Legal status in Costa Rica

Per-substance legal status for Costa Rica, from sourced statutes where available. Legal information, not legal advice; drug laws change, so confirm with the destination’s embassy or drug authority before you travel.

57 confirmed substances31 not individually verifiedLast updated September 21, 2026

Confirmed legal status

2-FDCK

Legal status: Controlled through the Convention limb, and the national list has not caught up. Article 1 of Ley 7786, as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, fixes the scope by reference to the substances included in the 1961 and 1971 Conventions and the 1988 Convention, and the Ministerio de Salud reproduces those listas in Spanish in its national fiscalizacion list and adds a short Otros agregados section of national additions. This row was read as a named entry in Schedule II of the 1971 Convention. The offence articles are 58 and 77. [Certain] for the Convention entry, [Likely] for how the national lag is read, with the entry text recorded in the documentation.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Article 21 of the Constitution provides "La vida humana es inviolable", the human life is inviolable, and the word "muerte" appears zero times across the 81 pages of the consolidated Act. Both of those were measured in this pass and together they are what carries the heading. Costa Rica is an abolitionist state of long standing, [Likely] on the nineteenth century date, which was not re-derived here. Unauthorised trafficking conduct carries eight to fifteen years. Article 58 provides "Se impondra pena de prision de ocho a quince anos a quien, sin autorizacion legal, distribuya, comercie, suministre, fabrique, elabore, refine, transforme, extraiga, prepare, cultive, produzca, transporte, almacene o venda las drogas". That is eight to fifteen years for unauthorised distribution, commerce, supply, manufacture, processing, extraction, preparation, cultivation, production, transport, storage or sale. Article 77 raises the range to eight to twenty years where one of its eight enumerated aggravating circumstances is present, and twenty years is the ceiling this Act identifies. No article states a weight threshold, so the trigger is the unauthorised act and never a quantity. The second paragraph of article 58 reaches possession only "para cualquiera de los fines expresados", that is possession for one of those trafficking purposes. Ley 7786 creates no offence of consumption and no offence of simple possession for personal use. Article 79 answers a person consuming in a public place with voluntary and free treatment in a public or private health centre, not with a penalty.
If prescribed / medical: A lawful medical route exists only through the authorisation the Act itself demands. Article 58 opens with the words "sin autorizacion legal", so conduct carried out under a Costa Rican authorisation falls outside the offence and conduct without one falls inside it whatever the amount. Article 2 confines handling to the quantities needed for medical treatment, toxicological and chemical analysis and research, and requires authorised prescribers to use the official forms supplied by the Ministerio de Salud, whose entries carry the character of a sworn declaration. The Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes administers that control under Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025 and publishes the fiscalizacion list.
Documentation: Consolidation read: Ley 7786 of 30 April 1998 as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, in the Texto Completo Norma 8204 print published by the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas, which carries its own generation date of 19 November 2018. The same ranges, ocho a quince anos in article 58 and de ocho a veinte anos in article 77, were independently read on 18 September 2026 against the later Sinalevi record of Ley 7786, version 13 of 13, so the 2018 print is corroborated rather than assumed current. Control model, re derived from the statute in this pass. Costa Rica prints no annex of controlled substances in its drug Act: across the 81 pages the only drug names anywhere are in article 96, on the disposal of seized marihuana, cocaina and heroina. Article 1 regulates "estupefacientes, psicotropicos, sustancias inhalables y demas drogas y farmacos susceptibles de producir dependencias fisicas o psiquicas, incluidos en la Convencion Unica sobre Estupefacientes... de 1961... asi como en el Convenio de Viena sobre Sustancias Psicotropicas, de 21 de febrero de 1971... asimismo, en la Convencion... de 1988". Its second paragraph is a different thing and is often misread as the control annex: it has the Ministerio de Salud and the MAG draw up and publish in La Gaceta "las listas de estupefacientes, psicotropicos y similares Licitos", the licit ones, which is the authorisation side. The incorporation is ambulatory: article 36 defines precursors as Cuadro I of the 1988 Convention "y sus anexos, asi como los que se le incorporen en el futuro", and article 100 gives the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas a mandate framed by the conventions and by "los listados oficiales, publicados periodicamente en La Gaceta". The second limb, measured. The national list is the Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes, Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes of the Ministerio de Salud, updated 10 September 2026 and signed that day by Dra. Mariela Alfaro Segura. It runs to 27 pages in three sections, estupefacientes, psicotropicos and Otros agregados, and it names its own legal basis as the Reglamento para el control de drogas, estupefacientes y psicotropicas N. 45161-S, the instrument cited elsewhere as Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025. The two titles are the same text. A reading of 18 September 2026 records that the decree gives the competent body the function "Elaborar y actualizar la lista de sustancias oficialmente consideradas estupefacientes o psicotropicos y similares de uso regulado" and that its five annexes are forms rather than a substance schedule; that quotation is carried from that reading and was not re derived here. The whole of Otros agregados is twelve entries: metilfenidato, tapentadol and the synthetic cannabinoid JWH-073 among the estupefacientes, and ketamina, esketamina, mexazolam, zaleplon, zopiclona and the piperazines mCPP, CPP, TFMPP and 1,4 dibencilpiperazina among the psicotropicos. Amending Act in force between that list and this reading, read in the official gazette in this pass. Ley 10961 of 9 June 2026, published in Alcance 78 to La Gaceta 113 of 19 June 2026, provides "Rige tres meses a partir de su publicacion" and so took effect on 19 September 2026. It runs to four articles: it adds article 15 quater to Ley 7786 on the anti-money-laundering duties of virtual asset service providers, carries that cross reference into articles 16, 16 bis, 25, 33, 33 bis, 86 and 123, reforms the article 81 administrative fines, and allows three months for regulations. Every Ley 7786 article it touches is money laundering machinery, and it leaves articles 1, 2, 36, 58, 73, 74, 77, 77 bis and 79 untouched, so it moves no row in this batch. Method note. The 2026-09-20 Costa Rica dossier was used only as the slug list and as one of the two term list sources. Its outcome column, its instrument column and its quotation column were not treated as evidence and no placement in this batch rests on them; every placement is the entry read in the list the statute incorporates. Two of its readings were not adopted: it treated ergometrina and ergina as one row when they are separate substances on separate limbs, and it left dextrometorfano unresolved when the instrument excludes it in terms. Sibling name traps were checked rather than assumed. Anchored matching correctly did not return bencilmorfina, desomorfina, dihidromorfina, metildihidromorfina, mirofina or diacetilmorfina for the morfina row, isometadona, normetadona or the metadona intermediario for the metadona row, metcatinona or 4-metiletcatinona for the catinona row, MMDA or N-etil MDA for the MDA row, beta-ceto-MDMA for the MDMA row, levometanfetamina for the metanfetamina row, PCPY for the PCP row, brolanfetamina for the anfetamina row, or norpseudoefedrina for the efedrina row. Two extraction zeroes were false and were recovered by re interrogation: hexahidrocannabinol and 2-fluorodescloroketamina are both line wrapped in the source and a column based read missed both. Routes run for the instrument in this pass. pgrweb.go.cr/scij is a JavaScript shell: the Ley 8204 and Ley 7786 records and the sinalevi.go.cr record each returned about 25 KB that renders to 1,159 characters of site chrome and no statutory text, so a size threshold would have cleared all three. imprentanacional.go.cr served the official gazette carrying Ley 10961. The institutional reproduction at icd.go.cr served the consolidated Act, and ministeriodesalud.go.cr served the national list and the circulars. The schedule pages were checked for hidden content: the list PDF holds one image object repeated on all 27 pages, which is the ministry letterhead, and its byte size is accounted for by that banner, so no entry is carried in an image. Entry read for this row, recorded as the list prints it: "2-fluorodeschloroketamine, 2-(2-fluorophenyl)-2-(methylamino)cyclohexan-1-one", PF 013, in Schedule II of the 1971 Convention as the Green List 36th edition of 2025 prints it. The Spanish name does not appear in the national list of 10 September 2026: fluorodesclor returned 0 across all three sections. That is a lag in the national publication rather than an exclusion, because article 1 fixes the scope by reference to the Convention and not to the Ministry list, and the ketamina entry in that list is in any event expressed to include isomers, enantiomers and derivatives. Carry the prescription and the dispensing label, and expect the authorisation rather than the amount to be what is asked about. There is no personal allowance to fall back on, because no article of Ley 7786 fixes a threshold. Sourcing, re derived in this pass and not carried: the two Junta de Vigilancia de Drogas urls cited by this row are DIRECTORIES and not documents. The listing page names the national fiscalisation list but does not carry it; the list is a separate PDF behind a numbered link, and that PDF is what the placement in this row actually rests on. Both documents are now fetched and cited by their own urls: "Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes", and "Lista de Estupefacientes y Sustancias Psicotropicas Sometidas a Fiscalizacion Nacional". The first carries the Otros agregados section this row's reasoning refers to [Certain, read from the fetched PDF]. The circulars page cited alongside them exposes no document at all.

Ley 7786 of 30 April 1998 as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, arts 1, 2, 36, 58, 73, 74, 77, 77 bis, 79, 96 and 100 · icd.go.cr · Ley 10961 of 9 June 2026, Alcance 78 a La Gaceta 113 of 19 June 2026, in force 19 September 2026 · imprentanacional.go.cr · Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes, Ministerio de Salud, updated 10 September 2026, made under Reglamento 45161-S · ministeriodesalud.go.cr · Circular JVD-002-2015 of 14 December 2015, Junta de Vigilancia de Drogas Estupefacientes · ministeriodesalud.go.cr · Constitucion Politica de Costa Rica art 21 · constituteproject.org · Incb Green List, 36th edition, 2025 · incb.org · Incb Yellow List, 65th edition, July 2026 · incb.org · Incb Red List, 23rd edition, July 2025 · swissmedic.ch · read as at 2026-09-21 · ministeriodesalud.go.cr · ministeriodesalud.go.cr · Updated September 21, 2026

2-FDCK in Costa Rica, full detail →

25I-NBOMe

Legal status: Controlled. Article 1 of Ley 7786, as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, fixes the scope by reference to the substances included in the 1961 and 1971 Conventions and the 1988 Convention, and the Ministerio de Salud reproduces those listas in Spanish in its national fiscalizacion list and adds a short Otros agregados section of national additions. This row was read as a named entry in Lista I of the 1971 Convention. The offence articles are 58 and 77. [Certain] for the placement, with the entry text recorded in the documentation.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Article 21 of the Constitution provides "La vida humana es inviolable", the human life is inviolable, and the word "muerte" appears zero times across the 81 pages of the consolidated Act. Both of those were measured in this pass and together they are what carries the heading. Costa Rica is an abolitionist state of long standing, [Likely] on the nineteenth century date, which was not re-derived here. Unauthorised trafficking conduct carries eight to fifteen years. Article 58 provides "Se impondra pena de prision de ocho a quince anos a quien, sin autorizacion legal, distribuya, comercie, suministre, fabrique, elabore, refine, transforme, extraiga, prepare, cultive, produzca, transporte, almacene o venda las drogas". That is eight to fifteen years for unauthorised distribution, commerce, supply, manufacture, processing, extraction, preparation, cultivation, production, transport, storage or sale. Article 77 raises the range to eight to twenty years where one of its eight enumerated aggravating circumstances is present, and twenty years is the ceiling this Act identifies. No article states a weight threshold, so the trigger is the unauthorised act and never a quantity. The second paragraph of article 58 reaches possession only "para cualquiera de los fines expresados", that is possession for one of those trafficking purposes. Ley 7786 creates no offence of consumption and no offence of simple possession for personal use. Article 79 answers a person consuming in a public place with voluntary and free treatment in a public or private health centre, not with a penalty.
If prescribed / medical: A lawful medical route exists only through the authorisation the Act itself demands. Article 58 opens with the words "sin autorizacion legal", so conduct carried out under a Costa Rican authorisation falls outside the offence and conduct without one falls inside it whatever the amount. Article 2 confines handling to the quantities needed for medical treatment, toxicological and chemical analysis and research, and requires authorised prescribers to use the official forms supplied by the Ministerio de Salud, whose entries carry the character of a sworn declaration. The Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes administers that control under Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025 and publishes the fiscalizacion list. The national list files this row among the psicotropicos rather than the estupefacientes, which is the less strict of the two prescription regimes it operates.
Documentation: Consolidation read: Ley 7786 of 30 April 1998 as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, in the Texto Completo Norma 8204 print published by the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas, which carries its own generation date of 19 November 2018. The same ranges, ocho a quince anos in article 58 and de ocho a veinte anos in article 77, were independently read on 18 September 2026 against the later Sinalevi record of Ley 7786, version 13 of 13, so the 2018 print is corroborated rather than assumed current. Control model, re derived from the statute in this pass. Costa Rica prints no annex of controlled substances in its drug Act: across the 81 pages the only drug names anywhere are in article 96, on the disposal of seized marihuana, cocaina and heroina. Article 1 regulates "estupefacientes, psicotropicos, sustancias inhalables y demas drogas y farmacos susceptibles de producir dependencias fisicas o psiquicas, incluidos en la Convencion Unica sobre Estupefacientes... de 1961... asi como en el Convenio de Viena sobre Sustancias Psicotropicas, de 21 de febrero de 1971... asimismo, en la Convencion... de 1988". Its second paragraph is a different thing and is often misread as the control annex: it has the Ministerio de Salud and the MAG draw up and publish in La Gaceta "las listas de estupefacientes, psicotropicos y similares Licitos", the licit ones, which is the authorisation side. The incorporation is ambulatory: article 36 defines precursors as Cuadro I of the 1988 Convention "y sus anexos, asi como los que se le incorporen en el futuro", and article 100 gives the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas a mandate framed by the conventions and by "los listados oficiales, publicados periodicamente en La Gaceta". The second limb, measured. The national list is the Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes, Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes of the Ministerio de Salud, updated 10 September 2026 and signed that day by Dra. Mariela Alfaro Segura. It runs to 27 pages in three sections, estupefacientes, psicotropicos and Otros agregados, and it names its own legal basis as the Reglamento para el control de drogas, estupefacientes y psicotropicas N. 45161-S, the instrument cited elsewhere as Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025. The two titles are the same text. A reading of 18 September 2026 records that the decree gives the competent body the function "Elaborar y actualizar la lista de sustancias oficialmente consideradas estupefacientes o psicotropicos y similares de uso regulado" and that its five annexes are forms rather than a substance schedule; that quotation is carried from that reading and was not re derived here. The whole of Otros agregados is twelve entries: metilfenidato, tapentadol and the synthetic cannabinoid JWH-073 among the estupefacientes, and ketamina, esketamina, mexazolam, zaleplon, zopiclona and the piperazines mCPP, CPP, TFMPP and 1,4 dibencilpiperazina among the psicotropicos. Amending Act in force between that list and this reading, read in the official gazette in this pass. Ley 10961 of 9 June 2026, published in Alcance 78 to La Gaceta 113 of 19 June 2026, provides "Rige tres meses a partir de su publicacion" and so took effect on 19 September 2026. It runs to four articles: it adds article 15 quater to Ley 7786 on the anti-money-laundering duties of virtual asset service providers, carries that cross reference into articles 16, 16 bis, 25, 33, 33 bis, 86 and 123, reforms the article 81 administrative fines, and allows three months for regulations. Every Ley 7786 article it touches is money laundering machinery, and it leaves articles 1, 2, 36, 58, 73, 74, 77, 77 bis and 79 untouched, so it moves no row in this batch. Method note. The 2026-09-20 Costa Rica dossier was used only as the slug list and as one of the two term list sources. Its outcome column, its instrument column and its quotation column were not treated as evidence and no placement in this batch rests on them; every placement is the entry read in the list the statute incorporates. Two of its readings were not adopted: it treated ergometrina and ergina as one row when they are separate substances on separate limbs, and it left dextrometorfano unresolved when the instrument excludes it in terms. Sibling name traps were checked rather than assumed. Anchored matching correctly did not return bencilmorfina, desomorfina, dihidromorfina, metildihidromorfina, mirofina or diacetilmorfina for the morfina row, isometadona, normetadona or the metadona intermediario for the metadona row, metcatinona or 4-metiletcatinona for the catinona row, MMDA or N-etil MDA for the MDA row, beta-ceto-MDMA for the MDMA row, levometanfetamina for the metanfetamina row, PCPY for the PCP row, brolanfetamina for the anfetamina row, or norpseudoefedrina for the efedrina row. Two extraction zeroes were false and were recovered by re interrogation: hexahidrocannabinol and 2-fluorodescloroketamina are both line wrapped in the source and a column based read missed both. Routes run for the instrument in this pass. pgrweb.go.cr/scij is a JavaScript shell: the Ley 8204 and Ley 7786 records and the sinalevi.go.cr record each returned about 25 KB that renders to 1,159 characters of site chrome and no statutory text, so a size threshold would have cleared all three. imprentanacional.go.cr served the official gazette carrying Ley 10961. The institutional reproduction at icd.go.cr served the consolidated Act, and ministeriodesalud.go.cr served the national list and the circulars. The schedule pages were checked for hidden content: the list PDF holds one image object repeated on all 27 pages, which is the ministry letterhead, and its byte size is accounted for by that banner, so no entry is carried in an image. Entry read for this row, recorded as the list prints it: "PN 008, 25I-NBOMe, 2-(4-yodo-2,5-dimetoxifenil)-N-(2-metoxibencil)etanamina", in Lista I of the 1971 Convention. Carry the prescription and the dispensing label, and expect the authorisation rather than the amount to be what is asked about. There is no personal allowance to fall back on, because no article of Ley 7786 fixes a threshold. Sourcing, re derived in this pass and not carried: the two Junta de Vigilancia de Drogas urls cited by this row are DIRECTORIES and not documents. The listing page names the national fiscalisation list but does not carry it; the list is a separate PDF behind a numbered link, and that PDF is what the placement in this row actually rests on. Both documents are now fetched and cited by their own urls: "Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes", and "Lista de Estupefacientes y Sustancias Psicotropicas Sometidas a Fiscalizacion Nacional". The first carries the Otros agregados section this row's reasoning refers to [Certain, read from the fetched PDF]. The circulars page cited alongside them exposes no document at all.

25I-NBOMe in Costa Rica, full detail →

2C-B

Legal status: Controlled. Article 1 of Ley 7786, as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, fixes the scope by reference to the substances included in the 1961 and 1971 Conventions and the 1988 Convention, and the Ministerio de Salud reproduces those listas in Spanish in its national fiscalizacion list and adds a short Otros agregados section of national additions. This row was read as a named entry in Lista II of the 1971 Convention. The offence articles are 58 and 77. [Certain] for the placement, with the entry text recorded in the documentation.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Article 21 of the Constitution provides "La vida humana es inviolable", the human life is inviolable, and the word "muerte" appears zero times across the 81 pages of the consolidated Act. Both of those were measured in this pass and together they are what carries the heading. Costa Rica is an abolitionist state of long standing, [Likely] on the nineteenth century date, which was not re-derived here. Unauthorised trafficking conduct carries eight to fifteen years. Article 58 provides "Se impondra pena de prision de ocho a quince anos a quien, sin autorizacion legal, distribuya, comercie, suministre, fabrique, elabore, refine, transforme, extraiga, prepare, cultive, produzca, transporte, almacene o venda las drogas". That is eight to fifteen years for unauthorised distribution, commerce, supply, manufacture, processing, extraction, preparation, cultivation, production, transport, storage or sale. Article 77 raises the range to eight to twenty years where one of its eight enumerated aggravating circumstances is present, and twenty years is the ceiling this Act identifies. No article states a weight threshold, so the trigger is the unauthorised act and never a quantity. The second paragraph of article 58 reaches possession only "para cualquiera de los fines expresados", that is possession for one of those trafficking purposes. Ley 7786 creates no offence of consumption and no offence of simple possession for personal use. Article 79 answers a person consuming in a public place with voluntary and free treatment in a public or private health centre, not with a penalty.
If prescribed / medical: A lawful medical route exists only through the authorisation the Act itself demands. Article 58 opens with the words "sin autorizacion legal", so conduct carried out under a Costa Rican authorisation falls outside the offence and conduct without one falls inside it whatever the amount. Article 2 confines handling to the quantities needed for medical treatment, toxicological and chemical analysis and research, and requires authorised prescribers to use the official forms supplied by the Ministerio de Salud, whose entries carry the character of a sworn declaration. The Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes administers that control under Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025 and publishes the fiscalizacion list. The national list files this row among the psicotropicos rather than the estupefacientes, which is the less strict of the two prescription regimes it operates.
Documentation: Consolidation read: Ley 7786 of 30 April 1998 as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, in the Texto Completo Norma 8204 print published by the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas, which carries its own generation date of 19 November 2018. The same ranges, ocho a quince anos in article 58 and de ocho a veinte anos in article 77, were independently read on 18 September 2026 against the later Sinalevi record of Ley 7786, version 13 of 13, so the 2018 print is corroborated rather than assumed current. Control model, re derived from the statute in this pass. Costa Rica prints no annex of controlled substances in its drug Act: across the 81 pages the only drug names anywhere are in article 96, on the disposal of seized marihuana, cocaina and heroina. Article 1 regulates "estupefacientes, psicotropicos, sustancias inhalables y demas drogas y farmacos susceptibles de producir dependencias fisicas o psiquicas, incluidos en la Convencion Unica sobre Estupefacientes... de 1961... asi como en el Convenio de Viena sobre Sustancias Psicotropicas, de 21 de febrero de 1971... asimismo, en la Convencion... de 1988". Its second paragraph is a different thing and is often misread as the control annex: it has the Ministerio de Salud and the MAG draw up and publish in La Gaceta "las listas de estupefacientes, psicotropicos y similares Licitos", the licit ones, which is the authorisation side. The incorporation is ambulatory: article 36 defines precursors as Cuadro I of the 1988 Convention "y sus anexos, asi como los que se le incorporen en el futuro", and article 100 gives the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas a mandate framed by the conventions and by "los listados oficiales, publicados periodicamente en La Gaceta". The second limb, measured. The national list is the Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes, Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes of the Ministerio de Salud, updated 10 September 2026 and signed that day by Dra. Mariela Alfaro Segura. It runs to 27 pages in three sections, estupefacientes, psicotropicos and Otros agregados, and it names its own legal basis as the Reglamento para el control de drogas, estupefacientes y psicotropicas N. 45161-S, the instrument cited elsewhere as Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025. The two titles are the same text. A reading of 18 September 2026 records that the decree gives the competent body the function "Elaborar y actualizar la lista de sustancias oficialmente consideradas estupefacientes o psicotropicos y similares de uso regulado" and that its five annexes are forms rather than a substance schedule; that quotation is carried from that reading and was not re derived here. The whole of Otros agregados is twelve entries: metilfenidato, tapentadol and the synthetic cannabinoid JWH-073 among the estupefacientes, and ketamina, esketamina, mexazolam, zaleplon, zopiclona and the piperazines mCPP, CPP, TFMPP and 1,4 dibencilpiperazina among the psicotropicos. Amending Act in force between that list and this reading, read in the official gazette in this pass. Ley 10961 of 9 June 2026, published in Alcance 78 to La Gaceta 113 of 19 June 2026, provides "Rige tres meses a partir de su publicacion" and so took effect on 19 September 2026. It runs to four articles: it adds article 15 quater to Ley 7786 on the anti-money-laundering duties of virtual asset service providers, carries that cross reference into articles 16, 16 bis, 25, 33, 33 bis, 86 and 123, reforms the article 81 administrative fines, and allows three months for regulations. Every Ley 7786 article it touches is money laundering machinery, and it leaves articles 1, 2, 36, 58, 73, 74, 77, 77 bis and 79 untouched, so it moves no row in this batch. Method note. The 2026-09-20 Costa Rica dossier was used only as the slug list and as one of the two term list sources. Its outcome column, its instrument column and its quotation column were not treated as evidence and no placement in this batch rests on them; every placement is the entry read in the list the statute incorporates. Two of its readings were not adopted: it treated ergometrina and ergina as one row when they are separate substances on separate limbs, and it left dextrometorfano unresolved when the instrument excludes it in terms. Sibling name traps were checked rather than assumed. Anchored matching correctly did not return bencilmorfina, desomorfina, dihidromorfina, metildihidromorfina, mirofina or diacetilmorfina for the morfina row, isometadona, normetadona or the metadona intermediario for the metadona row, metcatinona or 4-metiletcatinona for the catinona row, MMDA or N-etil MDA for the MDA row, beta-ceto-MDMA for the MDMA row, levometanfetamina for the metanfetamina row, PCPY for the PCP row, brolanfetamina for the anfetamina row, or norpseudoefedrina for the efedrina row. Two extraction zeroes were false and were recovered by re interrogation: hexahidrocannabinol and 2-fluorodescloroketamina are both line wrapped in the source and a column based read missed both. Routes run for the instrument in this pass. pgrweb.go.cr/scij is a JavaScript shell: the Ley 8204 and Ley 7786 records and the sinalevi.go.cr record each returned about 25 KB that renders to 1,159 characters of site chrome and no statutory text, so a size threshold would have cleared all three. imprentanacional.go.cr served the official gazette carrying Ley 10961. The institutional reproduction at icd.go.cr served the consolidated Act, and ministeriodesalud.go.cr served the national list and the circulars. The schedule pages were checked for hidden content: the list PDF holds one image object repeated on all 27 pages, which is the ministry letterhead, and its byte size is accounted for by that banner, so no entry is carried in an image. Entry read for this row, recorded as the list prints it: "PB 008, CAS 66142-81-2, 2C-B, 4-bromo-2,5-dimetoxifenetilamina", in Lista II of the 1971 Convention. Carry the prescription and the dispensing label, and expect the authorisation rather than the amount to be what is asked about. There is no personal allowance to fall back on, because no article of Ley 7786 fixes a threshold. Sourcing, re derived in this pass and not carried: the two Junta de Vigilancia de Drogas urls cited by this row are DIRECTORIES and not documents. The listing page names the national fiscalisation list but does not carry it; the list is a separate PDF behind a numbered link, and that PDF is what the placement in this row actually rests on. Both documents are now fetched and cited by their own urls: "Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes", and "Lista de Estupefacientes y Sustancias Psicotropicas Sometidas a Fiscalizacion Nacional". The first carries the Otros agregados section this row's reasoning refers to [Certain, read from the fetched PDF]. The circulars page cited alongside them exposes no document at all.

2C-B in Costa Rica, full detail →

3-MMC

Legal status: Controlled. Article 1 of Ley 7786, as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, fixes the scope by reference to the substances included in the 1961 and 1971 Conventions and the 1988 Convention, and the Ministerio de Salud reproduces those listas in Spanish in its national fiscalizacion list and adds a short Otros agregados section of national additions. This row was read as a named entry in Lista II of the 1971 Convention. The offence articles are 58 and 77. [Certain] for the placement, with the entry text recorded in the documentation.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Article 21 of the Constitution provides "La vida humana es inviolable", the human life is inviolable, and the word "muerte" appears zero times across the 81 pages of the consolidated Act. Both of those were measured in this pass and together they are what carries the heading. Costa Rica is an abolitionist state of long standing, [Likely] on the nineteenth century date, which was not re-derived here. Unauthorised trafficking conduct carries eight to fifteen years. Article 58 provides "Se impondra pena de prision de ocho a quince anos a quien, sin autorizacion legal, distribuya, comercie, suministre, fabrique, elabore, refine, transforme, extraiga, prepare, cultive, produzca, transporte, almacene o venda las drogas". That is eight to fifteen years for unauthorised distribution, commerce, supply, manufacture, processing, extraction, preparation, cultivation, production, transport, storage or sale. Article 77 raises the range to eight to twenty years where one of its eight enumerated aggravating circumstances is present, and twenty years is the ceiling this Act identifies. No article states a weight threshold, so the trigger is the unauthorised act and never a quantity. The second paragraph of article 58 reaches possession only "para cualquiera de los fines expresados", that is possession for one of those trafficking purposes. Ley 7786 creates no offence of consumption and no offence of simple possession for personal use. Article 79 answers a person consuming in a public place with voluntary and free treatment in a public or private health centre, not with a penalty.
If prescribed / medical: A lawful medical route exists only through the authorisation the Act itself demands. Article 58 opens with the words "sin autorizacion legal", so conduct carried out under a Costa Rican authorisation falls outside the offence and conduct without one falls inside it whatever the amount. Article 2 confines handling to the quantities needed for medical treatment, toxicological and chemical analysis and research, and requires authorised prescribers to use the official forms supplied by the Ministerio de Salud, whose entries carry the character of a sworn declaration. The Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes administers that control under Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025 and publishes the fiscalizacion list. The national list files this row among the psicotropicos rather than the estupefacientes, which is the less strict of the two prescription regimes it operates.
Documentation: Consolidation read: Ley 7786 of 30 April 1998 as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, in the Texto Completo Norma 8204 print published by the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas, which carries its own generation date of 19 November 2018. The same ranges, ocho a quince anos in article 58 and de ocho a veinte anos in article 77, were independently read on 18 September 2026 against the later Sinalevi record of Ley 7786, version 13 of 13, so the 2018 print is corroborated rather than assumed current. Control model, re derived from the statute in this pass. Costa Rica prints no annex of controlled substances in its drug Act: across the 81 pages the only drug names anywhere are in article 96, on the disposal of seized marihuana, cocaina and heroina. Article 1 regulates "estupefacientes, psicotropicos, sustancias inhalables y demas drogas y farmacos susceptibles de producir dependencias fisicas o psiquicas, incluidos en la Convencion Unica sobre Estupefacientes... de 1961... asi como en el Convenio de Viena sobre Sustancias Psicotropicas, de 21 de febrero de 1971... asimismo, en la Convencion... de 1988". Its second paragraph is a different thing and is often misread as the control annex: it has the Ministerio de Salud and the MAG draw up and publish in La Gaceta "las listas de estupefacientes, psicotropicos y similares Licitos", the licit ones, which is the authorisation side. The incorporation is ambulatory: article 36 defines precursors as Cuadro I of the 1988 Convention "y sus anexos, asi como los que se le incorporen en el futuro", and article 100 gives the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas a mandate framed by the conventions and by "los listados oficiales, publicados periodicamente en La Gaceta". The second limb, measured. The national list is the Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes, Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes of the Ministerio de Salud, updated 10 September 2026 and signed that day by Dra. Mariela Alfaro Segura. It runs to 27 pages in three sections, estupefacientes, psicotropicos and Otros agregados, and it names its own legal basis as the Reglamento para el control de drogas, estupefacientes y psicotropicas N. 45161-S, the instrument cited elsewhere as Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025. The two titles are the same text. A reading of 18 September 2026 records that the decree gives the competent body the function "Elaborar y actualizar la lista de sustancias oficialmente consideradas estupefacientes o psicotropicos y similares de uso regulado" and that its five annexes are forms rather than a substance schedule; that quotation is carried from that reading and was not re derived here. The whole of Otros agregados is twelve entries: metilfenidato, tapentadol and the synthetic cannabinoid JWH-073 among the estupefacientes, and ketamina, esketamina, mexazolam, zaleplon, zopiclona and the piperazines mCPP, CPP, TFMPP and 1,4 dibencilpiperazina among the psicotropicos. Amending Act in force between that list and this reading, read in the official gazette in this pass. Ley 10961 of 9 June 2026, published in Alcance 78 to La Gaceta 113 of 19 June 2026, provides "Rige tres meses a partir de su publicacion" and so took effect on 19 September 2026. It runs to four articles: it adds article 15 quater to Ley 7786 on the anti-money-laundering duties of virtual asset service providers, carries that cross reference into articles 16, 16 bis, 25, 33, 33 bis, 86 and 123, reforms the article 81 administrative fines, and allows three months for regulations. Every Ley 7786 article it touches is money laundering machinery, and it leaves articles 1, 2, 36, 58, 73, 74, 77, 77 bis and 79 untouched, so it moves no row in this batch. Method note. The 2026-09-20 Costa Rica dossier was used only as the slug list and as one of the two term list sources. Its outcome column, its instrument column and its quotation column were not treated as evidence and no placement in this batch rests on them; every placement is the entry read in the list the statute incorporates. Two of its readings were not adopted: it treated ergometrina and ergina as one row when they are separate substances on separate limbs, and it left dextrometorfano unresolved when the instrument excludes it in terms. Sibling name traps were checked rather than assumed. Anchored matching correctly did not return bencilmorfina, desomorfina, dihidromorfina, metildihidromorfina, mirofina or diacetilmorfina for the morfina row, isometadona, normetadona or the metadona intermediario for the metadona row, metcatinona or 4-metiletcatinona for the catinona row, MMDA or N-etil MDA for the MDA row, beta-ceto-MDMA for the MDMA row, levometanfetamina for the metanfetamina row, PCPY for the PCP row, brolanfetamina for the anfetamina row, or norpseudoefedrina for the efedrina row. Two extraction zeroes were false and were recovered by re interrogation: hexahidrocannabinol and 2-fluorodescloroketamina are both line wrapped in the source and a column based read missed both. Routes run for the instrument in this pass. pgrweb.go.cr/scij is a JavaScript shell: the Ley 8204 and Ley 7786 records and the sinalevi.go.cr record each returned about 25 KB that renders to 1,159 characters of site chrome and no statutory text, so a size threshold would have cleared all three. imprentanacional.go.cr served the official gazette carrying Ley 10961. The institutional reproduction at icd.go.cr served the consolidated Act, and ministeriodesalud.go.cr served the national list and the circulars. The schedule pages were checked for hidden content: the list PDF holds one image object repeated on all 27 pages, which is the ministry letterhead, and its byte size is accounted for by that banner, so no entry is carried in an image. Entry read for this row, recorded as the list prints it: "PM 032, CAS 1246816-62-5, 3-metilmetcatinona, 2-(metilamino)-1-(3-metilfenil)propan-1-ona", in Lista II of the 1971 Convention. Carry the prescription and the dispensing label, and expect the authorisation rather than the amount to be what is asked about. There is no personal allowance to fall back on, because no article of Ley 7786 fixes a threshold. Sourcing, re derived in this pass and not carried: the two Junta de Vigilancia de Drogas urls cited by this row are DIRECTORIES and not documents. The listing page names the national fiscalisation list but does not carry it; the list is a separate PDF behind a numbered link, and that PDF is what the placement in this row actually rests on. Both documents are now fetched and cited by their own urls: "Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes", and "Lista de Estupefacientes y Sustancias Psicotropicas Sometidas a Fiscalizacion Nacional". The first carries the Otros agregados section this row's reasoning refers to [Certain, read from the fetched PDF]. The circulars page cited alongside them exposes no document at all.

3-MMC in Costa Rica, full detail →

Adderall

Legal status: Controlled. Article 1 of Ley 7786, as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, fixes the scope by reference to the substances included in the 1961 and 1971 Conventions and the 1988 Convention, and the Ministerio de Salud reproduces those listas in Spanish in its national fiscalizacion list and adds a short Otros agregados section of national additions. This row was read as a named entry in Lista II of the 1971 Convention. Adderall is a brand rather than a listed name, and it is reached through its amphetamine and dexamphetamine constituents. The offence articles are 58 and 77. [Certain] for the placement, with the entry text recorded in the documentation.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Article 21 of the Constitution provides "La vida humana es inviolable", the human life is inviolable, and the word "muerte" appears zero times across the 81 pages of the consolidated Act. Both of those were measured in this pass and together they are what carries the heading. Costa Rica is an abolitionist state of long standing, [Likely] on the nineteenth century date, which was not re-derived here. Unauthorised trafficking conduct carries eight to fifteen years. Article 58 provides "Se impondra pena de prision de ocho a quince anos a quien, sin autorizacion legal, distribuya, comercie, suministre, fabrique, elabore, refine, transforme, extraiga, prepare, cultive, produzca, transporte, almacene o venda las drogas". That is eight to fifteen years for unauthorised distribution, commerce, supply, manufacture, processing, extraction, preparation, cultivation, production, transport, storage or sale. Article 77 raises the range to eight to twenty years where one of its eight enumerated aggravating circumstances is present, and twenty years is the ceiling this Act identifies. No article states a weight threshold, so the trigger is the unauthorised act and never a quantity. The second paragraph of article 58 reaches possession only "para cualquiera de los fines expresados", that is possession for one of those trafficking purposes. Ley 7786 creates no offence of consumption and no offence of simple possession for personal use. Article 79 answers a person consuming in a public place with voluntary and free treatment in a public or private health centre, not with a penalty.
If prescribed / medical: A lawful medical route exists only through the authorisation the Act itself demands. Article 58 opens with the words "sin autorizacion legal", so conduct carried out under a Costa Rican authorisation falls outside the offence and conduct without one falls inside it whatever the amount. Article 2 confines handling to the quantities needed for medical treatment, toxicological and chemical analysis and research, and requires authorised prescribers to use the official forms supplied by the Ministerio de Salud, whose entries carry the character of a sworn declaration. The Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes administers that control under Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025 and publishes the fiscalizacion list. The national list files this row among the psicotropicos rather than the estupefacientes, which is the less strict of the two prescription regimes it operates.
Documentation: Consolidation read: Ley 7786 of 30 April 1998 as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, in the Texto Completo Norma 8204 print published by the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas, which carries its own generation date of 19 November 2018. The same ranges, ocho a quince anos in article 58 and de ocho a veinte anos in article 77, were independently read on 18 September 2026 against the later Sinalevi record of Ley 7786, version 13 of 13, so the 2018 print is corroborated rather than assumed current. Control model, re derived from the statute in this pass. Costa Rica prints no annex of controlled substances in its drug Act: across the 81 pages the only drug names anywhere are in article 96, on the disposal of seized marihuana, cocaina and heroina. Article 1 regulates "estupefacientes, psicotropicos, sustancias inhalables y demas drogas y farmacos susceptibles de producir dependencias fisicas o psiquicas, incluidos en la Convencion Unica sobre Estupefacientes... de 1961... asi como en el Convenio de Viena sobre Sustancias Psicotropicas, de 21 de febrero de 1971... asimismo, en la Convencion... de 1988". Its second paragraph is a different thing and is often misread as the control annex: it has the Ministerio de Salud and the MAG draw up and publish in La Gaceta "las listas de estupefacientes, psicotropicos y similares Licitos", the licit ones, which is the authorisation side. The incorporation is ambulatory: article 36 defines precursors as Cuadro I of the 1988 Convention "y sus anexos, asi como los que se le incorporen en el futuro", and article 100 gives the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas a mandate framed by the conventions and by "los listados oficiales, publicados periodicamente en La Gaceta". The second limb, measured. The national list is the Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes, Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes of the Ministerio de Salud, updated 10 September 2026 and signed that day by Dra. Mariela Alfaro Segura. It runs to 27 pages in three sections, estupefacientes, psicotropicos and Otros agregados, and it names its own legal basis as the Reglamento para el control de drogas, estupefacientes y psicotropicas N. 45161-S, the instrument cited elsewhere as Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025. The two titles are the same text. A reading of 18 September 2026 records that the decree gives the competent body the function "Elaborar y actualizar la lista de sustancias oficialmente consideradas estupefacientes o psicotropicos y similares de uso regulado" and that its five annexes are forms rather than a substance schedule; that quotation is carried from that reading and was not re derived here. The whole of Otros agregados is twelve entries: metilfenidato, tapentadol and the synthetic cannabinoid JWH-073 among the estupefacientes, and ketamina, esketamina, mexazolam, zaleplon, zopiclona and the piperazines mCPP, CPP, TFMPP and 1,4 dibencilpiperazina among the psicotropicos. Amending Act in force between that list and this reading, read in the official gazette in this pass. Ley 10961 of 9 June 2026, published in Alcance 78 to La Gaceta 113 of 19 June 2026, provides "Rige tres meses a partir de su publicacion" and so took effect on 19 September 2026. It runs to four articles: it adds article 15 quater to Ley 7786 on the anti-money-laundering duties of virtual asset service providers, carries that cross reference into articles 16, 16 bis, 25, 33, 33 bis, 86 and 123, reforms the article 81 administrative fines, and allows three months for regulations. Every Ley 7786 article it touches is money laundering machinery, and it leaves articles 1, 2, 36, 58, 73, 74, 77, 77 bis and 79 untouched, so it moves no row in this batch. Method note. The 2026-09-20 Costa Rica dossier was used only as the slug list and as one of the two term list sources. Its outcome column, its instrument column and its quotation column were not treated as evidence and no placement in this batch rests on them; every placement is the entry read in the list the statute incorporates. Two of its readings were not adopted: it treated ergometrina and ergina as one row when they are separate substances on separate limbs, and it left dextrometorfano unresolved when the instrument excludes it in terms. Sibling name traps were checked rather than assumed. Anchored matching correctly did not return bencilmorfina, desomorfina, dihidromorfina, metildihidromorfina, mirofina or diacetilmorfina for the morfina row, isometadona, normetadona or the metadona intermediario for the metadona row, metcatinona or 4-metiletcatinona for the catinona row, MMDA or N-etil MDA for the MDA row, beta-ceto-MDMA for the MDMA row, levometanfetamina for the metanfetamina row, PCPY for the PCP row, brolanfetamina for the anfetamina row, or norpseudoefedrina for the efedrina row. Two extraction zeroes were false and were recovered by re interrogation: hexahidrocannabinol and 2-fluorodescloroketamina are both line wrapped in the source and a column based read missed both. Routes run for the instrument in this pass. pgrweb.go.cr/scij is a JavaScript shell: the Ley 8204 and Ley 7786 records and the sinalevi.go.cr record each returned about 25 KB that renders to 1,159 characters of site chrome and no statutory text, so a size threshold would have cleared all three. imprentanacional.go.cr served the official gazette carrying Ley 10961. The institutional reproduction at icd.go.cr served the consolidated Act, and ministeriodesalud.go.cr served the national list and the circulars. The schedule pages were checked for hidden content: the list PDF holds one image object repeated on all 27 pages, which is the ministry letterhead, and its byte size is accounted for by that banner, so no entry is carried in an image. Entry read for this row, recorded as the list prints it: "PA 003, CAS 300-62-9, Anfetamina / anfetamina, (+/-)-alfa-metilfenetilamina" and "PD 002, CAS 51-64-9, Dexanfetamina / dexanfetamina, (+)-alfa-metilfenetilamina", in Lista II of the 1971 Convention. Carry the prescription and the dispensing label, and expect the authorisation rather than the amount to be what is asked about. There is no personal allowance to fall back on, because no article of Ley 7786 fixes a threshold. Sourcing, re derived in this pass and not carried: the two Junta de Vigilancia de Drogas urls cited by this row are DIRECTORIES and not documents. The listing page names the national fiscalisation list but does not carry it; the list is a separate PDF behind a numbered link, and that PDF is what the placement in this row actually rests on. Both documents are now fetched and cited by their own urls: "Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes", and "Lista de Estupefacientes y Sustancias Psicotropicas Sometidas a Fiscalizacion Nacional". The first carries the Otros agregados section this row's reasoning refers to [Certain, read from the fetched PDF]. The circulars page cited alongside them exposes no document at all.

Adderall in Costa Rica, full detail →

Alcohol

Legal status: Not handled through the drug control model. Article 1 of Ley 7786, as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, fixes the scope by reference to the substances included in the 1961 and 1971 Conventions and the 1988 Convention, and the Ministerio de Salud reproduces those listas in Spanish in its national fiscalizacion list and adds a short Otros agregados section of national additions. No entry for alcohol appears in any of the three sections of the national list and alcohol is in neither Convention schedule, while article 1 expressly preserves the separate operation of the Ley general de salud, N 5395, so licensing and public health law is where this row sits. [Certain] for the absence as at 10 September 2026, which does not rule out a later list.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Article 21 of the Constitution provides "La vida humana es inviolable", the human life is inviolable, and the word "muerte" appears zero times across the 81 pages of the consolidated Act. Both of those were measured in this pass and together they are what carries the heading. Costa Rica is an abolitionist state of long standing, [Likely] on the nineteenth century date, which was not re-derived here. Costa Rica publishes penalties for drug trafficking in articles 58 and 77 of Ley 7786, eight to fifteen years and eight to twenty years on an enumerated aggravation. Those are the country's penalties for the substances the Act covers and they are not this row's exposure, because alcohol is not one of them. The second paragraph of article 58 reaches possession only "para cualquiera de los fines expresados", that is possession for one of those trafficking purposes. Ley 7786 creates no offence of consumption and no offence of simple possession for personal use. Article 79 answers a person consuming in a public place with voluntary and free treatment in a public or private health centre, not with a penalty.
If prescribed / medical: Alcohol is regulated as an ordinary product rather than through the psychotropic prescription form, and age, licensing and advertising rules apply instead of the controls in Ley 7786.
Documentation: Consolidation read: Ley 7786 of 30 April 1998 as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, in the Texto Completo Norma 8204 print published by the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas, which carries its own generation date of 19 November 2018. The same ranges, ocho a quince anos in article 58 and de ocho a veinte anos in article 77, were independently read on 18 September 2026 against the later Sinalevi record of Ley 7786, version 13 of 13, so the 2018 print is corroborated rather than assumed current. Control model, re derived from the statute in this pass. Costa Rica prints no annex of controlled substances in its drug Act: across the 81 pages the only drug names anywhere are in article 96, on the disposal of seized marihuana, cocaina and heroina. Article 1 regulates "estupefacientes, psicotropicos, sustancias inhalables y demas drogas y farmacos susceptibles de producir dependencias fisicas o psiquicas, incluidos en la Convencion Unica sobre Estupefacientes... de 1961... asi como en el Convenio de Viena sobre Sustancias Psicotropicas, de 21 de febrero de 1971... asimismo, en la Convencion... de 1988". Its second paragraph is a different thing and is often misread as the control annex: it has the Ministerio de Salud and the MAG draw up and publish in La Gaceta "las listas de estupefacientes, psicotropicos y similares Licitos", the licit ones, which is the authorisation side. The incorporation is ambulatory: article 36 defines precursors as Cuadro I of the 1988 Convention "y sus anexos, asi como los que se le incorporen en el futuro", and article 100 gives the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas a mandate framed by the conventions and by "los listados oficiales, publicados periodicamente en La Gaceta". The second limb, measured. The national list is the Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes, Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes of the Ministerio de Salud, updated 10 September 2026 and signed that day by Dra. Mariela Alfaro Segura. It runs to 27 pages in three sections, estupefacientes, psicotropicos and Otros agregados, and it names its own legal basis as the Reglamento para el control de drogas, estupefacientes y psicotropicas N. 45161-S, the instrument cited elsewhere as Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025. The two titles are the same text. A reading of 18 September 2026 records that the decree gives the competent body the function "Elaborar y actualizar la lista de sustancias oficialmente consideradas estupefacientes o psicotropicos y similares de uso regulado" and that its five annexes are forms rather than a substance schedule; that quotation is carried from that reading and was not re derived here. The whole of Otros agregados is twelve entries: metilfenidato, tapentadol and the synthetic cannabinoid JWH-073 among the estupefacientes, and ketamina, esketamina, mexazolam, zaleplon, zopiclona and the piperazines mCPP, CPP, TFMPP and 1,4 dibencilpiperazina among the psicotropicos. Amending Act in force between that list and this reading, read in the official gazette in this pass. Ley 10961 of 9 June 2026, published in Alcance 78 to La Gaceta 113 of 19 June 2026, provides "Rige tres meses a partir de su publicacion" and so took effect on 19 September 2026. It runs to four articles: it adds article 15 quater to Ley 7786 on the anti-money-laundering duties of virtual asset service providers, carries that cross reference into articles 16, 16 bis, 25, 33, 33 bis, 86 and 123, reforms the article 81 administrative fines, and allows three months for regulations. Every Ley 7786 article it touches is money laundering machinery, and it leaves articles 1, 2, 36, 58, 73, 74, 77, 77 bis and 79 untouched, so it moves no row in this batch. Method note. The 2026-09-20 Costa Rica dossier was used only as the slug list and as one of the two term list sources. Its outcome column, its instrument column and its quotation column were not treated as evidence and no placement in this batch rests on them; every placement is the entry read in the list the statute incorporates. Two of its readings were not adopted: it treated ergometrina and ergina as one row when they are separate substances on separate limbs, and it left dextrometorfano unresolved when the instrument excludes it in terms. Sibling name traps were checked rather than assumed. Anchored matching correctly did not return bencilmorfina, desomorfina, dihidromorfina, metildihidromorfina, mirofina or diacetilmorfina for the morfina row, isometadona, normetadona or the metadona intermediario for the metadona row, metcatinona or 4-metiletcatinona for the catinona row, MMDA or N-etil MDA for the MDA row, beta-ceto-MDMA for the MDMA row, levometanfetamina for the metanfetamina row, PCPY for the PCP row, brolanfetamina for the anfetamina row, or norpseudoefedrina for the efedrina row. Two extraction zeroes were false and were recovered by re interrogation: hexahidrocannabinol and 2-fluorodescloroketamina are both line wrapped in the source and a column based read missed both. Routes run for the instrument in this pass. pgrweb.go.cr/scij is a JavaScript shell: the Ley 8204 and Ley 7786 records and the sinalevi.go.cr record each returned about 25 KB that renders to 1,159 characters of site chrome and no statutory text, so a size threshold would have cleared all three. imprentanacional.go.cr served the official gazette carrying Ley 10961. The institutional reproduction at icd.go.cr served the consolidated Act, and ministeriodesalud.go.cr served the national list and the circulars. The schedule pages were checked for hidden content: the list PDF holds one image object repeated on all 27 pages, which is the ministry letterhead, and its byte size is accounted for by that banner, so no entry is carried in an image. Search run for this row: alcohol returned no entry across the estupefacientes, psicotropicos and Otros agregados sections of the national list as at 10 September 2026, and none in the Green List or the Yellow List. A later list than the one read does not rule out a change. Carry any prescription and its dispensing label, and treat the position as open rather than settled. Sourcing, re derived in this pass and not carried: the two Junta de Vigilancia de Drogas urls cited by this row are DIRECTORIES and not documents. The listing page names the national fiscalisation list but does not carry it; the list is a separate PDF behind a numbered link, and that PDF is what the placement in this row actually rests on. Both documents are now fetched and cited by their own urls: "Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes", and "Lista de Estupefacientes y Sustancias Psicotropicas Sometidas a Fiscalizacion Nacional". The first carries the Otros agregados section this row's reasoning refers to [Certain, read from the fetched PDF]. The circulars page cited alongside them exposes no document at all.

Alcohol in Costa Rica, full detail →

Amphetamine

Legal status: Controlled. Article 1 of Ley 7786, as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, fixes the scope by reference to the substances included in the 1961 and 1971 Conventions and the 1988 Convention, and the Ministerio de Salud reproduces those listas in Spanish in its national fiscalizacion list and adds a short Otros agregados section of national additions. This row was read as a named entry in Lista II of the 1971 Convention. The offence articles are 58 and 77. [Certain] for the placement, with the entry text recorded in the documentation.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Article 21 of the Constitution provides "La vida humana es inviolable", the human life is inviolable, and the word "muerte" appears zero times across the 81 pages of the consolidated Act. Both of those were measured in this pass and together they are what carries the heading. Costa Rica is an abolitionist state of long standing, [Likely] on the nineteenth century date, which was not re-derived here. Unauthorised trafficking conduct carries eight to fifteen years. Article 58 provides "Se impondra pena de prision de ocho a quince anos a quien, sin autorizacion legal, distribuya, comercie, suministre, fabrique, elabore, refine, transforme, extraiga, prepare, cultive, produzca, transporte, almacene o venda las drogas". That is eight to fifteen years for unauthorised distribution, commerce, supply, manufacture, processing, extraction, preparation, cultivation, production, transport, storage or sale. Article 77 raises the range to eight to twenty years where one of its eight enumerated aggravating circumstances is present, and twenty years is the ceiling this Act identifies. No article states a weight threshold, so the trigger is the unauthorised act and never a quantity. The second paragraph of article 58 reaches possession only "para cualquiera de los fines expresados", that is possession for one of those trafficking purposes. Ley 7786 creates no offence of consumption and no offence of simple possession for personal use. Article 79 answers a person consuming in a public place with voluntary and free treatment in a public or private health centre, not with a penalty.
If prescribed / medical: A lawful medical route exists only through the authorisation the Act itself demands. Article 58 opens with the words "sin autorizacion legal", so conduct carried out under a Costa Rican authorisation falls outside the offence and conduct without one falls inside it whatever the amount. Article 2 confines handling to the quantities needed for medical treatment, toxicological and chemical analysis and research, and requires authorised prescribers to use the official forms supplied by the Ministerio de Salud, whose entries carry the character of a sworn declaration. The Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes administers that control under Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025 and publishes the fiscalizacion list. The national list files this row among the psicotropicos rather than the estupefacientes, which is the less strict of the two prescription regimes it operates.
Documentation: Consolidation read: Ley 7786 of 30 April 1998 as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, in the Texto Completo Norma 8204 print published by the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas, which carries its own generation date of 19 November 2018. The same ranges, ocho a quince anos in article 58 and de ocho a veinte anos in article 77, were independently read on 18 September 2026 against the later Sinalevi record of Ley 7786, version 13 of 13, so the 2018 print is corroborated rather than assumed current. Control model, re derived from the statute in this pass. Costa Rica prints no annex of controlled substances in its drug Act: across the 81 pages the only drug names anywhere are in article 96, on the disposal of seized marihuana, cocaina and heroina. Article 1 regulates "estupefacientes, psicotropicos, sustancias inhalables y demas drogas y farmacos susceptibles de producir dependencias fisicas o psiquicas, incluidos en la Convencion Unica sobre Estupefacientes... de 1961... asi como en el Convenio de Viena sobre Sustancias Psicotropicas, de 21 de febrero de 1971... asimismo, en la Convencion... de 1988". Its second paragraph is a different thing and is often misread as the control annex: it has the Ministerio de Salud and the MAG draw up and publish in La Gaceta "las listas de estupefacientes, psicotropicos y similares Licitos", the licit ones, which is the authorisation side. The incorporation is ambulatory: article 36 defines precursors as Cuadro I of the 1988 Convention "y sus anexos, asi como los que se le incorporen en el futuro", and article 100 gives the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas a mandate framed by the conventions and by "los listados oficiales, publicados periodicamente en La Gaceta". The second limb, measured. The national list is the Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes, Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes of the Ministerio de Salud, updated 10 September 2026 and signed that day by Dra. Mariela Alfaro Segura. It runs to 27 pages in three sections, estupefacientes, psicotropicos and Otros agregados, and it names its own legal basis as the Reglamento para el control de drogas, estupefacientes y psicotropicas N. 45161-S, the instrument cited elsewhere as Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025. The two titles are the same text. A reading of 18 September 2026 records that the decree gives the competent body the function "Elaborar y actualizar la lista de sustancias oficialmente consideradas estupefacientes o psicotropicos y similares de uso regulado" and that its five annexes are forms rather than a substance schedule; that quotation is carried from that reading and was not re derived here. The whole of Otros agregados is twelve entries: metilfenidato, tapentadol and the synthetic cannabinoid JWH-073 among the estupefacientes, and ketamina, esketamina, mexazolam, zaleplon, zopiclona and the piperazines mCPP, CPP, TFMPP and 1,4 dibencilpiperazina among the psicotropicos. Amending Act in force between that list and this reading, read in the official gazette in this pass. Ley 10961 of 9 June 2026, published in Alcance 78 to La Gaceta 113 of 19 June 2026, provides "Rige tres meses a partir de su publicacion" and so took effect on 19 September 2026. It runs to four articles: it adds article 15 quater to Ley 7786 on the anti-money-laundering duties of virtual asset service providers, carries that cross reference into articles 16, 16 bis, 25, 33, 33 bis, 86 and 123, reforms the article 81 administrative fines, and allows three months for regulations. Every Ley 7786 article it touches is money laundering machinery, and it leaves articles 1, 2, 36, 58, 73, 74, 77, 77 bis and 79 untouched, so it moves no row in this batch. Method note. The 2026-09-20 Costa Rica dossier was used only as the slug list and as one of the two term list sources. Its outcome column, its instrument column and its quotation column were not treated as evidence and no placement in this batch rests on them; every placement is the entry read in the list the statute incorporates. Two of its readings were not adopted: it treated ergometrina and ergina as one row when they are separate substances on separate limbs, and it left dextrometorfano unresolved when the instrument excludes it in terms. Sibling name traps were checked rather than assumed. Anchored matching correctly did not return bencilmorfina, desomorfina, dihidromorfina, metildihidromorfina, mirofina or diacetilmorfina for the morfina row, isometadona, normetadona or the metadona intermediario for the metadona row, metcatinona or 4-metiletcatinona for the catinona row, MMDA or N-etil MDA for the MDA row, beta-ceto-MDMA for the MDMA row, levometanfetamina for the metanfetamina row, PCPY for the PCP row, brolanfetamina for the anfetamina row, or norpseudoefedrina for the efedrina row. Two extraction zeroes were false and were recovered by re interrogation: hexahidrocannabinol and 2-fluorodescloroketamina are both line wrapped in the source and a column based read missed both. Routes run for the instrument in this pass. pgrweb.go.cr/scij is a JavaScript shell: the Ley 8204 and Ley 7786 records and the sinalevi.go.cr record each returned about 25 KB that renders to 1,159 characters of site chrome and no statutory text, so a size threshold would have cleared all three. imprentanacional.go.cr served the official gazette carrying Ley 10961. The institutional reproduction at icd.go.cr served the consolidated Act, and ministeriodesalud.go.cr served the national list and the circulars. The schedule pages were checked for hidden content: the list PDF holds one image object repeated on all 27 pages, which is the ministry letterhead, and its byte size is accounted for by that banner, so no entry is carried in an image. Entry read for this row, recorded as the list prints it: "PA 003, CAS 300-62-9, Anfetamina / anfetamina, (+/-)-alfa-metilfenetilamina", in Lista II of the 1971 Convention. Carry the prescription and the dispensing label, and expect the authorisation rather than the amount to be what is asked about. There is no personal allowance to fall back on, because no article of Ley 7786 fixes a threshold. Sourcing, re derived in this pass and not carried: the two Junta de Vigilancia de Drogas urls cited by this row are DIRECTORIES and not documents. The listing page names the national fiscalisation list but does not carry it; the list is a separate PDF behind a numbered link, and that PDF is what the placement in this row actually rests on. Both documents are now fetched and cited by their own urls: "Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes", and "Lista de Estupefacientes y Sustancias Psicotropicas Sometidas a Fiscalizacion Nacional". The first carries the Otros agregados section this row's reasoning refers to [Certain, read from the fetched PDF]. The circulars page cited alongside them exposes no document at all.

