Is 6-APB legal in Suriname?

Legal status

Illegal. 6-APB is on lijst III, which S.B. 2018 no. 64 annexed to the act, through the Tabel III category 'Phenethylamines'. 6-APB, 1-(1-benzofuran-6-yl)propan-2-amine, is a benzene ring carrying a 2-aminopropyl chain, the alpha-methyl phenethylamine skeleton of amphetamine, with a furan ring fused to the benzene ring; the fused ring no more takes it outside the class than the methylenedioxy ring of MDMA or methylone does. The text read is the act as amended to S.B. 2023 no. 137: the 1998 act with its 2002 amendments, then S.B. 2018 no. 64, published on 16 July 2018 and in force the next day under its Artikel II, then S.B. 2018 no. 65, published on 18 September 2018 and in force the next day, then the Wet Industriële Hennepteelt, S.B. 2023 no. 137, published on 14 September 2023 and in force the next day, whose title recites the act as last amended by S.B. 2018 no. 65. Article 3 lid 2, article 4 lid 2 and article 8a lid 2 still let further substances be designated by Staatsbesluit. The subsidiary instruments located, the three Staatsbesluiten of 20 January 1999 published as S.B. 1999 nos. 20, 21 and 22 on prescriptions, exemptions and import permits and the commencement resolution S.B. 1999 no. 23, designate no substance, and no other designation was located, so this does not rule out a later designation.

Consequences if caught

Capital exposure: none. This act carries no death penalty and its heaviest sentence is levenslange gevangenisstraf, life imprisonment, under article 11 lid 1, and article 9 lid 1 of the Wetboek van Strafrecht as replaced by S.B. 2015 no. 44 lists the hoofdstraffen as gevangenisstraf, hechtenis, taakstraf and geldboete, with no death penalty among them. Searched as '6-APB', 'benzofuran', 'benzofuranyl', 'aminopropyl' and 'amfetamine'. The last returns the amphetamines at lijst I onderdeel D, 'Brolamfetamine' and 'MDA (tenamfetamine)' at lijst I onderdeel C and 'Etilamfetamine' at lijst II onderdeel A part 2, and none of them is 6-APB. Tabel III does not list compounds. Under the heading 'Categorieën van nieuwe psychoactieve stoffen (NPS'es):' it prints 'Aminoindanes, Synthetic Cannabinoids, Synthetic Cathinones, Tryptamines, Ketamine and Phencyclidine-type substances, Plant-based Substances (Kratom, Salvia divinorum, Khat), Piperazines, Phenethylamines enandere substances zoals 1,3 dimethyl-amylamine (DMAA)', in English and as printed, and the act defines none of those labels. Article 1 lid 2 equates the salts of a substance with the substance throughout the act. Article 8a lid 1 refers to 'de middelen voorkomende op de bij deze wet behorende lijst III' without limiting it to Tabel I and Tabel II, and Tabel III is printed in that annex. The memorie van toelichting describes lijst III only by reference to the two Convention tables and says nothing about Tabel III. Case law applying Tabel III was not searched. Membership is therefore read from the molecule's own structure against the plain words of the label, and one test is applied to every row: a substance is treated as inside a label where it is a new psychoactive substance whose molecule as a whole belongs to the chemical class the label names, and not where the class's own amine chain is built into a further ring system of another class. A ring fused to the aromatic ring with the amine chain left free, as in methylone, MDPV or 6-APB, does not take a substance outside its class; an ethylamine chain closed into a ring system, as in the ergoline skeleton of LSD, does. A ring formed on the nitrogen alone, as the pyrrolidine of MDPV, leaves the chain between the aromatic ring and the nitrogen open and does not count either. No benzofuran is named in lijst I or lijst II. The amphetamines named at lijst I onderdeel D, 'Amfetamine', 'Dexamfetamine' and 'Metamfetamine' among them, are single named compounds, and that part closes only with a preparations clause, so none of those entries reaches 6-APB and the Tabel III label does. Article 8a lid 1, inserted by S.B. 2018 no. 64, forbids four things in relation to 'de middelen voorkomende op de bij deze wet behorende lijst III': under A in, uit of door te voeren, importing, exporting or moving in transit; under B te bereiden, te verwerken, te verkopen, af te leveren, te verstrekken of te vervoeren, preparing, processing, selling, delivering, supplying or transporting; under C te bezitten, aanwezig te hebben of aan te wenden, possessing, having present or using; and under D te vervaardigen, manufacturing. Article 1 lid 1 under t, as replaced in 2018, defines bezitten as 'het hebben van chemische stoffen, gereedschappen, materialen of apparatuur om verdovende middelen of psychotrope stoffen te produceren', having chemicals or equipment to produce drugs, so plain possession of the substance is carried by the words aanwezig te hebben, having present. Article 11 lid 1, as replaced by article I onder M of that Act, punishes an intentional breach of article 8a lid 1 under A with 'levenslange gevangenisstraf of tijdelijke van ten hoogste vijftig jaren en een geldboete van de vijfde categorie', life imprisonment or a fixed term of at most fifty years and a fine of the fifth category. The same onderdeel rewrote article 11 lid 3 so that it reaches article 8a lid 1 under B, C and D, and an intentional breach of any of those carries at most thirteen years and a fine of the fifth category. So carrying it across the border is the limb exposed to life imprisonment, while possession, use, supply, transport and manufacture inside Suriname all sit in the thirteen year band, unless a Staatsbesluit under article 3 lid 2 has also designated the substance as a lijst I middel, in which case supply and manufacture would carry levenslange gevangenisstraf under article 11 lid 1 as well; no register of designations was located. Article 11 lid 2 gives at most nine years where the cross border limb is broken otherwise than intentionally, and article 11 lid 4 at most seven years for the lower band, each now with a fine of the fifth category, and article 14 lid 1 as amended makes the article 11 lid 4 cases overtredingen and the lid 1 to 3 cases misdrijven. Article 12 as amended punishes preparing or furthering an article 8a lid 1 under A offence, and conspiracy to commit one followed by a preparatory act, with at most eleven years and a fine of the fifth category. Article 40 lid 5 of the Wetboek van Strafrecht as replaced by S.B. 2015 no. 44 sets the fifth category at SRD 100,000. A bill submitted to De Nationale Assemblée on 17 August 2022 proposes replacing every category in article 40 lid 5, the first with SRD 10,500, the third with SRD 75,000, the fourth with SRD 150,000 and the fifth with SRD 300,000, and whether it has been enacted was not established; every SRD figure in this cell is the 2015 figure. Article 13 lid 1 lets the fine rise to four times the value of the goods where that value is more than a quarter of the maximum, and article 13 lid 2 as amended requires forfeiture of the article 8a middelen. Article 4a, also inserted in 2018, forbids any act aimed at promoting the sale, delivery or supply of a middel covered by article 8a except purely medical or scientific information, and article 11 lid 5 punishes breach of it with a fine of the third category, SRD 25,000. Article 14 lid 2 as amended reaches a Surinamese national who, abroad, prepares, furthers or conspires in the cross border limb, or attempts or takes part in such an offence committed in Suriname. The act sets no personal use tier, no quantity threshold and no tolerance rule anywhere. Article 11 lid 1 before 2018 read 'levenslange gevangenisstraf of tijdelijke van ten hoogste twintig jaren en een geldboete van ten hoogste vijfhonderd miljoen gulden'; S.B. 2018 no. 64 replaced the twenty years with fifty and the gulden sum with the fifth category, and replaced the gulden sums in leden 2, 3 and 4 and in article 12 with the same category.

