Treasury
3-MO 3.83% +1bp 6-MO 3.98% unch 1-YR 4.08% +4bp 2-YR 4.28% +5bp 3-YR 4.34% +4bp 5-YR 4.45% +7bp 7-YR 4.59% +7bp 10-YR 4.75% +7bp 20-YR 5.28% +6bp 30-YR 5.27% +6bp 3-MO 3.83% +1bp 6-MO 3.98% unch 1-YR 4.08% +4bp 2-YR 4.28% +5bp 3-YR 4.34% +4bp 5-YR 4.45% +7bp 7-YR 4.59% +7bp 10-YR 4.75% +7bp 20-YR 5.28% +6bp 30-YR 5.27% +6bp 3-MO 3.83% +1bp 6-MO 3.98% unch 1-YR 4.08% +4bp 2-YR 4.28% +5bp 3-YR 4.34% +4bp 5-YR 4.45% +7bp 7-YR 4.59% +7bp 10-YR 4.75% +7bp 20-YR 5.28% +6bp 30-YR 5.27% +6bp 3-MO 3.83% +1bp 6-MO 3.98% unch 1-YR 4.08% +4bp 2-YR 4.28% +5bp 3-YR 4.34% +4bp 5-YR 4.45% +7bp 7-YR 4.59% +7bp 10-YR 4.75% +7bp 20-YR 5.28% +6bp 30-YR 5.27% +6bp 3-MO 3.83% +1bp 6-MO 3.98% unch 1-YR 4.08% +4bp 2-YR 4.28% +5bp 3-YR 4.34% +4bp 5-YR 4.45% +7bp 7-YR 4.59% +7bp 10-YR 4.75% +7bp 20-YR 5.28% +6bp 30-YR 5.27% +6bp 3-MO 3.83% +1bp 6-MO 3.98% unch 1-YR 4.08% +4bp 2-YR 4.28% +5bp 3-YR 4.34% +4bp 5-YR 4.45% +7bp 7-YR 4.59% +7bp 10-YR 4.75% +7bp 20-YR 5.28% +6bp 30-YR 5.27% +6bp
US Treasury par yield curve · Jul 31 · Source: U.S. Treasury
Sunday, August 2, 2026
U.S. Edition
MONEY & WORLD
Subscribe
21 CFR part 1310

An uncontrolled MDMA precursor has turned up in 154 international incident reports since 2021, and the DEA proposes to control it along with six chemical relatives

Money & World
The Editorial Team ·
A close photograph of a patch of ochre crustose lichen spreading across a deep red rock surface, the crust broken into rounded lobes divided by dark fissures, with paler grey blooms at the centre of several lobes and the bare speckled rock filling the rest of the frame. No object, person, marking, lettering or brand mark is in view.
Photo: David Brown / Pexels

104 metric tons.

That is the quantity of one uncontrolled chemical recorded in 154 reports to the Precursors Incident Communication System since 2021, and it appears in a notice of proposed rulemaking the Drug Enforcement Administration filed for public inspection on Friday morning. The chemical is the ethyl ester of PMK glycidic acid. Its close relative the methyl ester has been a list I chemical in the United States since May 2021, and in the thirteen years since 2013 that one has produced 79 reports and a little over 28 metric tons. The uncontrolled version passed it in five years, by volume and by count, and DEA now proposes to rewrite the listing so that it and six further esters come inside the Controlled Substances Act.

The mechanism is a single line of regulatory text. Entry 35 in the table of substances covered at 21 CFR 1310.02 currently reads for PMK glycidic acid, its optical and geometric isomers, its salts, and salts of those isomers. The proposal adds four words to it: and its esters, not listed elsewhere in the CSA. Seven are then named in full, ethyl, propyl, isopropyl, butyl, isobutyl, sec-butyl and tert-butyl, each with its systematic name written out.

The route through Vienna

This did not begin in Washington. The Commission on Narcotic Drugs voted at its 67th session on 19 March 2024 to put the seven esters into Table I of the 1988 United Nations convention on drug trafficking, and the Secretary-General notified the United States by letter dated 6 June 2024 under Article 12 of that convention. A second letter, dated 9 June 2025 and following the 68th session, moved PMK glycidate itself out of the body of Table I and into a footnote as the methyl ester, leaving its control status alone. Article 12 obliges a party to take measures it considers appropriate once it is notified. DEA states that amending the listing is how the United States meets that obligation.

