The Controlled Substances Act of 1970 classifies drugs into how many schedules?

The Controlled Substances Act of 1970 classifies drugs into five schedules. Each schedule categorizes substances based on their potential for abuse, their accepted medical use, and the extent of regulatory control required.

Schedule I includes substances that have a high potential for abuse and no accepted medical use, such as heroin. Schedule II includes substances that have a high potential for abuse but do have accepted medical uses, such as morphine. The subsequent schedules (III, IV, and V) comprise substances with progressively lower potentials for abuse and wider accepted medical uses, requiring increasingly less strict regulation. This classification system helps manage and regulate the use of potentially dangerous drugs while providing guidelines for their medicinal use.