Where Things Actually Stand on 7-OH, and What You Can Still Do

Updating our July message. Some of it has happened. Some of it has not. And one thing has reopened that we did not expect, which is the reason we are writing again.

First, the honest summary

In July we told you a federal proposal was coming for concentrated 7-OH and three related synthetic compounds, that we would comply, and that we would keep you posted rather than promise a date we could not control. Here is where that landed.

The three synthetics are done. Mitragynine pseudoindoxyl, MGM-15 and MGM-16 became Schedule I on August 26. That took effect the day it published, with no grace period. Those products are gone from our catalog and they are not coming back.

7-OH itself is not done. The order covering it has still not been issued. The earliest date it could have taken effect was August 5, and that came and went with nothing filed. It has now been over three weeks.

And the comment window reopened. On the same day the synthetics order published, the government reopened the public record on where the 7-OH threshold should be set, through September 10. That is the piece we want to make sure you know about.

What you can actually do about it

Everything else on this page is us telling you what already happened. This is the only part where anything is still open.

The 7-HOPE Alliance is running this, and they do it better than we would

7-HOPE is the advocacy group organizing the national campaign through the September 10 deadline. Their federal action hub lays out five specific things you can do, with a script for each one, the phone numbers you need, and calls you can join. It is free, it is not ours, and if you only click one link on this page it should be that one.

Visit the 7-HOPE Alliance federal action hub

If you want to comment, two things will make yours count

Comments go on regulations.gov, docket HHS-OASH-2026-0232, and the window shuts at the end of September 10.

Say what the threshold should be, and back it with your own numbers. Regulators are not asking whether to act. They are asking where the line goes, and they have said the thing they are missing is real information about how people actually use these products. If you are comfortable sharing it, how many milligrams you take in a sitting and how many times a day is genuinely the most valuable sentence you can write. Almost nobody includes it.

And if you already commented, do not comment again. This one matters. Duplicate submissions get flagged and discounted, and filing a second one after you already made your point actively weakens the record. Comment again only if you have something new to add, or if you never said how much you use.

You can also just pick up the phone

The HHS main line is 1-877-696-6775. Ask to leave a message for the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health about 7-OH. Your name, where you live, that you use these products, why they matter to you, and that you would rather see sensible regulation than a ban. A minute of your time, and a real person hears it.

Your representative and senators are worth contacting too, and you can find them through Common Cause. There is legislation on 7-OH pending in both the House and the Senate right now, so this is not shouting into a void. Start with "I am your constituent" and say why it matters to you.

So what is actually banned right now?

Three compounds, as of August 26: mitragynine pseudoindoxyl (you will see it written as MP or MGPI), MGM-15, and MGM-16. There is no threshold on any of them. Any amount is covered, the order runs for two years, and it was effective the day it published rather than after a wind-down period.

Concentrated and synthetic 7-OH is not banned. It is proposed, and the proposal is still sitting there. Mitragynine and natural leaf kratom below the threshold are not part of this action at all.

One thing worth knowing if you follow this closely: alongside the August order, the Justice Department said it would use enforcement discretion where only incidental trace amounts of MP show up in a product that is otherwise ordinary botanical kratom. Read that carefully, because DOJ was explicit that it does not create a legal exemption and does not change MP's Schedule I status. It does not cover MGM-15 or MGM-16, or anything where MP was added on purpose. It is context, not a green light.

What about the products we carry?

Anything containing those three compounds came off the site before the order took effect, not on the day of it. We went through the catalog item by item rather than sweeping by category, because these compounds turn up under trade names that a category label would not catch. Nothing covered has shipped since the order landed, and where an order was already in flight with an affected item on it, that line was refunded rather than sent.

We are not restocking those either. Two years is the floor on a temporary order, there are bills in both chambers of Congress that would make it permanent, and we would rather be straight with you about that than leave you wondering whether something is coming back.

Everything else on the site is unaffected, and your orders are unaffected.

Why does the news say 7-OH is already banned?

Because a lot of people got ahead of it. News outlets, trade groups, and even elected officials have all described this order as finished on days when nothing had been filed. We have watched several confident predictions come and go since August 5.

We check the Federal Register and regulations.gov directly rather than reading coverage of them, and everything on this page was verified against those on August 28, 2026. When it changes we will update this page, and we will not guess ahead of it.

One more thing: check your own state

The federal picture is only half of it. States and even individual counties are moving on their own schedules, and a number of them have gone further than the federal proposal by restricting all kratom, natural leaf included. Something can be perfectly legal federally and still not allowed where you live. The map has been changing month to month, so it is worth a look rather than an assumption.

Questions we keep getting

Is 7-OH illegal today?

No. MP, MGM-15 and MGM-16 are. Concentrated and synthetic 7-OH is still at the proposal stage with no order issued.

I thought the comment period ended in July?

It did, on July 31. It was reopened on August 26 and now closes September 10. That is genuinely a second chance.

Does any of this touch natural leaf kratom?

Not federally. State and local rules are a separate story, and several are much broader.

When will you stop selling 7-OH products?

When an order covering them takes effect, the same way we handled the synthetics. We are not naming a date, because the last several dates that got named turned out to be wrong.

Does commenting actually do anything?

Honestly: it is the only channel there is, and it is not a guarantee. Comments are collected by Health and Human Services and passed to the Attorney General. Public pressure did cause a federal action against kratom alkaloids to be pulled once before, back in 2016. But this is an expedited process, and a temporary scheduling decision cannot be challenged in court. Commenting is how the record gets built. We would rather tell you that plainly than oversell it.

Where we go from here

Same as always. We comply with the law, we tell you what is happening including the parts we do not like, and we treat you like adults who can handle an accurate answer. Thanks for sticking with us through a genuinely strange year.

This update is provided for general information and is not legal or medical advice. It reflects the federal record as verified on August 28, 2026 and will change as the process continues. State and local law is separate from the federal action described here and may be more restrictive where you live.