Convention On Psychotropic Substances - Schedules of Controlled Substances

Schedules of Controlled Substances

The list of Schedules and the substances presently therein can be found on the International Narcotics Control Board's website.

The Convention has four Schedules of controlled substances, ranging from Schedule I (most restrictive) to Schedule IV (least restrictive). A list of psychotropic substances, and their corresponding Schedules, was annexed to the 1971 treaty. The text of the Convention does not contain a formal description of the features of the substances fitting in each Schedule, in contrast to the US Controlled Substances Act of 1970, which gave specific criteria for each Schedule in the US system. However, a 2002 European Parliament report informally describes the international Schedules as follows:

• Schedule I includes drugs claimed to create a serious risk to public health, whose therapeutic value is not currently acknowledged by the Commission on Narcotic Drugs. It includes synthetic psychedelics such as LSD in addition to natural psychedelics like DMT isomers except Dronabinol. MDMA, commonly known as Ecstasy, also falls under this category.
• Schedule II includes stimulants of the amphetamine type, deemed to have limited therapeutic value, as well as some analgesics such as morphine. Dronabinol, which is a THC isomer, is also included.
• Schedule III includes barbiturate products with fast or average effects, which have been the object of serious abuse even though useful therapeutically, flunitrazepam and some analgesics like buprenorphine.
• Schedule IV includes some weaker barbiturates like (phenobarbital) and other hypnotics, hypnotic, anxiolytic benzodiazepines (except flunitrazepam) and THC, and some weaker stimulants.

A 1999 UNODC report notes that Schedule I is a completely different regime from the other three. According to that report, Schedule I mostly contains hallucinogenic drugs such as LSD that are produced by illicit laboratories, while the other three Schedules are mainly for licitly produced pharmaceuticals. The UNODC report also claims that the Convention's Schedule I controls are stricter than those provided for under the Single Convention, a contention that seems to be contradicted by the 2002 Canadian Senate and 2003 European Parliament reports.

Although estimates and other controls specified by the Single Convention are not present in the Convention on Psychotropic Substances, the International Narcotics Control Board corrected the omission by asking Parties to submit information and statistics not required by the Convention, and using the initial positive responses from various organic drug producing states to convince others to follow. In addition, the Convention does impose tighter restrictions on imports and exports of Schedule I substances. A 1970 Bulletin on Narcotics report notes:

LSD, mescaline, etc., are controlled in a way which is more stringent than morphine under the narcotics treaties. Article 7, which sets down this regime, provides that such substances can only be moved in international trade when both exporter and importer are government authorities, or government agencies or institutions specially authorized for the purpose; in addition to this very rigid identification of supplier and recipient, in each case export and import authorization is also mandatory.