Author: Emily Oconnor

While the word “narcotics” often conjures up notions of backstreet drug deals and drug trafficking rings, not all narcotic drugs are considered illegal. Drugs classified as legal narcotics serve a wide range of medicinal and research purposes. Though medicinal-based in terms of usage, legal narcotics still fall under the “controlled substances” category of drugs.

While these drugs hold intended medicinal uses, legal narcotics are no less addictive than illegal narcotic drugs. As drug regulations have undergone multiple changes over the years, today’s current drug legislation attempts to maintain a certain level of government control over the manufacture, distribution and use of legal narcotic drugs.

Legal Narcotics vs. Illegal Narcotics

Drug policy regulations within the U.S. place different types of drugs within designated schedules or classes based on each drug’s potential to cause physical or psychological harm. The Schedule of Controlled Substances consists of five distinct drug classes of with illegal and legal narcotics comprising the first two classes.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice Drug Enforcement Administration, drug class distinctions are based on three factors:

• Potential for abuse
• Potential for physical dependency
• Known medicinal uses

Schedule 1 class drugs consist of illegal narcotics, such as heroin and LSD all of which have no known medicinal uses. These drugs also carry an extremely high risk for abuse and dependency. Schedule 2 class drugs consist of legal narcotic drugs, all of which carry medicinal uses.

The five drug schedules follow a descending order of “greatest potential for harm” to “least potential for harm,” making Schedule 1 and Schedule 2 narcotics the most potentially harmful of all five classes. That being so, the addiction potential for Schedule 2 legal narcotics is no less real than the addictive potential for Schedule 1 narcotics.

Ultimately, the different class designations enable government entities to keep track of who manufactures, distributes and handles these drugs.

Legal Narcotics List

As Schedule 2 narcotics carry a high potential for abuse, this class of drugs also contains the strongest prescription medications on the market. Drugs appearing on the legal narcotics list include opiates and stimulant drugs.

In effect, drug potency is only thing that really distinguishes Schedule 1 illegal narcotics from Schedule 2 legal narcotics. With Schedule 1 drugs, the extremely high potency levels carry such a high risk for addiction that any actual medicinal effects are cancelled out.

A few of the drugs appearing on the legal narcotics list include:

• Opium
• Ritalin
• Oxycodone
• Codeine
• Adderall
• Fentanyl
• Desoxyn
• Methamphetamine
• Methadone
• Demerol
• Dexedrine

Criteria for Controlled Substances

As legal narcotics list drugs include some of the strongest prescription medications in existence, strict guidelines regarding prescription practices are in place to lower the risk for addiction. Some of the guidelines affecting prescription practices include:

• Minimum time lengths between prescription refills whenever a prescription allows for more than one refill
• No refills allowed unless the prescription includes specific instructions allowing refills
• All written prescriptions must be filled within a 90 day time period
• Prescriptions allowing for multiple refills must all fall within a 90 day time period
• Oral prescriptions or over-the phone prescriptions are only allowed in cases of emergency

Whether classified as legal or illegal, narcotic or non-narcotic, all controlled substances fall under the purview of government authority.

If you abuse prescription narcotics, call  800-934-1582(Who Answers?) now to find a treatment program that meets your needs.