Sponsors (5)
This bill gives federal authorities faster, clearer tools to preemptively control and more harshly punish novel/imported designer drugs—potentially reducing trafficking and harms—but increases executive scheduling power, criminal penalties, regulatory burdens, and uncertainty that may restrict research, medical access, and impose costs and civil‑liberty risks on vulnerable people and small entities.
Law enforcement and customs officials can more quickly classify, seize, and interdict novel/imported designer drugs, improving the federal ability to stop dangerous new substances from entering U.S. communities.
Public-health authorities gain authority to temporarily control novel imported drugs predicted to have strong CNS effects, enabling preemptive action to reduce potential deaths or serious injuries before widespread domestic harm occurs.
The bill preserves and creates research-safe pathways (investigational-use exemptions, temporary continuation pending registration, expedited hearings, and HHS review) that let ongoing clinical and laboratory studies continue and add scientific input into scheduling decisions.
Individuals (including travelers, importers, and users) face expanded seizures, arrests, and prosecutions based on temporary or predictive scheduling decisions made with limited human-effect data and limited judicial review.
Much harsher mandatory penalties, longer prison terms, and high statutory fines for Schedule A import/export offenses will increase incarceration, worsen racial and economic sentencing disparities, and raise taxpayer corrections and litigation costs.
Temporary scheduling and expanded controls can restrict or delay medical and research access to novel compounds, creating regulatory uncertainty that hinders clinical trials, therapeutic development, and patient treatment.
Based on analysis of 16 sections of legislative text.
Creates a new "Schedule A" for imported/structurally similar substances, authorizes temporary/permanent placement by the Attorney General, raises import/export penalties, and adds research/labeling rules.
Introduced November 20, 2025 by Charles Ernest Grassley · Last progress November 20, 2025
Creates a new federal drug category called “Schedule A” for substances imported or offered for import that are chemically similar to controlled drugs or predicted to have similar or greater stimulant, depressant, or hallucinogenic effects. It gives the Attorney General new authority to place substances temporarily or permanently in Schedule A, imposes higher criminal penalties and fines for import/export of Schedule A substances, requires specific labeling for imported products, and sets rules to protect ongoing research and permit some researchers to continue work during scheduling actions. Also allows people convicted under the new Schedule A penalties to seek sentence reductions if a substance is later removed or moved to a lower schedule, and adds procedural and conforming edits across import/export law while preserving existing analogue and scheduling authority.