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ILLEGAL DRUGS / CONTROLLED
SUBSTANCES
Controlled Substances Act (CSA)
[Contraband (i.e., illegal to possess) Substances
and How “Classification” is Determined]
The Controlled Substances Act (CSA), Title II of the
Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act
of 1970, is the legal foundation of the government's
fight against the abuse of drugs and other substances.
This law is a consolidation of numerous laws regulating
the manufacture and distribution of narcotics, stimulants,
depressants, hallucinogens, anabolic steroids, and
chemicals used in the illicit production of controlled
substances.
The CSA places all substances that
are regulated under existing federal law into one
of five schedules. This placement is based upon the
substance's medicinal value, harmfulness, and potential
for abuse or addiction. Schedule I is reserved for
the most dangerous drugs that have no recognized medical
use, while Schedule V is the classification used for
the least dangerous drugs. The act also provides a
mechanism for substances to be controlled, added to
a schedule, decontrolled, removed from control, rescheduled,
or transferred from one schedule to another. Punishment
for violations of the law are severe, especially for
Schedule I and Schedule II drugs, which are “100%
contraband” (Schedule I) or “conditionally
contraband” absent approved DEA use by those
holing a permit (Schedule II). See http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/concern/abuse/chap1/penal/chart1.htm
Proceedings to add, delete, or change
the schedule of a drug or other substance may be initiated
by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), or
by petition from any interested party, including the
manufacturer of a drug, a medical society or association,
a pharmacy association, a public interest group concerned
with drug abuse, a state or local government agency,
or an individual citizen. When a petition is received
by the DEA, the agency begins its own investigation
of the drug.
The DEA also may begin an investigation
of a drug at any time based upon information received
from law enforcement laboratories, state and local
law enforcement and regulatory agencies, or other
sources of information.
Once the DEA has collected the necessary
data, the DEA Administrator, by authority of the Attorney
General, requests from the HHS a scientific and medical
evaluation and recommendation as to whether the drug
or other substance should be controlled or removed
from control. This request is sent to the Assistant
Secretary of Health of the HHS. Then, the HHS solicits
information from the Commissioner of the Food and
Drug Administration and evaluations and recommendations
from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and on
occasion, from the scientific and medical community
at large. The Assistant Secretary, by authority of
the Secretary, compiles the information and transmits
back to the DEA a medical and scientific evaluation
regarding the drug or other substance, a recommendation
as to whether the drug should be controlled, and in
what schedule it should be placed.
The medical and scientific evaluations
are binding to the DEA with respect to scientific
and medical matters. The recommendation on scheduling
is binding only to the extent that if HHS recommends
that the substance not be controlled, the DEA may
not control the substance.
Once the DEA has received the scientific
and medical evaluation from HHS, the Administrator
will evaluate all available data and make a final
decision whether to propose that a drug or other substance
be controlled and into which schedule it should be
placed.
The CSA also creates a closed system
of distribution for those authorized to handle controlled
substances. The cornerstone of this system is the
registration of all those authorized by the DEA to
handle controlled substances. All individuals and
firms that are registered are required to maintain
complete and accurate inventories and records of all
transactions involving controlled substances, as well
as security for the storage of controlled substances.
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