Is Adderall legal in Laos?
Also known as: addy, amphetamine salts
- Legal status
- Adderall (mixed amphetamine salts) has no separate legal identity, it is regulated AS amphetamine: controlled substance under the Law on Narcotics / amended Criminal Law art. 146 (Law No. 22/NA).
- Consequences if caught
- Lower tiers 5-20 years; art. 146 makes ATS trafficking >3 kg DEATH-PENALTY-ELIGIBLE (500 g, 3 kg = life), and Laos actively executes for drug trafficking. Amphetamine carries capital exposure at high quantity.
- If prescribed or medical
- Prescription stimulant via strictly controlled medical channels; carrying it without a local permit/prescription risks arrest.
- Documentation
- Laos (a Golden Triangle state where about 90% of death-row sentences are drug-related, with roughly 315 people on death row) retains the death penalty for drugs under the Lao Penal Code (2017, Art 146, consolidating the earlier Penal Law and the Law on Narcotics No. 22/NA of 2012). Death applies to producing, distributing, possessing or transporting more than 500 g of heroin, morphine or cocaine; more than 3,000 g (3 kg) of amphetamines, methamphetamine, ecstasy or other psychotropics; or more than 10,000 g of drug precursors. Some sources describe the death penalty as MANDATORY above these thresholds [reported], but it is abolitionist in practice, NO executions have been carried out since 1989, and commutation is routine (e.g. the Orobator case, where a pregnant defendant caught with 680 g of heroin received life, not death). Personal-use possession is graduated: for heroin, morphine or cocaine, less than 0.2 g is treated as a victim needing treatment and 0.2-2 g draws 2-10 years plus a fine; for methamphetamine or ecstasy, less than 0.3 g is treated as a victim and 0.3-3 g draws 1-5 years; using a marijuana-smoking service draws 3 months, 5 years. Carry any controlled medicine with its prescription and confirm requirements with your embassy before travel.
- Criminal Law art. 146 (Law 22/NA), ATS >3 kg capital
- loc.gov
- The power that moves this list is amended article 9 of the Law on Drugs, which names examples and then reaches other narcotic drugs prescribed by regulation, and this project's Laos substance dossier checked on 18 September 2026 records that the complete current delegated prohibited drug list was not located. No version of that list is established, so the finding stated above is anchored to the 2007 statute as amended in 2012 and 2021, and it does not rule out a later amendment made or commenced since.
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Court records
We have not yet assessed whether court records are publicly available for this jurisdiction.
Other substances confirmed in Laos
Same substance, other countries
Drug laws and enforcement change and vary within a country. This is not legal advice. Always confirm with Laos’s embassy or official drug authority before traveling; penalties can be severe, including imprisonment.
Before you travel
Verify current rules with the destination country’s official drug authority and your own country’s embassy before traveling. Find the destination’s U.S. embassy & official country guidance →
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If you’re detained or arrested abroad
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