State regulators last year took a synthetic opioid known as 7-OH off Florida shelves, but lawmakers ended the legislative session March 13 without backing up the move, leaving the substance\u2019s future in legal limbo.<\/p>\n
A byproduct of kratom that\u2019s potentially addictive and largely unregulated, 7-OH is still unavailable over the counter in Florida, but state emergency rules will soon expire.<\/p>\n
In this year\u2019s legislative session, a measure that would have made 7-OH illegal was removed from the bill and replaced with an entirely different drug, nitrous oxide.<\/p>\n
The drug\u2019s full name is 7-Hydroxymitragynine. It\u2019s a synthetic version of kratom that interacts with the brain\u2019s opioid receptors and is highly addictive. Researchers say the drug is 13 times stronger than morphine and has a high potential to be abused.<\/p>\n
Last summer, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services recommended the Food and Drug Administration classify the drug as a Schedule 1 controlled substance, something with no medicinal value on par with heroin and LSD.<\/p>\n
In August 2025 Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier first issued an emergency rule that outlawed the sale of 7-OH over .04% concentrate.<\/p>\n
But that rule is set to expire June 30.<\/p>\n
In previous years, when former Attorney General Ashley Moody issued emergency orders for drugs, like nitazenes and tianeptine, also known as gas station heroin, the Legislature later passed a measure to permanently place the drugs on the state\u2019s Schedule I.<\/p>\n
Emergency rules typically last for 90 days, but there are some instances where the timeframe is longer, such as for scheduling drugs.<\/p>\n
This year, a bill that would have outlawed 7-OH failed to make it past the finish line after talks with the House.<\/p>\n
In its third committee stop, SB 432, sponsored by Sen. Clay Yarborough, R-Jacksonville, the 7-OH part of the bill was swapped with nitrous oxide, also known as \u201claughing gas.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yarborough said he re-wrote the measure to remove the 7-OH provision after negotiations with the House and added nitrous oxide after discussions with Sen. Darryl Rouson, D-St. Petersburg.<\/p>\n
Faced with the impending end of restrictions on 7-OH, other agencies are looking to put new regulations on its use and sale.<\/p>\n
This week, the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services issued a new, more detailed rule for 7-OH labeling requirements. This new emergency rule is set to expire in 90 days, along the same timeframe as the attorney general\u2019s rule.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis new rule will enable us to identify and remove a dangerous and unregulated drug from Florida shelves, which will protect Florida families, Florida children, and Florida communities,\u201d said Aaron Keller, FDACS communications director.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s unclear how Uthmeier will react to the lack of legislative action on 7-OH. His office did not respond to questions for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"State regulators last year took a synthetic opioid known as 7-OH off Florida shelves, but lawmakers ended the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":201315,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-201314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201314\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}