crs_reports: R49477

Congressional Research Service reports with summaries, authors, and topic classifications.

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id title publish_date update_date status content_type authors topics summary pdf_url html_url
R49477 Classwide Scheduling of Controlled Substances 2026-10-02T04:00:00Z 2026-10-03T05:08:04Z Active Reports Lisa N. Sacco, Joanna R. Lampe   As new dangerous substances appear on the illicit drug market in the United States, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) may use its emergency scheduling authority to temporarily place those substances in Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) if the agency deems it necessary to avoid imminent hazards to public safety. (DEA was given temporary scheduling authority in the Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984 [Title II of P.L. 98-473].) However, as DEA has worked alongside state and foreign authorities to control hazardous substances, new, yet similar, substances have been found to rapidly emerge. Chemists, often operating illicitly, slightly alter a regulated compound to create a similar substance that is in the same structural class, but is not specifically controlled. Law enforcement has described efforts to control each new substance as a game of “whack-a-mole.” The CSA classifies various substances in one of five lists known as “schedules” based on characteristics such as their medical use, potential for abuse, and safety or dependence liability. Schedule I is the most restrictive, containing substances with no accepted medical use and high potential for abuse, such as heroin. The CSA authorizes the Attorney General to schedule substances temporarily or permanently via an administrative rulemaking process, and the Attorney General has delegated that scheduling authority to DEA. Congress may also schedule substances via legislation. In 2018, when new fentanyl analogues were rapidly emerging, DEA issued a temporary scheduling order (TSO) that placed a class of fentanyl-related substances in Schedule I under the CSA for two years. Congress (and Presidents Trump and Biden) enacted legislation to extend the TSO 10 times before making the classwide scheduling permanent through the Halt All Lethal Trafficking of Fentanyl Act (HALT Fentanyl Act; P.L. 119-26). Until the 2018 TSO, DEA had never scheduled substances as a class, but Congress had previously done so. For example, Congress defined “cannabimimetic agents” and added these substances as a class to Schedule I of the CSA through the Synthetic Drug Abuse Prevention Act of 2012 (P.L. 112-144). As new classes of substances emerge, Congress may consider how best to control these substances and stem the flow of illicit drugs and their analogues in the United States. Policymakers may evaluate the use and effect of classwide scheduling as one such means of drug control policy. https://www.congress.gov/crs_external_products/R/PDF/R49477/R49477.1.pdf https://www.congress.gov/crs_external_products/R/HTML/R49477.html

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