There’s a new, popular drug that some people use for health and others for recreation. People can become addicted to it, so there’s certainly potential for harm.
What do we do with it?
This is the question before us with a product commonly called “7-OH.” Although it’s been on the market for less than two years, consumers nationwide spent an estimated $2 billion on 500 million doses in 2024.
So what do we do with 7-OH?
There is obviously significant demand for 7-OH, but also significant pushback, with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., holding a press conference encouraging the DEA to schedule it as Schedule 1 under the Controlled Substances Act.
Schedule 1 is reserved for drugs with high abuse potential and no accepted medical benefit. Categorizing a drug as Schedule 1 effectively bans manufacture, sale, and use, and makes research nearly impossible.
But is banning 7-OH the best path forward, even if it can be harmful? Or could regulating a legal market for it actually lead to less harm?
Since most people report using it for pain management and relief from opioid withdrawals, it’s important that we get 7-OH right. Life and health are on the line.
What is 7-OH?
7-hydroxymytragynine is a natural compound found in kratom leaves. It’s then concentrated to a higher potency than naturally occurs, and is packaged into over-the-counter supplements and sold as 7-OH.
Why do people use 7-OH?
Certainly some people use it recreationally, but the nonprofit 7 Hope Alliance conducted surveys where 87% of consumers reported using it for relief from opioid withdrawal symptoms. Many others reported using it for pain management or to manage their health in other ways.
Where is 7-OH sold?
7-OH suffers from some of the same challenges that natural leaf kratom (much lower potency) does, in that there is no federal regulation of it. So in many states today, it can be sold in gas stations, and there are no age restrictions or testing requirements. This is a unique opportunity to pause and consider the potential outcomes of banning a substance versus regulating it.
Let's say 7-OH is banned nationwide. What happens?
1. More Crime
There’s already a huge consumer market for 7-OH, so it won’t disappear if it’s banned. It will just move underground, handing yet another lucrative drug market to anyone willing to break the law to get the consumer cash. Remember, there’s already $2 billion to be made annually. Where there is demand, there will always be supply. Banning 7-OH nationwide will financially incentivize crime.
2. More Contamination
If 7-OH is pushed underground, all regulation goes out the window. If you think it’s the wild west now, just wait until there’s no regulation at all – no potency or purity guidelines, no testing, no age gates. Banning 7-OH will ensure that it becomes contaminated (yet another drug to add fentanyl to) and far more harmful to people’s health.
3. More Incarceration
If we arrest people for possessing 7-OH, we will be risking the destabilization of families, jobs, housing, etc. Whether a person is using 7-OH recreationally, medically to treat a health condition, or because they’ve become addicted to it, arrest and incarceration tend to accelerate a downward spiral.
Let's say 7-OH is legally regulated nationwide. What happens?
1. Market Control
A legal market allows for manufacturing and sale to be regulated and taxed. It’s the only way to control where it’s sold and who can sell it, along with packaging, labeling, and testing requirements.
2. Product Control
A legal market is the only way to have quality control over the products people consume. It’s the only way to keep fentanyl out of 7-OH.
3. Consumer Control
A legal market is the only way to set age restrictions so youth can’t purchase 7-OH. It also ensures that adults won’t be arrested just because they’re using it, while continuing to enforce laws against harming other people.
There are people who claim 7-OH has helped them break free from opioid addiction, people who claim it has finally given them freedom from chronic pain, and people who claim it has destroyed their lives. I believe all of them.
So What’s the Answer?
The question isn’t whether or not a drug can be harmful. The question is how we can best reduce the potential for harm.
The legal gray area 7-OH resides in right now is not good. You can see why here. Just keep asking yourself how prohibition fixes these problems. It doesn’t.
Regulation is what imposes law and order and gives us a measure of control.
What are your thoughts?
We would really like to hear what you think we should do with 7-OH. If you’ve been impacted by it in some way, we’d be honored to hear your story. Just contact us at our webform here.
Which path should we take?