Is 2-FDCK legal in Malaysia?

Also known as: 2-fluoroketamine

Legal status

2-FDCK is not named in either Act, and the settled part of the answer is the part that matters: it is not in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, so it is not a dangerous drug and section 39B cannot reach it. Ketamine is in Part III of that Schedule, but Part III's generic clause reaches only isomers, esters, ethers and salts, and 2-FDCK is a fluorinated analogue of ketamine, which is none of those. What does reach it is the Poisons Act 1952: Methoxetamine is a Third Schedule psychotropic substance and paragraph 3(a) of that Schedule extends it to «the analogues, homologues, compounds, intermediates, derivatives, isomers, esters, ethers and salts... and other substances structurally derived». That limb turns on resemblance rather than on a named relationship, so whether it bites on 2-FDCK is a judgment a court would make.

Consequences if caught

Capital exposure: none. 2-FDCK is not in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952. «Ketamine» is, in Part III, but the only generic extensions that Part carries are its isomers, its esters and ethers, and its salts, and 2-FDCK is a fluorinated analogue, which is none of the four. The Act has no analogue provision anywhere in it. Section 39B is the only capital provision in Malaysian drug law, and section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», which section 2 defines as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule». A substance outside that Schedule cannot be trafficked within the meaning of section 39B however much of it there is, the section 37(da) presumption weights do not reach it, and neither do the section 39A enhanced penalties. What applies instead is section 30 of the Poisons Act 1952, which provides at subsection (3) that «no person shall import, export, manufacture, compound, mix, dispense, sell, supply, administer, possess or use any psychotropic substance otherwise than in accordance with any regulations applicable thereto», and at subsection (5) that a contravention is punishable «to a fine not exceeding ten thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding four years or both». Section 30(4) carries a possession presumption of its own: a person found with the substance in his custody or control «shall be deemed to have been in possession of the substance and to have known the nature of the substance, until he proves to the contrary». Four years and ten thousand ringgit against death. That is the single largest cliff in Malaysian drug law and it turns entirely on which of two schedules a substance sits in. And the ground can move under it: section 45A of the Dangerous Drugs Act lets the Minister add a substance to the First Schedule by order, and section 30(2) of the Poisons Act lets him amend the Third Schedule the same way.

If prescribed or medical

The prescription question for 2-FDCK has no clean answer under either statute. 2-FDCK is named in neither Act. The settled part is that it is not in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952: ketamine is in Part III, but the Part III generic clause reaches isomers, esters, ethers and salts only, and a fluorinated analogue is none of those. What may reach it is paragraph 3(a) of the Poisons Act Third Schedule, which extends the substances in that Schedule to «the analogues, homologues, compounds, intermediates, derivatives, isomers, esters, ethers and salts of the substances mentioned in this Schedule and other substances structurally derived». That limb turns on resemblance rather than on a named relationship, so whether it bites on 2-FDCK is a judgment a court would make and not a fact this cell can state. What this cell does not state is whether it is a registered product, an unregistered product or a prohibited import under the medicines and customs instruments, because none of those instruments was read for it.

Documentation

No documentation requirement can be stated for 2-FDCK, because the route through the two statutes is unsettled and the paperwork would depend on which route applies. The entry that might reach it is «Methoxetamine (MXE)» in the Third Schedule read with paragraph 3(a), and whether that limb bites is a judgment rather than a fact, so no paperwork requirement follows from it with certainty. Carry any prescription and the original packaging as a matter of course. Product registration with the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency and the customs prohibited imports orders are separate regimes and neither was read for this cell. If the Poisons Act route is the right one, the one month personal import allowance in regulation 4(2)(a) of the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 and the section 30(5) penalty would be the provisions in point. This cell does not assert that they apply.

Drug laws and enforcement change and vary within a country. This is not legal advice. Always confirm with Malaysia’s embassy or official drug authority before traveling; penalties can be severe, including imprisonment.