Is Kratom Federally Legal? Where the Government Stands, October 2026

By Kemal Whyte, founder and CEO of Rebel X Brands.
Published October 29, 2026.

Is kratom federally legal? Under federal drug scheduling, yes, though several states ban it outright. DEA says "Kratom is not controlled under the Controlled Substances Act", and mitragynine, its predominant alkaloid, is not controlled. But FDA says kratom "is not lawfully marketed in the U.S. as a drug product, a dietary supplement, or a food additive in conventional food." Three 7-OH relatives, MGPI, MGM-15 and MGM-16, were placed in Schedule I on August 26, 2026. On October 29, 2026, DEA had proposed, not ordered, Schedule I for 7-OH and MGPI above a threshold, with an order possible from November 13.

So "federally legal" has two halves. DEA's half is the drug schedules: kratom is not on them, though DEA lists it as a "Drug and Chemical of Concern", which is not a schedule. FDA's half is the shelf: what kratom may lawfully be sold as.

Is kratom federally legal? The record in one table

Agency or body	What it has done	Instrument and date	Status, October 29, 2026	Source
DEA	Left kratom and mitragynine unscheduled.	Withdrawal of a notice, October 13, 2016.	Final.	FR Doc 2016-24659; DEA fact sheet.
DEA	MGPI, MGM-15 and MGM-16 in Schedule I, no threshold.	Temporary order, effective August 26, 2026.	Final, to August 26, 2028 unless extended or replaced.	FR Doc 2026-17429.
DEA	7-OH above 0.050% (leaf by dry weight; other articles, 0.050% or 1.00 mg).	Notice of intent, July 6 2026.	No order; withdrawal announced.	FR Docs 2026-13580 and 2026-20943.
DEA	7-OH and MGPI above 1 mg/g or 1 mg/mL, or a mitragynine ratio under 100.	Notice of intent, October 14, 2026.	Proposed.	FR Doc 2026-20943.
DOJ	Enforcement discretion on incidental trace MGPI.	Press release, August 25 2026.	Policy; not an exemption.	DOJ release 26-971.
HHS	Recommended the October threshold to DEA.	Letter, October 8, 2026.	Advisory.	FR Doc 2026-20943.
FDA	Kratom not lawful as a drug, dietary supplement or food additive.	"FDA and Kratom", current as of December 2, 2025.	Final, as FDA's determination.	FDA.
Congress	Three bills on 7-OH and related compounds.	H.R. 8000, S. 5383, H.R. 10272; March to September 2026.	Pending, in committee.	govinfo bill status.
White House	Enforcement focus on 7-OH "when illegally marketed or adulterated".	National Drug Control Strategy 2026.	Advisory.	Strategy PDF.

DEA: what is scheduled, what is proposed, and what "on or after" means

In 2016 DEA withdrew a plan to schedule mitragynine and 7-OH temporarily, saying the two "therefore remain ... noncontrolled substances under federal law", and no permanent scheduling decision on kratom or mitragynine has published since. Its kratom fact sheet says "Kratom is not controlled under the Controlled Substances Act; however, there may be some state regulations or prohibitions against the possession and use of kratom."

What is scheduled is narrower. A temporary order of August 26, 2026, put three 7-OH relatives, mitragynine pseudoindoxyl (MGPI), MGM-15 and MGM-16, in Schedule I "until August 26, 2028" unless replaced sooner, with no threshold: "Possession of any quantity of mitragynine pseudoindoxyl, MGM-15, or MGM-16 in a manner not authorized by the CSA on or after August 26, 2026 is unlawful". 7-OH is not one of the three.

7-OH is what DEA has proposed, twice. Its notice of July 6, 2026, drew a low line, over 0.050% 7-OH (leaf by dry weight; any other article, over 0.050% or 1.00 mg), and said an order would publish "on or after August 5, 2026". None did. The notice of October 14, 2026, 91 FR 65370, proposes temporary Schedule I for 7-OH and MGPI, alone or combined, above 1 mg per gram in a solid or 1 mg per milliliter in a liquid, or wherever mitragynine is less than 100 times the 7-OH, the MGPI or the two combined. By our arithmetic 1 mg per gram is 0.1% by weight, twice July's percentage.

The October notice also says DEA "is withdrawing" the July notice "in a separate document contained in this issue of the Federal Register". That document was not in the issue, and a search on October 29, 2026, still did not find it.