Amphetamine in Costa Rica, full detail →

Ayahuasca

Legal status: Controlled through named members rather than through one entry, so the exposure turns on which member is in hand. Article 1 of Ley 7786, as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, fixes the scope by reference to the substances included in the 1961 and 1971 Conventions and the 1988 Convention, and the Ministerio de Salud reproduces those listas in Spanish in its national fiscalizacion list and adds a short Otros agregados section of national additions. The members were read in Lista I of the 1971 Convention. The offence articles are 58 and 77. [Certain] for the placements, with the entry text recorded in the documentation.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Article 21 of the Constitution provides "La vida humana es inviolable", the human life is inviolable, and the word "muerte" appears zero times across the 81 pages of the consolidated Act. Both of those were measured in this pass and together they are what carries the heading. Costa Rica is an abolitionist state of long standing, [Likely] on the nineteenth century date, which was not re-derived here. Unauthorised trafficking conduct carries eight to fifteen years. Article 58 provides "Se impondra pena de prision de ocho a quince anos a quien, sin autorizacion legal, distribuya, comercie, suministre, fabrique, elabore, refine, transforme, extraiga, prepare, cultive, produzca, transporte, almacene o venda las drogas". That is eight to fifteen years for unauthorised distribution, commerce, supply, manufacture, processing, extraction, preparation, cultivation, production, transport, storage or sale. Article 77 raises the range to eight to twenty years where one of its eight enumerated aggravating circumstances is present, and twenty years is the ceiling this Act identifies. No article states a weight threshold, so the trigger is the unauthorised act and never a quantity. The second paragraph of article 58 reaches possession only "para cualquiera de los fines expresados", that is possession for one of those trafficking purposes. Ley 7786 creates no offence of consumption and no offence of simple possession for personal use. Article 79 answers a person consuming in a public place with voluntary and free treatment in a public or private health centre, not with a penalty.
If prescribed / medical: A lawful medical route exists only through the authorisation the Act itself demands. Article 58 opens with the words "sin autorizacion legal", so conduct carried out under a Costa Rican authorisation falls outside the offence and conduct without one falls inside it whatever the amount. Article 2 confines handling to the quantities needed for medical treatment, toxicological and chemical analysis and research, and requires authorised prescribers to use the official forms supplied by the Ministerio de Salud, whose entries carry the character of a sworn declaration. The Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes administers that control under Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025 and publishes the fiscalizacion list. The national list files this row among the psicotropicos rather than the estupefacientes, which is the less strict of the two prescription regimes it operates.
Documentation: Consolidation read: Ley 7786 of 30 April 1998 as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, in the Texto Completo Norma 8204 print published by the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas, which carries its own generation date of 19 November 2018. The same ranges, ocho a quince anos in article 58 and de ocho a veinte anos in article 77, were independently read on 18 September 2026 against the later Sinalevi record of Ley 7786, version 13 of 13, so the 2018 print is corroborated rather than assumed current. Control model, re derived from the statute in this pass. Costa Rica prints no annex of controlled substances in its drug Act: across the 81 pages the only drug names anywhere are in article 96, on the disposal of seized marihuana, cocaina and heroina. Article 1 regulates "estupefacientes, psicotropicos, sustancias inhalables y demas drogas y farmacos susceptibles de producir dependencias fisicas o psiquicas, incluidos en la Convencion Unica sobre Estupefacientes... de 1961... asi como en el Convenio de Viena sobre Sustancias Psicotropicas, de 21 de febrero de 1971... asimismo, en la Convencion... de 1988". Its second paragraph is a different thing and is often misread as the control annex: it has the Ministerio de Salud and the MAG draw up and publish in La Gaceta "las listas de estupefacientes, psicotropicos y similares Licitos", the licit ones, which is the authorisation side. The incorporation is ambulatory: article 36 defines precursors as Cuadro I of the 1988 Convention "y sus anexos, asi como los que se le incorporen en el futuro", and article 100 gives the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas a mandate framed by the conventions and by "los listados oficiales, publicados periodicamente en La Gaceta". The second limb, measured. The national list is the Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes, Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes of the Ministerio de Salud, updated 10 September 2026 and signed that day by Dra. Mariela Alfaro Segura. It runs to 27 pages in three sections, estupefacientes, psicotropicos and Otros agregados, and it names its own legal basis as the Reglamento para el control de drogas, estupefacientes y psicotropicas N. 45161-S, the instrument cited elsewhere as Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025. The two titles are the same text. A reading of 18 September 2026 records that the decree gives the competent body the function "Elaborar y actualizar la lista de sustancias oficialmente consideradas estupefacientes o psicotropicos y similares de uso regulado" and that its five annexes are forms rather than a substance schedule; that quotation is carried from that reading and was not re derived here. The whole of Otros agregados is twelve entries: metilfenidato, tapentadol and the synthetic cannabinoid JWH-073 among the estupefacientes, and ketamina, esketamina, mexazolam, zaleplon, zopiclona and the piperazines mCPP, CPP, TFMPP and 1,4 dibencilpiperazina among the psicotropicos. Amending Act in force between that list and this reading, read in the official gazette in this pass. Ley 10961 of 9 June 2026, published in Alcance 78 to La Gaceta 113 of 19 June 2026, provides "Rige tres meses a partir de su publicacion" and so took effect on 19 September 2026. It runs to four articles: it adds article 15 quater to Ley 7786 on the anti-money-laundering duties of virtual asset service providers, carries that cross reference into articles 16, 16 bis, 25, 33, 33 bis, 86 and 123, reforms the article 81 administrative fines, and allows three months for regulations. Every Ley 7786 article it touches is money laundering machinery, and it leaves articles 1, 2, 36, 58, 73, 74, 77, 77 bis and 79 untouched, so it moves no row in this batch. Method note. The 2026-09-20 Costa Rica dossier was used only as the slug list and as one of the two term list sources. Its outcome column, its instrument column and its quotation column were not treated as evidence and no placement in this batch rests on them; every placement is the entry read in the list the statute incorporates. Two of its readings were not adopted: it treated ergometrina and ergina as one row when they are separate substances on separate limbs, and it left dextrometorfano unresolved when the instrument excludes it in terms. Sibling name traps were checked rather than assumed. Anchored matching correctly did not return bencilmorfina, desomorfina, dihidromorfina, metildihidromorfina, mirofina or diacetilmorfina for the morfina row, isometadona, normetadona or the metadona intermediario for the metadona row, metcatinona or 4-metiletcatinona for the catinona row, MMDA or N-etil MDA for the MDA row, beta-ceto-MDMA for the MDMA row, levometanfetamina for the metanfetamina row, PCPY for the PCP row, brolanfetamina for the anfetamina row, or norpseudoefedrina for the efedrina row. Two extraction zeroes were false and were recovered by re interrogation: hexahidrocannabinol and 2-fluorodescloroketamina are both line wrapped in the source and a column based read missed both. Routes run for the instrument in this pass. pgrweb.go.cr/scij is a JavaScript shell: the Ley 8204 and Ley 7786 records and the sinalevi.go.cr record each returned about 25 KB that renders to 1,159 characters of site chrome and no statutory text, so a size threshold would have cleared all three. imprentanacional.go.cr served the official gazette carrying Ley 10961. The institutional reproduction at icd.go.cr served the consolidated Act, and ministeriodesalud.go.cr served the national list and the circulars. The schedule pages were checked for hidden content: the list PDF holds one image object repeated on all 27 pages, which is the ministry letterhead, and its byte size is accounted for by that banner, so no entry is carried in an image. Ayahuasca is a plant preparation rather than a listed name, and neither the brew, Banisteriopsis caapi nor Psychotria viridis appears as an entry. Its control follows the alkaloid it carries, and that alkaloid is entered: "PD 004, DMT, 3-[2-(dimetilamino)etil]indol", all in Lista I of the 1971 Convention. Carry the prescription and the dispensing label, and expect the authorisation rather than the amount to be what is asked about. There is no personal allowance to fall back on, because no article of Ley 7786 fixes a threshold. Sourcing, re derived in this pass and not carried: the two Junta de Vigilancia de Drogas urls cited by this row are DIRECTORIES and not documents. The listing page names the national fiscalisation list but does not carry it; the list is a separate PDF behind a numbered link, and that PDF is what the placement in this row actually rests on. Both documents are now fetched and cited by their own urls: "Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes", and "Lista de Estupefacientes y Sustancias Psicotropicas Sometidas a Fiscalizacion Nacional". The first carries the Otros agregados section this row's reasoning refers to [Certain, read from the fetched PDF]. The circulars page cited alongside them exposes no document at all.

Ayahuasca in Costa Rica, full detail →

Barbiturates

Legal status: Controlled through named members rather than through one entry, so the exposure turns on which member is in hand. Article 1 of Ley 7786, as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, fixes the scope by reference to the substances included in the 1961 and 1971 Conventions and the 1988 Convention, and the Ministerio de Salud reproduces those listas in Spanish in its national fiscalizacion list and adds a short Otros agregados section of national additions. The members were read in Listas II, III and IV of the 1971 Convention. The offence articles are 58 and 77. [Certain] for the placements, with the entry text recorded in the documentation.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Article 21 of the Constitution provides "La vida humana es inviolable", the human life is inviolable, and the word "muerte" appears zero times across the 81 pages of the consolidated Act. Both of those were measured in this pass and together they are what carries the heading. Costa Rica is an abolitionist state of long standing, [Likely] on the nineteenth century date, which was not re-derived here. Unauthorised trafficking conduct carries eight to fifteen years. Article 58 provides "Se impondra pena de prision de ocho a quince anos a quien, sin autorizacion legal, distribuya, comercie, suministre, fabrique, elabore, refine, transforme, extraiga, prepare, cultive, produzca, transporte, almacene o venda las drogas". That is eight to fifteen years for unauthorised distribution, commerce, supply, manufacture, processing, extraction, preparation, cultivation, production, transport, storage or sale. Article 77 raises the range to eight to twenty years where one of its eight enumerated aggravating circumstances is present, and twenty years is the ceiling this Act identifies. No article states a weight threshold, so the trigger is the unauthorised act and never a quantity. The second paragraph of article 58 reaches possession only "para cualquiera de los fines expresados", that is possession for one of those trafficking purposes. Ley 7786 creates no offence of consumption and no offence of simple possession for personal use. Article 79 answers a person consuming in a public place with voluntary and free treatment in a public or private health centre, not with a penalty.
If prescribed / medical: A lawful medical route exists only through the authorisation the Act itself demands. Article 58 opens with the words "sin autorizacion legal", so conduct carried out under a Costa Rican authorisation falls outside the offence and conduct without one falls inside it whatever the amount. Article 2 confines handling to the quantities needed for medical treatment, toxicological and chemical analysis and research, and requires authorised prescribers to use the official forms supplied by the Ministerio de Salud, whose entries carry the character of a sworn declaration. The Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes administers that control under Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025 and publishes the fiscalizacion list. The national list files this row among the psicotropicos rather than the estupefacientes, which is the less strict of the two prescription regimes it operates.
Documentation: Consolidation read: Ley 7786 of 30 April 1998 as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, in the Texto Completo Norma 8204 print published by the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas, which carries its own generation date of 19 November 2018. The same ranges, ocho a quince anos in article 58 and de ocho a veinte anos in article 77, were independently read on 18 September 2026 against the later Sinalevi record of Ley 7786, version 13 of 13, so the 2018 print is corroborated rather than assumed current. Control model, re derived from the statute in this pass. Costa Rica prints no annex of controlled substances in its drug Act: across the 81 pages the only drug names anywhere are in article 96, on the disposal of seized marihuana, cocaina and heroina. Article 1 regulates "estupefacientes, psicotropicos, sustancias inhalables y demas drogas y farmacos susceptibles de producir dependencias fisicas o psiquicas, incluidos en la Convencion Unica sobre Estupefacientes... de 1961... asi como en el Convenio de Viena sobre Sustancias Psicotropicas, de 21 de febrero de 1971... asimismo, en la Convencion... de 1988". Its second paragraph is a different thing and is often misread as the control annex: it has the Ministerio de Salud and the MAG draw up and publish in La Gaceta "las listas de estupefacientes, psicotropicos y similares Licitos", the licit ones, which is the authorisation side. The incorporation is ambulatory: article 36 defines precursors as Cuadro I of the 1988 Convention "y sus anexos, asi como los que se le incorporen en el futuro", and article 100 gives the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas a mandate framed by the conventions and by "los listados oficiales, publicados periodicamente en La Gaceta". The second limb, measured. The national list is the Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes, Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes of the Ministerio de Salud, updated 10 September 2026 and signed that day by Dra. Mariela Alfaro Segura. It runs to 27 pages in three sections, estupefacientes, psicotropicos and Otros agregados, and it names its own legal basis as the Reglamento para el control de drogas, estupefacientes y psicotropicas N. 45161-S, the instrument cited elsewhere as Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025. The two titles are the same text. A reading of 18 September 2026 records that the decree gives the competent body the function "Elaborar y actualizar la lista de sustancias oficialmente consideradas estupefacientes o psicotropicos y similares de uso regulado" and that its five annexes are forms rather than a substance schedule; that quotation is carried from that reading and was not re derived here. The whole of Otros agregados is twelve entries: metilfenidato, tapentadol and the synthetic cannabinoid JWH-073 among the estupefacientes, and ketamina, esketamina, mexazolam, zaleplon, zopiclona and the piperazines mCPP, CPP, TFMPP and 1,4 dibencilpiperazina among the psicotropicos. Amending Act in force between that list and this reading, read in the official gazette in this pass. Ley 10961 of 9 June 2026, published in Alcance 78 to La Gaceta 113 of 19 June 2026, provides "Rige tres meses a partir de su publicacion" and so took effect on 19 September 2026. It runs to four articles: it adds article 15 quater to Ley 7786 on the anti-money-laundering duties of virtual asset service providers, carries that cross reference into articles 16, 16 bis, 25, 33, 33 bis, 86 and 123, reforms the article 81 administrative fines, and allows three months for regulations. Every Ley 7786 article it touches is money laundering machinery, and it leaves articles 1, 2, 36, 58, 73, 74, 77, 77 bis and 79 untouched, so it moves no row in this batch. Method note. The 2026-09-20 Costa Rica dossier was used only as the slug list and as one of the two term list sources. Its outcome column, its instrument column and its quotation column were not treated as evidence and no placement in this batch rests on them; every placement is the entry read in the list the statute incorporates. Two of its readings were not adopted: it treated ergometrina and ergina as one row when they are separate substances on separate limbs, and it left dextrometorfano unresolved when the instrument excludes it in terms. Sibling name traps were checked rather than assumed. Anchored matching correctly did not return bencilmorfina, desomorfina, dihidromorfina, metildihidromorfina, mirofina or diacetilmorfina for the morfina row, isometadona, normetadona or the metadona intermediario for the metadona row, metcatinona or 4-metiletcatinona for the catinona row, MMDA or N-etil MDA for the MDA row, beta-ceto-MDMA for the MDMA row, levometanfetamina for the metanfetamina row, PCPY for the PCP row, brolanfetamina for the anfetamina row, or norpseudoefedrina for the efedrina row. Two extraction zeroes were false and were recovered by re interrogation: hexahidrocannabinol and 2-fluorodescloroketamina are both line wrapped in the source and a column based read missed both. Routes run for the instrument in this pass. pgrweb.go.cr/scij is a JavaScript shell: the Ley 8204 and Ley 7786 records and the sinalevi.go.cr record each returned about 25 KB that renders to 1,159 characters of site chrome and no statutory text, so a size threshold would have cleared all three. imprentanacional.go.cr served the official gazette carrying Ley 10961. The institutional reproduction at icd.go.cr served the consolidated Act, and ministeriodesalud.go.cr served the national list and the circulars. The schedule pages were checked for hidden content: the list PDF holds one image object repeated on all 27 pages, which is the ministry letterhead, and its byte size is accounted for by that banner, so no entry is carried in an image. Barbiturates are a pharmacological family rather than one listed name, and the family resolves member by member across three different listas, so the exposure depends on which barbiturate is in hand. Twelve members were read as named entries: "Secobarbital" in Lista II, "Amobarbital", "Pentobarbital", "Butalbital" and "Ciclobarbital" in Lista III, and "Barbital", "Fenobarbital", "Alobarbital", "Metilfenobarbital", "Vinilbital", "butobarbital" and "Secbutabarbital" in Lista IV, all in Listas II, III and IV of the 1971 Convention. Carry the prescription and the dispensing label, and expect the authorisation rather than the amount to be what is asked about. There is no personal allowance to fall back on, because no article of Ley 7786 fixes a threshold. Sourcing, re derived in this pass and not carried: the two Junta de Vigilancia de Drogas urls cited by this row are DIRECTORIES and not documents. The listing page names the national fiscalisation list but does not carry it; the list is a separate PDF behind a numbered link, and that PDF is what the placement in this row actually rests on. Both documents are now fetched and cited by their own urls: "Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes", and "Lista de Estupefacientes y Sustancias Psicotropicas Sometidas a Fiscalizacion Nacional". The first carries the Otros agregados section this row's reasoning refers to [Certain, read from the fetched PDF]. The circulars page cited alongside them exposes no document at all.

Barbiturates in Costa Rica, full detail →

Benzodiazepines

Legal status: Controlled through named members rather than through one entry, so the exposure turns on which member is in hand. Article 1 of Ley 7786, as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, fixes the scope by reference to the substances included in the 1961 and 1971 Conventions and the 1988 Convention, and the Ministerio de Salud reproduces those listas in Spanish in its national fiscalizacion list and adds a short Otros agregados section of national additions. The members were read in Listas III and IV of the 1971 Convention. The offence articles are 58 and 77. [Certain] for the placements, with the entry text recorded in the documentation.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Article 21 of the Constitution provides "La vida humana es inviolable", the human life is inviolable, and the word "muerte" appears zero times across the 81 pages of the consolidated Act. Both of those were measured in this pass and together they are what carries the heading. Costa Rica is an abolitionist state of long standing, [Likely] on the nineteenth century date, which was not re-derived here. Unauthorised trafficking conduct carries eight to fifteen years. Article 58 provides "Se impondra pena de prision de ocho a quince anos a quien, sin autorizacion legal, distribuya, comercie, suministre, fabrique, elabore, refine, transforme, extraiga, prepare, cultive, produzca, transporte, almacene o venda las drogas". That is eight to fifteen years for unauthorised distribution, commerce, supply, manufacture, processing, extraction, preparation, cultivation, production, transport, storage or sale. Article 77 raises the range to eight to twenty years where one of its eight enumerated aggravating circumstances is present, and twenty years is the ceiling this Act identifies. No article states a weight threshold, so the trigger is the unauthorised act and never a quantity. The second paragraph of article 58 reaches possession only "para cualquiera de los fines expresados", that is possession for one of those trafficking purposes. Ley 7786 creates no offence of consumption and no offence of simple possession for personal use. Article 79 answers a person consuming in a public place with voluntary and free treatment in a public or private health centre, not with a penalty.
If prescribed / medical: A lawful medical route exists only through the authorisation the Act itself demands. Article 58 opens with the words "sin autorizacion legal", so conduct carried out under a Costa Rican authorisation falls outside the offence and conduct without one falls inside it whatever the amount. Article 2 confines handling to the quantities needed for medical treatment, toxicological and chemical analysis and research, and requires authorised prescribers to use the official forms supplied by the Ministerio de Salud, whose entries carry the character of a sworn declaration. The Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes administers that control under Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025 and publishes the fiscalizacion list. The national list files this row among the psicotropicos rather than the estupefacientes, which is the less strict of the two prescription regimes it operates.
Documentation: Consolidation read: Ley 7786 of 30 April 1998 as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, in the Texto Completo Norma 8204 print published by the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas, which carries its own generation date of 19 November 2018. The same ranges, ocho a quince anos in article 58 and de ocho a veinte anos in article 77, were independently read on 18 September 2026 against the later Sinalevi record of Ley 7786, version 13 of 13, so the 2018 print is corroborated rather than assumed current. Control model, re derived from the statute in this pass. Costa Rica prints no annex of controlled substances in its drug Act: across the 81 pages the only drug names anywhere are in article 96, on the disposal of seized marihuana, cocaina and heroina. Article 1 regulates "estupefacientes, psicotropicos, sustancias inhalables y demas drogas y farmacos susceptibles de producir dependencias fisicas o psiquicas, incluidos en la Convencion Unica sobre Estupefacientes... de 1961... asi como en el Convenio de Viena sobre Sustancias Psicotropicas, de 21 de febrero de 1971... asimismo, en la Convencion... de 1988". Its second paragraph is a different thing and is often misread as the control annex: it has the Ministerio de Salud and the MAG draw up and publish in La Gaceta "las listas de estupefacientes, psicotropicos y similares Licitos", the licit ones, which is the authorisation side. The incorporation is ambulatory: article 36 defines precursors as Cuadro I of the 1988 Convention "y sus anexos, asi como los que se le incorporen en el futuro", and article 100 gives the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas a mandate framed by the conventions and by "los listados oficiales, publicados periodicamente en La Gaceta". The second limb, measured. The national list is the Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes, Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes of the Ministerio de Salud, updated 10 September 2026 and signed that day by Dra. Mariela Alfaro Segura. It runs to 27 pages in three sections, estupefacientes, psicotropicos and Otros agregados, and it names its own legal basis as the Reglamento para el control de drogas, estupefacientes y psicotropicas N. 45161-S, the instrument cited elsewhere as Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025. The two titles are the same text. A reading of 18 September 2026 records that the decree gives the competent body the function "Elaborar y actualizar la lista de sustancias oficialmente consideradas estupefacientes o psicotropicos y similares de uso regulado" and that its five annexes are forms rather than a substance schedule; that quotation is carried from that reading and was not re derived here. The whole of Otros agregados is twelve entries: metilfenidato, tapentadol and the synthetic cannabinoid JWH-073 among the estupefacientes, and ketamina, esketamina, mexazolam, zaleplon, zopiclona and the piperazines mCPP, CPP, TFMPP and 1,4 dibencilpiperazina among the psicotropicos. Amending Act in force between that list and this reading, read in the official gazette in this pass. Ley 10961 of 9 June 2026, published in Alcance 78 to La Gaceta 113 of 19 June 2026, provides "Rige tres meses a partir de su publicacion" and so took effect on 19 September 2026. It runs to four articles: it adds article 15 quater to Ley 7786 on the anti-money-laundering duties of virtual asset service providers, carries that cross reference into articles 16, 16 bis, 25, 33, 33 bis, 86 and 123, reforms the article 81 administrative fines, and allows three months for regulations. Every Ley 7786 article it touches is money laundering machinery, and it leaves articles 1, 2, 36, 58, 73, 74, 77, 77 bis and 79 untouched, so it moves no row in this batch. Method note. The 2026-09-20 Costa Rica dossier was used only as the slug list and as one of the two term list sources. Its outcome column, its instrument column and its quotation column were not treated as evidence and no placement in this batch rests on them; every placement is the entry read in the list the statute incorporates. Two of its readings were not adopted: it treated ergometrina and ergina as one row when they are separate substances on separate limbs, and it left dextrometorfano unresolved when the instrument excludes it in terms. Sibling name traps were checked rather than assumed. Anchored matching correctly did not return bencilmorfina, desomorfina, dihidromorfina, metildihidromorfina, mirofina or diacetilmorfina for the morfina row, isometadona, normetadona or the metadona intermediario for the metadona row, metcatinona or 4-metiletcatinona for the catinona row, MMDA or N-etil MDA for the MDA row, beta-ceto-MDMA for the MDMA row, levometanfetamina for the metanfetamina row, PCPY for the PCP row, brolanfetamina for the anfetamina row, or norpseudoefedrina for the efedrina row. Two extraction zeroes were false and were recovered by re interrogation: hexahidrocannabinol and 2-fluorodescloroketamina are both line wrapped in the source and a column based read missed both. Routes run for the instrument in this pass. pgrweb.go.cr/scij is a JavaScript shell: the Ley 8204 and Ley 7786 records and the sinalevi.go.cr record each returned about 25 KB that renders to 1,159 characters of site chrome and no statutory text, so a size threshold would have cleared all three. imprentanacional.go.cr served the official gazette carrying Ley 10961. The institutional reproduction at icd.go.cr served the consolidated Act, and ministeriodesalud.go.cr served the national list and the circulars. The schedule pages were checked for hidden content: the list PDF holds one image object repeated on all 27 pages, which is the ministry letterhead, and its byte size is accounted for by that banner, so no entry is carried in an image. Benzodiazepines are a pharmacological family rather than one listed name, and the family resolves member by member, so the exposure depends on which benzodiazepine is in hand. Eighteen members were read as named entries: "Flunitrazepam" in Lista III, and "Alprazolam", "Diazepam", "Clonazepam", "Lorazepam", "Nimetazepam", "Midazolam", "Temazepam", "Oxazepam", "Nitrazepam", "Bromazepam", "Clordiazepoxido", "Etizolam", "fenazepam", "Clobazam", "Triazolam", "Estazolam" and "Lormetazepam" in Lista IV, all in Listas III and IV of the 1971 Convention. Carry the prescription and the dispensing label, and expect the authorisation rather than the amount to be what is asked about. There is no personal allowance to fall back on, because no article of Ley 7786 fixes a threshold. Sourcing, re derived in this pass and not carried: the two Junta de Vigilancia de Drogas urls cited by this row are DIRECTORIES and not documents. The listing page names the national fiscalisation list but does not carry it; the list is a separate PDF behind a numbered link, and that PDF is what the placement in this row actually rests on. Both documents are now fetched and cited by their own urls: "Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes", and "Lista de Estupefacientes y Sustancias Psicotropicas Sometidas a Fiscalizacion Nacional". The first carries the Otros agregados section this row's reasoning refers to [Certain, read from the fetched PDF]. The circulars page cited alongside them exposes no document at all.

Benzodiazepines in Costa Rica, full detail →

Buprenorphine

Legal status: Controlled. Article 1 of Ley 7786, as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, fixes the scope by reference to the substances included in the 1961 and 1971 Conventions and the 1988 Convention, and the Ministerio de Salud reproduces those listas in Spanish in its national fiscalizacion list and adds a short Otros agregados section of national additions. This row was read as a named entry in Lista III of the 1971 Convention. The offence articles are 58 and 77. [Certain] for the placement, with the entry text recorded in the documentation.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Article 21 of the Constitution provides "La vida humana es inviolable", the human life is inviolable, and the word "muerte" appears zero times across the 81 pages of the consolidated Act. Both of those were measured in this pass and together they are what carries the heading. Costa Rica is an abolitionist state of long standing, [Likely] on the nineteenth century date, which was not re-derived here. Unauthorised trafficking conduct carries eight to fifteen years. Article 58 provides "Se impondra pena de prision de ocho a quince anos a quien, sin autorizacion legal, distribuya, comercie, suministre, fabrique, elabore, refine, transforme, extraiga, prepare, cultive, produzca, transporte, almacene o venda las drogas". That is eight to fifteen years for unauthorised distribution, commerce, supply, manufacture, processing, extraction, preparation, cultivation, production, transport, storage or sale. Article 77 raises the range to eight to twenty years where one of its eight enumerated aggravating circumstances is present, and twenty years is the ceiling this Act identifies. No article states a weight threshold, so the trigger is the unauthorised act and never a quantity. The second paragraph of article 58 reaches possession only "para cualquiera de los fines expresados", that is possession for one of those trafficking purposes. Ley 7786 creates no offence of consumption and no offence of simple possession for personal use. Article 79 answers a person consuming in a public place with voluntary and free treatment in a public or private health centre, not with a penalty.
If prescribed / medical: A lawful medical route exists only through the authorisation the Act itself demands. Article 58 opens with the words "sin autorizacion legal", so conduct carried out under a Costa Rican authorisation falls outside the offence and conduct without one falls inside it whatever the amount. Article 2 confines handling to the quantities needed for medical treatment, toxicological and chemical analysis and research, and requires authorised prescribers to use the official forms supplied by the Ministerio de Salud, whose entries carry the character of a sworn declaration. The Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes administers that control under Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025 and publishes the fiscalizacion list. The national list files this row among the psicotropicos rather than the estupefacientes, which is the less strict of the two prescription regimes it operates.
Documentation: Consolidation read: Ley 7786 of 30 April 1998 as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, in the Texto Completo Norma 8204 print published by the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas, which carries its own generation date of 19 November 2018. The same ranges, ocho a quince anos in article 58 and de ocho a veinte anos in article 77, were independently read on 18 September 2026 against the later Sinalevi record of Ley 7786, version 13 of 13, so the 2018 print is corroborated rather than assumed current. Control model, re derived from the statute in this pass. Costa Rica prints no annex of controlled substances in its drug Act: across the 81 pages the only drug names anywhere are in article 96, on the disposal of seized marihuana, cocaina and heroina. Article 1 regulates "estupefacientes, psicotropicos, sustancias inhalables y demas drogas y farmacos susceptibles de producir dependencias fisicas o psiquicas, incluidos en la Convencion Unica sobre Estupefacientes... de 1961... asi como en el Convenio de Viena sobre Sustancias Psicotropicas, de 21 de febrero de 1971... asimismo, en la Convencion... de 1988". Its second paragraph is a different thing and is often misread as the control annex: it has the Ministerio de Salud and the MAG draw up and publish in La Gaceta "las listas de estupefacientes, psicotropicos y similares Licitos", the licit ones, which is the authorisation side. The incorporation is ambulatory: article 36 defines precursors as Cuadro I of the 1988 Convention "y sus anexos, asi como los que se le incorporen en el futuro", and article 100 gives the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas a mandate framed by the conventions and by "los listados oficiales, publicados periodicamente en La Gaceta". The second limb, measured. The national list is the Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes, Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes of the Ministerio de Salud, updated 10 September 2026 and signed that day by Dra. Mariela Alfaro Segura. It runs to 27 pages in three sections, estupefacientes, psicotropicos and Otros agregados, and it names its own legal basis as the Reglamento para el control de drogas, estupefacientes y psicotropicas N. 45161-S, the instrument cited elsewhere as Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025. The two titles are the same text. A reading of 18 September 2026 records that the decree gives the competent body the function "Elaborar y actualizar la lista de sustancias oficialmente consideradas estupefacientes o psicotropicos y similares de uso regulado" and that its five annexes are forms rather than a substance schedule; that quotation is carried from that reading and was not re derived here. The whole of Otros agregados is twelve entries: metilfenidato, tapentadol and the synthetic cannabinoid JWH-073 among the estupefacientes, and ketamina, esketamina, mexazolam, zaleplon, zopiclona and the piperazines mCPP, CPP, TFMPP and 1,4 dibencilpiperazina among the psicotropicos. Amending Act in force between that list and this reading, read in the official gazette in this pass. Ley 10961 of 9 June 2026, published in Alcance 78 to La Gaceta 113 of 19 June 2026, provides "Rige tres meses a partir de su publicacion" and so took effect on 19 September 2026. It runs to four articles: it adds article 15 quater to Ley 7786 on the anti-money-laundering duties of virtual asset service providers, carries that cross reference into articles 16, 16 bis, 25, 33, 33 bis, 86 and 123, reforms the article 81 administrative fines, and allows three months for regulations. Every Ley 7786 article it touches is money laundering machinery, and it leaves articles 1, 2, 36, 58, 73, 74, 77, 77 bis and 79 untouched, so it moves no row in this batch. Method note. The 2026-09-20 Costa Rica dossier was used only as the slug list and as one of the two term list sources. Its outcome column, its instrument column and its quotation column were not treated as evidence and no placement in this batch rests on them; every placement is the entry read in the list the statute incorporates. Two of its readings were not adopted: it treated ergometrina and ergina as one row when they are separate substances on separate limbs, and it left dextrometorfano unresolved when the instrument excludes it in terms. Sibling name traps were checked rather than assumed. Anchored matching correctly did not return bencilmorfina, desomorfina, dihidromorfina, metildihidromorfina, mirofina or diacetilmorfina for the morfina row, isometadona, normetadona or the metadona intermediario for the metadona row, metcatinona or 4-metiletcatinona for the catinona row, MMDA or N-etil MDA for the MDA row, beta-ceto-MDMA for the MDMA row, levometanfetamina for the metanfetamina row, PCPY for the PCP row, brolanfetamina for the anfetamina row, or norpseudoefedrina for the efedrina row. Two extraction zeroes were false and were recovered by re interrogation: hexahidrocannabinol and 2-fluorodescloroketamina are both line wrapped in the source and a column based read missed both. Routes run for the instrument in this pass. pgrweb.go.cr/scij is a JavaScript shell: the Ley 8204 and Ley 7786 records and the sinalevi.go.cr record each returned about 25 KB that renders to 1,159 characters of site chrome and no statutory text, so a size threshold would have cleared all three. imprentanacional.go.cr served the official gazette carrying Ley 10961. The institutional reproduction at icd.go.cr served the consolidated Act, and ministeriodesalud.go.cr served the national list and the circulars. The schedule pages were checked for hidden content: the list PDF holds one image object repeated on all 27 pages, which is the ministry letterhead, and its byte size is accounted for by that banner, so no entry is carried in an image. Entry read for this row, recorded as the list prints it: "PB 006, CAS 52485-79-7, Buprenorfina, 21-ciclopropil-7-alfa-[(S)-1-hidroxi-1,2,2-trimetilpropil]-6,14-endo-etano-6,7,8,14-tetrahidrooripavina", in Lista III of the 1971 Convention. Carry the prescription and the dispensing label, and expect the authorisation rather than the amount to be what is asked about. There is no personal allowance to fall back on, because no article of Ley 7786 fixes a threshold. Sourcing, re derived in this pass and not carried: the two Junta de Vigilancia de Drogas urls cited by this row are DIRECTORIES and not documents. The listing page names the national fiscalisation list but does not carry it; the list is a separate PDF behind a numbered link, and that PDF is what the placement in this row actually rests on. Both documents are now fetched and cited by their own urls: "Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes", and "Lista de Estupefacientes y Sustancias Psicotropicas Sometidas a Fiscalizacion Nacional". The first carries the Otros agregados section this row's reasoning refers to [Certain, read from the fetched PDF]. The circulars page cited alongside them exposes no document at all.

Buprenorphine in Costa Rica, full detail →

Caffeine

Legal status: Not handled through the drug control model. Article 1 of Ley 7786, as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, fixes the scope by reference to the substances included in the 1961 and 1971 Conventions and the 1988 Convention, and the Ministerio de Salud reproduces those listas in Spanish in its national fiscalizacion list and adds a short Otros agregados section of national additions. No entry for caffeine appears in any of the three sections of the national list and caffeine is in neither Convention schedule, while article 1 expressly preserves the separate operation of the Ley general de salud, N 5395, so food law is where this row sits. [Certain] for the absence as at 10 September 2026, which does not rule out a later list.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Article 21 of the Constitution provides "La vida humana es inviolable", the human life is inviolable, and the word "muerte" appears zero times across the 81 pages of the consolidated Act. Both of those were measured in this pass and together they are what carries the heading. Costa Rica is an abolitionist state of long standing, [Likely] on the nineteenth century date, which was not re-derived here. Costa Rica publishes penalties for drug trafficking in articles 58 and 77 of Ley 7786, eight to fifteen years and eight to twenty years on an enumerated aggravation. Those are the country's penalties for the substances the Act covers and they are not this row's exposure, because caffeine is not one of them. The second paragraph of article 58 reaches possession only "para cualquiera de los fines expresados", that is possession for one of those trafficking purposes. Ley 7786 creates no offence of consumption and no offence of simple possession for personal use. Article 79 answers a person consuming in a public place with voluntary and free treatment in a public or private health centre, not with a penalty.
If prescribed / medical: Caffeine is regulated as an ordinary product rather than through the psychotropic prescription form, and age, licensing and advertising rules apply instead of the controls in Ley 7786.
Documentation: Consolidation read: Ley 7786 of 30 April 1998 as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, in the Texto Completo Norma 8204 print published by the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas, which carries its own generation date of 19 November 2018. The same ranges, ocho a quince anos in article 58 and de ocho a veinte anos in article 77, were independently read on 18 September 2026 against the later Sinalevi record of Ley 7786, version 13 of 13, so the 2018 print is corroborated rather than assumed current. Control model, re derived from the statute in this pass. Costa Rica prints no annex of controlled substances in its drug Act: across the 81 pages the only drug names anywhere are in article 96, on the disposal of seized marihuana, cocaina and heroina. Article 1 regulates "estupefacientes, psicotropicos, sustancias inhalables y demas drogas y farmacos susceptibles de producir dependencias fisicas o psiquicas, incluidos en la Convencion Unica sobre Estupefacientes... de 1961... asi como en el Convenio de Viena sobre Sustancias Psicotropicas, de 21 de febrero de 1971... asimismo, en la Convencion... de 1988". Its second paragraph is a different thing and is often misread as the control annex: it has the Ministerio de Salud and the MAG draw up and publish in La Gaceta "las listas de estupefacientes, psicotropicos y similares Licitos", the licit ones, which is the authorisation side. The incorporation is ambulatory: article 36 defines precursors as Cuadro I of the 1988 Convention "y sus anexos, asi como los que se le incorporen en el futuro", and article 100 gives the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas a mandate framed by the conventions and by "los listados oficiales, publicados periodicamente en La Gaceta". The second limb, measured. The national list is the Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes, Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes of the Ministerio de Salud, updated 10 September 2026 and signed that day by Dra. Mariela Alfaro Segura. It runs to 27 pages in three sections, estupefacientes, psicotropicos and Otros agregados, and it names its own legal basis as the Reglamento para el control de drogas, estupefacientes y psicotropicas N. 45161-S, the instrument cited elsewhere as Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025. The two titles are the same text. A reading of 18 September 2026 records that the decree gives the competent body the function "Elaborar y actualizar la lista de sustancias oficialmente consideradas estupefacientes o psicotropicos y similares de uso regulado" and that its five annexes are forms rather than a substance schedule; that quotation is carried from that reading and was not re derived here. The whole of Otros agregados is twelve entries: metilfenidato, tapentadol and the synthetic cannabinoid JWH-073 among the estupefacientes, and ketamina, esketamina, mexazolam, zaleplon, zopiclona and the piperazines mCPP, CPP, TFMPP and 1,4 dibencilpiperazina among the psicotropicos. Amending Act in force between that list and this reading, read in the official gazette in this pass. Ley 10961 of 9 June 2026, published in Alcance 78 to La Gaceta 113 of 19 June 2026, provides "Rige tres meses a partir de su publicacion" and so took effect on 19 September 2026. It runs to four articles: it adds article 15 quater to Ley 7786 on the anti-money-laundering duties of virtual asset service providers, carries that cross reference into articles 16, 16 bis, 25, 33, 33 bis, 86 and 123, reforms the article 81 administrative fines, and allows three months for regulations. Every Ley 7786 article it touches is money laundering machinery, and it leaves articles 1, 2, 36, 58, 73, 74, 77, 77 bis and 79 untouched, so it moves no row in this batch. Method note. The 2026-09-20 Costa Rica dossier was used only as the slug list and as one of the two term list sources. Its outcome column, its instrument column and its quotation column were not treated as evidence and no placement in this batch rests on them; every placement is the entry read in the list the statute incorporates. Two of its readings were not adopted: it treated ergometrina and ergina as one row when they are separate substances on separate limbs, and it left dextrometorfano unresolved when the instrument excludes it in terms. Sibling name traps were checked rather than assumed. Anchored matching correctly did not return bencilmorfina, desomorfina, dihidromorfina, metildihidromorfina, mirofina or diacetilmorfina for the morfina row, isometadona, normetadona or the metadona intermediario for the metadona row, metcatinona or 4-metiletcatinona for the catinona row, MMDA or N-etil MDA for the MDA row, beta-ceto-MDMA for the MDMA row, levometanfetamina for the metanfetamina row, PCPY for the PCP row, brolanfetamina for the anfetamina row, or norpseudoefedrina for the efedrina row. Two extraction zeroes were false and were recovered by re interrogation: hexahidrocannabinol and 2-fluorodescloroketamina are both line wrapped in the source and a column based read missed both. Routes run for the instrument in this pass. pgrweb.go.cr/scij is a JavaScript shell: the Ley 8204 and Ley 7786 records and the sinalevi.go.cr record each returned about 25 KB that renders to 1,159 characters of site chrome and no statutory text, so a size threshold would have cleared all three. imprentanacional.go.cr served the official gazette carrying Ley 10961. The institutional reproduction at icd.go.cr served the consolidated Act, and ministeriodesalud.go.cr served the national list and the circulars. The schedule pages were checked for hidden content: the list PDF holds one image object repeated on all 27 pages, which is the ministry letterhead, and its byte size is accounted for by that banner, so no entry is carried in an image. Search run for this row: caffeine returned no entry across the estupefacientes, psicotropicos and Otros agregados sections of the national list as at 10 September 2026, and none in the Green List or the Yellow List. A later list than the one read does not rule out a change. Carry any prescription and its dispensing label, and treat the position as open rather than settled. Sourcing, re derived in this pass and not carried: the two Junta de Vigilancia de Drogas urls cited by this row are DIRECTORIES and not documents. The listing page names the national fiscalisation list but does not carry it; the list is a separate PDF behind a numbered link, and that PDF is what the placement in this row actually rests on. Both documents are now fetched and cited by their own urls: "Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes", and "Lista de Estupefacientes y Sustancias Psicotropicas Sometidas a Fiscalizacion Nacional". The first carries the Otros agregados section this row's reasoning refers to [Certain, read from the fetched PDF]. The circulars page cited alongside them exposes no document at all.

Caffeine in Costa Rica, full detail →

Cannabis / THC

Legal status: Controlled. Article 1 of Ley 7786, as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, fixes the scope by reference to the substances included in the 1961 and 1971 Conventions and the 1988 Convention, and the Ministerio de Salud reproduces those listas in Spanish in its national fiscalizacion list and adds a short Otros agregados section of national additions. This row was read as a named entry in Lista I of the 1961 Convention. The offence articles are 58 and 77. [Certain] for the placement, with the entry text recorded in the documentation.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Article 21 of the Constitution provides "La vida humana es inviolable", the human life is inviolable, and the word "muerte" appears zero times across the 81 pages of the consolidated Act. Both of those were measured in this pass and together they are what carries the heading. Costa Rica is an abolitionist state of long standing, [Likely] on the nineteenth century date, which was not re-derived here. Unauthorised trafficking conduct carries eight to fifteen years. Article 58 provides "Se impondra pena de prision de ocho a quince anos a quien, sin autorizacion legal, distribuya, comercie, suministre, fabrique, elabore, refine, transforme, extraiga, prepare, cultive, produzca, transporte, almacene o venda las drogas". That is eight to fifteen years for unauthorised distribution, commerce, supply, manufacture, processing, extraction, preparation, cultivation, production, transport, storage or sale. Article 77 raises the range to eight to twenty years where one of its eight enumerated aggravating circumstances is present, and twenty years is the ceiling this Act identifies. No article states a weight threshold, so the trigger is the unauthorised act and never a quantity. The second paragraph of article 58 reaches possession only "para cualquiera de los fines expresados", that is possession for one of those trafficking purposes. Ley 7786 creates no offence of consumption and no offence of simple possession for personal use. Article 79 answers a person consuming in a public place with voluntary and free treatment in a public or private health centre, not with a penalty.
If prescribed / medical: A lawful medical route exists only through the authorisation the Act itself demands. Article 58 opens with the words "sin autorizacion legal", so conduct carried out under a Costa Rican authorisation falls outside the offence and conduct without one falls inside it whatever the amount. Article 2 confines handling to the quantities needed for medical treatment, toxicological and chemical analysis and research, and requires authorised prescribers to use the official forms supplied by the Ministerio de Salud, whose entries carry the character of a sworn declaration. The Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes administers that control under Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025 and publishes the fiscalizacion list. The national list files this row among the estupefacientes, the narcotic half, which is the stricter of the two prescription regimes it operates.
Documentation: Consolidation read: Ley 7786 of 30 April 1998 as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, in the Texto Completo Norma 8204 print published by the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas, which carries its own generation date of 19 November 2018. The same ranges, ocho a quince anos in article 58 and de ocho a veinte anos in article 77, were independently read on 18 September 2026 against the later Sinalevi record of Ley 7786, version 13 of 13, so the 2018 print is corroborated rather than assumed current. Control model, re derived from the statute in this pass. Costa Rica prints no annex of controlled substances in its drug Act: across the 81 pages the only drug names anywhere are in article 96, on the disposal of seized marihuana, cocaina and heroina. Article 1 regulates "estupefacientes, psicotropicos, sustancias inhalables y demas drogas y farmacos susceptibles de producir dependencias fisicas o psiquicas, incluidos en la Convencion Unica sobre Estupefacientes... de 1961... asi como en el Convenio de Viena sobre Sustancias Psicotropicas, de 21 de febrero de 1971... asimismo, en la Convencion... de 1988". Its second paragraph is a different thing and is often misread as the control annex: it has the Ministerio de Salud and the MAG draw up and publish in La Gaceta "las listas de estupefacientes, psicotropicos y similares Licitos", the licit ones, which is the authorisation side. The incorporation is ambulatory: article 36 defines precursors as Cuadro I of the 1988 Convention "y sus anexos, asi como los que se le incorporen en el futuro", and article 100 gives the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas a mandate framed by the conventions and by "los listados oficiales, publicados periodicamente en La Gaceta". The second limb, measured. The national list is the Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes, Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes of the Ministerio de Salud, updated 10 September 2026 and signed that day by Dra. Mariela Alfaro Segura. It runs to 27 pages in three sections, estupefacientes, psicotropicos and Otros agregados, and it names its own legal basis as the Reglamento para el control de drogas, estupefacientes y psicotropicas N. 45161-S, the instrument cited elsewhere as Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025. The two titles are the same text. A reading of 18 September 2026 records that the decree gives the competent body the function "Elaborar y actualizar la lista de sustancias oficialmente consideradas estupefacientes o psicotropicos y similares de uso regulado" and that its five annexes are forms rather than a substance schedule; that quotation is carried from that reading and was not re derived here. The whole of Otros agregados is twelve entries: metilfenidato, tapentadol and the synthetic cannabinoid JWH-073 among the estupefacientes, and ketamina, esketamina, mexazolam, zaleplon, zopiclona and the piperazines mCPP, CPP, TFMPP and 1,4 dibencilpiperazina among the psicotropicos. Amending Act in force between that list and this reading, read in the official gazette in this pass. Ley 10961 of 9 June 2026, published in Alcance 78 to La Gaceta 113 of 19 June 2026, provides "Rige tres meses a partir de su publicacion" and so took effect on 19 September 2026. It runs to four articles: it adds article 15 quater to Ley 7786 on the anti-money-laundering duties of virtual asset service providers, carries that cross reference into articles 16, 16 bis, 25, 33, 33 bis, 86 and 123, reforms the article 81 administrative fines, and allows three months for regulations. Every Ley 7786 article it touches is money laundering machinery, and it leaves articles 1, 2, 36, 58, 73, 74, 77, 77 bis and 79 untouched, so it moves no row in this batch. Method note. The 2026-09-20 Costa Rica dossier was used only as the slug list and as one of the two term list sources. Its outcome column, its instrument column and its quotation column were not treated as evidence and no placement in this batch rests on them; every placement is the entry read in the list the statute incorporates. Two of its readings were not adopted: it treated ergometrina and ergina as one row when they are separate substances on separate limbs, and it left dextrometorfano unresolved when the instrument excludes it in terms. Sibling name traps were checked rather than assumed. Anchored matching correctly did not return bencilmorfina, desomorfina, dihidromorfina, metildihidromorfina, mirofina or diacetilmorfina for the morfina row, isometadona, normetadona or the metadona intermediario for the metadona row, metcatinona or 4-metiletcatinona for the catinona row, MMDA or N-etil MDA for the MDA row, beta-ceto-MDMA for the MDMA row, levometanfetamina for the metanfetamina row, PCPY for the PCP row, brolanfetamina for the anfetamina row, or norpseudoefedrina for the efedrina row. Two extraction zeroes were false and were recovered by re interrogation: hexahidrocannabinol and 2-fluorodescloroketamina are both line wrapped in the source and a column based read missed both. Routes run for the instrument in this pass. pgrweb.go.cr/scij is a JavaScript shell: the Ley 8204 and Ley 7786 records and the sinalevi.go.cr record each returned about 25 KB that renders to 1,159 characters of site chrome and no statutory text, so a size threshold would have cleared all three. imprentanacional.go.cr served the official gazette carrying Ley 10961. The institutional reproduction at icd.go.cr served the consolidated Act, and ministeriodesalud.go.cr served the national list and the circulars. The schedule pages were checked for hidden content: the list PDF holds one image object repeated on all 27 pages, which is the ministry letterhead, and its byte size is accounted for by that banner, so no entry is carried in an image. Entry read for this row, recorded as the list prints it: "NC 001, CAS 8063-14-7, Cannabis, sumidades, floridas o con fruto, de la planta de cannabis (resina no extraida)", with "NC 008, CAS 6465-30-1, Resina de Cannabis, resina separada, en bruto o purificada, obtenida de la planta de cannabis" and "PT 002, Tetrahidrocannabinol / THC" entered separately, in Lista I of the 1961 Convention. Carry the prescription and the dispensing label, and expect the authorisation rather than the amount to be what is asked about. There is no personal allowance to fall back on, because no article of Ley 7786 fixes a threshold. Sourcing, re derived in this pass and not carried: the two Junta de Vigilancia de Drogas urls cited by this row are DIRECTORIES and not documents. The listing page names the national fiscalisation list but does not carry it; the list is a separate PDF behind a numbered link, and that PDF is what the placement in this row actually rests on. Both documents are now fetched and cited by their own urls: "Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes", and "Lista de Estupefacientes y Sustancias Psicotropicas Sometidas a Fiscalizacion Nacional". The first carries the Otros agregados section this row's reasoning refers to [Certain, read from the fetched PDF]. The circulars page cited alongside them exposes no document at all.

Cannabis / THC in Costa Rica, full detail →

Cathinone

Legal status: Controlled. Article 1 of Ley 7786, as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, fixes the scope by reference to the substances included in the 1961 and 1971 Conventions and the 1988 Convention, and the Ministerio de Salud reproduces those listas in Spanish in its national fiscalizacion list and adds a short Otros agregados section of national additions. This row was read as a named entry in Lista I of the 1971 Convention. The offence articles are 58 and 77. [Certain] for the placement, with the entry text recorded in the documentation.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Article 21 of the Constitution provides "La vida humana es inviolable", the human life is inviolable, and the word "muerte" appears zero times across the 81 pages of the consolidated Act. Both of those were measured in this pass and together they are what carries the heading. Costa Rica is an abolitionist state of long standing, [Likely] on the nineteenth century date, which was not re-derived here. Unauthorised trafficking conduct carries eight to fifteen years. Article 58 provides "Se impondra pena de prision de ocho a quince anos a quien, sin autorizacion legal, distribuya, comercie, suministre, fabrique, elabore, refine, transforme, extraiga, prepare, cultive, produzca, transporte, almacene o venda las drogas". That is eight to fifteen years for unauthorised distribution, commerce, supply, manufacture, processing, extraction, preparation, cultivation, production, transport, storage or sale. Article 77 raises the range to eight to twenty years where one of its eight enumerated aggravating circumstances is present, and twenty years is the ceiling this Act identifies. No article states a weight threshold, so the trigger is the unauthorised act and never a quantity. The second paragraph of article 58 reaches possession only "para cualquiera de los fines expresados", that is possession for one of those trafficking purposes. Ley 7786 creates no offence of consumption and no offence of simple possession for personal use. Article 79 answers a person consuming in a public place with voluntary and free treatment in a public or private health centre, not with a penalty.
If prescribed / medical: A lawful medical route exists only through the authorisation the Act itself demands. Article 58 opens with the words "sin autorizacion legal", so conduct carried out under a Costa Rican authorisation falls outside the offence and conduct without one falls inside it whatever the amount. Article 2 confines handling to the quantities needed for medical treatment, toxicological and chemical analysis and research, and requires authorised prescribers to use the official forms supplied by the Ministerio de Salud, whose entries carry the character of a sworn declaration. The Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes administers that control under Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025 and publishes the fiscalizacion list. The national list files this row among the psicotropicos rather than the estupefacientes, which is the less strict of the two prescription regimes it operates.
Documentation: Consolidation read: Ley 7786 of 30 April 1998 as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, in the Texto Completo Norma 8204 print published by the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas, which carries its own generation date of 19 November 2018. The same ranges, ocho a quince anos in article 58 and de ocho a veinte anos in article 77, were independently read on 18 September 2026 against the later Sinalevi record of Ley 7786, version 13 of 13, so the 2018 print is corroborated rather than assumed current. Control model, re derived from the statute in this pass. Costa Rica prints no annex of controlled substances in its drug Act: across the 81 pages the only drug names anywhere are in article 96, on the disposal of seized marihuana, cocaina and heroina. Article 1 regulates "estupefacientes, psicotropicos, sustancias inhalables y demas drogas y farmacos susceptibles de producir dependencias fisicas o psiquicas, incluidos en la Convencion Unica sobre Estupefacientes... de 1961... asi como en el Convenio de Viena sobre Sustancias Psicotropicas, de 21 de febrero de 1971... asimismo, en la Convencion... de 1988". Its second paragraph is a different thing and is often misread as the control annex: it has the Ministerio de Salud and the MAG draw up and publish in La Gaceta "las listas de estupefacientes, psicotropicos y similares Licitos", the licit ones, which is the authorisation side. The incorporation is ambulatory: article 36 defines precursors as Cuadro I of the 1988 Convention "y sus anexos, asi como los que se le incorporen en el futuro", and article 100 gives the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas a mandate framed by the conventions and by "los listados oficiales, publicados periodicamente en La Gaceta". The second limb, measured. The national list is the Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes, Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes of the Ministerio de Salud, updated 10 September 2026 and signed that day by Dra. Mariela Alfaro Segura. It runs to 27 pages in three sections, estupefacientes, psicotropicos and Otros agregados, and it names its own legal basis as the Reglamento para el control de drogas, estupefacientes y psicotropicas N. 45161-S, the instrument cited elsewhere as Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025. The two titles are the same text. A reading of 18 September 2026 records that the decree gives the competent body the function "Elaborar y actualizar la lista de sustancias oficialmente consideradas estupefacientes o psicotropicos y similares de uso regulado" and that its five annexes are forms rather than a substance schedule; that quotation is carried from that reading and was not re derived here. The whole of Otros agregados is twelve entries: metilfenidato, tapentadol and the synthetic cannabinoid JWH-073 among the estupefacientes, and ketamina, esketamina, mexazolam, zaleplon, zopiclona and the piperazines mCPP, CPP, TFMPP and 1,4 dibencilpiperazina among the psicotropicos. Amending Act in force between that list and this reading, read in the official gazette in this pass. Ley 10961 of 9 June 2026, published in Alcance 78 to La Gaceta 113 of 19 June 2026, provides "Rige tres meses a partir de su publicacion" and so took effect on 19 September 2026. It runs to four articles: it adds article 15 quater to Ley 7786 on the anti-money-laundering duties of virtual asset service providers, carries that cross reference into articles 16, 16 bis, 25, 33, 33 bis, 86 and 123, reforms the article 81 administrative fines, and allows three months for regulations. Every Ley 7786 article it touches is money laundering machinery, and it leaves articles 1, 2, 36, 58, 73, 74, 77, 77 bis and 79 untouched, so it moves no row in this batch. Method note. The 2026-09-20 Costa Rica dossier was used only as the slug list and as one of the two term list sources. Its outcome column, its instrument column and its quotation column were not treated as evidence and no placement in this batch rests on them; every placement is the entry read in the list the statute incorporates. Two of its readings were not adopted: it treated ergometrina and ergina as one row when they are separate substances on separate limbs, and it left dextrometorfano unresolved when the instrument excludes it in terms. Sibling name traps were checked rather than assumed. Anchored matching correctly did not return bencilmorfina, desomorfina, dihidromorfina, metildihidromorfina, mirofina or diacetilmorfina for the morfina row, isometadona, normetadona or the metadona intermediario for the metadona row, metcatinona or 4-metiletcatinona for the catinona row, MMDA or N-etil MDA for the MDA row, beta-ceto-MDMA for the MDMA row, levometanfetamina for the metanfetamina row, PCPY for the PCP row, brolanfetamina for the anfetamina row, or norpseudoefedrina for the efedrina row. Two extraction zeroes were false and were recovered by re interrogation: hexahidrocannabinol and 2-fluorodescloroketamina are both line wrapped in the source and a column based read missed both. Routes run for the instrument in this pass. pgrweb.go.cr/scij is a JavaScript shell: the Ley 8204 and Ley 7786 records and the sinalevi.go.cr record each returned about 25 KB that renders to 1,159 characters of site chrome and no statutory text, so a size threshold would have cleared all three. imprentanacional.go.cr served the official gazette carrying Ley 10961. The institutional reproduction at icd.go.cr served the consolidated Act, and ministeriodesalud.go.cr served the national list and the circulars. The schedule pages were checked for hidden content: the list PDF holds one image object repeated on all 27 pages, which is the ministry letterhead, and its byte size is accounted for by that banner, so no entry is carried in an image. Entry read for this row, recorded as the list prints it: "PC 010, Catinona, (-)-(S)-2-aminopropiofenona", in Lista I of the 1971 Convention. Carry the prescription and the dispensing label, and expect the authorisation rather than the amount to be what is asked about. There is no personal allowance to fall back on, because no article of Ley 7786 fixes a threshold. Sourcing, re derived in this pass and not carried: the two Junta de Vigilancia de Drogas urls cited by this row are DIRECTORIES and not documents. The listing page names the national fiscalisation list but does not carry it; the list is a separate PDF behind a numbered link, and that PDF is what the placement in this row actually rests on. Both documents are now fetched and cited by their own urls: "Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes", and "Lista de Estupefacientes y Sustancias Psicotropicas Sometidas a Fiscalizacion Nacional". The first carries the Otros agregados section this row's reasoning refers to [Certain, read from the fetched PDF]. The circulars page cited alongside them exposes no document at all.

