Is Codeine legal in Timor-Leste?

Legal status

Codeine is named at Table I-A, item 26, of Lei 2/2017's Anexo II: "Codeína - 3-metoxi-4,5-epoxi-6-hidroxi-17-metil-7-morfineno; 3-metil-morfina" (English: codeine, 3-methoxy-4,5-epoxy-6-hydroxy-17-methyl-7-morphinene, also described as 3-methylmorphine). Article 4, paragraph 1, states Table I corresponds to Schedules I, II and IV of the 1961 Single Convention. Table III of the same Anexo II, a separate schedule, also carries a dose-limited listing naming codeine specifically, set out below; article 5, paragraph 3, describes Table III's contents as preparations that "apresentem risco de abuso" (English: present a risk of abuse), which sits uneasily with Table III's own item 1, which describes its contents as preparations that do not present great risk of use and abuse; this tension is not resolved here.

Consequences if caught

Article 7, paragraphs 1 and 2, apply the tabelas I a III band to a Table I-A substance: 5 to 15 years' imprisonment for unauthorized cultivation, production, manufacture, extraction, preparation, offering, sale, distribution, purchase, transport, import, export or possession, and 6 to 16 years where the person holds an authorization but acts against it. Article 9 aggravates both figures by two thirds at the minimum and maximum for listed factors. Article 10's criminal-association band runs 10 to 25 years for a founder and 12 to 25 years for a leader. Codeine does not appear in Annex I's 16 item daily reference quantity table, so article 11's reduced-gravity quantity test, five times that reference figure, is not pinned to a number for codeine itself; the reduced band of 1 to 5 years can still apply on illicitude's other listed factors. Article 12 gives an intermediate band where the sole purpose of the article 7 act was to obtain the substance for personal use: up to 2 years' imprisonment or a fine. Article 26 punishes illicit personal consumption or possession for exclusive personal use with up to 1 year's imprisonment or a fine of up to 120 days. Article 26, paragraph 2, raises this to up to 2 years' imprisonment or a fine of up to 240 days where the quantity found exceeds five times the Annex I reference figure; none of the 16 substances in Annex I's table include this one, so no figure is pinned here specifically. Article 26, paragraph 3, allows an occasional user to be excused penalty entirely in the paragraph 1 case. Separately, Table III, item 2, lists specific low-dose codeine preparations: "Preparações de acetildiidrocodeína, codeína, diidrocodeína, etilmorfina, folcodina, nicocodina, nicodicodina e norcodeína, quando misturadas com um ou vários outros ingredientes e a quantidade de narcótico não exceda 100 mg por unidade de administração e a concentração nas preparações farmacêuticas em forma não dividida não exceda 2,5%" (English: preparations of acetyldihydrocodeine, codeine, dihydrocodeine, ethylmorphine, pholcodine, nicocodine, nicodicodine and norcodeine, when mixed with one or more other ingredients, where the narcotic quantity does not exceed 100 mg per dosage unit and the concentration in undivided pharmaceutical preparations does not exceed 2.5 percent). Table III's own opening line (item 1) describes its contents as preparations that, by their quantitative composition, do not present great risk of use and abuse, which reads as an exemption schedule. Article 7, paragraph 1, nonetheless lists "tabelas I a III" together as all carrying the 5 to 15 year trafficking band, with no express carve-out in article 7 itself for a Table III preparation. Whether a qualifying low-dose codeine preparation is therefore outside article 7's offence entirely, or merely outside the higher Table I-A band and still caught at some lower exposure, is not resolved by the printed text.

If prescribed or medical

Article 6, paragraph 1, subjects codeine, as a Table I to IV substance, to Ministério da Saúde licensing on terms the article defers to a separate instrument not yet located. Decreto-Lei 2/2025 regulates pharmacy licensing generally without naming which Table I to IV substances a doctor may prescribe, so it is not cited here as a prescription route. Table III's dose-limited exemption, quoted above, bears on which codeine preparations the schedule reaches at all, but it is not itself a prescribing authorization and does not say who may dispense an exempt preparation or on what terms. No prescription or medical-supply pathway for codeine under Lei 2/2017 has been established by this reading.

Documentation

Decreto-Lei 19/2009, de 8 de Abril, is Timor-Leste's Penal Code, and Lei 2/2017's own preamble states that the Penal Code's third amendment, Lei 5/2013, de 14 de Agosto, "não se traduziu na criminalização do tráfico ilícito e o consumo de estupefacientes e substâncias psicotrópicas" (English: did not result in the criminalization of illicit trafficking and consumption of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances), and that before Lei 2/2017 the operative drug law was Indonesia's Law 5/1997, carried over under article 165 of the Constitution of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste. Lei 2/2017 is accordingly Timor-Leste's first domestic drug-trafficking law; no later one has been found, and no drug-trafficking chapter of the Penal Code has been located. No separate traveller or import-permit rule for codeine, beyond the Ministério da Saúde licensing regime in article 6, which is itself deferred to an instrument not yet located, has been found.

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