(1) The Commissioner of Public Safety shall administer this article and shall work in conjunction and cooperation with the State Board of Pharmacy, county and municipal law enforcement agencies, the district and county attorneys, the Office of the Attorney General and the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics. The State Board of Health shall work with the bureau in an advisory capacity and shall be responsible for recommending to the Legislature the appropriate schedule for all substances to be scheduled or rescheduled in Sections 41-29-113 through 41-29-121. In making a recommendation regarding a substance, the State Board of Health shall consider the following:

(a)

(i) The actual or relative potential for abuse;

(ii) The scientific evidence of its pharmacological effect, if known;

(iii) The state of current scientific knowledge regarding the substance;

(iv) The history and current pattern of abuse;

(v) The scope, duration and significance of abuse;

(vi) The risk to the public health;

(vii) The potential of the substance to produce psychic or physiological dependence liability; and

(viii) Whether the substance is an immediate precursor of a substance already controlled under this article.

(b) After considering the factors enumerated in paragraph (a), the State Board of Health shall make findings with respect thereto and issue a recommendation to control the substance if it finds the substance has a potential for abuse.

(c) If the State Board of Health designates a substance as an immediate precursor, substances that are precursors of the controlled precursor shall not be recommended for control solely because they are precursors of the controlled precursor.

(d) If any substance is designated, rescheduled, or deleted as a controlled substance under federal law and notice thereof is given to the State Board of Health, it shall recommend the control of the substance under this article at the next session of the Legislature.

(e)

(i) Authority to control under this article does not extend to distilled spirits, wine, malt beverages, or tobacco as those terms are defined or used in the Local Option Alcoholic Beverage Control Law, being Sections 67-1-1 through 67-1-91, and the Tobacco Tax Law of 1934, being Sections 27-69-1 through 27-69-77. It is the intent of the Legislature of the State of Mississippi that the bureau shall concentrate its efforts and resources on the enforcement of the Uniform Controlled Substances Law with respect to illicit narcotic and drug traffic in the state.

(ii) The controlled substances listed in the schedules in Sections 41-29-113 through 41-29-121 are included by whatever official, common, usual, chemical or trade name designated.

(f) The State Board of Health shall recommend the exclusion of any nonnarcotic substance from a schedule if such substance may, under the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act and the laws of this state, be lawfully sold over the counter without a prescription.