Is Alcohol legal in Chile?

Legal status

Not a controlled drug in Chile. Ethyl alcohol is not named in artículos 1, 2 or 4 of Decreto 867, as those lists stand in the leychile version in force from 16 September 2023, read on 3 October 2026, and that does not rule out a later decreto; artículo 4 names «Alcohol Amílico», «Alcohol Butílico», «Alcohol Isopropílico» and «Alcohol Metílico» as inhalant solvents and not drinking alcohol. Drinking is regulated by Ley 19.925, which fines public drinking and criminalises supply to minors.

Consequences if caught

Capital exposure: none. Ley 19.734 of 2001 replaced the word «Muerte» with «Presidio perpetuo calificado» in the escala general of artículo 21 of the Código Penal, read in this pass from the Justia reproduction of the text leychile publishes as idNorma 186161 [Likely], and artículo 21 as consolidated on leychile, read on 3 October 2026, opens its penas de crímenes at «Presidio perpetuo calificado» and names no death penalty [Certain]. Ley 19.925 contains the word muerte only in its road accident provisions, as a result and not a penalty, and the consolidated Ley 20.000 of 23 May 2026 does not contain the word muerte, so no provision of it carries a death penalty [Certain]. Ley 20.000 splits substances in two. Artículo 1 inciso primero reaches those «capaces de provocar graves efectos tóxicos o daños considerables a la salud», and inciso segundo reaches «otras drogas o sustancias de esta índole que no produzcan los efectos indicados en el inciso anterior». Decreto 867 puts the first group in its artículo 1 and the second in its artículo 2, so which artículo an entry sits in is what fixes the penalty range [Certain]. Artículo 63 of the law provides that «Un reglamento señalará las sustancias» to which artículos 1, 2, 5 bis and 8 refer, and Decreto 867 is that reglamento [Certain]. So a substance Decreto 867 does not list is outside those offences on the reading this cell takes, which is the reading the law's own artículo 63 sets up [Likely]. Placement: not a drug under Ley 20.000. Searched Decreto 867 for alcohol etílico and etanol with no hit; its four alcohol hits are the artículo 4 inhalant solvents named above, and artículo 5 of Decreto 867, the plant list, does not name it [Certain]. Artículo 25 of Ley 19.925 provides «Se prohíbe el consumo de bebidas alcohólicas en calles, caminos, plazas, paseos y demás lugares de uso público», punished by «Multa de hasta una unidad tributaria mensual» or a warning, and the offender may settle on the spot by paying 25 per cent of the maximum fine [Certain]. Artículo 26 applies the same to anyone found «en manifiesto estado de ebriedad» in a public place, and artículo 27 lets Carabineros hold a person who has lost control of their acts for up to six hours [Certain]. Artículo 42 punishes selling or supplying alcohol to a person under eighteen in a licensed establishment with prisión en su grado medio, twenty one to forty days, and a fine of three to ten unidades tributarias mensuales, rising for an owner or manager to prisión en su grado máximo, forty one to sixty days, a fine of fifty to one hundred unidades and temporary closure [Certain]. Drink driving is governed by the road traffic law, which was not read for this cell, and the customs allowance for bringing alcohol into Chile was not read either. This reads Decreto 867 in the leychile version in force from 16 September 2023, which leychile marks as its última versión, read on 3 October 2026 together with the four list images embedded in that text, and it does not rule out a later decreto. That version date is not a review of the listas. It records Decreto Supremo 180 de 2023, published in Diario Oficial 43.655 on 16 September 2023, whose artículo único replaces «5°» with «5 bis» in artículo 4 because Ley 21.575 of 23 May 2023 moved the inhalant supply offence into a new artículo 5 bis of Ley 20.000 [Certain, read in the Diario Oficial original]. The version before it opened on 13 September 2022, consistent with the Decreto 220 de 2022 the live cell named, and one artículo 1 image is filed under the name dto220; three others are filed under the name 512, consistent with Decreto 512 [Likely]. A later decreto is in fact mandated: the artículo transitorio of Ley 21.817, published on 23 May 2026, orders the Ministerio de Seguridad Pública to amend Decreto 867 within six months, so by 23 November 2026, «para incorporar una nueva calificación» of substances harmful «aun con consumo en bajas cantidades», and the version read carries no such classification [Certain].

If prescribed or medical

No prescription question arises: alcohol is sold under Ley 19.925, not as a medicine [Likely].

