When Does the 7-OH Ban Start? DEA's Date Is a Floor, Not a Promise
Kemal WhyteFirst, in case you are here because someone is unwell.
If someone is difficult to wake, is not breathing normally, is having a seizure, or is unresponsive, call 911.
1-800-222-1222. Poison Control, around the clock, for a reaction that worries you.
988. The crisis lifeline, anywhere in the US, by call or text.
Treatment. The federal treatment locator, findtreatment.gov.
Kratom is not a treatment for opioid use disorder, and it is not a treatment for opioid or kratom withdrawal; the medicines with an evidence base behind them are buprenorphine, methadone and naltrexone. I sell botanical products for a living, so clinical questions belong with a clinician, not with me.
Listen to this column
Read by an AI voice. The words are mine, the voice is not. The whole column is read aloud, including the helpline numbers above, the status box, the state notes and the opinion section. The two tables are on the page rather than in the audio, because they are grids.
Checked October 19, 2026. When does the 7-OH ban start? Not yet: no federal order schedules 7-OH, though several states already ban or schedule it. DEA's notice of intent of October 14, 2026, 91 FR 65370 (FR Doc 2026-20943), proposes temporary Schedule I for 7-OH and mitragynine pseudoindoxyl (MGPI) above a new threshold, with an order "on or after November 13, 2026". DEA says it is withdrawing its July notice; that withdrawal had not published. MGPI, MGM-15 and MGM-16 have been in Schedule I since August 26, 2026, under a separate order.
What this covers. The federal documents, what a temporary order is, and which states ban, schedule or cap 7-OH: bans and their status, never where or how to buy.
Who wrote this, and what he sells. Kemal Whyte. I run Rebel X Brands and its kratom house brands, King K, GUD Tonics and GRH Kratom. Read me as an interested party, and read nothing here as a claim that any product I sell sits under any line. Our brands sell only to adults 21 and over.
Next check November 13, 2026, DEA's earliest date for an order, and any day something new on 7-OH publishes in the Federal Register.
When does the 7-OH ban start? As of October 19, 2026, not yet. No federal order schedules 7-OH on that date, and none had been issued when the Justice Department said on October 9: "For 7-OH, DEA had not yet issued a temporary scheduling order." What exists on that date is a proposal, and it changed on October 14.
That day DEA published a new notice of intent, 91 FR 65370. It proposes temporary Schedule I for 7-OH and mitragynine pseudoindoxyl (MGPI) when either alone, or both combined, is above 1 mg per gram in a solid or 1 mg per milliliter in a liquid, or when a product holds less than 100 times as much mitragynine as those two. Its date: "The temporary scheduling order will be published in the Federal Register on or after November 13, 2026."
"On or after" is a floor. DEA's July notice said the same about August 5, and nothing followed. So the answer to "when will the 7-OH ban start" is: not before November 13, 2026, on DEA's own timetable, on the day an order publishes if one does, and on no date anyone can honestly promise you.
When will the 7-OH ban start? Why "on or after" is only a floor
The July attempt is the best evidence. DEA's July notice, 91 FR 40917, published on July 6, 2026, with a lower line: over 0.050% 7-OH, or "greater than 1.00 milligram of 7-hydroxymitragynine in the article". It said the order would publish "on or after August 5, 2026". None did. A search of the Federal Register on October 19, 2026, public inspection included, found no 7-OH order, and I have found no DEA or Justice Department statement explaining why August 5 passed in silence.
What changed is a letter. HHS wrote to DEA on October 8 recommending the new threshold, and the October notice says: "Based on this letter, DEA is withdrawing the notice of intent to control 7-hydroxymitragynine above a specified threshold elsewhere in this issue of the Federal Register". It is not in that issue, and on October 19 it was nowhere else in the Federal Register either. "Is withdrawing" is the honest tense.
The two lines differ. By my arithmetic 0.050% is 0.5 mg per gram, so the concentration figure has doubled; the per-article limb is gone, a ratio test has arrived, and MGPI joins 7-OH in one sum. The new line is not a safety finding either. The notice says "neither HHS nor DEA has made a finding that these substances are safe to use at below-threshold levels."
