Sponsors (5)
Introduced November 20, 2025 by Charles Ernest Grassley · Last progress November 20, 2025
The bill gives federal agencies faster tools and clearer rules to control dangerous novel synthetic drugs and strengthen penalties for trafficking, but does so at the cost of broader enforcement authority, harsher criminal penalties, potential restrictions on medical and scientific access, and added compliance and judicial burdens for legitimate actors.
Millions of Americans and communities at the border will see faster federal ability to identify and control dangerous new synthetic drugs, reducing local supply and exposure to novel psychoactive substances.
Researchers, clinicians, and patients retain a pathway to protect legitimate medical and scientific access because HHS review can block permanent scheduling and some research may continue while registration or modification applications are pending.
Clearer procedures and interagency timelines for temporary scheduling and import/export registrations increase predictability for manufacturers, researchers, hospitals, and regulatory recipients.
Broad predictive and analogue-based scheduling increases the risk that substances will be banned before harms are demonstrated, producing legal uncertainty and potentially restricting access for patients and researchers.
Mandatory minimums, much longer prison terms, and large organizational fines for Schedule A offenses significantly raise incarceration and enforcement costs and can produce disproportionate sentences for some defendants.
Temporary scheduling powers (5-year ban plus extension) combined with limited judicial review can disrupt ongoing medical research, clinical trials, and patient access to investigational therapies for years.
Based on analysis of 16 sections of legislative text.
Creates a new "Schedule A" for certain imported synthetic drugs, enables rapid temporary scheduling by the Attorney General, increases import/export penalties, adds labeling and registration rules, and allows sentencing review if substances are later descheduled.
Creates a new sixth drug schedule called "Schedule A" for certain imported or offered-for-import synthetic substances that are chemically similar to existing controlled substances and that have actual or predicted stimulant, depressant, or hallucinogenic effects. Gives the Attorney General authority to temporarily schedule these substances quickly and to issue permanent scheduling rules later, with a formal consultative role for HHS. The bill raises criminal import/export penalties for Schedule A substances, requires clear chemical labeling on imported/exported products (with limited FDA-related exemptions), sets registration and research-continuation rules for researchers and importers/exporters, and lets people convicted for conduct involving a Schedule A substance seek sentence reductions if the substance is later descheduled or moved to a lower-penalty schedule.