Notice #DEA-1571 (Federal Register Docket #2026-13581) intends to ban mitragynine pseudoindoxyl with no legal threshold that allows for naturally occurring trace amounts in drying kratom leaves. AKA asks comedian Joe Rogan for help.
Two Notices of Intent related to kratom alkaloids were filed by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) on July 1, 2026. One, titled “Temporary Placement of 7-Hydroxymitragynine Above a Specified Threshold in Schedule I” intends to ban all 7-OH with an exemption for trace amounts occurring naturally in plain leaf kratom. The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health (OASH) in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) also released a request for information from the public about the “safe” threshold for 7-OH.
The other notice, #DEA-1571/Federal Register Docket #2026-13581 (referred to below as “Notice 13581”), “Temporary Placement of Mitragynine Pseudoindoxyl, MGM-15, and MGM-16 in Schedule I” did not allow for trace levels of mitragynine pseudoindoxyl (MP) that may occur in natural leaf kratom, declaring “Mitragynine pseudoindoxyl, MGM-15, and MGM-16 are synthetic derivatives of the indole alkaloids, mitragynine or 7-hydroxymitragynine, of the Mitragyna speciosa plant.” (bold added). Therefore, there was no allowable exemptions for trace amounts of MP that may naturally occur in some plain leaf kratom products.
7-OH is a metabolite of mitragynine, kratom’s most abundant alkaloid. It can also occur in plain leaf kratom when oxidization occurs. MP is a metabolite of 7-OH.
In the July 1 press release, the American Kratom Association (AKA) agreed with Notice 13581. “MP, MGM-15, and MGM-16 do not occur naturally in the plant. MP is a chemical rearrangement product of 7-OH, while MGM-15 and MGM-16 are synthetic derivatives of 7-OH.”
On August 2, a month and a day after the notices of intent were filed, the AKA seemed to have changed its mind. On X (formerly Twitter), AKA openly called on comedian Joe Rogan to help stop the ban of “naturally occurring MP”, reposting a 2016 tweet from Rogan regarding the DEA’s intent to schedule kratom with this comment: “We’re having this fight again…Notice #13581 bans naturally occurring MP (Mitragynine pseudoindoxyl) under the same ban of Synthetic MGM-15 and MGM-16. We need your help!”
Not every kratom leaf product contains trace amounts of MP, but some are more likely to contain MP than others. Red colored kratom is more heavily oxidized than green kratom, for example, and thus more likely to contain MP. Other products can accumulate MP as they oxidize in storage, even if they don’t contain MP when purchased.
If the DEA goes through with its intent in Notice 13581, it will place MP into Schedule I without any exemption, threshold, or carve-out for naturally occurring trace amounts in botanical kratom. In that scenario, manufacturers, retailers, and consumers of that leaf could face the same penalties under the Controlled Substances Act issues as if any other Schedule I substance were present, regardless of whether it formed naturally or through oxidation.
Some scientists and advocates have been pointing this out for the past month. Scientific advisor for the 7-Hope Alliance, Dr. Michele Ross, pointed out on social media that MP does occur naturally in leaf kratom shortly after the publication of the notices. On July 2, she posted on X, “In fact, the rule that Schedule I’s mitragynine pseudoindoxyl (MP), MGM-15, and MGM-16 in 30 days actually would make ALL kratom illegal, because it states that isomers of mitragynine pseudoindoxyl (aka 7-OH) would also be Schedule I no matter what amount. Every kratom product has some amount of 7-OH in it. And below detection limit but present MP at time of production, with levels increasing over time due to natural oxidation.”
In response to the AKA’s post, Dr. Ross replied, “Wait you just realized this? While calling me a liar the whole time before about it?”
Earlier in 2026, Botanic Tonics and the Global Kratom Coalition sued Utah officials over the state’s Kratom Regulation Act, arguing in federal court that the possible presence of trace amounts of MP in pure leaf kratom, combined with scheduling of that substance, could effectively bar the sale of pure leaf kratom. The court never engaged with that claim, holding instead that the plaintiffs lacked standing to raise it because their identified product did not qualify as pure leaf kratom.
In July 2025, when HHS and FDA announced its recommendation to place 7-OH on Schedule I, it did so assuring natural leaf kratom would be exempt.
On the July 22 7-Hope Alliance Save 7OH Virtual Rally livestream, Hamilton Morris compared banning alkaloids in kratom, but not the kratom plant itself, to banning DMT but not plants that naturally contain DMT:
“What you actually end up with in a situation where the government selectively prosecutes people for the DMT-containing plants if and when they feel like it. So it’s not as if you you can just sell DMT containing plants and nobody cares. What is actually going on is some people get completely fucked over, some people don’t, and there’s no way to know.”