Are Barbiturates legal in Austria?

Also known as: barbs

Legal status

Controlled in Austria member by member, and Austria's own instruments name the members, so this is a finding rather than a deferral. No barbiturate has a row of its own among the 88 substances in this table, but a list that names individuals is not silent merely because the table is. The examined schedules carry no blanket barbiturate clause, so the class word has no status of its own and each molecule is placed by its printed name. Secobarbital is a Suchtgift, a narcotic in the statutory sense, in Annex IV.1 of the Suchtgiftverordnung. Eleven further members are psychotropic substances in Annex 1 of the Psychotropenverordnung: amobarbital, butalbital, cyclobarbital and pentobarbital at point 1, and allobarbital, barbital, butobarbital, methylphenobarbital, phenobarbital, secbutabarbital and vinylbital at point 2. Barbital carries its own carve out for qualifying diagnostic or analytical packs that contain no other controlled substance and no more than 20 g calculated as acid, and pentobarbital also appears on the veterinary prescription list. Methohexital and thiopental sit in neither list and are controlled as medicines only, in part 2 of Annex A to the Rezeptpflichtverordnung, marked NR so that repeat dispensing is not allowed. The Suchtgiftverordnung extends Annex IV.1 to the salts, esters, ethers and preparations of what it names, while the Psychotropenverordnung extends its names to their salts and preparations and has no derivative or isomer clause. A barbiturate that is not printed under its own name does not become a Suchtgift or a psychotrope by being called a barbiturate, this cell gives no answer for such a molecule, and nothing in the member mapping supplies a market authorisation for an unnamed product. Identify the specific substance first, because the placement, and with it the penalty, differs between the named members.

Consequences if caught

Capital exposure: none. Austrian law carries no death penalty, and the ceiling here splits by member rather than by class. Secobarbital is a Suchtgift and meets the full narcotics ladder. SMG §27(1) reaches unauthorised acquisition, possession, production, carriage, import, export, offering, transfer or procurement with up to one year or 360 day fines, and §27(2) reduces that to six months or 360 day fines where the act is exclusively for personal use. Above the Grenzmenge, the threshold quantity that SMG §28b fixes on the pure active substance, §28(1) possession with intent to put it into circulation carries up to three years, and §28a(1) production, import, export or supply carries up to five years, rising to one to fifteen years in the §28a(4) cases. SMG §28a(5) then provides ten to twenty years or life for a person who commits §28a(1) conduct while leading a larger connection of people. The eleven Psychotropenverordnung members meet the psychotrope ladder instead. SMG §30(1) provides up to one year or 360 day fines and §30(2) six months or 360 day fines for exclusively personal use, and §30(3) removes punishment under those two subsections for a medicine containing a psychotropic substance, not exceeding the threshold, acquired, possessed, carried, imported or exported for personal use or for an animal, or passed to another without advantage. Above the threshold, §31 preparation with circulation intent runs from up to two years to one to ten years for association membership under §31(3), and §31a trafficking from up to three years to one to ten years under §31a(3), so ten years is the ceiling for every psychotrope member. SMG §35(1) requires the prosecution, on the conditions set in §35(3) to (7), to step back provisionally for a probation period of one to two years from a §27(1) or (2) or a §30 offence committed exclusively for personal use without advantage, which is conditional diversion and not permission. Methohexital and thiopental carry no SMG tier at all. The medicines act has its own offence lists, and AMG §84(1) reaches EUR 25,000, or EUR 50,000 on repeat, for the offences it lists; that is not an automatic fine for holding a prescription medicine, and the applicable medicine offence depends on the conduct. So one seizure described as barbiturates can sit at three different ceilings, and the identified molecule decides which. Separately from that, and carried forward from this site's published Austria entry rather than re-derived from the Suchtmittelgesetz in this pass, the published penalties are these. Austrian practice is depenalised and not legalised, and the published entry says so in those terms. There is no legal minimum quantity, and possession of any amount for personal use is punishable under section 27, up to six months in prison or a fine. Under Therapie statt Strafe at section 35, small quantity personal use is typically provisionally suspended from prosecution on one to two years of probation where the person accepts counselling or treatment. Consumption itself is not criminalised, but the possession that precedes it is. Above the Grenzmenge, the threshold quantity, the offence becomes dealing or trafficking under sections 28 and 28a, up to one to three years, escalating to ten to fifteen years for commercial or organised cases. Every figure in this paragraph is a penalty range or a fine and none of them is a quantity threshold. They are recorded as Austria's published drug penalties and not as this row's exposure. Where they differ from the offence sections set out above, those sections govern: for secobarbital §28a(4) is one to fifteen years and §28a(5) is ten to twenty years or life, and the psychotrope members are governed by sections 30 to 31a.

If prescribed or medical

Austria's traveller rule is SMG §5(1) and it applies to every member of this class that is a Suchtmittel: such a substance may be acquired, possessed, carried, imported or exported only for medical, dental, veterinary or scientific purposes and only as the Act provides, with the travel, licensing and dispensing exemptions each governed by their own provisions. The branch then follows the member. Secobarbital is a narcotic, so the psychotrope non punishment route in SMG §30(3) is closed to it. The eleven Psychotropenverordnung members are psychotropes, so §30(3) is open to a medicine containing one of them on its stated conditions, and the travel certificate fields that close Annexes 2 and 3 of the Psychotropenverordnung are the documented route for them. Methohexital and thiopental are not Suchtmittel on the lists read; they are prescription only medicines under part 2 of Annex A to the Rezeptpflichtverordnung with repeat dispensing excluded, and AMG §59 confines the supply of medicines to pharmacies except where the Act provides otherwise. Never answer this row at class level for a patient: name the molecule on the label first.

Documentation

Carry documentation that names the specific barbiturate, because the class label decides nothing in Austria and the three possible branches are a narcotic, a psychotrope and an ordinary prescription medicine. Bring the dispensed pack, the prescription and a prescriber's letter giving patient, active substance, dose and treatment period, and for a psychotrope member raise the Psychotropenverordnung travel certificate with the prescriber. The narcotics placement was read at the 18 September 2026 consolidation whose last list amendment is BGBl II 180/2026, published 10 July 2026, the psychotrope placements at the consolidation whose last list amendment is BGBl II 394/2024, published 19 December 2024, and the prescription entries at the consolidation listing BGBl II 282/2025. Those are dated source horizons rather than a guarantee that no later instrument exists.

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