Cathinone in Costa Rica, full detail →

Clonazepam

Legal status: Controlled. Article 1 of Ley 7786, as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, fixes the scope by reference to the substances included in the 1961 and 1971 Conventions and the 1988 Convention, and the Ministerio de Salud reproduces those listas in Spanish in its national fiscalizacion list and adds a short Otros agregados section of national additions. This row was read as a named entry in Lista IV of the 1971 Convention. The offence articles are 58 and 77. [Certain] for the placement, with the entry text recorded in the documentation.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Article 21 of the Constitution provides "La vida humana es inviolable", the human life is inviolable, and the word "muerte" appears zero times across the 81 pages of the consolidated Act. Both of those were measured in this pass and together they are what carries the heading. Costa Rica is an abolitionist state of long standing, [Likely] on the nineteenth century date, which was not re-derived here. Unauthorised trafficking conduct carries eight to fifteen years. Article 58 provides "Se impondra pena de prision de ocho a quince anos a quien, sin autorizacion legal, distribuya, comercie, suministre, fabrique, elabore, refine, transforme, extraiga, prepare, cultive, produzca, transporte, almacene o venda las drogas". That is eight to fifteen years for unauthorised distribution, commerce, supply, manufacture, processing, extraction, preparation, cultivation, production, transport, storage or sale. Article 77 raises the range to eight to twenty years where one of its eight enumerated aggravating circumstances is present, and twenty years is the ceiling this Act identifies. No article states a weight threshold, so the trigger is the unauthorised act and never a quantity. The second paragraph of article 58 reaches possession only "para cualquiera de los fines expresados", that is possession for one of those trafficking purposes. Ley 7786 creates no offence of consumption and no offence of simple possession for personal use. Article 79 answers a person consuming in a public place with voluntary and free treatment in a public or private health centre, not with a penalty.
If prescribed / medical: A lawful medical route exists only through the authorisation the Act itself demands. Article 58 opens with the words "sin autorizacion legal", so conduct carried out under a Costa Rican authorisation falls outside the offence and conduct without one falls inside it whatever the amount. Article 2 confines handling to the quantities needed for medical treatment, toxicological and chemical analysis and research, and requires authorised prescribers to use the official forms supplied by the Ministerio de Salud, whose entries carry the character of a sworn declaration. The Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes administers that control under Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025 and publishes the fiscalizacion list. The national list files this row among the psicotropicos rather than the estupefacientes, which is the less strict of the two prescription regimes it operates.
Documentation: Consolidation read: Ley 7786 of 30 April 1998 as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, in the Texto Completo Norma 8204 print published by the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas, which carries its own generation date of 19 November 2018. The same ranges, ocho a quince anos in article 58 and de ocho a veinte anos in article 77, were independently read on 18 September 2026 against the later Sinalevi record of Ley 7786, version 13 of 13, so the 2018 print is corroborated rather than assumed current. Control model, re derived from the statute in this pass. Costa Rica prints no annex of controlled substances in its drug Act: across the 81 pages the only drug names anywhere are in article 96, on the disposal of seized marihuana, cocaina and heroina. Article 1 regulates "estupefacientes, psicotropicos, sustancias inhalables y demas drogas y farmacos susceptibles de producir dependencias fisicas o psiquicas, incluidos en la Convencion Unica sobre Estupefacientes... de 1961... asi como en el Convenio de Viena sobre Sustancias Psicotropicas, de 21 de febrero de 1971... asimismo, en la Convencion... de 1988". Its second paragraph is a different thing and is often misread as the control annex: it has the Ministerio de Salud and the MAG draw up and publish in La Gaceta "las listas de estupefacientes, psicotropicos y similares Licitos", the licit ones, which is the authorisation side. The incorporation is ambulatory: article 36 defines precursors as Cuadro I of the 1988 Convention "y sus anexos, asi como los que se le incorporen en el futuro", and article 100 gives the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas a mandate framed by the conventions and by "los listados oficiales, publicados periodicamente en La Gaceta". The second limb, measured. The national list is the Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes, Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes of the Ministerio de Salud, updated 10 September 2026 and signed that day by Dra. Mariela Alfaro Segura. It runs to 27 pages in three sections, estupefacientes, psicotropicos and Otros agregados, and it names its own legal basis as the Reglamento para el control de drogas, estupefacientes y psicotropicas N. 45161-S, the instrument cited elsewhere as Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025. The two titles are the same text. A reading of 18 September 2026 records that the decree gives the competent body the function "Elaborar y actualizar la lista de sustancias oficialmente consideradas estupefacientes o psicotropicos y similares de uso regulado" and that its five annexes are forms rather than a substance schedule; that quotation is carried from that reading and was not re derived here. The whole of Otros agregados is twelve entries: metilfenidato, tapentadol and the synthetic cannabinoid JWH-073 among the estupefacientes, and ketamina, esketamina, mexazolam, zaleplon, zopiclona and the piperazines mCPP, CPP, TFMPP and 1,4 dibencilpiperazina among the psicotropicos. Amending Act in force between that list and this reading, read in the official gazette in this pass. Ley 10961 of 9 June 2026, published in Alcance 78 to La Gaceta 113 of 19 June 2026, provides "Rige tres meses a partir de su publicacion" and so took effect on 19 September 2026. It runs to four articles: it adds article 15 quater to Ley 7786 on the anti-money-laundering duties of virtual asset service providers, carries that cross reference into articles 16, 16 bis, 25, 33, 33 bis, 86 and 123, reforms the article 81 administrative fines, and allows three months for regulations. Every Ley 7786 article it touches is money laundering machinery, and it leaves articles 1, 2, 36, 58, 73, 74, 77, 77 bis and 79 untouched, so it moves no row in this batch. Method note. The 2026-09-20 Costa Rica dossier was used only as the slug list and as one of the two term list sources. Its outcome column, its instrument column and its quotation column were not treated as evidence and no placement in this batch rests on them; every placement is the entry read in the list the statute incorporates. Two of its readings were not adopted: it treated ergometrina and ergina as one row when they are separate substances on separate limbs, and it left dextrometorfano unresolved when the instrument excludes it in terms. Sibling name traps were checked rather than assumed. Anchored matching correctly did not return bencilmorfina, desomorfina, dihidromorfina, metildihidromorfina, mirofina or diacetilmorfina for the morfina row, isometadona, normetadona or the metadona intermediario for the metadona row, metcatinona or 4-metiletcatinona for the catinona row, MMDA or N-etil MDA for the MDA row, beta-ceto-MDMA for the MDMA row, levometanfetamina for the metanfetamina row, PCPY for the PCP row, brolanfetamina for the anfetamina row, or norpseudoefedrina for the efedrina row. Two extraction zeroes were false and were recovered by re interrogation: hexahidrocannabinol and 2-fluorodescloroketamina are both line wrapped in the source and a column based read missed both. Routes run for the instrument in this pass. pgrweb.go.cr/scij is a JavaScript shell: the Ley 8204 and Ley 7786 records and the sinalevi.go.cr record each returned about 25 KB that renders to 1,159 characters of site chrome and no statutory text, so a size threshold would have cleared all three. imprentanacional.go.cr served the official gazette carrying Ley 10961. The institutional reproduction at icd.go.cr served the consolidated Act, and ministeriodesalud.go.cr served the national list and the circulars. The schedule pages were checked for hidden content: the list PDF holds one image object repeated on all 27 pages, which is the ministry letterhead, and its byte size is accounted for by that banner, so no entry is carried in an image. Entry read for this row, recorded as the list prints it: "PC 005, CAS 1622-61-3, Clonazepam, 5-(o-clorofenil)-1,3-dihidro-7-nitro-2H-1,4-benzodiazepin-2-ona", in Lista IV of the 1971 Convention. Carry the prescription and the dispensing label, and expect the authorisation rather than the amount to be what is asked about. There is no personal allowance to fall back on, because no article of Ley 7786 fixes a threshold. Sourcing, re derived in this pass and not carried: the two Junta de Vigilancia de Drogas urls cited by this row are DIRECTORIES and not documents. The listing page names the national fiscalisation list but does not carry it; the list is a separate PDF behind a numbered link, and that PDF is what the placement in this row actually rests on. Both documents are now fetched and cited by their own urls: "Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes", and "Lista de Estupefacientes y Sustancias Psicotropicas Sometidas a Fiscalizacion Nacional". The first carries the Otros agregados section this row's reasoning refers to [Certain, read from the fetched PDF]. The circulars page cited alongside them exposes no document at all.

Clonazepam in Costa Rica, full detail →

Cocaine

Legal status: Controlled. Article 1 of Ley 7786, as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, fixes the scope by reference to the substances included in the 1961 and 1971 Conventions and the 1988 Convention, and the Ministerio de Salud reproduces those listas in Spanish in its national fiscalizacion list and adds a short Otros agregados section of national additions. This row was read as a named entry in Lista I of the 1961 Convention. The offence articles are 58 and 77. [Certain] for the placement, with the entry text recorded in the documentation.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Article 21 of the Constitution provides "La vida humana es inviolable", the human life is inviolable, and the word "muerte" appears zero times across the 81 pages of the consolidated Act. Both of those were measured in this pass and together they are what carries the heading. Costa Rica is an abolitionist state of long standing, [Likely] on the nineteenth century date, which was not re-derived here. Unauthorised trafficking conduct carries eight to fifteen years. Article 58 provides "Se impondra pena de prision de ocho a quince anos a quien, sin autorizacion legal, distribuya, comercie, suministre, fabrique, elabore, refine, transforme, extraiga, prepare, cultive, produzca, transporte, almacene o venda las drogas". That is eight to fifteen years for unauthorised distribution, commerce, supply, manufacture, processing, extraction, preparation, cultivation, production, transport, storage or sale. Article 77 raises the range to eight to twenty years where one of its eight enumerated aggravating circumstances is present, and twenty years is the ceiling this Act identifies. No article states a weight threshold, so the trigger is the unauthorised act and never a quantity. The second paragraph of article 58 reaches possession only "para cualquiera de los fines expresados", that is possession for one of those trafficking purposes. Ley 7786 creates no offence of consumption and no offence of simple possession for personal use. Article 79 answers a person consuming in a public place with voluntary and free treatment in a public or private health centre, not with a penalty.
If prescribed / medical: A lawful medical route exists only through the authorisation the Act itself demands. Article 58 opens with the words "sin autorizacion legal", so conduct carried out under a Costa Rican authorisation falls outside the offence and conduct without one falls inside it whatever the amount. Article 2 confines handling to the quantities needed for medical treatment, toxicological and chemical analysis and research, and requires authorised prescribers to use the official forms supplied by the Ministerio de Salud, whose entries carry the character of a sworn declaration. The Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes administers that control under Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025 and publishes the fiscalizacion list. The national list files this row among the estupefacientes, the narcotic half, which is the stricter of the two prescription regimes it operates.
Documentation: Consolidation read: Ley 7786 of 30 April 1998 as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, in the Texto Completo Norma 8204 print published by the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas, which carries its own generation date of 19 November 2018. The same ranges, ocho a quince anos in article 58 and de ocho a veinte anos in article 77, were independently read on 18 September 2026 against the later Sinalevi record of Ley 7786, version 13 of 13, so the 2018 print is corroborated rather than assumed current. Control model, re derived from the statute in this pass. Costa Rica prints no annex of controlled substances in its drug Act: across the 81 pages the only drug names anywhere are in article 96, on the disposal of seized marihuana, cocaina and heroina. Article 1 regulates "estupefacientes, psicotropicos, sustancias inhalables y demas drogas y farmacos susceptibles de producir dependencias fisicas o psiquicas, incluidos en la Convencion Unica sobre Estupefacientes... de 1961... asi como en el Convenio de Viena sobre Sustancias Psicotropicas, de 21 de febrero de 1971... asimismo, en la Convencion... de 1988". Its second paragraph is a different thing and is often misread as the control annex: it has the Ministerio de Salud and the MAG draw up and publish in La Gaceta "las listas de estupefacientes, psicotropicos y similares Licitos", the licit ones, which is the authorisation side. The incorporation is ambulatory: article 36 defines precursors as Cuadro I of the 1988 Convention "y sus anexos, asi como los que se le incorporen en el futuro", and article 100 gives the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas a mandate framed by the conventions and by "los listados oficiales, publicados periodicamente en La Gaceta". The second limb, measured. The national list is the Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes, Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes of the Ministerio de Salud, updated 10 September 2026 and signed that day by Dra. Mariela Alfaro Segura. It runs to 27 pages in three sections, estupefacientes, psicotropicos and Otros agregados, and it names its own legal basis as the Reglamento para el control de drogas, estupefacientes y psicotropicas N. 45161-S, the instrument cited elsewhere as Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025. The two titles are the same text. A reading of 18 September 2026 records that the decree gives the competent body the function "Elaborar y actualizar la lista de sustancias oficialmente consideradas estupefacientes o psicotropicos y similares de uso regulado" and that its five annexes are forms rather than a substance schedule; that quotation is carried from that reading and was not re derived here. The whole of Otros agregados is twelve entries: metilfenidato, tapentadol and the synthetic cannabinoid JWH-073 among the estupefacientes, and ketamina, esketamina, mexazolam, zaleplon, zopiclona and the piperazines mCPP, CPP, TFMPP and 1,4 dibencilpiperazina among the psicotropicos. Amending Act in force between that list and this reading, read in the official gazette in this pass. Ley 10961 of 9 June 2026, published in Alcance 78 to La Gaceta 113 of 19 June 2026, provides "Rige tres meses a partir de su publicacion" and so took effect on 19 September 2026. It runs to four articles: it adds article 15 quater to Ley 7786 on the anti-money-laundering duties of virtual asset service providers, carries that cross reference into articles 16, 16 bis, 25, 33, 33 bis, 86 and 123, reforms the article 81 administrative fines, and allows three months for regulations. Every Ley 7786 article it touches is money laundering machinery, and it leaves articles 1, 2, 36, 58, 73, 74, 77, 77 bis and 79 untouched, so it moves no row in this batch. Method note. The 2026-09-20 Costa Rica dossier was used only as the slug list and as one of the two term list sources. Its outcome column, its instrument column and its quotation column were not treated as evidence and no placement in this batch rests on them; every placement is the entry read in the list the statute incorporates. Two of its readings were not adopted: it treated ergometrina and ergina as one row when they are separate substances on separate limbs, and it left dextrometorfano unresolved when the instrument excludes it in terms. Sibling name traps were checked rather than assumed. Anchored matching correctly did not return bencilmorfina, desomorfina, dihidromorfina, metildihidromorfina, mirofina or diacetilmorfina for the morfina row, isometadona, normetadona or the metadona intermediario for the metadona row, metcatinona or 4-metiletcatinona for the catinona row, MMDA or N-etil MDA for the MDA row, beta-ceto-MDMA for the MDMA row, levometanfetamina for the metanfetamina row, PCPY for the PCP row, brolanfetamina for the anfetamina row, or norpseudoefedrina for the efedrina row. Two extraction zeroes were false and were recovered by re interrogation: hexahidrocannabinol and 2-fluorodescloroketamina are both line wrapped in the source and a column based read missed both. Routes run for the instrument in this pass. pgrweb.go.cr/scij is a JavaScript shell: the Ley 8204 and Ley 7786 records and the sinalevi.go.cr record each returned about 25 KB that renders to 1,159 characters of site chrome and no statutory text, so a size threshold would have cleared all three. imprentanacional.go.cr served the official gazette carrying Ley 10961. The institutional reproduction at icd.go.cr served the consolidated Act, and ministeriodesalud.go.cr served the national list and the circulars. The schedule pages were checked for hidden content: the list PDF holds one image object repeated on all 27 pages, which is the ministry letterhead, and its byte size is accounted for by that banner, so no entry is carried in an image. Entry read for this row, recorded as the list prints it: "NC 004, CAS 50-36-2, Cocaina, ester metilico de la benzoilecgonina (alcaloide extraido de la hoja de coca o preparado por sintesis a partir de la ecgonina)", with "NC 003, coca (hoja de), hoja del arbusto de coca" entered separately, in Lista I of the 1961 Convention. Carry the prescription and the dispensing label, and expect the authorisation rather than the amount to be what is asked about. There is no personal allowance to fall back on, because no article of Ley 7786 fixes a threshold. Sourcing, re derived in this pass and not carried: the two Junta de Vigilancia de Drogas urls cited by this row are DIRECTORIES and not documents. The listing page names the national fiscalisation list but does not carry it; the list is a separate PDF behind a numbered link, and that PDF is what the placement in this row actually rests on. Both documents are now fetched and cited by their own urls: "Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes", and "Lista de Estupefacientes y Sustancias Psicotropicas Sometidas a Fiscalizacion Nacional". The first carries the Otros agregados section this row's reasoning refers to [Certain, read from the fetched PDF]. The circulars page cited alongside them exposes no document at all.

Cocaine in Costa Rica, full detail →

Codeine

Legal status: Controlled. Article 1 of Ley 7786, as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, fixes the scope by reference to the substances included in the 1961 and 1971 Conventions and the 1988 Convention, and the Ministerio de Salud reproduces those listas in Spanish in its national fiscalizacion list and adds a short Otros agregados section of national additions. This row was read as a named entry in Lista II of the 1961 Convention. The offence articles are 58 and 77. [Certain] for the placement, with the entry text recorded in the documentation.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Article 21 of the Constitution provides "La vida humana es inviolable", the human life is inviolable, and the word "muerte" appears zero times across the 81 pages of the consolidated Act. Both of those were measured in this pass and together they are what carries the heading. Costa Rica is an abolitionist state of long standing, [Likely] on the nineteenth century date, which was not re-derived here. Unauthorised trafficking conduct carries eight to fifteen years. Article 58 provides "Se impondra pena de prision de ocho a quince anos a quien, sin autorizacion legal, distribuya, comercie, suministre, fabrique, elabore, refine, transforme, extraiga, prepare, cultive, produzca, transporte, almacene o venda las drogas". That is eight to fifteen years for unauthorised distribution, commerce, supply, manufacture, processing, extraction, preparation, cultivation, production, transport, storage or sale. Article 77 raises the range to eight to twenty years where one of its eight enumerated aggravating circumstances is present, and twenty years is the ceiling this Act identifies. No article states a weight threshold, so the trigger is the unauthorised act and never a quantity. The second paragraph of article 58 reaches possession only "para cualquiera de los fines expresados", that is possession for one of those trafficking purposes. Ley 7786 creates no offence of consumption and no offence of simple possession for personal use. Article 79 answers a person consuming in a public place with voluntary and free treatment in a public or private health centre, not with a penalty.
If prescribed / medical: A lawful medical route exists only through the authorisation the Act itself demands. Article 58 opens with the words "sin autorizacion legal", so conduct carried out under a Costa Rican authorisation falls outside the offence and conduct without one falls inside it whatever the amount. Article 2 confines handling to the quantities needed for medical treatment, toxicological and chemical analysis and research, and requires authorised prescribers to use the official forms supplied by the Ministerio de Salud, whose entries carry the character of a sworn declaration. The Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes administers that control under Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025 and publishes the fiscalizacion list. The national list files this row among the estupefacientes, the narcotic half, which is the stricter of the two prescription regimes it operates.
Documentation: Consolidation read: Ley 7786 of 30 April 1998 as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, in the Texto Completo Norma 8204 print published by the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas, which carries its own generation date of 19 November 2018. The same ranges, ocho a quince anos in article 58 and de ocho a veinte anos in article 77, were independently read on 18 September 2026 against the later Sinalevi record of Ley 7786, version 13 of 13, so the 2018 print is corroborated rather than assumed current. Control model, re derived from the statute in this pass. Costa Rica prints no annex of controlled substances in its drug Act: across the 81 pages the only drug names anywhere are in article 96, on the disposal of seized marihuana, cocaina and heroina. Article 1 regulates "estupefacientes, psicotropicos, sustancias inhalables y demas drogas y farmacos susceptibles de producir dependencias fisicas o psiquicas, incluidos en la Convencion Unica sobre Estupefacientes... de 1961... asi como en el Convenio de Viena sobre Sustancias Psicotropicas, de 21 de febrero de 1971... asimismo, en la Convencion... de 1988". Its second paragraph is a different thing and is often misread as the control annex: it has the Ministerio de Salud and the MAG draw up and publish in La Gaceta "las listas de estupefacientes, psicotropicos y similares Licitos", the licit ones, which is the authorisation side. The incorporation is ambulatory: article 36 defines precursors as Cuadro I of the 1988 Convention "y sus anexos, asi como los que se le incorporen en el futuro", and article 100 gives the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas a mandate framed by the conventions and by "los listados oficiales, publicados periodicamente en La Gaceta". The second limb, measured. The national list is the Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes, Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes of the Ministerio de Salud, updated 10 September 2026 and signed that day by Dra. Mariela Alfaro Segura. It runs to 27 pages in three sections, estupefacientes, psicotropicos and Otros agregados, and it names its own legal basis as the Reglamento para el control de drogas, estupefacientes y psicotropicas N. 45161-S, the instrument cited elsewhere as Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025. The two titles are the same text. A reading of 18 September 2026 records that the decree gives the competent body the function "Elaborar y actualizar la lista de sustancias oficialmente consideradas estupefacientes o psicotropicos y similares de uso regulado" and that its five annexes are forms rather than a substance schedule; that quotation is carried from that reading and was not re derived here. The whole of Otros agregados is twelve entries: metilfenidato, tapentadol and the synthetic cannabinoid JWH-073 among the estupefacientes, and ketamina, esketamina, mexazolam, zaleplon, zopiclona and the piperazines mCPP, CPP, TFMPP and 1,4 dibencilpiperazina among the psicotropicos. Amending Act in force between that list and this reading, read in the official gazette in this pass. Ley 10961 of 9 June 2026, published in Alcance 78 to La Gaceta 113 of 19 June 2026, provides "Rige tres meses a partir de su publicacion" and so took effect on 19 September 2026. It runs to four articles: it adds article 15 quater to Ley 7786 on the anti-money-laundering duties of virtual asset service providers, carries that cross reference into articles 16, 16 bis, 25, 33, 33 bis, 86 and 123, reforms the article 81 administrative fines, and allows three months for regulations. Every Ley 7786 article it touches is money laundering machinery, and it leaves articles 1, 2, 36, 58, 73, 74, 77, 77 bis and 79 untouched, so it moves no row in this batch. Method note. The 2026-09-20 Costa Rica dossier was used only as the slug list and as one of the two term list sources. Its outcome column, its instrument column and its quotation column were not treated as evidence and no placement in this batch rests on them; every placement is the entry read in the list the statute incorporates. Two of its readings were not adopted: it treated ergometrina and ergina as one row when they are separate substances on separate limbs, and it left dextrometorfano unresolved when the instrument excludes it in terms. Sibling name traps were checked rather than assumed. Anchored matching correctly did not return bencilmorfina, desomorfina, dihidromorfina, metildihidromorfina, mirofina or diacetilmorfina for the morfina row, isometadona, normetadona or the metadona intermediario for the metadona row, metcatinona or 4-metiletcatinona for the catinona row, MMDA or N-etil MDA for the MDA row, beta-ceto-MDMA for the MDMA row, levometanfetamina for the metanfetamina row, PCPY for the PCP row, brolanfetamina for the anfetamina row, or norpseudoefedrina for the efedrina row. Two extraction zeroes were false and were recovered by re interrogation: hexahidrocannabinol and 2-fluorodescloroketamina are both line wrapped in the source and a column based read missed both. Routes run for the instrument in this pass. pgrweb.go.cr/scij is a JavaScript shell: the Ley 8204 and Ley 7786 records and the sinalevi.go.cr record each returned about 25 KB that renders to 1,159 characters of site chrome and no statutory text, so a size threshold would have cleared all three. imprentanacional.go.cr served the official gazette carrying Ley 10961. The institutional reproduction at icd.go.cr served the consolidated Act, and ministeriodesalud.go.cr served the national list and the circulars. The schedule pages were checked for hidden content: the list PDF holds one image object repeated on all 27 pages, which is the ministry letterhead, and its byte size is accounted for by that banner, so no entry is carried in an image. Entry read for this row, recorded as the list prints it: "NC 005, CAS 76-57-3, Codeina, 3-metilmorfina (derivado de la morfina, alcaloide que se encuentra en el opio y en la paja de adormidera)", in Lista II of the 1961 Convention. Carry the prescription and the dispensing label, and expect the authorisation rather than the amount to be what is asked about. There is no personal allowance to fall back on, because no article of Ley 7786 fixes a threshold. Sourcing, re derived in this pass and not carried: the two Junta de Vigilancia de Drogas urls cited by this row are DIRECTORIES and not documents. The listing page names the national fiscalisation list but does not carry it; the list is a separate PDF behind a numbered link, and that PDF is what the placement in this row actually rests on. Both documents are now fetched and cited by their own urls: "Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes", and "Lista de Estupefacientes y Sustancias Psicotropicas Sometidas a Fiscalizacion Nacional". The first carries the Otros agregados section this row's reasoning refers to [Certain, read from the fetched PDF]. The circulars page cited alongside them exposes no document at all.

Codeine in Costa Rica, full detail →

Crack Cocaine

Legal status: Controlled. Article 1 of Ley 7786, as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, fixes the scope by reference to the substances included in the 1961 and 1971 Conventions and the 1988 Convention, and the Ministerio de Salud reproduces those listas in Spanish in its national fiscalizacion list and adds a short Otros agregados section of national additions. This row was read as a named entry in Lista I of the 1961 Convention. Crack is a smokable base preparation of cocaine rather than a separate entry, so it is reached through the cocaine entry. The offence articles are 58 and 77. [Certain] for the placement, with the entry text recorded in the documentation.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Article 21 of the Constitution provides "La vida humana es inviolable", the human life is inviolable, and the word "muerte" appears zero times across the 81 pages of the consolidated Act. Both of those were measured in this pass and together they are what carries the heading. Costa Rica is an abolitionist state of long standing, [Likely] on the nineteenth century date, which was not re-derived here. Unauthorised trafficking conduct carries eight to fifteen years. Article 58 provides "Se impondra pena de prision de ocho a quince anos a quien, sin autorizacion legal, distribuya, comercie, suministre, fabrique, elabore, refine, transforme, extraiga, prepare, cultive, produzca, transporte, almacene o venda las drogas". That is eight to fifteen years for unauthorised distribution, commerce, supply, manufacture, processing, extraction, preparation, cultivation, production, transport, storage or sale. Article 77 raises the range to eight to twenty years where one of its eight enumerated aggravating circumstances is present, and twenty years is the ceiling this Act identifies. No article states a weight threshold, so the trigger is the unauthorised act and never a quantity. The second paragraph of article 58 reaches possession only "para cualquiera de los fines expresados", that is possession for one of those trafficking purposes. Ley 7786 creates no offence of consumption and no offence of simple possession for personal use. Article 79 answers a person consuming in a public place with voluntary and free treatment in a public or private health centre, not with a penalty.
If prescribed / medical: A lawful medical route exists only through the authorisation the Act itself demands. Article 58 opens with the words "sin autorizacion legal", so conduct carried out under a Costa Rican authorisation falls outside the offence and conduct without one falls inside it whatever the amount. Article 2 confines handling to the quantities needed for medical treatment, toxicological and chemical analysis and research, and requires authorised prescribers to use the official forms supplied by the Ministerio de Salud, whose entries carry the character of a sworn declaration. The Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes administers that control under Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025 and publishes the fiscalizacion list. The national list files this row among the estupefacientes, the narcotic half, which is the stricter of the two prescription regimes it operates.
Documentation: Consolidation read: Ley 7786 of 30 April 1998 as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, in the Texto Completo Norma 8204 print published by the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas, which carries its own generation date of 19 November 2018. The same ranges, ocho a quince anos in article 58 and de ocho a veinte anos in article 77, were independently read on 18 September 2026 against the later Sinalevi record of Ley 7786, version 13 of 13, so the 2018 print is corroborated rather than assumed current. Control model, re derived from the statute in this pass. Costa Rica prints no annex of controlled substances in its drug Act: across the 81 pages the only drug names anywhere are in article 96, on the disposal of seized marihuana, cocaina and heroina. Article 1 regulates "estupefacientes, psicotropicos, sustancias inhalables y demas drogas y farmacos susceptibles de producir dependencias fisicas o psiquicas, incluidos en la Convencion Unica sobre Estupefacientes... de 1961... asi como en el Convenio de Viena sobre Sustancias Psicotropicas, de 21 de febrero de 1971... asimismo, en la Convencion... de 1988". Its second paragraph is a different thing and is often misread as the control annex: it has the Ministerio de Salud and the MAG draw up and publish in La Gaceta "las listas de estupefacientes, psicotropicos y similares Licitos", the licit ones, which is the authorisation side. The incorporation is ambulatory: article 36 defines precursors as Cuadro I of the 1988 Convention "y sus anexos, asi como los que se le incorporen en el futuro", and article 100 gives the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas a mandate framed by the conventions and by "los listados oficiales, publicados periodicamente en La Gaceta". The second limb, measured. The national list is the Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes, Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes of the Ministerio de Salud, updated 10 September 2026 and signed that day by Dra. Mariela Alfaro Segura. It runs to 27 pages in three sections, estupefacientes, psicotropicos and Otros agregados, and it names its own legal basis as the Reglamento para el control de drogas, estupefacientes y psicotropicas N. 45161-S, the instrument cited elsewhere as Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025. The two titles are the same text. A reading of 18 September 2026 records that the decree gives the competent body the function "Elaborar y actualizar la lista de sustancias oficialmente consideradas estupefacientes o psicotropicos y similares de uso regulado" and that its five annexes are forms rather than a substance schedule; that quotation is carried from that reading and was not re derived here. The whole of Otros agregados is twelve entries: metilfenidato, tapentadol and the synthetic cannabinoid JWH-073 among the estupefacientes, and ketamina, esketamina, mexazolam, zaleplon, zopiclona and the piperazines mCPP, CPP, TFMPP and 1,4 dibencilpiperazina among the psicotropicos. Amending Act in force between that list and this reading, read in the official gazette in this pass. Ley 10961 of 9 June 2026, published in Alcance 78 to La Gaceta 113 of 19 June 2026, provides "Rige tres meses a partir de su publicacion" and so took effect on 19 September 2026. It runs to four articles: it adds article 15 quater to Ley 7786 on the anti-money-laundering duties of virtual asset service providers, carries that cross reference into articles 16, 16 bis, 25, 33, 33 bis, 86 and 123, reforms the article 81 administrative fines, and allows three months for regulations. Every Ley 7786 article it touches is money laundering machinery, and it leaves articles 1, 2, 36, 58, 73, 74, 77, 77 bis and 79 untouched, so it moves no row in this batch. Method note. The 2026-09-20 Costa Rica dossier was used only as the slug list and as one of the two term list sources. Its outcome column, its instrument column and its quotation column were not treated as evidence and no placement in this batch rests on them; every placement is the entry read in the list the statute incorporates. Two of its readings were not adopted: it treated ergometrina and ergina as one row when they are separate substances on separate limbs, and it left dextrometorfano unresolved when the instrument excludes it in terms. Sibling name traps were checked rather than assumed. Anchored matching correctly did not return bencilmorfina, desomorfina, dihidromorfina, metildihidromorfina, mirofina or diacetilmorfina for the morfina row, isometadona, normetadona or the metadona intermediario for the metadona row, metcatinona or 4-metiletcatinona for the catinona row, MMDA or N-etil MDA for the MDA row, beta-ceto-MDMA for the MDMA row, levometanfetamina for the metanfetamina row, PCPY for the PCP row, brolanfetamina for the anfetamina row, or norpseudoefedrina for the efedrina row. Two extraction zeroes were false and were recovered by re interrogation: hexahidrocannabinol and 2-fluorodescloroketamina are both line wrapped in the source and a column based read missed both. Routes run for the instrument in this pass. pgrweb.go.cr/scij is a JavaScript shell: the Ley 8204 and Ley 7786 records and the sinalevi.go.cr record each returned about 25 KB that renders to 1,159 characters of site chrome and no statutory text, so a size threshold would have cleared all three. imprentanacional.go.cr served the official gazette carrying Ley 10961. The institutional reproduction at icd.go.cr served the consolidated Act, and ministeriodesalud.go.cr served the national list and the circulars. The schedule pages were checked for hidden content: the list PDF holds one image object repeated on all 27 pages, which is the ministry letterhead, and its byte size is accounted for by that banner, so no entry is carried in an image. Entry read for this row, recorded as the list prints it: "NC 004, CAS 50-36-2, Cocaina, ester metilico de la benzoilecgonina", in Lista I of the 1961 Convention. Carry the prescription and the dispensing label, and expect the authorisation rather than the amount to be what is asked about. There is no personal allowance to fall back on, because no article of Ley 7786 fixes a threshold. Sourcing, re derived in this pass and not carried: the two Junta de Vigilancia de Drogas urls cited by this row are DIRECTORIES and not documents. The listing page names the national fiscalisation list but does not carry it; the list is a separate PDF behind a numbered link, and that PDF is what the placement in this row actually rests on. Both documents are now fetched and cited by their own urls: "Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes", and "Lista de Estupefacientes y Sustancias Psicotropicas Sometidas a Fiscalizacion Nacional". The first carries the Otros agregados section this row's reasoning refers to [Certain, read from the fetched PDF]. The circulars page cited alongside them exposes no document at all.

Crack Cocaine in Costa Rica, full detail →

Delta-8-THC

Legal status: Controlled. Article 1 of Ley 7786, as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, fixes the scope by reference to the substances included in the 1961 and 1971 Conventions and the 1988 Convention, and the Ministerio de Salud reproduces those listas in Spanish in its national fiscalizacion list and adds a short Otros agregados section of national additions. This row was read as a named entry in Lista I of the 1971 Convention. The offence articles are 58 and 77. [Certain] for the placement, with the entry text recorded in the documentation.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Article 21 of the Constitution provides "La vida humana es inviolable", the human life is inviolable, and the word "muerte" appears zero times across the 81 pages of the consolidated Act. Both of those were measured in this pass and together they are what carries the heading. Costa Rica is an abolitionist state of long standing, [Likely] on the nineteenth century date, which was not re-derived here. Unauthorised trafficking conduct carries eight to fifteen years. Article 58 provides "Se impondra pena de prision de ocho a quince anos a quien, sin autorizacion legal, distribuya, comercie, suministre, fabrique, elabore, refine, transforme, extraiga, prepare, cultive, produzca, transporte, almacene o venda las drogas". That is eight to fifteen years for unauthorised distribution, commerce, supply, manufacture, processing, extraction, preparation, cultivation, production, transport, storage or sale. Article 77 raises the range to eight to twenty years where one of its eight enumerated aggravating circumstances is present, and twenty years is the ceiling this Act identifies. No article states a weight threshold, so the trigger is the unauthorised act and never a quantity. The second paragraph of article 58 reaches possession only "para cualquiera de los fines expresados", that is possession for one of those trafficking purposes. Ley 7786 creates no offence of consumption and no offence of simple possession for personal use. Article 79 answers a person consuming in a public place with voluntary and free treatment in a public or private health centre, not with a penalty.
If prescribed / medical: A lawful medical route exists only through the authorisation the Act itself demands. Article 58 opens with the words "sin autorizacion legal", so conduct carried out under a Costa Rican authorisation falls outside the offence and conduct without one falls inside it whatever the amount. Article 2 confines handling to the quantities needed for medical treatment, toxicological and chemical analysis and research, and requires authorised prescribers to use the official forms supplied by the Ministerio de Salud, whose entries carry the character of a sworn declaration. The Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes administers that control under Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025 and publishes the fiscalizacion list. The national list files this row among the psicotropicos rather than the estupefacientes, which is the less strict of the two prescription regimes it operates.
Documentation: Consolidation read: Ley 7786 of 30 April 1998 as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, in the Texto Completo Norma 8204 print published by the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas, which carries its own generation date of 19 November 2018. The same ranges, ocho a quince anos in article 58 and de ocho a veinte anos in article 77, were independently read on 18 September 2026 against the later Sinalevi record of Ley 7786, version 13 of 13, so the 2018 print is corroborated rather than assumed current. Control model, re derived from the statute in this pass. Costa Rica prints no annex of controlled substances in its drug Act: across the 81 pages the only drug names anywhere are in article 96, on the disposal of seized marihuana, cocaina and heroina. Article 1 regulates "estupefacientes, psicotropicos, sustancias inhalables y demas drogas y farmacos susceptibles de producir dependencias fisicas o psiquicas, incluidos en la Convencion Unica sobre Estupefacientes... de 1961... asi como en el Convenio de Viena sobre Sustancias Psicotropicas, de 21 de febrero de 1971... asimismo, en la Convencion... de 1988". Its second paragraph is a different thing and is often misread as the control annex: it has the Ministerio de Salud and the MAG draw up and publish in La Gaceta "las listas de estupefacientes, psicotropicos y similares Licitos", the licit ones, which is the authorisation side. The incorporation is ambulatory: article 36 defines precursors as Cuadro I of the 1988 Convention "y sus anexos, asi como los que se le incorporen en el futuro", and article 100 gives the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas a mandate framed by the conventions and by "los listados oficiales, publicados periodicamente en La Gaceta". The second limb, measured. The national list is the Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes, Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes of the Ministerio de Salud, updated 10 September 2026 and signed that day by Dra. Mariela Alfaro Segura. It runs to 27 pages in three sections, estupefacientes, psicotropicos and Otros agregados, and it names its own legal basis as the Reglamento para el control de drogas, estupefacientes y psicotropicas N. 45161-S, the instrument cited elsewhere as Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025. The two titles are the same text. A reading of 18 September 2026 records that the decree gives the competent body the function "Elaborar y actualizar la lista de sustancias oficialmente consideradas estupefacientes o psicotropicos y similares de uso regulado" and that its five annexes are forms rather than a substance schedule; that quotation is carried from that reading and was not re derived here. The whole of Otros agregados is twelve entries: metilfenidato, tapentadol and the synthetic cannabinoid JWH-073 among the estupefacientes, and ketamina, esketamina, mexazolam, zaleplon, zopiclona and the piperazines mCPP, CPP, TFMPP and 1,4 dibencilpiperazina among the psicotropicos. Amending Act in force between that list and this reading, read in the official gazette in this pass. Ley 10961 of 9 June 2026, published in Alcance 78 to La Gaceta 113 of 19 June 2026, provides "Rige tres meses a partir de su publicacion" and so took effect on 19 September 2026. It runs to four articles: it adds article 15 quater to Ley 7786 on the anti-money-laundering duties of virtual asset service providers, carries that cross reference into articles 16, 16 bis, 25, 33, 33 bis, 86 and 123, reforms the article 81 administrative fines, and allows three months for regulations. Every Ley 7786 article it touches is money laundering machinery, and it leaves articles 1, 2, 36, 58, 73, 74, 77, 77 bis and 79 untouched, so it moves no row in this batch. Method note. The 2026-09-20 Costa Rica dossier was used only as the slug list and as one of the two term list sources. Its outcome column, its instrument column and its quotation column were not treated as evidence and no placement in this batch rests on them; every placement is the entry read in the list the statute incorporates. Two of its readings were not adopted: it treated ergometrina and ergina as one row when they are separate substances on separate limbs, and it left dextrometorfano unresolved when the instrument excludes it in terms. Sibling name traps were checked rather than assumed. Anchored matching correctly did not return bencilmorfina, desomorfina, dihidromorfina, metildihidromorfina, mirofina or diacetilmorfina for the morfina row, isometadona, normetadona or the metadona intermediario for the metadona row, metcatinona or 4-metiletcatinona for the catinona row, MMDA or N-etil MDA for the MDA row, beta-ceto-MDMA for the MDMA row, levometanfetamina for the metanfetamina row, PCPY for the PCP row, brolanfetamina for the anfetamina row, or norpseudoefedrina for the efedrina row. Two extraction zeroes were false and were recovered by re interrogation: hexahidrocannabinol and 2-fluorodescloroketamina are both line wrapped in the source and a column based read missed both. Routes run for the instrument in this pass. pgrweb.go.cr/scij is a JavaScript shell: the Ley 8204 and Ley 7786 records and the sinalevi.go.cr record each returned about 25 KB that renders to 1,159 characters of site chrome and no statutory text, so a size threshold would have cleared all three. imprentanacional.go.cr served the official gazette carrying Ley 10961. The institutional reproduction at icd.go.cr served the consolidated Act, and ministeriodesalud.go.cr served the national list and the circulars. The schedule pages were checked for hidden content: the list PDF holds one image object repeated on all 27 pages, which is the ministry letterhead, and its byte size is accounted for by that banner, so no entry is carried in an image. Entry read for this row, recorded as the list prints it: "PT 002, Tetrahidrocannabinol / THC, tetrahidrocannabinol, los siguientes isomeros y sus variantes estereoquimicas", whose printed isomer list names delta-8-THC alongside delta-6a(10a)-THC, delta-6a(7)-THC, delta-7-THC, delta-10-THC and delta-9(11)-THC, in Lista I of the 1971 Convention. Carry the prescription and the dispensing label, and expect the authorisation rather than the amount to be what is asked about. There is no personal allowance to fall back on, because no article of Ley 7786 fixes a threshold. Sourcing, re derived in this pass and not carried: the two Junta de Vigilancia de Drogas urls cited by this row are DIRECTORIES and not documents. The listing page names the national fiscalisation list but does not carry it; the list is a separate PDF behind a numbered link, and that PDF is what the placement in this row actually rests on. Both documents are now fetched and cited by their own urls: "Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes", and "Lista de Estupefacientes y Sustancias Psicotropicas Sometidas a Fiscalizacion Nacional". The first carries the Otros agregados section this row's reasoning refers to [Certain, read from the fetched PDF]. The circulars page cited alongside them exposes no document at all.

Delta-8-THC in Costa Rica, full detail →

Diazepam

Legal status: Controlled. Article 1 of Ley 7786, as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, fixes the scope by reference to the substances included in the 1961 and 1971 Conventions and the 1988 Convention, and the Ministerio de Salud reproduces those listas in Spanish in its national fiscalizacion list and adds a short Otros agregados section of national additions. This row was read as a named entry in Lista IV of the 1971 Convention. The offence articles are 58 and 77. [Certain] for the placement, with the entry text recorded in the documentation.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Article 21 of the Constitution provides "La vida humana es inviolable", the human life is inviolable, and the word "muerte" appears zero times across the 81 pages of the consolidated Act. Both of those were measured in this pass and together they are what carries the heading. Costa Rica is an abolitionist state of long standing, [Likely] on the nineteenth century date, which was not re-derived here. Unauthorised trafficking conduct carries eight to fifteen years. Article 58 provides "Se impondra pena de prision de ocho a quince anos a quien, sin autorizacion legal, distribuya, comercie, suministre, fabrique, elabore, refine, transforme, extraiga, prepare, cultive, produzca, transporte, almacene o venda las drogas". That is eight to fifteen years for unauthorised distribution, commerce, supply, manufacture, processing, extraction, preparation, cultivation, production, transport, storage or sale. Article 77 raises the range to eight to twenty years where one of its eight enumerated aggravating circumstances is present, and twenty years is the ceiling this Act identifies. No article states a weight threshold, so the trigger is the unauthorised act and never a quantity. The second paragraph of article 58 reaches possession only "para cualquiera de los fines expresados", that is possession for one of those trafficking purposes. Ley 7786 creates no offence of consumption and no offence of simple possession for personal use. Article 79 answers a person consuming in a public place with voluntary and free treatment in a public or private health centre, not with a penalty.
If prescribed / medical: A lawful medical route exists only through the authorisation the Act itself demands. Article 58 opens with the words "sin autorizacion legal", so conduct carried out under a Costa Rican authorisation falls outside the offence and conduct without one falls inside it whatever the amount. Article 2 confines handling to the quantities needed for medical treatment, toxicological and chemical analysis and research, and requires authorised prescribers to use the official forms supplied by the Ministerio de Salud, whose entries carry the character of a sworn declaration. The Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes administers that control under Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025 and publishes the fiscalizacion list. The national list files this row among the psicotropicos rather than the estupefacientes, which is the less strict of the two prescription regimes it operates.
Documentation: Consolidation read: Ley 7786 of 30 April 1998 as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, in the Texto Completo Norma 8204 print published by the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas, which carries its own generation date of 19 November 2018. The same ranges, ocho a quince anos in article 58 and de ocho a veinte anos in article 77, were independently read on 18 September 2026 against the later Sinalevi record of Ley 7786, version 13 of 13, so the 2018 print is corroborated rather than assumed current. Control model, re derived from the statute in this pass. Costa Rica prints no annex of controlled substances in its drug Act: across the 81 pages the only drug names anywhere are in article 96, on the disposal of seized marihuana, cocaina and heroina. Article 1 regulates "estupefacientes, psicotropicos, sustancias inhalables y demas drogas y farmacos susceptibles de producir dependencias fisicas o psiquicas, incluidos en la Convencion Unica sobre Estupefacientes... de 1961... asi como en el Convenio de Viena sobre Sustancias Psicotropicas, de 21 de febrero de 1971... asimismo, en la Convencion... de 1988". Its second paragraph is a different thing and is often misread as the control annex: it has the Ministerio de Salud and the MAG draw up and publish in La Gaceta "las listas de estupefacientes, psicotropicos y similares Licitos", the licit ones, which is the authorisation side. The incorporation is ambulatory: article 36 defines precursors as Cuadro I of the 1988 Convention "y sus anexos, asi como los que se le incorporen en el futuro", and article 100 gives the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas a mandate framed by the conventions and by "los listados oficiales, publicados periodicamente en La Gaceta". The second limb, measured. The national list is the Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes, Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes of the Ministerio de Salud, updated 10 September 2026 and signed that day by Dra. Mariela Alfaro Segura. It runs to 27 pages in three sections, estupefacientes, psicotropicos and Otros agregados, and it names its own legal basis as the Reglamento para el control de drogas, estupefacientes y psicotropicas N. 45161-S, the instrument cited elsewhere as Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025. The two titles are the same text. A reading of 18 September 2026 records that the decree gives the competent body the function "Elaborar y actualizar la lista de sustancias oficialmente consideradas estupefacientes o psicotropicos y similares de uso regulado" and that its five annexes are forms rather than a substance schedule; that quotation is carried from that reading and was not re derived here. The whole of Otros agregados is twelve entries: metilfenidato, tapentadol and the synthetic cannabinoid JWH-073 among the estupefacientes, and ketamina, esketamina, mexazolam, zaleplon, zopiclona and the piperazines mCPP, CPP, TFMPP and 1,4 dibencilpiperazina among the psicotropicos. Amending Act in force between that list and this reading, read in the official gazette in this pass. Ley 10961 of 9 June 2026, published in Alcance 78 to La Gaceta 113 of 19 June 2026, provides "Rige tres meses a partir de su publicacion" and so took effect on 19 September 2026. It runs to four articles: it adds article 15 quater to Ley 7786 on the anti-money-laundering duties of virtual asset service providers, carries that cross reference into articles 16, 16 bis, 25, 33, 33 bis, 86 and 123, reforms the article 81 administrative fines, and allows three months for regulations. Every Ley 7786 article it touches is money laundering machinery, and it leaves articles 1, 2, 36, 58, 73, 74, 77, 77 bis and 79 untouched, so it moves no row in this batch. Method note. The 2026-09-20 Costa Rica dossier was used only as the slug list and as one of the two term list sources. Its outcome column, its instrument column and its quotation column were not treated as evidence and no placement in this batch rests on them; every placement is the entry read in the list the statute incorporates. Two of its readings were not adopted: it treated ergometrina and ergina as one row when they are separate substances on separate limbs, and it left dextrometorfano unresolved when the instrument excludes it in terms. Sibling name traps were checked rather than assumed. Anchored matching correctly did not return bencilmorfina, desomorfina, dihidromorfina, metildihidromorfina, mirofina or diacetilmorfina for the morfina row, isometadona, normetadona or the metadona intermediario for the metadona row, metcatinona or 4-metiletcatinona for the catinona row, MMDA or N-etil MDA for the MDA row, beta-ceto-MDMA for the MDMA row, levometanfetamina for the metanfetamina row, PCPY for the PCP row, brolanfetamina for the anfetamina row, or norpseudoefedrina for the efedrina row. Two extraction zeroes were false and were recovered by re interrogation: hexahidrocannabinol and 2-fluorodescloroketamina are both line wrapped in the source and a column based read missed both. Routes run for the instrument in this pass. pgrweb.go.cr/scij is a JavaScript shell: the Ley 8204 and Ley 7786 records and the sinalevi.go.cr record each returned about 25 KB that renders to 1,159 characters of site chrome and no statutory text, so a size threshold would have cleared all three. imprentanacional.go.cr served the official gazette carrying Ley 10961. The institutional reproduction at icd.go.cr served the consolidated Act, and ministeriodesalud.go.cr served the national list and the circulars. The schedule pages were checked for hidden content: the list PDF holds one image object repeated on all 27 pages, which is the ministry letterhead, and its byte size is accounted for by that banner, so no entry is carried in an image. Entry read for this row, recorded as the list prints it: "PD 006, CAS 439-14-5, Diazepam, 7-cloro-1,3-dihidro-1-metil-5-fenil-2H-1,4-benzodiazepin-2-ona", in Lista IV of the 1971 Convention. Carry the prescription and the dispensing label, and expect the authorisation rather than the amount to be what is asked about. There is no personal allowance to fall back on, because no article of Ley 7786 fixes a threshold. Sourcing, re derived in this pass and not carried: the two Junta de Vigilancia de Drogas urls cited by this row are DIRECTORIES and not documents. The listing page names the national fiscalisation list but does not carry it; the list is a separate PDF behind a numbered link, and that PDF is what the placement in this row actually rests on. Both documents are now fetched and cited by their own urls: "Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes", and "Lista de Estupefacientes y Sustancias Psicotropicas Sometidas a Fiscalizacion Nacional". The first carries the Otros agregados section this row's reasoning refers to [Certain, read from the fetched PDF]. The circulars page cited alongside them exposes no document at all.

Diazepam in Costa Rica, full detail →

DMT

Legal status: Controlled. Article 1 of Ley 7786, as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, fixes the scope by reference to the substances included in the 1961 and 1971 Conventions and the 1988 Convention, and the Ministerio de Salud reproduces those listas in Spanish in its national fiscalizacion list and adds a short Otros agregados section of national additions. This row was read as a named entry in Lista I of the 1971 Convention. The offence articles are 58 and 77. [Certain] for the placement, with the entry text recorded in the documentation.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Article 21 of the Constitution provides "La vida humana es inviolable", the human life is inviolable, and the word "muerte" appears zero times across the 81 pages of the consolidated Act. Both of those were measured in this pass and together they are what carries the heading. Costa Rica is an abolitionist state of long standing, [Likely] on the nineteenth century date, which was not re-derived here. Unauthorised trafficking conduct carries eight to fifteen years. Article 58 provides "Se impondra pena de prision de ocho a quince anos a quien, sin autorizacion legal, distribuya, comercie, suministre, fabrique, elabore, refine, transforme, extraiga, prepare, cultive, produzca, transporte, almacene o venda las drogas". That is eight to fifteen years for unauthorised distribution, commerce, supply, manufacture, processing, extraction, preparation, cultivation, production, transport, storage or sale. Article 77 raises the range to eight to twenty years where one of its eight enumerated aggravating circumstances is present, and twenty years is the ceiling this Act identifies. No article states a weight threshold, so the trigger is the unauthorised act and never a quantity. The second paragraph of article 58 reaches possession only "para cualquiera de los fines expresados", that is possession for one of those trafficking purposes. Ley 7786 creates no offence of consumption and no offence of simple possession for personal use. Article 79 answers a person consuming in a public place with voluntary and free treatment in a public or private health centre, not with a penalty.
If prescribed / medical: A lawful medical route exists only through the authorisation the Act itself demands. Article 58 opens with the words "sin autorizacion legal", so conduct carried out under a Costa Rican authorisation falls outside the offence and conduct without one falls inside it whatever the amount. Article 2 confines handling to the quantities needed for medical treatment, toxicological and chemical analysis and research, and requires authorised prescribers to use the official forms supplied by the Ministerio de Salud, whose entries carry the character of a sworn declaration. The Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes administers that control under Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025 and publishes the fiscalizacion list. The national list files this row among the psicotropicos rather than the estupefacientes, which is the less strict of the two prescription regimes it operates.
Documentation: Consolidation read: Ley 7786 of 30 April 1998 as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, in the Texto Completo Norma 8204 print published by the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas, which carries its own generation date of 19 November 2018. The same ranges, ocho a quince anos in article 58 and de ocho a veinte anos in article 77, were independently read on 18 September 2026 against the later Sinalevi record of Ley 7786, version 13 of 13, so the 2018 print is corroborated rather than assumed current. Control model, re derived from the statute in this pass. Costa Rica prints no annex of controlled substances in its drug Act: across the 81 pages the only drug names anywhere are in article 96, on the disposal of seized marihuana, cocaina and heroina. Article 1 regulates "estupefacientes, psicotropicos, sustancias inhalables y demas drogas y farmacos susceptibles de producir dependencias fisicas o psiquicas, incluidos en la Convencion Unica sobre Estupefacientes... de 1961... asi como en el Convenio de Viena sobre Sustancias Psicotropicas, de 21 de febrero de 1971... asimismo, en la Convencion... de 1988". Its second paragraph is a different thing and is often misread as the control annex: it has the Ministerio de Salud and the MAG draw up and publish in La Gaceta "las listas de estupefacientes, psicotropicos y similares Licitos", the licit ones, which is the authorisation side. The incorporation is ambulatory: article 36 defines precursors as Cuadro I of the 1988 Convention "y sus anexos, asi como los que se le incorporen en el futuro", and article 100 gives the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas a mandate framed by the conventions and by "los listados oficiales, publicados periodicamente en La Gaceta". The second limb, measured. The national list is the Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes, Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes of the Ministerio de Salud, updated 10 September 2026 and signed that day by Dra. Mariela Alfaro Segura. It runs to 27 pages in three sections, estupefacientes, psicotropicos and Otros agregados, and it names its own legal basis as the Reglamento para el control de drogas, estupefacientes y psicotropicas N. 45161-S, the instrument cited elsewhere as Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025. The two titles are the same text. A reading of 18 September 2026 records that the decree gives the competent body the function "Elaborar y actualizar la lista de sustancias oficialmente consideradas estupefacientes o psicotropicos y similares de uso regulado" and that its five annexes are forms rather than a substance schedule; that quotation is carried from that reading and was not re derived here. The whole of Otros agregados is twelve entries: metilfenidato, tapentadol and the synthetic cannabinoid JWH-073 among the estupefacientes, and ketamina, esketamina, mexazolam, zaleplon, zopiclona and the piperazines mCPP, CPP, TFMPP and 1,4 dibencilpiperazina among the psicotropicos. Amending Act in force between that list and this reading, read in the official gazette in this pass. Ley 10961 of 9 June 2026, published in Alcance 78 to La Gaceta 113 of 19 June 2026, provides "Rige tres meses a partir de su publicacion" and so took effect on 19 September 2026. It runs to four articles: it adds article 15 quater to Ley 7786 on the anti-money-laundering duties of virtual asset service providers, carries that cross reference into articles 16, 16 bis, 25, 33, 33 bis, 86 and 123, reforms the article 81 administrative fines, and allows three months for regulations. Every Ley 7786 article it touches is money laundering machinery, and it leaves articles 1, 2, 36, 58, 73, 74, 77, 77 bis and 79 untouched, so it moves no row in this batch. Method note. The 2026-09-20 Costa Rica dossier was used only as the slug list and as one of the two term list sources. Its outcome column, its instrument column and its quotation column were not treated as evidence and no placement in this batch rests on them; every placement is the entry read in the list the statute incorporates. Two of its readings were not adopted: it treated ergometrina and ergina as one row when they are separate substances on separate limbs, and it left dextrometorfano unresolved when the instrument excludes it in terms. Sibling name traps were checked rather than assumed. Anchored matching correctly did not return bencilmorfina, desomorfina, dihidromorfina, metildihidromorfina, mirofina or diacetilmorfina for the morfina row, isometadona, normetadona or the metadona intermediario for the metadona row, metcatinona or 4-metiletcatinona for the catinona row, MMDA or N-etil MDA for the MDA row, beta-ceto-MDMA for the MDMA row, levometanfetamina for the metanfetamina row, PCPY for the PCP row, brolanfetamina for the anfetamina row, or norpseudoefedrina for the efedrina row. Two extraction zeroes were false and were recovered by re interrogation: hexahidrocannabinol and 2-fluorodescloroketamina are both line wrapped in the source and a column based read missed both. Routes run for the instrument in this pass. pgrweb.go.cr/scij is a JavaScript shell: the Ley 8204 and Ley 7786 records and the sinalevi.go.cr record each returned about 25 KB that renders to 1,159 characters of site chrome and no statutory text, so a size threshold would have cleared all three. imprentanacional.go.cr served the official gazette carrying Ley 10961. The institutional reproduction at icd.go.cr served the consolidated Act, and ministeriodesalud.go.cr served the national list and the circulars. The schedule pages were checked for hidden content: the list PDF holds one image object repeated on all 27 pages, which is the ministry letterhead, and its byte size is accounted for by that banner, so no entry is carried in an image. Entry read for this row, recorded as the list prints it: "PD 004, DMT, 3-[2-(dimetilamino)etil]indol", in Lista I of the 1971 Convention. Carry the prescription and the dispensing label, and expect the authorisation rather than the amount to be what is asked about. There is no personal allowance to fall back on, because no article of Ley 7786 fixes a threshold. Sourcing, re derived in this pass and not carried: the two Junta de Vigilancia de Drogas urls cited by this row are DIRECTORIES and not documents. The listing page names the national fiscalisation list but does not carry it; the list is a separate PDF behind a numbered link, and that PDF is what the placement in this row actually rests on. Both documents are now fetched and cited by their own urls: "Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes", and "Lista de Estupefacientes y Sustancias Psicotropicas Sometidas a Fiscalizacion Nacional". The first carries the Otros agregados section this row's reasoning refers to [Certain, read from the fetched PDF]. The circulars page cited alongside them exposes no document at all.

