Abuse liability

Abuse liability is a drug's potential to produce rewarding effects that lead to repeated non-medical use, dependence or addiction, assessed formally before a drug is scheduled or approved.

Regulators evaluate it through animal studies of self-administration and drug discrimination, human studies in experienced users who rate liking and desire to take the drug again, analysis of withdrawal on stopping, and review of adverse event and diversion reports. The results feed into scheduling decisions under the Controlled Substances Act, which ranks drugs from Schedule I, high potential and no accepted medical use, to Schedule V.

THC has established abuse liability, reflected in cannabis use disorder and in the scheduling of THC-containing drugs. CBD was assessed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the World Health Organization before the cannabidiol prescription drug was approved; both concluded that it shows little or no abuse potential in animals or people, and the approved product was removed from federal scheduling. That assessment concerns purified CBD and does not extend to products containing meaningful THC or intoxicating THC isomers.