Is Clonazepam legal in Vietnam?

Also known as: klonopin

Legal status

Controlled. Clonazepam is printed in List III of the danh mục annexed to Nghị định 28/2026/NĐ-CP, in force 19 January 2026, which is the list the Criminal Code's own definition of chất ma túy points at, and the entry reads “Clonazepam”. Clonazepam is specifically named in List III, so illegal manufacture, transport and trade are resolved through the general narcotic thresholds rather than a benzodiazepine class assumption.

Consequences if caught

Death is available for two of the five conducts on this row, producing under Điều 248 khoản 5 and trading under Điều 251 khoản 5, and this row takes the general narcotic ceiling rather than the lower one the Criminal Code reserves for eight substances it names by name, because clonazepam is specifically named in List III, so illegal manufacture, transport and trade are resolved through the general narcotic thresholds rather than a benzodiazepine class assumption. That general ceiling is 9 kg of solid or 22 L of liquid, and the transport top band is 300 g of solid or 750 mL of liquid. Vietnam sorts drug offences by conduct and the five conducts do not carry the same consequences, so they are set out one at a time here, on the Criminal Code as it stands after 1 July 2025. Producing, Điều 248, Tội sản xuất trái phép chất ma túy, is available at any amount, and khoản 5 reads thì bị phạt tù chung thân hoặc tử hình, life imprisonment or death, at the band Các chất ma túy khác ở thể rắn có khối lượng 09 kilôgam trở lên, that is 9 kg or more, or Các chất ma túy khác ở thể lỏng có thể tích 22 lít trở lên, that is 22 L or more in liquid form. Possessing, Điều 249, Tội tàng trữ trái phép chất ma túy, has khoản 4 at thì bị phạt tù từ 15 năm đến 20 năm hoặc tù chung thân, fifteen to twenty years or life, and this article never carried the death penalty, before the amendment or after it. Transporting, Điều 250, Tội vận chuyển trái phép chất ma túy, is the conduct the 2025 amendment changed. Khoản 4 now reads thì bị phạt tù 20 năm hoặc tù chung thân, twenty years or life. Before 1 July 2025 the same khoản read thì bị phạt tù 20 năm, tù chung thân hoặc tử hình, and the words hoặc tử hình are gone, so transporting no longer carries the death penalty in Vietnam at any quantity. Its ordinary quantity limb for Clonazepam begins at 1 g of solid or 10 mL of liquid, and its top band is fifteen to twenty years or life from 300 g of solid or 750 mL of liquid. The life band shared by possessing, transporting and appropriating is Các chất ma túy khác ở thể rắn có khối lượng 300 gam trở lên. Trading, Điều 251, Tội mua bán trái phép chất ma túy, is available at any amount, and khoản 5 keeps life imprisonment or death at 9 kg of solid or 22 L of liquid. Appropriating, Điều 252, Tội chiếm đoạt chất ma túy, has khoản 4 at fifteen to twenty years or life and carries no death penalty. The five conducts named here are producing under article 248, possessing under article 249, transporting under article 250, trading under article 251 and appropriating under article 252, and they are articles of the Criminal Code. Death is discretionary and not mandatory in both articles that keep it, because each khoản offers thì bị phạt tù chung thân hoặc tử hình, life imprisonment or death, and the court chooses between them. No Vietnamese judgment was read for this cell, and it states no figure for how often a sentence is carried out.

If prescribed or medical

The dossier this cell is written from carries no prescription column, so no medical route for Clonazepam is stated here and none was derived from anything else. What can be attached is this row's placement, which the dossier gives as List III and the published 2cb entry gives more finely as III #19. Carried forward from the published 2cb entry and not re-derived from the decree text in this pass: the decree describes danh mục III as usable in medicine and veterinary medicine under the competent authority, and danh mục II as restricted to research, testing, expert examination, defence, security or the medical field. This row sits in danh mục III, the tier that description calls usable in medicine and veterinary medicine under the competent authority. Whether Clonazepam can lawfully be prescribed in Vietnam, in what form, and what a traveller carrying it would have to show, is deferred and not answered here. This pass did not read Vietnam's pharmaceutical, import or customs rules, and a substance outside the narcotics law can still be refused at a border.

Documentation

Where the rule for Clonazepam comes from, and how far it reaches in time. Two instruments do two different jobs. The list: Luật Phòng, chống ma túy số 73/2021/QH14, Điều 2 khoản 1, provides that a chất ma túy is a substance the Government has placed in the danh mục, so the Government and not the National Assembly decides what counts, and it does so by decree. The decree in force is Nghị định 28/2026/NĐ-CP, issued and effective 19 January 2026, whose Điều 3 khoản 2 repeals Nghị định 57/2022/NĐ-CP and Nghị định 90/2024/NĐ-CP, and whose Điều 1 reads “Ban hành kèm theo Nghị định này Phụ lục các danh mục chất ma túy và tiền chất sau đây”, that is, issued with this decree is the appendix containing the following lists of narcotics and precursors. The published 2cb entry counted that appendix as four danh mục in seven parts and 694 entries, a count carried forward here and not re-made in this pass. The offence: Bộ luật Hình sự số 100/2015/QH13 as amended by Luật số 86/2025/QH15, khoản 18 Điều 1, enacted 25 June 2025 and in force 1 July 2025, which substituted the drug articles in full and is the reason this cell separates the conducts instead of saying that Vietnam has the death penalty for drugs. The consolidated Criminal Code text read for the article wording is văn bản hợp nhất số 135/VBHN-VPQH. The placement for this row. The dossier puts Clonazepam in List III and prints the entry as “Clonazepam”. The published 2cb entry gives the finer locator III #19, with CAS 1622-61-3, and that locator is carried forward from the published 2cb entry and not re-derived from the decree text in this pass. A quotation is evidence of the words printed, not of the item number, which is why the two are attributed separately here. The published 2cb entry also recorded how the decree read at that point: Clonazepam, CAS 1622-61-3. That wording, with any adjacent item number or CAS number inside it, is carried forward from the published 2cb entry and not re-derived from the decree text in this pass, and it is a reading of a scanned document rather than a re-reading made here. The horizon. This cell is written as those lists stand after Nghị định 28/2026/NĐ-CP, in force 19 January 2026, and the dossier behind it records its own date checked as 17 September 2026. The power that moves the list is Điều 3 khoản 6 of the decree, which reads “Khi phát hiện chất mới chưa có trong các danh mục chất ma túy và tiền chất ban hành kèm theo Nghị định này … trình Chính phủ sửa đổi, bổ sung và công bố các danh mục đó.”, that is, when a new substance not yet in the lists is discovered, the Ministry of Public Security submits it to the Government to amend, supplement and publish the lists. What the text in hand incorporates is the 2026 appendix together with the Criminal Code as it stands after 1 July 2025, and nothing here was checked against an amendment published after 19 January 2026. This cell does not rule out a later amendment made under that power. Two limits of the source, stated because they bear on how much weight this row can take. The dossier has no search log column of its own, so on a row where nothing was found there is no way to tell a blank from a row nobody searched, and where its instrument column happens to record search terms that is a record of looking rather than a schedule entry. And the decree is a scanned signed document: the published 2cb entry records that it was rendered at 600 dots per inch and read with optical character recognition in Vietnamese, and that normalisation to NFC was needed before any Vietnamese string could be searched against the cached text, because the cache mixes composed and decomposed forms and a literal search returns a false zero. That method note is carried forward from the published 2cb entry and not re-derived from the decree text in this pass.

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