Read "on or after November 13, 2026" as a floor: under 21 U.S.C. 811(h) an order "may not be issued before the expiration of thirty days from" the notice. Nothing happens automatically that day. The notice says an order, if DEA publishes one, "will take effect on the date the order is published in the Federal Register and remain in effect for two years, with a possible extension of an additional year". July showed how much the floor promises.

FDA: not a drug, not a supplement, not a food additive

FDA's half is blunter. Its page "FDA and Kratom", current as of December 2, 2025, says "Kratom is not appropriate for use as a dietary supplement", and calls kratom added to food "an unsafe food additive". FDA also "has warned consumers not to use kratom because of the risk of serious adverse events, including liver toxicity, seizures, and substance use disorder (SUD)."

Its Import Alert 54-15, which lets districts detain kratom supplements and bulk ingredients from listed firms "without physical examination", has entries going back to February 28, 2014; its only 2026 entry, of August 17, is for a firm whose product is described as 7-OH tablets. FDA's warning-letter listing, searched on October 29, 2026, shows no 2026 letter naming kratom, mitragynine or 7-OH; the newest kratom letters were issued on June 25, 2025. In July 2025 FDA recommended scheduling "certain 7-hydroxymitragynine (also known as 7-OH) products", a recommendation HHS's October letters have since replaced.

HHS and the threshold: a recommendation, not a safety finding

The line in DEA's October notice came from HHS. Its request for information on the July threshold opened on July 6, 2026, was extended to September 10, and showed about 30,340 published comments when the docket was read on October 29, 2026. Then came the October letters, which I know only as the Federal Register describes them. Assistant Secretary for Health Brian Christine wrote to DEA on October 8, 2026, recommending the new line for 7-OH and MGPI. A separate letter of October 6 recommended an MGPI threshold, and DEA's companion notice, which would re-issue MGM-15 and MGM-16 in a new order, says "HHS did not recommend imposing any threshold for either MGM-15 or MGM-16."

HHS's press release of October 9, 2026, quotes Secretary Kennedy: "We are drawing a clear line between natural kratom and dangerous, enhanced opioid products."

The sentence that matters most is in DEA's notice: "neither HHS nor DEA has made a finding that these substances are safe to use at below-threshold levels." A threshold decides what is scheduled. It does not decide what is safe. The agencies also differ on one fact. HHS says "some evidence reviewed by FDA suggests MGPI may also occur at trace levels in some natural or kratom-derived products"; DOJ said in August that "The published scientific literature has not established MGPI as a naturally occurring kratom alkaloid." I cannot settle that, and they have not.

DOJ: enforcement discretion is not an exemption

DOJ announced the August order on August 25, 2026, with a policy attached. Its press release says the department "will exercise enforcement discretion when only incidental trace amounts of MGPI are confirmed in a product otherwise consistent with botanical kratom." Then: "This policy does not create a legal exemption and does not change MGPI's status as a schedule I controlled substance." It does not cover MGM-15, MGM-16 or added MGPI, and the order itself has no trace carve-out.

Congress: three bills in committee, and two letters

Congress has bills, not law: H.R. 8000, the END 7-OH Act, introduced on March 19, 2026, and the End Gas Station Heroin Act, introduced as S. 5383 on August 8, 2026, and as H.R. 10272 on September 3, 2026. Each was referred to committee, and in the status data read on October 29, 2026, none had a recorded hearing, markup or vote. H.R. 8000 would schedule 7-OH, "not including 7-hydroxymitragynine naturally contained in the plant"; the other two would exempt natural amounts at or below 1 mg per gram or 1 mg per milliliter, figures that resemble HHS's line without being it.

On October 7, 2026, Senators Grassley, Lee and Collins asked DEA "to consider scheduling the entire kratom plant, including all levels of 7-OH". They wrote about the July line, before the re-notice, and I found no reply. On August 3, 2026, the Senate Finance Committee's ranking member wrote to a kratom company announcing "an investigation into the kratom industry"; the accusations in that letter are the senator's.

The White House: one strategy document, and a remark only the news reports

The one White House document on kratom I found is the National Drug Control Strategy 2026. It says enforcement will focus on "dangerous substances like 7-hydroxymitragynine (7-OH, an active component and potent opioid found in the kratom plant) when illegally marketed or adulterated". The President's remark about "natural 7-OH" is news, not policy. STAT reported on May 11, 2026, that he said, "We're looking very seriously at natural 7-OH and getting that approved," and that it "was not clear what Trump meant". I found no transcript.

