Is Amanita muscaria legal in Saudi Arabia?

Legal status

Amanita muscaria is reached expressly and twice over in Saudi Arabia. The fungus itself is named in Schedule IV, the prohibited plants and seeds schedule 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, and the same row links it to muscarine in Schedule II Category E, the locally controlled psychotropics list. The schedule prints «أمانيتا مسكاريا» against the heading «فئة (هـ):... المؤثرات العقلية الخاضعة للرقابة محلياً بالمملكة», Category E, psychotropic substances locally controlled in the Kingdom. The point worth holding on to is that this is a plant schedule doing the work rather than an inference from the mushroom's constituents: the Kingdom did not leave Amanita to be argued about through ibotenic acid and muscimol, it listed the organism. M/39 Article 17 governs the prohibited plants, and Articles 70 to 71 keep the attached schedules current.

Consequences if caught

A Schedule IV prohibited plant with a linked Schedule II Category E constituent is inside Article 37(I), and that article states no quantity at all. There is no weight threshold in it: the conduct named 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, and cultivation is a limb of the article rather than a lesser offence. 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. Dried caps sold as a legal botanical elsewhere do not arrive in the Kingdom as a legal botanical.

If prescribed or medical

The Saudi traveller rule is a permit rule rather than a prescription rule. 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. Amanita muscaria sits inside the narcotics law as a Schedule IV prohibited plant linked to a Schedule II Category E constituent, and no Saudi dispensing route and no medicinal product containing it was recorded, so nothing here should be read as saying a clearance would issue. A supplement, a tea or a dried botanical bought lawfully abroad carries no Saudi permission with it.

Documentation

There is nothing to carry for this material, because no lawful import route was established for it. For any controlled medicine, apply through the SFDA Controlled Drugs System before travelling, carry the clearance and not the prescription alone, bring the medicine in its original dispensing packaging with the prescription and a medical report translated into Arabic and dated less than six months before travel, keep to a one month supply or the length of the stay, and declare it at customs; advance electronic clearance has been required since 1 November 2025. 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 IV listing and the Schedule II Category E link were 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.