Are Barbiturates legal in France?

Also known as: barbs

Legal status

Controlled in France member by member rather than as a class, and this is a finding rather than a deferral because the country's own schedule names the members. The member by member check was run against the FRANCE SCHEDULE and not merely against the substances this table happens to carry, and it returned named members: the Arrêtés du 22 février 1990 classify barbiturates member by member and the class row names « barbital; phénobarbital; sécobarbital », that is barbital, phenobarbital and secobarbital. That distinction decides the cell. No barbiturate has a row of its own among the 88 substances in this table, but a schedule that names individuals is not silent merely because the table is, and the absence of a row here is a fact about this table rather than about France. So the specific barbiturate must be identified before any answer is given, and that is the finding: the schedule placement, and therefore the penalty, differs between the named members, so naming the product is the whole of the question.

Consequences if caught

Capital exposure: none. France abolished the death penalty and no French drug provision carries one. Beyond that this row states no ceiling of its own, because the ceiling is member specific: a member carried by the narcotics order can engage Penal Code article 222-34 and life imprisonment for directing or organising a group formed for illicit narcotics activity, while a member reaching only the psychotropics order has to be assessed on its own terms. The class entry prints « barbital; phénobarbital; sécobarbital » without saying which of the two orders of 22 February 1990 carries each name, so the article 222-34 route is neither established nor excluded here and has to be settled against an identified member. Article L. 3421-1 of the Code de la santé publique addresses illicit use and stands apart from organised trafficking.

If prescribed or medical

France's country level traveller rule is that a Schengen traveller certificate or a medicines carriage list is evidential and administrative rather than the criminal schedule. Attached to this class: the placement that matters belongs to the identified member, and the members the class row names are « barbital; phénobarbital; sécobarbital », so a certificate has to name barbital, phenobarbital or secobarbital rather than the family word for there to be a placement to evidence at all. The dossier gives no prescribing route for the class label and none is invented for it.

Documentation

Carry the prescription naming the individual barbiturate, with the original dispensing packaging and the Schengen traveller certificate, because the entry that can be evidenced is the member's and not the class word's. Provenance: the class row entry is « barbital; phénobarbital; sécobarbital », recorded against the consolidated 22 February 1990 narcotics and psychotropics orders and read on Légifrance at https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/loda/id/JORFTEXT000000533085 on 18 September 2026. No barbital, phenobarbital or secobarbital row exists elsewhere in this table, so the member placements rest on the class row's own naming and nothing further was carried in.

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