Are Barbiturates legal in Switzerland?

Also known as: barbs

Legal status

Controlled in Switzerland 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 SWITZERLAND SCHEDULE and not merely against the substances this table happens to carry, and it returned named members: the BetmVV-EDI lists a to e classify barbiturates member by member and the class row names „Barbital; Secobarbital“, that is barbital 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 Switzerland. 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. Switzerland has no death penalty and the Betäubungsmittelgesetz authorises no life term, so where a named barbiturate is involved the ceiling is 20 years, with BetmG article 19(2) defining the aggravated forms and StGB article 40 supplying the maximum. The penalty follows the identified member rather than the word barbiturates: the entries recorded against this row are „Barbital; Secobarbital“, a preparation containing one of them engages article 19 through that constituent, and a compound appearing in no list engages it not at all. This build did not record which list letter carries those two entries, and this table carries no barbiturate member row of its own, so no band is stated for the label here. Unauthorised consumption is a separate offence under BetmG article 19a and is not silently treated as trafficking.

If prescribed or medical

A barbiturate is answered by its member, and the member's list placement is what any personal use rule attaches to. The country level rule this dossier establishes is BetmG article 19a for unauthorised consumption and article 19b for a negligible quantity prepared for one's own use, with article 19b(2) fixing that quantity at 10 g of cannabis and at no other substance, so neither barbital nor secobarbital is given a stated margin. No prescription or traveller route specific to the barbiturate class was established in this dossier, and a prescribed barbiturate medicine has to be justified by whatever authorisation its own named entry requires.

Documentation

Carry a prescribed barbiturate in its original dispensing packaging with the prescription naming the active ingredient, because the identity of the member is what the Swiss schedules turn on and the words on the box are what identify it. The provenance is BetmVV-EDI in the German consolidation dated 13 March 2026, read at Fedlex on 18 September 2026, which records „Barbital; Secobarbital“ as individually named entries; the source dossier classified this row as not applicable, and that treatment is corrected here because the ordinance plainly names members of the class.

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