Schedules of Controlled Substances: Proposed Placement of Ketamine Into Schedule III

This proposed rule is issued by the Deputy Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). It proposes the placement of the substance ketamine, including its salts, isomers, and salts of isomers, into Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). This proposed action is based on an evaluation of the relevant data by the DEA and a recommendation from the Assistant Secretary for Health and Surgeon General of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) that ketamine and products containing it be placed into Schedule III of the CSA. The effect of this proposed action will be to discourage the diversion and abuse of ketamine, and subject ketamine to the regulatory, civil and criminal controls of a Schedule III controlled substance.