Question: Under the Controlled Substances Act, what are the factors used to determine into which schedule a drug or substance should be placed or whether a substance should be decontrolled or rescheduled?5
Answer: These factors are listed in Section 201 (c), [21 U.S.C. § 811 (c)] of the CSA as follows:
(1) Its actual or relative potential for abuse.
(2) Scientific evidence of its pharmacological effect, if known.
(3) The state of current scientific knowledge regarding the drug or other substance.
(4) Its history and current pattern of abuse.
(5) The scope, duration, and significance of abuse.
(6) What, if any, risk there is to the public health.
(7) Its psychic or physiological dependence liability.
(8) Whether the substance is an immediate precursor of a substance already controlled under this subchapter. (https://www.dea.gov/druginfo/csa.shtml; accessed- April 2017)