Is Crack Cocaine legal in New Zealand?

Legal status

Controlled, and named rather than inferred. Schedule 1 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 names or describes crack cocaine, the smokable freebase form of cocaine, as a Class A controlled drug, and the entry carries the derivatives and preparations limb attached to it. New Zealand's list is closed for named substances, so a named entry settles the class without recourse to the section 2 controlled-drug-analogue limb that carries sixteen other rows in this table. Cocaine has its own row here and sits in the same class, so the preparation and the salt answer alike and the form of the drug does not move the ceiling. The consolidation read was the one current at 20 September 2026, with the Order of 2025 commenced on 27 November 2025 as the latest instrument actually in force.

Consequences if caught

Capital exposure: none. No capital sentence exists anywhere in New Zealand law. The section 6 ceiling for dealing in a Class A controlled drug is life imprisonment, and that is the class crack cocaine sits in. Life is the ceiling and not the starting point. Possession falls under section 7 at a maximum of 6 months. Schedule 5 sets the quantity at which supply is presumed, which shifts which section is in play rather than what the sentence will be. Converting the salt to freebase does not lower the class, so a person who cooks it keeps the same ceiling and adds a manufacture limb to it.

If prescribed or medical

Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: crack cocaine is a Class A controlled drug under Schedule 1, with sections 6 and 7 supplying the offences. Nothing here presents as a dispensed product, and the street name will not be found in the Act, so a border question resolves through the cocaine entry. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.

Documentation

Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, which is the official New Zealand Legislation text rather than a secondary summary. Read the Schedule 1 entry together with the preparations limb, because crack is reached as a preparation rather than by that street name. Carry the class and the ceiling as two separate readings, because Schedule 1 supplies the class for crack cocaine while sections 6 and 7 supply the maximum. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

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