Key facts
- The DEA emergency-scheduled SR-17018 as Schedule I in late August, a category it defines as having no accepted medical use and high abuse potential.
- Bohn, senior associate vice president of research at University of South Florida Health, said she cannot have SR-17018 made, shipped or handled for safety studies.
- The DEA's notice of intent said two samples of SR-17018 were found in two states since 2025 via the National Forensic Laboratory Information System.
- The notice said a separate system, Rapid Drug Analysis and Research, detected some SR-17018 samples on the West Coast.
- Attorney Robert Rush said the DEA's use of temporary emergency scheduling powers was draconian because SR-17018 has not been implicated in emergency room visits or overdose deaths.
- The emergency scheduling lasts two years with a potential one-year extension, during which the DEA could permanently schedule the drug.
The US Drug Enforcement Administration emergency-scheduled SR-17018 as a Schedule I controlled substance in late August, putting the experimental opioid compound in the same category as heroin, which the agency defines as having no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.
Laura Bohn, senior associate vice president of research at University of South Florida Health, said the move blocks her work. "Right now, I would like to have it tested for additional safety studies, and I can't have it made, I can't ship it, I can't touch it," she told WIRED. In 2017, Bohn and other scientists funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse reported in the journal Cell that compounds including SR-17018 relieved pain in mice without causing respiratory depression, the effect that typically causes opioid users to stop breathing and die. Her team filed a patent on the compound and later found mice did not develop a high tolerance to it and that morphine-dependent mice could use it to reset tolerance without painful withdrawal.
In response to a request for comment, the DEA referred WIRED to its notice of intent to schedule SR-17018 and three other synthetic opioids. The notice said the agency had found two samples of the drug in two states since 2025 through the National Forensic Laboratory Information System, which analyzes drugs seized by law enforcement, and that a separate monitoring system, Rapid Drug Analysis and Research, had detected some samples on the West Coast. The notice said the four substances have no currently approved medical use and are likely to be trafficked and abused similarly to other synthetic opioids. It also said that because SR-17018 can reset opioid tolerance, users might be more vulnerable to overdose the next time they use.
Denver attorney Robert Rush, executive director of the nonprofit Rights and Reason Project and Bohn's representative, said he filed a request to stop the scheduling, arguing SR-17018 has a lower risk profile than the other synthetic opioids being banned. He said the DEA never responded. Rush said the agency's use of temporary emergency scheduling powers was "draconian" and should not apply because SR-17018 has not been implicated in emergency room visits or overdose deaths. The emergency scheduling lasts two years with a potential one-year extension, and the DEA could permanently schedule the drug in that period through a process requiring public and scientific input.