The agency's own account of why is blunter. Clandestine laboratory operators, it writes, responded to controls on MDMA precursors by making their own precursors and diverting other chemicals to produce them, and the International Narcotics Control Board found the seven esters "highly suitable for the illicit manufacture of 3,4-MDP-2-P." They substitute for one another in the same synthetic route.

Where it comes from

The incident data carries a geography. Of the 86 ethyl-ester reports that named an origin country, China was named in 77. Of the 53 methyl-ester reports that named one, China was named in 37, and of the 20 salt reports, 17. In all three sets the majority of the incidents themselves were logged in the Netherlands. DEA queried the system on 24 March 2026.

Supply is not clandestine either. The agency states that the ethyl ester is now readily available from commercial chemical suppliers, and that it has identified potential suppliers in the United States, China, France, the United Kingdom and Hong Kong. It puts the number of domestic suppliers of one ester at 14, while adding that chemical distributors often carry an item in a catalogue without any material level of sales.

No threshold, no concentration floor

Two design choices give the proposal its reach. The rulemaking sets no threshold, so every transaction would be regulated regardless of size under 21 CFR 1310.04(g). And chemical mixtures containing any amount of the esters would not be exempt at any concentration, which DEA justifies by the absence of a legitimate industrial use and the risk of extraction. A manufacturer wanting relief has to apply for an exemption and wait for DEA to grant it.

Registration follows, with the fees stated: $3,699 a year for a manufacturer, $1,850 for a distributor, importer or exporter. DEA expects the few legitimate suppliers to stop selling rather than pay, and estimates the cost of those foregone sales as minimal. The Administrator certified that the rule would not have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities. Handlers who file a complete registration application within 30 days of a final rule would get a temporary exemption from the registration requirement alone, at 21 CFR 1310.09, while recordkeeping, reporting, security and inspection obligations start on the effective date regardless.

DEA says it has found no known legitimate use for these esters beyond small research and laboratory quantities, and that it cannot rule out minimal amounts going into legitimate 3,4-MDP-2-P. It asks for comment on exactly that. The document was signed on 28 July by Administrator Terrance C. Cole. Comments close 30 days after publication.

