ACKRELL CAPITAL CHAPTER IV U.S. Legal Landscape with the DEA. Any person that manufactures, distributes, dispenses or otherwise possesses a controlled substance in violation of the CSA is subject to civil and criminal penalties. The CSA schedules are numbered I to V. Schedule I substances are subject to the strictest controls, and Schedule V substances are subject to the least restrictive controls. A controlled substance is listed on a particular schedule according to four factors: (i) The substance’s potential for abuse. (ii) Whether the substance has a currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States. (iii) Whether the substance is accepted as safe to use under medical supervision. (iv) The degree of physical and psychological dependence that may result from abuse of the substance. Upon enactment in 1970, the CSA assigned each controlled substance to a specific schedule. The U.S. Congress may legislate a controlled substance’s addition to or removal from a CSA schedule. The CSA also provides a regulatory framework for a substance to be added to or removed from a schedule; such change generally involves a recommendation by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and concurrence with that recommendation by the DEA. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, an agency of the DHHS, is charged with making certain safety-related determinations used in DHHS scheduling recommendations. Schedule I controlled substances are those found by the U.S. Congress or the DEA and the DHHS to have a high potential for abuse, to have no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States and to have a lack of accepted safety for use under medical supervision. Current Schedule I sub- stances include marijuana, THC, heroin, ecstasy, LSD and peyote. Unlike Schedule II through Sched- ule V controlled substances, which can be prescribed by a doctor, the CSA does not allow prescriptions to be written for Schedule I controlled substances. Mar