Are Barbiturates legal in Jordan?

Also known as: barbs

Legal status

Four barbiturates are expressly listed in Jordan's schedules as psychotropic substances, and the class as such is not. Barbiturates is a chemical class rather than a single molecule, so the question has to be put member by member, and for Jordan the member-by-member check returns named members rather than nothing. The schedules expressly carry «فينوباربيتال؛ باربيتال؛ بنتوباربيتال؛ سيكوباربيتال», which is to say phenobarbital, barbital, pentobarbital and secobarbital. That is what makes this a finding and not a deferral: the class label cannot be given one schedule number, but the principal members of it are individually listed and each follows its own schedule placement. The definition that catches a listed member is the psychotropic definition at article 2, «المؤثرات العقلية: كل مادة طبيعية أو تركيبية من المواد المدرجة في الجداول ذوات الارقام (5) و(6) و(7) و(8) و(9) الملحقة بهذا القانون.», psychotropic substances being every natural or synthetic substance listed in Schedules 5 to 9 attached to this Law. A product sold under the class name has to be read for its actual active ingredient. Schedules are not frozen in the enacted text. Article 37 provides «لمجلس الوزراء بناء على تنسيب الوزير إجراء تعديل على أي من الجداول الملحقة بهذا القانون بحذف أي مادة منه أو إضافة أي مادة أخرى اليه أو تعديل النسب أو المواصفات أو الشروط الخاصة والمتعلقة بأي منها على ان يتم نشر ذلك في الجريدة الرسمية.», so the Council of Ministers may add a further member by a decision published in the Official Gazette.

Consequences if caught

A named scheduled member carries the full article 19 and 20 structure, and for Jordan the named members are phenobarbital, barbital, pentobarbital and secobarbital, so this is not a row where the exposure can be described as absent. Article 19(a) sets temporary hard labour of not less than fifteen years and a fine of ten thousand to twenty thousand Jordanian dinars for the listed dealing conduct committed «بقصد الاتجار», with intent to traffic. Article 19(b) then provides «تكون العقوبة الأشغال الشاقة المؤبدة», and the indicative verb makes life imprisonment mandatory once a listed aggravator is proved, which means repeat offending, the status of a specified drug control or supervisory official, or committing the offence with or through a minor. Article 20 provides «يعاقب بالإعدام», death, and it too is mandatory on its own wording, but only where an article 19 offence carries the specified international drug gang connection or international criminal activity circumstance. Neither article states a quantity threshold, so the aggravating circumstance decides the sentence and the amount does not. Where a particular barbiturate turns out to be on no schedule at all, the route for it is article 14, which is non-capital, and the difference between the two routes is decided by the active ingredient rather than by the word on the box.

If prescribed or medical

Phenobarbital and its listed relatives are genuine medicines, used for epilepsy, for anaesthesia and in palliative care, and being a medicine does not lift the control. A supply lawfully dispensed to a patient is not trafficking, because article 19(a) defines that offence by the words «بقصد الاتجار», with intent to traffic, and that is a point about how the offence is framed rather than a permission. What Law No. 23 of 2016 fixes is the control status; what it does not fix is the prescribing and dispensing conditions, and Jordan's separate medicines and pharmacy regimes were not audited for this table, so a route there is treated as unread rather than as absent. A traveller carrying a barbiturate should know which one it is, because the four named members are scheduled and the answer for any other member has to be taken from that member rather than from the class.

Documentation

Carry the prescription and the original dispensing packaging, keep the quantity to what the prescription covers, and keep the prescriber's details legible. A doctor's letter naming the patient, the active ingredient, the dose and the treatment period is worth having, and the active ingredient is the item on that list that matters most here, because the class name alone does not answer the Jordanian question. Get the Jordan Food and Drug Administration's position in writing before you fly rather than at the airport. No traveller permit scheme, declaration form or carriage allowance appears anywhere in the text of Law No. 23 of 2016 as read for this row, and an absence in what was read is not proof that no scheme exists; Jordan does furnish the International Narcotics Control Board a traveller regulation sheet. The member list was read on 17 September 2026.

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