When an order publishes, it "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". The notice describes no grace period. Here is the record as checked.
| Date | Document | What it does | Status, October 19, 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| July 6, 2026 | DEA notice of intent, 91 FR 40917 | 7-OH above 0.050%, or above 1.00 mg in the article. | No order. DEA says it is withdrawing the notice; the withdrawal has not published. |
| August 26, 2026 | DEA temporary order, 91 FR 54948 | MGPI, MGM-15 and MGM-16 in Schedule I, no threshold. | In force "until August 26, 2028", or until replaced. |
| October 14, 2026 | DEA notice of intent, 91 FR 65370 | 7-OH and MGPI above 1 mg/g or 1 mg/mL, or a mitragynine ratio below 100. | Proposed. |
| October 14, 2026 | DEA notice of intent, 91 FR 65381 | Proposes a new order for MGM-15 and MGM-16, "without change". | Proposed. |
| November 13, 2026 | Earliest order date DEA gives | An order takes effect the day it publishes. | A floor, not a date. |
What a temporary scheduling order is, in the statute's words
DEA is using 21 U.S.C. 811(h), the Controlled Substances Act's route for scheduling a substance "on a temporary basis" to "avoid an imminent hazard to the public safety". The quotes below are from Cornell's copy of section 811.
Thirty days. An order "may not be issued before the expiration of thirty days from" the notice's publication and from "the date the Attorney General has transmitted the notice required by paragraph (4)", the notice to HHS. Add 30 days to October 14 and you reach November 13, DEA's date.
Two years, plus one. The scheduling "shall expire at the end of 2 years from the date of the issuance of the order", but the Attorney General may, while permanent proceedings are pending, "extend the temporary scheduling for up to 1 year." Temporary is not short, and DEA says it intends to pursue permanent scheduling as well.
No court review. "An order issued under paragraph (1) is not subject to judicial review." A final permanent rule is reviewable; the temporary order is not. Nor is there a public comment period. DEA says notice-and-comment requirements "do not apply to this notice of intent", and the one public window, HHS's request for information on the threshold, closed on September 10, 2026, four weeks before the letter behind the new line.
My reading, not the statute's words: a notice controls nothing. It starts a clock.
What is already in Schedule I, and has been since August 26, 2026
One order has published, and it is easy to mistake for a 7-OH ban. The temporary order of August 26, 2026 put three relatives of 7-OH in Schedule I, MGPI, MGM-15 and MGM-16, "effective August 26, 2026, until August 26, 2028". 7-OH is not one of them. The order is blunt: "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".
Any quantity. MGPI has no threshold until a new order replaces the August one, which the October notice says "remains in effect until either it expires or the new temporary order is published and the previous order is withdrawn, whichever occurs first." MGM-15 and MGM-16 keep no threshold either way. The Justice Department's August policy of "enforcement discretion" for "incidental trace amounts of MGPI" carries its own warning: "This policy does not create a legal exemption".
The notice that sets the date has errors and a puzzle in it
Better you hear these from me than from someone arguing the notice does not count. The threshold and the November 13 date are stated plainly elsewhere in the notice.
The July date. In more than one place the notice dates its predecessor "July 7, 2026". Its own footnote 4 says "On July 6, 2026". It was the 6th.
A placeholder. The Federal Register's web version prints "which will not be issued before [INSERT DATE 30 DAYS AFTER PUBLICATION IN THE FEDERAL REGISTER ]". The date DEA does give, elsewhere in the same notice, is "on or after November 13, 2026". The official PDF was not checked, so whether the legal edition has the same hole is open.
Two letter dates. This notice rests on an HHS letter "dated October 8, 2026"; the companion notice on MGM-15 and MGM-16 cites one "dated October 6, 2026" that "related only to mitragynine pseudoindoxyl." Two letters, or one with two dates? The public docket rendered as an empty page when checked, so neither has been read here.
DEA's Administrator signed the notice on October 8, the date of the letter it rests on, and it published six days later. Fast is not wrong. It is a reason to read the document rather than a summary of it, mine included.
Where is 7-OH legal in 2026? Ask where it is banned
I will not answer "where is 7-OH legal" or "what states is 7-OH legal in 2026" as asked. No state checked for this column permits concentrated 7-OH products. FDA says 7-OH "is not lawful as a dietary supplement or when added to conventional foods", and DEA says its action "does not preempt more restrictive state law". So the categories are banned or scheduled, capped, and not verified, and not verified is never the same as legal.
