US Bans Experimental Compound SR-17018 That Users Turned to for Quitting Opioids
The US Drug Enforcement Administration emergency-listed SR-17018 as a Schedule I substance in late August, alongside heroin. Developed as a safer painkiller, it was being used by people trying to quit opioids.
The US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) placed the compound SR-17018 in Schedule I in late August through an emergency order. That category includes heroin and is defined as having "no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse." The substance was developed as a potentially safer painkiller, but people addicted to opioids had been praising it online as a way to quit. The ban also complicates planned research.
From lab research to online forums
Laura Bohn, senior associate vice president of research at University of South Florida Health, began searching for safer pain-management drugs in 2012. With funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, her team reported in the journal Cell in 2017 that several compounds, including SR-17018, relieved pain in mice without suppressing breathing. Respiratory depression is the main reason opioid users die. Later work showed mice did not build a high tolerance to the compound, and mice dependent on morphine could use it to reset tolerance without painful withdrawal.
Until recently the compound, which is not regulated by the US Food and Drug Administration, was fairly easy to buy online. It has not been tested clinically in humans, and Bohn's planned trials have not begun.
What users report
Jim Bates, a 53-year-old kitchen manager from Duncan, Oklahoma, has used various opioids since he was 25. After becoming addicted to 7-OH, a concentrated kratom compound, he moved to a similar substance, MGM-15, and used SR-17018 to taper off it in about three weeks. He says he had no physical withdrawal symptoms. Michael, who withheld his surname for privacy, used it to quit 7-OH in January. Both have also used buprenorphine and methadone, but say they prefer SR-17018 because it does not need to be taken long-term.
The DEA and its critics
The DEA's notice says samples of the compound were found in two states since 2025 and on the West Coast, and that it is likely to be trafficked and abused like other synthetic opioids. It adds that resetting tolerance could raise overdose risk at the next use. Robert Rush, a Denver attorney who represents Bohn, calls emergency scheduling "draconian" because the compound has not been linked to emergency room visits or overdose deaths. The emergency listing lasts two years and can be extended by one.
