If Gabapentin Isn’t A Controlled Substance, Is Gabapentin Abuse A Crime?

Whether a drug is listed as a controlled substance is not determined entirely by its chemical composition; it is whether federal and state authorities consider the drug dangerous enough to subject it to tighter restrictions than those surrounding most pharmaceutical drugs.  If extraterrestrials were to arrive in Florida and examine the molecular structure of drugs in a pharmacy, they would not know which ones were controlled substances.  Of course, the list of controlled substances is always growing, and drugs can sometimes move from one schedule to another as authorities reassess their risk or approve new medical applications for them.  Legislators can propose the scheduling of a substance after there are reports of its widespread abuse, such as if police confiscate the drug during drug busts or if overdose patients test positive for it.  Therefore, at any time, some substances are in a legal gray area, where they are prevalent in the drug supply, but they are not yet formally classified as controlled substances.  If you are in legal trouble because of drugs that are not technically illegal, contact a Tampa drug crime lawyer.

Guilt by Association?

Gabapentin is a prescription drug, but it is not a controlled substance, at least not yet.  It has been used since the 1970s for the prevention of seizures, so it is widely prescribed to patients with epilepsy to help them manage their symptoms.  More recently, it is also gaining popularity as a treatment for chronic pain, especially nerve pain resulting from shingles or diabetes; doctors prefer it over opioids because of its lower potential for abuse.

Meanwhile, gabapentin is also gaining popularity as a drug of abuse.  For example, at a traffic stop in Eustis earlier this year, police found a combination of methamphetamine and gabapentin in the possession of the driver and a combination of Xanax and gabapentin.  The passenger claimed that the Xanax and gabapentin belonged to her grandmother, whom she had just been visiting.  They got criminal charges for the methamphetamine and Xanax, but not for the gabapentin.

At the federal level, gabapentin is not on any of the schedules of controlled substances.  This means that it is just an ordinary prescription drug, one that authorities assume that no one would want to use outside of its intended purpose, rather like Synthroid or metformin.  Meanwhile, some states have responded to the recent prevalence of gabapentin in the illegal drug supply by scheduling gabapentin as a controlled substance in their state level controlled substance laws.  So far, Florida has not listed gabapentin as a controlled substance.  In practice, this means that, when people get arrested for gabapentin possession, there is also evidence of crimes such as possession of other illegal drugs.  Likewise, if you forge a prescription for gabapentin, you can face fraud charges.

Contact Tampa Criminal Defense Attorney Bryant Scriven

A criminal defense lawyer can help you if you are facing criminal charges related to gabapentin.  Contact Scriven Law in Tampa, Florida to schedule a consultation.

Sources:

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