DMT in Costa Rica, full detail →

DOM

Legal status: Controlled. Article 1 of Ley 7786, as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, fixes the scope by reference to the substances included in the 1961 and 1971 Conventions and the 1988 Convention, and the Ministerio de Salud reproduces those listas in Spanish in its national fiscalizacion list and adds a short Otros agregados section of national additions. This row was read as a named entry in Lista I of the 1971 Convention. The offence articles are 58 and 77. [Certain] for the placement, with the entry text recorded in the documentation.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Article 21 of the Constitution provides "La vida humana es inviolable", the human life is inviolable, and the word "muerte" appears zero times across the 81 pages of the consolidated Act. Both of those were measured in this pass and together they are what carries the heading. Costa Rica is an abolitionist state of long standing, [Likely] on the nineteenth century date, which was not re-derived here. Unauthorised trafficking conduct carries eight to fifteen years. Article 58 provides "Se impondra pena de prision de ocho a quince anos a quien, sin autorizacion legal, distribuya, comercie, suministre, fabrique, elabore, refine, transforme, extraiga, prepare, cultive, produzca, transporte, almacene o venda las drogas". That is eight to fifteen years for unauthorised distribution, commerce, supply, manufacture, processing, extraction, preparation, cultivation, production, transport, storage or sale. Article 77 raises the range to eight to twenty years where one of its eight enumerated aggravating circumstances is present, and twenty years is the ceiling this Act identifies. No article states a weight threshold, so the trigger is the unauthorised act and never a quantity. The second paragraph of article 58 reaches possession only "para cualquiera de los fines expresados", that is possession for one of those trafficking purposes. Ley 7786 creates no offence of consumption and no offence of simple possession for personal use. Article 79 answers a person consuming in a public place with voluntary and free treatment in a public or private health centre, not with a penalty.
If prescribed / medical: A lawful medical route exists only through the authorisation the Act itself demands. Article 58 opens with the words "sin autorizacion legal", so conduct carried out under a Costa Rican authorisation falls outside the offence and conduct without one falls inside it whatever the amount. Article 2 confines handling to the quantities needed for medical treatment, toxicological and chemical analysis and research, and requires authorised prescribers to use the official forms supplied by the Ministerio de Salud, whose entries carry the character of a sworn declaration. The Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes administers that control under Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025 and publishes the fiscalizacion list. The national list files this row among the psicotropicos rather than the estupefacientes, which is the less strict of the two prescription regimes it operates.
Documentation: Consolidation read: Ley 7786 of 30 April 1998 as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, in the Texto Completo Norma 8204 print published by the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas, which carries its own generation date of 19 November 2018. The same ranges, ocho a quince anos in article 58 and de ocho a veinte anos in article 77, were independently read on 18 September 2026 against the later Sinalevi record of Ley 7786, version 13 of 13, so the 2018 print is corroborated rather than assumed current. Control model, re derived from the statute in this pass. Costa Rica prints no annex of controlled substances in its drug Act: across the 81 pages the only drug names anywhere are in article 96, on the disposal of seized marihuana, cocaina and heroina. Article 1 regulates "estupefacientes, psicotropicos, sustancias inhalables y demas drogas y farmacos susceptibles de producir dependencias fisicas o psiquicas, incluidos en la Convencion Unica sobre Estupefacientes... de 1961... asi como en el Convenio de Viena sobre Sustancias Psicotropicas, de 21 de febrero de 1971... asimismo, en la Convencion... de 1988". Its second paragraph is a different thing and is often misread as the control annex: it has the Ministerio de Salud and the MAG draw up and publish in La Gaceta "las listas de estupefacientes, psicotropicos y similares Licitos", the licit ones, which is the authorisation side. The incorporation is ambulatory: article 36 defines precursors as Cuadro I of the 1988 Convention "y sus anexos, asi como los que se le incorporen en el futuro", and article 100 gives the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas a mandate framed by the conventions and by "los listados oficiales, publicados periodicamente en La Gaceta". The second limb, measured. The national list is the Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes, Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes of the Ministerio de Salud, updated 10 September 2026 and signed that day by Dra. Mariela Alfaro Segura. It runs to 27 pages in three sections, estupefacientes, psicotropicos and Otros agregados, and it names its own legal basis as the Reglamento para el control de drogas, estupefacientes y psicotropicas N. 45161-S, the instrument cited elsewhere as Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025. The two titles are the same text. A reading of 18 September 2026 records that the decree gives the competent body the function "Elaborar y actualizar la lista de sustancias oficialmente consideradas estupefacientes o psicotropicos y similares de uso regulado" and that its five annexes are forms rather than a substance schedule; that quotation is carried from that reading and was not re derived here. The whole of Otros agregados is twelve entries: metilfenidato, tapentadol and the synthetic cannabinoid JWH-073 among the estupefacientes, and ketamina, esketamina, mexazolam, zaleplon, zopiclona and the piperazines mCPP, CPP, TFMPP and 1,4 dibencilpiperazina among the psicotropicos. Amending Act in force between that list and this reading, read in the official gazette in this pass. Ley 10961 of 9 June 2026, published in Alcance 78 to La Gaceta 113 of 19 June 2026, provides "Rige tres meses a partir de su publicacion" and so took effect on 19 September 2026. It runs to four articles: it adds article 15 quater to Ley 7786 on the anti-money-laundering duties of virtual asset service providers, carries that cross reference into articles 16, 16 bis, 25, 33, 33 bis, 86 and 123, reforms the article 81 administrative fines, and allows three months for regulations. Every Ley 7786 article it touches is money laundering machinery, and it leaves articles 1, 2, 36, 58, 73, 74, 77, 77 bis and 79 untouched, so it moves no row in this batch. Method note. The 2026-09-20 Costa Rica dossier was used only as the slug list and as one of the two term list sources. Its outcome column, its instrument column and its quotation column were not treated as evidence and no placement in this batch rests on them; every placement is the entry read in the list the statute incorporates. Two of its readings were not adopted: it treated ergometrina and ergina as one row when they are separate substances on separate limbs, and it left dextrometorfano unresolved when the instrument excludes it in terms. Sibling name traps were checked rather than assumed. Anchored matching correctly did not return bencilmorfina, desomorfina, dihidromorfina, metildihidromorfina, mirofina or diacetilmorfina for the morfina row, isometadona, normetadona or the metadona intermediario for the metadona row, metcatinona or 4-metiletcatinona for the catinona row, MMDA or N-etil MDA for the MDA row, beta-ceto-MDMA for the MDMA row, levometanfetamina for the metanfetamina row, PCPY for the PCP row, brolanfetamina for the anfetamina row, or norpseudoefedrina for the efedrina row. Two extraction zeroes were false and were recovered by re interrogation: hexahidrocannabinol and 2-fluorodescloroketamina are both line wrapped in the source and a column based read missed both. Routes run for the instrument in this pass. pgrweb.go.cr/scij is a JavaScript shell: the Ley 8204 and Ley 7786 records and the sinalevi.go.cr record each returned about 25 KB that renders to 1,159 characters of site chrome and no statutory text, so a size threshold would have cleared all three. imprentanacional.go.cr served the official gazette carrying Ley 10961. The institutional reproduction at icd.go.cr served the consolidated Act, and ministeriodesalud.go.cr served the national list and the circulars. The schedule pages were checked for hidden content: the list PDF holds one image object repeated on all 27 pages, which is the ministry letterhead, and its byte size is accounted for by that banner, so no entry is carried in an image. Entry read for this row, recorded as the list prints it: "PS 002, STP, DOM, 2,5-dimetoxi-alfa,4-dimetilfenetilamina", in Lista I of the 1971 Convention. Carry the prescription and the dispensing label, and expect the authorisation rather than the amount to be what is asked about. There is no personal allowance to fall back on, because no article of Ley 7786 fixes a threshold. Sourcing, re derived in this pass and not carried: the two Junta de Vigilancia de Drogas urls cited by this row are DIRECTORIES and not documents. The listing page names the national fiscalisation list but does not carry it; the list is a separate PDF behind a numbered link, and that PDF is what the placement in this row actually rests on. Both documents are now fetched and cited by their own urls: "Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes", and "Lista de Estupefacientes y Sustancias Psicotropicas Sometidas a Fiscalizacion Nacional". The first carries the Otros agregados section this row's reasoning refers to [Certain, read from the fetched PDF]. The circulars page cited alongside them exposes no document at all.

DOM in Costa Rica, full detail →

DXM

Legal status: Not under international control, and the instrument says so in terms rather than by silence. Article 1 of Ley 7786, as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, fixes the scope by reference to the substances included in the 1961 and 1971 Conventions and the 1988 Convention, and the Ministerio de Salud reproduces those listas in Spanish in its national fiscalizacion list and adds a short Otros agregados section of national additions. Because article 1 fixes the scope of the Act by reference to the Convention schedules, an express statement that a substance sits outside those schedules is a positive finding on the primary limb rather than a search that came back empty. [Certain] for the footnote and for the absence from the national list, with both recorded in the documentation.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Article 21 of the Constitution provides "La vida humana es inviolable", the human life is inviolable, and the word "muerte" appears zero times across the 81 pages of the consolidated Act. Both of those were measured in this pass and together they are what carries the heading. Costa Rica is an abolitionist state of long standing, [Likely] on the nineteenth century date, which was not re-derived here. Costa Rica publishes penalties for drug trafficking in articles 58 and 77 of Ley 7786, eight to fifteen years and eight to twenty years on an enumerated aggravation. Those articles reach "las drogas, las sustancias o los productos referidos en esta Ley", and the instrument states that dextromethorphan is not under international control, so the scope provision does not carry it. The second paragraph of article 58 reaches possession only "para cualquiera de los fines expresados", that is possession for one of those trafficking purposes. Ley 7786 creates no offence of consumption and no offence of simple possession for personal use. Article 79 answers a person consuming in a public place with voluntary and free treatment in a public or private health centre, not with a penalty.
If prescribed / medical: Dextromethorphan is sold as a cough preparation. Nothing in the fiscalizacion list subjects it to the psychotropic prescription form or to the movement returns a listed medicine requires, and the ordinary medicines law applies instead.
Documentation: Consolidation read: Ley 7786 of 30 April 1998 as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, in the Texto Completo Norma 8204 print published by the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas, which carries its own generation date of 19 November 2018. The same ranges, ocho a quince anos in article 58 and de ocho a veinte anos in article 77, were independently read on 18 September 2026 against the later Sinalevi record of Ley 7786, version 13 of 13, so the 2018 print is corroborated rather than assumed current. Control model, re derived from the statute in this pass. Costa Rica prints no annex of controlled substances in its drug Act: across the 81 pages the only drug names anywhere are in article 96, on the disposal of seized marihuana, cocaina and heroina. Article 1 regulates "estupefacientes, psicotropicos, sustancias inhalables y demas drogas y farmacos susceptibles de producir dependencias fisicas o psiquicas, incluidos en la Convencion Unica sobre Estupefacientes... de 1961... asi como en el Convenio de Viena sobre Sustancias Psicotropicas, de 21 de febrero de 1971... asimismo, en la Convencion... de 1988". Its second paragraph is a different thing and is often misread as the control annex: it has the Ministerio de Salud and the MAG draw up and publish in La Gaceta "las listas de estupefacientes, psicotropicos y similares Licitos", the licit ones, which is the authorisation side. The incorporation is ambulatory: article 36 defines precursors as Cuadro I of the 1988 Convention "y sus anexos, asi como los que se le incorporen en el futuro", and article 100 gives the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas a mandate framed by the conventions and by "los listados oficiales, publicados periodicamente en La Gaceta". The second limb, measured. The national list is the Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes, Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes of the Ministerio de Salud, updated 10 September 2026 and signed that day by Dra. Mariela Alfaro Segura. It runs to 27 pages in three sections, estupefacientes, psicotropicos and Otros agregados, and it names its own legal basis as the Reglamento para el control de drogas, estupefacientes y psicotropicas N. 45161-S, the instrument cited elsewhere as Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025. The two titles are the same text. A reading of 18 September 2026 records that the decree gives the competent body the function "Elaborar y actualizar la lista de sustancias oficialmente consideradas estupefacientes o psicotropicos y similares de uso regulado" and that its five annexes are forms rather than a substance schedule; that quotation is carried from that reading and was not re derived here. The whole of Otros agregados is twelve entries: metilfenidato, tapentadol and the synthetic cannabinoid JWH-073 among the estupefacientes, and ketamina, esketamina, mexazolam, zaleplon, zopiclona and the piperazines mCPP, CPP, TFMPP and 1,4 dibencilpiperazina among the psicotropicos. Amending Act in force between that list and this reading, read in the official gazette in this pass. Ley 10961 of 9 June 2026, published in Alcance 78 to La Gaceta 113 of 19 June 2026, provides "Rige tres meses a partir de su publicacion" and so took effect on 19 September 2026. It runs to four articles: it adds article 15 quater to Ley 7786 on the anti-money-laundering duties of virtual asset service providers, carries that cross reference into articles 16, 16 bis, 25, 33, 33 bis, 86 and 123, reforms the article 81 administrative fines, and allows three months for regulations. Every Ley 7786 article it touches is money laundering machinery, and it leaves articles 1, 2, 36, 58, 73, 74, 77, 77 bis and 79 untouched, so it moves no row in this batch. Method note. The 2026-09-20 Costa Rica dossier was used only as the slug list and as one of the two term list sources. Its outcome column, its instrument column and its quotation column were not treated as evidence and no placement in this batch rests on them; every placement is the entry read in the list the statute incorporates. Two of its readings were not adopted: it treated ergometrina and ergina as one row when they are separate substances on separate limbs, and it left dextrometorfano unresolved when the instrument excludes it in terms. Sibling name traps were checked rather than assumed. Anchored matching correctly did not return bencilmorfina, desomorfina, dihidromorfina, metildihidromorfina, mirofina or diacetilmorfina for the morfina row, isometadona, normetadona or the metadona intermediario for the metadona row, metcatinona or 4-metiletcatinona for the catinona row, MMDA or N-etil MDA for the MDA row, beta-ceto-MDMA for the MDMA row, levometanfetamina for the metanfetamina row, PCPY for the PCP row, brolanfetamina for the anfetamina row, or norpseudoefedrina for the efedrina row. Two extraction zeroes were false and were recovered by re interrogation: hexahidrocannabinol and 2-fluorodescloroketamina are both line wrapped in the source and a column based read missed both. Routes run for the instrument in this pass. pgrweb.go.cr/scij is a JavaScript shell: the Ley 8204 and Ley 7786 records and the sinalevi.go.cr record each returned about 25 KB that renders to 1,159 characters of site chrome and no statutory text, so a size threshold would have cleared all three. imprentanacional.go.cr served the official gazette carrying Ley 10961. The institutional reproduction at icd.go.cr served the consolidated Act, and ministeriodesalud.go.cr served the national list and the circulars. The schedule pages were checked for hidden content: the list PDF holds one image object repeated on all 27 pages, which is the ministry letterhead, and its byte size is accounted for by that banner, so no entry is carried in an image. Finding read for this row, recorded as the instrument prints it: "Dextromethorphan and dextrorphan are not under international control", a footnote carried twice in the Yellow List 65th edition of July 2026. Confirmed against the national list of 10 September 2026, where dextrometorfano returned 0 across all three sections as at that date, which does not rule out a later national addition. Carry any prescription and its dispensing label, and treat the position as open rather than settled. Sourcing, re derived in this pass and not carried: the two Junta de Vigilancia de Drogas urls cited by this row are DIRECTORIES and not documents. The listing page names the national fiscalisation list but does not carry it; the list is a separate PDF behind a numbered link, and that PDF is what the placement in this row actually rests on. Both documents are now fetched and cited by their own urls: "Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes", and "Lista de Estupefacientes y Sustancias Psicotropicas Sometidas a Fiscalizacion Nacional". The first carries the Otros agregados section this row's reasoning refers to [Certain, read from the fetched PDF]. The circulars page cited alongside them exposes no document at all.

DXM in Costa Rica, full detail →

Ephedrine

Legal status: Reached as a precursor rather than as a scheduled drug. Article 1 of Ley 7786, as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, fixes the scope by reference to the substances included in the 1961 and 1971 Conventions and the 1988 Convention, and the Ministerio de Salud reproduces those listas in Spanish in its national fiscalizacion list and adds a short Otros agregados section of national additions. Ephedrine is not an entry in either the narcotic or the psychotropic section of the national list; the second paragraph of article 36 brings in Cuadro I of the 1988 Convention, and ephedrine is in that Cuadro I. The offence articles are 73 and 74, not 58 and 77. [Certain] for the Cuadro I entry and the article 36 definition, with the entry text recorded in the documentation.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Article 21 of the Constitution provides "La vida humana es inviolable", the human life is inviolable, and the word "muerte" appears zero times across the 81 pages of the consolidated Act. Both of those were measured in this pass and together they are what carries the heading. Costa Rica is an abolitionist state of long standing, [Likely] on the nineteenth century date, which was not re-derived here. The precursor limb carries its own offences and they are not the same as each other. Article 73 provides eight to fifteen years for a person who produces, manufactures, prepares, distributes, transports, stores, imports or exports precursors or other chemical products covered by the regulation "para utilizarlos en la comision de alguno de los delitos tipificados en esta Ley", and eight to twenty years where the offence is committed through a criminal organisation. That article has a purpose element. Article 74 does not, and it is the one that reaches possession: it imposes one to three years on a person who, at subparagraph b, "Posea, sin autorizacion, precursores, quimicos, solventes u otras sustancias que sirvan para procesar las drogas o sus derivados referidos en la presente Ley". The qualifier there describes the substance, not the intention of the person holding it, so unauthorised possession of a Cuadro I precursor is an offence on the face of the article whatever it was being carried for. Article 71 separately carries three months to one year for a person in the precursor trade who fails to report a suspicious transaction to the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas. The second paragraph of article 58 reaches possession only "para cualquiera de los fines expresados", that is possession for one of those trafficking purposes. Ley 7786 creates no offence of consumption and no offence of simple possession for personal use. Article 79 answers a person consuming in a public place with voluntary and free treatment in a public or private health centre, not with a penalty.
If prescribed / medical: Ephedrine is a licensed medicine in ordinary pharmacy use, and the precursor regime in title III of Ley 7786 controls the trade in it rather than its therapeutic use. Article 36 subjects the production, import, export, distribution, transport and storage of Cuadro I substances to control. A pharmacy supplied product carried with its prescription or its label is the ordinary case and the authorisation is what answers article 74 subparagraph b.
Documentation: Consolidation read: Ley 7786 of 30 April 1998 as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, in the Texto Completo Norma 8204 print published by the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas, which carries its own generation date of 19 November 2018. The same ranges, ocho a quince anos in article 58 and de ocho a veinte anos in article 77, were independently read on 18 September 2026 against the later Sinalevi record of Ley 7786, version 13 of 13, so the 2018 print is corroborated rather than assumed current. Control model, re derived from the statute in this pass. Costa Rica prints no annex of controlled substances in its drug Act: across the 81 pages the only drug names anywhere are in article 96, on the disposal of seized marihuana, cocaina and heroina. Article 1 regulates "estupefacientes, psicotropicos, sustancias inhalables y demas drogas y farmacos susceptibles de producir dependencias fisicas o psiquicas, incluidos en la Convencion Unica sobre Estupefacientes... de 1961... asi como en el Convenio de Viena sobre Sustancias Psicotropicas, de 21 de febrero de 1971... asimismo, en la Convencion... de 1988". Its second paragraph is a different thing and is often misread as the control annex: it has the Ministerio de Salud and the MAG draw up and publish in La Gaceta "las listas de estupefacientes, psicotropicos y similares Licitos", the licit ones, which is the authorisation side. The incorporation is ambulatory: article 36 defines precursors as Cuadro I of the 1988 Convention "y sus anexos, asi como los que se le incorporen en el futuro", and article 100 gives the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas a mandate framed by the conventions and by "los listados oficiales, publicados periodicamente en La Gaceta". The second limb, measured. The national list is the Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes, Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes of the Ministerio de Salud, updated 10 September 2026 and signed that day by Dra. Mariela Alfaro Segura. It runs to 27 pages in three sections, estupefacientes, psicotropicos and Otros agregados, and it names its own legal basis as the Reglamento para el control de drogas, estupefacientes y psicotropicas N. 45161-S, the instrument cited elsewhere as Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025. The two titles are the same text. A reading of 18 September 2026 records that the decree gives the competent body the function "Elaborar y actualizar la lista de sustancias oficialmente consideradas estupefacientes o psicotropicos y similares de uso regulado" and that its five annexes are forms rather than a substance schedule; that quotation is carried from that reading and was not re derived here. The whole of Otros agregados is twelve entries: metilfenidato, tapentadol and the synthetic cannabinoid JWH-073 among the estupefacientes, and ketamina, esketamina, mexazolam, zaleplon, zopiclona and the piperazines mCPP, CPP, TFMPP and 1,4 dibencilpiperazina among the psicotropicos. Amending Act in force between that list and this reading, read in the official gazette in this pass. Ley 10961 of 9 June 2026, published in Alcance 78 to La Gaceta 113 of 19 June 2026, provides "Rige tres meses a partir de su publicacion" and so took effect on 19 September 2026. It runs to four articles: it adds article 15 quater to Ley 7786 on the anti-money-laundering duties of virtual asset service providers, carries that cross reference into articles 16, 16 bis, 25, 33, 33 bis, 86 and 123, reforms the article 81 administrative fines, and allows three months for regulations. Every Ley 7786 article it touches is money laundering machinery, and it leaves articles 1, 2, 36, 58, 73, 74, 77, 77 bis and 79 untouched, so it moves no row in this batch. Method note. The 2026-09-20 Costa Rica dossier was used only as the slug list and as one of the two term list sources. Its outcome column, its instrument column and its quotation column were not treated as evidence and no placement in this batch rests on them; every placement is the entry read in the list the statute incorporates. Two of its readings were not adopted: it treated ergometrina and ergina as one row when they are separate substances on separate limbs, and it left dextrometorfano unresolved when the instrument excludes it in terms. Sibling name traps were checked rather than assumed. Anchored matching correctly did not return bencilmorfina, desomorfina, dihidromorfina, metildihidromorfina, mirofina or diacetilmorfina for the morfina row, isometadona, normetadona or the metadona intermediario for the metadona row, metcatinona or 4-metiletcatinona for the catinona row, MMDA or N-etil MDA for the MDA row, beta-ceto-MDMA for the MDMA row, levometanfetamina for the metanfetamina row, PCPY for the PCP row, brolanfetamina for the anfetamina row, or norpseudoefedrina for the efedrina row. Two extraction zeroes were false and were recovered by re interrogation: hexahidrocannabinol and 2-fluorodescloroketamina are both line wrapped in the source and a column based read missed both. Routes run for the instrument in this pass. pgrweb.go.cr/scij is a JavaScript shell: the Ley 8204 and Ley 7786 records and the sinalevi.go.cr record each returned about 25 KB that renders to 1,159 characters of site chrome and no statutory text, so a size threshold would have cleared all three. imprentanacional.go.cr served the official gazette carrying Ley 10961. The institutional reproduction at icd.go.cr served the consolidated Act, and ministeriodesalud.go.cr served the national list and the circulars. The schedule pages were checked for hidden content: the list PDF holds one image object repeated on all 27 pages, which is the ministry letterhead, and its byte size is accounted for by that banner, so no entry is carried in an image. Entry read for this row, recorded as the list prints it: "Ephedrine / Ephedrine / Efedrina", among the substances included in Table I of the 1988 Convention as the Red List 23rd edition of July 2025 prints it. The provision that brings Cuadro I into Costa Rican law is the second paragraph of article 36: "se entenderan como precursores las sustancias o los productos incluidos en el cuadro I de la Convencion de 1988 y sus anexos, asi como los que se le incorporen en el futuro". Efedrina is not an entry in the national fiscalizacion list; the only appearance of the string there is inside norpseudoefedrina in the catina entry, which is a different substance and was rejected as a match. Ergometrina and lysergic acid are in the same Cuadro I, which is why the lsa row was not resolved through ergometrina: ergina and ergometrina are different molecules. Carry the prescription and the dispensing label, and expect the authorisation rather than the amount to be what is asked about. There is no personal allowance to fall back on, because no article of Ley 7786 fixes a threshold. Sourcing, re derived in this pass and not carried: the two Junta de Vigilancia de Drogas urls cited by this row are DIRECTORIES and not documents. The listing page names the national fiscalisation list but does not carry it; the list is a separate PDF behind a numbered link, and that PDF is what the placement in this row actually rests on. Both documents are now fetched and cited by their own urls: "Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes", and "Lista de Estupefacientes y Sustancias Psicotropicas Sometidas a Fiscalizacion Nacional". The first carries the Otros agregados section this row's reasoning refers to [Certain, read from the fetched PDF]. The circulars page cited alongside them exposes no document at all.

Ephedrine in Costa Rica, full detail →

Etizolam

Legal status: Controlled. Article 1 of Ley 7786, as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, fixes the scope by reference to the substances included in the 1961 and 1971 Conventions and the 1988 Convention, and the Ministerio de Salud reproduces those listas in Spanish in its national fiscalizacion list and adds a short Otros agregados section of national additions. This row was read as a named entry in Lista IV of the 1971 Convention. The offence articles are 58 and 77. [Certain] for the placement, with the entry text recorded in the documentation.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Article 21 of the Constitution provides "La vida humana es inviolable", the human life is inviolable, and the word "muerte" appears zero times across the 81 pages of the consolidated Act. Both of those were measured in this pass and together they are what carries the heading. Costa Rica is an abolitionist state of long standing, [Likely] on the nineteenth century date, which was not re-derived here. Unauthorised trafficking conduct carries eight to fifteen years. Article 58 provides "Se impondra pena de prision de ocho a quince anos a quien, sin autorizacion legal, distribuya, comercie, suministre, fabrique, elabore, refine, transforme, extraiga, prepare, cultive, produzca, transporte, almacene o venda las drogas". That is eight to fifteen years for unauthorised distribution, commerce, supply, manufacture, processing, extraction, preparation, cultivation, production, transport, storage or sale. Article 77 raises the range to eight to twenty years where one of its eight enumerated aggravating circumstances is present, and twenty years is the ceiling this Act identifies. No article states a weight threshold, so the trigger is the unauthorised act and never a quantity. The second paragraph of article 58 reaches possession only "para cualquiera de los fines expresados", that is possession for one of those trafficking purposes. Ley 7786 creates no offence of consumption and no offence of simple possession for personal use. Article 79 answers a person consuming in a public place with voluntary and free treatment in a public or private health centre, not with a penalty.
If prescribed / medical: A lawful medical route exists only through the authorisation the Act itself demands. Article 58 opens with the words "sin autorizacion legal", so conduct carried out under a Costa Rican authorisation falls outside the offence and conduct without one falls inside it whatever the amount. Article 2 confines handling to the quantities needed for medical treatment, toxicological and chemical analysis and research, and requires authorised prescribers to use the official forms supplied by the Ministerio de Salud, whose entries carry the character of a sworn declaration. The Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes administers that control under Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025 and publishes the fiscalizacion list. The national list files this row among the psicotropicos rather than the estupefacientes, which is the less strict of the two prescription regimes it operates.
Documentation: Consolidation read: Ley 7786 of 30 April 1998 as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, in the Texto Completo Norma 8204 print published by the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas, which carries its own generation date of 19 November 2018. The same ranges, ocho a quince anos in article 58 and de ocho a veinte anos in article 77, were independently read on 18 September 2026 against the later Sinalevi record of Ley 7786, version 13 of 13, so the 2018 print is corroborated rather than assumed current. Control model, re derived from the statute in this pass. Costa Rica prints no annex of controlled substances in its drug Act: across the 81 pages the only drug names anywhere are in article 96, on the disposal of seized marihuana, cocaina and heroina. Article 1 regulates "estupefacientes, psicotropicos, sustancias inhalables y demas drogas y farmacos susceptibles de producir dependencias fisicas o psiquicas, incluidos en la Convencion Unica sobre Estupefacientes... de 1961... asi como en el Convenio de Viena sobre Sustancias Psicotropicas, de 21 de febrero de 1971... asimismo, en la Convencion... de 1988". Its second paragraph is a different thing and is often misread as the control annex: it has the Ministerio de Salud and the MAG draw up and publish in La Gaceta "las listas de estupefacientes, psicotropicos y similares Licitos", the licit ones, which is the authorisation side. The incorporation is ambulatory: article 36 defines precursors as Cuadro I of the 1988 Convention "y sus anexos, asi como los que se le incorporen en el futuro", and article 100 gives the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas a mandate framed by the conventions and by "los listados oficiales, publicados periodicamente en La Gaceta". The second limb, measured. The national list is the Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes, Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes of the Ministerio de Salud, updated 10 September 2026 and signed that day by Dra. Mariela Alfaro Segura. It runs to 27 pages in three sections, estupefacientes, psicotropicos and Otros agregados, and it names its own legal basis as the Reglamento para el control de drogas, estupefacientes y psicotropicas N. 45161-S, the instrument cited elsewhere as Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025. The two titles are the same text. A reading of 18 September 2026 records that the decree gives the competent body the function "Elaborar y actualizar la lista de sustancias oficialmente consideradas estupefacientes o psicotropicos y similares de uso regulado" and that its five annexes are forms rather than a substance schedule; that quotation is carried from that reading and was not re derived here. The whole of Otros agregados is twelve entries: metilfenidato, tapentadol and the synthetic cannabinoid JWH-073 among the estupefacientes, and ketamina, esketamina, mexazolam, zaleplon, zopiclona and the piperazines mCPP, CPP, TFMPP and 1,4 dibencilpiperazina among the psicotropicos. Amending Act in force between that list and this reading, read in the official gazette in this pass. Ley 10961 of 9 June 2026, published in Alcance 78 to La Gaceta 113 of 19 June 2026, provides "Rige tres meses a partir de su publicacion" and so took effect on 19 September 2026. It runs to four articles: it adds article 15 quater to Ley 7786 on the anti-money-laundering duties of virtual asset service providers, carries that cross reference into articles 16, 16 bis, 25, 33, 33 bis, 86 and 123, reforms the article 81 administrative fines, and allows three months for regulations. Every Ley 7786 article it touches is money laundering machinery, and it leaves articles 1, 2, 36, 58, 73, 74, 77, 77 bis and 79 untouched, so it moves no row in this batch. Method note. The 2026-09-20 Costa Rica dossier was used only as the slug list and as one of the two term list sources. Its outcome column, its instrument column and its quotation column were not treated as evidence and no placement in this batch rests on them; every placement is the entry read in the list the statute incorporates. Two of its readings were not adopted: it treated ergometrina and ergina as one row when they are separate substances on separate limbs, and it left dextrometorfano unresolved when the instrument excludes it in terms. Sibling name traps were checked rather than assumed. Anchored matching correctly did not return bencilmorfina, desomorfina, dihidromorfina, metildihidromorfina, mirofina or diacetilmorfina for the morfina row, isometadona, normetadona or the metadona intermediario for the metadona row, metcatinona or 4-metiletcatinona for the catinona row, MMDA or N-etil MDA for the MDA row, beta-ceto-MDMA for the MDMA row, levometanfetamina for the metanfetamina row, PCPY for the PCP row, brolanfetamina for the anfetamina row, or norpseudoefedrina for the efedrina row. Two extraction zeroes were false and were recovered by re interrogation: hexahidrocannabinol and 2-fluorodescloroketamina are both line wrapped in the source and a column based read missed both. Routes run for the instrument in this pass. pgrweb.go.cr/scij is a JavaScript shell: the Ley 8204 and Ley 7786 records and the sinalevi.go.cr record each returned about 25 KB that renders to 1,159 characters of site chrome and no statutory text, so a size threshold would have cleared all three. imprentanacional.go.cr served the official gazette carrying Ley 10961. The institutional reproduction at icd.go.cr served the consolidated Act, and ministeriodesalud.go.cr served the national list and the circulars. The schedule pages were checked for hidden content: the list PDF holds one image object repeated on all 27 pages, which is the ministry letterhead, and its byte size is accounted for by that banner, so no entry is carried in an image. Entry read for this row, recorded as the list prints it: "PE 009, CAS 0040054-69-1, Etizolam, 4-(2-clorofenil)-2-etil-9-metil-6H-tieno[3,2-f][1,2,4]triazolo[4,3-a][1,4]diazepina", in Lista IV of the 1971 Convention. Carry the prescription and the dispensing label, and expect the authorisation rather than the amount to be what is asked about. There is no personal allowance to fall back on, because no article of Ley 7786 fixes a threshold. Sourcing, re derived in this pass and not carried: the two Junta de Vigilancia de Drogas urls cited by this row are DIRECTORIES and not documents. The listing page names the national fiscalisation list but does not carry it; the list is a separate PDF behind a numbered link, and that PDF is what the placement in this row actually rests on. Both documents are now fetched and cited by their own urls: "Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes", and "Lista de Estupefacientes y Sustancias Psicotropicas Sometidas a Fiscalizacion Nacional". The first carries the Otros agregados section this row's reasoning refers to [Certain, read from the fetched PDF]. The circulars page cited alongside them exposes no document at all.

Etizolam in Costa Rica, full detail →

Fentanyl

Legal status: Controlled. Article 1 of Ley 7786, as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, fixes the scope by reference to the substances included in the 1961 and 1971 Conventions and the 1988 Convention, and the Ministerio de Salud reproduces those listas in Spanish in its national fiscalizacion list and adds a short Otros agregados section of national additions. This row was read as a named entry in Lista I of the 1961 Convention. The offence articles are 58 and 77. [Certain] for the placement, with the entry text recorded in the documentation.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Article 21 of the Constitution provides "La vida humana es inviolable", the human life is inviolable, and the word "muerte" appears zero times across the 81 pages of the consolidated Act. Both of those were measured in this pass and together they are what carries the heading. Costa Rica is an abolitionist state of long standing, [Likely] on the nineteenth century date, which was not re-derived here. Unauthorised trafficking conduct carries eight to fifteen years. Article 58 provides "Se impondra pena de prision de ocho a quince anos a quien, sin autorizacion legal, distribuya, comercie, suministre, fabrique, elabore, refine, transforme, extraiga, prepare, cultive, produzca, transporte, almacene o venda las drogas". That is eight to fifteen years for unauthorised distribution, commerce, supply, manufacture, processing, extraction, preparation, cultivation, production, transport, storage or sale. Article 77 raises the range to eight to twenty years where one of its eight enumerated aggravating circumstances is present, and twenty years is the ceiling this Act identifies. No article states a weight threshold, so the trigger is the unauthorised act and never a quantity. The second paragraph of article 58 reaches possession only "para cualquiera de los fines expresados", that is possession for one of those trafficking purposes. Ley 7786 creates no offence of consumption and no offence of simple possession for personal use. Article 79 answers a person consuming in a public place with voluntary and free treatment in a public or private health centre, not with a penalty.
If prescribed / medical: A lawful medical route exists only through the authorisation the Act itself demands. Article 58 opens with the words "sin autorizacion legal", so conduct carried out under a Costa Rican authorisation falls outside the offence and conduct without one falls inside it whatever the amount. Article 2 confines handling to the quantities needed for medical treatment, toxicological and chemical analysis and research, and requires authorised prescribers to use the official forms supplied by the Ministerio de Salud, whose entries carry the character of a sworn declaration. The Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes administers that control under Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025 and publishes the fiscalizacion list. The national list files this row among the estupefacientes, the narcotic half, which is the stricter of the two prescription regimes it operates.
Documentation: Consolidation read: Ley 7786 of 30 April 1998 as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, in the Texto Completo Norma 8204 print published by the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas, which carries its own generation date of 19 November 2018. The same ranges, ocho a quince anos in article 58 and de ocho a veinte anos in article 77, were independently read on 18 September 2026 against the later Sinalevi record of Ley 7786, version 13 of 13, so the 2018 print is corroborated rather than assumed current. Control model, re derived from the statute in this pass. Costa Rica prints no annex of controlled substances in its drug Act: across the 81 pages the only drug names anywhere are in article 96, on the disposal of seized marihuana, cocaina and heroina. Article 1 regulates "estupefacientes, psicotropicos, sustancias inhalables y demas drogas y farmacos susceptibles de producir dependencias fisicas o psiquicas, incluidos en la Convencion Unica sobre Estupefacientes... de 1961... asi como en el Convenio de Viena sobre Sustancias Psicotropicas, de 21 de febrero de 1971... asimismo, en la Convencion... de 1988". Its second paragraph is a different thing and is often misread as the control annex: it has the Ministerio de Salud and the MAG draw up and publish in La Gaceta "las listas de estupefacientes, psicotropicos y similares Licitos", the licit ones, which is the authorisation side. The incorporation is ambulatory: article 36 defines precursors as Cuadro I of the 1988 Convention "y sus anexos, asi como los que se le incorporen en el futuro", and article 100 gives the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas a mandate framed by the conventions and by "los listados oficiales, publicados periodicamente en La Gaceta". The second limb, measured. The national list is the Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes, Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes of the Ministerio de Salud, updated 10 September 2026 and signed that day by Dra. Mariela Alfaro Segura. It runs to 27 pages in three sections, estupefacientes, psicotropicos and Otros agregados, and it names its own legal basis as the Reglamento para el control de drogas, estupefacientes y psicotropicas N. 45161-S, the instrument cited elsewhere as Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025. The two titles are the same text. A reading of 18 September 2026 records that the decree gives the competent body the function "Elaborar y actualizar la lista de sustancias oficialmente consideradas estupefacientes o psicotropicos y similares de uso regulado" and that its five annexes are forms rather than a substance schedule; that quotation is carried from that reading and was not re derived here. The whole of Otros agregados is twelve entries: metilfenidato, tapentadol and the synthetic cannabinoid JWH-073 among the estupefacientes, and ketamina, esketamina, mexazolam, zaleplon, zopiclona and the piperazines mCPP, CPP, TFMPP and 1,4 dibencilpiperazina among the psicotropicos. Amending Act in force between that list and this reading, read in the official gazette in this pass. Ley 10961 of 9 June 2026, published in Alcance 78 to La Gaceta 113 of 19 June 2026, provides "Rige tres meses a partir de su publicacion" and so took effect on 19 September 2026. It runs to four articles: it adds article 15 quater to Ley 7786 on the anti-money-laundering duties of virtual asset service providers, carries that cross reference into articles 16, 16 bis, 25, 33, 33 bis, 86 and 123, reforms the article 81 administrative fines, and allows three months for regulations. Every Ley 7786 article it touches is money laundering machinery, and it leaves articles 1, 2, 36, 58, 73, 74, 77, 77 bis and 79 untouched, so it moves no row in this batch. Method note. The 2026-09-20 Costa Rica dossier was used only as the slug list and as one of the two term list sources. Its outcome column, its instrument column and its quotation column were not treated as evidence and no placement in this batch rests on them; every placement is the entry read in the list the statute incorporates. Two of its readings were not adopted: it treated ergometrina and ergina as one row when they are separate substances on separate limbs, and it left dextrometorfano unresolved when the instrument excludes it in terms. Sibling name traps were checked rather than assumed. Anchored matching correctly did not return bencilmorfina, desomorfina, dihidromorfina, metildihidromorfina, mirofina or diacetilmorfina for the morfina row, isometadona, normetadona or the metadona intermediario for the metadona row, metcatinona or 4-metiletcatinona for the catinona row, MMDA or N-etil MDA for the MDA row, beta-ceto-MDMA for the MDMA row, levometanfetamina for the metanfetamina row, PCPY for the PCP row, brolanfetamina for the anfetamina row, or norpseudoefedrina for the efedrina row. Two extraction zeroes were false and were recovered by re interrogation: hexahidrocannabinol and 2-fluorodescloroketamina are both line wrapped in the source and a column based read missed both. Routes run for the instrument in this pass. pgrweb.go.cr/scij is a JavaScript shell: the Ley 8204 and Ley 7786 records and the sinalevi.go.cr record each returned about 25 KB that renders to 1,159 characters of site chrome and no statutory text, so a size threshold would have cleared all three. imprentanacional.go.cr served the official gazette carrying Ley 10961. The institutional reproduction at icd.go.cr served the consolidated Act, and ministeriodesalud.go.cr served the national list and the circulars. The schedule pages were checked for hidden content: the list PDF holds one image object repeated on all 27 pages, which is the ministry letterhead, and its byte size is accounted for by that banner, so no entry is carried in an image. Entry read for this row, recorded as the list prints it: "NF 001, CAS 437-38-7, Fentanilo, 1-fenetil-4-N-propionilanilinopiperidina", in Lista I of the 1961 Convention. Carry the prescription and the dispensing label, and expect the authorisation rather than the amount to be what is asked about. There is no personal allowance to fall back on, because no article of Ley 7786 fixes a threshold. Sourcing, re derived in this pass and not carried: the two Junta de Vigilancia de Drogas urls cited by this row are DIRECTORIES and not documents. The listing page names the national fiscalisation list but does not carry it; the list is a separate PDF behind a numbered link, and that PDF is what the placement in this row actually rests on. Both documents are now fetched and cited by their own urls: "Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes", and "Lista de Estupefacientes y Sustancias Psicotropicas Sometidas a Fiscalizacion Nacional". The first carries the Otros agregados section this row's reasoning refers to [Certain, read from the fetched PDF]. The circulars page cited alongside them exposes no document at all.

Fentanyl in Costa Rica, full detail →

GHB

Legal status: Controlled. Article 1 of Ley 7786, as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, fixes the scope by reference to the substances included in the 1961 and 1971 Conventions and the 1988 Convention, and the Ministerio de Salud reproduces those listas in Spanish in its national fiscalizacion list and adds a short Otros agregados section of national additions. This row was read as a named entry in Lista II of the 1971 Convention. The offence articles are 58 and 77. [Certain] for the placement, with the entry text recorded in the documentation.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Article 21 of the Constitution provides "La vida humana es inviolable", the human life is inviolable, and the word "muerte" appears zero times across the 81 pages of the consolidated Act. Both of those were measured in this pass and together they are what carries the heading. Costa Rica is an abolitionist state of long standing, [Likely] on the nineteenth century date, which was not re-derived here. Unauthorised trafficking conduct carries eight to fifteen years. Article 58 provides "Se impondra pena de prision de ocho a quince anos a quien, sin autorizacion legal, distribuya, comercie, suministre, fabrique, elabore, refine, transforme, extraiga, prepare, cultive, produzca, transporte, almacene o venda las drogas". That is eight to fifteen years for unauthorised distribution, commerce, supply, manufacture, processing, extraction, preparation, cultivation, production, transport, storage or sale. Article 77 raises the range to eight to twenty years where one of its eight enumerated aggravating circumstances is present, and twenty years is the ceiling this Act identifies. No article states a weight threshold, so the trigger is the unauthorised act and never a quantity. The second paragraph of article 58 reaches possession only "para cualquiera de los fines expresados", that is possession for one of those trafficking purposes. Ley 7786 creates no offence of consumption and no offence of simple possession for personal use. Article 79 answers a person consuming in a public place with voluntary and free treatment in a public or private health centre, not with a penalty.
If prescribed / medical: A lawful medical route exists only through the authorisation the Act itself demands. Article 58 opens with the words "sin autorizacion legal", so conduct carried out under a Costa Rican authorisation falls outside the offence and conduct without one falls inside it whatever the amount. Article 2 confines handling to the quantities needed for medical treatment, toxicological and chemical analysis and research, and requires authorised prescribers to use the official forms supplied by the Ministerio de Salud, whose entries carry the character of a sworn declaration. The Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes administers that control under Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025 and publishes the fiscalizacion list. The national list files this row among the psicotropicos rather than the estupefacientes, which is the less strict of the two prescription regimes it operates.
Documentation: Consolidation read: Ley 7786 of 30 April 1998 as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, in the Texto Completo Norma 8204 print published by the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas, which carries its own generation date of 19 November 2018. The same ranges, ocho a quince anos in article 58 and de ocho a veinte anos in article 77, were independently read on 18 September 2026 against the later Sinalevi record of Ley 7786, version 13 of 13, so the 2018 print is corroborated rather than assumed current. Control model, re derived from the statute in this pass. Costa Rica prints no annex of controlled substances in its drug Act: across the 81 pages the only drug names anywhere are in article 96, on the disposal of seized marihuana, cocaina and heroina. Article 1 regulates "estupefacientes, psicotropicos, sustancias inhalables y demas drogas y farmacos susceptibles de producir dependencias fisicas o psiquicas, incluidos en la Convencion Unica sobre Estupefacientes... de 1961... asi como en el Convenio de Viena sobre Sustancias Psicotropicas, de 21 de febrero de 1971... asimismo, en la Convencion... de 1988". Its second paragraph is a different thing and is often misread as the control annex: it has the Ministerio de Salud and the MAG draw up and publish in La Gaceta "las listas de estupefacientes, psicotropicos y similares Licitos", the licit ones, which is the authorisation side. The incorporation is ambulatory: article 36 defines precursors as Cuadro I of the 1988 Convention "y sus anexos, asi como los que se le incorporen en el futuro", and article 100 gives the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas a mandate framed by the conventions and by "los listados oficiales, publicados periodicamente en La Gaceta". The second limb, measured. The national list is the Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes, Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes of the Ministerio de Salud, updated 10 September 2026 and signed that day by Dra. Mariela Alfaro Segura. It runs to 27 pages in three sections, estupefacientes, psicotropicos and Otros agregados, and it names its own legal basis as the Reglamento para el control de drogas, estupefacientes y psicotropicas N. 45161-S, the instrument cited elsewhere as Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025. The two titles are the same text. A reading of 18 September 2026 records that the decree gives the competent body the function "Elaborar y actualizar la lista de sustancias oficialmente consideradas estupefacientes o psicotropicos y similares de uso regulado" and that its five annexes are forms rather than a substance schedule; that quotation is carried from that reading and was not re derived here. The whole of Otros agregados is twelve entries: metilfenidato, tapentadol and the synthetic cannabinoid JWH-073 among the estupefacientes, and ketamina, esketamina, mexazolam, zaleplon, zopiclona and the piperazines mCPP, CPP, TFMPP and 1,4 dibencilpiperazina among the psicotropicos. Amending Act in force between that list and this reading, read in the official gazette in this pass. Ley 10961 of 9 June 2026, published in Alcance 78 to La Gaceta 113 of 19 June 2026, provides "Rige tres meses a partir de su publicacion" and so took effect on 19 September 2026. It runs to four articles: it adds article 15 quater to Ley 7786 on the anti-money-laundering duties of virtual asset service providers, carries that cross reference into articles 16, 16 bis, 25, 33, 33 bis, 86 and 123, reforms the article 81 administrative fines, and allows three months for regulations. Every Ley 7786 article it touches is money laundering machinery, and it leaves articles 1, 2, 36, 58, 73, 74, 77, 77 bis and 79 untouched, so it moves no row in this batch. Method note. The 2026-09-20 Costa Rica dossier was used only as the slug list and as one of the two term list sources. Its outcome column, its instrument column and its quotation column were not treated as evidence and no placement in this batch rests on them; every placement is the entry read in the list the statute incorporates. Two of its readings were not adopted: it treated ergometrina and ergina as one row when they are separate substances on separate limbs, and it left dextrometorfano unresolved when the instrument excludes it in terms. Sibling name traps were checked rather than assumed. Anchored matching correctly did not return bencilmorfina, desomorfina, dihidromorfina, metildihidromorfina, mirofina or diacetilmorfina for the morfina row, isometadona, normetadona or the metadona intermediario for the metadona row, metcatinona or 4-metiletcatinona for the catinona row, MMDA or N-etil MDA for the MDA row, beta-ceto-MDMA for the MDMA row, levometanfetamina for the metanfetamina row, PCPY for the PCP row, brolanfetamina for the anfetamina row, or norpseudoefedrina for the efedrina row. Two extraction zeroes were false and were recovered by re interrogation: hexahidrocannabinol and 2-fluorodescloroketamina are both line wrapped in the source and a column based read missed both. Routes run for the instrument in this pass. pgrweb.go.cr/scij is a JavaScript shell: the Ley 8204 and Ley 7786 records and the sinalevi.go.cr record each returned about 25 KB that renders to 1,159 characters of site chrome and no statutory text, so a size threshold would have cleared all three. imprentanacional.go.cr served the official gazette carrying Ley 10961. The institutional reproduction at icd.go.cr served the consolidated Act, and ministeriodesalud.go.cr served the national list and the circulars. The schedule pages were checked for hidden content: the list PDF holds one image object repeated on all 27 pages, which is the ministry letterhead, and its byte size is accounted for by that banner, so no entry is carried in an image. Entry read for this row, recorded as the list prints it: "PG 002, CAS 591-81-1, Acido gamma-HIDROXIBUTIRICO / GHB, acido gamma-hidroxibutirico", in Lista II of the 1971 Convention. Carry the prescription and the dispensing label, and expect the authorisation rather than the amount to be what is asked about. There is no personal allowance to fall back on, because no article of Ley 7786 fixes a threshold. Sourcing, re derived in this pass and not carried: the two Junta de Vigilancia de Drogas urls cited by this row are DIRECTORIES and not documents. The listing page names the national fiscalisation list but does not carry it; the list is a separate PDF behind a numbered link, and that PDF is what the placement in this row actually rests on. Both documents are now fetched and cited by their own urls: "Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes", and "Lista de Estupefacientes y Sustancias Psicotropicas Sometidas a Fiscalizacion Nacional". The first carries the Otros agregados section this row's reasoning refers to [Certain, read from the fetched PDF]. The circulars page cited alongside them exposes no document at all.

GHB in Costa Rica, full detail →

Heroin

Legal status: Controlled. Article 1 of Ley 7786, as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, fixes the scope by reference to the substances included in the 1961 and 1971 Conventions and the 1988 Convention, and the Ministerio de Salud reproduces those listas in Spanish in its national fiscalizacion list and adds a short Otros agregados section of national additions. This row was read as a named entry in Listas I and IV of the 1961 Convention. The offence articles are 58 and 77. [Certain] for the placement, with the entry text recorded in the documentation.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Article 21 of the Constitution provides "La vida humana es inviolable", the human life is inviolable, and the word "muerte" appears zero times across the 81 pages of the consolidated Act. Both of those were measured in this pass and together they are what carries the heading. Costa Rica is an abolitionist state of long standing, [Likely] on the nineteenth century date, which was not re-derived here. Unauthorised trafficking conduct carries eight to fifteen years. Article 58 provides "Se impondra pena de prision de ocho a quince anos a quien, sin autorizacion legal, distribuya, comercie, suministre, fabrique, elabore, refine, transforme, extraiga, prepare, cultive, produzca, transporte, almacene o venda las drogas". That is eight to fifteen years for unauthorised distribution, commerce, supply, manufacture, processing, extraction, preparation, cultivation, production, transport, storage or sale. Article 77 raises the range to eight to twenty years where one of its eight enumerated aggravating circumstances is present, and twenty years is the ceiling this Act identifies. No article states a weight threshold, so the trigger is the unauthorised act and never a quantity. The second paragraph of article 58 reaches possession only "para cualquiera de los fines expresados", that is possession for one of those trafficking purposes. Ley 7786 creates no offence of consumption and no offence of simple possession for personal use. Article 79 answers a person consuming in a public place with voluntary and free treatment in a public or private health centre, not with a penalty.
If prescribed / medical: A lawful medical route exists only through the authorisation the Act itself demands. Article 58 opens with the words "sin autorizacion legal", so conduct carried out under a Costa Rican authorisation falls outside the offence and conduct without one falls inside it whatever the amount. Article 2 confines handling to the quantities needed for medical treatment, toxicological and chemical analysis and research, and requires authorised prescribers to use the official forms supplied by the Ministerio de Salud, whose entries carry the character of a sworn declaration. The Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes administers that control under Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025 and publishes the fiscalizacion list. The national list files this row among the estupefacientes, the narcotic half, which is the stricter of the two prescription regimes it operates.
Documentation: Consolidation read: Ley 7786 of 30 April 1998 as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, in the Texto Completo Norma 8204 print published by the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas, which carries its own generation date of 19 November 2018. The same ranges, ocho a quince anos in article 58 and de ocho a veinte anos in article 77, were independently read on 18 September 2026 against the later Sinalevi record of Ley 7786, version 13 of 13, so the 2018 print is corroborated rather than assumed current. Control model, re derived from the statute in this pass. Costa Rica prints no annex of controlled substances in its drug Act: across the 81 pages the only drug names anywhere are in article 96, on the disposal of seized marihuana, cocaina and heroina. Article 1 regulates "estupefacientes, psicotropicos, sustancias inhalables y demas drogas y farmacos susceptibles de producir dependencias fisicas o psiquicas, incluidos en la Convencion Unica sobre Estupefacientes... de 1961... asi como en el Convenio de Viena sobre Sustancias Psicotropicas, de 21 de febrero de 1971... asimismo, en la Convencion... de 1988". Its second paragraph is a different thing and is often misread as the control annex: it has the Ministerio de Salud and the MAG draw up and publish in La Gaceta "las listas de estupefacientes, psicotropicos y similares Licitos", the licit ones, which is the authorisation side. The incorporation is ambulatory: article 36 defines precursors as Cuadro I of the 1988 Convention "y sus anexos, asi como los que se le incorporen en el futuro", and article 100 gives the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas a mandate framed by the conventions and by "los listados oficiales, publicados periodicamente en La Gaceta". The second limb, measured. The national list is the Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes, Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes of the Ministerio de Salud, updated 10 September 2026 and signed that day by Dra. Mariela Alfaro Segura. It runs to 27 pages in three sections, estupefacientes, psicotropicos and Otros agregados, and it names its own legal basis as the Reglamento para el control de drogas, estupefacientes y psicotropicas N. 45161-S, the instrument cited elsewhere as Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025. The two titles are the same text. A reading of 18 September 2026 records that the decree gives the competent body the function "Elaborar y actualizar la lista de sustancias oficialmente consideradas estupefacientes o psicotropicos y similares de uso regulado" and that its five annexes are forms rather than a substance schedule; that quotation is carried from that reading and was not re derived here. The whole of Otros agregados is twelve entries: metilfenidato, tapentadol and the synthetic cannabinoid JWH-073 among the estupefacientes, and ketamina, esketamina, mexazolam, zaleplon, zopiclona and the piperazines mCPP, CPP, TFMPP and 1,4 dibencilpiperazina among the psicotropicos. Amending Act in force between that list and this reading, read in the official gazette in this pass. Ley 10961 of 9 June 2026, published in Alcance 78 to La Gaceta 113 of 19 June 2026, provides "Rige tres meses a partir de su publicacion" and so took effect on 19 September 2026. It runs to four articles: it adds article 15 quater to Ley 7786 on the anti-money-laundering duties of virtual asset service providers, carries that cross reference into articles 16, 16 bis, 25, 33, 33 bis, 86 and 123, reforms the article 81 administrative fines, and allows three months for regulations. Every Ley 7786 article it touches is money laundering machinery, and it leaves articles 1, 2, 36, 58, 73, 74, 77, 77 bis and 79 untouched, so it moves no row in this batch. Method note. The 2026-09-20 Costa Rica dossier was used only as the slug list and as one of the two term list sources. Its outcome column, its instrument column and its quotation column were not treated as evidence and no placement in this batch rests on them; every placement is the entry read in the list the statute incorporates. Two of its readings were not adopted: it treated ergometrina and ergina as one row when they are separate substances on separate limbs, and it left dextrometorfano unresolved when the instrument excludes it in terms. Sibling name traps were checked rather than assumed. Anchored matching correctly did not return bencilmorfina, desomorfina, dihidromorfina, metildihidromorfina, mirofina or diacetilmorfina for the morfina row, isometadona, normetadona or the metadona intermediario for the metadona row, metcatinona or 4-metiletcatinona for the catinona row, MMDA or N-etil MDA for the MDA row, beta-ceto-MDMA for the MDMA row, levometanfetamina for the metanfetamina row, PCPY for the PCP row, brolanfetamina for the anfetamina row, or norpseudoefedrina for the efedrina row. Two extraction zeroes were false and were recovered by re interrogation: hexahidrocannabinol and 2-fluorodescloroketamina are both line wrapped in the source and a column based read missed both. Routes run for the instrument in this pass. pgrweb.go.cr/scij is a JavaScript shell: the Ley 8204 and Ley 7786 records and the sinalevi.go.cr record each returned about 25 KB that renders to 1,159 characters of site chrome and no statutory text, so a size threshold would have cleared all three. imprentanacional.go.cr served the official gazette carrying Ley 10961. The institutional reproduction at icd.go.cr served the consolidated Act, and ministeriodesalud.go.cr served the national list and the circulars. The schedule pages were checked for hidden content: the list PDF holds one image object repeated on all 27 pages, which is the ministry letterhead, and its byte size is accounted for by that banner, so no entry is carried in an image. Entry read for this row, recorded as the list prints it: "NH 001, CAS 561-27-3, Heroina, diacetilmorfina (derivado de la morfina)", in Listas I and IV of the 1961 Convention. Carry the prescription and the dispensing label, and expect the authorisation rather than the amount to be what is asked about. There is no personal allowance to fall back on, because no article of Ley 7786 fixes a threshold. Sourcing, re derived in this pass and not carried: the two Junta de Vigilancia de Drogas urls cited by this row are DIRECTORIES and not documents. The listing page names the national fiscalisation list but does not carry it; the list is a separate PDF behind a numbered link, and that PDF is what the placement in this row actually rests on. Both documents are now fetched and cited by their own urls: "Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes", and "Lista de Estupefacientes y Sustancias Psicotropicas Sometidas a Fiscalizacion Nacional". The first carries the Otros agregados section this row's reasoning refers to [Certain, read from the fetched PDF]. The circulars page cited alongside them exposes no document at all.

Heroin in Costa Rica, full detail →

HHC

Legal status: Controlled. Article 1 of Ley 7786, as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, fixes the scope by reference to the substances included in the 1961 and 1971 Conventions and the 1988 Convention, and the Ministerio de Salud reproduces those listas in Spanish in its national fiscalizacion list and adds a short Otros agregados section of national additions. This row was read as a named entry in Lista II of the 1971 Convention. The offence articles are 58 and 77. [Certain] for the placement, with the entry text recorded in the documentation.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Article 21 of the Constitution provides "La vida humana es inviolable", the human life is inviolable, and the word "muerte" appears zero times across the 81 pages of the consolidated Act. Both of those were measured in this pass and together they are what carries the heading. Costa Rica is an abolitionist state of long standing, [Likely] on the nineteenth century date, which was not re-derived here. Unauthorised trafficking conduct carries eight to fifteen years. Article 58 provides "Se impondra pena de prision de ocho a quince anos a quien, sin autorizacion legal, distribuya, comercie, suministre, fabrique, elabore, refine, transforme, extraiga, prepare, cultive, produzca, transporte, almacene o venda las drogas". That is eight to fifteen years for unauthorised distribution, commerce, supply, manufacture, processing, extraction, preparation, cultivation, production, transport, storage or sale. Article 77 raises the range to eight to twenty years where one of its eight enumerated aggravating circumstances is present, and twenty years is the ceiling this Act identifies. No article states a weight threshold, so the trigger is the unauthorised act and never a quantity. The second paragraph of article 58 reaches possession only "para cualquiera de los fines expresados", that is possession for one of those trafficking purposes. Ley 7786 creates no offence of consumption and no offence of simple possession for personal use. Article 79 answers a person consuming in a public place with voluntary and free treatment in a public or private health centre, not with a penalty.
If prescribed / medical: A lawful medical route exists only through the authorisation the Act itself demands. Article 58 opens with the words "sin autorizacion legal", so conduct carried out under a Costa Rican authorisation falls outside the offence and conduct without one falls inside it whatever the amount. Article 2 confines handling to the quantities needed for medical treatment, toxicological and chemical analysis and research, and requires authorised prescribers to use the official forms supplied by the Ministerio de Salud, whose entries carry the character of a sworn declaration. The Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes administers that control under Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025 and publishes the fiscalizacion list. The national list files this row among the psicotropicos rather than the estupefacientes, which is the less strict of the two prescription regimes it operates.
Documentation: Consolidation read: Ley 7786 of 30 April 1998 as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, in the Texto Completo Norma 8204 print published by the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas, which carries its own generation date of 19 November 2018. The same ranges, ocho a quince anos in article 58 and de ocho a veinte anos in article 77, were independently read on 18 September 2026 against the later Sinalevi record of Ley 7786, version 13 of 13, so the 2018 print is corroborated rather than assumed current. Control model, re derived from the statute in this pass. Costa Rica prints no annex of controlled substances in its drug Act: across the 81 pages the only drug names anywhere are in article 96, on the disposal of seized marihuana, cocaina and heroina. Article 1 regulates "estupefacientes, psicotropicos, sustancias inhalables y demas drogas y farmacos susceptibles de producir dependencias fisicas o psiquicas, incluidos en la Convencion Unica sobre Estupefacientes... de 1961... asi como en el Convenio de Viena sobre Sustancias Psicotropicas, de 21 de febrero de 1971... asimismo, en la Convencion... de 1988". Its second paragraph is a different thing and is often misread as the control annex: it has the Ministerio de Salud and the MAG draw up and publish in La Gaceta "las listas de estupefacientes, psicotropicos y similares Licitos", the licit ones, which is the authorisation side. The incorporation is ambulatory: article 36 defines precursors as Cuadro I of the 1988 Convention "y sus anexos, asi como los que se le incorporen en el futuro", and article 100 gives the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas a mandate framed by the conventions and by "los listados oficiales, publicados periodicamente en La Gaceta". The second limb, measured. The national list is the Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes, Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes of the Ministerio de Salud, updated 10 September 2026 and signed that day by Dra. Mariela Alfaro Segura. It runs to 27 pages in three sections, estupefacientes, psicotropicos and Otros agregados, and it names its own legal basis as the Reglamento para el control de drogas, estupefacientes y psicotropicas N. 45161-S, the instrument cited elsewhere as Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025. The two titles are the same text. A reading of 18 September 2026 records that the decree gives the competent body the function "Elaborar y actualizar la lista de sustancias oficialmente consideradas estupefacientes o psicotropicos y similares de uso regulado" and that its five annexes are forms rather than a substance schedule; that quotation is carried from that reading and was not re derived here. The whole of Otros agregados is twelve entries: metilfenidato, tapentadol and the synthetic cannabinoid JWH-073 among the estupefacientes, and ketamina, esketamina, mexazolam, zaleplon, zopiclona and the piperazines mCPP, CPP, TFMPP and 1,4 dibencilpiperazina among the psicotropicos. Amending Act in force between that list and this reading, read in the official gazette in this pass. Ley 10961 of 9 June 2026, published in Alcance 78 to La Gaceta 113 of 19 June 2026, provides "Rige tres meses a partir de su publicacion" and so took effect on 19 September 2026. It runs to four articles: it adds article 15 quater to Ley 7786 on the anti-money-laundering duties of virtual asset service providers, carries that cross reference into articles 16, 16 bis, 25, 33, 33 bis, 86 and 123, reforms the article 81 administrative fines, and allows three months for regulations. Every Ley 7786 article it touches is money laundering machinery, and it leaves articles 1, 2, 36, 58, 73, 74, 77, 77 bis and 79 untouched, so it moves no row in this batch. Method note. The 2026-09-20 Costa Rica dossier was used only as the slug list and as one of the two term list sources. Its outcome column, its instrument column and its quotation column were not treated as evidence and no placement in this batch rests on them; every placement is the entry read in the list the statute incorporates. Two of its readings were not adopted: it treated ergometrina and ergina as one row when they are separate substances on separate limbs, and it left dextrometorfano unresolved when the instrument excludes it in terms. Sibling name traps were checked rather than assumed. Anchored matching correctly did not return bencilmorfina, desomorfina, dihidromorfina, metildihidromorfina, mirofina or diacetilmorfina for the morfina row, isometadona, normetadona or the metadona intermediario for the metadona row, metcatinona or 4-metiletcatinona for the catinona row, MMDA or N-etil MDA for the MDA row, beta-ceto-MDMA for the MDMA row, levometanfetamina for the metanfetamina row, PCPY for the PCP row, brolanfetamina for the anfetamina row, or norpseudoefedrina for the efedrina row. Two extraction zeroes were false and were recovered by re interrogation: hexahidrocannabinol and 2-fluorodescloroketamina are both line wrapped in the source and a column based read missed both. Routes run for the instrument in this pass. pgrweb.go.cr/scij is a JavaScript shell: the Ley 8204 and Ley 7786 records and the sinalevi.go.cr record each returned about 25 KB that renders to 1,159 characters of site chrome and no statutory text, so a size threshold would have cleared all three. imprentanacional.go.cr served the official gazette carrying Ley 10961. The institutional reproduction at icd.go.cr served the consolidated Act, and ministeriodesalud.go.cr served the national list and the circulars. The schedule pages were checked for hidden content: the list PDF holds one image object repeated on all 27 pages, which is the ministry letterhead, and its byte size is accounted for by that banner, so no entry is carried in an image. Entry read for this row, recorded as the list prints it: "PH003, CAS 6692-85-9, Hexahidrocannabinol (HHC), 6,6,9-trimethyl-3-pentyl-6a,7,8,9,10,10a-hexahydrobenzo[c]chromen-1-ol", in Lista II of the 1971 Convention. Carry the prescription and the dispensing label, and expect the authorisation rather than the amount to be what is asked about. There is no personal allowance to fall back on, because no article of Ley 7786 fixes a threshold. Sourcing, re derived in this pass and not carried: the two Junta de Vigilancia de Drogas urls cited by this row are DIRECTORIES and not documents. The listing page names the national fiscalisation list but does not carry it; the list is a separate PDF behind a numbered link, and that PDF is what the placement in this row actually rests on. Both documents are now fetched and cited by their own urls: "Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes", and "Lista de Estupefacientes y Sustancias Psicotropicas Sometidas a Fiscalizacion Nacional". The first carries the Otros agregados section this row's reasoning refers to [Certain, read from the fetched PDF]. The circulars page cited alongside them exposes no document at all.

