Is Diazepam legal in Austria?

Legal status

Austria controls this under the Psychotropenverordnung as a psychotropic substance. In the Psychotropenverordnung, Annex 1 point 2 carries Diazepam. Diazepam is a psychotrope in Austria and not a narcotic. It is not in the Suchtgiftverordnung, it carries no life ceiling, and any description that places it there is wrong. Nothing operative is written into that line. It is a listing, and the words that create liability are the authorized purpose rule in SMG §5(1) and the §30 offence that follows it. Designation here is delegated in the same way as for narcotics. SMG §3(1) sets the convention and regulation test, the Psychotropenverordnung answers it, and the offences sit in SMG §§30, 31 and 31a rather than in §§27 to 28a. The Psychotropenverordnung extends its Annex 1 names to salts and preparations, and it carries no equivalent blanket derivative or isomer clause, which is a narrower reach than the narcotics instrument has. Its analogous preparation exemption runs at 0.01 per cent.

Consequences if caught

Capital exposure: none. This substance tops out at ten years, under SMG §31(3) and §31a(3). The life ceiling in SMG §28a(5) belongs to the narcotics instrument, which this is not in, and Austrian law carries no death penalty. Diazepam is a point 2 psychotrope, and SMG §35(1) expressly extends its conditional diversion route to §30 offences as well as §27 ones, so a personal use case can be stepped back from altogether. The middle tiers are §31(1) at two years and §31(2) at five years for preparation, and §31a(1) at three years and §31a(2) at five years for trafficking, with the subsection (4) reductions of one, three and five years under the §27(5) conditions. The fine and the custodial term in the basic offences are alternatives, and confiscation under SMG §34 is a separate consequence from both. Separately from that, and carried forward from this site's published Austria entry rather than re-derived from the Suchtmittelgesetz in this pass, the published penalties are these. Austrian practice is depenalised and not legalised, and the published entry says so in those terms. There is no legal minimum quantity, and possession of any amount for personal use is punishable under section 27, up to six months in prison or a fine. Under Therapie statt Strafe at section 35, small quantity personal use is typically provisionally suspended from prosecution on one to two years of probation where the person accepts counselling or treatment. Consumption itself is not criminalised, but the possession that precedes it is. Above the Grenzmenge, the threshold quantity, the offence becomes dealing or trafficking under sections 28 and 28a, up to one to three years, escalating to ten to fifteen years for commercial or organised cases. Every figure in this paragraph is a penalty range or a fine and none of them is a quantity threshold. They describe the offences that this row's placement in the Austrian Suchtgift and psychotrope lists brings into play.

If prescribed or medical

Austria publishes no per substance traveller route. SMG §5(1) is the single rule: a Suchtmittel may be handled only for medical, dental, veterinary or scientific purposes and only as the Act allows, with the travel, licensing and dispensing exemptions each governed by their own provisions. Because this substance is a designated psychotrope, SMG §30(3) is available on its own terms. It removes punishment under §30(1) and §30(2) where a medicine containing a psychotropic substance, not exceeding the threshold, is acquired, possessed, carried, imported or exported for personal use or for the needs of an animal, or is offered, transferred or procured without the person drawing an advantage from it. It is not a blanket exception for psychotropic powder. The Psychotropenverordnung closes its Annexes 2 and 3 with travel certificate fields, which is where this system's documented route lives. A dispensed diazepam course in a traveller's bag is the paradigm case that wording describes, and it is worth saying plainly what follows: such a supply is an ordinary psychotropic medicine in Austria, not a dangerous drug, and no part of the narcotics instrument or its life ceiling touches it.

Documentation

Carry the original dispensing packaging and the prescription, and obtain the psychotrope travel certificate whose fields the Psychotropenverordnung sets out at the end of its Annexes 2 and 3. A prescribed diazepam supply sits in the psychotrope system and not in the narcotics one, so the ten year figure and not the life figure is the relevant ceiling. The psychotrope list was read at its 18 September 2026 consolidation, whose last list amendment is BGBl II 394/2024 of 19 December 2024; the later BGBl II 10/2025 changed other provisions and not the list.

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