A Democratic congressman has filed a new bill that would drastically overhaul how drugs are classified under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), including by letting states effectively force federal rescheduling by changing their own local laws.
Under current law, federal officials conduct a multi-part analysis to determine which, if any of CSA’s five schedules to place drugs in—depending on factors such as their medical use, potential for abuse and safety or dependence liability.
But advocates have complained that those criteria are ambiguous and that the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) often refuses to acknowledge widely accepted medical value of substances—pointing out that it has taken more than half a century to begin moving marijuana out of Schedule I, the most restrictive category—a process that is now underway due to a review initiated during the Biden administration and that is advancing under President Donald Trump.
The new Controlled Substances Act Clarification in Sciences Act, filed this week by Rep. Steven Cohen (D-TN), would more clearly define in statute some of the criteria that officials with DEA and federal health agencies use to determine drugs’ scheduling status.
A major change under the bill would define “accepted medical use” to include any use where “a
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