Is Alcohol legal in Kazakhstan?

Legal status

Alcohol is not controlled by Kazakhstan's Resolution No. 470, on the version of the lists read for this row. Government Resolution No. 470 of 3 July 2019 approves three documents in all, the Список наркотических средств, психотропных веществ и прекурсоров, подлежащих контролю в Республике Казахстан, the Сводная таблица of sizes, a substituent list and a short list of veterinary medicines, and all three were searched. Ethanol is named nowhere in the Resolution. Searches for спирт, этанол and алкоголь return nothing across the Список, the Сводная таблица and the precursor schedule. Kazakhstan regulates alcohol through excise, licensing and public order law rather than through the controlled substances Resolution, and none of that sits in this instrument. Searches were anchored at the start of each entry name rather than run as free substring matches, because unanchored matching in this document produces false hits: the Russian for codeine matches acetyldihydrocodeine, the Russian for diazepam matches fludiazepam and the Russian for ephedrine matches cathine. The copy read carries the amendment of 24 February 2026 made by Government Resolution No. 111, and the Сводная таблица is wholly in that redaction, so every size quoted here is the 24 February 2026 text, and a later amendment adding this substance is expressly not ruled out. [Certain] that the substance is absent from all three lists as this version stands, the search having been re-run from the instrument in this pass.

Consequences if caught

Capital exposure: none. Kazakhstan has abolished the death penalty. No capital punishment remains available anywhere in its Criminal Code, because the law of 29 December 2021 numbered 89-VII on abolition replaced the words carrying it in Article 11 with life imprisonment, and Article 46 now names life imprisonment as the heaviest penalty the Code holds. Because Resolution No. 470 does not reach alcohol, it sets no size bands for it and no threshold can be quoted, so nothing in the criminal ladder below attaches to this substance on the strength of this instrument. Those sizes decide the charge. Under Criminal Code Article 296 a quantity below крупный draws a fine of up to 160 monthly calculation indices or arrest of up to 40 days, a крупный quantity up to 200 indices or 50 days, and only an особо крупный quantity carries prison, three to seven years under part 4. Article 296 part 1 is the separate offence of non-medical consumption in a public place. Anything done with intent to supply moves to Article 297, five to eight years with confiscation at part 1 and fifteen to twenty years at part 4, while Article 297-1, which the law of 2 January 2025 No. 150-VIII inserted, punishes manufacture and processing for supply and reaches life imprisonment. Every one of those rungs is read off a size band in the Сводная таблица, and for an unlisted substance there is no band to read. Article 296 also carries a note releasing from liability under that article a person who voluntarily hands the substance over, seeks medical help or actively assists in uncovering a related offence. [Likely] The Criminal Code articles and their year ranges in this cell were read from secondary consolidations rather than from an official publisher in this pass. Two independent consolidations agree on them, and the Code's own article text was not reached: the state portal served only its contents list. The abolition of the death penalty, by contrast, was confirmed against the Code itself and is tagged [Certain] where it appears. [Likely] Carried from the entry published before this batch and not re-derived in this pass: the two middle rungs of that ladder are six to ten years for part 2 and seven to twelve years for part 3.

If prescribed or medical

Because the Resolution does not reach alcohol, it supplies no prescribing rule for it and none is invented here. Kazakhstan runs a separate category of сильнодействующие и ядовитые вещества, potent and poisonous substances, which Criminal Code Article 301 punishes and which is fixed by its own list. That list was not read in this pass, so silence in Resolution No. 470 is not a finding that alcohol is unregulated in Kazakhstan, only that this instrument does not schedule it.

Documentation

Provenance. All three lists approved by Government Resolution of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 470 of 3 July 2019 approving the Список наркотических средств, психотропных веществ и прекурсоров, подлежащих контролю в Республике Казахстан and the Сводная таблица of small, large and particularly large sizes, the Список in its four tables, the Сводная таблица in its four tables, the substituent list and the veterinary medicines list, were read from the consolidated text at https://zakon.uchet.kz/rus/docs/P1900000470 on 2026-09-21, with the tables parsed by column position. The copy read carries the amendment of 24 February 2026 made by Government Resolution No. 111, and the Сводная таблица is wholly in that redaction, so every size quoted here is the 24 February 2026 text. This cell asserts an absence, so it names the version of the list it read and does not rule out a later one adding Alcohol.

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