The Controlled Substances Act regulates who can distribute the substances on the list.  Each distributor is required to maintain extremely accurate records and inventories of the substances with which they are entrusted. Sharp security measures are also required.  Placing a specific drug in a certain schedule requires the process of determining the potential for abuse of that substance.

To be listed as a Schedule 1 drug the substance must exhibit a high potential for abuse.  The substance also must have no current accepted medical use in treatment for patients in the United States.  The substance in question has to have a lack of accepted safety levels for this drug under medical supervision.  If a substance is listed under Schedule 1 of the Controlled Substances Act no prescriptions may be written for this particular drug and they are subject to production quotas by The Drug enforcement Agency.

Some common examples of Schedule 1 drugs are: marijuana, heroin, LSD, peyote, psilocybin (the active ingredient in magic mushrooms), mescaline, methaqualone and ecstasy.

People convicted of trafficking in these substances can face serious sentences even if they are first time offenders depending upon the amount of the sale and if there were multiple sales involved.

With many states enacting medical marijuana laws now there is a strong campaign underway to remove marijuana from the Schedule 1 category of controlled substances.  Proponents of rescheduling marijuana into a different schedule or eliminating it from the Controlled Substance Act altogether, like alcohol and tobacco, argue that since there has been some evidence that marijuana has some medicinal value enabling cancer patients cope with chemotherapy treatments it should be removed from the schedule 1 category.  The federal government however disagrees.