For more than half a century, federal officials have classified drugs into legal categories that determine who can manufacture, prescribe, or study them, and who goes to prison for possessing or selling them.
asserted
who → classify → them
Those classifications carry enormous consequences.
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classifications → carry → consequences
They also reflect decades of political pressure, moralization, myth, and stigma.
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They → reflect → pressure
Rep. Steve Cohen (D–Tenn.) proposes to change that.
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Cohen → propose → that
His Public Health and Research Reforms in Controlled Substances Act of 2026 would substantially overhaul federal drug scheduling, shift key decisions from law enforcement to health officials, ease research restrictions, deschedule marijuana, and reduce mandatory prison penalties.
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Act → overhaul → penalties
While the proposal preserves too much of the drug prohibition infrastructure, it represents a major step toward a more rational, evidence-based, and humane drug policy.
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it → preserve → policy
The Controlled Substances Act currently combines judgments about a drug's potential for abuse with judgments about its medical usefulness.
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Act → combine → usefulness
Congress vested scheduling authority in the attorney general, who generally exercises it through the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
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who → vest → Administration
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) evaluates the scientific and medical evidence, but the DEA makes the ultimate legal determination of whether a drug has a "currently accepted medical use" for scheduling purposes, as the Justice Department explained in a 2024 legal opinion.
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Department → evaluate → opinion
Schedule I, the most restrictive category, includes substances deemed to have a high potential for abuse and no currently accepted medical use.
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I → include → abuse
These restrictions impede research, while officials cite insufficient evidence of medical usefulness to justify continued restrictions.
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officials → impede → restrictions
Cohen's bill would transfer authority to assess medical usefulness and drug-related risks—and to make scheduling decisions—from law enforcement to HHS, where those judgments more rationally belong.
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judgments → transfer → HHS
Under the new system, controlled substances would receive two classifications: a Roman numeral, I through IV, reflecting risks associated with misuse, substance use disorder, and threats to public health; and a letter, A through E, reflecting therapeutic value.
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substances → receive → value
A substance could therefore be classified as high risk while still recognized for substantial medical benefits.
uncertain
substance → classify → benefits
That reflects an everyday reality of medical practice.
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That → reflect → practice
Fentanyl, for example, can cause fatal respiratory depression and remains an indispensable anesthetic and analgesic.
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Fentanyl → cause → depression
A drug's dangers do not erase its benefits.
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dangers → erase → benefits
The bill would also replace the vague "potential for abuse" standard for adding substances to the schedules with a standard based on the potential to develop a substance use disorder, expressly excluding isolated or occasional nontherapeutic use.
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bill → replace → use
Taking a substance for pleasure would no longer, by itself, satisfy that threshold.
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Taking → take → threshold
Among the proposal's most consequential provisions is a requirement that officials consider whether scheduling a substance would itself threaten public health, including by encouraging people to substitute other drugs.
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scheduling → consider → drugs
They must also consider whether people use a substance to help control problematic use of another scheduled drug, as well as the harms associated with that other drug.
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people → consider → drug
That would force federal officials to confront consequences that drug warriors routinely ignore.
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warriors → force → that
Banning a substance does not eliminate demand.
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Banning → ban → demand
Consumers may turn to underground suppliers, face uncertain potency and contamination, or switch to more dangerous products.
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Consumers → turn → products
Making a particular drug harder to obtain can leave its users worse off.
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drug → make → users
These requirements could be critical in disputes over kratom and its alkaloids, such as 7-hydroxymitragynine (7-OH), which some consumers report using for pain or to reduce their use of other opioids.
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consumers → use → opioids
Such reports should be part of an honest assessment of what consumers stand to lose when the government closes a legal supply channel.
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government → stand → channel
An expert committee would evaluate each substance and publish its evidence and reasoning, making scheduling decisions more transparent and easier to challenge.
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decisions → evaluate → evidence
HHS would also assume from the DEA responsibility for registering researchers who study controlled substances.
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who → assume → substances
Qualifying researchers would gain an expedited registration pathway, with faster decisions for eligible small preclinical pilot studies.
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researchers → gain → studies
Federal officials currently demand evidence that these drugs have medical benefits while imposing restrictions that make it harder for researchers to obtain the drugs and conduct the studies needed to generate that evidence.
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researchers → demand → evidence
Cohen would require officials to reconsider existing classifications, setting a two-year deadline for 32 named substances and an eight-year deadline for most others.
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Cohen → require → others
If officials miss those deadlines, statutory fallback classifications would apply.
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classifications → miss → deadlines
The bill would also repeal the legal obligation of the director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, the "drug czar," to oppose specified legalization efforts—a remarkable requirement for an office supposedly focused on evaluating drug policy.
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bill → repeal → policy
Marijuana and tetrahydrocannabinols (THCs) would come off the controlled substance schedules altogether.
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Marijuana → come → schedules
The bill expressly makes that change retroactive, extending it to past offenses, pending cases, convictions, and juvenile adjudications.
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change → make → offenses
Its sentencing reforms also merit praise.
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reforms → merit → praise
The proposal would remove the quantity-based trafficking provisions that impose five- and 10-year mandatory minimums and eliminate specified mandatory penalties when death or serious injury results.
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death → remove → penalties
The bill would also limit certain repeat-offender sentencing enhancements to prior convictions that meet the narrower definition of a "serious drug felony."
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that → limit → felony
Among other requirements, the person must have served more than a year in prison and been released within 15 years of the new offense.
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person → serve → offense
…and 29 more, not listed.
The Aporia
