Is 7-Hydroxymitragynine (7-OH) legal in Bulgaria?

Legal status

Controlled in part. 7-hydroxymitragynine has no row of its own in any of the three списъци, and the entries that bear on it are «Кратом (Mitragyna speciosa)». The oxidised alkaloid is not a named entry either. The plant row reaches leaf and preparations of leaf, and an isolated or semisynthetic 7-hydroxy product is not named in any of the three lists. Чл. 4, ал. 2 of the Закон за контрол върху наркотичните вещества и прекурсорите extends the same control measures to preparations and to analogues, «За препаратите и за аналозите се прилагат същите мерки за контрол, както за наркотичните вещества.» which is the provision that would have to be argued for anything the lists do not name. That argument was not settled here. The entries relied on were read in Приложение № 1 as wholly replaced by Постановление № 253 of 1 November 2013, as those lists stand after Постановление № 49 of 8 May 2025, which is the last amendment to the наредба recorded by the Council of Ministers legal information system.

Consequences if caught

Capital exposure: none. Bulgaria is in the European Union and the death penalty was abolished in 1998, so no Bulgarian drug provision carries one. The figures in the rest of this paragraph are carried forward from the live Bulgaria cell and were not re-derived in this pass. Possession is not subject to a formal personal-use threshold. Penal Code article 354a(5) lets a judge impose a fine up to about 1,000 leva (about €511) for insignificant quantities, but it remains a criminal conviction. Standard possession of high-risk drugs draws 1 to 6 years. A 2,000 to 10,000 leva fine runs alongside that band. Possession of moderate-risk drugs draws up to 5 years. Trafficking under article 354a draws 2 to 8 years for high-risk drugs and 1 to 6 years for moderate-risk drugs. It rises to up to 15 years for aggravated or particularly large amounts. Cultivation of opium poppy, coca or cannabis is prohibited by article 354c. The high-risk and moderate-risk split those bands run on is drawn by Penal Code articles 354a, 354b and 354c together with the Law on Control of Narcotic Substances and Precursors, the ЗКНВП. Those are Penal Code provisions rather than наредба provisions, and whether the offence reaches this row at all is exactly what was not established here.

If prescribed or medical

Чл. 58, ал. 1 of the Закон за контрол върху наркотичните вещества и прекурсорите lets a person in transit or temporarily in the country hold medicinal products containing narcotic substances «от списъците по чл. 3, ал. 2, т. 2 и 3» only for treatment and in quantities no greater than 30 days of treatment, and чл. 58, ал. 2 requires a foreign national to hold a document issued by the competent authorities of the country where the treatment was prescribed. The list allowance is written for named substances, and 7-hydroxymitragynine is not itself a named entry, so the route runs through whatever the material contains rather than through a row for this row's own name. The nearest named entry is «Кратом (Mitragyna speciosa)». Nothing here is a prescribed traveller medicine in this form. Carry any controlled medicine with its prescription and confirm requirements with your embassy before travel.

Documentation

The наредба has no consolidated text at an official publisher. What was read instead is the official file set: the наредба as adopted by Постановление № 293 of 27 October 2011, then every one of the fourteen amending Постановления in order, each downloaded as the Word file the Council of Ministers legal information system publishes. Приложение № 1 was replaced whole by Постановление № 253 of 2013, so the 2013 text and not the 2011 one is the base for Списък I. The row relied on for this cell is in Приложение № 1 as wholly replaced by Постановление № 253 of 1 November 2013, and it is a row for a different name than this one. One § of Постановление № 184 of 2023 amends a different instrument, Постановление № 23 of 1998 on the prices of narcotic substances for court proceedings, and its rows were excluded from the search rather than read as schedule entries. The Penal Code figures in the street paragraph are carried forward from the live Bulgaria cell and were not re-derived here, so the Penal Code itself was not read for this row. Carry any controlled medicine with its prescription and confirm requirements with your embassy before travel.

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