DEA's notice counts ten states that "have prohibited 7-hydroxymitragynine consumption", drawing on an April 2025 summary and the American Kratom Association's own state page, and it misses Florida, Ohio and North Dakota. The table shows what each state's own documents said on October 19, 2026.
| State | Instrument | What it does | Effective | Status, October 19, 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Florida | Attorney General emergency rule 2ER26-2 | Schedule I above 1 mg/g or 1 mg/mL, or under 100 parts mitragynine to one of 7-OH; leaf not scheduled. | August 18, 2026 | Emergency rule, in force. |
| Ohio | Board of Pharmacy rule, OAC 4729:9-1-01.1 | 7-OH in Schedule I, no threshold; natural leaf excluded. | May 19, 2026 | Permanent rule, in force. |
| Connecticut | Consumer Protection regulation | Kratom "and its derivatives, including 7-OH", Schedule I. | Approved April 2, 2026 | In force. |
| Massachusetts | Emergency regulation 105 CMR 726.000 | Kratom in Schedule I; 7-OH named among its compounds. | August 28, 2026, up to a year | Emergency, in force. |
| North Dakota | HB 1628 | 7-OH in Schedule I above the July federal line, plus MGPI, MGM-15 and MGM-16. | On filing; signed September 4, 2026 | In force; all kratom sales prohibited until rules are implemented. |
| Alabama | Ala. Code 20-2-23, per the Attorney General | Mitragynine and hydroxymitragynine in Schedule I. | Not stated | In force per the AG's letter of March 24, 2026. |
| Louisiana | Act 41 (2025), per the state's ATC advisory | Kratom possession and distribution illegal. | August 1, 2025 | In force per the state advisory. |
| Tennessee | Public Chapter 950 | Possessing or distributing kratom criminalized. | July 1, 2026 | In force per a state agency summary; statute not read. |
| Kentucky | KRS 217.2202 | Cap now (7-OH up to 2% of alkaloids, no synthetic 7-OH); processors and retailers barred from selling any kratom from July 1, 2027. | Cap July 15, 2024; ban July 1, 2027 | Cap in force; ban enacted, not yet in effect. |
| Georgia | O.C.G.A. 16-13-122 (HB 181) | Cap: 0.5 mg/g, 1 mg per serving; no synthetic 7-OH; 21 and over. | January 1, 2025 | In force; Schedule I bill HB 968 not verified. |
| Texas | Health and Safety Code ch. 444 | Cap: 2% of alkaloids; no synthetic 7-OH. | September 1, 2023 | In force. |
| Utah | Kratom Regulation Act | Pure leaf only, 7-OH up to 0.4% of alkaloids. | May 6, 2026 | In force. |
| Rhode Island | R.I. Gen. Laws 21-28.12-3 | Cap: 0.5 mg/g, 1 mg per serving, 1% of alkaloids; no synthetic 7-OH. | April 1, 2026 | Licensing law, in force. |
| California | Sherman Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act | Foods, supplements and drugs with kratom or 7-OH illegal to sell or make. | Warning October 24, 2025 | Enforcement, not scheduling. |
| North Carolina | HB 328 | Would ban a "synthetic kratom product", synthetic 7-OH included. | None; not law | Pending; in House Rules since July 30, 2026. |
| Indiana | Not verified | DEA lists it; the state code could not be read. | Not verified | Not verified. |
| Illinois | Not verified | The state's site could not be reached. | Not verified | Not verified. |
Three cautions. First, "banned 7-OH" and "banned kratom" are different sentences: Ohio and Florida do not schedule the leaf itself, while Connecticut, Massachusetts, Alabama, Louisiana and Tennessee reach the plant, as Kentucky will in 2027. For leaf bans, see my state-by-state column on where kratom is illegal; where the two differ, this table is the newer check.
Second, caps are not alike. By my arithmetic Georgia's 0.5 mg per gram is half DEA's proposed line, so a product could pass the federal proposal and fail Georgia's law.
Third, the numbers drift. Florida's emergency rule already uses the figures HHS now recommends, though it counts 7-OH alone, and my reading of Florida's statute is that the rule expires on June 30, 2027, unless the Legislature adopts it. North Dakota wrote the July federal line into its statute, so if the October threshold becomes an order, the two will differ.
New Jersey follows federal scheduling "after the expiration of 30 days from publication in the Federal Register of a final order", unless its director objects; I explain that clock in my column on New Jersey's automatic scheduling. DEA also lists Arkansas, Kansas, Vermont and Wisconsin, which were not re-read for this column.
