Missouri kratom company destroys $10M in products after DEA crackdown

Kansas City-based CBD American Shaman says it destroyed $10 million worth of product this week after the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration placed a potent kratom-related opioid manufactured by the company into Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act.

The DEA on Wednesday temporarily scheduled mitragynine pseudoindoxyl, along with two related compounds known as MGM-15 and MGM-16. Schedule I is the federal government’s most restrictive category for controlled substances and includes heroin.

“These are potent opioids being manufactured and sold in consumer products, often under labels that obscure their true risks,” U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a news release. “This action will protect our nation’s children and communities from the dangers of drug addiction and abuse.”

The order will remain in effect for two years. It was issued months after the agency announced its plans to temporarily schedule these three compounds, along with another related substance, 7-hydroxymitragynine above specified concentration thresholds. The feds have not yet issued an order on 7-OH.

Vince Sanders, owner of Kansas-City-based CBD American Shaman, said his company produces the majority of mitragynine-pseudoindoxyl products nationwide. Earlier this week, after learning the federal order was coming, his team destroyed about $10 million worth of product “at cost, not at retail value,” he said.

“Unfortunately, of all the things, pseudoindoxyl is probably the very best pain medicine ever to hit Earth,” Sanders said. “I mean, very little mind change, very slow addictive properties, and just an incredible painkiller. But it’s gone. I’m sure it’ll show up as a pharmaceutical in five years or so, but as of now, people don’t have it available, which is truly a shame.”

Sanders said his company didn’t manufacture MGM products because it was “less studied and more potent.” However, his best-selling products contain 7-OH, and Sanders’ company has led the nation in manufacturing them.

Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway sued American Shaman in March, taking particular aim at 7-OH products that she called “hazardous opioids.” The company agreed to immediately suspend all in-state sales of 7-OH. 

The DEA made clear the action is directed at “deliberately manufactured and concentrated opioid products, not traditional botanical kratom.”

Kratom leaves, or Mitragyna speciosa, come from a tropical tree found in Southeast Asia. They can be crushed and then smoked, brewed with tea or placed into gel capsules.

The leaves contain an alkaloid called mitragynine. During digestion, the body converts it into 7-OH in small amounts. It’s what gives people the opioid-like effect.

The products the DEA is targeting contain a highly concentrated amount of 7-OH by taking mitragynine and chemically oxidizing it. The DEA described the three compounds rescheduled Wednesday as “chemical rearrangements” or “derivatives” of 7-OH.

“These products are commonly sold in different forms such as powders, tablets, and liquid shots,” the DEA’s order states. “This is a significant evolution from the traditional administration of Mitragyna speciosa, which was once restricted to either chewing raw leaves or steeping the leaves into water decoctions and teas.”

Products with mitragynine pseudoindoxyl first appeared on the market in 2024, the order states, and MGM-15 a year later. 

According to the order, a study on products sold online containing mitragynine pseudoindoxyl showed that of the 51 total available products, 35 had an appealing flavor, such as berry, lemonade and watermelon. And 32 of the products had packaging with bright colors. Seventy-six percent of these products were chewable tablets, with the rest being liquids or candy-like products.

Among the products sampled, 71% featured a combination of mitragynine pseudoindoxyl and 7-OH, while 24% contained mitragynine pseudoindoxyl only. 

The DEA’s proposed order for 7-OH products would generally cover processed or synthetic products containing more than 0.05% 7-OH or more than 1 milligram of the compound per article, along with botanical kratom containing more than 0.05% 7-OH by dry weight.

Christopher McCurdy, a professor at the University of Florida’s College of Pharmacy, said he understands the DEA’s concern but he doesn’t agree with placing the compounds in Schedule 1. 

“I agree with the standpoint that these shouldn’t be accessible by anybody at a gas station, smoke shop where you can easily buy some of these materials without any kind of medical supervision,” McCurdy said. “But it’s just going to more than likely create a more gray market where these products are being sold without the ingredients being disclosed.”

McCurdy points to a recent study he co-authored on the mislabeling of kratom-derived products. He’s also concerned about what it will mean for research teams like his who are studying these compounds. From a research standpoint, he said it’s very difficult to work with a Schedule 1 substance.

Sanders argues the temporary rescheduling came down to politics. 

“At the end of the day, who loses is the American consumer who desperately needs these products,” he said. “It’s just really sad. It just shows that when you have greed coupled with political power, what can happen.”

He pointed to a new congressional inquiry into the kratom industry’s ties to the Trump administration.

The U.S. Senate Committee on Finance’s ranking Democratic member, U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, of Oregon., has called for an investigation into a possible conflict of interest related to Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin’s advocacy for restrictions on 7-OH. Wyden is requiring information to be provided to the committee by the end of the month, related to Mullin holding a financial stake in Oklahoma-based Botanic Tonics — a competitor of 7-OH products — reportedly worth as much as $1 million.

The order states that published scientific literature has not established mitragynine pseudoindoxyl as a naturally occurring kratom alkaloid. However, scientific and analytical questions remain about whether it may be reported at incidental trace levels in some botanical products as a result of processing, storage or analytical conditions.

“In light of these unresolved questions, the Department of Justice will exercise enforcement discretion when only incidental trace amounts of MGPI are confirmed in a product otherwise consistent with botanical kratom,” the department’s news release states. “This policy does not create a legal exemption and does not change MGPI’s status as a schedule I controlled substance.”

While the department explains this enforcement discretion in the news release, it’s not stated in the temporary order itself, said Mac Haddow, senior fellow on public policy for the American Kratom Association.

On Thursday, the American Kratom Association filed a federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia seeking declaratory and injunctive relief to confirm this point.‍

“The AKA supports aggressive enforcement against chemically manipulated MGPI, MGM-15, and MGM-16 products,” Maddow said. “But responsible kratom consumers and legitimate botanical kratom businesses should not be put at risk because trace-level chemistry is detected in otherwise traditional botanical kratom.”