The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) announced that it issued a temporary order to schedule three opioid compounds as controlled substances.
"The DEA bases this action on a finding that placing mitragynine pseudoindoxyl, MGM-15, and MGM-16 in Schedule I is necessary to avoid an imminent hazard to public safety," the rule, published in the Federal Register, noted.
From February 2025 to May 2026, mitragynine pseudoindoxyl was linked to at least 56 overdose cases, of which 48 were fatal. From February to April 2026, MGM-15 was tied to 17 overdose cases, of which 16 were fatal.
"Analysis of marketed mitragynine pseudoindoxyl products revealed misleading marketing strategies with claims that the products are 'kratom,'" the order noted, when, in fact, "the concentrated alkaloid products often contain more than one alkaloid with opioid activity."
In a press release, the Department of Justice (DOJ) clarified that these actions apply to "deliberately manufactured and concentrated opioid products, not traditional botanical kratom."
