, powders, and liquid shots.

The compounds are far stronger than the plant material they derive from. Preclinical data cited by DEA show mitragynine pseudoindoxyl at roughly 100 times the potency of mitragynine at the mu-opioid receptor, MGM-15 at about 50 times morphine’s potency in animal models, and MGM-16 at about 240 times morphine’s. The order describes marketing that framed the products as “botanical extracts” and “mood boosters” while some vendor sites simultaneously warned of “dependence,” “overdose,” and “death.”

A study of 51 mitragynine pseudoindoxyl products sold online found 35 had an added flavor and 32 used brightly colored packaging; 39 of the 51 were chewable tablets, and 71 percent combined mitragynine pseudoindoxyl with 7-hydroxymitragynine. DEA said the combination of high potency, child-appealing formats, and uncertain dosing made the products especially dangerous.

The Road to the Order

DEA Administrator Terrance C. Cole signed the order on August 24, 2026, but the process began months earlier. The agency transmitted its required notice to the Department of Health and Human Services on December 15, 2025. HHS responded on January 20, 2026, that the Food and Drug Administration had no approved or investigational new drug applications for any of the three compounds and raised no objection to temporary placement. DEA then published its notice of intent on July 6, 2026, starting the 30-day clock the statute requires before an order can issue.

The action lands in the middle of a broader federal and state fight over kratom-derived products. Virginia’s attorney general recently stood up an enforcement unit aimed at hemp-derived THC and kratom products, and industry groups have gone to court in Missouri and Virginia over state-level bans on intoxicating cannabinoids and related compounds. At the federal level, the DEA is simultaneously managing a separate cannabis rescheduling docket and opening comment windows on cannabis research applications, making this kratom-compound order one piece of a crowded scheduling agenda.

What the Order Requires Now

The practical obligations fall on anyone in the supply chain. Registrants have 30 calendar days from August 26, 2026, to bring labeling, packaging, inventory, and recordkeeping into compliance. Researchers already registered to work with another Schedule I substance can continue working with the three compounds only if they file for a new or modified registration within 90 calendar days of the effective date. Possession of any quantity outside an authorized registration is unlawful and can draw administrative, civil, or criminal sanctions.

Two features of the order matter beyond the immediate ban. Temporary scheduling orders are not subject to judicial review, so the industry groups that have sued over state kratom and hemp bans have no direct court challenge available against this federal action. And because DEA treated the order as a non-rulemaking action, it did not go through public notice-and-comment, a step the agency said would have been “impracticable and contrary to the public interest” given the urgency of the hazard finding.