Are Barbiturates legal in Sweden?
Also known as: barbs
- Legal status
- Controlled. The barbiturates are scheduled compound by compound in the Swedish narkotikaförteckningar, which are Läkemedelsverkets föreskrifter (LVFS 2011:10) om förteckningar över narkotika, made under 3 § förordningen (1992:1554) om kontroll av narkotika. The version read for this cell is the consolidated text, which states on its own first page that it contains amendments through HSLF-FS 2026:26. A representative row reads «Barbital 5,5-dietylbarbitursyra». The class is scheduled compound by compound and a single förteckning number would be wrong for it. Barbital and Fenobarbital are Förteckning IV with international P IV, the row for Fenobarbital reading «Fenobarbital 5-etyl-5-fenylbarbitursyra». Sekobarbital is Förteckning II with international P II, reading «Sekobarbital 5-allyl-5-(1-metylbutyl)barbitursyra». Amobarbital, Butalbital, Cyklobarbital and Pentobarbital are Förteckning IV with international P III. Aprobarbital, Brallobarbital, Heptabarbital, Hexobarbital and Vinbarbital are Förteckning V with no international listing. Eighteen barbiturate rows were counted in the text read.
- Consequences if caught
- Capital exposure: none. Sweden has no death penalty for any offence, so no drug offence here carries capital exposure. The live cell recorded a ringa offence at a fine or up to 6 months and an ordinary offence at up to 3 years.
- If prescribed or medical
- The live cell recorded that phenobarbital is prescribed as an antiepileptic and is a World Health Organization essential medicine, and that the sedative and hypnotic barbiturates are rarely used.
- Documentation
- The live cell recorded import with proof of medical need and a Schengen certificate, at up to 1 year's supply from the European Economic Area and 3 months from outside it.
- Läkemedelsverkets föreskrifter (LVFS 2011:10) om förteckningar över narkotika, konsoliderad version, as amended through HSLF-FS 2026:26, read on 21 September 2026
- 3 § förordningen (1992:1554) om kontroll av narkotika
- Quotations in guillemets are the row's printed tokens in column order. Line wraps inside a name are rejoined, and a hyphen that exists only because of the wrap is dropped. Any further name printed in the row is reported in prose rather than inside the quotation, because the two column layout interleaves it into the middle of the chemical name
- lakemedelsverket.se
- lakemedelsverket.se
- Narkotikastrafflag (1968:64), 1 §, 2 §, 3 § and 8 §
- Narkotikastrafflag (1968:64), read as at amendments through SFS 2024:797, which is the currency the Riksdag prints on the text, carried forward from the live cell and not re-derived
- riksdagen.se
- the row read at line 293 of the pdftotext layout extraction of that consolidated text
- Every penalty band, fine, date, quantity, article and instrument attributed to the live cell in this row is carried forward from it and was not re-derived in this pass
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Court records
We have not yet assessed whether court records are publicly available for this jurisdiction.
Barbiturates in related jurisdictions
Other substances confirmed in Sweden
Same substance, other countries
Drug laws and enforcement change and vary within a country. This is not legal advice. Always confirm with Sweden’s embassy or official drug authority before traveling; penalties can be severe, including imprisonment.
Before you travel
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