Is Codeine legal in Greece?

Legal status

Controlled narcotic under Law 4139/2013. Codeine is entry 112 of ΠΙΝΑΚΑΣ Γ, the third table, an entry that opens «ΚΩΔΕΪΝΗ: Μεθυλαιθήρ της μορφίνης.» and was placed by gazette 103 A of 25 May 2006. The table also carries dihydrocodeine at serial 29, nicocodine at 62 and norcodeine at 65, each as its own row. The version read is the Ministry of Health consolidated edition of June 2026, and it does not rule out a later joint ministerial decision.

Consequences if caught

Capital exposure: none. Greece abolished the death penalty for all crimes and no offence in the narcotics code carries it, which is carried forward from the published Greece entry and was not re-derived in this pass. Codeine is entry 112 of ΠΙΝΑΚΑΣ Γ, the third table, an entry that opens «ΚΩΔΕΪΝΗ: Μεθυλαιθήρ της μορφίνης.» and was placed by gazette 103 A of 25 May 2006, so every conduct below is available against it in Greece. Article 1 paragraph 1 of Law 4139/2013 defines «ναρκωτικά» by what a substance does, by its action on the central nervous system and its capacity to cause dependence, and article 1 paragraph 2 then says those substances «περιλαμβάνονται ιδίως στους πίνακες», are included in particular in the tables. Conduct, not the table a substance sits in, is what sorts the Greek drug offences. Article 29 paragraph 1 punishes obtaining, holding, using or growing for the offender's own exclusive use with «φυλάκιση μέχρι πέντε (5) μηνών», imprisonment of up to five months. There is no fixed gram threshold anywhere in the law. The court weighs instead the type, the purity, the quantity, the frequency and duration of use, the daily dose and the particular needs of the user. Article 29 paragraph 2 allows the court to leave the offender «ατιμώρητος», unpunished, where the act was entirely occasional and unlikely to be repeated, and paragraph 3 keeps such a conviction off the copies of the criminal record that are issued. Article 20 paragraph 1 punishes trafficking with «κάθειρξη τουλάχιστον οκτώ (8) ετών», at least eight years. The fine that goes with that article runs up to three hundred thousand euro. Article 22 raises the custodial minimum to ten years where the offence is committed by an official, inside a school, barracks, police cell, prison or sports ground, within a criminal organisation, or by a repeat offender. The fine under article 22 is fifty thousand to five hundred thousand euro. Article 21 drops the exposure to up to three years for a dependent person trafficking small amounts to cover their own use, or for supplying a relative without profit. Article 30 paragraph 4 treats dependence as a separate track: an article 29 offence goes unpunished, an article 20 offence falls to at least one year, and an article 22 offence falls to at most ten years. The ceiling in the code is life imprisonment, and it is article 23 that carries it. Article 23 paragraph 1 opens «Με ισόβια κάθειρξη ή με πρόσκαιρη κάθειρξη τουλάχιστον δέκα ετών», life imprisonment or a determinate sentence of at least ten years. The fine under that paragraph is fifty thousand to six hundred thousand euro. It applies where the substance can cause grievous bodily harm and did cause grievous harm or death to another or endangered the health of many, or where an adult acts professionally to bring a minor into use. Article 23 paragraph 2 opens «Με ισόβια κάθειρξη, καθώς και με χρηματική ποινή από πενήντα χιλιάδες ευρώ μέχρι ένα εκατομμύριο ευρώ τιμωρείται». That paragraph states no lesser alternative, so life imprisonment is the only sentence it offers. The fine it names runs from fifty thousand euro to one million euro. It applies to professional financing or professional trafficking where the expected gain exceeds seventy five thousand euro, and to using weapons during the offence or to escape. Every article number, Greek phrase and euro figure in this recital is carried forward from the published Greece entry and was not re-derived in this pass. Those articles describe the offences that this row's placement brings into play.

If prescribed or medical

Codeine sits in ΠΙΝΑΚΑΣ Γ, the third table, which the published Greece entry calls Table G. Table G substances are produced, transported, stored and supplied under article 2 paragraph 3 of Law 4139/2013, under the responsibility and control of the National Organisation for Medicines, on a duplicate prescription. The article 2 paragraphs in this field are carried forward from the published Greece entry and were not re-derived in this pass.

Documentation

This substance is in the tables, so a traveller carrying it needs the paperwork for a controlled medicine and not the paperwork for an ordinary one. Carry the original container, the pharmacy label and a prescription or a doctor's letter in your own name, and expect a Greek officer to read the label rather than take the quantity on trust. Where the rule comes from. The offences are in Law 4139/2013, the narcotics code, gazette A 74 of 20 March 2013, and the substance lists are not in it. Article 1 paragraph 2 provides that the substances «περιλαμβάνονται ιδίως στους πίνακες Α΄, Β΄, Γ΄ και Δ΄, οι οποίοι αναφέρονται στην παρ. 2 του άρθρου 1 του ν. 3459/2006». Article 1 paragraph 4 gives the power that moves the list: «Με κοινή απόφαση των Υπουργών Υγείας και Δικαιοσύνης», by joint decision of the Ministers of Health and of Justice, after the opinion of the Narcotics Committee, substances may be added, removed or moved between categories. What this cell incorporates is the Ministry of Health consolidated edition of June 2026, read in full rather than searched, and reading it does not rule out a later joint ministerial decision. It carries 375 numbered entries, 138 in ΠΙΝΑΚΑΣ Α, 18 in ΠΙΝΑΚΑΣ Β, 135 in ΠΙΝΑΚΑΣ Γ and 84 in ΠΙΝΑΚΑΣ Δ, each series running from 1 without a gap. Every entry names the gazette that placed it. Counting those gazettes by number and date gives 29, of which one, gazette 6034 B of 31 December 2018, is a correction of an error rather than a placing decision. The published Greece entry gives that figure as twenty eight, and the two counts differ by exactly that correction. The most recent placing instrument in the file is gazette 3277 B of 11 June 2026. Placement for Codeine: ΠΙΝΑΚΑΣ Γ entry 112.

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