HARRISBURG, Pa. — Three Pennsylvania district attorneys are asking the state Department of Health to use its emergency powers to outlaw 7-hydroxymitragynine, the concentrated kratom compound sold in gummies, tablets and vapes at gas stations and smoke shops, as a federal comment period on the substance closes Thursday and four state bills remain in committee.
Bucks County District Attorney Joe Khan and Chester County District Attorney Christopher de Barrena-Sarobe sent letters to Secretary of Health Dr. Debra Bogen on Aug. 31 urging her to schedule 7-OH and related derivatives as controlled substances temporarily. Berks County District Attorney John Adams made the same request a week earlier.
The letters arrive as the legal status of kratom products changes at the federal, state and local levels. The federal government banned three synthetic kratom-derived opioids last week but has not acted on 7-OH itself. Massachusetts, Florida and North Dakota have imposed state bans. Pennsylvania has no law restricting the products or setting a minimum age for purchase.
“With school back in session and smoke shops open for business selling 7-OH and kratom products to our kids, there is no time for delay,” Khan said.
De Barrena-Sarobe said local police cannot enforce a federal order without a matching state law. “We can’t allow a loophole in the law to leave our residents vulnerable,” he said. The Department of Health had not publicly responded as of Saturday.
The Department of Justice on Aug. 25 announced the emergency scheduling of mitragynine pseudoindoxyl, MGM-15 and MGM-16, placing them in Schedule I alongside heroin. The two-year order took effect Aug. 26 and, the department said, targets “deliberately manufactured and concentrated opioid products, not traditional botanical kratom.”
The Drug Enforcement Administration also filed notice July 1 that it intends to schedule 7-OH above a set threshold, but that order has not been issued. Instead, the Department of Health and Human Services extended the public comment period on the proposed threshold to Sept. 10. The first window drew more than 32,000 comments, the Pain News Network reported.
In Harrisburg, four kratom bills are pending. None has received a floor vote. House Bill 2058, sponsored by Rep. Emily Kinkead, D-Allegheny, would bar sales to anyone under 21, ban synthetic products and require testing and labeling. It has been in the House Health Committee since Nov. 19, 2025. A second House bill from Rep. Bridget Kosierowski, D-Lackawanna, was referred to the same committee June 22.
Sen. Tracy Pennycuick, R-Montgomery, is sponsoring Senate Bill 899, which would add 7-OH and synthetic kratom to the state’s controlled substance schedules. It cleared committee 9-3 in November and was laid on the table March 23. The Senate does not reconvene until Sept. 28.
“Federal action is welcome, but it does not necessarily eliminate the need for action here in Pennsylvania,” Pennycuick wrote in an Aug. 12 column for PennWatch.
State health officials counted 167 kratom or 7-OH poison center cases from January 2022 through June 2025, including 14 patients placed on ventilators, and 38 overdose deaths in 2024 in which the substances contributed. In January, Carbon County Coroner Mark Smith issued a warning after a 39-year-old Penn Forest Township man died of mitragynine toxicity.
Some cities have acted locally. Philadelphia’s permit, testing and age rules for kratom sellers take effect Nov. 12. Scranton City Council voted April 22 to table a proposed ban. No Lehigh Valley municipality has publicly proposed one.
For now, natural kratom leaf and concentrated 7-OH products remain legal in Pennsylvania. Products containing the three newly scheduled compounds are illegal under federal law regardless of state action. Residents can comment on the federal 7-OH threshold through Thursday at regulations.gov under docket HHS-OASH-2026-0232.