Class C

Class C is the lowest of the three penalty tiers established by the United Kingdom's Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, placing controlled substances under lighter criminal sanctions than those in Class A or Class B.

The MDA runs two parallel tracks that operate independently. The class (A, B, or C) sets the ceiling on criminal penalties for possession, supply, and production offences. A separate set of five schedules governs whether a substance may be prescribed, dispensed, stored, or used in research. A drug's class and its schedule are assigned separately and do not always change together.

What it means in practice

Substances are placed in, or moved between, classes by statutory instrument, following a recommendation from the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD). The Home Secretary holds the final power to accept or reject that advice.

Class C carries the lowest sentencing ceiling of the three tiers, for both possession and supply offences. The lower ceiling does not make either conduct lawful; both remain criminal offences unless the person holds specific authorisation under MDA regulations.

Anabolic steroids occupy a structural exception within Class C: simple personal possession, without intent to supply, is not a criminal offence for this category alone. Supply remains prosecuted under the same framework that applies across the class. The exception was written into statute when steroids were classified and does not extend to other Class C substances.

How jurisdictions vary

Class C is a term of UK law with no direct counterpart in other legal systems. A substance's position in Class C does not indicate how it is treated under foreign legislation.

The United States uses a Schedule I–V system under the Controlled Substances Act — Schedule I is most restrictive, Schedule V the least — a numbering direction that runs opposite to UK practice and differs from the UN treaty conventions. Canada has its own schedule structure under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. Australia combines state-level criminal law with federal therapeutic goods scheduling, each operating on separate tables.

The 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs and the 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances each carry their own schedule categories, which member states implement through domestic legislation in their own ways. What the UN places in its strictest schedule may sit in a moderate domestic tier, and vice versa.

What is contested

The most documented case of Class C reclassification involved cannabis, which was moved down from Class B to Class C in 2004, then returned to Class B by the Home Secretary in 2009 — despite a recommendation from the ACMD that the evidence did not support reclassification.

Ministers are not legally required to follow ACMD advice. The episode is a documented instance of a statutory advisory body's assessment and the government's classification decision pointing in opposite directions.

Cannabis's placement in Schedule 1 of the Misuse of Drugs Regulations — the most restrictive schedule, permitting no licensed medical use — was unchanged by either reclassification.

Scope and currency

This entry describes Class C as a legal concept under the UK's Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. It is not legal advice and does not describe how the law applies to any particular person, substance, or situation. Laws change, and practice varies across jurisdictions and over time.

The per-substance legal status section in each Psychedex record carries its own jurisdiction, date, and source; that section is the appropriate reference for how a specific substance is treated in a specific country.

This entry states the position as of 21 August 2026.