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AMENDMENTS TO THE GUIDELINES MANUAL

2024

AMENDMENT 446

Section 2D1.1(b)(2) is amended by deleting "is convicted of violating 21 U.S.C. § 960(a)" and inserting in lieu thereof "unlawfully imported or exported a controlled substance"; and by inserting "or export" immediately following "to import".

The Commentary to §2D1.1 captioned "Application Notes" is amended in Note 10 in the "Drug Equivalency Tables" in the subdivision captioned "Cocaine and Other Schedule I and II Stimulants" by inserting the following additional entries at the end:

"1 gm of Aminorex = 100 gm of marihuana

1 gm of Methcathinone = 380 gm of marihuana

1 gm of N-N-Dimethylamphetamine = 40 gm of marihuana";

and in the subdivision captioned "LSD, PCP, and Other Schedule I and II Hallucinogens" by inserting the following additional entry as the last entry:

"1 gm of Phenylcyclohexamine (PCE) = 5.79 kg of marihuana".

The Commentary to §2D1.1 captioned "Application Notes" is amended in Note 10 in the "Drug Equivalency Tables" by inserting an asterisk immediately following each of the following subdivision captions: "Schedule I or II Opiates", "Cocaine and Other Schedule I or II Stimulants (and their immediate precursors)", and "LSD, PCP, and Other Schedule I and II Hallucinogens (and their immediate precursors)"; and by inserting the following additional sentence at the end of each of the above noted subdivisions:

"*Provided, that the minimum offense level from the Drug Quantity Table for any of these controlled substances individually, or in combination with another controlled substance, is level 12.".

The Commentary to §2D1.1 captioned "Application Notes" is amended by inserting the following additional note:

"15. Certain pharmaceutical preparations are classified as Schedule III, IV, or V controlled substances by the Drug Enforcement Administration under 21 C.F.R. § 1308.13-15 even though they contain a small amount of a Schedule I or II controlled substance. For example, Tylenol 3 is classified as a Schedule III controlled substance even though it contains a small amount of codeine, a Schedule II opiate. For the purposes of the guidelines, the classification of the controlled substance under 21 C.F.R. § 1308.13-15 is the appropriate classification.".

The Commentary to §2D1.1 captioned "Background" is amended in the fifth paragraph by deleting "mandated by" and inserting in lieu thereof "derived from".

Reason for Amendment: This amendment deletes the requirement of a conviction under a specific statute for the specific offense characteristic in subsection (b)(2) to apply and, consistent with the overall structure of the guidelines, provides for the application of this specific offense characteristic on the basis of the underlying conduct. In addition, this amendment adds equivalencies for four controlled substances to make the Drug Equivalency Tables more comprehensive, adds notes to the Drug Equivalency Tables to make clear the interaction between the minimum offense level for certain types of controlled substances in the Drug Quantity Table and the instructions for determining a combined offense level in a case with multiple controlled substances, and clarifies the treatment of certain pharmaceutical preparations that are classified as Schedule III, IV, or V substances under 21 C.F.R. § 1308.13-15.

Effective Date: The effective date of this amendment is November 1, 1992.