Schedule II Controlled Substances

From Drug Rehab Wiki

In the United States, there are a number of different substances available to us that may or may not be good for ingestion. As citizens don’t always become fully informed before trying a new substance, the government needed to put a system in place to control these substances in an effort to protect the people.

This protection emerged in the form of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). The purpose of this act was to categorize all regulated substances into schedules according to the level of severity in the substance. Schedule placement also depends upon the medical use of the substance, its potential for abuse, safety of the substance and the ease in which people can become abused.

For our purposes here, we will examine Schedule II drugs. The substances that fall into Schedule II are considered to have a high abuse potential, are used for medical purposes and pose a severe risk of dependence. Schedule II drugs include such well-known substances as morphine, phencyclidine (PCP), cocaine, methadone and methamphetamine. Schedule II drugs are considered to have medical purposes and therefore are prescribed to patients when necessary. There are very tight controls on such prescriptions, however. A patient who receives a prescription for a Schedule II medication cannot enjoy the service of having a practitioner “call in” the prescription and it cannot be refilled without the patient once again visiting the practitioner. Any organization dispensing Schedule II drugs must keep careful track of dispersion records. In addition, these records must be kept separate from all other records held by the organization so that they can be quickly accessed if necessary. While the same is true for all Schedule I drugs, controls loosen a bit on Schedule III and IV substances.

Aside from the close record keeping that all dispersing organizations must keep on Schedule II drugs, the Drug Enforcement Agency also limits the quantity of Schedule II controlled substances that can be produced in any given calendar year within the United States. The DEA relies on available sales data and inventories of controlled substances, as well as estimates of drug use provided by the FDA, to determine annual aggregate Schedule II production quotas.

Those organizations that manufacture and distribute Schedule II substances are required by law to store these substances in vaults designed specifically for the purpose, or safes rated for the protection of Schedule II substances. These organizations must also maintain electronic security for all storage areas. Security requirements lighten at the retail level, although the recent rise in pharmacy robberies may require an examination of current processes and methods for change.

Overall, Schedule II substances are extremely hazardous when taken incorrectly, have a high potential for abuse and are regularly traded on the illicit market.