HHC in Costa Rica, full detail →

Hydrocodone

Legal status: Controlled. Article 1 of Ley 7786, as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, fixes the scope by reference to the substances included in the 1961 and 1971 Conventions and the 1988 Convention, and the Ministerio de Salud reproduces those listas in Spanish in its national fiscalizacion list and adds a short Otros agregados section of national additions. This row was read as a named entry in Lista I of the 1961 Convention. The offence articles are 58 and 77. [Certain] for the placement, with the entry text recorded in the documentation.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Article 21 of the Constitution provides "La vida humana es inviolable", the human life is inviolable, and the word "muerte" appears zero times across the 81 pages of the consolidated Act. Both of those were measured in this pass and together they are what carries the heading. Costa Rica is an abolitionist state of long standing, [Likely] on the nineteenth century date, which was not re-derived here. Unauthorised trafficking conduct carries eight to fifteen years. Article 58 provides "Se impondra pena de prision de ocho a quince anos a quien, sin autorizacion legal, distribuya, comercie, suministre, fabrique, elabore, refine, transforme, extraiga, prepare, cultive, produzca, transporte, almacene o venda las drogas". That is eight to fifteen years for unauthorised distribution, commerce, supply, manufacture, processing, extraction, preparation, cultivation, production, transport, storage or sale. Article 77 raises the range to eight to twenty years where one of its eight enumerated aggravating circumstances is present, and twenty years is the ceiling this Act identifies. No article states a weight threshold, so the trigger is the unauthorised act and never a quantity. The second paragraph of article 58 reaches possession only "para cualquiera de los fines expresados", that is possession for one of those trafficking purposes. Ley 7786 creates no offence of consumption and no offence of simple possession for personal use. Article 79 answers a person consuming in a public place with voluntary and free treatment in a public or private health centre, not with a penalty.
If prescribed / medical: A lawful medical route exists only through the authorisation the Act itself demands. Article 58 opens with the words "sin autorizacion legal", so conduct carried out under a Costa Rican authorisation falls outside the offence and conduct without one falls inside it whatever the amount. Article 2 confines handling to the quantities needed for medical treatment, toxicological and chemical analysis and research, and requires authorised prescribers to use the official forms supplied by the Ministerio de Salud, whose entries carry the character of a sworn declaration. The Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes administers that control under Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025 and publishes the fiscalizacion list. The national list files this row among the estupefacientes, the narcotic half, which is the stricter of the two prescription regimes it operates.
Documentation: Consolidation read: Ley 7786 of 30 April 1998 as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, in the Texto Completo Norma 8204 print published by the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas, which carries its own generation date of 19 November 2018. The same ranges, ocho a quince anos in article 58 and de ocho a veinte anos in article 77, were independently read on 18 September 2026 against the later Sinalevi record of Ley 7786, version 13 of 13, so the 2018 print is corroborated rather than assumed current. Control model, re derived from the statute in this pass. Costa Rica prints no annex of controlled substances in its drug Act: across the 81 pages the only drug names anywhere are in article 96, on the disposal of seized marihuana, cocaina and heroina. Article 1 regulates "estupefacientes, psicotropicos, sustancias inhalables y demas drogas y farmacos susceptibles de producir dependencias fisicas o psiquicas, incluidos en la Convencion Unica sobre Estupefacientes... de 1961... asi como en el Convenio de Viena sobre Sustancias Psicotropicas, de 21 de febrero de 1971... asimismo, en la Convencion... de 1988". Its second paragraph is a different thing and is often misread as the control annex: it has the Ministerio de Salud and the MAG draw up and publish in La Gaceta "las listas de estupefacientes, psicotropicos y similares Licitos", the licit ones, which is the authorisation side. The incorporation is ambulatory: article 36 defines precursors as Cuadro I of the 1988 Convention "y sus anexos, asi como los que se le incorporen en el futuro", and article 100 gives the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas a mandate framed by the conventions and by "los listados oficiales, publicados periodicamente en La Gaceta". The second limb, measured. The national list is the Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes, Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes of the Ministerio de Salud, updated 10 September 2026 and signed that day by Dra. Mariela Alfaro Segura. It runs to 27 pages in three sections, estupefacientes, psicotropicos and Otros agregados, and it names its own legal basis as the Reglamento para el control de drogas, estupefacientes y psicotropicas N. 45161-S, the instrument cited elsewhere as Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025. The two titles are the same text. A reading of 18 September 2026 records that the decree gives the competent body the function "Elaborar y actualizar la lista de sustancias oficialmente consideradas estupefacientes o psicotropicos y similares de uso regulado" and that its five annexes are forms rather than a substance schedule; that quotation is carried from that reading and was not re derived here. The whole of Otros agregados is twelve entries: metilfenidato, tapentadol and the synthetic cannabinoid JWH-073 among the estupefacientes, and ketamina, esketamina, mexazolam, zaleplon, zopiclona and the piperazines mCPP, CPP, TFMPP and 1,4 dibencilpiperazina among the psicotropicos. Amending Act in force between that list and this reading, read in the official gazette in this pass. Ley 10961 of 9 June 2026, published in Alcance 78 to La Gaceta 113 of 19 June 2026, provides "Rige tres meses a partir de su publicacion" and so took effect on 19 September 2026. It runs to four articles: it adds article 15 quater to Ley 7786 on the anti-money-laundering duties of virtual asset service providers, carries that cross reference into articles 16, 16 bis, 25, 33, 33 bis, 86 and 123, reforms the article 81 administrative fines, and allows three months for regulations. Every Ley 7786 article it touches is money laundering machinery, and it leaves articles 1, 2, 36, 58, 73, 74, 77, 77 bis and 79 untouched, so it moves no row in this batch. Method note. The 2026-09-20 Costa Rica dossier was used only as the slug list and as one of the two term list sources. Its outcome column, its instrument column and its quotation column were not treated as evidence and no placement in this batch rests on them; every placement is the entry read in the list the statute incorporates. Two of its readings were not adopted: it treated ergometrina and ergina as one row when they are separate substances on separate limbs, and it left dextrometorfano unresolved when the instrument excludes it in terms. Sibling name traps were checked rather than assumed. Anchored matching correctly did not return bencilmorfina, desomorfina, dihidromorfina, metildihidromorfina, mirofina or diacetilmorfina for the morfina row, isometadona, normetadona or the metadona intermediario for the metadona row, metcatinona or 4-metiletcatinona for the catinona row, MMDA or N-etil MDA for the MDA row, beta-ceto-MDMA for the MDMA row, levometanfetamina for the metanfetamina row, PCPY for the PCP row, brolanfetamina for the anfetamina row, or norpseudoefedrina for the efedrina row. Two extraction zeroes were false and were recovered by re interrogation: hexahidrocannabinol and 2-fluorodescloroketamina are both line wrapped in the source and a column based read missed both. Routes run for the instrument in this pass. pgrweb.go.cr/scij is a JavaScript shell: the Ley 8204 and Ley 7786 records and the sinalevi.go.cr record each returned about 25 KB that renders to 1,159 characters of site chrome and no statutory text, so a size threshold would have cleared all three. imprentanacional.go.cr served the official gazette carrying Ley 10961. The institutional reproduction at icd.go.cr served the consolidated Act, and ministeriodesalud.go.cr served the national list and the circulars. The schedule pages were checked for hidden content: the list PDF holds one image object repeated on all 27 pages, which is the ministry letterhead, and its byte size is accounted for by that banner, so no entry is carried in an image. Entry read for this row, recorded as the list prints it: "NH 002, CAS 125-29-1, Hidrocodona, dihidrocodeinona (derivado de la morfina)", in Lista I of the 1961 Convention. Carry the prescription and the dispensing label, and expect the authorisation rather than the amount to be what is asked about. There is no personal allowance to fall back on, because no article of Ley 7786 fixes a threshold. Sourcing, re derived in this pass and not carried: the two Junta de Vigilancia de Drogas urls cited by this row are DIRECTORIES and not documents. The listing page names the national fiscalisation list but does not carry it; the list is a separate PDF behind a numbered link, and that PDF is what the placement in this row actually rests on. Both documents are now fetched and cited by their own urls: "Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes", and "Lista de Estupefacientes y Sustancias Psicotropicas Sometidas a Fiscalizacion Nacional". The first carries the Otros agregados section this row's reasoning refers to [Certain, read from the fetched PDF]. The circulars page cited alongside them exposes no document at all.

Hydrocodone in Costa Rica, full detail →

Khat

Legal status: Controlled through named members rather than through one entry, so the exposure turns on which member is in hand. Article 1 of Ley 7786, as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, fixes the scope by reference to the substances included in the 1961 and 1971 Conventions and the 1988 Convention, and the Ministerio de Salud reproduces those listas in Spanish in its national fiscalizacion list and adds a short Otros agregados section of national additions. The members were read in Listas I and III of the 1971 Convention. The offence articles are 58 and 77. [Certain] for the placements, with the entry text recorded in the documentation.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Article 21 of the Constitution provides "La vida humana es inviolable", the human life is inviolable, and the word "muerte" appears zero times across the 81 pages of the consolidated Act. Both of those were measured in this pass and together they are what carries the heading. Costa Rica is an abolitionist state of long standing, [Likely] on the nineteenth century date, which was not re-derived here. Unauthorised trafficking conduct carries eight to fifteen years. Article 58 provides "Se impondra pena de prision de ocho a quince anos a quien, sin autorizacion legal, distribuya, comercie, suministre, fabrique, elabore, refine, transforme, extraiga, prepare, cultive, produzca, transporte, almacene o venda las drogas". That is eight to fifteen years for unauthorised distribution, commerce, supply, manufacture, processing, extraction, preparation, cultivation, production, transport, storage or sale. Article 77 raises the range to eight to twenty years where one of its eight enumerated aggravating circumstances is present, and twenty years is the ceiling this Act identifies. No article states a weight threshold, so the trigger is the unauthorised act and never a quantity. The second paragraph of article 58 reaches possession only "para cualquiera de los fines expresados", that is possession for one of those trafficking purposes. Ley 7786 creates no offence of consumption and no offence of simple possession for personal use. Article 79 answers a person consuming in a public place with voluntary and free treatment in a public or private health centre, not with a penalty.
If prescribed / medical: A lawful medical route exists only through the authorisation the Act itself demands. Article 58 opens with the words "sin autorizacion legal", so conduct carried out under a Costa Rican authorisation falls outside the offence and conduct without one falls inside it whatever the amount. Article 2 confines handling to the quantities needed for medical treatment, toxicological and chemical analysis and research, and requires authorised prescribers to use the official forms supplied by the Ministerio de Salud, whose entries carry the character of a sworn declaration. The Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes administers that control under Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025 and publishes the fiscalizacion list. The national list files this row among the psicotropicos rather than the estupefacientes, which is the less strict of the two prescription regimes it operates.
Documentation: Consolidation read: Ley 7786 of 30 April 1998 as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, in the Texto Completo Norma 8204 print published by the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas, which carries its own generation date of 19 November 2018. The same ranges, ocho a quince anos in article 58 and de ocho a veinte anos in article 77, were independently read on 18 September 2026 against the later Sinalevi record of Ley 7786, version 13 of 13, so the 2018 print is corroborated rather than assumed current. Control model, re derived from the statute in this pass. Costa Rica prints no annex of controlled substances in its drug Act: across the 81 pages the only drug names anywhere are in article 96, on the disposal of seized marihuana, cocaina and heroina. Article 1 regulates "estupefacientes, psicotropicos, sustancias inhalables y demas drogas y farmacos susceptibles de producir dependencias fisicas o psiquicas, incluidos en la Convencion Unica sobre Estupefacientes... de 1961... asi como en el Convenio de Viena sobre Sustancias Psicotropicas, de 21 de febrero de 1971... asimismo, en la Convencion... de 1988". Its second paragraph is a different thing and is often misread as the control annex: it has the Ministerio de Salud and the MAG draw up and publish in La Gaceta "las listas de estupefacientes, psicotropicos y similares Licitos", the licit ones, which is the authorisation side. The incorporation is ambulatory: article 36 defines precursors as Cuadro I of the 1988 Convention "y sus anexos, asi como los que se le incorporen en el futuro", and article 100 gives the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas a mandate framed by the conventions and by "los listados oficiales, publicados periodicamente en La Gaceta". The second limb, measured. The national list is the Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes, Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes of the Ministerio de Salud, updated 10 September 2026 and signed that day by Dra. Mariela Alfaro Segura. It runs to 27 pages in three sections, estupefacientes, psicotropicos and Otros agregados, and it names its own legal basis as the Reglamento para el control de drogas, estupefacientes y psicotropicas N. 45161-S, the instrument cited elsewhere as Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025. The two titles are the same text. A reading of 18 September 2026 records that the decree gives the competent body the function "Elaborar y actualizar la lista de sustancias oficialmente consideradas estupefacientes o psicotropicos y similares de uso regulado" and that its five annexes are forms rather than a substance schedule; that quotation is carried from that reading and was not re derived here. The whole of Otros agregados is twelve entries: metilfenidato, tapentadol and the synthetic cannabinoid JWH-073 among the estupefacientes, and ketamina, esketamina, mexazolam, zaleplon, zopiclona and the piperazines mCPP, CPP, TFMPP and 1,4 dibencilpiperazina among the psicotropicos. Amending Act in force between that list and this reading, read in the official gazette in this pass. Ley 10961 of 9 June 2026, published in Alcance 78 to La Gaceta 113 of 19 June 2026, provides "Rige tres meses a partir de su publicacion" and so took effect on 19 September 2026. It runs to four articles: it adds article 15 quater to Ley 7786 on the anti-money-laundering duties of virtual asset service providers, carries that cross reference into articles 16, 16 bis, 25, 33, 33 bis, 86 and 123, reforms the article 81 administrative fines, and allows three months for regulations. Every Ley 7786 article it touches is money laundering machinery, and it leaves articles 1, 2, 36, 58, 73, 74, 77, 77 bis and 79 untouched, so it moves no row in this batch. Method note. The 2026-09-20 Costa Rica dossier was used only as the slug list and as one of the two term list sources. Its outcome column, its instrument column and its quotation column were not treated as evidence and no placement in this batch rests on them; every placement is the entry read in the list the statute incorporates. Two of its readings were not adopted: it treated ergometrina and ergina as one row when they are separate substances on separate limbs, and it left dextrometorfano unresolved when the instrument excludes it in terms. Sibling name traps were checked rather than assumed. Anchored matching correctly did not return bencilmorfina, desomorfina, dihidromorfina, metildihidromorfina, mirofina or diacetilmorfina for the morfina row, isometadona, normetadona or the metadona intermediario for the metadona row, metcatinona or 4-metiletcatinona for the catinona row, MMDA or N-etil MDA for the MDA row, beta-ceto-MDMA for the MDMA row, levometanfetamina for the metanfetamina row, PCPY for the PCP row, brolanfetamina for the anfetamina row, or norpseudoefedrina for the efedrina row. Two extraction zeroes were false and were recovered by re interrogation: hexahidrocannabinol and 2-fluorodescloroketamina are both line wrapped in the source and a column based read missed both. Routes run for the instrument in this pass. pgrweb.go.cr/scij is a JavaScript shell: the Ley 8204 and Ley 7786 records and the sinalevi.go.cr record each returned about 25 KB that renders to 1,159 characters of site chrome and no statutory text, so a size threshold would have cleared all three. imprentanacional.go.cr served the official gazette carrying Ley 10961. The institutional reproduction at icd.go.cr served the consolidated Act, and ministeriodesalud.go.cr served the national list and the circulars. The schedule pages were checked for hidden content: the list PDF holds one image object repeated on all 27 pages, which is the ministry letterhead, and its byte size is accounted for by that banner, so no entry is carried in an image. Khat is a plant rather than a listed name, and Catha edulis does not appear as an entry. Its control follows the two alkaloids it carries, and both are entered: "PC 010, Catinona, (-)-(S)-2-aminopropiofenona" and "PC 009, CAS 492-39-7, Catina, (+)-norpseudoefedrina, (+)-(S)-alfa-[(S)-1-aminoetil]alcohol bencilico", all in Listas I and III of the 1971 Convention. Carry the prescription and the dispensing label, and expect the authorisation rather than the amount to be what is asked about. There is no personal allowance to fall back on, because no article of Ley 7786 fixes a threshold. Sourcing, re derived in this pass and not carried: the two Junta de Vigilancia de Drogas urls cited by this row are DIRECTORIES and not documents. The listing page names the national fiscalisation list but does not carry it; the list is a separate PDF behind a numbered link, and that PDF is what the placement in this row actually rests on. Both documents are now fetched and cited by their own urls: "Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes", and "Lista de Estupefacientes y Sustancias Psicotropicas Sometidas a Fiscalizacion Nacional". The first carries the Otros agregados section this row's reasoning refers to [Certain, read from the fetched PDF]. The circulars page cited alongside them exposes no document at all.

Khat in Costa Rica, full detail →

Lorazepam

Legal status: Controlled. Article 1 of Ley 7786, as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, fixes the scope by reference to the substances included in the 1961 and 1971 Conventions and the 1988 Convention, and the Ministerio de Salud reproduces those listas in Spanish in its national fiscalizacion list and adds a short Otros agregados section of national additions. This row was read as a named entry in Lista IV of the 1971 Convention. The offence articles are 58 and 77. [Certain] for the placement, with the entry text recorded in the documentation.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Article 21 of the Constitution provides "La vida humana es inviolable", the human life is inviolable, and the word "muerte" appears zero times across the 81 pages of the consolidated Act. Both of those were measured in this pass and together they are what carries the heading. Costa Rica is an abolitionist state of long standing, [Likely] on the nineteenth century date, which was not re-derived here. Unauthorised trafficking conduct carries eight to fifteen years. Article 58 provides "Se impondra pena de prision de ocho a quince anos a quien, sin autorizacion legal, distribuya, comercie, suministre, fabrique, elabore, refine, transforme, extraiga, prepare, cultive, produzca, transporte, almacene o venda las drogas". That is eight to fifteen years for unauthorised distribution, commerce, supply, manufacture, processing, extraction, preparation, cultivation, production, transport, storage or sale. Article 77 raises the range to eight to twenty years where one of its eight enumerated aggravating circumstances is present, and twenty years is the ceiling this Act identifies. No article states a weight threshold, so the trigger is the unauthorised act and never a quantity. The second paragraph of article 58 reaches possession only "para cualquiera de los fines expresados", that is possession for one of those trafficking purposes. Ley 7786 creates no offence of consumption and no offence of simple possession for personal use. Article 79 answers a person consuming in a public place with voluntary and free treatment in a public or private health centre, not with a penalty.
If prescribed / medical: A lawful medical route exists only through the authorisation the Act itself demands. Article 58 opens with the words "sin autorizacion legal", so conduct carried out under a Costa Rican authorisation falls outside the offence and conduct without one falls inside it whatever the amount. Article 2 confines handling to the quantities needed for medical treatment, toxicological and chemical analysis and research, and requires authorised prescribers to use the official forms supplied by the Ministerio de Salud, whose entries carry the character of a sworn declaration. The Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes administers that control under Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025 and publishes the fiscalizacion list. The national list files this row among the psicotropicos rather than the estupefacientes, which is the less strict of the two prescription regimes it operates.
Documentation: Consolidation read: Ley 7786 of 30 April 1998 as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, in the Texto Completo Norma 8204 print published by the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas, which carries its own generation date of 19 November 2018. The same ranges, ocho a quince anos in article 58 and de ocho a veinte anos in article 77, were independently read on 18 September 2026 against the later Sinalevi record of Ley 7786, version 13 of 13, so the 2018 print is corroborated rather than assumed current. Control model, re derived from the statute in this pass. Costa Rica prints no annex of controlled substances in its drug Act: across the 81 pages the only drug names anywhere are in article 96, on the disposal of seized marihuana, cocaina and heroina. Article 1 regulates "estupefacientes, psicotropicos, sustancias inhalables y demas drogas y farmacos susceptibles de producir dependencias fisicas o psiquicas, incluidos en la Convencion Unica sobre Estupefacientes... de 1961... asi como en el Convenio de Viena sobre Sustancias Psicotropicas, de 21 de febrero de 1971... asimismo, en la Convencion... de 1988". Its second paragraph is a different thing and is often misread as the control annex: it has the Ministerio de Salud and the MAG draw up and publish in La Gaceta "las listas de estupefacientes, psicotropicos y similares Licitos", the licit ones, which is the authorisation side. The incorporation is ambulatory: article 36 defines precursors as Cuadro I of the 1988 Convention "y sus anexos, asi como los que se le incorporen en el futuro", and article 100 gives the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas a mandate framed by the conventions and by "los listados oficiales, publicados periodicamente en La Gaceta". The second limb, measured. The national list is the Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes, Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes of the Ministerio de Salud, updated 10 September 2026 and signed that day by Dra. Mariela Alfaro Segura. It runs to 27 pages in three sections, estupefacientes, psicotropicos and Otros agregados, and it names its own legal basis as the Reglamento para el control de drogas, estupefacientes y psicotropicas N. 45161-S, the instrument cited elsewhere as Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025. The two titles are the same text. A reading of 18 September 2026 records that the decree gives the competent body the function "Elaborar y actualizar la lista de sustancias oficialmente consideradas estupefacientes o psicotropicos y similares de uso regulado" and that its five annexes are forms rather than a substance schedule; that quotation is carried from that reading and was not re derived here. The whole of Otros agregados is twelve entries: metilfenidato, tapentadol and the synthetic cannabinoid JWH-073 among the estupefacientes, and ketamina, esketamina, mexazolam, zaleplon, zopiclona and the piperazines mCPP, CPP, TFMPP and 1,4 dibencilpiperazina among the psicotropicos. Amending Act in force between that list and this reading, read in the official gazette in this pass. Ley 10961 of 9 June 2026, published in Alcance 78 to La Gaceta 113 of 19 June 2026, provides "Rige tres meses a partir de su publicacion" and so took effect on 19 September 2026. It runs to four articles: it adds article 15 quater to Ley 7786 on the anti-money-laundering duties of virtual asset service providers, carries that cross reference into articles 16, 16 bis, 25, 33, 33 bis, 86 and 123, reforms the article 81 administrative fines, and allows three months for regulations. Every Ley 7786 article it touches is money laundering machinery, and it leaves articles 1, 2, 36, 58, 73, 74, 77, 77 bis and 79 untouched, so it moves no row in this batch. Method note. The 2026-09-20 Costa Rica dossier was used only as the slug list and as one of the two term list sources. Its outcome column, its instrument column and its quotation column were not treated as evidence and no placement in this batch rests on them; every placement is the entry read in the list the statute incorporates. Two of its readings were not adopted: it treated ergometrina and ergina as one row when they are separate substances on separate limbs, and it left dextrometorfano unresolved when the instrument excludes it in terms. Sibling name traps were checked rather than assumed. Anchored matching correctly did not return bencilmorfina, desomorfina, dihidromorfina, metildihidromorfina, mirofina or diacetilmorfina for the morfina row, isometadona, normetadona or the metadona intermediario for the metadona row, metcatinona or 4-metiletcatinona for the catinona row, MMDA or N-etil MDA for the MDA row, beta-ceto-MDMA for the MDMA row, levometanfetamina for the metanfetamina row, PCPY for the PCP row, brolanfetamina for the anfetamina row, or norpseudoefedrina for the efedrina row. Two extraction zeroes were false and were recovered by re interrogation: hexahidrocannabinol and 2-fluorodescloroketamina are both line wrapped in the source and a column based read missed both. Routes run for the instrument in this pass. pgrweb.go.cr/scij is a JavaScript shell: the Ley 8204 and Ley 7786 records and the sinalevi.go.cr record each returned about 25 KB that renders to 1,159 characters of site chrome and no statutory text, so a size threshold would have cleared all three. imprentanacional.go.cr served the official gazette carrying Ley 10961. The institutional reproduction at icd.go.cr served the consolidated Act, and ministeriodesalud.go.cr served the national list and the circulars. The schedule pages were checked for hidden content: the list PDF holds one image object repeated on all 27 pages, which is the ministry letterhead, and its byte size is accounted for by that banner, so no entry is carried in an image. Entry read for this row, recorded as the list prints it: "PL 004, CAS 846-49-1, Lorazepam, 7-cloro-5-(o-clorofenil)-1,3-dihidro-3-hidroxi-2H-1,4-benzodiazepin-2-ona", in Lista IV of the 1971 Convention. Carry the prescription and the dispensing label, and expect the authorisation rather than the amount to be what is asked about. There is no personal allowance to fall back on, because no article of Ley 7786 fixes a threshold. Sourcing, re derived in this pass and not carried: the two Junta de Vigilancia de Drogas urls cited by this row are DIRECTORIES and not documents. The listing page names the national fiscalisation list but does not carry it; the list is a separate PDF behind a numbered link, and that PDF is what the placement in this row actually rests on. Both documents are now fetched and cited by their own urls: "Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes", and "Lista de Estupefacientes y Sustancias Psicotropicas Sometidas a Fiscalizacion Nacional". The first carries the Otros agregados section this row's reasoning refers to [Certain, read from the fetched PDF]. The circulars page cited alongside them exposes no document at all.

Lorazepam in Costa Rica, full detail →

LSD

Legal status: Controlled. Article 1 of Ley 7786, as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, fixes the scope by reference to the substances included in the 1961 and 1971 Conventions and the 1988 Convention, and the Ministerio de Salud reproduces those listas in Spanish in its national fiscalizacion list and adds a short Otros agregados section of national additions. This row was read as a named entry in Lista I of the 1971 Convention. The offence articles are 58 and 77. [Certain] for the placement, with the entry text recorded in the documentation.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Article 21 of the Constitution provides "La vida humana es inviolable", the human life is inviolable, and the word "muerte" appears zero times across the 81 pages of the consolidated Act. Both of those were measured in this pass and together they are what carries the heading. Costa Rica is an abolitionist state of long standing, [Likely] on the nineteenth century date, which was not re-derived here. Unauthorised trafficking conduct carries eight to fifteen years. Article 58 provides "Se impondra pena de prision de ocho a quince anos a quien, sin autorizacion legal, distribuya, comercie, suministre, fabrique, elabore, refine, transforme, extraiga, prepare, cultive, produzca, transporte, almacene o venda las drogas". That is eight to fifteen years for unauthorised distribution, commerce, supply, manufacture, processing, extraction, preparation, cultivation, production, transport, storage or sale. Article 77 raises the range to eight to twenty years where one of its eight enumerated aggravating circumstances is present, and twenty years is the ceiling this Act identifies. No article states a weight threshold, so the trigger is the unauthorised act and never a quantity. The second paragraph of article 58 reaches possession only "para cualquiera de los fines expresados", that is possession for one of those trafficking purposes. Ley 7786 creates no offence of consumption and no offence of simple possession for personal use. Article 79 answers a person consuming in a public place with voluntary and free treatment in a public or private health centre, not with a penalty.
If prescribed / medical: A lawful medical route exists only through the authorisation the Act itself demands. Article 58 opens with the words "sin autorizacion legal", so conduct carried out under a Costa Rican authorisation falls outside the offence and conduct without one falls inside it whatever the amount. Article 2 confines handling to the quantities needed for medical treatment, toxicological and chemical analysis and research, and requires authorised prescribers to use the official forms supplied by the Ministerio de Salud, whose entries carry the character of a sworn declaration. The Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes administers that control under Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025 and publishes the fiscalizacion list. The national list files this row among the psicotropicos rather than the estupefacientes, which is the less strict of the two prescription regimes it operates.
Documentation: Consolidation read: Ley 7786 of 30 April 1998 as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, in the Texto Completo Norma 8204 print published by the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas, which carries its own generation date of 19 November 2018. The same ranges, ocho a quince anos in article 58 and de ocho a veinte anos in article 77, were independently read on 18 September 2026 against the later Sinalevi record of Ley 7786, version 13 of 13, so the 2018 print is corroborated rather than assumed current. Control model, re derived from the statute in this pass. Costa Rica prints no annex of controlled substances in its drug Act: across the 81 pages the only drug names anywhere are in article 96, on the disposal of seized marihuana, cocaina and heroina. Article 1 regulates "estupefacientes, psicotropicos, sustancias inhalables y demas drogas y farmacos susceptibles de producir dependencias fisicas o psiquicas, incluidos en la Convencion Unica sobre Estupefacientes... de 1961... asi como en el Convenio de Viena sobre Sustancias Psicotropicas, de 21 de febrero de 1971... asimismo, en la Convencion... de 1988". Its second paragraph is a different thing and is often misread as the control annex: it has the Ministerio de Salud and the MAG draw up and publish in La Gaceta "las listas de estupefacientes, psicotropicos y similares Licitos", the licit ones, which is the authorisation side. The incorporation is ambulatory: article 36 defines precursors as Cuadro I of the 1988 Convention "y sus anexos, asi como los que se le incorporen en el futuro", and article 100 gives the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas a mandate framed by the conventions and by "los listados oficiales, publicados periodicamente en La Gaceta". The second limb, measured. The national list is the Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes, Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes of the Ministerio de Salud, updated 10 September 2026 and signed that day by Dra. Mariela Alfaro Segura. It runs to 27 pages in three sections, estupefacientes, psicotropicos and Otros agregados, and it names its own legal basis as the Reglamento para el control de drogas, estupefacientes y psicotropicas N. 45161-S, the instrument cited elsewhere as Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025. The two titles are the same text. A reading of 18 September 2026 records that the decree gives the competent body the function "Elaborar y actualizar la lista de sustancias oficialmente consideradas estupefacientes o psicotropicos y similares de uso regulado" and that its five annexes are forms rather than a substance schedule; that quotation is carried from that reading and was not re derived here. The whole of Otros agregados is twelve entries: metilfenidato, tapentadol and the synthetic cannabinoid JWH-073 among the estupefacientes, and ketamina, esketamina, mexazolam, zaleplon, zopiclona and the piperazines mCPP, CPP, TFMPP and 1,4 dibencilpiperazina among the psicotropicos. Amending Act in force between that list and this reading, read in the official gazette in this pass. Ley 10961 of 9 June 2026, published in Alcance 78 to La Gaceta 113 of 19 June 2026, provides "Rige tres meses a partir de su publicacion" and so took effect on 19 September 2026. It runs to four articles: it adds article 15 quater to Ley 7786 on the anti-money-laundering duties of virtual asset service providers, carries that cross reference into articles 16, 16 bis, 25, 33, 33 bis, 86 and 123, reforms the article 81 administrative fines, and allows three months for regulations. Every Ley 7786 article it touches is money laundering machinery, and it leaves articles 1, 2, 36, 58, 73, 74, 77, 77 bis and 79 untouched, so it moves no row in this batch. Method note. The 2026-09-20 Costa Rica dossier was used only as the slug list and as one of the two term list sources. Its outcome column, its instrument column and its quotation column were not treated as evidence and no placement in this batch rests on them; every placement is the entry read in the list the statute incorporates. Two of its readings were not adopted: it treated ergometrina and ergina as one row when they are separate substances on separate limbs, and it left dextrometorfano unresolved when the instrument excludes it in terms. Sibling name traps were checked rather than assumed. Anchored matching correctly did not return bencilmorfina, desomorfina, dihidromorfina, metildihidromorfina, mirofina or diacetilmorfina for the morfina row, isometadona, normetadona or the metadona intermediario for the metadona row, metcatinona or 4-metiletcatinona for the catinona row, MMDA or N-etil MDA for the MDA row, beta-ceto-MDMA for the MDMA row, levometanfetamina for the metanfetamina row, PCPY for the PCP row, brolanfetamina for the anfetamina row, or norpseudoefedrina for the efedrina row. Two extraction zeroes were false and were recovered by re interrogation: hexahidrocannabinol and 2-fluorodescloroketamina are both line wrapped in the source and a column based read missed both. Routes run for the instrument in this pass. pgrweb.go.cr/scij is a JavaScript shell: the Ley 8204 and Ley 7786 records and the sinalevi.go.cr record each returned about 25 KB that renders to 1,159 characters of site chrome and no statutory text, so a size threshold would have cleared all three. imprentanacional.go.cr served the official gazette carrying Ley 10961. The institutional reproduction at icd.go.cr served the consolidated Act, and ministeriodesalud.go.cr served the national list and the circulars. The schedule pages were checked for hidden content: the list PDF holds one image object repeated on all 27 pages, which is the ministry letterhead, and its byte size is accounted for by that banner, so no entry is carried in an image. Entry read for this row, recorded as the list prints it: "PL 002, (+)-Lisergida / LSD, LSD-25, 9,10-didehidro-N,N-dietil-6-metilergolina-8beta-carboxamida", in Lista I of the 1971 Convention. Carry the prescription and the dispensing label, and expect the authorisation rather than the amount to be what is asked about. There is no personal allowance to fall back on, because no article of Ley 7786 fixes a threshold. Sourcing, re derived in this pass and not carried: the two Junta de Vigilancia de Drogas urls cited by this row are DIRECTORIES and not documents. The listing page names the national fiscalisation list but does not carry it; the list is a separate PDF behind a numbered link, and that PDF is what the placement in this row actually rests on. Both documents are now fetched and cited by their own urls: "Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes", and "Lista de Estupefacientes y Sustancias Psicotropicas Sometidas a Fiscalizacion Nacional". The first carries the Otros agregados section this row's reasoning refers to [Certain, read from the fetched PDF]. The circulars page cited alongside them exposes no document at all.

LSD in Costa Rica, full detail →

MDA

Legal status: Controlled. Article 1 of Ley 7786, as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, fixes the scope by reference to the substances included in the 1961 and 1971 Conventions and the 1988 Convention, and the Ministerio de Salud reproduces those listas in Spanish in its national fiscalizacion list and adds a short Otros agregados section of national additions. This row was read as a named entry in Lista I of the 1971 Convention. The offence articles are 58 and 77. [Certain] for the placement, with the entry text recorded in the documentation.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Article 21 of the Constitution provides "La vida humana es inviolable", the human life is inviolable, and the word "muerte" appears zero times across the 81 pages of the consolidated Act. Both of those were measured in this pass and together they are what carries the heading. Costa Rica is an abolitionist state of long standing, [Likely] on the nineteenth century date, which was not re-derived here. Unauthorised trafficking conduct carries eight to fifteen years. Article 58 provides "Se impondra pena de prision de ocho a quince anos a quien, sin autorizacion legal, distribuya, comercie, suministre, fabrique, elabore, refine, transforme, extraiga, prepare, cultive, produzca, transporte, almacene o venda las drogas". That is eight to fifteen years for unauthorised distribution, commerce, supply, manufacture, processing, extraction, preparation, cultivation, production, transport, storage or sale. Article 77 raises the range to eight to twenty years where one of its eight enumerated aggravating circumstances is present, and twenty years is the ceiling this Act identifies. No article states a weight threshold, so the trigger is the unauthorised act and never a quantity. The second paragraph of article 58 reaches possession only "para cualquiera de los fines expresados", that is possession for one of those trafficking purposes. Ley 7786 creates no offence of consumption and no offence of simple possession for personal use. Article 79 answers a person consuming in a public place with voluntary and free treatment in a public or private health centre, not with a penalty.
If prescribed / medical: A lawful medical route exists only through the authorisation the Act itself demands. Article 58 opens with the words "sin autorizacion legal", so conduct carried out under a Costa Rican authorisation falls outside the offence and conduct without one falls inside it whatever the amount. Article 2 confines handling to the quantities needed for medical treatment, toxicological and chemical analysis and research, and requires authorised prescribers to use the official forms supplied by the Ministerio de Salud, whose entries carry the character of a sworn declaration. The Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes administers that control under Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025 and publishes the fiscalizacion list. The national list files this row among the psicotropicos rather than the estupefacientes, which is the less strict of the two prescription regimes it operates.
Documentation: Consolidation read: Ley 7786 of 30 April 1998 as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, in the Texto Completo Norma 8204 print published by the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas, which carries its own generation date of 19 November 2018. The same ranges, ocho a quince anos in article 58 and de ocho a veinte anos in article 77, were independently read on 18 September 2026 against the later Sinalevi record of Ley 7786, version 13 of 13, so the 2018 print is corroborated rather than assumed current. Control model, re derived from the statute in this pass. Costa Rica prints no annex of controlled substances in its drug Act: across the 81 pages the only drug names anywhere are in article 96, on the disposal of seized marihuana, cocaina and heroina. Article 1 regulates "estupefacientes, psicotropicos, sustancias inhalables y demas drogas y farmacos susceptibles de producir dependencias fisicas o psiquicas, incluidos en la Convencion Unica sobre Estupefacientes... de 1961... asi como en el Convenio de Viena sobre Sustancias Psicotropicas, de 21 de febrero de 1971... asimismo, en la Convencion... de 1988". Its second paragraph is a different thing and is often misread as the control annex: it has the Ministerio de Salud and the MAG draw up and publish in La Gaceta "las listas de estupefacientes, psicotropicos y similares Licitos", the licit ones, which is the authorisation side. The incorporation is ambulatory: article 36 defines precursors as Cuadro I of the 1988 Convention "y sus anexos, asi como los que se le incorporen en el futuro", and article 100 gives the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas a mandate framed by the conventions and by "los listados oficiales, publicados periodicamente en La Gaceta". The second limb, measured. The national list is the Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes, Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes of the Ministerio de Salud, updated 10 September 2026 and signed that day by Dra. Mariela Alfaro Segura. It runs to 27 pages in three sections, estupefacientes, psicotropicos and Otros agregados, and it names its own legal basis as the Reglamento para el control de drogas, estupefacientes y psicotropicas N. 45161-S, the instrument cited elsewhere as Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025. The two titles are the same text. A reading of 18 September 2026 records that the decree gives the competent body the function "Elaborar y actualizar la lista de sustancias oficialmente consideradas estupefacientes o psicotropicos y similares de uso regulado" and that its five annexes are forms rather than a substance schedule; that quotation is carried from that reading and was not re derived here. The whole of Otros agregados is twelve entries: metilfenidato, tapentadol and the synthetic cannabinoid JWH-073 among the estupefacientes, and ketamina, esketamina, mexazolam, zaleplon, zopiclona and the piperazines mCPP, CPP, TFMPP and 1,4 dibencilpiperazina among the psicotropicos. Amending Act in force between that list and this reading, read in the official gazette in this pass. Ley 10961 of 9 June 2026, published in Alcance 78 to La Gaceta 113 of 19 June 2026, provides "Rige tres meses a partir de su publicacion" and so took effect on 19 September 2026. It runs to four articles: it adds article 15 quater to Ley 7786 on the anti-money-laundering duties of virtual asset service providers, carries that cross reference into articles 16, 16 bis, 25, 33, 33 bis, 86 and 123, reforms the article 81 administrative fines, and allows three months for regulations. Every Ley 7786 article it touches is money laundering machinery, and it leaves articles 1, 2, 36, 58, 73, 74, 77, 77 bis and 79 untouched, so it moves no row in this batch. Method note. The 2026-09-20 Costa Rica dossier was used only as the slug list and as one of the two term list sources. Its outcome column, its instrument column and its quotation column were not treated as evidence and no placement in this batch rests on them; every placement is the entry read in the list the statute incorporates. Two of its readings were not adopted: it treated ergometrina and ergina as one row when they are separate substances on separate limbs, and it left dextrometorfano unresolved when the instrument excludes it in terms. Sibling name traps were checked rather than assumed. Anchored matching correctly did not return bencilmorfina, desomorfina, dihidromorfina, metildihidromorfina, mirofina or diacetilmorfina for the morfina row, isometadona, normetadona or the metadona intermediario for the metadona row, metcatinona or 4-metiletcatinona for the catinona row, MMDA or N-etil MDA for the MDA row, beta-ceto-MDMA for the MDMA row, levometanfetamina for the metanfetamina row, PCPY for the PCP row, brolanfetamina for the anfetamina row, or norpseudoefedrina for the efedrina row. Two extraction zeroes were false and were recovered by re interrogation: hexahidrocannabinol and 2-fluorodescloroketamina are both line wrapped in the source and a column based read missed both. Routes run for the instrument in this pass. pgrweb.go.cr/scij is a JavaScript shell: the Ley 8204 and Ley 7786 records and the sinalevi.go.cr record each returned about 25 KB that renders to 1,159 characters of site chrome and no statutory text, so a size threshold would have cleared all three. imprentanacional.go.cr served the official gazette carrying Ley 10961. The institutional reproduction at icd.go.cr served the consolidated Act, and ministeriodesalud.go.cr served the national list and the circulars. The schedule pages were checked for hidden content: the list PDF holds one image object repeated on all 27 pages, which is the ministry letterhead, and its byte size is accounted for by that banner, so no entry is carried in an image. Entry read for this row, recorded as the list prints it: "PM 014, Tenanfetamina / MDA, alfa-metil-3,4-(metilendioxi)fenetilamina", in Lista I of the 1971 Convention. Carry the prescription and the dispensing label, and expect the authorisation rather than the amount to be what is asked about. There is no personal allowance to fall back on, because no article of Ley 7786 fixes a threshold. Sourcing, re derived in this pass and not carried: the two Junta de Vigilancia de Drogas urls cited by this row are DIRECTORIES and not documents. The listing page names the national fiscalisation list but does not carry it; the list is a separate PDF behind a numbered link, and that PDF is what the placement in this row actually rests on. Both documents are now fetched and cited by their own urls: "Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes", and "Lista de Estupefacientes y Sustancias Psicotropicas Sometidas a Fiscalizacion Nacional". The first carries the Otros agregados section this row's reasoning refers to [Certain, read from the fetched PDF]. The circulars page cited alongside them exposes no document at all.

MDA in Costa Rica, full detail →

MDMA

Legal status: Controlled. Article 1 of Ley 7786, as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, fixes the scope by reference to the substances included in the 1961 and 1971 Conventions and the 1988 Convention, and the Ministerio de Salud reproduces those listas in Spanish in its national fiscalizacion list and adds a short Otros agregados section of national additions. This row was read as a named entry in Lista I of the 1971 Convention. The offence articles are 58 and 77. [Certain] for the placement, with the entry text recorded in the documentation.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Article 21 of the Constitution provides "La vida humana es inviolable", the human life is inviolable, and the word "muerte" appears zero times across the 81 pages of the consolidated Act. Both of those were measured in this pass and together they are what carries the heading. Costa Rica is an abolitionist state of long standing, [Likely] on the nineteenth century date, which was not re-derived here. Unauthorised trafficking conduct carries eight to fifteen years. Article 58 provides "Se impondra pena de prision de ocho a quince anos a quien, sin autorizacion legal, distribuya, comercie, suministre, fabrique, elabore, refine, transforme, extraiga, prepare, cultive, produzca, transporte, almacene o venda las drogas". That is eight to fifteen years for unauthorised distribution, commerce, supply, manufacture, processing, extraction, preparation, cultivation, production, transport, storage or sale. Article 77 raises the range to eight to twenty years where one of its eight enumerated aggravating circumstances is present, and twenty years is the ceiling this Act identifies. No article states a weight threshold, so the trigger is the unauthorised act and never a quantity. The second paragraph of article 58 reaches possession only "para cualquiera de los fines expresados", that is possession for one of those trafficking purposes. Ley 7786 creates no offence of consumption and no offence of simple possession for personal use. Article 79 answers a person consuming in a public place with voluntary and free treatment in a public or private health centre, not with a penalty.
If prescribed / medical: A lawful medical route exists only through the authorisation the Act itself demands. Article 58 opens with the words "sin autorizacion legal", so conduct carried out under a Costa Rican authorisation falls outside the offence and conduct without one falls inside it whatever the amount. Article 2 confines handling to the quantities needed for medical treatment, toxicological and chemical analysis and research, and requires authorised prescribers to use the official forms supplied by the Ministerio de Salud, whose entries carry the character of a sworn declaration. The Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes administers that control under Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025 and publishes the fiscalizacion list. The national list files this row among the psicotropicos rather than the estupefacientes, which is the less strict of the two prescription regimes it operates.
Documentation: Consolidation read: Ley 7786 of 30 April 1998 as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, in the Texto Completo Norma 8204 print published by the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas, which carries its own generation date of 19 November 2018. The same ranges, ocho a quince anos in article 58 and de ocho a veinte anos in article 77, were independently read on 18 September 2026 against the later Sinalevi record of Ley 7786, version 13 of 13, so the 2018 print is corroborated rather than assumed current. Control model, re derived from the statute in this pass. Costa Rica prints no annex of controlled substances in its drug Act: across the 81 pages the only drug names anywhere are in article 96, on the disposal of seized marihuana, cocaina and heroina. Article 1 regulates "estupefacientes, psicotropicos, sustancias inhalables y demas drogas y farmacos susceptibles de producir dependencias fisicas o psiquicas, incluidos en la Convencion Unica sobre Estupefacientes... de 1961... asi como en el Convenio de Viena sobre Sustancias Psicotropicas, de 21 de febrero de 1971... asimismo, en la Convencion... de 1988". Its second paragraph is a different thing and is often misread as the control annex: it has the Ministerio de Salud and the MAG draw up and publish in La Gaceta "las listas de estupefacientes, psicotropicos y similares Licitos", the licit ones, which is the authorisation side. The incorporation is ambulatory: article 36 defines precursors as Cuadro I of the 1988 Convention "y sus anexos, asi como los que se le incorporen en el futuro", and article 100 gives the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas a mandate framed by the conventions and by "los listados oficiales, publicados periodicamente en La Gaceta". The second limb, measured. The national list is the Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes, Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes of the Ministerio de Salud, updated 10 September 2026 and signed that day by Dra. Mariela Alfaro Segura. It runs to 27 pages in three sections, estupefacientes, psicotropicos and Otros agregados, and it names its own legal basis as the Reglamento para el control de drogas, estupefacientes y psicotropicas N. 45161-S, the instrument cited elsewhere as Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025. The two titles are the same text. A reading of 18 September 2026 records that the decree gives the competent body the function "Elaborar y actualizar la lista de sustancias oficialmente consideradas estupefacientes o psicotropicos y similares de uso regulado" and that its five annexes are forms rather than a substance schedule; that quotation is carried from that reading and was not re derived here. The whole of Otros agregados is twelve entries: metilfenidato, tapentadol and the synthetic cannabinoid JWH-073 among the estupefacientes, and ketamina, esketamina, mexazolam, zaleplon, zopiclona and the piperazines mCPP, CPP, TFMPP and 1,4 dibencilpiperazina among the psicotropicos. Amending Act in force between that list and this reading, read in the official gazette in this pass. Ley 10961 of 9 June 2026, published in Alcance 78 to La Gaceta 113 of 19 June 2026, provides "Rige tres meses a partir de su publicacion" and so took effect on 19 September 2026. It runs to four articles: it adds article 15 quater to Ley 7786 on the anti-money-laundering duties of virtual asset service providers, carries that cross reference into articles 16, 16 bis, 25, 33, 33 bis, 86 and 123, reforms the article 81 administrative fines, and allows three months for regulations. Every Ley 7786 article it touches is money laundering machinery, and it leaves articles 1, 2, 36, 58, 73, 74, 77, 77 bis and 79 untouched, so it moves no row in this batch. Method note. The 2026-09-20 Costa Rica dossier was used only as the slug list and as one of the two term list sources. Its outcome column, its instrument column and its quotation column were not treated as evidence and no placement in this batch rests on them; every placement is the entry read in the list the statute incorporates. Two of its readings were not adopted: it treated ergometrina and ergina as one row when they are separate substances on separate limbs, and it left dextrometorfano unresolved when the instrument excludes it in terms. Sibling name traps were checked rather than assumed. Anchored matching correctly did not return bencilmorfina, desomorfina, dihidromorfina, metildihidromorfina, mirofina or diacetilmorfina for the morfina row, isometadona, normetadona or the metadona intermediario for the metadona row, metcatinona or 4-metiletcatinona for the catinona row, MMDA or N-etil MDA for the MDA row, beta-ceto-MDMA for the MDMA row, levometanfetamina for the metanfetamina row, PCPY for the PCP row, brolanfetamina for the anfetamina row, or norpseudoefedrina for the efedrina row. Two extraction zeroes were false and were recovered by re interrogation: hexahidrocannabinol and 2-fluorodescloroketamina are both line wrapped in the source and a column based read missed both. Routes run for the instrument in this pass. pgrweb.go.cr/scij is a JavaScript shell: the Ley 8204 and Ley 7786 records and the sinalevi.go.cr record each returned about 25 KB that renders to 1,159 characters of site chrome and no statutory text, so a size threshold would have cleared all three. imprentanacional.go.cr served the official gazette carrying Ley 10961. The institutional reproduction at icd.go.cr served the consolidated Act, and ministeriodesalud.go.cr served the national list and the circulars. The schedule pages were checked for hidden content: the list PDF holds one image object repeated on all 27 pages, which is the ministry letterhead, and its byte size is accounted for by that banner, so no entry is carried in an image. Entry read for this row, recorded as the list prints it: "PM 011, MDMA, (+/-)-N,alfa-dimetil-3,4-(metilendioxi)fenetilamina", in Lista I of the 1971 Convention. Carry the prescription and the dispensing label, and expect the authorisation rather than the amount to be what is asked about. There is no personal allowance to fall back on, because no article of Ley 7786 fixes a threshold. Sourcing, re derived in this pass and not carried: the two Junta de Vigilancia de Drogas urls cited by this row are DIRECTORIES and not documents. The listing page names the national fiscalisation list but does not carry it; the list is a separate PDF behind a numbered link, and that PDF is what the placement in this row actually rests on. Both documents are now fetched and cited by their own urls: "Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes", and "Lista de Estupefacientes y Sustancias Psicotropicas Sometidas a Fiscalizacion Nacional". The first carries the Otros agregados section this row's reasoning refers to [Certain, read from the fetched PDF]. The circulars page cited alongside them exposes no document at all.

MDMA in Costa Rica, full detail →

MDPV

Legal status: Controlled. Article 1 of Ley 7786, as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, fixes the scope by reference to the substances included in the 1961 and 1971 Conventions and the 1988 Convention, and the Ministerio de Salud reproduces those listas in Spanish in its national fiscalizacion list and adds a short Otros agregados section of national additions. This row was read as a named entry in Lista II of the 1971 Convention. The offence articles are 58 and 77. [Certain] for the placement, with the entry text recorded in the documentation.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Article 21 of the Constitution provides "La vida humana es inviolable", the human life is inviolable, and the word "muerte" appears zero times across the 81 pages of the consolidated Act. Both of those were measured in this pass and together they are what carries the heading. Costa Rica is an abolitionist state of long standing, [Likely] on the nineteenth century date, which was not re-derived here. Unauthorised trafficking conduct carries eight to fifteen years. Article 58 provides "Se impondra pena de prision de ocho a quince anos a quien, sin autorizacion legal, distribuya, comercie, suministre, fabrique, elabore, refine, transforme, extraiga, prepare, cultive, produzca, transporte, almacene o venda las drogas". That is eight to fifteen years for unauthorised distribution, commerce, supply, manufacture, processing, extraction, preparation, cultivation, production, transport, storage or sale. Article 77 raises the range to eight to twenty years where one of its eight enumerated aggravating circumstances is present, and twenty years is the ceiling this Act identifies. No article states a weight threshold, so the trigger is the unauthorised act and never a quantity. The second paragraph of article 58 reaches possession only "para cualquiera de los fines expresados", that is possession for one of those trafficking purposes. Ley 7786 creates no offence of consumption and no offence of simple possession for personal use. Article 79 answers a person consuming in a public place with voluntary and free treatment in a public or private health centre, not with a penalty.
If prescribed / medical: A lawful medical route exists only through the authorisation the Act itself demands. Article 58 opens with the words "sin autorizacion legal", so conduct carried out under a Costa Rican authorisation falls outside the offence and conduct without one falls inside it whatever the amount. Article 2 confines handling to the quantities needed for medical treatment, toxicological and chemical analysis and research, and requires authorised prescribers to use the official forms supplied by the Ministerio de Salud, whose entries carry the character of a sworn declaration. The Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes administers that control under Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025 and publishes the fiscalizacion list. The national list files this row among the psicotropicos rather than the estupefacientes, which is the less strict of the two prescription regimes it operates.
Documentation: Consolidation read: Ley 7786 of 30 April 1998 as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, in the Texto Completo Norma 8204 print published by the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas, which carries its own generation date of 19 November 2018. The same ranges, ocho a quince anos in article 58 and de ocho a veinte anos in article 77, were independently read on 18 September 2026 against the later Sinalevi record of Ley 7786, version 13 of 13, so the 2018 print is corroborated rather than assumed current. Control model, re derived from the statute in this pass. Costa Rica prints no annex of controlled substances in its drug Act: across the 81 pages the only drug names anywhere are in article 96, on the disposal of seized marihuana, cocaina and heroina. Article 1 regulates "estupefacientes, psicotropicos, sustancias inhalables y demas drogas y farmacos susceptibles de producir dependencias fisicas o psiquicas, incluidos en la Convencion Unica sobre Estupefacientes... de 1961... asi como en el Convenio de Viena sobre Sustancias Psicotropicas, de 21 de febrero de 1971... asimismo, en la Convencion... de 1988". Its second paragraph is a different thing and is often misread as the control annex: it has the Ministerio de Salud and the MAG draw up and publish in La Gaceta "las listas de estupefacientes, psicotropicos y similares Licitos", the licit ones, which is the authorisation side. The incorporation is ambulatory: article 36 defines precursors as Cuadro I of the 1988 Convention "y sus anexos, asi como los que se le incorporen en el futuro", and article 100 gives the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas a mandate framed by the conventions and by "los listados oficiales, publicados periodicamente en La Gaceta". The second limb, measured. The national list is the Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes, Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes of the Ministerio de Salud, updated 10 September 2026 and signed that day by Dra. Mariela Alfaro Segura. It runs to 27 pages in three sections, estupefacientes, psicotropicos and Otros agregados, and it names its own legal basis as the Reglamento para el control de drogas, estupefacientes y psicotropicas N. 45161-S, the instrument cited elsewhere as Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025. The two titles are the same text. A reading of 18 September 2026 records that the decree gives the competent body the function "Elaborar y actualizar la lista de sustancias oficialmente consideradas estupefacientes o psicotropicos y similares de uso regulado" and that its five annexes are forms rather than a substance schedule; that quotation is carried from that reading and was not re derived here. The whole of Otros agregados is twelve entries: metilfenidato, tapentadol and the synthetic cannabinoid JWH-073 among the estupefacientes, and ketamina, esketamina, mexazolam, zaleplon, zopiclona and the piperazines mCPP, CPP, TFMPP and 1,4 dibencilpiperazina among the psicotropicos. Amending Act in force between that list and this reading, read in the official gazette in this pass. Ley 10961 of 9 June 2026, published in Alcance 78 to La Gaceta 113 of 19 June 2026, provides "Rige tres meses a partir de su publicacion" and so took effect on 19 September 2026. It runs to four articles: it adds article 15 quater to Ley 7786 on the anti-money-laundering duties of virtual asset service providers, carries that cross reference into articles 16, 16 bis, 25, 33, 33 bis, 86 and 123, reforms the article 81 administrative fines, and allows three months for regulations. Every Ley 7786 article it touches is money laundering machinery, and it leaves articles 1, 2, 36, 58, 73, 74, 77, 77 bis and 79 untouched, so it moves no row in this batch. Method note. The 2026-09-20 Costa Rica dossier was used only as the slug list and as one of the two term list sources. Its outcome column, its instrument column and its quotation column were not treated as evidence and no placement in this batch rests on them; every placement is the entry read in the list the statute incorporates. Two of its readings were not adopted: it treated ergometrina and ergina as one row when they are separate substances on separate limbs, and it left dextrometorfano unresolved when the instrument excludes it in terms. Sibling name traps were checked rather than assumed. Anchored matching correctly did not return bencilmorfina, desomorfina, dihidromorfina, metildihidromorfina, mirofina or diacetilmorfina for the morfina row, isometadona, normetadona or the metadona intermediario for the metadona row, metcatinona or 4-metiletcatinona for the catinona row, MMDA or N-etil MDA for the MDA row, beta-ceto-MDMA for the MDMA row, levometanfetamina for the metanfetamina row, PCPY for the PCP row, brolanfetamina for the anfetamina row, or norpseudoefedrina for the efedrina row. Two extraction zeroes were false and were recovered by re interrogation: hexahidrocannabinol and 2-fluorodescloroketamina are both line wrapped in the source and a column based read missed both. Routes run for the instrument in this pass. pgrweb.go.cr/scij is a JavaScript shell: the Ley 8204 and Ley 7786 records and the sinalevi.go.cr record each returned about 25 KB that renders to 1,159 characters of site chrome and no statutory text, so a size threshold would have cleared all three. imprentanacional.go.cr served the official gazette carrying Ley 10961. The institutional reproduction at icd.go.cr served the consolidated Act, and ministeriodesalud.go.cr served the national list and the circulars. The schedule pages were checked for hidden content: the list PDF holds one image object repeated on all 27 pages, which is the ministry letterhead, and its byte size is accounted for by that banner, so no entry is carried in an image. Entry read for this row, recorded as the list prints it: "PM 021, CAS 687603-66-3, MDPV, 3,4-metilendioxipirovalerona, (RS)-1-(benzo[d][1,3]dioxol-5-il)-2-(pirrolidin-1-il)pentan-1-ona", in Lista II of the 1971 Convention. Carry the prescription and the dispensing label, and expect the authorisation rather than the amount to be what is asked about. There is no personal allowance to fall back on, because no article of Ley 7786 fixes a threshold. Sourcing, re derived in this pass and not carried: the two Junta de Vigilancia de Drogas urls cited by this row are DIRECTORIES and not documents. The listing page names the national fiscalisation list but does not carry it; the list is a separate PDF behind a numbered link, and that PDF is what the placement in this row actually rests on. Both documents are now fetched and cited by their own urls: "Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes", and "Lista de Estupefacientes y Sustancias Psicotropicas Sometidas a Fiscalizacion Nacional". The first carries the Otros agregados section this row's reasoning refers to [Certain, read from the fetched PDF]. The circulars page cited alongside them exposes no document at all.

