Is Adderall legal in New Zealand?

Also known as: addy, amphetamine salts

Legal status

Controlled, but not under the name on the box. Adderall is a branded medicine consisting of mixed amphetamine salts, and no brand name appears in the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975; the finding comes from the Schedule 2 amphetamine entry, which reaches amphetamine together with its salts, isomers, esters, ethers and the salts of those derivatives, so a mixed amphetamine salts product is inside it. The class is therefore B. Amphetamine has its own row in this table and is the entry that actually carries this finding, so the brand name is not what is scheduled. This matters because a traveller or a reader searching the Act for the brand will find nothing and may conclude the medicine is unscheduled, which is the opposite of the position. The reading is against the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, whose latest commenced classification instrument is the Misuse of Drugs (Classification and Presumption of Supply) Order 2025, in force from 27 November 2025.

Consequences if caught

Capital exposure: none. New Zealand has no death penalty, and life under section 6 belongs to Class A alone, while the amphetamine entry that carries this product sits in Class B. The section 6 maximum for dealing in a Class B controlled drug is 14 years. Possession is charged under section 7, where the maximum is 3 months. Supplying the medicine on to another person is dealing whatever the prescription says about the person it was dispensed to.

If prescribed or medical

Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: Adderall resolves through the Schedule 2 amphetamine entry as a Class B controlled drug, not as an unscheduled medicine and not as a Class A one. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.

Documentation

Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026 and expect to find the answer under amphetamine rather than under Adderall. Read the Schedule 2 amphetamine entry and its salts, isomers, esters and ethers wording, because the brand name will not be found in the Act. Carry the salts wording in particular, because that wording and not a brand listing is what makes a mixed amphetamine salts medicine a Class B controlled drug. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

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