Uniform Controlled Substances Act

The Uniform Controlled Substances Act was drafted by the US Department of Justice in 1969 and promulgated by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws while the federal Controlled Substances Act was being drafted. Modeled after the federal Act, the uniform act established a drug scheduling system. Every state has adopted the uniform act. Rufus King notes that "it is provided that the state authorities must designate, reschedule, or delete substances whenever notified of such federal action unless they invoke an elaborate notice-and-hearing procedure to resist the federal ruling". Thus, the Uniform Act completes a top-down system of control in which drug policy originates through the international legislative process of treatymaking and United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs scheduling decisions and is automatically implemented through Controlled Substances Act provisions requiring federal scheduling of internationally controlled drugs, and Uniform Controlled Substances Act provisions requiring state scheduling of federally controlled drugs.