Florida Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson announced a new rule Thursday demanding retailers of an increasingly popular herbal substance list how much of an opioid-like compound exists in each package.
The emergency rule will add yet another layer of security against the 7-OH compound in kratom products, a Southeast Asian plant known for its versatile opiate or stimulant properties.
Simpson’s announcement came one month after Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier listed 7-OH as a Schedule 1 substance, placing it alongside drugs like heroin and LSD.
“We are filing a new emergency labeling rule that ensures that manufacturers and retailers can’t hide behind fake labels or misleading marketing,” Simpson said during a Jacksonville press conference. “Every product must clearly state the 7-OH concentration in parts per million.”
If the concentration is over 400 parts per million, the “gas station morphine” will be removed, Simpson added. The move is part of a broader Florida mission to eradicate kratom sales as a whole, and follows a 2024 law banning kratom for those under 21.
The main target is 7-OH, or 7-hydroxymitragynine. The guidance first came in July from Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the Food and Drug Administration with a report citing serious concerns with 7-OH’s ability to bind to opioid receptors. There are no FDA-approved 7-OH drugs, yet an estimated 16 million kratom users nationwide have generated more than $2 billion in retail sales, Medscape reported.
Two weeks later, Uthmeier derided the compound as 13 times stronger than morphine and promptly issued an emergency rule scheduling 7-OH as a highly illegal Schedule 1 substance.
An emergency rule lasts 90 days and must be taken up by the Legislature to become permanently part of Florida law.
“I want to thank the commissioner here and his law enforcement team for getting almost 18,000 products off the shelves that are dangerous,” Uthmeier said Thursday. “[But] this emergency rule is only good until the Legislature comes back to meet. … They’re the policy-making branch, and they can either ratify the rule, amend it, or impose restrictions at their discretion.”
The 2026 session begins on Jan. 13.
Update: This story now includes an image of Simpson’s emergency labeling rule.
Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Contact Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com. Follow Florida Phoenix on Facebook and Twitter.
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Livia Caputo, Florida Phoenix
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