If prescribed or medical

No medicinal use of it was found in the sources read, so the exemptions below are of no practical help to a traveller. Lijst III has no prescription route of its own. Article 5 lid 1, which allows a middel to be prescribed op recept only where the recept meets requirements set by or under Staatsbesluit, still speaks only of 'enig middel, in de artikelen 3 en 4 bedoeld', and S.B. 2018 no. 64 did not extend it to article 8a. What the 2018 Act did extend are the exemptions. Article 7 lid 1 as amended lets the Minister lift limbs B, C and D of article 8a lid 1, generally or by written permission. Article 7 lid 2 as amended disapplies limbs B and C for gevestigde apothekers en apotheekhoudende geneeskundigen and for gevestigde dierenartsen who handle the substance only for a medical purpose. Article 7 lid 3 as amended disapplies the transport part of limb B and the whole of limb C for a person who shows that they need it, in de bevonden hoeveelheid, in the quantity found, for the practice of medicine, dentistry or veterinary medicine or voor eigen geneeskundig gebruik, for their own medical use, and obtained it langs wettige weg, by lawful means. Whether the Staatsbesluiten that article 7 contemplates have been made was not established.

Documentation

Products sold online as research chemicals or not for human consumption are not exempt on that account. Neither article 7 lid 1 nor article 7 lid 3 touches limb A of article 8a lid 1, the import, export and transit limb, so the own medical use exemption covers possession and carriage inside Suriname and not bringing the substance in or taking it out. Article 6 lid 1, as replaced by S.B. 2018 no. 64, is the only route across the border: it disapplies article 8a lid 1 under A where the movement is made 'met toestemming van de Minister, na goedkeuring door de Procureur-generaal bij het Hof van Justitie', with the permission of the Minister after approval by the Procurator General at the Court of Justice. Article 11a, inserted in 2018, fines the user, tenant or owner of a vessel, aircraft, vehicle, building or yard where a middel of articles 2, 3 or 4 or a chemische stof of article 8a is found unlawfully with a fine of the first category, SRD 3,500 under the 2015 figures, unless they took all suitable measures to prevent it; whether a Tabel III substance is a chemische stof in the sense of definition u, a substance used for the illicit production of drugs, is not settled by the text. Article 10 gives investigating officers powers to search the body and clothing of a suspect and to seize. The memorie van toelichting to S.B. 2018 no. 64 says article 8a lid 1 would take effect six months after the Act, but Artikel II brings the whole Act into force on the day after publication and contains no separate date, and both dates passed in 2018 or 2019.

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