Did the government back down on the kratom ban? The story against the documents

On October 28, 2026, The New York Times reported the October notice as a retreat, under the headline "Trump Administration Backs Down on an Opioid Ban After Kratom Industry Lobbying". I read it as republished by GV Wire under syndication, because the Times page was blocked to my tools.

Against the documents: on October 29, 2026, nothing had eased in law. DEA's notice says the August order on MGPI "remains in effect until either it expires or the new temporary order is published and the previous order is withdrawn". Where the Times says Secretary Kennedy's department decided "to allow some levels of the compound", the notice says the new line "would permit certain products to remain in the marketplace", in the same sentence that says no safety finding has been made.

One detail is wrong on the record, one is oversimplified, and one is a forecast. The Times says a 2025 "plan banned highly concentrated 7-OH items"; in 2025 there was a recommendation and no order. It says DOJ "would not press charges" over trace MGPI; DOJ said "enforcement discretion" and "does not create a legal exemption". And "expected to be finalized in the coming weeks" is a forecast, in the Times's sentence about an American Kratom Association official, repeated by Becker's Behavioral Health.

The Times also paraphrases the senior author of a study the administration cited: the proposed limits "are hardly traces: They are 25 to 500 times the levels currently found on the market". That is one scientist's characterization, not a government figure. The Johns Hopkins Hub explainer of October 27, 2026, gets the basics right: "Whole-leaf kratom and mitragynine remain federally uncontrolled substances".

The lobbying record, from the disclosure database

The Times frames the change as the work of lobbying. HHS, through a spokesperson the Times quotes, says "Neither litigation nor political contributions influenced HHS' recommendation". I cannot test either claim; I can show the record.

The Lobbying Disclosure Act database, read on October 29, 2026, lists the American Kratom Association as a client in 12 registrations. The income its firms reported from the association in 2026 adds up, filing by filing, to $235,000 for the first quarter, $230,000 for the second and $190,000 so far for the third, with no third-quarter report listed yet from three firms that filed earlier in the year or from the association's in-house registration. Those sums are our researcher's arithmetic; the database prints only each filing's figure. Its issues include "Protect legal access for consumers to kratom products."

Other clients are on file. Stop Gas Station Heroin LLC appears with $150,000 reported for each of the first three quarters of 2026, on "Issues relating to Kratom products and regulations." End Kratom Addiction's registration, effective July 2026, states the issue "Fighting to get Kratom declared a schedule 1 drug". Filings show money and topics. They do not show influence or outcome.

Our own record, since I am writing about other people's: the database lists no client or registrant named Rebel X or Empowered Creations, the company our brands trade under, and searches of the HHS docket under our names found no comment from our companies, though not every name was searched. On the association, one old post on grhkratom.com says "We are an active member of the American Kratom Association and follow their GMP Standards Program", and another says "we are in the midst of achieving AKA certified vendor status". The association's GMP Qualified Vendors list, read on October 29, 2026, includes none of our brands, as newer pages of ours say.

What the CDC data say, and what they cannot

CDC's figures come from poison centers. Its MMWR of March 26, 2026, counted 14,449 kratom exposure reports from 2015 to 2025, with "the record high 3,434 reports in 2025" about 1,200% above 2015. An exposure includes "suspected contact", so these are calls, not users and not a rate. Of 233 kratom-associated deaths in those reports, 184 (79%) involved multiple substances, and CDC says the data cannot tell leaf products from "semisynthetic or concentrated formulations" or show which substance "was most related to" an outcome, including death. The 2025 rise, it says, "coincides with the emergence of high-potency, semisynthetic formulations". Coincides is CDC's verb, and the right one.

Kratom laws in the states, in brief

State law can be stricter: DEA says its intent on 7-OH "does not preempt more restrictive state law". Governments do not agree on a count. North Dakota's governor's office said "Nine states have banned kratom", DEA counts "ten states" for 7-OH and names nine, Connecticut calls itself "the seventh state" and a Senate letter says eight. Several, then.