MDPV in Costa Rica, full detail →

Mephedrone (4-MMC)

Legal status: Controlled. Article 1 of Ley 7786, as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, fixes the scope by reference to the substances included in the 1961 and 1971 Conventions and the 1988 Convention, and the Ministerio de Salud reproduces those listas in Spanish in its national fiscalizacion list and adds a short Otros agregados section of national additions. This row was read as a named entry in Lista II of the 1971 Convention. The offence articles are 58 and 77. [Certain] for the placement, with the entry text recorded in the documentation.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Article 21 of the Constitution provides "La vida humana es inviolable", the human life is inviolable, and the word "muerte" appears zero times across the 81 pages of the consolidated Act. Both of those were measured in this pass and together they are what carries the heading. Costa Rica is an abolitionist state of long standing, [Likely] on the nineteenth century date, which was not re-derived here. Unauthorised trafficking conduct carries eight to fifteen years. Article 58 provides "Se impondra pena de prision de ocho a quince anos a quien, sin autorizacion legal, distribuya, comercie, suministre, fabrique, elabore, refine, transforme, extraiga, prepare, cultive, produzca, transporte, almacene o venda las drogas". That is eight to fifteen years for unauthorised distribution, commerce, supply, manufacture, processing, extraction, preparation, cultivation, production, transport, storage or sale. Article 77 raises the range to eight to twenty years where one of its eight enumerated aggravating circumstances is present, and twenty years is the ceiling this Act identifies. No article states a weight threshold, so the trigger is the unauthorised act and never a quantity. The second paragraph of article 58 reaches possession only "para cualquiera de los fines expresados", that is possession for one of those trafficking purposes. Ley 7786 creates no offence of consumption and no offence of simple possession for personal use. Article 79 answers a person consuming in a public place with voluntary and free treatment in a public or private health centre, not with a penalty.
If prescribed / medical: A lawful medical route exists only through the authorisation the Act itself demands. Article 58 opens with the words "sin autorizacion legal", so conduct carried out under a Costa Rican authorisation falls outside the offence and conduct without one falls inside it whatever the amount. Article 2 confines handling to the quantities needed for medical treatment, toxicological and chemical analysis and research, and requires authorised prescribers to use the official forms supplied by the Ministerio de Salud, whose entries carry the character of a sworn declaration. The Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes administers that control under Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025 and publishes the fiscalizacion list. The national list files this row among the psicotropicos rather than the estupefacientes, which is the less strict of the two prescription regimes it operates.
Documentation: Consolidation read: Ley 7786 of 30 April 1998 as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, in the Texto Completo Norma 8204 print published by the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas, which carries its own generation date of 19 November 2018. The same ranges, ocho a quince anos in article 58 and de ocho a veinte anos in article 77, were independently read on 18 September 2026 against the later Sinalevi record of Ley 7786, version 13 of 13, so the 2018 print is corroborated rather than assumed current. Control model, re derived from the statute in this pass. Costa Rica prints no annex of controlled substances in its drug Act: across the 81 pages the only drug names anywhere are in article 96, on the disposal of seized marihuana, cocaina and heroina. Article 1 regulates "estupefacientes, psicotropicos, sustancias inhalables y demas drogas y farmacos susceptibles de producir dependencias fisicas o psiquicas, incluidos en la Convencion Unica sobre Estupefacientes... de 1961... asi como en el Convenio de Viena sobre Sustancias Psicotropicas, de 21 de febrero de 1971... asimismo, en la Convencion... de 1988". Its second paragraph is a different thing and is often misread as the control annex: it has the Ministerio de Salud and the MAG draw up and publish in La Gaceta "las listas de estupefacientes, psicotropicos y similares Licitos", the licit ones, which is the authorisation side. The incorporation is ambulatory: article 36 defines precursors as Cuadro I of the 1988 Convention "y sus anexos, asi como los que se le incorporen en el futuro", and article 100 gives the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas a mandate framed by the conventions and by "los listados oficiales, publicados periodicamente en La Gaceta". The second limb, measured. The national list is the Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes, Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes of the Ministerio de Salud, updated 10 September 2026 and signed that day by Dra. Mariela Alfaro Segura. It runs to 27 pages in three sections, estupefacientes, psicotropicos and Otros agregados, and it names its own legal basis as the Reglamento para el control de drogas, estupefacientes y psicotropicas N. 45161-S, the instrument cited elsewhere as Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025. The two titles are the same text. A reading of 18 September 2026 records that the decree gives the competent body the function "Elaborar y actualizar la lista de sustancias oficialmente consideradas estupefacientes o psicotropicos y similares de uso regulado" and that its five annexes are forms rather than a substance schedule; that quotation is carried from that reading and was not re derived here. The whole of Otros agregados is twelve entries: metilfenidato, tapentadol and the synthetic cannabinoid JWH-073 among the estupefacientes, and ketamina, esketamina, mexazolam, zaleplon, zopiclona and the piperazines mCPP, CPP, TFMPP and 1,4 dibencilpiperazina among the psicotropicos. Amending Act in force between that list and this reading, read in the official gazette in this pass. Ley 10961 of 9 June 2026, published in Alcance 78 to La Gaceta 113 of 19 June 2026, provides "Rige tres meses a partir de su publicacion" and so took effect on 19 September 2026. It runs to four articles: it adds article 15 quater to Ley 7786 on the anti-money-laundering duties of virtual asset service providers, carries that cross reference into articles 16, 16 bis, 25, 33, 33 bis, 86 and 123, reforms the article 81 administrative fines, and allows three months for regulations. Every Ley 7786 article it touches is money laundering machinery, and it leaves articles 1, 2, 36, 58, 73, 74, 77, 77 bis and 79 untouched, so it moves no row in this batch. Method note. The 2026-09-20 Costa Rica dossier was used only as the slug list and as one of the two term list sources. Its outcome column, its instrument column and its quotation column were not treated as evidence and no placement in this batch rests on them; every placement is the entry read in the list the statute incorporates. Two of its readings were not adopted: it treated ergometrina and ergina as one row when they are separate substances on separate limbs, and it left dextrometorfano unresolved when the instrument excludes it in terms. Sibling name traps were checked rather than assumed. Anchored matching correctly did not return bencilmorfina, desomorfina, dihidromorfina, metildihidromorfina, mirofina or diacetilmorfina for the morfina row, isometadona, normetadona or the metadona intermediario for the metadona row, metcatinona or 4-metiletcatinona for the catinona row, MMDA or N-etil MDA for the MDA row, beta-ceto-MDMA for the MDMA row, levometanfetamina for the metanfetamina row, PCPY for the PCP row, brolanfetamina for the anfetamina row, or norpseudoefedrina for the efedrina row. Two extraction zeroes were false and were recovered by re interrogation: hexahidrocannabinol and 2-fluorodescloroketamina are both line wrapped in the source and a column based read missed both. Routes run for the instrument in this pass. pgrweb.go.cr/scij is a JavaScript shell: the Ley 8204 and Ley 7786 records and the sinalevi.go.cr record each returned about 25 KB that renders to 1,159 characters of site chrome and no statutory text, so a size threshold would have cleared all three. imprentanacional.go.cr served the official gazette carrying Ley 10961. The institutional reproduction at icd.go.cr served the consolidated Act, and ministeriodesalud.go.cr served the national list and the circulars. The schedule pages were checked for hidden content: the list PDF holds one image object repeated on all 27 pages, which is the ministry letterhead, and its byte size is accounted for by that banner, so no entry is carried in an image. Entry read for this row, recorded as the list prints it: "PM 022, CAS 1189805-46-6, mefedrona, 4-metilmetcatinona, (RS)-2-metilamino-1-(4-metilfenil)propan-1-ona", in Lista II of the 1971 Convention. Carry the prescription and the dispensing label, and expect the authorisation rather than the amount to be what is asked about. There is no personal allowance to fall back on, because no article of Ley 7786 fixes a threshold. Sourcing, re derived in this pass and not carried: the two Junta de Vigilancia de Drogas urls cited by this row are DIRECTORIES and not documents. The listing page names the national fiscalisation list but does not carry it; the list is a separate PDF behind a numbered link, and that PDF is what the placement in this row actually rests on. Both documents are now fetched and cited by their own urls: "Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes", and "Lista de Estupefacientes y Sustancias Psicotropicas Sometidas a Fiscalizacion Nacional". The first carries the Otros agregados section this row's reasoning refers to [Certain, read from the fetched PDF]. The circulars page cited alongside them exposes no document at all.

Mephedrone (4-MMC) in Costa Rica, full detail →

Mescaline

Legal status: Controlled. Article 1 of Ley 7786, as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, fixes the scope by reference to the substances included in the 1961 and 1971 Conventions and the 1988 Convention, and the Ministerio de Salud reproduces those listas in Spanish in its national fiscalizacion list and adds a short Otros agregados section of national additions. This row was read as a named entry in Lista I of the 1971 Convention. The offence articles are 58 and 77. [Certain] for the placement, with the entry text recorded in the documentation.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Article 21 of the Constitution provides "La vida humana es inviolable", the human life is inviolable, and the word "muerte" appears zero times across the 81 pages of the consolidated Act. Both of those were measured in this pass and together they are what carries the heading. Costa Rica is an abolitionist state of long standing, [Likely] on the nineteenth century date, which was not re-derived here. Unauthorised trafficking conduct carries eight to fifteen years. Article 58 provides "Se impondra pena de prision de ocho a quince anos a quien, sin autorizacion legal, distribuya, comercie, suministre, fabrique, elabore, refine, transforme, extraiga, prepare, cultive, produzca, transporte, almacene o venda las drogas". That is eight to fifteen years for unauthorised distribution, commerce, supply, manufacture, processing, extraction, preparation, cultivation, production, transport, storage or sale. Article 77 raises the range to eight to twenty years where one of its eight enumerated aggravating circumstances is present, and twenty years is the ceiling this Act identifies. No article states a weight threshold, so the trigger is the unauthorised act and never a quantity. The second paragraph of article 58 reaches possession only "para cualquiera de los fines expresados", that is possession for one of those trafficking purposes. Ley 7786 creates no offence of consumption and no offence of simple possession for personal use. Article 79 answers a person consuming in a public place with voluntary and free treatment in a public or private health centre, not with a penalty.
If prescribed / medical: A lawful medical route exists only through the authorisation the Act itself demands. Article 58 opens with the words "sin autorizacion legal", so conduct carried out under a Costa Rican authorisation falls outside the offence and conduct without one falls inside it whatever the amount. Article 2 confines handling to the quantities needed for medical treatment, toxicological and chemical analysis and research, and requires authorised prescribers to use the official forms supplied by the Ministerio de Salud, whose entries carry the character of a sworn declaration. The Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes administers that control under Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025 and publishes the fiscalizacion list. The national list files this row among the psicotropicos rather than the estupefacientes, which is the less strict of the two prescription regimes it operates.
Documentation: Consolidation read: Ley 7786 of 30 April 1998 as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, in the Texto Completo Norma 8204 print published by the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas, which carries its own generation date of 19 November 2018. The same ranges, ocho a quince anos in article 58 and de ocho a veinte anos in article 77, were independently read on 18 September 2026 against the later Sinalevi record of Ley 7786, version 13 of 13, so the 2018 print is corroborated rather than assumed current. Control model, re derived from the statute in this pass. Costa Rica prints no annex of controlled substances in its drug Act: across the 81 pages the only drug names anywhere are in article 96, on the disposal of seized marihuana, cocaina and heroina. Article 1 regulates "estupefacientes, psicotropicos, sustancias inhalables y demas drogas y farmacos susceptibles de producir dependencias fisicas o psiquicas, incluidos en la Convencion Unica sobre Estupefacientes... de 1961... asi como en el Convenio de Viena sobre Sustancias Psicotropicas, de 21 de febrero de 1971... asimismo, en la Convencion... de 1988". Its second paragraph is a different thing and is often misread as the control annex: it has the Ministerio de Salud and the MAG draw up and publish in La Gaceta "las listas de estupefacientes, psicotropicos y similares Licitos", the licit ones, which is the authorisation side. The incorporation is ambulatory: article 36 defines precursors as Cuadro I of the 1988 Convention "y sus anexos, asi como los que se le incorporen en el futuro", and article 100 gives the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas a mandate framed by the conventions and by "los listados oficiales, publicados periodicamente en La Gaceta". The second limb, measured. The national list is the Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes, Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes of the Ministerio de Salud, updated 10 September 2026 and signed that day by Dra. Mariela Alfaro Segura. It runs to 27 pages in three sections, estupefacientes, psicotropicos and Otros agregados, and it names its own legal basis as the Reglamento para el control de drogas, estupefacientes y psicotropicas N. 45161-S, the instrument cited elsewhere as Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025. The two titles are the same text. A reading of 18 September 2026 records that the decree gives the competent body the function "Elaborar y actualizar la lista de sustancias oficialmente consideradas estupefacientes o psicotropicos y similares de uso regulado" and that its five annexes are forms rather than a substance schedule; that quotation is carried from that reading and was not re derived here. The whole of Otros agregados is twelve entries: metilfenidato, tapentadol and the synthetic cannabinoid JWH-073 among the estupefacientes, and ketamina, esketamina, mexazolam, zaleplon, zopiclona and the piperazines mCPP, CPP, TFMPP and 1,4 dibencilpiperazina among the psicotropicos. Amending Act in force between that list and this reading, read in the official gazette in this pass. Ley 10961 of 9 June 2026, published in Alcance 78 to La Gaceta 113 of 19 June 2026, provides "Rige tres meses a partir de su publicacion" and so took effect on 19 September 2026. It runs to four articles: it adds article 15 quater to Ley 7786 on the anti-money-laundering duties of virtual asset service providers, carries that cross reference into articles 16, 16 bis, 25, 33, 33 bis, 86 and 123, reforms the article 81 administrative fines, and allows three months for regulations. Every Ley 7786 article it touches is money laundering machinery, and it leaves articles 1, 2, 36, 58, 73, 74, 77, 77 bis and 79 untouched, so it moves no row in this batch. Method note. The 2026-09-20 Costa Rica dossier was used only as the slug list and as one of the two term list sources. Its outcome column, its instrument column and its quotation column were not treated as evidence and no placement in this batch rests on them; every placement is the entry read in the list the statute incorporates. Two of its readings were not adopted: it treated ergometrina and ergina as one row when they are separate substances on separate limbs, and it left dextrometorfano unresolved when the instrument excludes it in terms. Sibling name traps were checked rather than assumed. Anchored matching correctly did not return bencilmorfina, desomorfina, dihidromorfina, metildihidromorfina, mirofina or diacetilmorfina for the morfina row, isometadona, normetadona or the metadona intermediario for the metadona row, metcatinona or 4-metiletcatinona for the catinona row, MMDA or N-etil MDA for the MDA row, beta-ceto-MDMA for the MDMA row, levometanfetamina for the metanfetamina row, PCPY for the PCP row, brolanfetamina for the anfetamina row, or norpseudoefedrina for the efedrina row. Two extraction zeroes were false and were recovered by re interrogation: hexahidrocannabinol and 2-fluorodescloroketamina are both line wrapped in the source and a column based read missed both. Routes run for the instrument in this pass. pgrweb.go.cr/scij is a JavaScript shell: the Ley 8204 and Ley 7786 records and the sinalevi.go.cr record each returned about 25 KB that renders to 1,159 characters of site chrome and no statutory text, so a size threshold would have cleared all three. imprentanacional.go.cr served the official gazette carrying Ley 10961. The institutional reproduction at icd.go.cr served the consolidated Act, and ministeriodesalud.go.cr served the national list and the circulars. The schedule pages were checked for hidden content: the list PDF holds one image object repeated on all 27 pages, which is the ministry letterhead, and its byte size is accounted for by that banner, so no entry is carried in an image. Entry read for this row, recorded as the list prints it: "PM 004, mescalina, 3,4,5-trimetoxifenetilamina", in Lista I of the 1971 Convention. Carry the prescription and the dispensing label, and expect the authorisation rather than the amount to be what is asked about. There is no personal allowance to fall back on, because no article of Ley 7786 fixes a threshold. Sourcing, re derived in this pass and not carried: the two Junta de Vigilancia de Drogas urls cited by this row are DIRECTORIES and not documents. The listing page names the national fiscalisation list but does not carry it; the list is a separate PDF behind a numbered link, and that PDF is what the placement in this row actually rests on. Both documents are now fetched and cited by their own urls: "Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes", and "Lista de Estupefacientes y Sustancias Psicotropicas Sometidas a Fiscalizacion Nacional". The first carries the Otros agregados section this row's reasoning refers to [Certain, read from the fetched PDF]. The circulars page cited alongside them exposes no document at all.

Mescaline in Costa Rica, full detail →

Methadone

Legal status: Controlled. Article 1 of Ley 7786, as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, fixes the scope by reference to the substances included in the 1961 and 1971 Conventions and the 1988 Convention, and the Ministerio de Salud reproduces those listas in Spanish in its national fiscalizacion list and adds a short Otros agregados section of national additions. This row was read as a named entry in Lista I of the 1961 Convention. The offence articles are 58 and 77. [Certain] for the placement, with the entry text recorded in the documentation.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Article 21 of the Constitution provides "La vida humana es inviolable", the human life is inviolable, and the word "muerte" appears zero times across the 81 pages of the consolidated Act. Both of those were measured in this pass and together they are what carries the heading. Costa Rica is an abolitionist state of long standing, [Likely] on the nineteenth century date, which was not re-derived here. Unauthorised trafficking conduct carries eight to fifteen years. Article 58 provides "Se impondra pena de prision de ocho a quince anos a quien, sin autorizacion legal, distribuya, comercie, suministre, fabrique, elabore, refine, transforme, extraiga, prepare, cultive, produzca, transporte, almacene o venda las drogas". That is eight to fifteen years for unauthorised distribution, commerce, supply, manufacture, processing, extraction, preparation, cultivation, production, transport, storage or sale. Article 77 raises the range to eight to twenty years where one of its eight enumerated aggravating circumstances is present, and twenty years is the ceiling this Act identifies. No article states a weight threshold, so the trigger is the unauthorised act and never a quantity. The second paragraph of article 58 reaches possession only "para cualquiera de los fines expresados", that is possession for one of those trafficking purposes. Ley 7786 creates no offence of consumption and no offence of simple possession for personal use. Article 79 answers a person consuming in a public place with voluntary and free treatment in a public or private health centre, not with a penalty.
If prescribed / medical: A lawful medical route exists only through the authorisation the Act itself demands. Article 58 opens with the words "sin autorizacion legal", so conduct carried out under a Costa Rican authorisation falls outside the offence and conduct without one falls inside it whatever the amount. Article 2 confines handling to the quantities needed for medical treatment, toxicological and chemical analysis and research, and requires authorised prescribers to use the official forms supplied by the Ministerio de Salud, whose entries carry the character of a sworn declaration. The Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes administers that control under Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025 and publishes the fiscalizacion list. The national list files this row among the estupefacientes, the narcotic half, which is the stricter of the two prescription regimes it operates.
Documentation: Consolidation read: Ley 7786 of 30 April 1998 as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, in the Texto Completo Norma 8204 print published by the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas, which carries its own generation date of 19 November 2018. The same ranges, ocho a quince anos in article 58 and de ocho a veinte anos in article 77, were independently read on 18 September 2026 against the later Sinalevi record of Ley 7786, version 13 of 13, so the 2018 print is corroborated rather than assumed current. Control model, re derived from the statute in this pass. Costa Rica prints no annex of controlled substances in its drug Act: across the 81 pages the only drug names anywhere are in article 96, on the disposal of seized marihuana, cocaina and heroina. Article 1 regulates "estupefacientes, psicotropicos, sustancias inhalables y demas drogas y farmacos susceptibles de producir dependencias fisicas o psiquicas, incluidos en la Convencion Unica sobre Estupefacientes... de 1961... asi como en el Convenio de Viena sobre Sustancias Psicotropicas, de 21 de febrero de 1971... asimismo, en la Convencion... de 1988". Its second paragraph is a different thing and is often misread as the control annex: it has the Ministerio de Salud and the MAG draw up and publish in La Gaceta "las listas de estupefacientes, psicotropicos y similares Licitos", the licit ones, which is the authorisation side. The incorporation is ambulatory: article 36 defines precursors as Cuadro I of the 1988 Convention "y sus anexos, asi como los que se le incorporen en el futuro", and article 100 gives the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas a mandate framed by the conventions and by "los listados oficiales, publicados periodicamente en La Gaceta". The second limb, measured. The national list is the Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes, Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes of the Ministerio de Salud, updated 10 September 2026 and signed that day by Dra. Mariela Alfaro Segura. It runs to 27 pages in three sections, estupefacientes, psicotropicos and Otros agregados, and it names its own legal basis as the Reglamento para el control de drogas, estupefacientes y psicotropicas N. 45161-S, the instrument cited elsewhere as Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025. The two titles are the same text. A reading of 18 September 2026 records that the decree gives the competent body the function "Elaborar y actualizar la lista de sustancias oficialmente consideradas estupefacientes o psicotropicos y similares de uso regulado" and that its five annexes are forms rather than a substance schedule; that quotation is carried from that reading and was not re derived here. The whole of Otros agregados is twelve entries: metilfenidato, tapentadol and the synthetic cannabinoid JWH-073 among the estupefacientes, and ketamina, esketamina, mexazolam, zaleplon, zopiclona and the piperazines mCPP, CPP, TFMPP and 1,4 dibencilpiperazina among the psicotropicos. Amending Act in force between that list and this reading, read in the official gazette in this pass. Ley 10961 of 9 June 2026, published in Alcance 78 to La Gaceta 113 of 19 June 2026, provides "Rige tres meses a partir de su publicacion" and so took effect on 19 September 2026. It runs to four articles: it adds article 15 quater to Ley 7786 on the anti-money-laundering duties of virtual asset service providers, carries that cross reference into articles 16, 16 bis, 25, 33, 33 bis, 86 and 123, reforms the article 81 administrative fines, and allows three months for regulations. Every Ley 7786 article it touches is money laundering machinery, and it leaves articles 1, 2, 36, 58, 73, 74, 77, 77 bis and 79 untouched, so it moves no row in this batch. Method note. The 2026-09-20 Costa Rica dossier was used only as the slug list and as one of the two term list sources. Its outcome column, its instrument column and its quotation column were not treated as evidence and no placement in this batch rests on them; every placement is the entry read in the list the statute incorporates. Two of its readings were not adopted: it treated ergometrina and ergina as one row when they are separate substances on separate limbs, and it left dextrometorfano unresolved when the instrument excludes it in terms. Sibling name traps were checked rather than assumed. Anchored matching correctly did not return bencilmorfina, desomorfina, dihidromorfina, metildihidromorfina, mirofina or diacetilmorfina for the morfina row, isometadona, normetadona or the metadona intermediario for the metadona row, metcatinona or 4-metiletcatinona for the catinona row, MMDA or N-etil MDA for the MDA row, beta-ceto-MDMA for the MDMA row, levometanfetamina for the metanfetamina row, PCPY for the PCP row, brolanfetamina for the anfetamina row, or norpseudoefedrina for the efedrina row. Two extraction zeroes were false and were recovered by re interrogation: hexahidrocannabinol and 2-fluorodescloroketamina are both line wrapped in the source and a column based read missed both. Routes run for the instrument in this pass. pgrweb.go.cr/scij is a JavaScript shell: the Ley 8204 and Ley 7786 records and the sinalevi.go.cr record each returned about 25 KB that renders to 1,159 characters of site chrome and no statutory text, so a size threshold would have cleared all three. imprentanacional.go.cr served the official gazette carrying Ley 10961. The institutional reproduction at icd.go.cr served the consolidated Act, and ministeriodesalud.go.cr served the national list and the circulars. The schedule pages were checked for hidden content: the list PDF holds one image object repeated on all 27 pages, which is the ministry letterhead, and its byte size is accounted for by that banner, so no entry is carried in an image. Entry read for this row, recorded as the list prints it: "NM 002, CAS 76-99-3, Metadona, 6-dimetilamino-4,4-difenil-3-heptanona", in Lista I of the 1961 Convention. Carry the prescription and the dispensing label, and expect the authorisation rather than the amount to be what is asked about. There is no personal allowance to fall back on, because no article of Ley 7786 fixes a threshold. Sourcing, re derived in this pass and not carried: the two Junta de Vigilancia de Drogas urls cited by this row are DIRECTORIES and not documents. The listing page names the national fiscalisation list but does not carry it; the list is a separate PDF behind a numbered link, and that PDF is what the placement in this row actually rests on. Both documents are now fetched and cited by their own urls: "Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes", and "Lista de Estupefacientes y Sustancias Psicotropicas Sometidas a Fiscalizacion Nacional". The first carries the Otros agregados section this row's reasoning refers to [Certain, read from the fetched PDF]. The circulars page cited alongside them exposes no document at all.

Methadone in Costa Rica, full detail →

Methamphetamine

Legal status: Controlled. Article 1 of Ley 7786, as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, fixes the scope by reference to the substances included in the 1961 and 1971 Conventions and the 1988 Convention, and the Ministerio de Salud reproduces those listas in Spanish in its national fiscalizacion list and adds a short Otros agregados section of national additions. This row was read as a named entry in Lista II of the 1971 Convention. The offence articles are 58 and 77. [Certain] for the placement, with the entry text recorded in the documentation.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Article 21 of the Constitution provides "La vida humana es inviolable", the human life is inviolable, and the word "muerte" appears zero times across the 81 pages of the consolidated Act. Both of those were measured in this pass and together they are what carries the heading. Costa Rica is an abolitionist state of long standing, [Likely] on the nineteenth century date, which was not re-derived here. Unauthorised trafficking conduct carries eight to fifteen years. Article 58 provides "Se impondra pena de prision de ocho a quince anos a quien, sin autorizacion legal, distribuya, comercie, suministre, fabrique, elabore, refine, transforme, extraiga, prepare, cultive, produzca, transporte, almacene o venda las drogas". That is eight to fifteen years for unauthorised distribution, commerce, supply, manufacture, processing, extraction, preparation, cultivation, production, transport, storage or sale. Article 77 raises the range to eight to twenty years where one of its eight enumerated aggravating circumstances is present, and twenty years is the ceiling this Act identifies. No article states a weight threshold, so the trigger is the unauthorised act and never a quantity. The second paragraph of article 58 reaches possession only "para cualquiera de los fines expresados", that is possession for one of those trafficking purposes. Ley 7786 creates no offence of consumption and no offence of simple possession for personal use. Article 79 answers a person consuming in a public place with voluntary and free treatment in a public or private health centre, not with a penalty.
If prescribed / medical: A lawful medical route exists only through the authorisation the Act itself demands. Article 58 opens with the words "sin autorizacion legal", so conduct carried out under a Costa Rican authorisation falls outside the offence and conduct without one falls inside it whatever the amount. Article 2 confines handling to the quantities needed for medical treatment, toxicological and chemical analysis and research, and requires authorised prescribers to use the official forms supplied by the Ministerio de Salud, whose entries carry the character of a sworn declaration. The Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes administers that control under Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025 and publishes the fiscalizacion list. The national list files this row among the psicotropicos rather than the estupefacientes, which is the less strict of the two prescription regimes it operates.
Documentation: Consolidation read: Ley 7786 of 30 April 1998 as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, in the Texto Completo Norma 8204 print published by the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas, which carries its own generation date of 19 November 2018. The same ranges, ocho a quince anos in article 58 and de ocho a veinte anos in article 77, were independently read on 18 September 2026 against the later Sinalevi record of Ley 7786, version 13 of 13, so the 2018 print is corroborated rather than assumed current. Control model, re derived from the statute in this pass. Costa Rica prints no annex of controlled substances in its drug Act: across the 81 pages the only drug names anywhere are in article 96, on the disposal of seized marihuana, cocaina and heroina. Article 1 regulates "estupefacientes, psicotropicos, sustancias inhalables y demas drogas y farmacos susceptibles de producir dependencias fisicas o psiquicas, incluidos en la Convencion Unica sobre Estupefacientes... de 1961... asi como en el Convenio de Viena sobre Sustancias Psicotropicas, de 21 de febrero de 1971... asimismo, en la Convencion... de 1988". Its second paragraph is a different thing and is often misread as the control annex: it has the Ministerio de Salud and the MAG draw up and publish in La Gaceta "las listas de estupefacientes, psicotropicos y similares Licitos", the licit ones, which is the authorisation side. The incorporation is ambulatory: article 36 defines precursors as Cuadro I of the 1988 Convention "y sus anexos, asi como los que se le incorporen en el futuro", and article 100 gives the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas a mandate framed by the conventions and by "los listados oficiales, publicados periodicamente en La Gaceta". The second limb, measured. The national list is the Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes, Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes of the Ministerio de Salud, updated 10 September 2026 and signed that day by Dra. Mariela Alfaro Segura. It runs to 27 pages in three sections, estupefacientes, psicotropicos and Otros agregados, and it names its own legal basis as the Reglamento para el control de drogas, estupefacientes y psicotropicas N. 45161-S, the instrument cited elsewhere as Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025. The two titles are the same text. A reading of 18 September 2026 records that the decree gives the competent body the function "Elaborar y actualizar la lista de sustancias oficialmente consideradas estupefacientes o psicotropicos y similares de uso regulado" and that its five annexes are forms rather than a substance schedule; that quotation is carried from that reading and was not re derived here. The whole of Otros agregados is twelve entries: metilfenidato, tapentadol and the synthetic cannabinoid JWH-073 among the estupefacientes, and ketamina, esketamina, mexazolam, zaleplon, zopiclona and the piperazines mCPP, CPP, TFMPP and 1,4 dibencilpiperazina among the psicotropicos. Amending Act in force between that list and this reading, read in the official gazette in this pass. Ley 10961 of 9 June 2026, published in Alcance 78 to La Gaceta 113 of 19 June 2026, provides "Rige tres meses a partir de su publicacion" and so took effect on 19 September 2026. It runs to four articles: it adds article 15 quater to Ley 7786 on the anti-money-laundering duties of virtual asset service providers, carries that cross reference into articles 16, 16 bis, 25, 33, 33 bis, 86 and 123, reforms the article 81 administrative fines, and allows three months for regulations. Every Ley 7786 article it touches is money laundering machinery, and it leaves articles 1, 2, 36, 58, 73, 74, 77, 77 bis and 79 untouched, so it moves no row in this batch. Method note. The 2026-09-20 Costa Rica dossier was used only as the slug list and as one of the two term list sources. Its outcome column, its instrument column and its quotation column were not treated as evidence and no placement in this batch rests on them; every placement is the entry read in the list the statute incorporates. Two of its readings were not adopted: it treated ergometrina and ergina as one row when they are separate substances on separate limbs, and it left dextrometorfano unresolved when the instrument excludes it in terms. Sibling name traps were checked rather than assumed. Anchored matching correctly did not return bencilmorfina, desomorfina, dihidromorfina, metildihidromorfina, mirofina or diacetilmorfina for the morfina row, isometadona, normetadona or the metadona intermediario for the metadona row, metcatinona or 4-metiletcatinona for the catinona row, MMDA or N-etil MDA for the MDA row, beta-ceto-MDMA for the MDMA row, levometanfetamina for the metanfetamina row, PCPY for the PCP row, brolanfetamina for the anfetamina row, or norpseudoefedrina for the efedrina row. Two extraction zeroes were false and were recovered by re interrogation: hexahidrocannabinol and 2-fluorodescloroketamina are both line wrapped in the source and a column based read missed both. Routes run for the instrument in this pass. pgrweb.go.cr/scij is a JavaScript shell: the Ley 8204 and Ley 7786 records and the sinalevi.go.cr record each returned about 25 KB that renders to 1,159 characters of site chrome and no statutory text, so a size threshold would have cleared all three. imprentanacional.go.cr served the official gazette carrying Ley 10961. The institutional reproduction at icd.go.cr served the consolidated Act, and ministeriodesalud.go.cr served the national list and the circulars. The schedule pages were checked for hidden content: the list PDF holds one image object repeated on all 27 pages, which is the ministry letterhead, and its byte size is accounted for by that banner, so no entry is carried in an image. Entry read for this row, recorded as the list prints it: "PM 005, CAS 537-46-2, Metanfetamina / metanfetamina, (+)-(S)-N,alfa-dimetilfenetilamina", with "PM 015, Racemato de Metanfetamina, (+/-)-N,alfa-dimetilfenetilamina" entered separately, in Lista II of the 1971 Convention. Carry the prescription and the dispensing label, and expect the authorisation rather than the amount to be what is asked about. There is no personal allowance to fall back on, because no article of Ley 7786 fixes a threshold. Sourcing, re derived in this pass and not carried: the two Junta de Vigilancia de Drogas urls cited by this row are DIRECTORIES and not documents. The listing page names the national fiscalisation list but does not carry it; the list is a separate PDF behind a numbered link, and that PDF is what the placement in this row actually rests on. Both documents are now fetched and cited by their own urls: "Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes", and "Lista de Estupefacientes y Sustancias Psicotropicas Sometidas a Fiscalizacion Nacional". The first carries the Otros agregados section this row's reasoning refers to [Certain, read from the fetched PDF]. The circulars page cited alongside them exposes no document at all.

Methamphetamine in Costa Rica, full detail →

Methaqualone (Quaaludes)

Legal status: Controlled. Article 1 of Ley 7786, as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, fixes the scope by reference to the substances included in the 1961 and 1971 Conventions and the 1988 Convention, and the Ministerio de Salud reproduces those listas in Spanish in its national fiscalizacion list and adds a short Otros agregados section of national additions. This row was read as a named entry in Lista II of the 1971 Convention. The offence articles are 58 and 77. [Certain] for the placement, with the entry text recorded in the documentation.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Article 21 of the Constitution provides "La vida humana es inviolable", the human life is inviolable, and the word "muerte" appears zero times across the 81 pages of the consolidated Act. Both of those were measured in this pass and together they are what carries the heading. Costa Rica is an abolitionist state of long standing, [Likely] on the nineteenth century date, which was not re-derived here. Unauthorised trafficking conduct carries eight to fifteen years. Article 58 provides "Se impondra pena de prision de ocho a quince anos a quien, sin autorizacion legal, distribuya, comercie, suministre, fabrique, elabore, refine, transforme, extraiga, prepare, cultive, produzca, transporte, almacene o venda las drogas". That is eight to fifteen years for unauthorised distribution, commerce, supply, manufacture, processing, extraction, preparation, cultivation, production, transport, storage or sale. Article 77 raises the range to eight to twenty years where one of its eight enumerated aggravating circumstances is present, and twenty years is the ceiling this Act identifies. No article states a weight threshold, so the trigger is the unauthorised act and never a quantity. The second paragraph of article 58 reaches possession only "para cualquiera de los fines expresados", that is possession for one of those trafficking purposes. Ley 7786 creates no offence of consumption and no offence of simple possession for personal use. Article 79 answers a person consuming in a public place with voluntary and free treatment in a public or private health centre, not with a penalty.
If prescribed / medical: A lawful medical route exists only through the authorisation the Act itself demands. Article 58 opens with the words "sin autorizacion legal", so conduct carried out under a Costa Rican authorisation falls outside the offence and conduct without one falls inside it whatever the amount. Article 2 confines handling to the quantities needed for medical treatment, toxicological and chemical analysis and research, and requires authorised prescribers to use the official forms supplied by the Ministerio de Salud, whose entries carry the character of a sworn declaration. The Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes administers that control under Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025 and publishes the fiscalizacion list. The national list files this row among the psicotropicos rather than the estupefacientes, which is the less strict of the two prescription regimes it operates.
Documentation: Consolidation read: Ley 7786 of 30 April 1998 as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, in the Texto Completo Norma 8204 print published by the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas, which carries its own generation date of 19 November 2018. The same ranges, ocho a quince anos in article 58 and de ocho a veinte anos in article 77, were independently read on 18 September 2026 against the later Sinalevi record of Ley 7786, version 13 of 13, so the 2018 print is corroborated rather than assumed current. Control model, re derived from the statute in this pass. Costa Rica prints no annex of controlled substances in its drug Act: across the 81 pages the only drug names anywhere are in article 96, on the disposal of seized marihuana, cocaina and heroina. Article 1 regulates "estupefacientes, psicotropicos, sustancias inhalables y demas drogas y farmacos susceptibles de producir dependencias fisicas o psiquicas, incluidos en la Convencion Unica sobre Estupefacientes... de 1961... asi como en el Convenio de Viena sobre Sustancias Psicotropicas, de 21 de febrero de 1971... asimismo, en la Convencion... de 1988". Its second paragraph is a different thing and is often misread as the control annex: it has the Ministerio de Salud and the MAG draw up and publish in La Gaceta "las listas de estupefacientes, psicotropicos y similares Licitos", the licit ones, which is the authorisation side. The incorporation is ambulatory: article 36 defines precursors as Cuadro I of the 1988 Convention "y sus anexos, asi como los que se le incorporen en el futuro", and article 100 gives the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas a mandate framed by the conventions and by "los listados oficiales, publicados periodicamente en La Gaceta". The second limb, measured. The national list is the Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes, Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes of the Ministerio de Salud, updated 10 September 2026 and signed that day by Dra. Mariela Alfaro Segura. It runs to 27 pages in three sections, estupefacientes, psicotropicos and Otros agregados, and it names its own legal basis as the Reglamento para el control de drogas, estupefacientes y psicotropicas N. 45161-S, the instrument cited elsewhere as Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025. The two titles are the same text. A reading of 18 September 2026 records that the decree gives the competent body the function "Elaborar y actualizar la lista de sustancias oficialmente consideradas estupefacientes o psicotropicos y similares de uso regulado" and that its five annexes are forms rather than a substance schedule; that quotation is carried from that reading and was not re derived here. The whole of Otros agregados is twelve entries: metilfenidato, tapentadol and the synthetic cannabinoid JWH-073 among the estupefacientes, and ketamina, esketamina, mexazolam, zaleplon, zopiclona and the piperazines mCPP, CPP, TFMPP and 1,4 dibencilpiperazina among the psicotropicos. Amending Act in force between that list and this reading, read in the official gazette in this pass. Ley 10961 of 9 June 2026, published in Alcance 78 to La Gaceta 113 of 19 June 2026, provides "Rige tres meses a partir de su publicacion" and so took effect on 19 September 2026. It runs to four articles: it adds article 15 quater to Ley 7786 on the anti-money-laundering duties of virtual asset service providers, carries that cross reference into articles 16, 16 bis, 25, 33, 33 bis, 86 and 123, reforms the article 81 administrative fines, and allows three months for regulations. Every Ley 7786 article it touches is money laundering machinery, and it leaves articles 1, 2, 36, 58, 73, 74, 77, 77 bis and 79 untouched, so it moves no row in this batch. Method note. The 2026-09-20 Costa Rica dossier was used only as the slug list and as one of the two term list sources. Its outcome column, its instrument column and its quotation column were not treated as evidence and no placement in this batch rests on them; every placement is the entry read in the list the statute incorporates. Two of its readings were not adopted: it treated ergometrina and ergina as one row when they are separate substances on separate limbs, and it left dextrometorfano unresolved when the instrument excludes it in terms. Sibling name traps were checked rather than assumed. Anchored matching correctly did not return bencilmorfina, desomorfina, dihidromorfina, metildihidromorfina, mirofina or diacetilmorfina for the morfina row, isometadona, normetadona or the metadona intermediario for the metadona row, metcatinona or 4-metiletcatinona for the catinona row, MMDA or N-etil MDA for the MDA row, beta-ceto-MDMA for the MDMA row, levometanfetamina for the metanfetamina row, PCPY for the PCP row, brolanfetamina for the anfetamina row, or norpseudoefedrina for the efedrina row. Two extraction zeroes were false and were recovered by re interrogation: hexahidrocannabinol and 2-fluorodescloroketamina are both line wrapped in the source and a column based read missed both. Routes run for the instrument in this pass. pgrweb.go.cr/scij is a JavaScript shell: the Ley 8204 and Ley 7786 records and the sinalevi.go.cr record each returned about 25 KB that renders to 1,159 characters of site chrome and no statutory text, so a size threshold would have cleared all three. imprentanacional.go.cr served the official gazette carrying Ley 10961. The institutional reproduction at icd.go.cr served the consolidated Act, and ministeriodesalud.go.cr served the national list and the circulars. The schedule pages were checked for hidden content: the list PDF holds one image object repeated on all 27 pages, which is the ministry letterhead, and its byte size is accounted for by that banner, so no entry is carried in an image. Entry read for this row, recorded as the list prints it: "PM 006, CAS 72-44-6, Metacualona, 2-metil-3-o-tolil-4(3H)-quinazolinona", in Lista II of the 1971 Convention. Carry the prescription and the dispensing label, and expect the authorisation rather than the amount to be what is asked about. There is no personal allowance to fall back on, because no article of Ley 7786 fixes a threshold. Sourcing, re derived in this pass and not carried: the two Junta de Vigilancia de Drogas urls cited by this row are DIRECTORIES and not documents. The listing page names the national fiscalisation list but does not carry it; the list is a separate PDF behind a numbered link, and that PDF is what the placement in this row actually rests on. Both documents are now fetched and cited by their own urls: "Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes", and "Lista de Estupefacientes y Sustancias Psicotropicas Sometidas a Fiscalizacion Nacional". The first carries the Otros agregados section this row's reasoning refers to [Certain, read from the fetched PDF]. The circulars page cited alongside them exposes no document at all.

Methaqualone (Quaaludes) in Costa Rica, full detail →

Methylone

Legal status: Controlled. Article 1 of Ley 7786, as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, fixes the scope by reference to the substances included in the 1961 and 1971 Conventions and the 1988 Convention, and the Ministerio de Salud reproduces those listas in Spanish in its national fiscalizacion list and adds a short Otros agregados section of national additions. This row was read as a named entry in Lista II of the 1971 Convention. The offence articles are 58 and 77. [Certain] for the placement, with the entry text recorded in the documentation.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Article 21 of the Constitution provides "La vida humana es inviolable", the human life is inviolable, and the word "muerte" appears zero times across the 81 pages of the consolidated Act. Both of those were measured in this pass and together they are what carries the heading. Costa Rica is an abolitionist state of long standing, [Likely] on the nineteenth century date, which was not re-derived here. Unauthorised trafficking conduct carries eight to fifteen years. Article 58 provides "Se impondra pena de prision de ocho a quince anos a quien, sin autorizacion legal, distribuya, comercie, suministre, fabrique, elabore, refine, transforme, extraiga, prepare, cultive, produzca, transporte, almacene o venda las drogas". That is eight to fifteen years for unauthorised distribution, commerce, supply, manufacture, processing, extraction, preparation, cultivation, production, transport, storage or sale. Article 77 raises the range to eight to twenty years where one of its eight enumerated aggravating circumstances is present, and twenty years is the ceiling this Act identifies. No article states a weight threshold, so the trigger is the unauthorised act and never a quantity. The second paragraph of article 58 reaches possession only "para cualquiera de los fines expresados", that is possession for one of those trafficking purposes. Ley 7786 creates no offence of consumption and no offence of simple possession for personal use. Article 79 answers a person consuming in a public place with voluntary and free treatment in a public or private health centre, not with a penalty.
If prescribed / medical: A lawful medical route exists only through the authorisation the Act itself demands. Article 58 opens with the words "sin autorizacion legal", so conduct carried out under a Costa Rican authorisation falls outside the offence and conduct without one falls inside it whatever the amount. Article 2 confines handling to the quantities needed for medical treatment, toxicological and chemical analysis and research, and requires authorised prescribers to use the official forms supplied by the Ministerio de Salud, whose entries carry the character of a sworn declaration. The Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes administers that control under Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025 and publishes the fiscalizacion list. The national list files this row among the psicotropicos rather than the estupefacientes, which is the less strict of the two prescription regimes it operates.
Documentation: Consolidation read: Ley 7786 of 30 April 1998 as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, in the Texto Completo Norma 8204 print published by the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas, which carries its own generation date of 19 November 2018. The same ranges, ocho a quince anos in article 58 and de ocho a veinte anos in article 77, were independently read on 18 September 2026 against the later Sinalevi record of Ley 7786, version 13 of 13, so the 2018 print is corroborated rather than assumed current. Control model, re derived from the statute in this pass. Costa Rica prints no annex of controlled substances in its drug Act: across the 81 pages the only drug names anywhere are in article 96, on the disposal of seized marihuana, cocaina and heroina. Article 1 regulates "estupefacientes, psicotropicos, sustancias inhalables y demas drogas y farmacos susceptibles de producir dependencias fisicas o psiquicas, incluidos en la Convencion Unica sobre Estupefacientes... de 1961... asi como en el Convenio de Viena sobre Sustancias Psicotropicas, de 21 de febrero de 1971... asimismo, en la Convencion... de 1988". Its second paragraph is a different thing and is often misread as the control annex: it has the Ministerio de Salud and the MAG draw up and publish in La Gaceta "las listas de estupefacientes, psicotropicos y similares Licitos", the licit ones, which is the authorisation side. The incorporation is ambulatory: article 36 defines precursors as Cuadro I of the 1988 Convention "y sus anexos, asi como los que se le incorporen en el futuro", and article 100 gives the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas a mandate framed by the conventions and by "los listados oficiales, publicados periodicamente en La Gaceta". The second limb, measured. The national list is the Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes, Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes of the Ministerio de Salud, updated 10 September 2026 and signed that day by Dra. Mariela Alfaro Segura. It runs to 27 pages in three sections, estupefacientes, psicotropicos and Otros agregados, and it names its own legal basis as the Reglamento para el control de drogas, estupefacientes y psicotropicas N. 45161-S, the instrument cited elsewhere as Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025. The two titles are the same text. A reading of 18 September 2026 records that the decree gives the competent body the function "Elaborar y actualizar la lista de sustancias oficialmente consideradas estupefacientes o psicotropicos y similares de uso regulado" and that its five annexes are forms rather than a substance schedule; that quotation is carried from that reading and was not re derived here. The whole of Otros agregados is twelve entries: metilfenidato, tapentadol and the synthetic cannabinoid JWH-073 among the estupefacientes, and ketamina, esketamina, mexazolam, zaleplon, zopiclona and the piperazines mCPP, CPP, TFMPP and 1,4 dibencilpiperazina among the psicotropicos. Amending Act in force between that list and this reading, read in the official gazette in this pass. Ley 10961 of 9 June 2026, published in Alcance 78 to La Gaceta 113 of 19 June 2026, provides "Rige tres meses a partir de su publicacion" and so took effect on 19 September 2026. It runs to four articles: it adds article 15 quater to Ley 7786 on the anti-money-laundering duties of virtual asset service providers, carries that cross reference into articles 16, 16 bis, 25, 33, 33 bis, 86 and 123, reforms the article 81 administrative fines, and allows three months for regulations. Every Ley 7786 article it touches is money laundering machinery, and it leaves articles 1, 2, 36, 58, 73, 74, 77, 77 bis and 79 untouched, so it moves no row in this batch. Method note. The 2026-09-20 Costa Rica dossier was used only as the slug list and as one of the two term list sources. Its outcome column, its instrument column and its quotation column were not treated as evidence and no placement in this batch rests on them; every placement is the entry read in the list the statute incorporates. Two of its readings were not adopted: it treated ergometrina and ergina as one row when they are separate substances on separate limbs, and it left dextrometorfano unresolved when the instrument excludes it in terms. Sibling name traps were checked rather than assumed. Anchored matching correctly did not return bencilmorfina, desomorfina, dihidromorfina, metildihidromorfina, mirofina or diacetilmorfina for the morfina row, isometadona, normetadona or the metadona intermediario for the metadona row, metcatinona or 4-metiletcatinona for the catinona row, MMDA or N-etil MDA for the MDA row, beta-ceto-MDMA for the MDMA row, levometanfetamina for the metanfetamina row, PCPY for the PCP row, brolanfetamina for the anfetamina row, or norpseudoefedrina for the efedrina row. Two extraction zeroes were false and were recovered by re interrogation: hexahidrocannabinol and 2-fluorodescloroketamina are both line wrapped in the source and a column based read missed both. Routes run for the instrument in this pass. pgrweb.go.cr/scij is a JavaScript shell: the Ley 8204 and Ley 7786 records and the sinalevi.go.cr record each returned about 25 KB that renders to 1,159 characters of site chrome and no statutory text, so a size threshold would have cleared all three. imprentanacional.go.cr served the official gazette carrying Ley 10961. The institutional reproduction at icd.go.cr served the consolidated Act, and ministeriodesalud.go.cr served the national list and the circulars. The schedule pages were checked for hidden content: the list PDF holds one image object repeated on all 27 pages, which is the ministry letterhead, and its byte size is accounted for by that banner, so no entry is carried in an image. Entry read for this row, recorded as the list prints it: "PM 023, CAS 186028-79-5, metilona, beta-ceto-MDMA, (RS)-2-metilamino-1-(3,4-metilendioxifenil)propano-1-ona", in Lista II of the 1971 Convention. Carry the prescription and the dispensing label, and expect the authorisation rather than the amount to be what is asked about. There is no personal allowance to fall back on, because no article of Ley 7786 fixes a threshold. Sourcing, re derived in this pass and not carried: the two Junta de Vigilancia de Drogas urls cited by this row are DIRECTORIES and not documents. The listing page names the national fiscalisation list but does not carry it; the list is a separate PDF behind a numbered link, and that PDF is what the placement in this row actually rests on. Both documents are now fetched and cited by their own urls: "Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes", and "Lista de Estupefacientes y Sustancias Psicotropicas Sometidas a Fiscalizacion Nacional". The first carries the Otros agregados section this row's reasoning refers to [Certain, read from the fetched PDF]. The circulars page cited alongside them exposes no document at all.

Methylone in Costa Rica, full detail →

Methylphenidate

Legal status: Controlled. Article 1 of Ley 7786, as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, fixes the scope by reference to the substances included in the 1961 and 1971 Conventions and the 1988 Convention, and the Ministerio de Salud reproduces those listas in Spanish in its national fiscalizacion list and adds a short Otros agregados section of national additions. This row was read as a named entry in the Otros agregados, estupefacientes section of the national list. Two routes reach this row and they are not the same source. The national list prints metilfenidato once only, in Otros agregados, and files it among the estupefacientes rather than the psicotropicos, which is a stricter national filing than the Convention's own; the 1971 Lista II section of that list does not carry it, and the near miss in that range is etilfenidato, PE 008, a different substance. The Convention route is separate and rests on the Green List, which prints Methylphenidate at PM 007 in Schedule II of the 1971 Convention. The offence articles are 58 and 77. [Certain] for the placement, with the entry text recorded in the documentation.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Article 21 of the Constitution provides "La vida humana es inviolable", the human life is inviolable, and the word "muerte" appears zero times across the 81 pages of the consolidated Act. Both of those were measured in this pass and together they are what carries the heading. Costa Rica is an abolitionist state of long standing, [Likely] on the nineteenth century date, which was not re-derived here. Unauthorised trafficking conduct carries eight to fifteen years. Article 58 provides "Se impondra pena de prision de ocho a quince anos a quien, sin autorizacion legal, distribuya, comercie, suministre, fabrique, elabore, refine, transforme, extraiga, prepare, cultive, produzca, transporte, almacene o venda las drogas". That is eight to fifteen years for unauthorised distribution, commerce, supply, manufacture, processing, extraction, preparation, cultivation, production, transport, storage or sale. Article 77 raises the range to eight to twenty years where one of its eight enumerated aggravating circumstances is present, and twenty years is the ceiling this Act identifies. No article states a weight threshold, so the trigger is the unauthorised act and never a quantity. The second paragraph of article 58 reaches possession only "para cualquiera de los fines expresados", that is possession for one of those trafficking purposes. Ley 7786 creates no offence of consumption and no offence of simple possession for personal use. Article 79 answers a person consuming in a public place with voluntary and free treatment in a public or private health centre, not with a penalty.
If prescribed / medical: A lawful medical route exists only through the authorisation the Act itself demands. Article 58 opens with the words "sin autorizacion legal", so conduct carried out under a Costa Rican authorisation falls outside the offence and conduct without one falls inside it whatever the amount. Article 2 confines handling to the quantities needed for medical treatment, toxicological and chemical analysis and research, and requires authorised prescribers to use the official forms supplied by the Ministerio de Salud, whose entries carry the character of a sworn declaration. The Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes administers that control under Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025 and publishes the fiscalizacion list. The national list files this row among the estupefacientes, the narcotic half, which is the stricter of the two prescription regimes it operates.
Documentation: Consolidation read: Ley 7786 of 30 April 1998 as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, in the Texto Completo Norma 8204 print published by the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas, which carries its own generation date of 19 November 2018. The same ranges, ocho a quince anos in article 58 and de ocho a veinte anos in article 77, were independently read on 18 September 2026 against the later Sinalevi record of Ley 7786, version 13 of 13, so the 2018 print is corroborated rather than assumed current. Control model, re derived from the statute in this pass. Costa Rica prints no annex of controlled substances in its drug Act: across the 81 pages the only drug names anywhere are in article 96, on the disposal of seized marihuana, cocaina and heroina. Article 1 regulates "estupefacientes, psicotropicos, sustancias inhalables y demas drogas y farmacos susceptibles de producir dependencias fisicas o psiquicas, incluidos en la Convencion Unica sobre Estupefacientes... de 1961... asi como en el Convenio de Viena sobre Sustancias Psicotropicas, de 21 de febrero de 1971... asimismo, en la Convencion... de 1988". Its second paragraph is a different thing and is often misread as the control annex: it has the Ministerio de Salud and the MAG draw up and publish in La Gaceta "las listas de estupefacientes, psicotropicos y similares Licitos", the licit ones, which is the authorisation side. The incorporation is ambulatory: article 36 defines precursors as Cuadro I of the 1988 Convention "y sus anexos, asi como los que se le incorporen en el futuro", and article 100 gives the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas a mandate framed by the conventions and by "los listados oficiales, publicados periodicamente en La Gaceta". The second limb, measured. The national list is the Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes, Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes of the Ministerio de Salud, updated 10 September 2026 and signed that day by Dra. Mariela Alfaro Segura. It runs to 27 pages in three sections, estupefacientes, psicotropicos and Otros agregados, and it names its own legal basis as the Reglamento para el control de drogas, estupefacientes y psicotropicas N. 45161-S, the instrument cited elsewhere as Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025. The two titles are the same text. A reading of 18 September 2026 records that the decree gives the competent body the function "Elaborar y actualizar la lista de sustancias oficialmente consideradas estupefacientes o psicotropicos y similares de uso regulado" and that its five annexes are forms rather than a substance schedule; that quotation is carried from that reading and was not re derived here. The whole of Otros agregados is twelve entries: metilfenidato, tapentadol and the synthetic cannabinoid JWH-073 among the estupefacientes, and ketamina, esketamina, mexazolam, zaleplon, zopiclona and the piperazines mCPP, CPP, TFMPP and 1,4 dibencilpiperazina among the psicotropicos. Amending Act in force between that list and this reading, read in the official gazette in this pass. Ley 10961 of 9 June 2026, published in Alcance 78 to La Gaceta 113 of 19 June 2026, provides "Rige tres meses a partir de su publicacion" and so took effect on 19 September 2026. It runs to four articles: it adds article 15 quater to Ley 7786 on the anti-money-laundering duties of virtual asset service providers, carries that cross reference into articles 16, 16 bis, 25, 33, 33 bis, 86 and 123, reforms the article 81 administrative fines, and allows three months for regulations. Every Ley 7786 article it touches is money laundering machinery, and it leaves articles 1, 2, 36, 58, 73, 74, 77, 77 bis and 79 untouched, so it moves no row in this batch. Method note. The 2026-09-20 Costa Rica dossier was used only as the slug list and as one of the two term list sources. Its outcome column, its instrument column and its quotation column were not treated as evidence and no placement in this batch rests on them; every placement is the entry read in the list the statute incorporates. Two of its readings were not adopted: it treated ergometrina and ergina as one row when they are separate substances on separate limbs, and it left dextrometorfano unresolved when the instrument excludes it in terms. Sibling name traps were checked rather than assumed. Anchored matching correctly did not return bencilmorfina, desomorfina, dihidromorfina, metildihidromorfina, mirofina or diacetilmorfina for the morfina row, isometadona, normetadona or the metadona intermediario for the metadona row, metcatinona or 4-metiletcatinona for the catinona row, MMDA or N-etil MDA for the MDA row, beta-ceto-MDMA for the MDMA row, levometanfetamina for the metanfetamina row, PCPY for the PCP row, brolanfetamina for the anfetamina row, or norpseudoefedrina for the efedrina row. Two extraction zeroes were false and were recovered by re interrogation: hexahidrocannabinol and 2-fluorodescloroketamina are both line wrapped in the source and a column based read missed both. Routes run for the instrument in this pass. pgrweb.go.cr/scij is a JavaScript shell: the Ley 8204 and Ley 7786 records and the sinalevi.go.cr record each returned about 25 KB that renders to 1,159 characters of site chrome and no statutory text, so a size threshold would have cleared all three. imprentanacional.go.cr served the official gazette carrying Ley 10961. The institutional reproduction at icd.go.cr served the consolidated Act, and ministeriodesalud.go.cr served the national list and the circulars. The schedule pages were checked for hidden content: the list PDF holds one image object repeated on all 27 pages, which is the ministry letterhead, and its byte size is accounted for by that banner, so no entry is carried in an image. Entry read for this row, recorded as the list prints it: "Metilfenidato, alfa-fenil-2-piperidinacetato de metilo", in the Otros agregados, estupefacientes section of the national list. Carry the prescription and the dispensing label, and expect the authorisation rather than the amount to be what is asked about. There is no personal allowance to fall back on, because no article of Ley 7786 fixes a threshold. Sourcing, re derived in this pass and not carried: the two Junta de Vigilancia de Drogas urls cited by this row are DIRECTORIES and not documents. The listing page names the national fiscalisation list but does not carry it; the list is a separate PDF behind a numbered link, and that PDF is what the placement in this row actually rests on. Both documents are now fetched and cited by their own urls: "Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes", and "Lista de Estupefacientes y Sustancias Psicotropicas Sometidas a Fiscalizacion Nacional". The first carries the Otros agregados section this row's reasoning refers to [Certain, read from the fetched PDF]. The circulars page cited alongside them exposes no document at all.