Documentation

Ley 19.925, read in the leychile version of 20 January 2023 on 3 October 2026, is the governing law, and it does not rule out a later amendment. What follows is Chile's drug offence framework, given as background. It does not govern this row, because this substance is in neither lista of Decreto 867 and artículo 50 reaches only the drugs mentioned in artículo 1 of Ley 20.000 [Likely]. For a listed drug, artículo 1 inciso primero of Ley 20.000 sets presidio mayor en sus grados mínimo a medio, five years and one day to fifteen years, with a fine of forty to four hundred unidades tributarias mensuales, for unauthorised elaboration, manufacture, transformation, preparation or extraction. Artículo 3 applies the same penalties to trafficking, and its second inciso treats importing, exporting, transporting, acquiring, transferring, abstracting, possessing, supplying, keeping or carrying as trafficking [Certain]. Artículo 1 inciso segundo allows the penalty to be reduced by up to one degree for substances in the lighter lista, which takes the floor to presidio menor en su grado máximo, three years and one day to five years. The reduction is discretionary on the wording podrá rebajarse, so the inciso primero band stays available to the court [Certain]. Artículo 4 punishes possessing, transporting, keeping or carrying small quantities with presidio menor en sus grados medio a máximo, five hundred and forty one days to five years, and a fine of ten to forty unidades tributarias mensuales, unless the holder justifies a medical treatment or exclusive personal use proximate in time, and a final inciso added by Ley 21.817 applies the artículo 1 penalty to small quantities of substances the reglamento marks as gravely harmful [Certain]. Artículo 19 raises the penalty by one degree where any of its twelve listed aggravations, lettered a to l, applies, and permits two degrees where two or more concur. One degree above the artículo 1 band is presidio mayor en sus grados medio a máximo, ten years and one day to twenty years, read against the table in artículo 56 of the Código Penal [Certain]. The two degree ceiling turns on Código Penal degree arithmetic that I did not settle in this pass, so it is not established here. Artículo 50 makes consuming in a public place, and holding or carrying in such a place for exclusive personal use proximate in time, a falta punished by a fine of one to ten unidades tributarias mensuales, attendance at a prevention programme for up to sixty days or treatment for up to one hundred and eighty days, or community work of up to thirty hours, with an accessory driving licence suspension of up to six months. The same penalties reach consumption in a private place where those present agreed beforehand to consume [Certain]. Artículo 50 refers to the drugs mentioned in artículo 1 of the law, which covers both incisos and so both listas [Certain]. A falta is not a prison sentence, but it can become one. Artículo 52 provides that where the fine under artículo 50 letter a) is not paid, the court may substitute the prevention, treatment or community service penalty, that any such substitution requires the agreement of the convicted person, and that in the absence of that agreement the court shall impose reclusion by way of substitution and enforcement of the fine, at one day for each third of a unidad tributaria mensual, never exceeding six months [Certain]. Because the artículo 50 fine runs from one to ten unidades tributarias mensuales, one day per third of a unidad puts the ceiling reachable from that fine at thirty days, and the six month figure is the statutory cap rather than an outcome this route can reach [Certain]. Artículo 52 also lets the court waive the fine or set it below the legal minimum in duly qualified cases, and artículo 51 requires the pecuniary sanction at its maximum where the falta is committed in a place of detention, a military or police precinct by an outsider, or in an educational or health establishment by someone who works there [Certain]. Decreto 867 states no numerical quantity for any substance and artículo 4 works from the open phrase pequeñas cantidades, so the line between artículo 4 and artículo 3 is judicial and not arithmetic [Certain]. Medical cannabis: Decreto 84 de 2015 amended the Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Decreto 404 de 1983, so that the Instituto de Salud Pública may authorise cannabis, its resin, extracts and tinctures for human pharmaceutical products, and such products «podrán expenderse al público en farmacias o laboratorios mediante receta médica retenida con control de existencia» [Certain]. Home cultivation is governed by artículo 8 of Ley 20.000, which sets no plant count; the six plant figure that circulates comes from reform bills and not from the law in force [Certain that artículo 8 states no number]. Ley 21.817 was published on 23 May 2026 and amended artículos 4, 5, 6, 7, 19 and 43 of Ley 20.000, and it did not touch artículo 50 [Certain]. Travel with any controlled medicine in its packaging with the prescription.

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