HHS endorses DEA move to schedule synthetic kratom extracts

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Friday added its recommendations to the Drug Enforcement Administration's (DEA) move to schedule synthetic kratom extracts, putting its support behind the push to regulate the substances colloquially called "gas station opioid." In July, the DEA announced plans to temporarily schedule a psychoactive compound derived from kratom called 7-hydroxymitragynine (7-OH) and other related compounds as Schedule I, placing it in a category indicating no accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse. HHS Assistant Secretary for Health Admiral Brian Christine recommended the DEA use concentration- or ratio-based thresholds for determining how to schedule synthetically concentrated kratom extracts. While 7-OH is naturally present in trace amounts in herbal kratom, a plant originating from Southeast Asia, products synthetically concentrating the compound in high amounts have proliferated, becoming readily available in gas stations or tobacco shops. The department recommended that 7-OH and mitragynine pseudoindoxyl (MGPI), a related compound, be classified as Schedule I if either compound or a combination of both exceeds "1 milligram per gram in solid powders, encapsulated material, or other solid forms, or exceeds 1 milligram per milliliter in liquid preparations." The HHS also recommended this classification if the amount of 7-OH, MGPI or a combination of both in a product makes up more than 1 percent of mitragynine, the primary ps…