by ChimpLearnGood

Question by me: How come nicotine is not a schedule I substance?
Nicotine meets all the criteria for being a schedule substance:
– The drug or other substance has a high potential for abuse.
-The drug or other substance has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States.
– There is a lack of accepted safety for use of the drug or other substance under medical supervision.

Why is it not a schedule I substance or a II-V substance?? Isn’t it the one of the most addictive substances…? Why is THC labeled as a hallucinogen?
4Get the THC stuff, I don’t know why I added it in.

Best answer:

Answer by Apocalypse Cow
Follow the $ – all those tobacco growers and cigarette makers make pretty good contributions to our lawmakers.

Answer by Mathieu
Firstly the American Controlled Substances Act (CSA) does not define “abuse.”

From that alone it can be argued that nicotine does not fit criteria for abuse. Generally speaking to abuse something means to use it in a manner that is inappropriate (ie abusing a wife, husband, child). Thus a person taking prescription morphine would be “abusing” it by taking more than prescribed under that definition. However medically “substance abuse” is a diagnosis below addiction (technically known as “substance dependence” or “dependence syndrome”). The medical definition of abuse would not include taking two tablets of morphine- it only relates to potential problems that may arise from that (ie to have “abuse” there needs to be harm from the drug use).

However what would really support the idea of having nicotine under schedule I is that the DOJ/DEA has said, simply put, that if a substance is generally considered to have no medical use AND it is generally considered to have at least some abuse potential then it should be classified under schedule I.

That would also exclude putting nicotine anywhere except C-I without accepted medical use (FYI there are some limited but important medical uses in neurology/psychiatry).

Then again the CSA is intended to list the abuse risk and potential, not the dangerousness of a drug.

In the end the CSA was designed to meet the obligations under The Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs and The Convention on Psychotropic Substances. To a large extent it is hardly even American legislation, it is just international law ratified by Congress.

And nicotine (remember the CSA came into effect in 1970) is both in 1970 and 2010 would not be controlled because that is not really accepted. In the US currently about 1/4 of the population smokes (it was around 50% in the 70’s) and in some countries that number can be as high as 60% today. Politically the US is extraordinary divided- imagine the hell it would be for a politician to try to basically make all tobacco produces illegal. Not the mention the lobby groups, the job loss (both directly from production and the job loss from gas station and grocery stores resulting from a loss of income from cigarettes). And then the loss of tax money especially when cites, counties, states, and the federal government are broke. It would cause a loss of services and would be directly felt my everyone. Also it is very hard to get a drug under C-I and still comply with international law (like it or not there does have to be compliance). Rohypnol is, for example, not available for medical use in The US but it is schedule IV to comply with international law (Rohypnol is a benzodiazepine like Valium, which is a legal CIV drug. But Rohypnol is legal in most of the world). Even if The US did want to put nicotine under C-I then there would be issues of international law and many countries would never agree.

I know how stupid it is and how it looks like a good thing to do but that is life. Smoking is part of the culture- I have an occasional cigaret especially if a friend went to visit Iran or The Middle East and brought back some cigarettes (I think in The US getting things from Iran would be illegal). I also have an occasional Cuban cigar.

If you ask most experts they would admit that if alcohol or nicotine would be developed now they would be listed under C-I. Although unlike nicotine, alcohol meets the criteria as a true drug of abuse in every way. Although medically nicotine dependence (ie addiction) is a genuine diagnosis it is controversial and many symptoms and behaviours of addiction can’t be determined with nicotine because it is so readily available.

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