Is it legal in the United States? Drug law, penalties and sources

What governs drugs in the United States

The Controlled Substances Act of 1970 is codified at 21 USC 801 and following. It creates five schedules, sets a procedure at section 811 for moving substances between them, and sets the penalties at sections 841 and 844. Enforcement is the Drug Enforcement Administration's, and prosecutions are brought in the federal district courts.

The schedules themselves are printed at 21 USC 812(c), and that list has barely moved since 1970. The subsection opens 'Schedules I, II, III, IV, and V shall, unless and until amended pursuant to section 811 of this title, consist of the following drugs or other substances'. Almost every substance added in the last fifty years was added by regulation under that section 811 procedure, and the operative list is 21 CFR 1308.11 for Schedule I through to 1308.15 for Schedule V.

Measured across the 88 substances this site covers, 59 are federally scheduled and only 33 appear anywhere in the text of section 812. That is why every citation on this page is to a paragraph of the regulation.

The schedule is not a measure of how dangerous a substance is thought to be alone. It also carries an accepted medical use test, which is why heroin is in Schedule I and cocaine, fentanyl and methamphetamine are in Schedule II.

What each schedule costs you

Supply offences are 21 USC 841. For a short list of substances the penalty is set by weight, and those are the mandatory minimums. Section 841(b)(1)(A) sets ten years to life for a kilogram of heroin, five kilograms of cocaine, 280 grams of cocaine base, 100 grams of phencyclidine, 10 grams of lysergic acid diethylamide, 400 grams of fentanyl, 1,000 kilograms of marihuana or 1,000 plants, or 50 grams of methamphetamine. Section 841(b)(1)(B) sets five to forty years at one tenth of each of those figures.

Everything else in Schedule I or II falls to section 841(b)(1)(C), and that is the paragraph most accounts leave out. It reads that such a person 'shall be sentenced to a term of imprisonment of not more than 20 years and if death or serious bodily injury results from the use of such substance shall be sentenced to a term of imprisonment of not less than twenty years or more than life'. A substance absent from the weight tables has no mandatory minimum. It is not thereby lightly punished.

Schedule III is up to ten years under section 841(b)(1)(E)(i), Schedule IV up to five under 841(b)(2), Schedule V up to one year under 841(b)(3). Marihuana under fifty kilograms is up to five years under 841(b)(1)(D).

Simple possession is 21 USC 844(a): up to one year and a fine of at least 1,000 dollars for a first offence, with higher figures on a prior conviction. The section excepts a substance 'obtained directly, or pursuant to a valid prescription or order, from a practitioner, while acting in the course of his professional practice'.

Two ways to be controlled without being named

The first is the analogue rule. Section 802(32)(A) defines a controlled substance analogue as a substance whose chemical structure is substantially similar to that of a Schedule I or II substance and which has, or is represented to have, a substantially similar or greater effect on the central nervous system. Section 813 then provides that such an analogue 'shall, to the extent intended for human consumption, be treated, for the purposes of any Federal law as a controlled substance in schedule I'. The qualifier about human consumption is doing real work and it is part of the rule.

The second is the class entry. Some paragraphs of the regulation define a structure rather than list a name. Paragraph 1308.11(g)(1), cannabimimetic agents, is one. Paragraph 1308.11(d)(31)(i) is another, reaching tetrahydrocannabinols and also 'synthetic substances, derivatives, and their isomers with similar chemical structure and pharmacological activity to those substances contained in the plant'.

There is a third mechanism that looks like neither. Many group headings in the regulation carry prefatory words that reach beyond the names below them. The opiates paragraph 1308.11(b) covers the listed opiates 'including their isomers, esters, ethers, salts, and salts of isomers, esters and ethers', so an unnamed salt of a named drug is scheduled without appearing anywhere.

Being absent from a list is therefore not the same as being lawful, and the site says which route reaches each substance rather than only which schedule it lands in.

Cannabis is Schedule I and Schedule III at the same time

Marihuana is listed in Schedule I at 21 CFR 1308.11(d)(23) and it is still there. On 28 April 2026 the Acting Attorney General issued a final rule, published at 91 FR 22714 and effective the same day, which put some of the same plant in Schedule III.

The rule's own summary states its reach: it applies to marijuana as defined in the Act, marijuana extracts, and delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol and other compounds derived from the plant that fall outside the definition of hemp, 'to the extent that any of these are included in an FDA-approved drug product or are subject to a state-issued license to manufacture, distribute, and/or dispense marijuana or products containing marijuana for medical purposes'. Those paragraphs are now at 21 CFR 1308.13(g)(2), (3) and (4).

So the federal schedule of cannabis depends on where the cannabis came from. In an approved medicine, or under a state medical licence, it is Schedule III. Anywhere else it remains Schedule I.

Adult use is not covered, and the rule says so rather than leaving it to inference. The registration provision reads 'Registrations under this subpart do not authorize the manufacture, distribution, dispensing, or use of marijuana or products containing marijuana for non-medical purposes'. More than twenty states permit adult use under their own law. Federal law does not compel a state to criminalise anything, so a state can decline to prohibit conduct that federal law still prohibits, and both remain in force at once.

Hemp is a separate question again. Section 802(16)(B)(i) excludes hemp from the definition of marihuana, and 7 USC 1639o defines hemp as the plant and its derivatives, extracts, cannabinoids, isomers, acids and salts 'with a delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol concentration of not more than 0.3 percent on a dry weight basis'. Paragraph 1308.11(d)(31)(ii) carries the same carve out for tetrahydrocannabinols. Whether a cannabinoid made from hemp but not naturally present in it falls inside that carve out is contested, and this site does not assert an answer either way.

What this page does not say

It does not state the law of any state. Every substance on this site has fifty one possible answers under state law and one under federal law, and only the federal answer is given here. A reader in a particular state has to check that state, and that is a real limit rather than a disclaimer.

A table of state cannabis status was considered and refused. It would be the most perishable content on the site, no build check could catch it going stale, and a wrong state entry on a page about criminal liability is worse than no entry. The mechanism above does not decay: federal scheduling, the medical licence carve out, and the fact that a state need not criminalise what federal law prohibits are all durable statements.

It does not state the schedule under any state controlled substances act, several of which differ from the federal one, and it does not cover the five United States territories, which legislate for themselves and are covered separately.

Penalties by section of the United States Code

Every substance confirmed against a primary source

88 substances have a status for United States verified against a named statute. Each row links to the full entry, with the consequences, the prescription position and the source.

Sources

• 21 USC 802, 812, 813, 841 and 844, Office of the Law Revision Counsel The official United States Code, from the office that prepares it. The Law Revision Counsel states that the printed Code is what 1 USC 204 recognises as evidence of the law, and that versions published by private companies are unofficial.
• 21 CFR 1308.11 to 1308.15, Electronic Code of Federal Regulations The operative schedules. The copy read for this page was current as of 11 September 2026 by its own banner.
• Schedules of controlled substances: rescheduling of Food and Drug Administration approved products containing marijuana from schedule I to schedule III, 91 FR 22714 Final rule, effective 28 April 2026.
• 7 USC 1639o, the definition of hemp Cited for the 0.3 percent delta-9 threshold that 21 USC 802(16)(B)(i) turns on.

Statute text on this page is quoted from the copies linked above. Last verified September 16, 2026.