Is Cocaine legal in Sri Lanka?

Also known as: coke, blow

Legal status

Dangerous drug under Sri Lanka's Poisons, Opium and Dangerous Drugs Ordinance (Chapter 218): Third Schedule, Part I, Group B, Section 1, item 31, 「Cocaine methyl ester of benzoylecgonine」. Three further coca entries sit around it: item 30 the coca leaf, with an express carve out for 「a leaf from which all ecgonine, cocaine and any other ecgonine alkaloids have been removed」, item 49 ecgonine and its esters and derivatives convertible to ecgonine and cocaine, and the Group A entry prohibiting importation of any product obtained from the ecgonine alkaloids of the coca leaf. The model: the list is inside the Ordinance and the power to change it is delegated, with a parliamentary lock on the delegation. Section 48 provides that 「the drugs, substances, articles or preparations, specified for the time being in Groups A, B, C, D and E in Part I of the Third Schedule, shall be deemed to be dangerous drugs」. Section 2(1) then provides that 「regulation」 means a regulation made under this Ordinance and published in the Gazette, 「and includes the First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Schedules」, so the Third Schedule is itself a regulation. The empowering section is section 80. Section 80(2)(b) lets the Minister make regulations 「for adding any item to or deleting any item from, or altering, varying or amending in any other way, any of the lists or Groups of poisons and dangerous drugs set out in the First and Third Schedules」, and section 80(3) then provides that 「No regulation so made shall have effect unless it has been approved by Parliament and notification of such approval has been published in the Gazette」. So the delegation is real but it is locked to an affirmative vote, and in practice the 2022 changes were made by primary legislation rather than by regulation. The Act was last amended by the Poisons, Opium and Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act, No. 7 of 2026, certified 6 March 2026. The Third Schedule was last amended by section 6 of the Poisons, Opium and Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act, No. 41 of 2022, certified 23 November 2022 and published as a supplement to Part II of the Gazette of 25 November 2022, which substituted Group B of Part I and the whole of Part III. Act No. 7 of 2026 does not touch the Third Schedule.

Consequences if caught

Capital exposure: section 54A(a), manufacture of heroin, cocaine, morphine or opium. [Certain] Re-derived in this pass: section 54A was read at nddcb.gov.lk on 21 September 2026 and provides that a person who «manufactures any of the following dangerous drugs, namely heroin or cocaine or morphine or opium» is «liable to a sentence of death or life imprisonment» on conviction by the High Court without a jury. Those four are the only substances the section names. [Likely] The trafficking route at 54A(b) runs on Column II of Part III of the Third Schedule, and that table was not reached in this pass, so its quantity thresholds are carried from the published entry. Section 54A(1) has four limbs and they do not carry the same exposure. Limb (a) punishes any person who 「manufactures any of the following dangerous drugs, namely heroin or cocaine or morphine or opium」 with 「a sentence of death or life imprisonment」, with no quantity stated. Limbs (b), (c) and (d) punish trafficking, importing or exporting, and possession, of 「any dangerous drug set out in Column II of Part III of the Third Schedule in excess of the amount set out in the said Column II」, with the penalty in Column III. Part III Column II is headed 「Pure Quantities」, and Column I is headed 「Traffics, possess, imports or exports」, so possession is inside the same ladder as trafficking. Section 54B extends the same punishment to abetting, attempting and acts preparatory to or in furtherance of a section 54A offence. Since Act No. 7 of 2026 a parallel section 54AA applies the same two structures on the high seas, aboard a ship registered in Sri Lanka or a stateless ship. Part III, as substituted in 2022, sets only two capital bands. Opium at 1 kilogramme or above is 「Death or life imprisonment」, and 「Morphine, Cocaine, Heroin and Methamphetamine」 at 5 grammes or above is 「Death or life imprisonment」. Cannabis has a ladder in Part III whose top band is 100 kilogrammes or above and carries ten to fifteen years, with no capital band at all. No other substance appears in Column II anywhere. Section 1 clause 7 sets a concentration floor for preparations: a solution or dilution in an inert substance is caught at any proportion, and any other preparation, admixture or extract is caught at 「not less than 0.2 per centum of morphine or 0.1 per centum of cocaine or ecgonine」. Both reach this substance and by two separate routes. The first has no quantity at all: section 54A(1)(a) punishes any person who 「manufactures any of the following dangerous drugs, namely heroin or cocaine or morphine or opium」 with 「a sentence of death or life imprisonment」, and this substance is one of those four. The second is the Part III ladder, where 「Morphine, Cocaine, Heroin and Methamphetamine」 at 「5 grammes or above」 carries 「Death or life imprisonment」, reached through limb (b) trafficking, limb (c) import or export, or limb (d) possession. Column II is headed 「Pure Quantities」, so the five grammes is pure weight and not the weight of the wrap; section 54A(2), inserted in 2022, lets an analyst's certificate that the gross weight is two grammes or less stand as prima facie proof that the pure quantity does not exceed two grammes. It is not mandatory: the phrase is death or life, which leaves the court a choice. Below five grammes the ladder steps down to three to five grammes at ten to twenty years, two to three grammes at seven to ten years, and under two grammes at three to five years. Since Act No. 7 of 2026 section 54AA applies the same two routes on the high seas. Sri Lanka has carried out no judicial execution since 1976 and the sentences are imposed and then not executed, but the sentence itself is real and section 83 bars bail except by the High Court in exceptional circumstances.

If prescribed or medical

Cocaine has a narrow topical surgical use internationally and no ordinary prescribing route in Sri Lanka.

Documentation

No traveller route. Coca tea and coca leaf are the leaf entry at item 30 and are not exempt unless the alkaloids have been removed.

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