Are Barbiturates legal in Bolivia?

Legal status

Resolved through its constituents rather than through an entry of its own. The Anexo to Ley 913 of 16 March 2017 has no generic entry for the class and no salts, esters or derivatives clause, but it prints twelve barbiturates by name. Lista III, under the heading «PSICOTRÓPICOS», prints «BUTALBITAL», «AMOBARBITAL», «CICLOBARBITAL», «PENTOBARBITAL» and «SECOBARBITAL». Lista IV, under the same heading, prints «ALOBARBITAL», «BARBITAL», «BUTOBARBITAL», «FENOBARBITAL», «METILFENOBARBITAL», «SECUTABARBITAL» and «VINILVITAL», the last two being the Anexo's own spellings of secbutabarbital and vinylbital. Article 5(c) of that Law makes each of those twelve a sustancia controlada, and the offences stayed in Ley 1008 Título III. A barbiturate whose name the Anexo does not print, thiopental or methohexital for example, falls outside this resolution and this cell gives no answer for it. [Certain] on the twelve names.

Consequences if caught

Capital exposure: none. Article 15 of the 2009 Constitution reads «No existe la pena de muerte», and no article of Ley 1008 Título III, articles 46 to 79, prints a sentence of death. The nearest provision is article 57, which treats a homicide caused by the deliberate use of sustancias controladas as poisoning and so as asesinato «conforme al artículo 17 de la Constitución Política del Estado y al inciso 5) del artículo 252 del Código Penal». Article 252 of the Código Penal, in the text Ley 1768 of 10 March 1997 gave it, punishes asesinato with «presidio de treinta años, sin derecho a indulto», and the constitution article 57 names is the earlier one that the 2009 Constitution replaced. Article 78 sends a death caused by a person who uses arms in committing a drug offence, or to resist the authorities, to the same asesinato penalty. Article 48 reaches each of the twelve barbiturates printed in Listas III and IV, because Ley 913 article 5(c) makes a substance named in the Anexo a sustancia controlada, and Título III draws no distinction between Listas, so a Lista IV barbiturate carries the same bands as any other controlled substance. It reaches no barbiturate that the Anexo, as read, does not print. Ley 1008 of 19 July 1988 article 48 punishes whoever traffics in sustancias controladas with «presidio de diez a veinticinco años y diez mil a veinte mil días de multa», ten to twenty five years and ten thousand to twenty thousand day fines, and it makes trafficking in larger volumes an aggravating circumstance. Article 48 takes its conduct from article 33(m) of the same law, which Ley 913 left standing and which defines tráfico ilícito as producing, manufacturing, knowingly possessing, holding in deposit or storage, transporting, delivering, supplying, buying, selling, donating, bringing into the country, taking out of the country, transacting under any title and financing. The rest of the ladder sits in the same title. Article 46, cultivating or harvesting controlled plants, one to two years and two to four on a second offence. Article 47, manufacture, five to fifteen years. Article 50, administering to another, ten to fifteen years. Article 51, supplying to another, eight to twelve years. Article 52, fifteen to twenty years where the administering or supplying gravely harms health and twenty to thirty where the conduct results in a death. Article 53, a third more where two or more people organise. Article 54, inducing another to misuse, five to ten years, and ten to twenty where the inducer is an ascendant of or holds authority over the person induced, where that person is a minor or incapable, or where the act is done in or near an educational, care, military, police or prison establishment. Article 55, transport, eight to twelve years with definitive seizure of the vehicle. Article 56, instigating any offence of the title, four to six years, and five to ten where the person instigated is a minor or incapable. Article 58, which bears directly on a barbiturate medicine, punishes altering or forging a medical prescription in order to obtain sustancias controladas with three to five years, and forging permits or import papers to bring them into the country with eight to fifteen years. Articles 59 to 77 and 79 reach importers, landowners, venue operators, prescribers, pharmacies, stockholders, officials, escape and release from custody, accessories and public apology for the offence, and were read but are not set out here. The day fine unit is the statute's own and is not converted here. Article 49 sends the dependent user and the non habitual user caught holding a minimum quantity for immediate personal consumption to a farmacodependencia institute for treatment rather than to prison. That minimum is fixed case by case on the opinion of two specialists from a public institute and no gram figure is printed anywhere in the statute. Holding more than the minimum falls into article 48. A foreign national without permanent residence who commits these acts has the residence law applied and a fine of five hundred to one thousand days.

