The full U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit has declined to rehear a case over what constitutes a "controlled substance" for sentencing purposes, but one judge dissented, arguing that the court was passing up an opportunity to settle an issue "with far-reaching implications in our circuit and nationally."

Last October in United States v. Jones, a three-judge panel of the 10th Circuit rejected defendant Patrick LaJuan Jones' challenge to his sentence for a firearms offense.