Is 7-OH legal in North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Indiana or Illinois?
North Carolina has not enacted a 7-OH ban. House Bill 328 would make it unlawful to "knowingly sell or deliver a synthetic kratom product", a term defined to include "synthetic 7-hydroxymitragynine". The Senate adopted the conference report on July 2, 2026, 37 to 6. On July 30, 2026, the House re-referred it to its Rules committee, and that is the last action. DEA says the state has "bans in some localities"; none was verified here.
Georgia caps rather than bans. Since January 1, 2025, no kratom product may exceed 0.5 mg of 7-OH per gram or 1 mg per serving or contain "synthetic 7-hydroxymitragynine", and the age is 21. The status of HB 968, a 2026 Schedule I bill, could not be confirmed.
Tennessee: a state agency summary says Public Chapter 950 "criminalizes knowingly possessing or distributing kratom", effective July 1, 2026. The statute itself could not be opened, so no penalty classes here.
Indiana and Illinois: not verified. DEA lists Indiana as prohibiting 7-OH and says Illinois has local bans. I couldn't confirm Indiana or Illinois from their own state sites, so they're marked not verified. Not verified is not a polite word for legal.
Opinion: my side of the counter
Here is the part a seller is supposed to leave out. DEA says these products are "commonly sold on the internet and in retail outlets, such as gas stations and smoke shops". My industry sold them, and too many of us waited for a regulator to draw a line instead of drawing one ourselves.
Where I land, as opinion. A notice that names a date and lets it pass teaches a market that dates mean nothing. Nobody should be selling concentrated 7-OH as kratom on November 13 or on any other date; the states that acted did not wait. And if DEA means November 13, it should publish the order, or say in the Federal Register why not, before a second floor passes in silence.
What to do if the date matters to you now
Tracking the date? Our advice: watch the Federal Register, not the calendar. Search it for "hydroxymitragynine", newest first. An order takes effect the day it publishes there, and a news story or a tracker is a step behind.
Holding or selling a 7-OH product? Our advice: take the federal position from the box at the top, remember that your state's may already be settled, and know that a product under DEA's proposed line can still be over a state's, and that FDA says 7-OH is not lawful in supplements or added to foods. Ask a lawyer licensed in your state, not a seller, me included.
Worried about someone? The date does not change the risk. America's Poison Centers, an association rather than a government agency, counted 593 reports of exposures to 7-OH in 2025 and 901 from January 1 to June 30, 2026. Those are exposure reports, not deaths and not causes. If someone is unwell, use the numbers at the top of this page.
Found an error, or a page of mine that contradicts this one? Write to me.
Questions about the 7-OH ban
When does the 7-OH ban start?
Not yet. On October 19, 2026, no federal order schedules 7-OH, though several states already ban or schedule it. DEA's notice of October 14, 2026, says an order "will be published in the Federal Register on or after November 13, 2026", and it would take effect on publication. That is a floor: the July notice said "on or after August 5, 2026", and no order followed.
What states is 7-OH legal in 2026?
Ask which states have banned it. No state checked for this column permits concentrated 7-OH products. Florida, Ohio, Connecticut, Massachusetts, North Dakota, Alabama, Louisiana and Tennessee ban or schedule 7-OH or kratom; Georgia, Kentucky, Texas, Utah and Rhode Island cap it. Indiana and Illinois were not verified, which is not the same as legal.
Is 7-OH banned in North Carolina?
Not by an enacted state law on October 19, 2026. House Bill 328 would ban synthetic kratom products, including synthetic 7-OH, but the House re-referred it to its Rules committee on July 30, 2026. DEA mentions local bans; none was verified.
Is 7-OH legal in Georgia?
Georgia caps it. Since January 1, 2025, a kratom product may not exceed 0.5 mg of 7-OH per gram or 1 mg per serving, or contain synthetic 7-OH, and the age is 21. A cap is a limit, not a permission.
Is 7-OH legal in Tennessee?
Tennessee's law reaches kratom itself. A state agency summary says Public Chapter 950 "criminalizes knowingly possessing or distributing kratom", effective July 1, 2026.
Disclaimer: This column summarizes public documents as they read on October 19, 2026, with links to primary sources. A notice of intent is a proposal, not law. It is commentary, not legal or medical advice, and no substitute for a lawyer or a clinician. 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.