DEA Plays Whack-A-Mole With Unpronounceable Designer Drug
Published Date: 12/11/2025
Rule
Summary
The DEA is extending the temporary ban on MDMB-4en-PINACA, a powerful synthetic drug, keeping it in the strictest control category (Schedule I) for another year until December 12, 2026, or until a permanent decision is made. This means anyone making, selling, or using this drug faces serious legal consequences. The extension helps keep communities safe while the government finishes its review.
Analyzed Economic Effects
3 provisions identified: 0 benefits, 3 costs, 0 mixed.
Schedule I Status Extended One Year
The DEA extended the temporary Schedule I listing for MDMB-4en-PINACA effective December 12, 2025 through December 12, 2026, or until a permanent decision is made. That means anyone who makes, sells, imports, exports, or possesses this drug continues to face the regulatory controls and civil and criminal penalties that apply to Schedule I substances.
Research and Teaching Still Restricted
Researchers, educators, and laboratories that engage in research, instructional activities, or chemical analysis involving MDMB-4en-PINACA remain subject to Schedule I controls and to the same administrative, civil, and criminal sanctions. Those activities remain restricted under this temporary order for the one-year extension.
Salts and Isomers Also Controlled
The temporary extension explicitly covers MDMB-4en-PINACA as well as its salts, isomers, and salts of isomers whenever such variants exist. That means chemical variants of MDMB-4en-PINACA are treated the same as the named compound under Schedule I during the extension period.
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