SUMMARY: On July 9, 2012, the President signed into law the Synthetic Drug Abuse Prevention Act of 2012. The Synthetic Drug Abuse Prevention Act of 2012 included a definition of ‘‘cannabimimetic agents’’ that are controlled under schedule I.
The Drug Enforcement Administration is proposing this rule to address the broader definition of ‘‘cannabimimetic agents,’’ identify 18 additional substances that meet the definition, and consolidate most existing administration controlled substances code numbers (drug codes) into a single drug code number for substances that meet this definition. The listing for two schedule I ‘‘cannabimimetic agents’’ that are under international control, JWH-018 and AM2201, will be moved to the ‘‘hallucinogens’’ paragraph of schedule I in order to retain the existing drug codes for these two substances to facilitate quota and international reporting requirements. While the 18 additional substances are already controlled under schedule I because they meet the definition of ‘‘cannabimimetic agents,’’ this proposed rule establishes a single new drug code number for these and most other substances meeting this definition. This single drug code will simplify the registration and recordkeeping requirements for any ‘‘cannabimimetic agents’’ that the Drug Enforcement Administration may register persons to handle.
