Is Diazepam legal in New Zealand?

Also known as: valium

Legal status

Controlled, and named rather than inferred. Schedule 3 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 names or describes diazepam, a long acting benzodiazepine, as a Class C controlled drug, and the entry reaches the relevant salts and preparations. 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. It is the substance most often carried by travellers on prescription among the six benzodiazepines this table names, and it sits in the lowest of the three classes. The reading is against the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, whose latest commenced classification instrument is the Misuse of Drugs (Classification and Presumption of Supply) Order 2025, in force from 27 November 2025.

Consequences if caught

Capital exposure: none. New Zealand has no death penalty. Section 6 caps dealing in a Class C controlled drug at 8 years, subject to the adult-supply distinctions the Act draws, and that is the ceiling on diazepam. Possession is charged under section 7, where the maximum is 3 months. Section 7 also directs prosecution discretion toward a health-centred response in qualifying possession cases, which is not decriminalisation and does not make possession lawful. A prescribed supply carried by the person it was dispensed to is not a dealing case, and nothing in this placement puts it anywhere near the Class A ceiling.

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: diazepam is a Class C controlled drug under Schedule 3, with sections 6 and 7 supplying the offences. It is the benzodiazepine most often carried on prescription, and it belongs to the lowest of the three classes, with a dealing ceiling of 8 years and nothing resembling a life term anywhere near it. 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 3 diazepam entry and section 7 together, and never read a Class A ceiling across to it. Carry the class and the ceiling as two separate readings, because Schedule 3 supplies the class for diazepam 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.