Prelude: The Controlled Substances Act of 1970
Before Nixon officially declared war, Congress laid the legal foundation. The Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act, signed into law on October 27, 1970, created the modern federal drug scheduling system. Title II of the act -- the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) -- established five schedules of controlled substances. Schedule I, reserved for drugs deemed to have "high potential for abuse" and "no currently accepted medical use," included heroin, LSD, psilocybin, mescaline, DMT, and cannabis. The scheduling of psychedelics as Schedule I effectively halted the clinical research that had been ongoing since the 1950s and would not resume in earnest for three decades.
