USA - Controlled Substances Act-USA

[ImSoHappy]

Why is the scheduling of drugs in the United states so absurd and why has no one fixed it?? Schedule 1=worst / Schedule 5=least harmful off illegal substances if you didn't know. Marijuana is schedule one? Amphetamines and cocaine are schedule two?? benzos schedule four??? hmmm something is really wrong here.

[bman1]

Originally Posted by ImSoHappy

Why is the scheduling of drugs in the United states so absurd and why has no one fixed it?? Schedule 1=worst / Schedule 5=least harmful off illegal substances if you didn't know. Marijuana is schedule one? Amphetamines and cocaine are schedule two?? benzos schedule four??? hmmm something is really wrong here.

Swib believes this is because of some have a medical use that is recognized by the federal government. Cocaine is schedule one. Amphetamines are a prescription. Benzos are a prescription drug widely available and prescribed with less abuse potential than an opiate or amp. Marijuana is not recognized by the federal government to have a medical value even though some state do recognize it.

[Greenport]

It is because the most dangerous compounds in medicine happen to also be the most effective. There are obvious exceptions but the United States doesn't (yet) recognize em.

[gmeziscool2354]

the scheduling really has less to do with the dangers the drug posses but the medical usage of the drugs, i'm not using any references for this, since i'm currently working on a paper and don't have the time to go all out for this one, but swim studies drug laws in fair detail, so here goes
Schedule 1: no medical use, possesion limited to a very small group of gov't commissioned research
Schedule 2: the most addictive and abusable medicines. small amounts can be scheduled and each refill requires correspondence (an appt i believe) with the prescribing doctor.
schedule 3: considered less abusable or reduced abusability (apparently i just invented that word) this includes some schedule 2 drugs mixed with non-psychoactive drugs, like APAP. These can be written in larger scripts and may be refilled a limited amount of times, usually requires Dr verification, but not necessarily an appt
Schedule 4: considered to be addictive if used in high quantities. Prescription are written in larger amounts and may not require doctors visits at all to refil. also, regular refills can be written into the script. It may be that schedule 4 drugs are not illegal to posess in small quantities or legal punishments may be much lighter, not really sure about this
schedule 5: in some states these don't even need to scripted by a Dr, and can be dispensed by pharmacists, still illegal to distribute but much lighter sentences if any at all for possesion

so there you go. Its a pretty stupid system tho, since the DEA really has there heads up there own asses about some stuff, like the resourcefulness of druggies. i feel a bit stupid posting online about this, but like propylhexedrine and levo-methamphetamine are not scheduled in OTC inhalers, but for a slight amount of work one can get a very abusable drug out those products, comparable to low grade meth.

but yeah, what ever, i just play by the rules, i don't make them, since i don't do any drugs except alcohol and those that are prescribed to me exactly as they are prescribed and just post about the experiences of other

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[ConcertaXL]

bman, Cocaine is schedule two. It can be legally prescribed as a topical anaesthetic (and there is no criminal barrier to prescribing coke for ADHD instead of other stimulants but no doctor would give an 8 year old a line to sniff.)
The scheduling system is generally fair in that it reflects the chance of abuse and to some extent the strength of the drug. I do not advocate any restrictive scheduling but if a government is going to use this system, the one the DEA designed makes sense: strong opioids and stimulants in the highest medically-used category; RC's and hallucinogens all schedule I as they have no well-studied and proven clinical indication; depressants in a lower category as they are generally less abused, lower street value and not too dangerous (except when mixed with alcohol.) I believe however a few re-schedules are in order:
Tussionex CII All short or medium acting barbiturates CII
Percocet/Percodan etc (up to 5mg oxycodone with apap/aspirin) CIII
Medical weed CIII or CIV, Diphenoxylate w/o atropine CIII, Codeine CIV all preps including pure ones. Dihydrocodeine and pholcodine CIV or CV all preps

[gmeziscool2354]

well, while there may be 'no criminal barrier' between above mentioned off label prescribing, the only preparations of cocaine in the USA are topical anesthetics and only FDA approved as such. Saying that "no criminal barrier" exists is a bit misleading. While prescribing any medicine for 'off label uses' falls into legal gray area at times, blatant examples of are illegal for doctors to prescribe since they schedule 2 thus monitored. IE, the dea has records of all cocaine being used, and assuming they keep as close tabs as they want the public to believe (can't link to DEA sources so cannot cite such examples of this, apparently they monitor where hyper-links to their sites appear, and could bring negative attention to this board) this is very unlikely go unnoticed. there are countless example of the DEA catching prescription diversion on schedule 2 narcotics, and USA swimmers should never forget how large and powerfully funded an organization the DEA is