Is Alcohol legal in Suriname?

Legal status

This act does not reach it. Ethanol is not listed in either annex to the Wet verdovende middelen and no beverage is named anywhere in the fourteen articles or in the two annexes. The text read for this cell is the consolidation that stops at S.B. 2002 no. 68, so it is twenty four years old. Article 3 lid 2 lets further middelen be designated by Staatsbesluit and article 3 lid 3 lets the Minister designate one at short notice with the approval of the Procureur-Generaal, and article 4 lid 2 does the same for lijst II. No register of those designations was located, so anything added since 2002 is outside what was read and this does not rule out a later designation.

Consequences if caught

Capital exposure: none. This act carries no death penalty and its heaviest sentence is levenslange gevangenisstraf, life imprisonment, under article 11 lid 1. Searched as 'alcohol', 'ethanol', 'ethylalcohol' and 'drank'. All four return nothing. The two annexes reproduce the schedules of the Enkelvoudig Verdrag of 1961 and of the Psychotrope Stoffen Verdrag of 1971, and alcohol is on neither, so there is no part of the lists in which it would sit. The wording of article 3 lid 2 a is wide, reaching bewustzijnbeïnvloedende middelen which on use in a person can lead to harm to their health and to society, but no designation was located and designating alcohol under a narcotics act would be an extraordinary step. Whatever governs its sale, its age limits and driving under its influence in Suriname is separate product and traffic law, which was not read here. No offence in this act reaches it, because every prohibition in articles 3 and 4 is framed by reference to lijst I, to lijst II or to a designation made under article 3 lid 2, article 3 lid 3 or article 4 lid 2, and this substance is on neither list. The act carries no analogue limb and no definition by effect. The bands in article 11, which run from at most seven years for a non-intentional lijst II possession up to levenslange gevangenisstraf for an intentional supply or import, therefore have nothing to attach to on this row.

If prescribed or medical

This act does not place it on either list, so the article 5 recept machinery and the article 7 exemptions do not reach it. Whether it is regulated as a medicine, as a food or as a consumer product under Suriname's separate law was not established here, because that law was not read.

Documentation

No controlled drug documentation duty arises under this act, because the substance is outside it. Carry any prescribed medicine in its original packaging with the prescription in the ordinary way. No local traveller permit scheme under this act was established here, and the text relied on stops at S.B. 2002 no. 68. Any lijst, onderdeel or numbered part named in this cell are read from the annex to the act itself and are not printed in the quoted dossier extract, whose quotation column for this jurisdiction carries no division marker for any substance.

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