Methylphenidate in Costa Rica, full detail →

Morphine

Legal status: Controlled. Article 1 of Ley 7786, as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, fixes the scope by reference to the substances included in the 1961 and 1971 Conventions and the 1988 Convention, and the Ministerio de Salud reproduces those listas in Spanish in its national fiscalizacion list and adds a short Otros agregados section of national additions. This row was read as a named entry in Lista I of the 1961 Convention. The offence articles are 58 and 77. [Certain] for the placement, with the entry text recorded in the documentation.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Article 21 of the Constitution provides "La vida humana es inviolable", the human life is inviolable, and the word "muerte" appears zero times across the 81 pages of the consolidated Act. Both of those were measured in this pass and together they are what carries the heading. Costa Rica is an abolitionist state of long standing, [Likely] on the nineteenth century date, which was not re-derived here. Unauthorised trafficking conduct carries eight to fifteen years. Article 58 provides "Se impondra pena de prision de ocho a quince anos a quien, sin autorizacion legal, distribuya, comercie, suministre, fabrique, elabore, refine, transforme, extraiga, prepare, cultive, produzca, transporte, almacene o venda las drogas". That is eight to fifteen years for unauthorised distribution, commerce, supply, manufacture, processing, extraction, preparation, cultivation, production, transport, storage or sale. Article 77 raises the range to eight to twenty years where one of its eight enumerated aggravating circumstances is present, and twenty years is the ceiling this Act identifies. No article states a weight threshold, so the trigger is the unauthorised act and never a quantity. The second paragraph of article 58 reaches possession only "para cualquiera de los fines expresados", that is possession for one of those trafficking purposes. Ley 7786 creates no offence of consumption and no offence of simple possession for personal use. Article 79 answers a person consuming in a public place with voluntary and free treatment in a public or private health centre, not with a penalty.
If prescribed / medical: A lawful medical route exists only through the authorisation the Act itself demands. Article 58 opens with the words "sin autorizacion legal", so conduct carried out under a Costa Rican authorisation falls outside the offence and conduct without one falls inside it whatever the amount. Article 2 confines handling to the quantities needed for medical treatment, toxicological and chemical analysis and research, and requires authorised prescribers to use the official forms supplied by the Ministerio de Salud, whose entries carry the character of a sworn declaration. The Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes administers that control under Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025 and publishes the fiscalizacion list. The national list files this row among the estupefacientes, the narcotic half, which is the stricter of the two prescription regimes it operates.
Documentation: Consolidation read: Ley 7786 of 30 April 1998 as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, in the Texto Completo Norma 8204 print published by the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas, which carries its own generation date of 19 November 2018. The same ranges, ocho a quince anos in article 58 and de ocho a veinte anos in article 77, were independently read on 18 September 2026 against the later Sinalevi record of Ley 7786, version 13 of 13, so the 2018 print is corroborated rather than assumed current. Control model, re derived from the statute in this pass. Costa Rica prints no annex of controlled substances in its drug Act: across the 81 pages the only drug names anywhere are in article 96, on the disposal of seized marihuana, cocaina and heroina. Article 1 regulates "estupefacientes, psicotropicos, sustancias inhalables y demas drogas y farmacos susceptibles de producir dependencias fisicas o psiquicas, incluidos en la Convencion Unica sobre Estupefacientes... de 1961... asi como en el Convenio de Viena sobre Sustancias Psicotropicas, de 21 de febrero de 1971... asimismo, en la Convencion... de 1988". Its second paragraph is a different thing and is often misread as the control annex: it has the Ministerio de Salud and the MAG draw up and publish in La Gaceta "las listas de estupefacientes, psicotropicos y similares Licitos", the licit ones, which is the authorisation side. The incorporation is ambulatory: article 36 defines precursors as Cuadro I of the 1988 Convention "y sus anexos, asi como los que se le incorporen en el futuro", and article 100 gives the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas a mandate framed by the conventions and by "los listados oficiales, publicados periodicamente en La Gaceta". The second limb, measured. The national list is the Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes, Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes of the Ministerio de Salud, updated 10 September 2026 and signed that day by Dra. Mariela Alfaro Segura. It runs to 27 pages in three sections, estupefacientes, psicotropicos and Otros agregados, and it names its own legal basis as the Reglamento para el control de drogas, estupefacientes y psicotropicas N. 45161-S, the instrument cited elsewhere as Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025. The two titles are the same text. A reading of 18 September 2026 records that the decree gives the competent body the function "Elaborar y actualizar la lista de sustancias oficialmente consideradas estupefacientes o psicotropicos y similares de uso regulado" and that its five annexes are forms rather than a substance schedule; that quotation is carried from that reading and was not re derived here. The whole of Otros agregados is twelve entries: metilfenidato, tapentadol and the synthetic cannabinoid JWH-073 among the estupefacientes, and ketamina, esketamina, mexazolam, zaleplon, zopiclona and the piperazines mCPP, CPP, TFMPP and 1,4 dibencilpiperazina among the psicotropicos. Amending Act in force between that list and this reading, read in the official gazette in this pass. Ley 10961 of 9 June 2026, published in Alcance 78 to La Gaceta 113 of 19 June 2026, provides "Rige tres meses a partir de su publicacion" and so took effect on 19 September 2026. It runs to four articles: it adds article 15 quater to Ley 7786 on the anti-money-laundering duties of virtual asset service providers, carries that cross reference into articles 16, 16 bis, 25, 33, 33 bis, 86 and 123, reforms the article 81 administrative fines, and allows three months for regulations. Every Ley 7786 article it touches is money laundering machinery, and it leaves articles 1, 2, 36, 58, 73, 74, 77, 77 bis and 79 untouched, so it moves no row in this batch. Method note. The 2026-09-20 Costa Rica dossier was used only as the slug list and as one of the two term list sources. Its outcome column, its instrument column and its quotation column were not treated as evidence and no placement in this batch rests on them; every placement is the entry read in the list the statute incorporates. Two of its readings were not adopted: it treated ergometrina and ergina as one row when they are separate substances on separate limbs, and it left dextrometorfano unresolved when the instrument excludes it in terms. Sibling name traps were checked rather than assumed. Anchored matching correctly did not return bencilmorfina, desomorfina, dihidromorfina, metildihidromorfina, mirofina or diacetilmorfina for the morfina row, isometadona, normetadona or the metadona intermediario for the metadona row, metcatinona or 4-metiletcatinona for the catinona row, MMDA or N-etil MDA for the MDA row, beta-ceto-MDMA for the MDMA row, levometanfetamina for the metanfetamina row, PCPY for the PCP row, brolanfetamina for the anfetamina row, or norpseudoefedrina for the efedrina row. Two extraction zeroes were false and were recovered by re interrogation: hexahidrocannabinol and 2-fluorodescloroketamina are both line wrapped in the source and a column based read missed both. Routes run for the instrument in this pass. pgrweb.go.cr/scij is a JavaScript shell: the Ley 8204 and Ley 7786 records and the sinalevi.go.cr record each returned about 25 KB that renders to 1,159 characters of site chrome and no statutory text, so a size threshold would have cleared all three. imprentanacional.go.cr served the official gazette carrying Ley 10961. The institutional reproduction at icd.go.cr served the consolidated Act, and ministeriodesalud.go.cr served the national list and the circulars. The schedule pages were checked for hidden content: the list PDF holds one image object repeated on all 27 pages, which is the ministry letterhead, and its byte size is accounted for by that banner, so no entry is carried in an image. Entry read for this row, recorded as the list prints it: "NM 009, CAS 57-27-2, Morfina, alcaloide principal del opio y la paja de adormidera", in Lista I of the 1961 Convention. Carry the prescription and the dispensing label, and expect the authorisation rather than the amount to be what is asked about. There is no personal allowance to fall back on, because no article of Ley 7786 fixes a threshold. Sourcing, re derived in this pass and not carried: the two Junta de Vigilancia de Drogas urls cited by this row are DIRECTORIES and not documents. The listing page names the national fiscalisation list but does not carry it; the list is a separate PDF behind a numbered link, and that PDF is what the placement in this row actually rests on. Both documents are now fetched and cited by their own urls: "Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes", and "Lista de Estupefacientes y Sustancias Psicotropicas Sometidas a Fiscalizacion Nacional". The first carries the Otros agregados section this row's reasoning refers to [Certain, read from the fetched PDF]. The circulars page cited alongside them exposes no document at all.

Morphine in Costa Rica, full detail →

MXE

Legal status: Controlled. Article 1 of Ley 7786, as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, fixes the scope by reference to the substances included in the 1961 and 1971 Conventions and the 1988 Convention, and the Ministerio de Salud reproduces those listas in Spanish in its national fiscalizacion list and adds a short Otros agregados section of national additions. This row was read as a named entry in Lista II of the 1971 Convention. The offence articles are 58 and 77. [Certain] for the placement, with the entry text recorded in the documentation.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Article 21 of the Constitution provides "La vida humana es inviolable", the human life is inviolable, and the word "muerte" appears zero times across the 81 pages of the consolidated Act. Both of those were measured in this pass and together they are what carries the heading. Costa Rica is an abolitionist state of long standing, [Likely] on the nineteenth century date, which was not re-derived here. Unauthorised trafficking conduct carries eight to fifteen years. Article 58 provides "Se impondra pena de prision de ocho a quince anos a quien, sin autorizacion legal, distribuya, comercie, suministre, fabrique, elabore, refine, transforme, extraiga, prepare, cultive, produzca, transporte, almacene o venda las drogas". That is eight to fifteen years for unauthorised distribution, commerce, supply, manufacture, processing, extraction, preparation, cultivation, production, transport, storage or sale. Article 77 raises the range to eight to twenty years where one of its eight enumerated aggravating circumstances is present, and twenty years is the ceiling this Act identifies. No article states a weight threshold, so the trigger is the unauthorised act and never a quantity. The second paragraph of article 58 reaches possession only "para cualquiera de los fines expresados", that is possession for one of those trafficking purposes. Ley 7786 creates no offence of consumption and no offence of simple possession for personal use. Article 79 answers a person consuming in a public place with voluntary and free treatment in a public or private health centre, not with a penalty.
If prescribed / medical: A lawful medical route exists only through the authorisation the Act itself demands. Article 58 opens with the words "sin autorizacion legal", so conduct carried out under a Costa Rican authorisation falls outside the offence and conduct without one falls inside it whatever the amount. Article 2 confines handling to the quantities needed for medical treatment, toxicological and chemical analysis and research, and requires authorised prescribers to use the official forms supplied by the Ministerio de Salud, whose entries carry the character of a sworn declaration. The Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes administers that control under Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025 and publishes the fiscalizacion list. The national list files this row among the psicotropicos rather than the estupefacientes, which is the less strict of the two prescription regimes it operates.
Documentation: Consolidation read: Ley 7786 of 30 April 1998 as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, in the Texto Completo Norma 8204 print published by the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas, which carries its own generation date of 19 November 2018. The same ranges, ocho a quince anos in article 58 and de ocho a veinte anos in article 77, were independently read on 18 September 2026 against the later Sinalevi record of Ley 7786, version 13 of 13, so the 2018 print is corroborated rather than assumed current. Control model, re derived from the statute in this pass. Costa Rica prints no annex of controlled substances in its drug Act: across the 81 pages the only drug names anywhere are in article 96, on the disposal of seized marihuana, cocaina and heroina. Article 1 regulates "estupefacientes, psicotropicos, sustancias inhalables y demas drogas y farmacos susceptibles de producir dependencias fisicas o psiquicas, incluidos en la Convencion Unica sobre Estupefacientes... de 1961... asi como en el Convenio de Viena sobre Sustancias Psicotropicas, de 21 de febrero de 1971... asimismo, en la Convencion... de 1988". Its second paragraph is a different thing and is often misread as the control annex: it has the Ministerio de Salud and the MAG draw up and publish in La Gaceta "las listas de estupefacientes, psicotropicos y similares Licitos", the licit ones, which is the authorisation side. The incorporation is ambulatory: article 36 defines precursors as Cuadro I of the 1988 Convention "y sus anexos, asi como los que se le incorporen en el futuro", and article 100 gives the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas a mandate framed by the conventions and by "los listados oficiales, publicados periodicamente en La Gaceta". The second limb, measured. The national list is the Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes, Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes of the Ministerio de Salud, updated 10 September 2026 and signed that day by Dra. Mariela Alfaro Segura. It runs to 27 pages in three sections, estupefacientes, psicotropicos and Otros agregados, and it names its own legal basis as the Reglamento para el control de drogas, estupefacientes y psicotropicas N. 45161-S, the instrument cited elsewhere as Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025. The two titles are the same text. A reading of 18 September 2026 records that the decree gives the competent body the function "Elaborar y actualizar la lista de sustancias oficialmente consideradas estupefacientes o psicotropicos y similares de uso regulado" and that its five annexes are forms rather than a substance schedule; that quotation is carried from that reading and was not re derived here. The whole of Otros agregados is twelve entries: metilfenidato, tapentadol and the synthetic cannabinoid JWH-073 among the estupefacientes, and ketamina, esketamina, mexazolam, zaleplon, zopiclona and the piperazines mCPP, CPP, TFMPP and 1,4 dibencilpiperazina among the psicotropicos. Amending Act in force between that list and this reading, read in the official gazette in this pass. Ley 10961 of 9 June 2026, published in Alcance 78 to La Gaceta 113 of 19 June 2026, provides "Rige tres meses a partir de su publicacion" and so took effect on 19 September 2026. It runs to four articles: it adds article 15 quater to Ley 7786 on the anti-money-laundering duties of virtual asset service providers, carries that cross reference into articles 16, 16 bis, 25, 33, 33 bis, 86 and 123, reforms the article 81 administrative fines, and allows three months for regulations. Every Ley 7786 article it touches is money laundering machinery, and it leaves articles 1, 2, 36, 58, 73, 74, 77, 77 bis and 79 untouched, so it moves no row in this batch. Method note. The 2026-09-20 Costa Rica dossier was used only as the slug list and as one of the two term list sources. Its outcome column, its instrument column and its quotation column were not treated as evidence and no placement in this batch rests on them; every placement is the entry read in the list the statute incorporates. Two of its readings were not adopted: it treated ergometrina and ergina as one row when they are separate substances on separate limbs, and it left dextrometorfano unresolved when the instrument excludes it in terms. Sibling name traps were checked rather than assumed. Anchored matching correctly did not return bencilmorfina, desomorfina, dihidromorfina, metildihidromorfina, mirofina or diacetilmorfina for the morfina row, isometadona, normetadona or the metadona intermediario for the metadona row, metcatinona or 4-metiletcatinona for the catinona row, MMDA or N-etil MDA for the MDA row, beta-ceto-MDMA for the MDMA row, levometanfetamina for the metanfetamina row, PCPY for the PCP row, brolanfetamina for the anfetamina row, or norpseudoefedrina for the efedrina row. Two extraction zeroes were false and were recovered by re interrogation: hexahidrocannabinol and 2-fluorodescloroketamina are both line wrapped in the source and a column based read missed both. Routes run for the instrument in this pass. pgrweb.go.cr/scij is a JavaScript shell: the Ley 8204 and Ley 7786 records and the sinalevi.go.cr record each returned about 25 KB that renders to 1,159 characters of site chrome and no statutory text, so a size threshold would have cleared all three. imprentanacional.go.cr served the official gazette carrying Ley 10961. The institutional reproduction at icd.go.cr served the consolidated Act, and ministeriodesalud.go.cr served the national list and the circulars. The schedule pages were checked for hidden content: the list PDF holds one image object repeated on all 27 pages, which is the ministry letterhead, and its byte size is accounted for by that banner, so no entry is carried in an image. Entry read for this row, recorded as the list prints it: "PM 024, CAS 1239943-76-0, metoxetamina, MXE, (RS)-2-(3-metoxifenil)-2-(etilamino)ciclohexanona", in Lista II of the 1971 Convention. Carry the prescription and the dispensing label, and expect the authorisation rather than the amount to be what is asked about. There is no personal allowance to fall back on, because no article of Ley 7786 fixes a threshold. Sourcing, re derived in this pass and not carried: the two Junta de Vigilancia de Drogas urls cited by this row are DIRECTORIES and not documents. The listing page names the national fiscalisation list but does not carry it; the list is a separate PDF behind a numbered link, and that PDF is what the placement in this row actually rests on. Both documents are now fetched and cited by their own urls: "Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes", and "Lista de Estupefacientes y Sustancias Psicotropicas Sometidas a Fiscalizacion Nacional". The first carries the Otros agregados section this row's reasoning refers to [Certain, read from the fetched PDF]. The circulars page cited alongside them exposes no document at all.

MXE in Costa Rica, full detail →

Nicotine

Legal status: Not handled through the drug control model. Article 1 of Ley 7786, as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, fixes the scope by reference to the substances included in the 1961 and 1971 Conventions and the 1988 Convention, and the Ministerio de Salud reproduces those listas in Spanish in its national fiscalizacion list and adds a short Otros agregados section of national additions. No entry for nicotine appears in any of the three sections of the national list and nicotine is in neither Convention schedule, while article 1 expressly preserves the separate operation of the Ley general de salud, N 5395, so tobacco control and medicines law is where this row sits. [Certain] for the absence as at 10 September 2026, which does not rule out a later list.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Article 21 of the Constitution provides "La vida humana es inviolable", the human life is inviolable, and the word "muerte" appears zero times across the 81 pages of the consolidated Act. Both of those were measured in this pass and together they are what carries the heading. Costa Rica is an abolitionist state of long standing, [Likely] on the nineteenth century date, which was not re-derived here. Costa Rica publishes penalties for drug trafficking in articles 58 and 77 of Ley 7786, eight to fifteen years and eight to twenty years on an enumerated aggravation. Those are the country's penalties for the substances the Act covers and they are not this row's exposure, because nicotine is not one of them. The second paragraph of article 58 reaches possession only "para cualquiera de los fines expresados", that is possession for one of those trafficking purposes. Ley 7786 creates no offence of consumption and no offence of simple possession for personal use. Article 79 answers a person consuming in a public place with voluntary and free treatment in a public or private health centre, not with a penalty.
If prescribed / medical: Nicotine is regulated as an ordinary product rather than through the psychotropic prescription form, and age, licensing and advertising rules apply instead of the controls in Ley 7786.
Documentation: Consolidation read: Ley 7786 of 30 April 1998 as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, in the Texto Completo Norma 8204 print published by the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas, which carries its own generation date of 19 November 2018. The same ranges, ocho a quince anos in article 58 and de ocho a veinte anos in article 77, were independently read on 18 September 2026 against the later Sinalevi record of Ley 7786, version 13 of 13, so the 2018 print is corroborated rather than assumed current. Control model, re derived from the statute in this pass. Costa Rica prints no annex of controlled substances in its drug Act: across the 81 pages the only drug names anywhere are in article 96, on the disposal of seized marihuana, cocaina and heroina. Article 1 regulates "estupefacientes, psicotropicos, sustancias inhalables y demas drogas y farmacos susceptibles de producir dependencias fisicas o psiquicas, incluidos en la Convencion Unica sobre Estupefacientes... de 1961... asi como en el Convenio de Viena sobre Sustancias Psicotropicas, de 21 de febrero de 1971... asimismo, en la Convencion... de 1988". Its second paragraph is a different thing and is often misread as the control annex: it has the Ministerio de Salud and the MAG draw up and publish in La Gaceta "las listas de estupefacientes, psicotropicos y similares Licitos", the licit ones, which is the authorisation side. The incorporation is ambulatory: article 36 defines precursors as Cuadro I of the 1988 Convention "y sus anexos, asi como los que se le incorporen en el futuro", and article 100 gives the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas a mandate framed by the conventions and by "los listados oficiales, publicados periodicamente en La Gaceta". The second limb, measured. The national list is the Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes, Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes of the Ministerio de Salud, updated 10 September 2026 and signed that day by Dra. Mariela Alfaro Segura. It runs to 27 pages in three sections, estupefacientes, psicotropicos and Otros agregados, and it names its own legal basis as the Reglamento para el control de drogas, estupefacientes y psicotropicas N. 45161-S, the instrument cited elsewhere as Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025. The two titles are the same text. A reading of 18 September 2026 records that the decree gives the competent body the function "Elaborar y actualizar la lista de sustancias oficialmente consideradas estupefacientes o psicotropicos y similares de uso regulado" and that its five annexes are forms rather than a substance schedule; that quotation is carried from that reading and was not re derived here. The whole of Otros agregados is twelve entries: metilfenidato, tapentadol and the synthetic cannabinoid JWH-073 among the estupefacientes, and ketamina, esketamina, mexazolam, zaleplon, zopiclona and the piperazines mCPP, CPP, TFMPP and 1,4 dibencilpiperazina among the psicotropicos. Amending Act in force between that list and this reading, read in the official gazette in this pass. Ley 10961 of 9 June 2026, published in Alcance 78 to La Gaceta 113 of 19 June 2026, provides "Rige tres meses a partir de su publicacion" and so took effect on 19 September 2026. It runs to four articles: it adds article 15 quater to Ley 7786 on the anti-money-laundering duties of virtual asset service providers, carries that cross reference into articles 16, 16 bis, 25, 33, 33 bis, 86 and 123, reforms the article 81 administrative fines, and allows three months for regulations. Every Ley 7786 article it touches is money laundering machinery, and it leaves articles 1, 2, 36, 58, 73, 74, 77, 77 bis and 79 untouched, so it moves no row in this batch. Method note. The 2026-09-20 Costa Rica dossier was used only as the slug list and as one of the two term list sources. Its outcome column, its instrument column and its quotation column were not treated as evidence and no placement in this batch rests on them; every placement is the entry read in the list the statute incorporates. Two of its readings were not adopted: it treated ergometrina and ergina as one row when they are separate substances on separate limbs, and it left dextrometorfano unresolved when the instrument excludes it in terms. Sibling name traps were checked rather than assumed. Anchored matching correctly did not return bencilmorfina, desomorfina, dihidromorfina, metildihidromorfina, mirofina or diacetilmorfina for the morfina row, isometadona, normetadona or the metadona intermediario for the metadona row, metcatinona or 4-metiletcatinona for the catinona row, MMDA or N-etil MDA for the MDA row, beta-ceto-MDMA for the MDMA row, levometanfetamina for the metanfetamina row, PCPY for the PCP row, brolanfetamina for the anfetamina row, or norpseudoefedrina for the efedrina row. Two extraction zeroes were false and were recovered by re interrogation: hexahidrocannabinol and 2-fluorodescloroketamina are both line wrapped in the source and a column based read missed both. Routes run for the instrument in this pass. pgrweb.go.cr/scij is a JavaScript shell: the Ley 8204 and Ley 7786 records and the sinalevi.go.cr record each returned about 25 KB that renders to 1,159 characters of site chrome and no statutory text, so a size threshold would have cleared all three. imprentanacional.go.cr served the official gazette carrying Ley 10961. The institutional reproduction at icd.go.cr served the consolidated Act, and ministeriodesalud.go.cr served the national list and the circulars. The schedule pages were checked for hidden content: the list PDF holds one image object repeated on all 27 pages, which is the ministry letterhead, and its byte size is accounted for by that banner, so no entry is carried in an image. Search run for this row: nicotine returned no entry across the estupefacientes, psicotropicos and Otros agregados sections of the national list as at 10 September 2026, and none in the Green List or the Yellow List. A later list than the one read does not rule out a change. Carry any prescription and its dispensing label, and treat the position as open rather than settled. Sourcing, re derived in this pass and not carried: the two Junta de Vigilancia de Drogas urls cited by this row are DIRECTORIES and not documents. The listing page names the national fiscalisation list but does not carry it; the list is a separate PDF behind a numbered link, and that PDF is what the placement in this row actually rests on. Both documents are now fetched and cited by their own urls: "Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes", and "Lista de Estupefacientes y Sustancias Psicotropicas Sometidas a Fiscalizacion Nacional". The first carries the Otros agregados section this row's reasoning refers to [Certain, read from the fetched PDF]. The circulars page cited alongside them exposes no document at all.

Nicotine in Costa Rica, full detail →

Nimetazepam

Legal status: Controlled. Article 1 of Ley 7786, as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, fixes the scope by reference to the substances included in the 1961 and 1971 Conventions and the 1988 Convention, and the Ministerio de Salud reproduces those listas in Spanish in its national fiscalizacion list and adds a short Otros agregados section of national additions. This row was read as a named entry in Lista IV of the 1971 Convention. The offence articles are 58 and 77. [Certain] for the placement, with the entry text recorded in the documentation.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Article 21 of the Constitution provides "La vida humana es inviolable", the human life is inviolable, and the word "muerte" appears zero times across the 81 pages of the consolidated Act. Both of those were measured in this pass and together they are what carries the heading. Costa Rica is an abolitionist state of long standing, [Likely] on the nineteenth century date, which was not re-derived here. Unauthorised trafficking conduct carries eight to fifteen years. Article 58 provides "Se impondra pena de prision de ocho a quince anos a quien, sin autorizacion legal, distribuya, comercie, suministre, fabrique, elabore, refine, transforme, extraiga, prepare, cultive, produzca, transporte, almacene o venda las drogas". That is eight to fifteen years for unauthorised distribution, commerce, supply, manufacture, processing, extraction, preparation, cultivation, production, transport, storage or sale. Article 77 raises the range to eight to twenty years where one of its eight enumerated aggravating circumstances is present, and twenty years is the ceiling this Act identifies. No article states a weight threshold, so the trigger is the unauthorised act and never a quantity. The second paragraph of article 58 reaches possession only "para cualquiera de los fines expresados", that is possession for one of those trafficking purposes. Ley 7786 creates no offence of consumption and no offence of simple possession for personal use. Article 79 answers a person consuming in a public place with voluntary and free treatment in a public or private health centre, not with a penalty.
If prescribed / medical: A lawful medical route exists only through the authorisation the Act itself demands. Article 58 opens with the words "sin autorizacion legal", so conduct carried out under a Costa Rican authorisation falls outside the offence and conduct without one falls inside it whatever the amount. Article 2 confines handling to the quantities needed for medical treatment, toxicological and chemical analysis and research, and requires authorised prescribers to use the official forms supplied by the Ministerio de Salud, whose entries carry the character of a sworn declaration. The Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes administers that control under Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025 and publishes the fiscalizacion list. The national list files this row among the psicotropicos rather than the estupefacientes, which is the less strict of the two prescription regimes it operates.
Documentation: Consolidation read: Ley 7786 of 30 April 1998 as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, in the Texto Completo Norma 8204 print published by the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas, which carries its own generation date of 19 November 2018. The same ranges, ocho a quince anos in article 58 and de ocho a veinte anos in article 77, were independently read on 18 September 2026 against the later Sinalevi record of Ley 7786, version 13 of 13, so the 2018 print is corroborated rather than assumed current. Control model, re derived from the statute in this pass. Costa Rica prints no annex of controlled substances in its drug Act: across the 81 pages the only drug names anywhere are in article 96, on the disposal of seized marihuana, cocaina and heroina. Article 1 regulates "estupefacientes, psicotropicos, sustancias inhalables y demas drogas y farmacos susceptibles de producir dependencias fisicas o psiquicas, incluidos en la Convencion Unica sobre Estupefacientes... de 1961... asi como en el Convenio de Viena sobre Sustancias Psicotropicas, de 21 de febrero de 1971... asimismo, en la Convencion... de 1988". Its second paragraph is a different thing and is often misread as the control annex: it has the Ministerio de Salud and the MAG draw up and publish in La Gaceta "las listas de estupefacientes, psicotropicos y similares Licitos", the licit ones, which is the authorisation side. The incorporation is ambulatory: article 36 defines precursors as Cuadro I of the 1988 Convention "y sus anexos, asi como los que se le incorporen en el futuro", and article 100 gives the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas a mandate framed by the conventions and by "los listados oficiales, publicados periodicamente en La Gaceta". The second limb, measured. The national list is the Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes, Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes of the Ministerio de Salud, updated 10 September 2026 and signed that day by Dra. Mariela Alfaro Segura. It runs to 27 pages in three sections, estupefacientes, psicotropicos and Otros agregados, and it names its own legal basis as the Reglamento para el control de drogas, estupefacientes y psicotropicas N. 45161-S, the instrument cited elsewhere as Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025. The two titles are the same text. A reading of 18 September 2026 records that the decree gives the competent body the function "Elaborar y actualizar la lista de sustancias oficialmente consideradas estupefacientes o psicotropicos y similares de uso regulado" and that its five annexes are forms rather than a substance schedule; that quotation is carried from that reading and was not re derived here. The whole of Otros agregados is twelve entries: metilfenidato, tapentadol and the synthetic cannabinoid JWH-073 among the estupefacientes, and ketamina, esketamina, mexazolam, zaleplon, zopiclona and the piperazines mCPP, CPP, TFMPP and 1,4 dibencilpiperazina among the psicotropicos. Amending Act in force between that list and this reading, read in the official gazette in this pass. Ley 10961 of 9 June 2026, published in Alcance 78 to La Gaceta 113 of 19 June 2026, provides "Rige tres meses a partir de su publicacion" and so took effect on 19 September 2026. It runs to four articles: it adds article 15 quater to Ley 7786 on the anti-money-laundering duties of virtual asset service providers, carries that cross reference into articles 16, 16 bis, 25, 33, 33 bis, 86 and 123, reforms the article 81 administrative fines, and allows three months for regulations. Every Ley 7786 article it touches is money laundering machinery, and it leaves articles 1, 2, 36, 58, 73, 74, 77, 77 bis and 79 untouched, so it moves no row in this batch. Method note. The 2026-09-20 Costa Rica dossier was used only as the slug list and as one of the two term list sources. Its outcome column, its instrument column and its quotation column were not treated as evidence and no placement in this batch rests on them; every placement is the entry read in the list the statute incorporates. Two of its readings were not adopted: it treated ergometrina and ergina as one row when they are separate substances on separate limbs, and it left dextrometorfano unresolved when the instrument excludes it in terms. Sibling name traps were checked rather than assumed. Anchored matching correctly did not return bencilmorfina, desomorfina, dihidromorfina, metildihidromorfina, mirofina or diacetilmorfina for the morfina row, isometadona, normetadona or the metadona intermediario for the metadona row, metcatinona or 4-metiletcatinona for the catinona row, MMDA or N-etil MDA for the MDA row, beta-ceto-MDMA for the MDMA row, levometanfetamina for the metanfetamina row, PCPY for the PCP row, brolanfetamina for the anfetamina row, or norpseudoefedrina for the efedrina row. Two extraction zeroes were false and were recovered by re interrogation: hexahidrocannabinol and 2-fluorodescloroketamina are both line wrapped in the source and a column based read missed both. Routes run for the instrument in this pass. pgrweb.go.cr/scij is a JavaScript shell: the Ley 8204 and Ley 7786 records and the sinalevi.go.cr record each returned about 25 KB that renders to 1,159 characters of site chrome and no statutory text, so a size threshold would have cleared all three. imprentanacional.go.cr served the official gazette carrying Ley 10961. The institutional reproduction at icd.go.cr served the consolidated Act, and ministeriodesalud.go.cr served the national list and the circulars. The schedule pages were checked for hidden content: the list PDF holds one image object repeated on all 27 pages, which is the ministry letterhead, and its byte size is accounted for by that banner, so no entry is carried in an image. Entry read for this row, recorded as the list prints it: "PN 001, CAS 2011-67-8, Nimetazepam, 1,3-dihidro-1-metil-7-nitro-5-fenil-2H-1,4-benzodiazepin-2-ona", in Lista IV of the 1971 Convention. Carry the prescription and the dispensing label, and expect the authorisation rather than the amount to be what is asked about. There is no personal allowance to fall back on, because no article of Ley 7786 fixes a threshold. Sourcing, re derived in this pass and not carried: the two Junta de Vigilancia de Drogas urls cited by this row are DIRECTORIES and not documents. The listing page names the national fiscalisation list but does not carry it; the list is a separate PDF behind a numbered link, and that PDF is what the placement in this row actually rests on. Both documents are now fetched and cited by their own urls: "Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes", and "Lista de Estupefacientes y Sustancias Psicotropicas Sometidas a Fiscalizacion Nacional". The first carries the Otros agregados section this row's reasoning refers to [Certain, read from the fetched PDF]. The circulars page cited alongside them exposes no document at all.

Nimetazepam in Costa Rica, full detail →

Opium

Legal status: Controlled. Article 1 of Ley 7786, as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, fixes the scope by reference to the substances included in the 1961 and 1971 Conventions and the 1988 Convention, and the Ministerio de Salud reproduces those listas in Spanish in its national fiscalizacion list and adds a short Otros agregados section of national additions. This row was read as a named entry in Lista I of the 1961 Convention. The offence articles are 58 and 77. [Certain] for the placement, with the entry text recorded in the documentation.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Article 21 of the Constitution provides "La vida humana es inviolable", the human life is inviolable, and the word "muerte" appears zero times across the 81 pages of the consolidated Act. Both of those were measured in this pass and together they are what carries the heading. Costa Rica is an abolitionist state of long standing, [Likely] on the nineteenth century date, which was not re-derived here. Unauthorised trafficking conduct carries eight to fifteen years. Article 58 provides "Se impondra pena de prision de ocho a quince anos a quien, sin autorizacion legal, distribuya, comercie, suministre, fabrique, elabore, refine, transforme, extraiga, prepare, cultive, produzca, transporte, almacene o venda las drogas". That is eight to fifteen years for unauthorised distribution, commerce, supply, manufacture, processing, extraction, preparation, cultivation, production, transport, storage or sale. Article 77 raises the range to eight to twenty years where one of its eight enumerated aggravating circumstances is present, and twenty years is the ceiling this Act identifies. No article states a weight threshold, so the trigger is the unauthorised act and never a quantity. The second paragraph of article 58 reaches possession only "para cualquiera de los fines expresados", that is possession for one of those trafficking purposes. Ley 7786 creates no offence of consumption and no offence of simple possession for personal use. Article 79 answers a person consuming in a public place with voluntary and free treatment in a public or private health centre, not with a penalty.
If prescribed / medical: A lawful medical route exists only through the authorisation the Act itself demands. Article 58 opens with the words "sin autorizacion legal", so conduct carried out under a Costa Rican authorisation falls outside the offence and conduct without one falls inside it whatever the amount. Article 2 confines handling to the quantities needed for medical treatment, toxicological and chemical analysis and research, and requires authorised prescribers to use the official forms supplied by the Ministerio de Salud, whose entries carry the character of a sworn declaration. The Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes administers that control under Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025 and publishes the fiscalizacion list. The national list files this row among the estupefacientes, the narcotic half, which is the stricter of the two prescription regimes it operates.
Documentation: Consolidation read: Ley 7786 of 30 April 1998 as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, in the Texto Completo Norma 8204 print published by the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas, which carries its own generation date of 19 November 2018. The same ranges, ocho a quince anos in article 58 and de ocho a veinte anos in article 77, were independently read on 18 September 2026 against the later Sinalevi record of Ley 7786, version 13 of 13, so the 2018 print is corroborated rather than assumed current. Control model, re derived from the statute in this pass. Costa Rica prints no annex of controlled substances in its drug Act: across the 81 pages the only drug names anywhere are in article 96, on the disposal of seized marihuana, cocaina and heroina. Article 1 regulates "estupefacientes, psicotropicos, sustancias inhalables y demas drogas y farmacos susceptibles de producir dependencias fisicas o psiquicas, incluidos en la Convencion Unica sobre Estupefacientes... de 1961... asi como en el Convenio de Viena sobre Sustancias Psicotropicas, de 21 de febrero de 1971... asimismo, en la Convencion... de 1988". Its second paragraph is a different thing and is often misread as the control annex: it has the Ministerio de Salud and the MAG draw up and publish in La Gaceta "las listas de estupefacientes, psicotropicos y similares Licitos", the licit ones, which is the authorisation side. The incorporation is ambulatory: article 36 defines precursors as Cuadro I of the 1988 Convention "y sus anexos, asi como los que se le incorporen en el futuro", and article 100 gives the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas a mandate framed by the conventions and by "los listados oficiales, publicados periodicamente en La Gaceta". The second limb, measured. The national list is the Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes, Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes of the Ministerio de Salud, updated 10 September 2026 and signed that day by Dra. Mariela Alfaro Segura. It runs to 27 pages in three sections, estupefacientes, psicotropicos and Otros agregados, and it names its own legal basis as the Reglamento para el control de drogas, estupefacientes y psicotropicas N. 45161-S, the instrument cited elsewhere as Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025. The two titles are the same text. A reading of 18 September 2026 records that the decree gives the competent body the function "Elaborar y actualizar la lista de sustancias oficialmente consideradas estupefacientes o psicotropicos y similares de uso regulado" and that its five annexes are forms rather than a substance schedule; that quotation is carried from that reading and was not re derived here. The whole of Otros agregados is twelve entries: metilfenidato, tapentadol and the synthetic cannabinoid JWH-073 among the estupefacientes, and ketamina, esketamina, mexazolam, zaleplon, zopiclona and the piperazines mCPP, CPP, TFMPP and 1,4 dibencilpiperazina among the psicotropicos. Amending Act in force between that list and this reading, read in the official gazette in this pass. Ley 10961 of 9 June 2026, published in Alcance 78 to La Gaceta 113 of 19 June 2026, provides "Rige tres meses a partir de su publicacion" and so took effect on 19 September 2026. It runs to four articles: it adds article 15 quater to Ley 7786 on the anti-money-laundering duties of virtual asset service providers, carries that cross reference into articles 16, 16 bis, 25, 33, 33 bis, 86 and 123, reforms the article 81 administrative fines, and allows three months for regulations. Every Ley 7786 article it touches is money laundering machinery, and it leaves articles 1, 2, 36, 58, 73, 74, 77, 77 bis and 79 untouched, so it moves no row in this batch. Method note. The 2026-09-20 Costa Rica dossier was used only as the slug list and as one of the two term list sources. Its outcome column, its instrument column and its quotation column were not treated as evidence and no placement in this batch rests on them; every placement is the entry read in the list the statute incorporates. Two of its readings were not adopted: it treated ergometrina and ergina as one row when they are separate substances on separate limbs, and it left dextrometorfano unresolved when the instrument excludes it in terms. Sibling name traps were checked rather than assumed. Anchored matching correctly did not return bencilmorfina, desomorfina, dihidromorfina, metildihidromorfina, mirofina or diacetilmorfina for the morfina row, isometadona, normetadona or the metadona intermediario for the metadona row, metcatinona or 4-metiletcatinona for the catinona row, MMDA or N-etil MDA for the MDA row, beta-ceto-MDMA for the MDMA row, levometanfetamina for the metanfetamina row, PCPY for the PCP row, brolanfetamina for the anfetamina row, or norpseudoefedrina for the efedrina row. Two extraction zeroes were false and were recovered by re interrogation: hexahidrocannabinol and 2-fluorodescloroketamina are both line wrapped in the source and a column based read missed both. Routes run for the instrument in this pass. pgrweb.go.cr/scij is a JavaScript shell: the Ley 8204 and Ley 7786 records and the sinalevi.go.cr record each returned about 25 KB that renders to 1,159 characters of site chrome and no statutory text, so a size threshold would have cleared all three. imprentanacional.go.cr served the official gazette carrying Ley 10961. The institutional reproduction at icd.go.cr served the consolidated Act, and ministeriodesalud.go.cr served the national list and the circulars. The schedule pages were checked for hidden content: the list PDF holds one image object repeated on all 27 pages, which is the ministry letterhead, and its byte size is accounted for by that banner, so no entry is carried in an image. Entry read for this row, recorded as the list prints it: "NO 001, CAS 8008-60-4, Opio, jugo coagulado de la adormidera (planta de la especie Papaver somniferum L.)", in Lista I of the 1961 Convention. Carry the prescription and the dispensing label, and expect the authorisation rather than the amount to be what is asked about. There is no personal allowance to fall back on, because no article of Ley 7786 fixes a threshold. Sourcing, re derived in this pass and not carried: the two Junta de Vigilancia de Drogas urls cited by this row are DIRECTORIES and not documents. The listing page names the national fiscalisation list but does not carry it; the list is a separate PDF behind a numbered link, and that PDF is what the placement in this row actually rests on. Both documents are now fetched and cited by their own urls: "Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes", and "Lista de Estupefacientes y Sustancias Psicotropicas Sometidas a Fiscalizacion Nacional". The first carries the Otros agregados section this row's reasoning refers to [Certain, read from the fetched PDF]. The circulars page cited alongside them exposes no document at all.

Opium in Costa Rica, full detail →

Oxycodone

Legal status: Controlled. Article 1 of Ley 7786, as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, fixes the scope by reference to the substances included in the 1961 and 1971 Conventions and the 1988 Convention, and the Ministerio de Salud reproduces those listas in Spanish in its national fiscalizacion list and adds a short Otros agregados section of national additions. This row was read as a named entry in Lista I of the 1961 Convention. The offence articles are 58 and 77. [Certain] for the placement, with the entry text recorded in the documentation.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Article 21 of the Constitution provides "La vida humana es inviolable", the human life is inviolable, and the word "muerte" appears zero times across the 81 pages of the consolidated Act. Both of those were measured in this pass and together they are what carries the heading. Costa Rica is an abolitionist state of long standing, [Likely] on the nineteenth century date, which was not re-derived here. Unauthorised trafficking conduct carries eight to fifteen years. Article 58 provides "Se impondra pena de prision de ocho a quince anos a quien, sin autorizacion legal, distribuya, comercie, suministre, fabrique, elabore, refine, transforme, extraiga, prepare, cultive, produzca, transporte, almacene o venda las drogas". That is eight to fifteen years for unauthorised distribution, commerce, supply, manufacture, processing, extraction, preparation, cultivation, production, transport, storage or sale. Article 77 raises the range to eight to twenty years where one of its eight enumerated aggravating circumstances is present, and twenty years is the ceiling this Act identifies. No article states a weight threshold, so the trigger is the unauthorised act and never a quantity. The second paragraph of article 58 reaches possession only "para cualquiera de los fines expresados", that is possession for one of those trafficking purposes. Ley 7786 creates no offence of consumption and no offence of simple possession for personal use. Article 79 answers a person consuming in a public place with voluntary and free treatment in a public or private health centre, not with a penalty.
If prescribed / medical: A lawful medical route exists only through the authorisation the Act itself demands. Article 58 opens with the words "sin autorizacion legal", so conduct carried out under a Costa Rican authorisation falls outside the offence and conduct without one falls inside it whatever the amount. Article 2 confines handling to the quantities needed for medical treatment, toxicological and chemical analysis and research, and requires authorised prescribers to use the official forms supplied by the Ministerio de Salud, whose entries carry the character of a sworn declaration. The Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes administers that control under Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025 and publishes the fiscalizacion list. The national list files this row among the estupefacientes, the narcotic half, which is the stricter of the two prescription regimes it operates.
Documentation: Consolidation read: Ley 7786 of 30 April 1998 as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, in the Texto Completo Norma 8204 print published by the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas, which carries its own generation date of 19 November 2018. The same ranges, ocho a quince anos in article 58 and de ocho a veinte anos in article 77, were independently read on 18 September 2026 against the later Sinalevi record of Ley 7786, version 13 of 13, so the 2018 print is corroborated rather than assumed current. Control model, re derived from the statute in this pass. Costa Rica prints no annex of controlled substances in its drug Act: across the 81 pages the only drug names anywhere are in article 96, on the disposal of seized marihuana, cocaina and heroina. Article 1 regulates "estupefacientes, psicotropicos, sustancias inhalables y demas drogas y farmacos susceptibles de producir dependencias fisicas o psiquicas, incluidos en la Convencion Unica sobre Estupefacientes... de 1961... asi como en el Convenio de Viena sobre Sustancias Psicotropicas, de 21 de febrero de 1971... asimismo, en la Convencion... de 1988". Its second paragraph is a different thing and is often misread as the control annex: it has the Ministerio de Salud and the MAG draw up and publish in La Gaceta "las listas de estupefacientes, psicotropicos y similares Licitos", the licit ones, which is the authorisation side. The incorporation is ambulatory: article 36 defines precursors as Cuadro I of the 1988 Convention "y sus anexos, asi como los que se le incorporen en el futuro", and article 100 gives the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas a mandate framed by the conventions and by "los listados oficiales, publicados periodicamente en La Gaceta". The second limb, measured. The national list is the Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes, Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes of the Ministerio de Salud, updated 10 September 2026 and signed that day by Dra. Mariela Alfaro Segura. It runs to 27 pages in three sections, estupefacientes, psicotropicos and Otros agregados, and it names its own legal basis as the Reglamento para el control de drogas, estupefacientes y psicotropicas N. 45161-S, the instrument cited elsewhere as Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025. The two titles are the same text. A reading of 18 September 2026 records that the decree gives the competent body the function "Elaborar y actualizar la lista de sustancias oficialmente consideradas estupefacientes o psicotropicos y similares de uso regulado" and that its five annexes are forms rather than a substance schedule; that quotation is carried from that reading and was not re derived here. The whole of Otros agregados is twelve entries: metilfenidato, tapentadol and the synthetic cannabinoid JWH-073 among the estupefacientes, and ketamina, esketamina, mexazolam, zaleplon, zopiclona and the piperazines mCPP, CPP, TFMPP and 1,4 dibencilpiperazina among the psicotropicos. Amending Act in force between that list and this reading, read in the official gazette in this pass. Ley 10961 of 9 June 2026, published in Alcance 78 to La Gaceta 113 of 19 June 2026, provides "Rige tres meses a partir de su publicacion" and so took effect on 19 September 2026. It runs to four articles: it adds article 15 quater to Ley 7786 on the anti-money-laundering duties of virtual asset service providers, carries that cross reference into articles 16, 16 bis, 25, 33, 33 bis, 86 and 123, reforms the article 81 administrative fines, and allows three months for regulations. Every Ley 7786 article it touches is money laundering machinery, and it leaves articles 1, 2, 36, 58, 73, 74, 77, 77 bis and 79 untouched, so it moves no row in this batch. Method note. The 2026-09-20 Costa Rica dossier was used only as the slug list and as one of the two term list sources. Its outcome column, its instrument column and its quotation column were not treated as evidence and no placement in this batch rests on them; every placement is the entry read in the list the statute incorporates. Two of its readings were not adopted: it treated ergometrina and ergina as one row when they are separate substances on separate limbs, and it left dextrometorfano unresolved when the instrument excludes it in terms. Sibling name traps were checked rather than assumed. Anchored matching correctly did not return bencilmorfina, desomorfina, dihidromorfina, metildihidromorfina, mirofina or diacetilmorfina for the morfina row, isometadona, normetadona or the metadona intermediario for the metadona row, metcatinona or 4-metiletcatinona for the catinona row, MMDA or N-etil MDA for the MDA row, beta-ceto-MDMA for the MDMA row, levometanfetamina for the metanfetamina row, PCPY for the PCP row, brolanfetamina for the anfetamina row, or norpseudoefedrina for the efedrina row. Two extraction zeroes were false and were recovered by re interrogation: hexahidrocannabinol and 2-fluorodescloroketamina are both line wrapped in the source and a column based read missed both. Routes run for the instrument in this pass. pgrweb.go.cr/scij is a JavaScript shell: the Ley 8204 and Ley 7786 records and the sinalevi.go.cr record each returned about 25 KB that renders to 1,159 characters of site chrome and no statutory text, so a size threshold would have cleared all three. imprentanacional.go.cr served the official gazette carrying Ley 10961. The institutional reproduction at icd.go.cr served the consolidated Act, and ministeriodesalud.go.cr served the national list and the circulars. The schedule pages were checked for hidden content: the list PDF holds one image object repeated on all 27 pages, which is the ministry letterhead, and its byte size is accounted for by that banner, so no entry is carried in an image. Entry read for this row, recorded as the list prints it: "NO 002, CAS 76-42-6, Oxicodona, 14-hidroxidihidrocodeinona (derivado de la morfina)", in Lista I of the 1961 Convention. Carry the prescription and the dispensing label, and expect the authorisation rather than the amount to be what is asked about. There is no personal allowance to fall back on, because no article of Ley 7786 fixes a threshold. Sourcing, re derived in this pass and not carried: the two Junta de Vigilancia de Drogas urls cited by this row are DIRECTORIES and not documents. The listing page names the national fiscalisation list but does not carry it; the list is a separate PDF behind a numbered link, and that PDF is what the placement in this row actually rests on. Both documents are now fetched and cited by their own urls: "Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes", and "Lista de Estupefacientes y Sustancias Psicotropicas Sometidas a Fiscalizacion Nacional". The first carries the Otros agregados section this row's reasoning refers to [Certain, read from the fetched PDF]. The circulars page cited alongside them exposes no document at all.

Oxycodone in Costa Rica, full detail →

PCP

Legal status: Controlled. Article 1 of Ley 7786, as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, fixes the scope by reference to the substances included in the 1961 and 1971 Conventions and the 1988 Convention, and the Ministerio de Salud reproduces those listas in Spanish in its national fiscalizacion list and adds a short Otros agregados section of national additions. This row was read as a named entry in Lista II of the 1971 Convention. The offence articles are 58 and 77. [Certain] for the placement, with the entry text recorded in the documentation.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Article 21 of the Constitution provides "La vida humana es inviolable", the human life is inviolable, and the word "muerte" appears zero times across the 81 pages of the consolidated Act. Both of those were measured in this pass and together they are what carries the heading. Costa Rica is an abolitionist state of long standing, [Likely] on the nineteenth century date, which was not re-derived here. Unauthorised trafficking conduct carries eight to fifteen years. Article 58 provides "Se impondra pena de prision de ocho a quince anos a quien, sin autorizacion legal, distribuya, comercie, suministre, fabrique, elabore, refine, transforme, extraiga, prepare, cultive, produzca, transporte, almacene o venda las drogas". That is eight to fifteen years for unauthorised distribution, commerce, supply, manufacture, processing, extraction, preparation, cultivation, production, transport, storage or sale. Article 77 raises the range to eight to twenty years where one of its eight enumerated aggravating circumstances is present, and twenty years is the ceiling this Act identifies. No article states a weight threshold, so the trigger is the unauthorised act and never a quantity. The second paragraph of article 58 reaches possession only "para cualquiera de los fines expresados", that is possession for one of those trafficking purposes. Ley 7786 creates no offence of consumption and no offence of simple possession for personal use. Article 79 answers a person consuming in a public place with voluntary and free treatment in a public or private health centre, not with a penalty.
If prescribed / medical: A lawful medical route exists only through the authorisation the Act itself demands. Article 58 opens with the words "sin autorizacion legal", so conduct carried out under a Costa Rican authorisation falls outside the offence and conduct without one falls inside it whatever the amount. Article 2 confines handling to the quantities needed for medical treatment, toxicological and chemical analysis and research, and requires authorised prescribers to use the official forms supplied by the Ministerio de Salud, whose entries carry the character of a sworn declaration. The Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes administers that control under Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025 and publishes the fiscalizacion list. The national list files this row among the psicotropicos rather than the estupefacientes, which is the less strict of the two prescription regimes it operates.
Documentation: Consolidation read: Ley 7786 of 30 April 1998 as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, in the Texto Completo Norma 8204 print published by the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas, which carries its own generation date of 19 November 2018. The same ranges, ocho a quince anos in article 58 and de ocho a veinte anos in article 77, were independently read on 18 September 2026 against the later Sinalevi record of Ley 7786, version 13 of 13, so the 2018 print is corroborated rather than assumed current. Control model, re derived from the statute in this pass. Costa Rica prints no annex of controlled substances in its drug Act: across the 81 pages the only drug names anywhere are in article 96, on the disposal of seized marihuana, cocaina and heroina. Article 1 regulates "estupefacientes, psicotropicos, sustancias inhalables y demas drogas y farmacos susceptibles de producir dependencias fisicas o psiquicas, incluidos en la Convencion Unica sobre Estupefacientes... de 1961... asi como en el Convenio de Viena sobre Sustancias Psicotropicas, de 21 de febrero de 1971... asimismo, en la Convencion... de 1988". Its second paragraph is a different thing and is often misread as the control annex: it has the Ministerio de Salud and the MAG draw up and publish in La Gaceta "las listas de estupefacientes, psicotropicos y similares Licitos", the licit ones, which is the authorisation side. The incorporation is ambulatory: article 36 defines precursors as Cuadro I of the 1988 Convention "y sus anexos, asi como los que se le incorporen en el futuro", and article 100 gives the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas a mandate framed by the conventions and by "los listados oficiales, publicados periodicamente en La Gaceta". The second limb, measured. The national list is the Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes, Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes of the Ministerio de Salud, updated 10 September 2026 and signed that day by Dra. Mariela Alfaro Segura. It runs to 27 pages in three sections, estupefacientes, psicotropicos and Otros agregados, and it names its own legal basis as the Reglamento para el control de drogas, estupefacientes y psicotropicas N. 45161-S, the instrument cited elsewhere as Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025. The two titles are the same text. A reading of 18 September 2026 records that the decree gives the competent body the function "Elaborar y actualizar la lista de sustancias oficialmente consideradas estupefacientes o psicotropicos y similares de uso regulado" and that its five annexes are forms rather than a substance schedule; that quotation is carried from that reading and was not re derived here. The whole of Otros agregados is twelve entries: metilfenidato, tapentadol and the synthetic cannabinoid JWH-073 among the estupefacientes, and ketamina, esketamina, mexazolam, zaleplon, zopiclona and the piperazines mCPP, CPP, TFMPP and 1,4 dibencilpiperazina among the psicotropicos. Amending Act in force between that list and this reading, read in the official gazette in this pass. Ley 10961 of 9 June 2026, published in Alcance 78 to La Gaceta 113 of 19 June 2026, provides "Rige tres meses a partir de su publicacion" and so took effect on 19 September 2026. It runs to four articles: it adds article 15 quater to Ley 7786 on the anti-money-laundering duties of virtual asset service providers, carries that cross reference into articles 16, 16 bis, 25, 33, 33 bis, 86 and 123, reforms the article 81 administrative fines, and allows three months for regulations. Every Ley 7786 article it touches is money laundering machinery, and it leaves articles 1, 2, 36, 58, 73, 74, 77, 77 bis and 79 untouched, so it moves no row in this batch. Method note. The 2026-09-20 Costa Rica dossier was used only as the slug list and as one of the two term list sources. Its outcome column, its instrument column and its quotation column were not treated as evidence and no placement in this batch rests on them; every placement is the entry read in the list the statute incorporates. Two of its readings were not adopted: it treated ergometrina and ergina as one row when they are separate substances on separate limbs, and it left dextrometorfano unresolved when the instrument excludes it in terms. Sibling name traps were checked rather than assumed. Anchored matching correctly did not return bencilmorfina, desomorfina, dihidromorfina, metildihidromorfina, mirofina or diacetilmorfina for the morfina row, isometadona, normetadona or the metadona intermediario for the metadona row, metcatinona or 4-metiletcatinona for the catinona row, MMDA or N-etil MDA for the MDA row, beta-ceto-MDMA for the MDMA row, levometanfetamina for the metanfetamina row, PCPY for the PCP row, brolanfetamina for the anfetamina row, or norpseudoefedrina for the efedrina row. Two extraction zeroes were false and were recovered by re interrogation: hexahidrocannabinol and 2-fluorodescloroketamina are both line wrapped in the source and a column based read missed both. Routes run for the instrument in this pass. pgrweb.go.cr/scij is a JavaScript shell: the Ley 8204 and Ley 7786 records and the sinalevi.go.cr record each returned about 25 KB that renders to 1,159 characters of site chrome and no statutory text, so a size threshold would have cleared all three. imprentanacional.go.cr served the official gazette carrying Ley 10961. The institutional reproduction at icd.go.cr served the consolidated Act, and ministeriodesalud.go.cr served the national list and the circulars. The schedule pages were checked for hidden content: the list PDF holds one image object repeated on all 27 pages, which is the ministry letterhead, and its byte size is accounted for by that banner, so no entry is carried in an image. Entry read for this row, recorded as the list prints it: "PP 005, CAS 77-10-1, Fenciclidina / PCP, 1-(1-fenilciclohexil)piperidina", in Lista II of the 1971 Convention. Carry the prescription and the dispensing label, and expect the authorisation rather than the amount to be what is asked about. There is no personal allowance to fall back on, because no article of Ley 7786 fixes a threshold. Sourcing, re derived in this pass and not carried: the two Junta de Vigilancia de Drogas urls cited by this row are DIRECTORIES and not documents. The listing page names the national fiscalisation list but does not carry it; the list is a separate PDF behind a numbered link, and that PDF is what the placement in this row actually rests on. Both documents are now fetched and cited by their own urls: "Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes", and "Lista de Estupefacientes y Sustancias Psicotropicas Sometidas a Fiscalizacion Nacional". The first carries the Otros agregados section this row's reasoning refers to [Certain, read from the fetched PDF]. The circulars page cited alongside them exposes no document at all.

