Is Codeine legal in Malta?

Legal status

Codeine is governed by the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, Chapter 101, and not by the Medical and Kindred Professions Ordinance. Malta runs two drug ordinances and a cell that answers from one when the substance sits in the other is wrong. Codeine sits in Part II of the First Schedule rather than Part I, and the preparation exemptions in Part III apply to it, which is the feature that separates it from the Part I opiates. Article 10(1) fixes what the First Schedule reaches: ‘The drugs to which this Part of this Ordinance applies are those mentioned in the First Schedule hereto.’ Article 22 carries the penalties. The schedule entry reads "CODEINE". Codeine appears in Part II of Chapter 101's First Schedule, subject to the preparation exemptions in Part III. The power to change that list is article 34(1): ‘The Minister responsible for public health may by regulations amend the First, the Second and the Third Schedules to this Ordinance.’

Consequences if caught

Capital and life exposure. Malta has no death penalty and no Maltese drug offence can bring one. The ceiling is life. Chapter 101 article 22(2)(a)(i) permits life imprisonment for dealing or for possession that is not for the exclusive use of the possessor, and codeine is a Chapter 101 drug. The Part III preparation exemptions bear on whether a given preparation is caught at all rather than on the ceiling that applies once it is, so a preparation outside the exemptions is exposed to the full article 22 range. The Chapter 537 route applies. The Drug Dependence (Treatment not Imprisonment) Act, Chapter 537, sends personal possession of ‘less than two grams or of two pills of the drug ecstacy or of two other prohibited pills’ to the Commissioner for Justice under article 4, and the penalty there is ‘penalty of between seventy-five euro (€75) and one hundred and twenty-five euro (€125)’. A second or later offence within two years stays before the Commissioner, with the rehabilitation board referral rules in article 5.

If prescribed or medical

The ordinance that controls codeine is the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, Chapter 101, which is the narcotics ordinance rather than the medical one. The penalty article does not attach its ceiling to possession as such. Chapter 101 article 22 reaches dealing and possession that is not for the exclusive use of the possessor, so a supply lawfully dispensed to you and held for your own use is not the conduct the ceiling is written for. That is a statement about the offence definition and not a permission. Codeine is the one substance here where the schedules themselves carry a medicines distinction: Part III of the First Schedule exempts preparations, so whether a given codeine product is caught at all turns on the preparation rather than on the molecule. What this source does not establish is the prescribing and dispensing conditions themselves. The dossier read the two controlled drug ordinances and Chapter 537 and says in terms that it ‘did not attempt to decide separate medicines, pharmacy, veterinary, poisons, tobacco, alcohol, food, product-safety, or driving laws’. Treat the prescribing route as unread here rather than as absent. No Maltese personal import permit, traveller certificate or advance declaration route for a controlled medicine was found in the texts that were read, and none of Chapter 31, Chapter 101 or Chapter 537 carries a travellers provision. That is an absence in what was read rather than proof that no scheme exists, so confirm with a Maltese mission before you travel. One further point bears on any prescribed supply: the schedule entry prints the name Codeine itself, so there is no argument that the control reaches this substance only by inference, and a product labelled with that name is the listed thing. The entry is transcribed in full in the legal status for this cell.

Documentation

Carry the prescription and the dispensing label if codeine was dispensed to you, and understand that nothing you can carry makes an undispensed supply lawful in Malta. That is the whole of the carriage answer, because no Maltese personal import permit, traveller certificate or advance declaration route for a controlled substance appears in any of the texts read for this row, and none of them carries a travellers provision at all. An absence in what was read is not proof that no scheme exists, so a Maltese mission is the place to settle it before you fly rather than the airport on arrival. Keep the medicine in the packaging it was dispensed in, keep the quantity to what the prescription covers, and keep the prescriber's details legible. The provenance is the consolidated English text of the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, Chapter 101 on Legislation Malta, read on 18 September 2026 at https://legislation.mt/eli/cap/101/eng. The amendment horizon is 18 September 2026, and on that date the consolidated texts stood at Chapter 31 through Legal Notice 46 of 2026, Chapter 101 through Legal Notice 97 of 2025, Chapter 537 through Acts VII and XII of 2025, and Chapter 628 through Act XII of 2025. Legislation Malta prints the footer ‘© Dritt tal-awtur: L-Uffiċċju tal-Avukat tal-Istat’ on each page, no open reuse licence was located, and only the words needed to identify the provision are quoted here.

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