Missouri AG Widens 7-OH Probe to Nine Companies, Orders Two to Stop

Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway announced on Oct. 15 that nine additional companies are under investigation for selling products containing 7-hydroxymitragynine, the kratom-derived compound known as 7-OH, and that her office ordered two retailers to stop selling those products immediately. The new civil investigative demands bring the total her office has issued to kratom manufacturers, distributors and retailers to 31.

What the civil investigative demands ask for

A civil investigative demand is an administrative subpoena: it compels documents and answers without a court filing, and it is the first step in a consumer protection case rather than a charge. The Missouri demands seek the alkaloid content of kratom products sold in the state, whether those products contain added or isolated 7-OH, and the methods used to manufacture, test, source and distribute them. The office is also requesting records of communications with regulators, consumer complaints or reports of adverse events, and any claims the companies made to customers about dosage or safety.

The release names three of the nine companies served: Main Street Traders, LLC, doing business as Main Street Smoke Shop in Kansas City; Spark Wholesale LLC, doing business as Spark Tobacco & Vape in Saint Peters; and JSST Enterprises LLC, doing business as Ultimate Vapor in Desloge. The cease-and-desist orders went to KC Distro and Karmic Genesis. Hanaway's office said it believes the companies, or others associated with them, may have violated the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act and other state and federal laws.

"Missourians are being led to believe that 7-OH, MGM-15, and similar chemicals are safe supplements. They are not. Do not consume these deadly products," Hanaway said in the release. "These are illegal, dangerous drugs, and people, including children, are being harmed. Our office vows to use every tool we have to protect Missourians."

The analogue argument

The legal theory in the announcement rests on a chemical resemblance rather than on a product-by-product ban. Mitragynine pseudoindoxyl and MGM-15 were added to Schedule I through an emergency order issued by the Drug Enforcement Administration on Aug. 26, 2026, and Missouri adopted that designation on Sept. 25. Concentrated 7-OH has a similar chemical structure to MGM-15 and produces a comparable effect, and the attorney general's position is that products with artificially elevated levels of the compound are controlled substance analogues — Schedule I substances for purposes of state criminal law.

That is a broader hook than a scheduled-substance charge. It means the state does not have to show that a specific package contains a specifically banned molecule; it has to show that what is in the package is a chemically similar substance sold for human consumption. Missouri has been explicit that it will keep enforcing its consumer protection statute against 7-OH, MGM-15, MGM-16 and pseudoindoxyl regardless of how the federal scheduling picture evolves. Nationally, that picture remains unsettled: the August order covered MGM-15 and mitragynine pseudoindoxyl, while 7-OH itself has not been scheduled, leaving state enforcement as the operative pressure on retailers in the interim.

The products involved are sold openly as herbal supplements, in gas stations, smoke shops and vape stores, with packaging that often mentions kratom or a botanical extract. Federal regulators have described concentrated 7-OH products as novel, potent opioids rather than supplements, and the state's filing rests in part on the gap between how the products are marketed as kratom and what the attorney general says they contain. People who developed dependence on kratom products can find assessment, withdrawal management and counseling through medication-assisted treatment programs.

Eleven months of kratom enforcement

The announcement is the latest step in an investigation that has been building since late last year. KCTV reported that the probe began with six companies in November 2025. In March, Hanaway's office sued American Shaman and a group of affiliated companies, asking a court to stop their manufacture, distribution and retail sale of kratom and its alkaloids mitragynine and 7-OH. By June 4, the company had agreed to suspend sales in Missouri.

A second settlement followed on Aug. 6, when The Green Dragon, a St. Louis-area distributor, and its two owners agreed not to own, operate or hold a financial interest in any Missouri business that markets kratom or 7-OH products. The August and September scheduling decisions turned those individual agreements into a statewide rule, and the October action is the first round of enforcement since. Lawmakers in other states have moved on the same compound class by different routes; the Pennsylvania House passed a bill to regulate kratom sales and ban synthetic compounds on Oct. 6, a measure this blog covered at the time.

What the announcement leaves open

The release does not say how many products the office has tested, what alkaloid concentrations it found, or what specific harm triggered the nine new demands. It gives no timetable for the companies to respond, and it does not describe how the attorney general will verify that KC Distro and Karmic Genesis have stopped selling 7-OH products after being ordered to.

The remedy available in the earlier matters suggests the likely shape of an outcome: American Shaman and The Green Dragon both resolved the state's claims by agreeing to exit the market rather than by paying a penalty, a pattern that leaves the retail shelf as the only visible measure of whether enforcement is working. Missouri residents who believe they were misled or harmed by kratom products can file complaints through the attorney general's website.