The SR-17018 ban, enacted through an emergency scheduling decision by the Drug Enforcement Administration in late August, has upended years of research into what scientists and some drug users have described as a potentially transformative opioid treatment. The compound, which had been readily available online because it was not federally controlled, is now classified alongside heroin as a Schedule I substance with no accepted medical use.
For Laura Bohn, a researcher at University of South Florida Health, the consequences were immediate. Bohn, who began searching for safer pain medications in 2012 with funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, co-authored a 2017 study in the journal Cell showing that SR-17018 and related compounds relieved pain in mice without triggering respiratory depression, the effect most often responsible for opioid overdose deaths. Her team later found that mice on the drug did not build tolerance and that morphine-dependent mice could use it to reset their tolerance without severe withdrawal. A patent was filed.
Now, Bohn says she cannot proceed with the safety studies needed to move toward human clinical trials, which have never been conducted for SR-17018. She described being unable to have the drug manufactured, shipped, or even handled. “It’s a real hassle,” she said. “I can’t do anything.”
A Respite for Some Users, Now Out of Reach
While clinical evidence in humans is lacking, accounts from people who use drugs suggest SR-17018 filled a gap that standard treatments did not. Jim Bates, a 53-year-old kitchen manager from Duncan, Oklahoma, had cycled through prescription pills, heroin, and fentanyl since age 25 before becoming addicted to 7-OH, a concentrated kratom compound, about two years ago. He later moved to MGM-15, a similar chemical that he said felt more like oxycodone. Both substances were placed in Schedule I over the summer.
Bates said MGM-15 consumed his thoughts until he sought advice in Discord and Telegram groups roughly 11 months ago. He was introduced to SR-17018, which he called a miracle. Over about three weeks, he tapered off MGM-15 without the physical withdrawal symptoms he had experienced before, including intense anxiety and restless legs. He reported no high or euphoria from the compound.
Michael, who asked that his last name be withheld, used SR-17018 in January to stop 7-OH after at least five previous quit attempts, each involving what he described as three days of hell followed by a week of feeling low. He said the compound did not eliminate every negative effect but removed the anxiety, sweating, and restlessness, allowing him to keep working without major disruption. Both men had used buprenorphine and methadone, the standard medications for opioid use disorder, but preferred SR-17018 because it did not require long-term use.
Michael speculated that the government might have acted because SR-17018 could disrupt the market for maintenance drugs. “I think that that’s why they’re freaked out about SR becoming widely known and available,” he said.
Legal Challenge and DEA Defense
Robert Rush, a Denver attorney and executive director of the nonprofit Rights and Reason Project, represents Bohn and filed a request to block the emergency scheduling. He argued that SR-17018 has a lower risk profile than other synthetic opioids being banned at the same time. The DEA, he said, never responded. “It was a very reasonable, well-thought-out, grounded-in-scientific-evidence argument, and they just completely ignored it,” Rush said.
The DEA declined to comment directly, referring to its notice of intent to schedule SR-17018 and three other synthetic opioids. The document states that two samples of the drug were identified in two states since 2025 through the National Forensic Laboratory Information System, and that a separate monitoring system detected samples on the West Coast. It argues that the four substances have no approved medical use and are likely to be trafficked and abused like other synthetic opioids. The notice also warns that because SR-17018 can reset opioid tolerance, users might face higher overdose risk on subsequent use, though the same is true after abstinence.
Rush called the use of emergency scheduling powers “draconian” and said it should not apply because SR-17018 has not been linked to emergency room visits or overdose deaths. The temporary scheduling lasts two years, with a possible one-year extension, during which the DEA could move to permanently schedule the drug through a process that allows public and scientific input. During the emergency period, Rush noted, there is no opportunity for judicial review.
He warned that banning gas-station opioids like 7-OH while removing potentially helpful substances like SR-17018 “is setting up a perfect storm for another overdose crisis.” He added that he could find no compelling reason to shut down decades of research into a compound that could lead to next-generation treatments for opioid dependence.
