Is DXM legal in Malta?

Legal status

DXM is dealt with by the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, Chapter 101, and the way it is dealt with is an express exclusion. Malta runs two drug ordinances and a cell that answers from one when the substance sits in the other is wrong. Here Chapter 101 answers, and it answers by naming dextromethorphan, not the abbreviation DXM, in order to put it outside Part I of the First Schedule. The text reads "DEXTROMETHROPHAN and DEXTRORPHAN are specifically excluded from this Part of the Schedule." DXM is affirmatively excluded from Chapter 101 First Schedule Part I; this does not decide pharmacy, sale, or misuse controls elsewhere. An express exclusion is a stronger result than absence from a schedule, because the drafter considered the substance and left it out. It decides the First Schedule question and nothing else.

Consequences if caught

Capital and life exposure. Malta has no death penalty and no Maltese drug offence can bring one. No Chapter 101 drug ceiling follows from the schedule entry, because the entry is an exclusion: the First Schedule expressly excludes dextromethorphan, so there is no prohibited drug offence for it to trigger and no Chapter 537 diversion route to need. That result is confined to the First Schedule question. Pharmacy, sale and misuse controls elsewhere in Maltese law were not read for this row and are not decided by it.

If prescribed or medical

No prescription question arises under the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, because the First Schedule excludes the substance expressly rather than controlling it, so no Chapter 101 authorisation is needed for it. That is the whole of what the exclusion decides. Pharmacy, sale and misuse controls elsewhere in Maltese law were not read for this row, and a cough preparation sold under pharmacy supervision in one country is not automatically sold the same way in another. What this source does not establish is the prescribing and dispensing conditions themselves. The dossier read the two controlled drug ordinances and Chapter 537 and says in terms that it ‘did not attempt to decide separate medicines, pharmacy, veterinary, poisons, tobacco, alcohol, food, product-safety, or driving laws’. Treat the prescribing route as unread here rather than as absent. The text that fixes the exclusion is "DEXTROMETHROPHAN and DEXTRORPHAN are specifically excluded from this Part of the Schedule."

Documentation

Carry the preparation in its original retail or dispensing packaging with the ingredient list intact, because the exclusion is written for the named substance and packaging is what shows which substance you are carrying. Nothing further is identified as required by the texts read for this row, and no Maltese import permit or advance declaration route for it appears in them. Pharmacy and sale rules elsewhere in Maltese law were not read here, so a Maltese mission remains the place to confirm a specific product. The provenance is the consolidated English text of the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, Chapter 101 on Legislation Malta, read on 18 September 2026 at https://legislation.mt/eli/cap/101/eng. The amendment horizon is 18 September 2026, and on that date the consolidated texts stood at Chapter 31 through Legal Notice 46 of 2026, Chapter 101 through Legal Notice 97 of 2025, Chapter 537 through Acts VII and XII of 2025, and Chapter 628 through Act XII of 2025. Legislation Malta prints the footer ‘© Dritt tal-awtur: L-Uffiċċju tal-Avukat tal-Istat’ on each page, no open reuse licence was located, and only the words needed to identify the provision are quoted here.

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