218A.020 Cabinet for Health and Family Services to administer chapter -- Control of substances rescheduled under federal law -- Office of Drug Control Policy may request scheduling of substances meeting criteria

218A.020 Cabinet for Health and Family Services to administer chapter --

Control of substances rescheduled under federal law -- Office of Drug

Control Policy may request scheduling of substances meeting criteria.

(1) The Cabinet for Health and Family Services shall administer this chapter and

may by administrative regulation add substances to or delete or reschedule all

substances enumerated in the schedules authorized under this chapter. In

making a determination regarding a substance, the Cabinet for Health and

Family Services may consider the following:

(a) The actual or relative potential for abuse;

(b) The scientific evidence of its pharmacological effect, if known;

(c) The state of current scientific knowledge regarding the substance;

(d) The history and current pattern of abuse;

(e) The scope, duration, and significance of abuse;

(f) The risk to the public health;

(g) The potential of the substance to produce psychic or physiological

dependence liability; and

(h) Whether the substance is an immediate precursor of a substance already

controlled under this chapter.

(2) After considering the factors enumerated in subsection (1) of this section, the

Cabinet for Health and Family Services may adopt a regulation controlling the

substance if it finds the substance has a potential for abuse.

(3) (a) If any substance is designated or rescheduled as a controlled substance

under the federal Controlled Substances Act, the drug shall be considered

to be controlled at the state level in the same numerical schedule

corresponding to the federal schedule.

(b) Notwithstanding paragraph (a) of this subsection, the Cabinet for Health

and Family Services may file an amendment to the administrative

regulations promulgated pursuant to this section to control the substance

in a more restrictive numerical schedule than the federal schedule as

permitted by subsection (1) of this section.

(4) The Cabinet for Health and Family Services shall exclude any nonnarcotic

substance from a schedule if the substance may be lawfully sold over the

counter without prescription under the provisions of the Federal Food, Drug

and Cosmetic Act, or the Federal Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and

Control Act of 1970, or the Kentucky Revised Statutes (for the purposes of this

section the Kentucky Revised Statutes shall not include any regulations issued

thereunder).

(5) The Office of Drug Control Policy may request that the Cabinet for Health and

Family Services schedule any substance that would meet the criteria to be

scheduled pursuant to this chapter. The cabinet shall consider the request

utilizing the criteria established by this section and shall issue a written

response within sixty (60) days of the scheduling request delineating the

cabinet's decision to schedule or not schedule the substance and the basis for

the cabinet's decision. The cabinet's response shall be provided to the

Legislative Research Commission and shall be a public record.