From the states' own documents: Tennessee's Public Chapter 950, in effect since July 1, 2026, prohibits "the possession, sale, manufacture, and distribution of kratom", in a Nashville agency's summary. Louisiana's Act No. 41, its tobacco and alcohol regulator says, made possession and distribution illegal from August 1, 2025. Connecticut's regulations, given final approval on April 2, 2026, schedule kratom "including its leaves, stem and any extracts". Massachusetts scheduled it by emergency regulation from August 28, 2026, for "up to a year". North Dakota's HB 1628 bans synthetic kratom, and its governor's office said on September 4, 2026, that all kratom sales stay prohibited until rules are implemented. Kentucky's sales ban, KRS 217.2202, starts on July 1, 2027.

What this means if you buy kratom, and if you sell it

If you buy kratom. Our advice: get your state's answer from your state's own agency first, not from a tracker, mine included. FDA says 7-OH products "should be avoided". In uniform, the civilian answer is not yours: the Defense Department's supplement safety program says "All kratom, mitragynine, and 7-OH products are prohibited for use by Service Members".

If you sell kratom. Our advice: read FDA before DEA, because FDA treats a dietary supplement containing kratom as adulterated whatever DEA does. Treat DOJ's trace policy as discretion, not an exemption. Treat the threshold as a proposal until an order is in the Federal Register. Ask a lawyer licensed in your state, not a seller, me included.

I am that seller, and the kratom products my companies sell contain mitragynine. Read my view with that in mind.

Here is where two products of ours sit against the proposed line. KING K PRIME extract tablets were still purchasable on grhkratom.com on October 29, 2026. The certificate for lot 02122026 records 7-OH at 0.102% by weight as received, 1.02 mg per gram by our arithmetic, just above the proposed 1 mg per gram; by the same arithmetic its mitragynine ratio, about 255, clears 100, and it has no MGPI result. The lot the listing now links, 080826, reports 0.226 mg per gram. I have not verified which lot ships. And Rebel X Brands sold a 7-OH tablet line, Tier Seven, until July 30, 2026; on October 29 its old addresses still redirected to a King K page, and its public certificate records 7-OH at 17.1% by weight. On that date the line was a proposal, not law, and where any lot of ours sits against it is a question for counsel.

Where I land, as opinion. Every federal scheduling move of 2026 in this column is about concentrated or synthetic compounds, though three senators want the whole plant considered. The White House warns that kratom sold in the United States can include "highly enriched levels of laboratory-made 7-hydroxymitragynine (7-OH)". My industry put it there. A line in milligrams per gram, if DEA orders one, will be only as good as the certificates behind it, and a certificate tests a lot, not a shelf. Watch the Federal Register, not the news.

My column on when the 7-OH ban starts keeps the dates, and my piece on whether 7-OH shows up on a drug test covers testing. Found an error, or a page of mine that says something different? Write to me.

Questions about kratom and federal law

Is kratom federally legal?

It is not a federally controlled substance: DEA says "Kratom is not controlled under the Controlled Substances Act", and mitragynine is not controlled either. But FDA says kratom "is not lawfully marketed in the U.S. as a drug product, a dietary supplement, or a food additive in conventional food."

Is kratom illegal in the United States?

Not as a federally controlled substance, but in parts of the country, yes. Tennessee, Louisiana, Connecticut and Massachusetts, among others, ban it, and Kentucky's sales ban takes effect on July 1, 2027. DEA says its intent on 7-OH "does not preempt more restrictive state law".

Will kratom be banned federally?

Nobody can honestly promise either way. DEA's notice of October 14, 2026, covers 7-OH and MGPI above a threshold, not the leaf. On October 7, 2026, three senators asked DEA "to consider scheduling the entire kratom plant"; that is a request, not a proposal.

Did the government back down on the kratom ban?

Not in law, as of October 29, 2026. The New York Times reported a retreat after industry lobbying, but the documents show a proposal to replace the August order's no-threshold ban on MGPI with a threshold. That order stays in effect until a new one publishes and it is withdrawn.

Disclaimer: This column summarizes public documents as they read on October 29, 2026. A notice of intent is a proposal and a bill is not law. It is commentary, not legal or medical advice. Opinion and advice are the author's own, and the author holds commercial interests in botanical brands. Nothing here is a health claim, and statements about botanical products have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.

Written by Kemal Whyte, founder and CEO of Rebel X Brands, Austin, Texas.