Is Cathinone legal in India?
- Legal status
- Controlled — cathinone (khat's natural principal alkaloid) is a 1971 Convention SCHEDULE I psychotropic and is a scheduled psychotropic substance under the NDPS Act 1985. Mechanism: 1971 Sch-I transposition, named. As the parent compound it is DISTINCT from the khat PLANT (Catha edulis dry leaves, separately scheduled since Feb 2018) and from the synthetic cathinones (mephedrone, individually notified onto the NDPS schedule in 2015) that derive from it; cathinone is the named psychotropic alkaloid, cathine the milder metabolite (1971 Schedule III).
- Consequences if caught
- NDPS psychotropic: penalties for the alkaloid set by small-/commercial-quantity thresholds. India imposes no death penalty for a first drug offence, and cathinone falls below any capital-repeat tier.
- If prescribed or medical
- 1971 Schedule I substance with no accepted medical use and no lawful prescription route for the isolated alkaloid.
- Documentation
- No licit personal-carry or import route for an NDPS psychotropic.
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