Is Adderall legal in Guatemala?

Legal status

Illegal through its constituents under the Ley contra la Narcoactividad (Decreto 48-92), articles 38 and 39.

Consequences if caught

Capital exposure: none. This is established rather than assumed, because Decreto 48-92 as enacted did carry a death penalty: article 12 lists "De muerte" first among the principal penalties for natural persons, and article 52, "Delitos calificados por el resultado", provided that "Si como consecuencia de los delitos tipificados en esta ley, resultare la muerte de una o más personas, se aplicará la pena de muerte o treinta años de prisión, según las circunstancias del hecho". Two things remove it. First, the Corte de Constitucionalidad expelled article 12 literal a) and the words "muerte o" from article 52 by judgment of 24 October 2017, expediente 5986-2016 [Likely, taken from secondary reports; the Court's own record was not reached, and one of those reports contradicts itself on the expediente number]. Second, and independently of that judgment, article 52 was never conditioned on a substance or on a quantity but only on a resulting death, so no row of this table carried capital exposure even on the 1992 text [Certain, re-derived from the gazette this pass]. Readers should know that the government's own published text of the law, at senabed.gob.gt, still prints both capital passages intact. Decreto 48-92 annexes no list of substances. Article 1 reaches the drugs "incluidos en los convenios y tratados internacionales al respecto, ratificados por Guatemala y en cualquier otro instrumento jurídico internacional que sobre esta materia se apruebe", and article 2(b) defines "Estupefacientes y sustancias psicotrópicas" as "Cualquier droga natural o sintética, así considerada en tratados o convenios internacionales de observancia obligatoria en la República de Guatemala, el Código de Salud y demás disposiciones que se emitan para determinar las drogas de uso prohibido a que se refiere la presente ley". An anchored search of the whole 57 KB law text returned no substance name at all, which is the measurement behind that reading. The health authority says the same thing in its own words: MSPAS Normativa 22-2001, section 2, states that "Los Estupefacientes y Sicotrópicos son los enumerados en la Convención Unica de 1961 sobre Estupefacientes, en el Convenio sobre Substancias Sicotrópicas de 1971 y en la Convención de las Naciones Unidas contra el Tráfico Ilícito de Estupefacientes y Sustancias Sicotrópicas y otras Sustancias consideradas como tales por las leyes del país y por las disposiciones dictadas por la autoridad de salud". This row is a product label rather than a single substance, and it is resolved through its constituents. Those constituents are themselves entries: PA 003, "AMFETAMINE", other name "amphetamine", together with PD 002, "DEXAMFETAMINE", other name "dexamphetamine". A seizure is governed by what it is proved to contain. Article 2(b) therefore reaches it, because that list is a treaty list of obligatory observance in Guatemala, and articles 38 and 39 then apply to it as a drug, estupefaciente or psicotrópico. Article 38, "Comercio, tráfico y almacenamiento ilícito", sets prison of twelve to twenty years and a fine of Q50,000 to Q1,000,000, both of those figures being money and neither of them a quantity of any substance. Article 39, "Posesión para el consumo", makes possession for one's own consumption an offence in its own right, at four months to two years and a fine of Q200 to Q10,000, consumption being made out where the seized drug "no exceda de la cantidad razonable para el consumo inmediato". No article states a gram figure for any substance, so the line between personal use and trafficking is judicial. Article 36 sets five to twenty years for sowing or cultivation and article 37 eight to twenty years for manufacture, which puts the ceiling on the conduct articles at twenty years. Article 15 names article 39 among the sentences that may be commuted where the prison term does not exceed five years, at Q5 to Q100 per day. One penalty in article 12 speaks directly to a non-Guatemalan reader. The principal penalties for natural persons are listed there, and literal f) is "Expulsión del territorio nacional de extranjeros", expulsion of foreign nationals from the national territory. It is a principal penalty in its own right and not an administrative consequence.

If prescribed or medical

Guatemala's traveller rule is article 3 of Decreto 48-92: "Solamente podrá autorizarse la importación, producción, fabricación, extracción, posesión y uso de las drogas en las cantidades estrictamente necesarias, exclusivamente por personas legalmente facultadas y bajo su estricta responsabilidad, para el tratamiento médico, los análisis toxicológicos y farmacológicos, la investigación científica y la elaboración de medicamentos", and "En los centros de comercialización para particulares, su venta requerirá receta médica". This substance sits in 1971 Convention Schedule II, so any lawful holding runs through that authorisation route.

Documentation

Decreto 48-92 annexes no list of substances. Article 1 reaches the drugs "incluidos en los convenios y tratados internacionales al respecto, ratificados por Guatemala y en cualquier otro instrumento jurídico internacional que sobre esta materia se apruebe", and article 2(b) defines "Estupefacientes y sustancias psicotrópicas" as "Cualquier droga natural o sintética, así considerada en tratados o convenios internacionales de observancia obligatoria en la República de Guatemala, el Código de Salud y demás disposiciones que se emitan para determinar las drogas de uso prohibido a que se refiere la presente ley". An anchored search of the whole 57 KB law text returned no substance name at all, which is the measurement behind that reading. The health authority says the same thing in its own words: MSPAS Normativa 22-2001, section 2, states that "Los Estupefacientes y Sicotrópicos son los enumerados en la Convención Unica de 1961 sobre Estupefacientes, en el Convenio sobre Substancias Sicotrópicas de 1971 y en la Convención de las Naciones Unidas contra el Tráfico Ilícito de Estupefacientes y Sustancias Sicotrópicas y otras Sustancias consideradas como tales por las leyes del país y por las disposiciones dictadas por la autoridad de salud". This row is a product label rather than a single substance, and it is resolved through its constituents. Those constituents are themselves entries: PA 003, "AMFETAMINE", other name "amphetamine", together with PD 002, "DEXAMFETAMINE", other name "dexamphetamine". A seizure is governed by what it is proved to contain. Article 2(b) therefore reaches it, because that list is a treaty list of obligatory observance in Guatemala, and articles 38 and 39 then apply to it as a drug, estupefaciente or psicotrópico. Article 38, "Comercio, tráfico y almacenamiento ilícito", sets prison of twelve to twenty years and a fine of Q50,000 to Q1,000,000, both of those figures being money and neither of them a quantity of any substance. Article 39, "Posesión para el consumo", makes possession for one's own consumption an offence in its own right, at four months to two years and a fine of Q200 to Q10,000, consumption being made out where the seized drug "no exceda de la cantidad razonable para el consumo inmediato". No article states a gram figure for any substance, so the line between personal use and trafficking is judicial. Article 36 sets five to twenty years for sowing or cultivation and article 37 eight to twenty years for manufacture, which puts the ceiling on the conduct articles at twenty years. Article 15 names article 39 among the sentences that may be commuted where the prison term does not exceed five years, at Q5 to Q100 per day. One figure in the superseded cell is corrected here. It put cultivation or manufacture at up to about twenty to twenty five years. Read from the gazette, article 36 sets five to twenty years and article 37 eight to twenty years, so twenty years is the ceiling on those two conduct articles and twenty five was never in the law [Certain, re-derived this pass]. Twenty years is not the maximum term this statute can impose: article 52 still provides thirty years where a death results, now that the words "muerte o" have gone from it. Carried from the live cell and not re-derived in this pass [Likely]: Guatemala has no medical cannabis, a 2016 bill having been rejected, and extradition to the United States is possible under a 1940 treaty.

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