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Legality · 2C-E

Is 2C-E legal in Malaysia?

Also known as: eternity

Confirmed against a primary sourceVerified September 21, 2026
Legal status
2C-E is named nowhere in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 and nowhere in the Poisons Act 1952. Its close relative 2C-B is named, as «4-bromo-2, 5-dimethoxyphenylethylamine (2C-B)», but Part III's generic clause reaches only «The isomers... The esters and ethers... The salts» of the drugs listed, and 2C-E, the 4-ethyl compound, is not an isomer of the 4-bromo one: they do not share a molecular formula. The Dangerous Drugs Act contains no analogue clause at all, measured across the whole Act. So on the text 2C-E is not a dangerous drug. That is a statement about the schedule as amended to 25 November 2025, and section 45A lets the Minister add it by order at any time.
Consequences if caught
Capital exposure: none. 2C-E is in neither list. «4-bromo-2, 5-dimethoxyphenylethylamine (2C-B)» is in Part III of the First Schedule and 2C-E is not an isomer of it, because the 4-ethyl and the 4-bromo compounds do not share a molecular formula, and isomers, esters, ethers and salts are the whole of Part III's generic reach. 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. It is not in the Third Schedule to the Poisons Act 1952 either, so the section 30 psychotropic offence does not reach it. Do not read that as permission. The Dangerous Drugs Act carries no analogue clause at all, measured across the whole Act, so a substance is in or out on the naming; but section 45A provides that where the Minister «considers it expedient to add a substance to, or remove a substance from, or vary the First Schedule, he may by order make the requisite modifications», and he has used it twice since the consolidated text, by P.U. (A) 97 gazetted 2 April 2024 and P.U. (A) 416 gazetted 25 November 2025. An order takes effect on gazetting and there is no notice period. Customs may also treat an unlisted substance as a prohibited import under a separate order that was not read for this cell.
If prescribed or medical
Neither drug statute reaches 2C-E, so neither supplies a prescription route for it and neither requires one. Its close relative 2C-B is named in Part III of the First Schedule as «4-bromo-2, 5-dimethoxyphenylethylamine (2C-B)», but the 4-ethyl compound is not an isomer of the 4-bromo one, because they do not share a molecular formula. Part III extends only to isomers, esters, ethers and salts, and the Dangerous Drugs Act contains no analogue clause anywhere in it. 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 arises under either drug statute, because neither reaches 2C-E. There is no entry for a document to answer to. The nearest one, «4-bromo-2, 5-dimethoxyphenylethylamine (2C-B)», names a different compound. That is not the same as saying it may be brought in freely. Product registration with the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency and the customs prohibited imports orders are separate regimes, neither was read for this cell, and nothing is stated here about either. Carry any prescription and the original packaging as a matter of course, and expect the question at the border to be settled by those other regimes rather than by the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 or the Poisons Act 1952.
Primary sources
  • Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980
  • read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023
  • Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021
  • read for this substance: both schedules in full, the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 First Schedule in all five Parts and the Poisons Act 1952 Poisons List and Third Schedule, with 2C-E found in neither as a controlled entry
  • sections 2, 11(1) and 45A of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 and sections 30(1) and 32(2) of the Poisons Act 1952
  • the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III
  • both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance
  • the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968
  • read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf
  • re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts
  • and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55
  • the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list
  • section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death
  • the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here
  • all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass
  • so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules

Court records

We have not yet assessed whether court records are publicly available for this jurisdiction.

2C-E in related jurisdictions

Other substances confirmed in Malaysia

Same substance, other countries