Following a White House meeting on drug policy on Monday, May 11, 2026, President Donald Trump told a small group of reporters, “We’re looking very seriously at natural 7‑OH and getting that approved.”
In 2025, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Marty Makary and Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert Kennedy gave a press conference announcing the FDA’s recommendation to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) that 7-hydroxymitragynine (7-OH) be classified as a Schedule I controlled substance.
Some sources suggested Trump’s statements indicated a “pivot” from the stance his administration took last July.
Several times during the July press conference, Makary said kratom leaf will not be part of that recommendation. “We’re not targeting the kratom leaf or ground-up kratom,” he said, adding that 7-OH-dominant products will be delineated from the trace amounts that occur in natural leaf kratom. Only 7-OH occurring “above a concentration threshold” will be recommended for scheduling, he said. Makary also stated that 7-OH and plain leaf kratom are “night and day in terms of the public health risk.”
What President Trump likely means by “natural 7-OH” are the trace amounts occurring in plain leaf kratom that would remain legal, according to Makary’s 2025 statements.
The DEA has not yet begun the formal process to classify 7-OH as a Schedule I substance. In 2016, the DEA did begin the formal process to place kratom on Schedule I. The effort was ultimately defeated by a popular grassroots movement of kratom advocates, and the DEA decided to rescind its decision for the first time in history.