2023 Massachusetts General Laws › Part I - Administration of the Government › Title XV - Regulation of Trade › Chapter 94c - Controlled Substances Act › Section 2 - Establishment of Schedules of Drugs or Other Controlled Substances

Section 2. (a) For the purpose of administration and regulation of the manufacture, distribution, dispensing, and possession of controlled substances by persons authorized under this chapter, the commissioner shall establish by regulations pursuant to the provisions of chapter thirty A five schedules incorporating the five schedules of controlled substances under the ''Comprehensive Drug Abuse, Prevention and Control Act of 1970'' or any amendment thereof. In addition thereto the commissioner shall by regulation as aforesaid establish a sixth schedule which shall include all prescription drugs not included in the first five schedules.
(a1/2) The commissioner may, pursuant to the provisions of chapter thirty-A, delete or reschedule all substances enumerated in the schedules established pursuant to the provisions of subsection (a), except that if any substance which has not been scheduled pursuant to the provisions of this section is designated a controlled substance under the Federal Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970 or any amendment thereof, or if any substance which has been scheduled pursuant to the provisions of this section is designated a controlled substance of greater abuse liability under the Federal Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970 or any amendment thereof, the commissioner, pursuant to the provisions of chapter thirty A, shall, not more than thirty days after publication of final notice in the federal register or not more than thirty days after the effective date of any federal statute affecting the scheduling of controlled substances under said federal act or any amendment thereof, issue a regulation controlling the substance in a schedule corresponding to the federal schedules.
(b) In making any finding under subsection (a) of this section or under subsection (a) of section three, the commissioner shall consider the following factors with respect to each drug or other substance proposed to be controlled or removed from the schedules:
(1) Its actual or relative potential for abuse.
(2) Scientific evidence of its pharmacological effect, if known.
(3) The state of current scientific knowledge regarding the drug or other substance.
(4) Its history and current pattern of abuse.
(5) The scope, duration and significance of abuse.
(6) What, if any, risk there is to the public health.
(7) Its psychological or physiological dependence liability.
(8) Whether the substance is an immediate precursor of a substance already controlled under this chapter.
(c) The commissioner acting jointly with the board of registration in pharmacy shall by regulation pursuant to the provisions of chapter thirty A exclude any non-narcotic substance from a schedule if such substance may, under the Federal ''Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970'' and the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, be lawfully sold over the counter without a prescription.
(d) Authority to control under this section shall not extend to distilled spirits, wine, malt beverages, or tobacco, as those terms are defined or used in subtitle E of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954.