California Reports 98% Retailer Compliance in Kratom, 7-OH Crackdown

California has removed 6,960 illegal kratom and 7-hydroxymitragynine products from store shelves and pushed licensed retailers to 97.7% compliance with its statewide ban, Governor Gavin Newsom announced Tuesday, five months into an enforcement campaign that now runs ahead of federal action against the same compounds.

The figures, released July 15, cover the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control's effort to clear kratom and its concentrated derivative 7-OH from businesses that hold ABC licenses. Since enforcement began, agents have conducted 6,750 site visits and identified 155 violations — a small fraction of the locations checked. State officials framed the results as validation of a policy California adopted months before the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration filed its own notice to place 7-OH into Schedule I on July 1.

How the enforcement effort unfolded

California treats foods, supplements, and drugs containing kratom or 7-OH as illegal to sell or manufacture for consumption, a position the Department of Public Health set out in a statewide consumer warning in October 2025. ABC agents began visiting licensed locations in mid-January to notify businesses of the prohibition, then shifted to full enforcement on February 9.

The state's compliance rate climbed as the campaign widened. In early March, Newsom's office reported 95% compliance and 3,308 products pulled after roughly three weeks of enforcement. By this week that tally had more than doubled to 6,960 products, with the compliance figure ticking up to 97.7% across the licensees ABC oversees.

"After five months of targeted kratom and 7-OH enforcement efforts, nearly 98 percent of ABC-licensed locations are in compliance," said ABC Director Paul Tupy. "This is possible through the collaboration of our licensees, who are making sure these harmful products aren't available on store shelves." Retailers that continue to stock the products can face administrative discipline, including suspension or revocation of their ABC license.

What 7-OH is, and why regulators are moving

Kratom, a plant native to Southeast Asia, contains 7-OH as a minor constituent, but the concentrated and semi-synthetic versions now sold in smoke shops, vape stores, and gas stations deliver far higher doses. The compound acts on the brain's opioid receptors, and public health officials link the enhanced products to addiction, overdose, and death. Because the goods are frequently marketed as gummies, drinks, and tablets, state officials have warned that they can appeal to young adults and teenagers.

The scale of the harm remains difficult to measure. A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analysis found kratom implicated at least in part in 846 fatal overdoses across 30 states and Washington, D.C., in 2022, the most recent year with full data. A California-specific review tied kratom to 242 deaths in the state between 2020 and 2022, including 27 blamed on the product alone.

These are the concentrated formulations at issue, not the raw leaf — a distinction that has driven a patchwork of conflicting state rules, as states diverge sharply on how to regulate kratom. Readers weighing the health risks can find background on kratom dependence and withdrawal and where to seek help.

Federal and state action converge

The California announcement arrived two weeks after the DEA filed its intent to temporarily schedule 7-OH and three related synthetic compounds — mitragynine pseudoindoxyl, MGM-15, and MGM-16 — under the Controlled Substances Act. That federal scheduling move, announced July 1, would subject the covered substances to the same penalties as heroin and LSD once it takes effect after a public comment period.

Newsom's office cast the federal step as a belated echo of California's own. "Glad that the federal government is following our lead to take action against the real risks these goods pose to the public," the governor said in the release, adding that the state was "proud to work with businesses to get dangerous products off shelves." State officials said the DEA action "reinforces the concerns California identified months ago."

The two efforts operate through different mechanisms. The DEA's scheduling order will make manufacture, distribution, and possession of the covered compounds a federal crime nationwide, while California's campaign relies on the leverage of business licensing — a slower but locally enforceable tool that the state has used before. Officials compared the kratom results to an earlier ABC drive against illegal hemp products, which reached better than 99% compliance among licensees.

The gaps that remain

The 97.7% figure applies only to ABC-licensed businesses, chiefly those selling alcohol, and does not capture the tobacco shops, convenience stores, and online sellers outside that system where 7-OH products have also circulated. The Department of Public Health has issued separate advisories to tobacco retailers and health care providers, and says it has seized more than $5 million worth of kratom and 7-OH goods under its own authority.

For people who already use the products, state guidance stresses the overdose risk: officials urge consumers never to mix 7-OH with alcohol or other drugs and to carry naloxone, the medication that can reverse an opioid overdose, including one involving 7-OH. Anyone experiencing adverse effects is directed to Poison Control at 1-800-222-1222.

Whether the state's licensing-based model holds up as the DEA's federal ban takes effect will test how far coordinated state and federal enforcement can push a product off the market — and whether demand simply migrates to the retailers and websites that neither authority directly controls.