PCP in Costa Rica, full detail →

Peyote

Legal status: Controlled through named members rather than through one entry, so the exposure turns on which member is in hand. Article 1 of Ley 7786, as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, fixes the scope by reference to the substances included in the 1961 and 1971 Conventions and the 1988 Convention, and the Ministerio de Salud reproduces those listas in Spanish in its national fiscalizacion list and adds a short Otros agregados section of national additions. The members were read in Lista I of the 1971 Convention. The offence articles are 58 and 77. [Certain] for the placements, with the entry text recorded in the documentation.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Article 21 of the Constitution provides "La vida humana es inviolable", the human life is inviolable, and the word "muerte" appears zero times across the 81 pages of the consolidated Act. Both of those were measured in this pass and together they are what carries the heading. Costa Rica is an abolitionist state of long standing, [Likely] on the nineteenth century date, which was not re-derived here. Unauthorised trafficking conduct carries eight to fifteen years. Article 58 provides "Se impondra pena de prision de ocho a quince anos a quien, sin autorizacion legal, distribuya, comercie, suministre, fabrique, elabore, refine, transforme, extraiga, prepare, cultive, produzca, transporte, almacene o venda las drogas". That is eight to fifteen years for unauthorised distribution, commerce, supply, manufacture, processing, extraction, preparation, cultivation, production, transport, storage or sale. Article 77 raises the range to eight to twenty years where one of its eight enumerated aggravating circumstances is present, and twenty years is the ceiling this Act identifies. No article states a weight threshold, so the trigger is the unauthorised act and never a quantity. The second paragraph of article 58 reaches possession only "para cualquiera de los fines expresados", that is possession for one of those trafficking purposes. Ley 7786 creates no offence of consumption and no offence of simple possession for personal use. Article 79 answers a person consuming in a public place with voluntary and free treatment in a public or private health centre, not with a penalty.
If prescribed / medical: A lawful medical route exists only through the authorisation the Act itself demands. Article 58 opens with the words "sin autorizacion legal", so conduct carried out under a Costa Rican authorisation falls outside the offence and conduct without one falls inside it whatever the amount. Article 2 confines handling to the quantities needed for medical treatment, toxicological and chemical analysis and research, and requires authorised prescribers to use the official forms supplied by the Ministerio de Salud, whose entries carry the character of a sworn declaration. The Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes administers that control under Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025 and publishes the fiscalizacion list. The national list files this row among the psicotropicos rather than the estupefacientes, which is the less strict of the two prescription regimes it operates.
Documentation: Consolidation read: Ley 7786 of 30 April 1998 as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, in the Texto Completo Norma 8204 print published by the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas, which carries its own generation date of 19 November 2018. The same ranges, ocho a quince anos in article 58 and de ocho a veinte anos in article 77, were independently read on 18 September 2026 against the later Sinalevi record of Ley 7786, version 13 of 13, so the 2018 print is corroborated rather than assumed current. Control model, re derived from the statute in this pass. Costa Rica prints no annex of controlled substances in its drug Act: across the 81 pages the only drug names anywhere are in article 96, on the disposal of seized marihuana, cocaina and heroina. Article 1 regulates "estupefacientes, psicotropicos, sustancias inhalables y demas drogas y farmacos susceptibles de producir dependencias fisicas o psiquicas, incluidos en la Convencion Unica sobre Estupefacientes... de 1961... asi como en el Convenio de Viena sobre Sustancias Psicotropicas, de 21 de febrero de 1971... asimismo, en la Convencion... de 1988". Its second paragraph is a different thing and is often misread as the control annex: it has the Ministerio de Salud and the MAG draw up and publish in La Gaceta "las listas de estupefacientes, psicotropicos y similares Licitos", the licit ones, which is the authorisation side. The incorporation is ambulatory: article 36 defines precursors as Cuadro I of the 1988 Convention "y sus anexos, asi como los que se le incorporen en el futuro", and article 100 gives the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas a mandate framed by the conventions and by "los listados oficiales, publicados periodicamente en La Gaceta". The second limb, measured. The national list is the Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes, Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes of the Ministerio de Salud, updated 10 September 2026 and signed that day by Dra. Mariela Alfaro Segura. It runs to 27 pages in three sections, estupefacientes, psicotropicos and Otros agregados, and it names its own legal basis as the Reglamento para el control de drogas, estupefacientes y psicotropicas N. 45161-S, the instrument cited elsewhere as Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025. The two titles are the same text. A reading of 18 September 2026 records that the decree gives the competent body the function "Elaborar y actualizar la lista de sustancias oficialmente consideradas estupefacientes o psicotropicos y similares de uso regulado" and that its five annexes are forms rather than a substance schedule; that quotation is carried from that reading and was not re derived here. The whole of Otros agregados is twelve entries: metilfenidato, tapentadol and the synthetic cannabinoid JWH-073 among the estupefacientes, and ketamina, esketamina, mexazolam, zaleplon, zopiclona and the piperazines mCPP, CPP, TFMPP and 1,4 dibencilpiperazina among the psicotropicos. Amending Act in force between that list and this reading, read in the official gazette in this pass. Ley 10961 of 9 June 2026, published in Alcance 78 to La Gaceta 113 of 19 June 2026, provides "Rige tres meses a partir de su publicacion" and so took effect on 19 September 2026. It runs to four articles: it adds article 15 quater to Ley 7786 on the anti-money-laundering duties of virtual asset service providers, carries that cross reference into articles 16, 16 bis, 25, 33, 33 bis, 86 and 123, reforms the article 81 administrative fines, and allows three months for regulations. Every Ley 7786 article it touches is money laundering machinery, and it leaves articles 1, 2, 36, 58, 73, 74, 77, 77 bis and 79 untouched, so it moves no row in this batch. Method note. The 2026-09-20 Costa Rica dossier was used only as the slug list and as one of the two term list sources. Its outcome column, its instrument column and its quotation column were not treated as evidence and no placement in this batch rests on them; every placement is the entry read in the list the statute incorporates. Two of its readings were not adopted: it treated ergometrina and ergina as one row when they are separate substances on separate limbs, and it left dextrometorfano unresolved when the instrument excludes it in terms. Sibling name traps were checked rather than assumed. Anchored matching correctly did not return bencilmorfina, desomorfina, dihidromorfina, metildihidromorfina, mirofina or diacetilmorfina for the morfina row, isometadona, normetadona or the metadona intermediario for the metadona row, metcatinona or 4-metiletcatinona for the catinona row, MMDA or N-etil MDA for the MDA row, beta-ceto-MDMA for the MDMA row, levometanfetamina for the metanfetamina row, PCPY for the PCP row, brolanfetamina for the anfetamina row, or norpseudoefedrina for the efedrina row. Two extraction zeroes were false and were recovered by re interrogation: hexahidrocannabinol and 2-fluorodescloroketamina are both line wrapped in the source and a column based read missed both. Routes run for the instrument in this pass. pgrweb.go.cr/scij is a JavaScript shell: the Ley 8204 and Ley 7786 records and the sinalevi.go.cr record each returned about 25 KB that renders to 1,159 characters of site chrome and no statutory text, so a size threshold would have cleared all three. imprentanacional.go.cr served the official gazette carrying Ley 10961. The institutional reproduction at icd.go.cr served the consolidated Act, and ministeriodesalud.go.cr served the national list and the circulars. The schedule pages were checked for hidden content: the list PDF holds one image object repeated on all 27 pages, which is the ministry letterhead, and its byte size is accounted for by that banner, so no entry is carried in an image. Peyote is a cactus rather than a listed name, and Lophophora williamsii does not appear as an entry. Its control follows the alkaloid it carries, and that alkaloid is entered: "PM 004, mescalina, 3,4,5-trimetoxifenetilamina", all in Lista I of the 1971 Convention. Carry the prescription and the dispensing label, and expect the authorisation rather than the amount to be what is asked about. There is no personal allowance to fall back on, because no article of Ley 7786 fixes a threshold. Sourcing, re derived in this pass and not carried: the two Junta de Vigilancia de Drogas urls cited by this row are DIRECTORIES and not documents. The listing page names the national fiscalisation list but does not carry it; the list is a separate PDF behind a numbered link, and that PDF is what the placement in this row actually rests on. Both documents are now fetched and cited by their own urls: "Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes", and "Lista de Estupefacientes y Sustancias Psicotropicas Sometidas a Fiscalizacion Nacional". The first carries the Otros agregados section this row's reasoning refers to [Certain, read from the fetched PDF]. The circulars page cited alongside them exposes no document at all.

Peyote in Costa Rica, full detail →

Pink Cocaine / Tusi

Legal status: Controlled through named members rather than through one entry, so the exposure turns on which member is in hand. Article 1 of Ley 7786, as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, fixes the scope by reference to the substances included in the 1961 and 1971 Conventions and the 1988 Convention, and the Ministerio de Salud reproduces those listas in Spanish in its national fiscalizacion list and adds a short Otros agregados section of national additions. The members were read in three separate places in the national list. The offence articles are 58 and 77. [Certain] for the placements, with the entry text recorded in the documentation.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Article 21 of the Constitution provides "La vida humana es inviolable", the human life is inviolable, and the word "muerte" appears zero times across the 81 pages of the consolidated Act. Both of those were measured in this pass and together they are what carries the heading. Costa Rica is an abolitionist state of long standing, [Likely] on the nineteenth century date, which was not re-derived here. Unauthorised trafficking conduct carries eight to fifteen years. Article 58 provides "Se impondra pena de prision de ocho a quince anos a quien, sin autorizacion legal, distribuya, comercie, suministre, fabrique, elabore, refine, transforme, extraiga, prepare, cultive, produzca, transporte, almacene o venda las drogas". That is eight to fifteen years for unauthorised distribution, commerce, supply, manufacture, processing, extraction, preparation, cultivation, production, transport, storage or sale. Article 77 raises the range to eight to twenty years where one of its eight enumerated aggravating circumstances is present, and twenty years is the ceiling this Act identifies. No article states a weight threshold, so the trigger is the unauthorised act and never a quantity. The second paragraph of article 58 reaches possession only "para cualquiera de los fines expresados", that is possession for one of those trafficking purposes. Ley 7786 creates no offence of consumption and no offence of simple possession for personal use. Article 79 answers a person consuming in a public place with voluntary and free treatment in a public or private health centre, not with a penalty.
If prescribed / medical: A lawful medical route exists only through the authorisation the Act itself demands. Article 58 opens with the words "sin autorizacion legal", so conduct carried out under a Costa Rican authorisation falls outside the offence and conduct without one falls inside it whatever the amount. Article 2 confines handling to the quantities needed for medical treatment, toxicological and chemical analysis and research, and requires authorised prescribers to use the official forms supplied by the Ministerio de Salud, whose entries carry the character of a sworn declaration. The Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes administers that control under Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025 and publishes the fiscalizacion list. The national list files this row among the psicotropicos rather than the estupefacientes, which is the less strict of the two prescription regimes it operates.
Documentation: Consolidation read: Ley 7786 of 30 April 1998 as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, in the Texto Completo Norma 8204 print published by the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas, which carries its own generation date of 19 November 2018. The same ranges, ocho a quince anos in article 58 and de ocho a veinte anos in article 77, were independently read on 18 September 2026 against the later Sinalevi record of Ley 7786, version 13 of 13, so the 2018 print is corroborated rather than assumed current. Control model, re derived from the statute in this pass. Costa Rica prints no annex of controlled substances in its drug Act: across the 81 pages the only drug names anywhere are in article 96, on the disposal of seized marihuana, cocaina and heroina. Article 1 regulates "estupefacientes, psicotropicos, sustancias inhalables y demas drogas y farmacos susceptibles de producir dependencias fisicas o psiquicas, incluidos en la Convencion Unica sobre Estupefacientes... de 1961... asi como en el Convenio de Viena sobre Sustancias Psicotropicas, de 21 de febrero de 1971... asimismo, en la Convencion... de 1988". Its second paragraph is a different thing and is often misread as the control annex: it has the Ministerio de Salud and the MAG draw up and publish in La Gaceta "las listas de estupefacientes, psicotropicos y similares Licitos", the licit ones, which is the authorisation side. The incorporation is ambulatory: article 36 defines precursors as Cuadro I of the 1988 Convention "y sus anexos, asi como los que se le incorporen en el futuro", and article 100 gives the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas a mandate framed by the conventions and by "los listados oficiales, publicados periodicamente en La Gaceta". The second limb, measured. The national list is the Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes, Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes of the Ministerio de Salud, updated 10 September 2026 and signed that day by Dra. Mariela Alfaro Segura. It runs to 27 pages in three sections, estupefacientes, psicotropicos and Otros agregados, and it names its own legal basis as the Reglamento para el control de drogas, estupefacientes y psicotropicas N. 45161-S, the instrument cited elsewhere as Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025. The two titles are the same text. A reading of 18 September 2026 records that the decree gives the competent body the function "Elaborar y actualizar la lista de sustancias oficialmente consideradas estupefacientes o psicotropicos y similares de uso regulado" and that its five annexes are forms rather than a substance schedule; that quotation is carried from that reading and was not re derived here. The whole of Otros agregados is twelve entries: metilfenidato, tapentadol and the synthetic cannabinoid JWH-073 among the estupefacientes, and ketamina, esketamina, mexazolam, zaleplon, zopiclona and the piperazines mCPP, CPP, TFMPP and 1,4 dibencilpiperazina among the psicotropicos. Amending Act in force between that list and this reading, read in the official gazette in this pass. Ley 10961 of 9 June 2026, published in Alcance 78 to La Gaceta 113 of 19 June 2026, provides "Rige tres meses a partir de su publicacion" and so took effect on 19 September 2026. It runs to four articles: it adds article 15 quater to Ley 7786 on the anti-money-laundering duties of virtual asset service providers, carries that cross reference into articles 16, 16 bis, 25, 33, 33 bis, 86 and 123, reforms the article 81 administrative fines, and allows three months for regulations. Every Ley 7786 article it touches is money laundering machinery, and it leaves articles 1, 2, 36, 58, 73, 74, 77, 77 bis and 79 untouched, so it moves no row in this batch. Method note. The 2026-09-20 Costa Rica dossier was used only as the slug list and as one of the two term list sources. Its outcome column, its instrument column and its quotation column were not treated as evidence and no placement in this batch rests on them; every placement is the entry read in the list the statute incorporates. Two of its readings were not adopted: it treated ergometrina and ergina as one row when they are separate substances on separate limbs, and it left dextrometorfano unresolved when the instrument excludes it in terms. Sibling name traps were checked rather than assumed. Anchored matching correctly did not return bencilmorfina, desomorfina, dihidromorfina, metildihidromorfina, mirofina or diacetilmorfina for the morfina row, isometadona, normetadona or the metadona intermediario for the metadona row, metcatinona or 4-metiletcatinona for the catinona row, MMDA or N-etil MDA for the MDA row, beta-ceto-MDMA for the MDMA row, levometanfetamina for the metanfetamina row, PCPY for the PCP row, brolanfetamina for the anfetamina row, or norpseudoefedrina for the efedrina row. Two extraction zeroes were false and were recovered by re interrogation: hexahidrocannabinol and 2-fluorodescloroketamina are both line wrapped in the source and a column based read missed both. Routes run for the instrument in this pass. pgrweb.go.cr/scij is a JavaScript shell: the Ley 8204 and Ley 7786 records and the sinalevi.go.cr record each returned about 25 KB that renders to 1,159 characters of site chrome and no statutory text, so a size threshold would have cleared all three. imprentanacional.go.cr served the official gazette carrying Ley 10961. The institutional reproduction at icd.go.cr served the consolidated Act, and ministeriodesalud.go.cr served the national list and the circulars. The schedule pages were checked for hidden content: the list PDF holds one image object repeated on all 27 pages, which is the ministry letterhead, and its byte size is accounted for by that banner, so no entry is carried in an image. Pink cocaine is a street name for a variable mixture rather than one molecule, and no entry carries that name. What a sample contains decides the answer, and the substances most often found in it are each separately entered: "NC 004, CAS 50-36-2, Cocaina", "PM 011, MDMA, (+/-)-N,alfa-dimetil-3,4-(metilendioxi)fenetilamina" and "Ketamina (incluidos los Isomeros, enantiomeros y sus derivados)", all in three separate places in the national list. Carry the prescription and the dispensing label, and expect the authorisation rather than the amount to be what is asked about. There is no personal allowance to fall back on, because no article of Ley 7786 fixes a threshold. Sourcing, re derived in this pass and not carried: the two Junta de Vigilancia de Drogas urls cited by this row are DIRECTORIES and not documents. The listing page names the national fiscalisation list but does not carry it; the list is a separate PDF behind a numbered link, and that PDF is what the placement in this row actually rests on. Both documents are now fetched and cited by their own urls: "Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes", and "Lista de Estupefacientes y Sustancias Psicotropicas Sometidas a Fiscalizacion Nacional". The first carries the Otros agregados section this row's reasoning refers to [Certain, read from the fetched PDF]. The circulars page cited alongside them exposes no document at all.

Pink Cocaine / Tusi in Costa Rica, full detail →

Psilocybin

Legal status: Controlled. Article 1 of Ley 7786, as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, fixes the scope by reference to the substances included in the 1961 and 1971 Conventions and the 1988 Convention, and the Ministerio de Salud reproduces those listas in Spanish in its national fiscalizacion list and adds a short Otros agregados section of national additions. This row was read as a named entry in Lista I of the 1971 Convention. The offence articles are 58 and 77. [Certain] for the placement, with the entry text recorded in the documentation.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Article 21 of the Constitution provides "La vida humana es inviolable", the human life is inviolable, and the word "muerte" appears zero times across the 81 pages of the consolidated Act. Both of those were measured in this pass and together they are what carries the heading. Costa Rica is an abolitionist state of long standing, [Likely] on the nineteenth century date, which was not re-derived here. Unauthorised trafficking conduct carries eight to fifteen years. Article 58 provides "Se impondra pena de prision de ocho a quince anos a quien, sin autorizacion legal, distribuya, comercie, suministre, fabrique, elabore, refine, transforme, extraiga, prepare, cultive, produzca, transporte, almacene o venda las drogas". That is eight to fifteen years for unauthorised distribution, commerce, supply, manufacture, processing, extraction, preparation, cultivation, production, transport, storage or sale. Article 77 raises the range to eight to twenty years where one of its eight enumerated aggravating circumstances is present, and twenty years is the ceiling this Act identifies. No article states a weight threshold, so the trigger is the unauthorised act and never a quantity. The second paragraph of article 58 reaches possession only "para cualquiera de los fines expresados", that is possession for one of those trafficking purposes. Ley 7786 creates no offence of consumption and no offence of simple possession for personal use. Article 79 answers a person consuming in a public place with voluntary and free treatment in a public or private health centre, not with a penalty.
If prescribed / medical: A lawful medical route exists only through the authorisation the Act itself demands. Article 58 opens with the words "sin autorizacion legal", so conduct carried out under a Costa Rican authorisation falls outside the offence and conduct without one falls inside it whatever the amount. Article 2 confines handling to the quantities needed for medical treatment, toxicological and chemical analysis and research, and requires authorised prescribers to use the official forms supplied by the Ministerio de Salud, whose entries carry the character of a sworn declaration. The Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes administers that control under Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025 and publishes the fiscalizacion list. The national list files this row among the psicotropicos rather than the estupefacientes, which is the less strict of the two prescription regimes it operates.
Documentation: Consolidation read: Ley 7786 of 30 April 1998 as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, in the Texto Completo Norma 8204 print published by the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas, which carries its own generation date of 19 November 2018. The same ranges, ocho a quince anos in article 58 and de ocho a veinte anos in article 77, were independently read on 18 September 2026 against the later Sinalevi record of Ley 7786, version 13 of 13, so the 2018 print is corroborated rather than assumed current. Control model, re derived from the statute in this pass. Costa Rica prints no annex of controlled substances in its drug Act: across the 81 pages the only drug names anywhere are in article 96, on the disposal of seized marihuana, cocaina and heroina. Article 1 regulates "estupefacientes, psicotropicos, sustancias inhalables y demas drogas y farmacos susceptibles de producir dependencias fisicas o psiquicas, incluidos en la Convencion Unica sobre Estupefacientes... de 1961... asi como en el Convenio de Viena sobre Sustancias Psicotropicas, de 21 de febrero de 1971... asimismo, en la Convencion... de 1988". Its second paragraph is a different thing and is often misread as the control annex: it has the Ministerio de Salud and the MAG draw up and publish in La Gaceta "las listas de estupefacientes, psicotropicos y similares Licitos", the licit ones, which is the authorisation side. The incorporation is ambulatory: article 36 defines precursors as Cuadro I of the 1988 Convention "y sus anexos, asi como los que se le incorporen en el futuro", and article 100 gives the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas a mandate framed by the conventions and by "los listados oficiales, publicados periodicamente en La Gaceta". The second limb, measured. The national list is the Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes, Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes of the Ministerio de Salud, updated 10 September 2026 and signed that day by Dra. Mariela Alfaro Segura. It runs to 27 pages in three sections, estupefacientes, psicotropicos and Otros agregados, and it names its own legal basis as the Reglamento para el control de drogas, estupefacientes y psicotropicas N. 45161-S, the instrument cited elsewhere as Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025. The two titles are the same text. A reading of 18 September 2026 records that the decree gives the competent body the function "Elaborar y actualizar la lista de sustancias oficialmente consideradas estupefacientes o psicotropicos y similares de uso regulado" and that its five annexes are forms rather than a substance schedule; that quotation is carried from that reading and was not re derived here. The whole of Otros agregados is twelve entries: metilfenidato, tapentadol and the synthetic cannabinoid JWH-073 among the estupefacientes, and ketamina, esketamina, mexazolam, zaleplon, zopiclona and the piperazines mCPP, CPP, TFMPP and 1,4 dibencilpiperazina among the psicotropicos. Amending Act in force between that list and this reading, read in the official gazette in this pass. Ley 10961 of 9 June 2026, published in Alcance 78 to La Gaceta 113 of 19 June 2026, provides "Rige tres meses a partir de su publicacion" and so took effect on 19 September 2026. It runs to four articles: it adds article 15 quater to Ley 7786 on the anti-money-laundering duties of virtual asset service providers, carries that cross reference into articles 16, 16 bis, 25, 33, 33 bis, 86 and 123, reforms the article 81 administrative fines, and allows three months for regulations. Every Ley 7786 article it touches is money laundering machinery, and it leaves articles 1, 2, 36, 58, 73, 74, 77, 77 bis and 79 untouched, so it moves no row in this batch. Method note. The 2026-09-20 Costa Rica dossier was used only as the slug list and as one of the two term list sources. Its outcome column, its instrument column and its quotation column were not treated as evidence and no placement in this batch rests on them; every placement is the entry read in the list the statute incorporates. Two of its readings were not adopted: it treated ergometrina and ergina as one row when they are separate substances on separate limbs, and it left dextrometorfano unresolved when the instrument excludes it in terms. Sibling name traps were checked rather than assumed. Anchored matching correctly did not return bencilmorfina, desomorfina, dihidromorfina, metildihidromorfina, mirofina or diacetilmorfina for the morfina row, isometadona, normetadona or the metadona intermediario for the metadona row, metcatinona or 4-metiletcatinona for the catinona row, MMDA or N-etil MDA for the MDA row, beta-ceto-MDMA for the MDMA row, levometanfetamina for the metanfetamina row, PCPY for the PCP row, brolanfetamina for the anfetamina row, or norpseudoefedrina for the efedrina row. Two extraction zeroes were false and were recovered by re interrogation: hexahidrocannabinol and 2-fluorodescloroketamina are both line wrapped in the source and a column based read missed both. Routes run for the instrument in this pass. pgrweb.go.cr/scij is a JavaScript shell: the Ley 8204 and Ley 7786 records and the sinalevi.go.cr record each returned about 25 KB that renders to 1,159 characters of site chrome and no statutory text, so a size threshold would have cleared all three. imprentanacional.go.cr served the official gazette carrying Ley 10961. The institutional reproduction at icd.go.cr served the consolidated Act, and ministeriodesalud.go.cr served the national list and the circulars. The schedule pages were checked for hidden content: the list PDF holds one image object repeated on all 27 pages, which is the ministry letterhead, and its byte size is accounted for by that banner, so no entry is carried in an image. Entry read for this row, recorded as the list prints it: "PP 013, Psilocibina, fosfato dihidrogenado de 3-[2-(dimetilamino)etil]indol-4-ilo", with "PP 012, psilocina, psilotsina, 3-[2-(dimetilamino)etil]indol-4-ol" entered separately, in Lista I of the 1971 Convention. Carry the prescription and the dispensing label, and expect the authorisation rather than the amount to be what is asked about. There is no personal allowance to fall back on, because no article of Ley 7786 fixes a threshold. Sourcing, re derived in this pass and not carried: the two Junta de Vigilancia de Drogas urls cited by this row are DIRECTORIES and not documents. The listing page names the national fiscalisation list but does not carry it; the list is a separate PDF behind a numbered link, and that PDF is what the placement in this row actually rests on. Both documents are now fetched and cited by their own urls: "Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes", and "Lista de Estupefacientes y Sustancias Psicotropicas Sometidas a Fiscalizacion Nacional". The first carries the Otros agregados section this row's reasoning refers to [Certain, read from the fetched PDF]. The circulars page cited alongside them exposes no document at all.

Psilocybin in Costa Rica, full detail →

Synthetic Cannabinoids (K2 / Spice)

Legal status: Controlled through named members rather than through one entry, so the exposure turns on which member is in hand. Article 1 of Ley 7786, as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, fixes the scope by reference to the substances included in the 1961 and 1971 Conventions and the 1988 Convention, and the Ministerio de Salud reproduces those listas in Spanish in its national fiscalizacion list and adds a short Otros agregados section of national additions. The members were read in Lista II of the 1971 Convention and the Otros agregados section. The offence articles are 58 and 77. [Certain] for the placements, with the entry text recorded in the documentation.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Article 21 of the Constitution provides "La vida humana es inviolable", the human life is inviolable, and the word "muerte" appears zero times across the 81 pages of the consolidated Act. Both of those were measured in this pass and together they are what carries the heading. Costa Rica is an abolitionist state of long standing, [Likely] on the nineteenth century date, which was not re-derived here. Unauthorised trafficking conduct carries eight to fifteen years. Article 58 provides "Se impondra pena de prision de ocho a quince anos a quien, sin autorizacion legal, distribuya, comercie, suministre, fabrique, elabore, refine, transforme, extraiga, prepare, cultive, produzca, transporte, almacene o venda las drogas". That is eight to fifteen years for unauthorised distribution, commerce, supply, manufacture, processing, extraction, preparation, cultivation, production, transport, storage or sale. Article 77 raises the range to eight to twenty years where one of its eight enumerated aggravating circumstances is present, and twenty years is the ceiling this Act identifies. No article states a weight threshold, so the trigger is the unauthorised act and never a quantity. The second paragraph of article 58 reaches possession only "para cualquiera de los fines expresados", that is possession for one of those trafficking purposes. Ley 7786 creates no offence of consumption and no offence of simple possession for personal use. Article 79 answers a person consuming in a public place with voluntary and free treatment in a public or private health centre, not with a penalty.
If prescribed / medical: A lawful medical route exists only through the authorisation the Act itself demands. Article 58 opens with the words "sin autorizacion legal", so conduct carried out under a Costa Rican authorisation falls outside the offence and conduct without one falls inside it whatever the amount. Article 2 confines handling to the quantities needed for medical treatment, toxicological and chemical analysis and research, and requires authorised prescribers to use the official forms supplied by the Ministerio de Salud, whose entries carry the character of a sworn declaration. The Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes administers that control under Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025 and publishes the fiscalizacion list. The national list files this row among the psicotropicos rather than the estupefacientes, which is the less strict of the two prescription regimes it operates.
Documentation: Consolidation read: Ley 7786 of 30 April 1998 as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, in the Texto Completo Norma 8204 print published by the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas, which carries its own generation date of 19 November 2018. The same ranges, ocho a quince anos in article 58 and de ocho a veinte anos in article 77, were independently read on 18 September 2026 against the later Sinalevi record of Ley 7786, version 13 of 13, so the 2018 print is corroborated rather than assumed current. Control model, re derived from the statute in this pass. Costa Rica prints no annex of controlled substances in its drug Act: across the 81 pages the only drug names anywhere are in article 96, on the disposal of seized marihuana, cocaina and heroina. Article 1 regulates "estupefacientes, psicotropicos, sustancias inhalables y demas drogas y farmacos susceptibles de producir dependencias fisicas o psiquicas, incluidos en la Convencion Unica sobre Estupefacientes... de 1961... asi como en el Convenio de Viena sobre Sustancias Psicotropicas, de 21 de febrero de 1971... asimismo, en la Convencion... de 1988". Its second paragraph is a different thing and is often misread as the control annex: it has the Ministerio de Salud and the MAG draw up and publish in La Gaceta "las listas de estupefacientes, psicotropicos y similares Licitos", the licit ones, which is the authorisation side. The incorporation is ambulatory: article 36 defines precursors as Cuadro I of the 1988 Convention "y sus anexos, asi como los que se le incorporen en el futuro", and article 100 gives the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas a mandate framed by the conventions and by "los listados oficiales, publicados periodicamente en La Gaceta". The second limb, measured. The national list is the Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes, Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes of the Ministerio de Salud, updated 10 September 2026 and signed that day by Dra. Mariela Alfaro Segura. It runs to 27 pages in three sections, estupefacientes, psicotropicos and Otros agregados, and it names its own legal basis as the Reglamento para el control de drogas, estupefacientes y psicotropicas N. 45161-S, the instrument cited elsewhere as Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025. The two titles are the same text. A reading of 18 September 2026 records that the decree gives the competent body the function "Elaborar y actualizar la lista de sustancias oficialmente consideradas estupefacientes o psicotropicos y similares de uso regulado" and that its five annexes are forms rather than a substance schedule; that quotation is carried from that reading and was not re derived here. The whole of Otros agregados is twelve entries: metilfenidato, tapentadol and the synthetic cannabinoid JWH-073 among the estupefacientes, and ketamina, esketamina, mexazolam, zaleplon, zopiclona and the piperazines mCPP, CPP, TFMPP and 1,4 dibencilpiperazina among the psicotropicos. Amending Act in force between that list and this reading, read in the official gazette in this pass. Ley 10961 of 9 June 2026, published in Alcance 78 to La Gaceta 113 of 19 June 2026, provides "Rige tres meses a partir de su publicacion" and so took effect on 19 September 2026. It runs to four articles: it adds article 15 quater to Ley 7786 on the anti-money-laundering duties of virtual asset service providers, carries that cross reference into articles 16, 16 bis, 25, 33, 33 bis, 86 and 123, reforms the article 81 administrative fines, and allows three months for regulations. Every Ley 7786 article it touches is money laundering machinery, and it leaves articles 1, 2, 36, 58, 73, 74, 77, 77 bis and 79 untouched, so it moves no row in this batch. Method note. The 2026-09-20 Costa Rica dossier was used only as the slug list and as one of the two term list sources. Its outcome column, its instrument column and its quotation column were not treated as evidence and no placement in this batch rests on them; every placement is the entry read in the list the statute incorporates. Two of its readings were not adopted: it treated ergometrina and ergina as one row when they are separate substances on separate limbs, and it left dextrometorfano unresolved when the instrument excludes it in terms. Sibling name traps were checked rather than assumed. Anchored matching correctly did not return bencilmorfina, desomorfina, dihidromorfina, metildihidromorfina, mirofina or diacetilmorfina for the morfina row, isometadona, normetadona or the metadona intermediario for the metadona row, metcatinona or 4-metiletcatinona for the catinona row, MMDA or N-etil MDA for the MDA row, beta-ceto-MDMA for the MDMA row, levometanfetamina for the metanfetamina row, PCPY for the PCP row, brolanfetamina for the anfetamina row, or norpseudoefedrina for the efedrina row. Two extraction zeroes were false and were recovered by re interrogation: hexahidrocannabinol and 2-fluorodescloroketamina are both line wrapped in the source and a column based read missed both. Routes run for the instrument in this pass. pgrweb.go.cr/scij is a JavaScript shell: the Ley 8204 and Ley 7786 records and the sinalevi.go.cr record each returned about 25 KB that renders to 1,159 characters of site chrome and no statutory text, so a size threshold would have cleared all three. imprentanacional.go.cr served the official gazette carrying Ley 10961. The institutional reproduction at icd.go.cr served the consolidated Act, and ministeriodesalud.go.cr served the national list and the circulars. The schedule pages were checked for hidden content: the list PDF holds one image object repeated on all 27 pages, which is the ministry letterhead, and its byte size is accounted for by that banner, so no entry is carried in an image. Synthetic cannabinoids are an open family of distinct compounds rather than one named molecule, and the list works compound by compound rather than by a generic formula, so a compound not yet named is not reached by this route. Many members are entered: "AM-2201, JWH-2201" and "JWH-018, AM-678" in Lista II, together with "AB-CHMINACA" and "AB-FUBINACA", then "AB-PINACA" and "ADB-BUTINACA", then "ADB-CHMINACA" and "ADB-FUBINACA", then "MDMB-CHMICA" and "MDMB-4en-PINACA", then "CUMIL-PEGACLONE" and "CUMIL-4CN-BINACA", and the fluoropentyl series "5F-APINACA", "5F-AMB", "5F-MDMB-PICA" and "5F-ADB", with "Cannabinoides sinteticos: JWH-073" added nationally, all in Lista II of the 1971 Convention and the Otros agregados section. Carry the prescription and the dispensing label, and expect the authorisation rather than the amount to be what is asked about. There is no personal allowance to fall back on, because no article of Ley 7786 fixes a threshold. Sourcing, re derived in this pass and not carried: the two Junta de Vigilancia de Drogas urls cited by this row are DIRECTORIES and not documents. The listing page names the national fiscalisation list but does not carry it; the list is a separate PDF behind a numbered link, and that PDF is what the placement in this row actually rests on. Both documents are now fetched and cited by their own urls: "Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes", and "Lista de Estupefacientes y Sustancias Psicotropicas Sometidas a Fiscalizacion Nacional". The first carries the Otros agregados section this row's reasoning refers to [Certain, read from the fetched PDF]. The circulars page cited alongside them exposes no document at all.

Synthetic Cannabinoids (K2 / Spice) in Costa Rica, full detail →

Tobacco

Legal status: Not handled through the drug control model. Article 1 of Ley 7786, as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, fixes the scope by reference to the substances included in the 1961 and 1971 Conventions and the 1988 Convention, and the Ministerio de Salud reproduces those listas in Spanish in its national fiscalizacion list and adds a short Otros agregados section of national additions. No entry for tobacco appears in any of the three sections of the national list and tobacco is in neither Convention schedule, while article 1 expressly preserves the separate operation of the Ley general de salud, N 5395, so tobacco control law is where this row sits. [Certain] for the absence as at 10 September 2026, which does not rule out a later list.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Article 21 of the Constitution provides "La vida humana es inviolable", the human life is inviolable, and the word "muerte" appears zero times across the 81 pages of the consolidated Act. Both of those were measured in this pass and together they are what carries the heading. Costa Rica is an abolitionist state of long standing, [Likely] on the nineteenth century date, which was not re-derived here. Costa Rica publishes penalties for drug trafficking in articles 58 and 77 of Ley 7786, eight to fifteen years and eight to twenty years on an enumerated aggravation. Those are the country's penalties for the substances the Act covers and they are not this row's exposure, because tobacco is not one of them. The second paragraph of article 58 reaches possession only "para cualquiera de los fines expresados", that is possession for one of those trafficking purposes. Ley 7786 creates no offence of consumption and no offence of simple possession for personal use. Article 79 answers a person consuming in a public place with voluntary and free treatment in a public or private health centre, not with a penalty.
If prescribed / medical: Tobacco is regulated as an ordinary product rather than through the psychotropic prescription form, and age, licensing and advertising rules apply instead of the controls in Ley 7786.
Documentation: Consolidation read: Ley 7786 of 30 April 1998 as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, in the Texto Completo Norma 8204 print published by the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas, which carries its own generation date of 19 November 2018. The same ranges, ocho a quince anos in article 58 and de ocho a veinte anos in article 77, were independently read on 18 September 2026 against the later Sinalevi record of Ley 7786, version 13 of 13, so the 2018 print is corroborated rather than assumed current. Control model, re derived from the statute in this pass. Costa Rica prints no annex of controlled substances in its drug Act: across the 81 pages the only drug names anywhere are in article 96, on the disposal of seized marihuana, cocaina and heroina. Article 1 regulates "estupefacientes, psicotropicos, sustancias inhalables y demas drogas y farmacos susceptibles de producir dependencias fisicas o psiquicas, incluidos en la Convencion Unica sobre Estupefacientes... de 1961... asi como en el Convenio de Viena sobre Sustancias Psicotropicas, de 21 de febrero de 1971... asimismo, en la Convencion... de 1988". Its second paragraph is a different thing and is often misread as the control annex: it has the Ministerio de Salud and the MAG draw up and publish in La Gaceta "las listas de estupefacientes, psicotropicos y similares Licitos", the licit ones, which is the authorisation side. The incorporation is ambulatory: article 36 defines precursors as Cuadro I of the 1988 Convention "y sus anexos, asi como los que se le incorporen en el futuro", and article 100 gives the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas a mandate framed by the conventions and by "los listados oficiales, publicados periodicamente en La Gaceta". The second limb, measured. The national list is the Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes, Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes of the Ministerio de Salud, updated 10 September 2026 and signed that day by Dra. Mariela Alfaro Segura. It runs to 27 pages in three sections, estupefacientes, psicotropicos and Otros agregados, and it names its own legal basis as the Reglamento para el control de drogas, estupefacientes y psicotropicas N. 45161-S, the instrument cited elsewhere as Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025. The two titles are the same text. A reading of 18 September 2026 records that the decree gives the competent body the function "Elaborar y actualizar la lista de sustancias oficialmente consideradas estupefacientes o psicotropicos y similares de uso regulado" and that its five annexes are forms rather than a substance schedule; that quotation is carried from that reading and was not re derived here. The whole of Otros agregados is twelve entries: metilfenidato, tapentadol and the synthetic cannabinoid JWH-073 among the estupefacientes, and ketamina, esketamina, mexazolam, zaleplon, zopiclona and the piperazines mCPP, CPP, TFMPP and 1,4 dibencilpiperazina among the psicotropicos. Amending Act in force between that list and this reading, read in the official gazette in this pass. Ley 10961 of 9 June 2026, published in Alcance 78 to La Gaceta 113 of 19 June 2026, provides "Rige tres meses a partir de su publicacion" and so took effect on 19 September 2026. It runs to four articles: it adds article 15 quater to Ley 7786 on the anti-money-laundering duties of virtual asset service providers, carries that cross reference into articles 16, 16 bis, 25, 33, 33 bis, 86 and 123, reforms the article 81 administrative fines, and allows three months for regulations. Every Ley 7786 article it touches is money laundering machinery, and it leaves articles 1, 2, 36, 58, 73, 74, 77, 77 bis and 79 untouched, so it moves no row in this batch. Method note. The 2026-09-20 Costa Rica dossier was used only as the slug list and as one of the two term list sources. Its outcome column, its instrument column and its quotation column were not treated as evidence and no placement in this batch rests on them; every placement is the entry read in the list the statute incorporates. Two of its readings were not adopted: it treated ergometrina and ergina as one row when they are separate substances on separate limbs, and it left dextrometorfano unresolved when the instrument excludes it in terms. Sibling name traps were checked rather than assumed. Anchored matching correctly did not return bencilmorfina, desomorfina, dihidromorfina, metildihidromorfina, mirofina or diacetilmorfina for the morfina row, isometadona, normetadona or the metadona intermediario for the metadona row, metcatinona or 4-metiletcatinona for the catinona row, MMDA or N-etil MDA for the MDA row, beta-ceto-MDMA for the MDMA row, levometanfetamina for the metanfetamina row, PCPY for the PCP row, brolanfetamina for the anfetamina row, or norpseudoefedrina for the efedrina row. Two extraction zeroes were false and were recovered by re interrogation: hexahidrocannabinol and 2-fluorodescloroketamina are both line wrapped in the source and a column based read missed both. Routes run for the instrument in this pass. pgrweb.go.cr/scij is a JavaScript shell: the Ley 8204 and Ley 7786 records and the sinalevi.go.cr record each returned about 25 KB that renders to 1,159 characters of site chrome and no statutory text, so a size threshold would have cleared all three. imprentanacional.go.cr served the official gazette carrying Ley 10961. The institutional reproduction at icd.go.cr served the consolidated Act, and ministeriodesalud.go.cr served the national list and the circulars. The schedule pages were checked for hidden content: the list PDF holds one image object repeated on all 27 pages, which is the ministry letterhead, and its byte size is accounted for by that banner, so no entry is carried in an image. Search run for this row: tobacco returned no entry across the estupefacientes, psicotropicos and Otros agregados sections of the national list as at 10 September 2026, and none in the Green List or the Yellow List. A later list than the one read does not rule out a change. Carry any prescription and its dispensing label, and treat the position as open rather than settled. Sourcing, re derived in this pass and not carried: the two Junta de Vigilancia de Drogas urls cited by this row are DIRECTORIES and not documents. The listing page names the national fiscalisation list but does not carry it; the list is a separate PDF behind a numbered link, and that PDF is what the placement in this row actually rests on. Both documents are now fetched and cited by their own urls: "Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes", and "Lista de Estupefacientes y Sustancias Psicotropicas Sometidas a Fiscalizacion Nacional". The first carries the Otros agregados section this row's reasoning refers to [Certain, read from the fetched PDF]. The circulars page cited alongside them exposes no document at all.

Tobacco in Costa Rica, full detail →

Xanax (Alprazolam)

Legal status: Controlled. Article 1 of Ley 7786, as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, fixes the scope by reference to the substances included in the 1961 and 1971 Conventions and the 1988 Convention, and the Ministerio de Salud reproduces those listas in Spanish in its national fiscalizacion list and adds a short Otros agregados section of national additions. This row was read as a named entry in Lista IV of the 1971 Convention. The offence articles are 58 and 77. [Certain] for the placement, with the entry text recorded in the documentation.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Article 21 of the Constitution provides "La vida humana es inviolable", the human life is inviolable, and the word "muerte" appears zero times across the 81 pages of the consolidated Act. Both of those were measured in this pass and together they are what carries the heading. Costa Rica is an abolitionist state of long standing, [Likely] on the nineteenth century date, which was not re-derived here. Unauthorised trafficking conduct carries eight to fifteen years. Article 58 provides "Se impondra pena de prision de ocho a quince anos a quien, sin autorizacion legal, distribuya, comercie, suministre, fabrique, elabore, refine, transforme, extraiga, prepare, cultive, produzca, transporte, almacene o venda las drogas". That is eight to fifteen years for unauthorised distribution, commerce, supply, manufacture, processing, extraction, preparation, cultivation, production, transport, storage or sale. Article 77 raises the range to eight to twenty years where one of its eight enumerated aggravating circumstances is present, and twenty years is the ceiling this Act identifies. No article states a weight threshold, so the trigger is the unauthorised act and never a quantity. The second paragraph of article 58 reaches possession only "para cualquiera de los fines expresados", that is possession for one of those trafficking purposes. Ley 7786 creates no offence of consumption and no offence of simple possession for personal use. Article 79 answers a person consuming in a public place with voluntary and free treatment in a public or private health centre, not with a penalty.
If prescribed / medical: A lawful medical route exists only through the authorisation the Act itself demands. Article 58 opens with the words "sin autorizacion legal", so conduct carried out under a Costa Rican authorisation falls outside the offence and conduct without one falls inside it whatever the amount. Article 2 confines handling to the quantities needed for medical treatment, toxicological and chemical analysis and research, and requires authorised prescribers to use the official forms supplied by the Ministerio de Salud, whose entries carry the character of a sworn declaration. The Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes administers that control under Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025 and publishes the fiscalizacion list. The national list files this row among the psicotropicos rather than the estupefacientes, which is the less strict of the two prescription regimes it operates.
Documentation: Consolidation read: Ley 7786 of 30 April 1998 as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, in the Texto Completo Norma 8204 print published by the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas, which carries its own generation date of 19 November 2018. The same ranges, ocho a quince anos in article 58 and de ocho a veinte anos in article 77, were independently read on 18 September 2026 against the later Sinalevi record of Ley 7786, version 13 of 13, so the 2018 print is corroborated rather than assumed current. Control model, re derived from the statute in this pass. Costa Rica prints no annex of controlled substances in its drug Act: across the 81 pages the only drug names anywhere are in article 96, on the disposal of seized marihuana, cocaina and heroina. Article 1 regulates "estupefacientes, psicotropicos, sustancias inhalables y demas drogas y farmacos susceptibles de producir dependencias fisicas o psiquicas, incluidos en la Convencion Unica sobre Estupefacientes... de 1961... asi como en el Convenio de Viena sobre Sustancias Psicotropicas, de 21 de febrero de 1971... asimismo, en la Convencion... de 1988". Its second paragraph is a different thing and is often misread as the control annex: it has the Ministerio de Salud and the MAG draw up and publish in La Gaceta "las listas de estupefacientes, psicotropicos y similares Licitos", the licit ones, which is the authorisation side. The incorporation is ambulatory: article 36 defines precursors as Cuadro I of the 1988 Convention "y sus anexos, asi como los que se le incorporen en el futuro", and article 100 gives the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas a mandate framed by the conventions and by "los listados oficiales, publicados periodicamente en La Gaceta". The second limb, measured. The national list is the Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes, Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes of the Ministerio de Salud, updated 10 September 2026 and signed that day by Dra. Mariela Alfaro Segura. It runs to 27 pages in three sections, estupefacientes, psicotropicos and Otros agregados, and it names its own legal basis as the Reglamento para el control de drogas, estupefacientes y psicotropicas N. 45161-S, the instrument cited elsewhere as Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025. The two titles are the same text. A reading of 18 September 2026 records that the decree gives the competent body the function "Elaborar y actualizar la lista de sustancias oficialmente consideradas estupefacientes o psicotropicos y similares de uso regulado" and that its five annexes are forms rather than a substance schedule; that quotation is carried from that reading and was not re derived here. The whole of Otros agregados is twelve entries: metilfenidato, tapentadol and the synthetic cannabinoid JWH-073 among the estupefacientes, and ketamina, esketamina, mexazolam, zaleplon, zopiclona and the piperazines mCPP, CPP, TFMPP and 1,4 dibencilpiperazina among the psicotropicos. Amending Act in force between that list and this reading, read in the official gazette in this pass. Ley 10961 of 9 June 2026, published in Alcance 78 to La Gaceta 113 of 19 June 2026, provides "Rige tres meses a partir de su publicacion" and so took effect on 19 September 2026. It runs to four articles: it adds article 15 quater to Ley 7786 on the anti-money-laundering duties of virtual asset service providers, carries that cross reference into articles 16, 16 bis, 25, 33, 33 bis, 86 and 123, reforms the article 81 administrative fines, and allows three months for regulations. Every Ley 7786 article it touches is money laundering machinery, and it leaves articles 1, 2, 36, 58, 73, 74, 77, 77 bis and 79 untouched, so it moves no row in this batch. Method note. The 2026-09-20 Costa Rica dossier was used only as the slug list and as one of the two term list sources. Its outcome column, its instrument column and its quotation column were not treated as evidence and no placement in this batch rests on them; every placement is the entry read in the list the statute incorporates. Two of its readings were not adopted: it treated ergometrina and ergina as one row when they are separate substances on separate limbs, and it left dextrometorfano unresolved when the instrument excludes it in terms. Sibling name traps were checked rather than assumed. Anchored matching correctly did not return bencilmorfina, desomorfina, dihidromorfina, metildihidromorfina, mirofina or diacetilmorfina for the morfina row, isometadona, normetadona or the metadona intermediario for the metadona row, metcatinona or 4-metiletcatinona for the catinona row, MMDA or N-etil MDA for the MDA row, beta-ceto-MDMA for the MDMA row, levometanfetamina for the metanfetamina row, PCPY for the PCP row, brolanfetamina for the anfetamina row, or norpseudoefedrina for the efedrina row. Two extraction zeroes were false and were recovered by re interrogation: hexahidrocannabinol and 2-fluorodescloroketamina are both line wrapped in the source and a column based read missed both. Routes run for the instrument in this pass. pgrweb.go.cr/scij is a JavaScript shell: the Ley 8204 and Ley 7786 records and the sinalevi.go.cr record each returned about 25 KB that renders to 1,159 characters of site chrome and no statutory text, so a size threshold would have cleared all three. imprentanacional.go.cr served the official gazette carrying Ley 10961. The institutional reproduction at icd.go.cr served the consolidated Act, and ministeriodesalud.go.cr served the national list and the circulars. The schedule pages were checked for hidden content: the list PDF holds one image object repeated on all 27 pages, which is the ministry letterhead, and its byte size is accounted for by that banner, so no entry is carried in an image. Entry read for this row, recorded as the list prints it: "PA 004, CAS 28981-97-7, Alprazolam, 8-cloro-1-metil-6-fenil-4H-s-triazolo[4,3-a][1,4]benzodiazepina", in Lista IV of the 1971 Convention. Carry the prescription and the dispensing label, and expect the authorisation rather than the amount to be what is asked about. There is no personal allowance to fall back on, because no article of Ley 7786 fixes a threshold. Sourcing, re derived in this pass and not carried: the two Junta de Vigilancia de Drogas urls cited by this row are DIRECTORIES and not documents. The listing page names the national fiscalisation list but does not carry it; the list is a separate PDF behind a numbered link, and that PDF is what the placement in this row actually rests on. Both documents are now fetched and cited by their own urls: "Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes", and "Lista de Estupefacientes y Sustancias Psicotropicas Sometidas a Fiscalizacion Nacional". The first carries the Otros agregados section this row's reasoning refers to [Certain, read from the fetched PDF]. The circulars page cited alongside them exposes no document at all.

Xanax (Alprazolam) in Costa Rica, full detail →

Zolpidem

Legal status: Controlled. Article 1 of Ley 7786, as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, fixes the scope by reference to the substances included in the 1961 and 1971 Conventions and the 1988 Convention, and the Ministerio de Salud reproduces those listas in Spanish in its national fiscalizacion list and adds a short Otros agregados section of national additions. This row was read as a named entry in Lista IV of the 1971 Convention. The offence articles are 58 and 77. [Certain] for the placement, with the entry text recorded in the documentation.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Article 21 of the Constitution provides "La vida humana es inviolable", the human life is inviolable, and the word "muerte" appears zero times across the 81 pages of the consolidated Act. Both of those were measured in this pass and together they are what carries the heading. Costa Rica is an abolitionist state of long standing, [Likely] on the nineteenth century date, which was not re-derived here. Unauthorised trafficking conduct carries eight to fifteen years. Article 58 provides "Se impondra pena de prision de ocho a quince anos a quien, sin autorizacion legal, distribuya, comercie, suministre, fabrique, elabore, refine, transforme, extraiga, prepare, cultive, produzca, transporte, almacene o venda las drogas". That is eight to fifteen years for unauthorised distribution, commerce, supply, manufacture, processing, extraction, preparation, cultivation, production, transport, storage or sale. Article 77 raises the range to eight to twenty years where one of its eight enumerated aggravating circumstances is present, and twenty years is the ceiling this Act identifies. No article states a weight threshold, so the trigger is the unauthorised act and never a quantity. The second paragraph of article 58 reaches possession only "para cualquiera de los fines expresados", that is possession for one of those trafficking purposes. Ley 7786 creates no offence of consumption and no offence of simple possession for personal use. Article 79 answers a person consuming in a public place with voluntary and free treatment in a public or private health centre, not with a penalty.
If prescribed / medical: A lawful medical route exists only through the authorisation the Act itself demands. Article 58 opens with the words "sin autorizacion legal", so conduct carried out under a Costa Rican authorisation falls outside the offence and conduct without one falls inside it whatever the amount. Article 2 confines handling to the quantities needed for medical treatment, toxicological and chemical analysis and research, and requires authorised prescribers to use the official forms supplied by the Ministerio de Salud, whose entries carry the character of a sworn declaration. The Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes administers that control under Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025 and publishes the fiscalizacion list. The national list files this row among the psicotropicos rather than the estupefacientes, which is the less strict of the two prescription regimes it operates.
Documentation: Consolidation read: Ley 7786 of 30 April 1998 as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, in the Texto Completo Norma 8204 print published by the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas, which carries its own generation date of 19 November 2018. The same ranges, ocho a quince anos in article 58 and de ocho a veinte anos in article 77, were independently read on 18 September 2026 against the later Sinalevi record of Ley 7786, version 13 of 13, so the 2018 print is corroborated rather than assumed current. Control model, re derived from the statute in this pass. Costa Rica prints no annex of controlled substances in its drug Act: across the 81 pages the only drug names anywhere are in article 96, on the disposal of seized marihuana, cocaina and heroina. Article 1 regulates "estupefacientes, psicotropicos, sustancias inhalables y demas drogas y farmacos susceptibles de producir dependencias fisicas o psiquicas, incluidos en la Convencion Unica sobre Estupefacientes... de 1961... asi como en el Convenio de Viena sobre Sustancias Psicotropicas, de 21 de febrero de 1971... asimismo, en la Convencion... de 1988". Its second paragraph is a different thing and is often misread as the control annex: it has the Ministerio de Salud and the MAG draw up and publish in La Gaceta "las listas de estupefacientes, psicotropicos y similares Licitos", the licit ones, which is the authorisation side. The incorporation is ambulatory: article 36 defines precursors as Cuadro I of the 1988 Convention "y sus anexos, asi como los que se le incorporen en el futuro", and article 100 gives the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas a mandate framed by the conventions and by "los listados oficiales, publicados periodicamente en La Gaceta". The second limb, measured. The national list is the Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes, Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes of the Ministerio de Salud, updated 10 September 2026 and signed that day by Dra. Mariela Alfaro Segura. It runs to 27 pages in three sections, estupefacientes, psicotropicos and Otros agregados, and it names its own legal basis as the Reglamento para el control de drogas, estupefacientes y psicotropicas N. 45161-S, the instrument cited elsewhere as Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025. The two titles are the same text. A reading of 18 September 2026 records that the decree gives the competent body the function "Elaborar y actualizar la lista de sustancias oficialmente consideradas estupefacientes o psicotropicos y similares de uso regulado" and that its five annexes are forms rather than a substance schedule; that quotation is carried from that reading and was not re derived here. The whole of Otros agregados is twelve entries: metilfenidato, tapentadol and the synthetic cannabinoid JWH-073 among the estupefacientes, and ketamina, esketamina, mexazolam, zaleplon, zopiclona and the piperazines mCPP, CPP, TFMPP and 1,4 dibencilpiperazina among the psicotropicos. Amending Act in force between that list and this reading, read in the official gazette in this pass. Ley 10961 of 9 June 2026, published in Alcance 78 to La Gaceta 113 of 19 June 2026, provides "Rige tres meses a partir de su publicacion" and so took effect on 19 September 2026. It runs to four articles: it adds article 15 quater to Ley 7786 on the anti-money-laundering duties of virtual asset service providers, carries that cross reference into articles 16, 16 bis, 25, 33, 33 bis, 86 and 123, reforms the article 81 administrative fines, and allows three months for regulations. Every Ley 7786 article it touches is money laundering machinery, and it leaves articles 1, 2, 36, 58, 73, 74, 77, 77 bis and 79 untouched, so it moves no row in this batch. Method note. The 2026-09-20 Costa Rica dossier was used only as the slug list and as one of the two term list sources. Its outcome column, its instrument column and its quotation column were not treated as evidence and no placement in this batch rests on them; every placement is the entry read in the list the statute incorporates. Two of its readings were not adopted: it treated ergometrina and ergina as one row when they are separate substances on separate limbs, and it left dextrometorfano unresolved when the instrument excludes it in terms. Sibling name traps were checked rather than assumed. Anchored matching correctly did not return bencilmorfina, desomorfina, dihidromorfina, metildihidromorfina, mirofina or diacetilmorfina for the morfina row, isometadona, normetadona or the metadona intermediario for the metadona row, metcatinona or 4-metiletcatinona for the catinona row, MMDA or N-etil MDA for the MDA row, beta-ceto-MDMA for the MDMA row, levometanfetamina for the metanfetamina row, PCPY for the PCP row, brolanfetamina for the anfetamina row, or norpseudoefedrina for the efedrina row. Two extraction zeroes were false and were recovered by re interrogation: hexahidrocannabinol and 2-fluorodescloroketamina are both line wrapped in the source and a column based read missed both. Routes run for the instrument in this pass. pgrweb.go.cr/scij is a JavaScript shell: the Ley 8204 and Ley 7786 records and the sinalevi.go.cr record each returned about 25 KB that renders to 1,159 characters of site chrome and no statutory text, so a size threshold would have cleared all three. imprentanacional.go.cr served the official gazette carrying Ley 10961. The institutional reproduction at icd.go.cr served the consolidated Act, and ministeriodesalud.go.cr served the national list and the circulars. The schedule pages were checked for hidden content: the list PDF holds one image object repeated on all 27 pages, which is the ministry letterhead, and its byte size is accounted for by that banner, so no entry is carried in an image. Entry read for this row, recorded as the list prints it: "PZ 002, CAS 82626-48-0, Zolpidem, N,N,6-trimetil-2-p-tolilimidazol[1,2-a]piridina-3-acetamida", in Lista IV of the 1971 Convention. Carry the prescription and the dispensing label, and expect the authorisation rather than the amount to be what is asked about. There is no personal allowance to fall back on, because no article of Ley 7786 fixes a threshold. Sourcing, re derived in this pass and not carried: the two Junta de Vigilancia de Drogas urls cited by this row are DIRECTORIES and not documents. The listing page names the national fiscalisation list but does not carry it; the list is a separate PDF behind a numbered link, and that PDF is what the placement in this row actually rests on. Both documents are now fetched and cited by their own urls: "Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes", and "Lista de Estupefacientes y Sustancias Psicotropicas Sometidas a Fiscalizacion Nacional". The first carries the Otros agregados section this row's reasoning refers to [Certain, read from the fetched PDF]. The circulars page cited alongside them exposes no document at all.

Zolpidem in Costa Rica, full detail →

Not individually verified

31 substances are not individually verified for Costa Rica

For these the governing national drug law is cited, but we have not verified that the substance specifically is scheduled under it. Treat them as unanswered, not as legal. Confirm with Costa Rica’s drug authority or your embassy.

Substance	What we found
1P-LSD	Not confirmed. The placement for this row is not established, and the position is open rather than negative. Article...
2C-E	Not confirmed. The placement for this row is not established, and the position is open rather than negative. Article...
2C-I	Not confirmed. The placement for this row is not established, and the position is open rather than negative. Article...
2C-T-7	Not confirmed. The placement for this row is not established, and the position is open rather than negative. Article...
4-AcO-DMT	Not confirmed. The placement for this row is not established, and the position is open rather than negative. Article...
4-HO-MET	Not confirmed. The placement for this row is not established, and the position is open rather than negative. Article...
5-MeO-DMT (Bufo / Toad)	Not confirmed. The placement for this row is not established, and the position is open rather than negative. Article...
6-APB	Not confirmed. The placement for this row is not established, and the position is open rather than negative. Article...
7-Hydroxymitragynine (7-OH)	Not confirmed. The placement for this row is not established, and the position is open rather than negative. Article...
Amanita muscaria	Not confirmed. The placement for this row is not established, and the position is open rather than negative. Article...
Amyl Nitrite	Not confirmed. The placement for this row is not established, and the position is open rather than negative. Article...
Cannabinol	Not confirmed. The placement for this row is not established, and the position is open rather than negative. Article...
CBD	Not confirmed. The placement for this row is not established, and the position is open rather than negative. Article...
Gabapentin	Not confirmed. The placement for this row is not established, and the position is open rather than negative. Article...
GBL	Not confirmed. The placement for this row is not established, and the position is open rather than negative. Article...
Ketamine	Not confirmed. The placement is not established and the reason is specific to this row. Article 1 of Ley 7786, as...
Kratom	Not confirmed. The placement for this row is not established, and the position is open rather than negative. Article...
LSA (Morning Glory)	Not confirmed. The placement for this row is not established, and the position is open rather than negative. Article...
Memantine	Not confirmed. The placement for this row is not established, and the position is open rather than negative. Article...
Mitragynine	Not confirmed. The placement for this row is not established, and the position is open rather than negative. Article...
Modafinil	Not confirmed. The placement for this row is not established, and the position is open rather than negative. Article...
Nitrous Oxide	Not confirmed. The placement for this row is not established, and the position is open rather than negative. Article...
Phenibut	Not confirmed. The placement for this row is not established, and the position is open rather than negative. Article...
Poppers	Not confirmed. The placement for this row is not established, and the position is open rather than negative. Article...
Pregabalin	Not confirmed. The placement for this row is not established, and the position is open rather than negative. Article...
Quetiapine	Not confirmed. The placement for this row is not established, and the position is open rather than negative. Article...
Salvia divinorum	Not confirmed. The placement for this row is not established, and the position is open rather than negative. Article...
Scopolamine (Devil's Breath)	Not confirmed. The placement for this row is not established, and the position is open rather than negative. Article...
THC-P	Not confirmed. The placement for this row is not established, and the position is open rather than negative. Article...
Tramadol	Not confirmed. The placement for this row is not established, and the position is open rather than negative. Article...
Xylazine	Not confirmed. The placement for this row is not established, and the position is open rather than negative. Article...

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

Before you travel

Verify current rules with the destination country’s official drug authority and your own country’s embassy before traveling. Find the destination’s U.S. embassy & official country guidance →
Non-U.S. travelers: check your own government’s travel advisory and embassy.

If you’re detained or arrested abroad

Contact your own country’s embassy or consulate in the destination immediately, not the destination’s authorities. U.S. citizens: contact the nearest U.S. embassy/consulate and the U.S. State Department at +1-202-501-4444 (from abroad). If a U.S. citizen is arrested or detained abroad →

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