Legality · 3-MMC3-MMC in Timor-Leste: not individually verified
Also known as: metaphedrone
Not individually verified
We have not confirmed that 3-MMC specifically is scheduled in Timor-Leste, so this page gives no legal status. Publishing a guess here would be worse than publishing nothing. What we do know is the governing national drug law, below.
- What is on record
- Not confirmed. 3-MMC is not named by that name anywhere in Lei n.º 2/2017's tables. Its 4-substituted positional isomer, mephedrone, is named at Table II-A item 26: "4-metilmetcatinona (mefedrona)" (4-methylmethcathinone, mephedrone). Table II-A's own closing clause reads: "Os isómeros das substâncias inscritas nesta tabela em todos os casos em que estes isómeros possam existir com designação química específica, salvo se forem expressamente excluídos" (the isomers of the substances listed in this table, in every case in which those isomers can exist with a specific chemical designation, unless expressly excluded). 3-methylmethcathinone and 4-methylmethcathinone (mephedrone) share the identical molecular formula, C11H15NO, differing only in the ring position of the methyl substituent, a textbook positional isomer relationship. Whether this clause reaches 3-MMC through mephedrone is not settled by the text. Checked directly against both Conventions this clause's wording could descend from. The exact phrase traces to the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, not the 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances: the 1961 Convention's own Schedule closing clauses read, verbatim, "The isomers, unless specifically excepted, of the drugs in this Schedule whenever the existence of such isomers is possible within the specific chemical designation" (fetched and read in full this session), the identical shape Table II-A's own clause carries. The 1971 Convention, by contrast, genuinely carries no general isomer clause of this kind; it names isomers individually where it means to reach them. So Table II-A's clause IS inherited Convention boilerplate, not a purely domestic drafting choice, but the Convention's own wording does not itself resolve whether "isomer... within the specific chemical designation" reaches a stereoisomer of the one named compound only, or any constitutional isomer that happens to share its formula. A check of Samoa's Narcotics Act 1967 (identical clause wording) does not settle this either: Samoa separately lists phentermine at its own lower class despite phentermine sharing methamphetamine's exact formula, but under the general interpretive principle a named entry governs over a generic rule regardless of the generic rule's own scope, so phentermine's separate listing is consistent with either reading and settles neither. Left open here for the same reason: 3-MMC has carried its own specific, stable chemical designation (3-methylmethcathinone, 3-MMC) since well before this law's 2017 enactment, distinct from mephedrone's. No table carries an express exclusion naming 3-MMC either way. This reading is as printed 25 January 2017, read on 7 October 2026; no later amending law has been found (see the search recorded below), and the clause has not been tested against any Timor-Leste court or regulatory ruling.
Confirm directly with Timor-Leste’s national drug authority or your own embassy before you rely on anything.
What Timor-Leste HAS confirmed for related substances
These are related compounds, not 3-MMC. Their status may or may not reflect 3-MMC’s. Confirm 3-MMC directly with Timor-Leste's national drug authority or your embassy.
Cathinone, the parent beta-ketone amphetamine, is named directly in Table II-A of Lei n.º 2/2017's Anexo II, item 8: "Catinona - (-)-(alfa)-aminopropiofenona" (cathinone, minus-alpha-aminopropiophenone). Cathine, cathinone's reduced relative, sits separately in Table II-B item 2 ("Catina"), and mephedrone, a ring-methylated cathinone derivative, sits separately in Table II-A item 26; the three are each named in their own right rather than through a class clause. Article 2, paragraph 1, subparagraph d, defines "droga" as any plant, substance or preparation covered by Tables I to IV; article 3 makes the tables integral to the law. This reading is as printed 25 January 2017, read on 7 October 2026.
