Bromazolam temporarily placed in Schedule I, and the June correction to the order

Bromazolam became a Schedule I controlled substance under a temporary order the Drug Enforcement Administration issued on March 16, 2026, and a June correction later fixed an invalid chemical name in that order without changing what took effect that day.

Before this order, bromazolam was not listed in any schedule of the Controlled Substances Act, and no FDA exemptions or approvals applied to it [1]. The temporary order placed bromazolam in Schedule I effective March 16, 2026 [1]. DEA based the order on a finding that scheduling bromazolam was necessary to avoid an imminent hazard to public safety [1]. Separately, DEA is aware of at least 259 overdose cases involving the drug between April 2021 and February 2026, 201 of them associated with a fatality [1]. The agency also states bromazolam has no currently accepted medical use in the United States [1]. This is a temporary order, not a permanent one: it runs until March 16, 2028 [1].

The order as originally published on March 16 named bromazolam using an invalid chemical name [2]. A correction adds the valid name — 8-bromo-1-methyl-6-phenyl-4H-benzo[f][1,2,4]triazolo[4,3-a][1,4]diazepine [2]. The correction is itself effective June 24, 2026, but it applies back to March 16, 2026, the date the scheduling actually took hold [2]. It fixes the chemical-name error; the March 16, 2026 date the scheduling took effect stands [2]. The correction is paperwork on an order that was already in force; the law changed in March, not in June.

Bromazolam's Schedule I status runs from March 16, 2026 through March 16, 2028, the period covered by this temporary order [1].

Legal status is separate from dose or risk information — check the substance's own reference page for that.

References

1. Schedules of Controlled Substances: Temporary Placement of Bromazolam in Schedule I — Federal Register
2. Schedules of Controlled Substances: Placement of Bromazolam in Schedule I; Correction — Federal Register