Legality · Alcohol
Is Alcohol legal in Guyana?
Confirmed against a primary sourceVerified September 21, 2026
- Legal status
- Not assigned a controlled drug offence in Guyana. The scope search recorded for this row against the First and Second Schedules to the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Control) Act, Cap. 10:10 is «alcohol; etanol», and the dossier records the result as a scope finding: this substance is not placed in those Schedules and the Act's trafficking offence does not reach it. Beverage alcohol and ethanol are regulated as a product, through licensing and excise, and reserving that regulation is not the same as saying it is light. That is a finding about this Act and about nothing else. Separate product, excise, tobacco, food and medicines law is expressly reserved, and the dossier does not describe it. The scope search was recorded on 20 September 2026.
- Consequences if caught
- Capital exposure: none. Guyana's Cap. 10:10 carries no death penalty at any tier; section 5(1) sets the indictable trafficking ceiling at life imprisonment, so the worst outcome this Act reaches is a life sentence. This row does not reach even that, because no criminal controlled drug ceiling is assigned to it at all. Drink driving, licensing and duty enforcement are all real exposures and none of them sits in this Act. The consequence is not that the substance is unregulated. It is that the regulation, whatever it amounts to, sits outside the criminal drug statute the dossier read, in law the dossier did not examine.
- If prescribed or medical
- Not a controlled drug question in Guyana, so there is no schedule placement for a prescription to be measured against. Ethanol appears in medicines as an excipient rather than as an active ingredient, which is a different question again. The dossier carries no Guyanese prescription rule, import permit or personal allowance in any event, so nothing here should be read as a customs or duty allowance.
- Documentation
- There is no narcotics schedule paperwork to carry for alcohol. The scope finding recorded for this row was read on 20 September 2026 against «alcohol; etanol». Because the reserved law was never examined, the honest position is that this cell tells you what the drug statute does not do and not what any other statute does.
Primary sources
- Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Control) Act, Cap. 10:10, First and Second Schedules, read for this row as a scope finding rather than a placement
- the term searched is «alcohol
- etanol» and the row boundary the dossier records for that search is «reserves beverage and ethanol controls instead of assigning a narcotics-list offence.»
- read at https://mola.gov.gy/laws-of-guyana, the Ministry of Legal Affairs Laws of Guyana collection. The citation behind this cell is document level and not per substance. The source document carries exactly one hyperlink target for all 88 of its rows, and what it calls a links column holds constructed text such as «alcohol schedule | alcohol penalty» rather than a web address, so no page, paragraph or deep link exists for this row and none is invented here. Many of the dossier's entry and search strings are recorded in Spanish language or international nonproprietary form rather than in the English wording a Guyanese statute prints, so every string here is reproduced exactly as the dossier holds it and is not offered as the literal printed text of the Schedules
- that discrepancy is recorded rather than resolved. Read as at 20 September 2026.
Court records
We have not yet assessed whether court records are publicly available for this jurisdiction.
Other substances confirmed in Guyana
Drug laws and enforcement change and vary within a country. This is not legal advice. Always confirm with Guyana’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 →
Non-U.S. travelers: check your own government’s travel advisory and embassy.
If you’re detained or arrested abroad
Contact your own country’s embassy or consulate in the destination immediately, not the destination’s authorities. U.S. citizens: contact the nearest U.S. embassy/consulate and the U.S. State Department at +1-202-501-4444 (from abroad). If a U.S. citizen is arrested or detained abroad →