Lei n.º 2/2017, de 25 de Janeiro, "Lei de Combate ao Tráfico Ilícito de Drogas", Anexo II, Tabela II-A item 8 · articles 2, 3, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11 and 26 · Jornal da República, Série I, N.º 4, 25 January 2017, pages 60 to 82. https://www.mj.gov.tl/jornal/public/docs/2017/serie_1/SERIE_I_NO_4.pdf (sha256 700f7867e6cff713f06a6fcb6da245ea1186582fe66309d193080ce0b7406cd6). Read on 7 October 2026. · Verified October 8, 2026
Khat, the plant Catha edulis, is not named by that name anywhere in Lei n.º 2/2017's tables, and a direct search for "khat", "catha edulis" and "qat" returned no match. Its two active alkaloids are named: cathinone at Table II-A item 8 ("Catinona") and cathine at Table II-B item 2 ("Catina"). The reasoning here reaches a different conclusion from ayahuasca's, and the difference is structural, turning on which table cathine sits in, rather than a single answer applied to every plant entry regardless of its own text. Article 2, paragraph 1, subparagraph g, defines "Preparado" (preparation) as "uma solução ou uma mistura, sólida ou líquida, que inclua um ou vários estupefacientes ou substâncias, bem como um ou vários estupefacientes ou substâncias em forma dosificada" (a solution or a mixture, solid or liquid, that includes one or several narcotics or substances, as well as one or several narcotics or substances in dosed form). That definition does not require a deliberate human act of compounding; it only requires that the material be a mixture, solid or liquid, that includes the substance. A chewed khat leaf is, as a matter of plant chemistry, a solid mixture of cellulose, water and numerous alkaloids including cathine, so it falls within article 2(g)'s own wording for "preparado". Table II-B's closing clause extends control to "todos os preparados em que estas substâncias estejam associadas a outros compostos, qualquer que seja a ação destes" (all preparations in which these substances are combined with other compounds, whatever their action), and cathine sits in Table II-B. Reading the two provisions together, khat leaf is a preparation in which cathine is associated with other compounds within the meaning of the Act's own defined terms, so it is reached through Table II-B, via cathine, even without a dedicated leaf entry. That is a different and more affirmative route than the constituent-only reasoning used for ayahuasca, because Table II-A, where cathinone and DMT both sit, carries no equivalent preparations clause; cathine's presence in Table II-B rather than II-A is what makes the difference. Against this, Table I-C shows the drafters do sometimes choose to name raw plant material directly, listing cannabis leaf as its own item distinct from resin and oil, which could suggest a leaf needs its own entry to be caught; but that naming choice does not displace Table II-B's own, textually separate preparations clause, which does not require a dedicated plant entry to operate. This reading is as printed 25 January 2017, read on 7 October 2026; it has not been tested against any Timor-Leste court or regulatory ruling, and it is a closer, more contestable call than the ayahuasca brew question.
Lei n.º 2/2017, de 25 de Janeiro, "Lei de Combate ao Tráfico Ilícito de Drogas", article 2, paragraph 1, subparagraph g · Anexo II, Tabela II-A item 8, Tabela II-B item 2 and closing clause, Tabela I-C item 1 · articles 3, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11 and 26 · Jornal da República, Série I, N.º 4, 25 January 2017, pages 60 to 82. https://www.mj.gov.tl/jornal/public/docs/2017/serie_1/SERIE_I_NO_4.pdf (sha256 700f7867e6cff713f06a6fcb6da245ea1186582fe66309d193080ce0b7406cd6). Read on 7 October 2026. · Verified October 8, 2026
Mephedrone is named directly in Table II-A of Lei n.º 2/2017's Anexo II, item 26, printed with no formula, only its two names: "4-metilmetcatinona (mefedrona)" (4-methylmethcathinone, mephedrone). Cathinone, mephedrone's parent beta-ketone amphetamine, is separately named at item 8. Mephedrone was added to the United Nations 1971 Convention's schedules by a Commission on Narcotic Drugs decision in 2015, before this Act's own 2017 enactment date, so its presence here is consistent with the schedule as originally drafted and is not, on its own, evidence of any later update to the printed list. Article 2, paragraph 1, subparagraph d, defines "droga" as any plant, substance or preparation covered by Tables I to IV; article 3 makes the tables integral to the law. This reading is as printed 25 January 2017, read on 7 October 2026.
Lei n.º 2/2017, de 25 de Janeiro, "Lei de Combate ao Tráfico Ilícito de Drogas", Anexo II, Tabela II-A item 26 · articles 2, 3, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11 and 26 · Jornal da República, Série I, N.º 4, 25 January 2017, pages 60 to 82. https://www.mj.gov.tl/jornal/public/docs/2017/serie_1/SERIE_I_NO_4.pdf (sha256 700f7867e6cff713f06a6fcb6da245ea1186582fe66309d193080ce0b7406cd6). Read on 7 October 2026. · Verified October 8, 2026
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