If prescribed or medical

The country level rule is Ley 913 article 20. Medicines containing sustancias controladas of Listas II, III and IV, and where applicable those of Lista I, may be made or divided only by laboratories the Ministry of Health has authorised, and they are dispensed to the public only in authorised establishments and pharmacies and only «mediante receta médica o en formularios del Ministerio de Salud, según corresponda de acuerdo a reglamento». Article 18 II puts the import, export, commercialisation and production of medicinal controlled substances of Listas I to IV behind a prior Ministry of Health authorisation. Article 21 I, headed «RESPONSABILIDAD DE LAS EMPRESAS DE TRANSPORTE INTERNACIONAL DE CARGA», obliges international freight carriers to require from «los consignatarios de las mercancías» a Ministry of Health or Ministry of Government authorisation before a controlled substance of the Anexo lists is brought into, carried through or taken out of the national customs territory; it is a duty on freight and not a rule about a passenger's own medicine. Attached to this row: all twelve named barbiturates sit in Lista III or Lista IV, so a medicine containing phenobarbital, butalbital or any of the other ten falls within the Listas II, III and IV limb of article 20. Which of the two dispensing routes the reglamento assigns to each Lista was not read for this cell, and no provision read governs a traveller carrying a personal supply.

Documentation

The reading. The class is represented by name only. Five barbiturates sit in Lista III and seven in Lista IV. The Anexo's own headings tie its Lista III to list II of the narcotics convention and list III of the 1971 psychotropics convention, and its Lista IV to list III of the 1961 narcotics convention and list IV of the 1971 convention, in each case with the 1971 convention's amendments «vigentes desde el 19 de septiembre de 1987». Horizon. The version read is the Anexo in the copy the Dirección General de Sustancias Controladas publishes at dgsc.gob.bo and in the copy the Ministerio de Gobierno uploaded in September 2025, read on 3 October 2026; compared entry by entry, the two carry the same names. Article 5(c) closes with «y las que sean incorporadas por Ley», so the list moves by Law, and the fourth final disposition only obliges the Ministries of Health and Government to propose changes. The one amending Law found, Ley 1358 of 6 January 2021, renames a section and changes articles 38, 39, 40 and 63 and no list. On 14 June 2023 the Chamber of Deputies approved Proyecto de Ley N° 155/2022-2023, which «modifica la lista V del anexo», and no enactment of it was found; Lista V is the chemicals list and does not bear on this row. On 14 May 2026 the chair of the Deputies' anti narcotics committee said «Estamos haciendo la modificación de la ley 913». This reading does not rule out a later Law that was not found. Which instrument governs. Ley 913 did not replace Ley 1008. Its first derogatory disposition derogates article 33 incisos a), q) and r), articles 35, 36, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42 and 44 of Título II, and Títulos VI, VII and VIII, so Título III, the offences and penalties at articles 46 to 79, was left standing; Ley 913 itself contains no criminal penalty. The copy of Ley 1008 read prints no article 73. Article 33(a), the inciso that pointed at the Ley 1008 annex, is derogated, and Ley 913 article 5(c) with its own Anexo took its place. Ley 906 of 8 March 2017 separately derogates articles 1 to 31 of Ley 1008, the coca provisions, and its article 16 defines the authorised coca zones; article 384 of the Constitution protects the coca leaf in its natural state. Neither bears on this row. So a cell that cites Law 1008 for the list is citing a derogated inciso, while a cell that cites it for the penalty is right. One loose end sits in the statute itself: article 46 still reads «plantas o partes de plantas señaladas por el anexo a que se refiere el inciso a) del artículo 33°», and that inciso no longer exists.

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