Is Adderall legal in Saudi Arabia?

Also known as: addy, amphetamine salts

Legal status

Adderall has no legal identity of its own in Saudi Arabia, because it is a brand and the schedules list substances. What the schedules reach is its contents. The mixed amphetamine salts in Adderall resolve through the amphetamine entries at Schedule II Category B of the schedules attached to the Law of Combating Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances, Royal Decree M/39 of 1426 AH, in the version issued on 4 September 2026, which print «أمفيتامين», amphetamine, under «فئة (ب):... المؤثرات العقلية», Category B psychotropic substances, together with the stereochemical and salts wording that carries the salts rather than only the free base. That salts wording is what makes the row work: a product that is dexamfetamine saccharate, amfetamine aspartate, dexamfetamine sulfate and amfetamine sulfate is four salts and no free base, and without the salts limb the entry would not reach the tablet in the bottle. M/39 Articles 1 and 70 to 71 are cited for identification and for keeping the attached schedules current.

Consequences if caught

Because the contents are Schedule II Category B, Article 37(I) is available against them, and it states no quantity at all. There is no weight threshold in the article: the conduct it names is smuggling, receipt from a smuggler, and import, export, manufacture, production, extraction or cultivation with intent to promote, together with the repeat promotion histories it sets out. Death under Article 37(I) is a statutory ta'zir penalty and it is not mandatory, because Article 37(II) gives the court the power to reduce it; where the court does reduce, the substitute is a prison term of not less than fifteen years with the lashes and the fine the article states. No express life imprisonment wording was found anywhere in M/39. Articles 38 to 41 are cited as the tiers below Article 37 for this placement. A prescription bottle carried in from abroad is the most common way this row is reached in practice, and it is reached because the permit is missing rather than because the medicine is unusual.

If prescribed or medical

The Saudi traveller rule is a permit rule rather than a prescription rule, and this is the row where that distinction costs people the most. A controlled medicine may be brought in only under a clearance obtained from the SFDA before travel through its Controlled Drugs System, and that advance electronic clearance is required rather than optional. A prescription written abroad is not a Saudi clearance and does not become one on arrival, however genuine it is and however long the patient has taken the medicine. Adderall's contents sit inside that regime as Schedule II Category B substances, so the clearance question governs, and the dossier records no separate per substance route that would take a branded amphetamine product outside it.

Documentation

Apply through the SFDA Controlled Drugs System before travelling rather than on arrival, and carry the clearance itself and not the prescription alone. Bring the medicine in its original dispensing packaging with the prescription and a medical report naming the patient, the active ingredient, the dose and the treatment period, translated into Arabic and dated less than six months before travel, keep the quantity to a one month supply or the length of the stay, whichever is shorter, and declare it at customs; advance electronic clearance has been required since 1 November 2025. Name the active ingredient and not only the brand on every document, because the brand is what the schedules do not list. The permit mechanics stated here are the SFDA traveller rules recorded on the current live cell and were not re-derived from the instrument in this pass. The Schedule II Category B amphetamine placement was read in the 4 September 2026 schedules on 17 September 2026.

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