The document: Drug Enforcement Administration, Department of Justice, Amendment to 3,4-MDP-2-P methyl glycidic acid, a List I Chemical, notice of proposed rulemaking, Docket No. DEA-1427, 21 CFR part 1310, billing code 4410-09-P, FR document 2026-15624, filed for public inspection on 31 July 2026 at 8:45 a.m. Eastern with a stated publication date of 3 August 2026. The complete public inspection text was downloaded and read in full here; no fetch-tool summary was relied on, and every figure, date, citation and characterisation below was matched against the document text. Identifiers matched: docket DEA-1427; 21 CFR part 1310; authority citation 21 U.S.C. 802, 827(h), 830, 871(b), 890; statutory definition of a list I chemical at 21 U.S.C. 802(34); delegation at 28 CFR 0.100(b); listing procedure at 21 CFR 1310.02(c); signing authority stating the document was signed on 28 July 2026 by DEA Administrator Terrance C. Cole and submitted for publication by Heather Achbach, Federal Register Liaison Officer; foot of document reading [FR Doc. 2026-15624 Filed: 7/31/2026 8:45 am; Publication Date: 8/3/2026]. As verified: comments must be submitted electronically or postmarked on or before 30 days after publication in the Federal Register. The proposal would amend the existing 21 CFR 1310.02(a)(35) listing so that it reads 3,4-MDP-2-P methyl glycidic acid (PMK glycidic acid) and its esters, not listed elsewhere in the CSA, its optical and geometric isomers, its salts, salts of its optical and geometric isomers, salts of its esters, not listed elsewhere in the CSA, and any combination thereof, whenever the existence of such is possible. The seven esters named in the proposed regulatory text, verified verbatim in substance: ethyl, propyl, isopropyl, butyl, isobutyl, sec-butyl and tert-butyl esters of 3,4-MDP-2-P methyl glycidic acid, each also given as a systematic name of the form alkyl 3-(benzo[d][1,3]dioxol-5-yl)-2-methyloxirane-2-carboxylate and as a PMK alkyl glycidate synonym. International chain as verified: the Commission on Narcotic Drugs decided at its 67th Session on 19 March 2024 to add those seven esters to Table I of the 1988 United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances; the Secretary-General of the United Nations notified the United States Government by letter dated 6 June 2024 under Article 12, paragraph 6; a further letter dated 9 June 2025, following the 68th Session held on 12 March 2025, moved 3,4-MDP-2-P methyl glycidate from the body of Table I to footnote 1 as the methyl ester, with its control status unchanged. Precursors Incident Communication System figures as verified, the system having been queried by DEA on 24 March 2026: since 2011, 29 reports of the sodium and potassium salts of 3,4-MDP-2-P methyl glycidic acid totalling over 16 metric tons, with China the alleged origin country in 17 of the 20 reports stating an origin; since 2013, 79 reports of the methyl ester totalling over 28 metric tons, with China the alleged origin in 37 of 53 reports stating an origin; since 2021, 154 reports of the ethyl ester totalling more than 104 metric tons, with China the alleged origin in 77 of 86 reports stating an origin. The document states that the majority of the incidents in each of the three sets were reported in the Netherlands, and that PICS records seizures, stopped shipments, diversion and diversion attempts, illicit laboratories and associated equipment. Availability as verified: DEA states the ethyl ester is now readily available from commercial chemical suppliers and that it has identified potential suppliers in the United States, China, France, the United Kingdom and Hong Kong, and separately that it has identified 14 domestic suppliers of one ester. On legitimate use, as verified: DEA states it has not identified any known legitimate uses for esters of 3,4-MDP-2-P methyl glycidic acid other than in small amounts for research, development and laboratory analytical purposes, that it cannot rule out minimal quantities used in the manufacture of legitimate 3,4-MDP-2-P, and that it welcomes public comment on those quantities and their economic significance. On scope, as verified: the rulemaking does not establish a threshold, so all transactions regardless of size would be regulated in accordance with 21 CFR 1310.04(g), and chemical mixtures containing any amount would not be exempt at any concentration unless a manufacturer applies and DEA grants an exemption under 21 CFR 1310.13, with the Table of Concentration Limits at 21 CFR 1310.12(c) amended to say so. On registration, as verified: handlers would need registration under 21 U.S.C. 822, 823, 957 and 958, with separate registrations required for manufacturing, distributing, importing and exporting under 21 CFR 1309.21 and a separate registration for each principal place of business under 21 CFR 1309.23(a); warehousemen are not required to register under 21 U.S.C. 822(c)(2) and 957(b)(1)(B) provided the warehouse receives from a DEA registrant and distributes only back to that registrant and registered location under 21 CFR 1309.23(b)(1). DEA proposes a temporary exemption from the registration requirement at 21 CFR 1310.09 for persons whose properly completed application is received on or before 30 days after publication of a final rule, remaining in effect until DEA takes final action on the application; the document states the temporary exemption applies solely to the registration requirement and that all other chemical control requirements, including recordkeeping and reporting, would become effective on the effective date of the final rule, and that it does not suspend applicable Federal criminal laws or supersede State or local law. Records must be kept two years under 21 CFR 1310.04, bulk manufacturers must submit annual manufacturing, inventory and use data under 21 CFR 1310.05(d), and suspicious transaction reporting is required under 21 U.S.C. 830(b) and 21 CFR 1310.05(a) and (b). Costs as verified: annual registration fees of $3,699 for manufacturers and $1,850 for distributors, importers and exporters, with DEA stating that any manufacturer already handling 3,4-MDP-2-P or MDMA would already be registered, that suppliers of legitimate quantities are expected to stop selling rather than incur the registration cost, and that the cost of foregone sales is minimal. DEA determined the action is not a significant regulatory action under section 3(f) of E.O. 12866, states that DEA scheduling actions are not subject to E.O. 14192 or E.O. 14294, and the Administrator certified under the Regulatory Flexibility Act that the rule will not have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities. The document cites existing OMB collections 1117-0023 and 1117-0029, and certifies under the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act that the action would not produce a mandate of $100,000,000 or more in any one year..

More on Small Business