Is Clonazepam legal in Austria?

Legal status

This is a designated psychotrope in Austria, which is the lighter of the country's two drug designations. In the Psychotropenverordnung, Annex 1 point 2 carries Clonazepam. It sits in point 2 with the other benzodiazepines rather than in point 1, which holds flunitrazepam and its special prescription form requirement. Reading the entry yields the placement only. No article, condition or operative provision sits inside it, and the working law is SMG §5(1) together with the §30, §31 and §31a offences. The psychotrope model mirrors the narcotics one: SMG §3(1) requires convention listing in Schedules III or IV together with a ministerial designation, with §3(2) available for a national addition, and the Psychotropenverordnung supplies the annexes. Annex 1 reaches the salts and preparations of the substances it names. There is no general derivative or isomer extension in this instrument, so an unlisted designer analogue is not brought in by resemblance.

Consequences if caught

Capital exposure: none. Ten years is the maximum, under SMG §§31(3) and 31a(3) for the specified criminal association preparation and trafficking conduct. The life ceiling in the narcotics instrument is not available against a psychotrope, and Austria is not a capital jurisdiction. Clonazepam is a point 2 psychotrope, and the anticonvulsant use it is prescribed for does not change the tier, only whether the conduct was authorized. Section 31 covers preparation above the threshold with intent to put it into circulation at two years, rising to five years above fifteen times the threshold, and §31a covers trafficking at three years and then five. SMG §44(5) separately reaches the administrative contraventions it names with a fine of up to EUR 36,300, and the six week imprisonment there is expressly in default of payment rather than a routine additional term. Separately from that, and carried forward from this site's published Austria entry rather than re-derived from the Suchtmittelgesetz in this pass, the published penalties are these. Austrian practice is depenalised and not legalised, and the published entry says so in those terms. There is no legal minimum quantity, and possession of any amount for personal use is punishable under section 27, up to six months in prison or a fine. Under Therapie statt Strafe at section 35, small quantity personal use is typically provisionally suspended from prosecution on one to two years of probation where the person accepts counselling or treatment. Consumption itself is not criminalised, but the possession that precedes it is. Above the Grenzmenge, the threshold quantity, the offence becomes dealing or trafficking under sections 28 and 28a, up to one to three years, escalating to ten to fifteen years for commercial or organised cases. Every figure in this paragraph is a penalty range or a fine and none of them is a quantity threshold. They describe the offences that this row's placement in the Austrian Suchtgift and psychotrope lists brings into play.

If prescribed or medical

The rule that governs every traveller in Austria is SMG §5(1). It confines the acquisition, possession, production, processing, carriage, import, export, offering, transfer and procurement of a Suchtmittel to medical, dental, veterinary and scientific purposes, and the particular travel, licensing and dispensing provisions operate inside it rather than around it. Because this substance is a designated psychotrope, SMG §30(3) is available on its own terms. It removes punishment under §30(1) and §30(2) where a medicine containing a psychotropic substance, not exceeding the threshold, is acquired, possessed, carried, imported or exported for personal use or for the needs of an animal, or is offered, transferred or procured without the person drawing an advantage from it. It is not a blanket exception for psychotropic powder. The Psychotropenverordnung closes its Annexes 2 and 3 with travel certificate fields, which is where this system's documented route lives. Clonazepam's point 2 placement is what makes SMG §30(3) available to a dispensed supply, and the threshold condition written into that subsection is the part a carrier has to satisfy.

Documentation

Carry the pharmacy labelled pack, the prescription and a letter naming patient, substance, dose and treatment period, and raise the Psychotropenverordnung travel certificate with the prescriber before departure. Clonazepam is prescribed for seizure control as often as for anxiety, and the indication should be legible on the documentation. The psychotrope list was read at its 18 September 2026 consolidation, whose last list amendment is BGBl II 394/2024 of 19 December 2024; the later BGBl II 10/2025 changed other provisions and not the list.

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