Is marijuana a controlled substance? Yes: it is on the federal schedules.

The short answer

Yes. The eCFR text of 21 CFR 1308.11(d)(23) lists "Marihuana" in Schedule I with DEA Controlled Substances Code Number 7360. The same eCFR issue also contains a Schedule III entry at 21 CFR 1308.13(g)(2) for marijuana "in a U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved product or subject to a state medical marijuana license", with its code number printed as "XXXX".

The statute behind every schedule is Title 21 U.S.C. 812, part of the Controlled Substances Act. The regulation that lists substances one by one is 21 CFR part 1308, sections 1308.11 to 1308.15. This page quotes both. The CFR text was read from the eCFR versioner API for the issue current through October 29, 2026, and the statute from the 2024 U.S. Code edition published on govinfo. This is a classification page only: it contains no dosing, use, acquisition or synthesis information.

The Schedule I entries, quoted

Section 1308.11(d) is headed "Hallucinogenic substances" and is the paragraph where the CFR places the cannabis-related entries. Item (23) is "Marihuana 7360", item (31) is "Tetrahydrocannabinols 7370", and item (58) is "Marihuana Extract 7350". The spelling "marihuana" is the statute's and the regulation's spelling and is the string to search for in the primary text.

Item (58) carries its own definition in the eCFR: "Meaning an extract containing one or more cannabinoids that has been derived from any plant of the genus Cannabis, containing greater than 0.3% delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol on a dry weight basis, other than the separated resin (whether crude or purified) obtained from the plant." Item (31) says tetrahydrocannabinols "does not include any material, compound, mixture, or preparation that falls within the definition of hemp set forth in 7 U.S.C. 1639o." The statute has the same hemp carve-out, in the Schedule I list in 21 U.S.C. 812(c): "Tetrahydrocannabinols, except for tetrahydrocannabinols in hemp (as defined under section 1639o of title 7)."

The Schedule III text in the same eCFR issue

Section 1308.13(g), headed "Hallucinogenic substances" in the Schedule III section, reads in the October 29, 2026 eCFR issue: "(2) Marijuana, as defined in 21 U.S.C. 802(16), in a U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved product or subject to a state medical marijuana license—XXXX (3) Marijuana extract, as defined in 21 CFR 1308.11(d)(58), in a U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved product or subject to a state medical marijuana license—XXXX (4) Naturally derived delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinols in a U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved product or in marijuana subject to a state medical marijuana license—XXXX". Item (1) of the same paragraph is synthetic dronabinol in an FDA-approved product, code 7369.

Two things are visible on the face of that text. The code numbers for items (2) to (4) are printed as "XXXX" rather than as a four-digit number, and the Schedule I entries for the same plant at 1308.11(d)(23) and (31) are still present in the same issue. The eCFR versioner history shows 1308.13 was last substantively amended on April 28, 2026 and 1308.11 on October 21, 2026. This page reports what the text says. How the two sets of entries interact, from what date, and for which activity, is a legal question that turns on the Federal Register documents behind the amendment and on the circumstances, so confirm it against the Federal Register and DEA before relying on it.

Why the placement matters under the statute

Under 21 U.S.C. 812(b)(1) a substance goes in Schedule I only if three findings are made: high potential for abuse, no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States, and a lack of accepted safety for use under medical supervision. Schedule III, by contrast, requires a currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States. The two sets of entries above therefore sit under different statutory findings, which is exactly why the text of both is reproduced here rather than summarised. The statute itself lists "Marihuana" as item (10) of the initial Schedule I (c) list in 21 U.S.C. 812(c).

The Schedule I listing, in the CFR's own words

The lead-in of 21 CFR 1308.11(d) reads:

(d) Hallucinogenic substances. Unless specifically excepted or unless listed in another schedule, any material, compound, mixture, or preparation, which contains any quantity of the following hallucinogenic substances, or which contains any of its salts, isomers, and salts of isomers whenever the existence of such salts, isomers, and salts of isomers is possible within the specific chemical designation (for purposes of this paragraph only, the term “isomer” includes the optical, position and geometric isomers):

Entries from the items around marihuana in 1308.11(d):

• (21) Ibogaine 7260
• (22) Lysergic acid diethylamide 7315
• (23) Marihuana 7360
• (24) Mescaline 7381
• (25) Parahexyl—7374; some trade or other names: 3-Hexyl-1-hydroxy-7,8,9,10-tetrahydro-6,6,9-trimethyl-6H-dibenzo[b,d]pyran; Synhexyl

What the statute requires for Schedule I

Title 21 U.S.C. 812(b) says a drug or other substance "may not be placed in any schedule unless the findings required for such schedule are made". For Schedule I the findings are: (A) The drug or other substance has a high potential for abuse. (B) The drug or other substance has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States. (C) There is a lack of accepted safety for use of the drug or other substance under medical supervision.

Those findings are the statutory test for putting a substance into the schedule. They are not a description of any person's use of a drug, and they are not a medical statement. The CFR sections 1308.11 to 1308.15 then list, substance by substance, what has been placed in each of the five schedules.

How to read and re-check a schedule listing

A schedule entry has a fixed shape. A lead-in sentence says which class of substance follows and often that the listing extends to salts, isomers and salts of isomers. Each line then names a substance and, in most sections, a four-digit DEA Controlled Substances Code Number. The opening paragraph of 1308.11 to 1308.14 says each substance "has been assigned the DEA Controlled Substances Code Number set forth opposite it". The number identifies the line; it is not a rating of risk.

1. Open the section for the schedule you want: 21 CFR 1308.11 (Schedule I), 1308.12 (II), 1308.13 (III), 1308.14 (IV) or 1308.15 (V) in the eCFR.
2. Find the paragraph for the class of substance: opiates, opium derivatives, hallucinogenic substances, depressants, stimulants, narcotic drugs, anabolic steroids and so on, each introduced by a lead-in sentence.
3. Read the entry by its official or chemical name, not by brand name, and note the four-digit DEA Controlled Substances Code Number printed beside it.
4. Check for words such as "unless specifically excepted" or "except" in the lead-in or the line itself, which limit what the entry covers.
5. Confirm the date: the eCFR shows an "as of" date, and the schedules change by rulemaking.

Limits of this page

This page quotes the text of 21 CFR 1308.11 to 1308.15 as published in the eCFR, current through October 29, 2026 (last substantive amendment dates per the eCFR versioner: 1308.11 October 21, 2026, 1308.12 December 21, 2022, 1308.13 April 28, 2026, 1308.14 August 31, 2026, 1308.15 June 1, 2022), and parts of 21 U.S.C. 812. It reports federal classification only. It does not describe any state law, any registration, record-keeping or prescription requirement, any penalty, or any use of a drug, and it does not tell you whether a particular product, person or activity is lawful. The eCFR is an editorial compilation, not the official legal edition of the Federal Register, and the schedules change by rulemaking, so check the current text and DEA before relying on it. Questions about law go to a qualified attorney, and questions about a medicine go to a pharmacist or physician.

Sources

Sources opened and read November 2, 2026.

• eCFR: 21 CFR 1308.11, Schedule I (current through October 29, 2026) (read November 2, 2026)
• eCFR: 21 CFR 1308.13, Schedule III (current through October 29, 2026) (read November 2, 2026)
• eCFR: 21 CFR part 1308, Schedules of controlled substances (current through October 29, 2026) (read November 2, 2026)
• GovInfo: 21 U.S.C. 812, Schedules of controlled substances, United States Code, 2024 Edition (read November 2, 2026)