Congressman Introduces Bill to Overhaul the Controlled Substances Act and Remove Marijuana From It
Rep. Steve Cohen, a Democrat from Tennessee, introduced the Public Health and Research Reforms in Controlled Substances Act on Oct. 29. Tennessee has not legalized cannabis. The 89-page bill would revise nearly every section of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), the federal drug law signed by President Nixon more than 55 years ago, and would remove marijuana from the CSA entirely, legalizing it at the federal level. Cohen describes the bill as the most comprehensive set of CSA reforms since the law was enacted.
The bill would also replace the current scheduling system with a “dual-axis” framework. Four numbered schedules (I–IV) would rank a substance’s risk of misuse and threat to public health, and five lettered schedules (A–E) would rank its therapeutic value. All controlled substances would be reviewed under the new system, starting with about 30, including fentanyl, morphine, methamphetamine, psilocybin and ibogaine. Scheduling authority, research registrations and production quotas would move from the Attorney General and the DEA to the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Researchers would apply for a single blanket license, and the current eight-factor scheduling test would expand to a 14-factor risk-benefit analysis scored by an external advisory committee.
On sentencing, the bill would eliminate weight-based mandatory minimum drug penalties, leave sentencing decisions to judges, and apply those changes retroactively, while keeping enforcement tools for pursuing major traffickers. The legislation has been endorsed by NORML, the Drug Policy Alliance, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) and Students for Sensible Drug Policy.
