Is Ayahuasca legal in Tajikistan?

Legal status

Controlled in Tajikistan through its plants and its alkaloids. The brew has no entry of its own. Перечень 4 of Annex 1 to the Criminal Code, plants containing narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances, names three plants by species: row 9 «Банистериопсис каапи (растение вида Banisteriopsis caapi)», row 10 «Диплоптерис кабрерана (растение вида Diplopterys cabrerana)» and row 12 «Психотрия зеленая (растение вида Psychotria viridis)». Annex 1 is recorded at ncz.tj as replaced by Law No. 1984 of 13 November 2023 and was read in the prg.kz consolidation dated 17 June 2026. The alkaloids are listed in Перечень 2 of the National List approved by Government Resolution No. 121 of 27 February 2020: «ДМТ» at item 6, «Гармалин» at item 219 and «Гармин» at item 220. A brew holding a listed alkaloid is reached through that alkaloid, weighed under note 6 to the annex as set out below. The 2020 text of the National List, as the Agency published it, has no plant list. The Drug Control Agency's consolidation of the list as amended up to Resolution No. 87 of 2 March 2023 has one, Перечень 4, which names these three plants, in a file headed «Проект». Note 2 to article 200 of the Code takes the sizes from Annex 1 also for «растений, содержащих наркотические средства или психотропные вещества, либо их частей, содержащих наркотические средства или психотропные вещества, указанные в приложении 1 к настоящему Кодексу», and the annex counts as narcotic drugs «растения, классифицированные в качестве таковых в соответствующих Международных Конвенциях и Национальном Списке», so a listed plant is itself controlled material. It is weighed dry, after drying at «+110... +115 градусов Цельсия», under note 1 to Перечень 4.

Consequences if caught

Capital exposure: none. Article 59(1) of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Tajikistan reserves the death penalty for «убийство (часть вторая статьи 104), изнасилование (часть третья статьи 138), терроризм (часть третья статьи 179), геноцид (статья 398), биоцид (статья 399)», that is murder, rape, terrorism, genocide and biocide, and names no drug offence. Article 58(1), the article on life imprisonment, provides that a life term «назначается только как альтернатива смертной казни», only as an alternative to the death penalty, so no drug offence carries a life term either. Conduct distinction. Article 200 covers production, manufacture, processing, acquisition, storage, transport or sending with intent to sell, and sale itself: up to five years for a «мелком» (smallest) size, five to eight years for a «небольшом» (small) size, eight to twelve years for a «крупных» (large) size or a repeat or group offence or one committed in a school or at a place for public events, and twelve to twenty years for an «особо крупных» (especially large) size or an organised group. Article 201 covers the same conduct without intent to sell, which is where possession for one's own use falls: a fine of one hundred to five hundred calculation indicators or up to two years for the smallest size, two to five years for the small size, five to eight years for the large size or a repeat or group offence, and eight to twelve years for the especially large size. In the 2026 text confiscation of property is mandatory under article 200(4), «с конфискацией имущества», and optional under articles 200(2), 200(3), 201(3) and 201(4). Moving a narcotic or psychotropic substance across the customs border is article 289(3), eight to twelve years, when it is done «помимо или с сокрытием от таможенного контроля, либо использование документов или средств таможенной идентификации обманным путем, либо сопряжено с недекларированием или недостоверным декларированием», that is outside or hidden from customs control, with deceptive documents, or undeclared or falsely declared; that part states no size threshold. The sizes come from Annex 1 to the Code, under note 2 to article 200. The texts read do not say what applies below the smallest size, so nothing is stated for it. Sizes. Annex 1, Перечень 4, row 9, «Банистериопсис каапи (растение вида Banisteriopsis caapi)», sets the smallest size at «3-30гр», the small size at «30-2000гр», the large size at «2000-3000гр», and the especially large size at over «3000гр». Rows 10 and 12 print the same sizes. In Перечень 2, DMT, row 6, has the sizes «0,02-1гр», «1-10гр», «10-20гр» and over «20гр», and harmaline and harmine, rows 219 and 220, each have «0,02-0,05гр», «0,05-10гр», «10-20гр» and over «20гр». Note 6 to the annex weighs narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances in a solution that is not a pharmaceutical product «по их количественному содержанию в растворе», by their content in the solution, so each listed alkaloid in a brew is measured by how much of it the brew holds, and the texts read do not say how two alkaloids in one brew are combined. Growing the plant is a separate offence, article 204, whose sizes are counted in bushes under a separate list that was not read, so the gram sizes above are not applied to cultivation.

If prescribed or medical

Article 15 of Law No. 873 of 10 December 1999 on narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and precursors provides «В Республике Таджикистан потребление наркотических средств и психотропных веществ без назначения врача запрещается», so consumption without a doctor's prescription is prohibited, and it leaves prescribing to a procedure set by the Ministry of Health, which was not read. Ayahuasca is a preparation, not a listed plant, and the plant entries in Перечень 4 carry no medical use category in the texts read. DMT, harmaline and harmine, items 6, 219 and 220, fall in items 1 to 268 of Перечень 2 of the 2020 list, which its note puts among «психотропные вещества представляющие особую опасность и не представляющие интерес для использования в медицинских целях», psychotropic substances of particular danger and of no interest for medical use. The texts read set out no route by which a prescription makes carrying ayahuasca into Tajikistan lawful, so none is stated.

Documentation

Article 10 of Law No. 873 requires, for each crossing of the customs border to bring in or take out a narcotic drug, psychotropic substance or precursor, «разрешение и сертификат международного образца», a permit and an international format certificate issued under a procedure set by the Government, and provides that what is brought in or taken out without a licence and permit «подлежат конфискации», is liable to confiscation. That Government procedure was not read, and Law No. 873 as read sets out no personal allowance for a traveller. The earlier version of this cell rested on a dossier that named Government Resolution No. 121 of 27 February 2020 and Criminal Code arts 200 to 204 with the quantity list in Criminal Code Appendix 1, Table 1; this version reads those instruments directly. The previous version of this cell left this substance not confirmed because its dossier read a nearer entry and rejected it; the entry quoted in this cell is what settles it. prg.kz is a commercial legal database run from Kazakhstan, not an official Tajik publisher; the official ncz.tj page records Annex 1 as replaced by Law No. 1984 of 13 November 2023 but did not serve the table, and the ncz.tj file of the Code answered HTTP 503 twice on 3 October 2026.

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