What is the difference between schedule 2 and 3 drugs

Your immune system feeds off the basics of life — sleep, movement, food…. Click for Printable Version. Suzanne B. Did you find this article helpful? Featured Articles. Alternative Therapy. These are not comprehensive lists so please note that a substance need not be listed as a controlled substance to be treated as a scheduled substance for criminal prosecution. The "Other Names" column, provides some examples of alternate names for certain compounds, and in some instances provides examples of "positional isomers".

A substance not included on these lists may also be regulated as a controlled substance analogue. A controlled substance analogue is a substance which is intended for human consumption, is structurally substantially similar to a schedule I or schedule II substance, is pharmacologically substantially similar to a schedule I or schedule II substance, or is represented as being similar to a schedule I or schedule II substance and is not an approved medication in the United States.

See 21 U. Drugs and other substances that are considered controlled substances under the Controlled Substances Act CSA are divided into five schedules.

An updated and complete list of the schedules is published annually in Title 21 Code of Federal Regulations C.

Substances are placed in their respective schedules based on whether they have a currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States, their relative abuse potential, and likelihood of causing dependence when abused. Medicines are usually in Schedules 2, 3, 4 or 8.

Pharmacist only medicine — Medicines that are available from a pharmacist without a prescription. These medicines are usually behind the pharmacy counter. Prescription only medicine — Medicines which must be prescribed by an authorised healthcare professional such as your doctor. They may be supplied in hospital or bought from a pharmacy with a prescription. Caution — Chemicals which are not likely to cause harm. They need suitable packaging with simple warnings and safety directions on the label.

Poison — Chemicals with a moderate risk of causing harm. They need special packaging with a strong warning and safety directions on the label. Dangerous poison — Chemicals with a high risk of causing harm in low doses. They are only available to certain people who are able to handle them safely. There may be special rules for selling, using or storing these chemicals. Controlled drug — Medicines or chemicals which have special rules for producing, supplying, distributing, owning and using them.

These medicines may only be prescribed by an authorised healthcare professional who may need a special prescribing permit. Prohibited substance — Chemicals which may be abused or misused. They are illegal to produce, own, sell or use except if needed for medical or scientific research. Obviously, marijuana is nowhere as dangerous as heroin.

And it's not more dangerous than schedule 2 drugs like cocaine and meth. So why the hell is pot schedule 1? But the classification doesn't mean that the federal government thinks of marijuana and heroin as equally dangerous drugs.

The schedule reflects a more complicated system — one that accounts for a drug's medical value as much as a drug's potential for abuse. A harsh schedule also does not mean a drug is totally illegal.

Criminal laws , while guided by the scheduling system, often take other factors into account. For pot, they do — leaving it as one of the less-punished illicit drugs at the federal level, even though it's schedule 1. And opioid painkillers, as one example, are schedule 2 but legal for medical purposes.

Still, a drug's schedule is an important policy guide. A stricter schedule lets the DEA more stringently limit access to a drug and its supply, which can make a drug more difficult to research — as has happened for marijuana, limiting researchers' ability to study the drug for its medical value. As a result, advocacy and medical groups have long contended that pot's schedule is out of step with the available scientific evidence.

So what is the scheduling system, how does it work, and what would it take to reschedule a drug? Here's what you need to know. Under the Controlled Substances Act , the federal government — which has largely relegated the regulation of drugs to the Drug Enforcement Administration DEA — puts each drug into a classification, known as a schedule, based on its medical value and potential for abuse. To initiate a schedule, the DEA first asks if a drug can be abused.

If the answer is yes, then it's put on a schedule. If no, the drug is left out. After that, the drug's medical value and relative potential for abuse are evaluated to decide where on the scale it lands. Congress did not clearly define abuse under the Controlled Substances Act. The two big issues, then, are a drug's potential for abuse and its medical value.

But for federal agencies responsible for classifying drugs, abuse is when individuals take a substance recreationally and develop personal health hazards or pose other risks to society as a whole. To find medical value, a drug must have large-scale clinical trials to back it up — similar to what the Food and Drug Administration FDA would expect from any other drug entering the market.

Schedule 1 drugs have no medical value and high potential for abuse, while schedule 2 through 5 substances all have some medical value but differ in ranking depending on their potential for abuse from high to low. In general, schedule 1 and 2 drugs have the most regulatory restrictions on research, supply, and access, and schedule 5 drugs have the least.

To many people, one of the more bewildering aspects of the scheduling system is that marijuana is schedule 1 — the same category as heroin — while cocaine and meth are schedule 2. But that doesn't necessarily mean the federal government views marijuana and heroin as equally dangerous drugs, or that it considers marijuana to be more dangerous than meth or cocaine.

Schedule 1 and 2 drugs are both described as having "a high potential for abuse" — a vague description that doesn't rank drugs in the two categories as equal or different. The big distinction between schedule 1 and 2 substances, instead, is whether the federal government thinks a drug has medical value. The DEA says schedule 2 substances have some medical value and schedule 1 substances do not, so the latter receive more regulatory scrutiny even though they may not be more dangerous.

The war on drugs was initiated when much of the nation was in hysterics about what drugs would do to the moral fabric of the country. It may be helpful to think of the scheduling system as made up of two distinct groups: nonmedical and medical.