Congressman Cohen Introduces the Controlled Substances Act Clarification in Sciences Act

WASHINGTON - Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-9), a senior member of the Judiciary Committee, today introduced the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) Clarification in Sciences Act to provide an accurate and up-to-date scientific basis for the evaluation of substances reviewed for scheduling under the 1970 CSA statute.

Congressman Cohen made the following statement:

"Accuracy in federal drug policy will ensure both fairness and safety. Much has changed since 1970 when the Controlled Substances Act was enacted. My bill will clarify and update the CSA so that the evaluation of controlled substances is made on the best scientific evidence of today, not decades-old processes and outdated knowledge. I worked diligently with the nation's leading scientific professional societies to ensure the bill's approach reflects the gold standards in biomedical research and contemporary healthcare. Therapeutic progress depends directly on the ability of physicians and researchers to study substances of interest. The current law's imprecise approach to Scheduling substances has created a system that is arbitrary and largely ignores the modern practice of medicine and public health, and has substantially hindered scientific progress."

Congressman Cohen's measure would amend the Controlled Substances Act to more closely align the act with modern medical knowledge, terminology and practices. This would be done by defining critical terms such as 'accepted medical use,' 'physical dependence,' and 'potential for abuse,' among others. Appropriately scheduling substances is critical to ensuring that researchers can access these substances for biomedical research, and patients, in accordance with the guidance of licensed health care providers, can access effective treatments.

Rather than directly regulating any given substance, this bill takes a comprehensive and procedural approach: it improves the scheduling process by tying it to the very best science, weighing costs and benefits based on actual and relative harms, and acknowledging the importance of research, experimental therapies, and the evolution of the practice of medicine.

The bill has been endorsed by the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP), the American Society of Clinical Psychopharmacology (ASCP), the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (ASPET), and the Society of Biological Psychiatry (SOBP).

American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP) President Dr. Deanna Barch, Ph.D., made the following statement:

"This legislation takes a long-needed step to enhance clarity and strengthen the scientific basis on which substances are reviewed for scheduling. By adding and updating critical definitions that the statute has lacked, it gives the administering agencies a sounder evidentiary foundation for their evaluations. The scheduling framework these terms support has stood since the Controlled Substances Act was enacted in 1970, and bringing its core definitions into line with current science is an important and welcome advance."

Dr. Randy Hall, Ph.D., President of the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, made the following statement:

"The Controlled Substances Act Clarification in Sciences Act of 2026 introduces key definitions that clarify gaps in the original Controlled Substances Act (CSA), aligning these definitions with current scientific knowledge and representing progress toward a more robust framework for reviewing substances for scheduling. It also addresses a barrier the research community has faced in studying controlled substances. In many cases, the constraints of scheduling status prevent scientists from understanding whether a substance may, in fact, have medical utility. These updates will facilitate the investigation of the use of many substances in a variety of therapeutic areas."

Dr. Dost Öngür, MD, Ph.D., President of the Society of Biological Psychiatry stated:

"This bill is a service to science and to patients. For too long, the law has trapped promising treatments in a circular standard that blocks the very research needed to prove their value. By insisting that drug scheduling rest on evidence, this legislation reopens the door to discovery for the millions of Americans living with depression, PTSD, and other serious psychiatric conditions."

See a one-pager on the measure here.

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