Legality2-FDCK in El Salvador, full detail →25I-NBOMe in El Salvador, full detail →2C-B in El Salvador, full detail →3-MMC in El Salvador, full detail →Adderall in El Salvador, full detail →Alcohol in El Salvador, full detail →Amphetamine in El Salvador, full detail →Amyl Nitrite in El Salvador, full detail →Ayahuasca in El Salvador, full detail →Barbiturates in El Salvador, full detail →Benzodiazepines in El Salvador, full detail →Buprenorphine in El Salvador, full detail →Cannabis / THC in El Salvador, full detail →Cathinone in El Salvador, full detail →Clonazepam in El Salvador, full detail →Cocaine in El Salvador, full detail →Codeine in El Salvador, full detail →Crack Cocaine in El Salvador, full detail →Delta-8-THC in El Salvador, full detail →Diazepam in El Salvador, full detail →DMT in El Salvador, full detail →DOM in El Salvador, full detail →Ephedrine in El Salvador, full detail →Etizolam in El Salvador, full detail →Fentanyl in El Salvador, full detail →GHB in El Salvador, full detail →Heroin in El Salvador, full detail →HHC in El Salvador, full detail →Hydrocodone in El Salvador, full detail →Ketamine in El Salvador, full detail →Khat in El Salvador, full detail →Lorazepam in El Salvador, full detail →LSD in El Salvador, full detail →MDA in El Salvador, full detail →MDMA in El Salvador, full detail →MDPV in El Salvador, full detail →Mephedrone (4-MMC) in El Salvador, full detail →Mescaline in El Salvador, full detail →Methadone in El Salvador, full detail →Methamphetamine in El Salvador, full detail →Methaqualone (Quaaludes) in El Salvador, full detail →Methylone in El Salvador, full detail →Methylphenidate in El Salvador, full detail →Morphine in El Salvador, full detail →MXE in El Salvador, full detail →Nimetazepam in El Salvador, full detail →Opium in El Salvador, full detail →Oxycodone in El Salvador, full detail →PCP in El Salvador, full detail →Peyote in El Salvador, full detail →Poppers in El Salvador, full detail →Psilocybin in El Salvador, full detail →Tobacco in El Salvador, full detail →Xanax (Alprazolam) in El Salvador, full detail →Xylazine in El Salvador, full detail →Zolpidem in El Salvador, full detail →
Legal status in El Salvador
Per-substance legal status for El Salvador, 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.
Confirmed legal status
2-FDCK
- Legal status
- Controlled under the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003. 2-FDCK is printed in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria as «2-Fluorodescloroketamina», entry 65, at Parte B, Seccion II. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista II de la Convencion de 1971. Article 2 makes a droga any substance specified as such in the conventions El Salvador has ratified, and Article 3 prohibits every activity relating to the narcotic, depressant, stimulant, hallucinogen and cannabis categories, so a printed convention entry is reached by the definition itself. The Listado spells the entry with the Spanish descloro rather than the English deschloro, and this fluorinated analogue sits in a convention section while ketamine itself is in the national additions part.
- Consequences if caught
- The Listado spells the entry with the Spanish descloro rather than the English deschloro, and this fluorinated analogue sits in a convention section while ketamine itself is in the national additions part. 2-FDCK is inside El Salvador's drug control regime, and the penalties below are set out because they describe the offences that this row's placement brings into play. Article 34 divides possession from trafficking by a 2 gram line: possession of under 2 grams carries 1 to 3 years, possession of 2 grams or more carries 3 to 6 years, and possession of any quantity with the object of doing anything Article 33 lists carries 6 to 10 years. Article 34 closes by providing that it does not apply where the conduct fits a graver offence. There is no personal use exemption anywhere in the Ley. Article 31 sets 5 to 15 years for sowing, cultivating or harvesting, and Article 33 sets 10 to 15 years for acquiring, transferring, importing, exporting, storing, transporting, distributing, supplying or selling. Article 33's second paragraph raises the trafficking penalty by one third of the stated maximum where the act is international trafficking, so the ceiling on that route is 20 years, and Article 54 allows a court to raise the penalty by up to one third of the maximum on any of nine listed aggravating circumstances, which is a discretion and not the mandatory increase Article 33 creates. Article 55 allows the penalty to be cut to half the minimum where the accused names others or enables a seizure. The ceiling on every one of these routes is imprisonment, because the severest sanction is constitutionally barred for ordinary offences in El Salvador, so no offence in this Ley carries it. The Ley creates no lawful recreational regime and no medical regime for any substance it reaches, cannabis included: Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be imported, produced, made, extracted, possessed or used only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for making products of industrial use, and only with the health regulator's authorisation. On the fine, the Sala de lo Constitucional struck the multa in each of these three articles as a penal consequence, Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments published on 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments published on 19 August 2009 and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010 published on 23 October 2013, so no fine now attaches to cultivation, trafficking or possession under this Ley. On quantity, the 2 gram line in Article 34 is the only weight the Ley fixes; it sets no substance by substance threshold and no quantity table, so the same 2 grams applies whatever the substance is. The 2 gram line and the bands of 1 to 3, 3 to 6, 6 to 10, 5 to 15 and 10 to 15 years and the one third increase are carried forward from the live cell and were re-read against the Asamblea Legislativa text for this pass; the Article 34 graver offence proviso, the Article 54 and Article 55 provisions and the three unconstitutionality rulings are new to this cell.
- If prescribed / medical
- 2-FDCK reaches people as a powder, a liquid, a blotter or a pressed tablet rather than as a dispensed medicine, so there is no prescription document to carry for it, and the name a Salvadoran laboratory report would use is 2-FDCK. Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be held only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for industrial products, and only with the health regulator's authorisation, so there is no lawful personal quantity of it.
- Documentation
- The instrument read for this cell is the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, published in Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003, in the consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa. That text carries its own reform schedule: five reforms, the last of them Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018 in Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, so the consolidation read here is current to that reform. The same reform schedule was confirmed against a second publisher, the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which prints the identical list of five. The text also carries four rulings of the Sala de lo Constitucional, three of which strike the fine in Articles 31, 33 and 34 and the fourth of which struck the rule in Article 52 that equated preparatory acts with completed offences before that article was reformed in 2018. The substance list read for this cell is the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria. That document states its own currency in its Disposiciones generales: it was approved by that acuerdo and is «vigente hasta el 31 de marzo de 2027, o hasta que se emita un nuevo listado por parte de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria». It was read as at 21 September 2026, and the 2025 edition of the same list was fetched first and set aside once the 2026 edition was found on the regulator's own page. The list is the one Article 13 of the Ley requires, «una lista de drogas y de todas las preparaciones y especialidades farmaceuticas que las contengan de acuerdo a las categorias establecidas en la presente Ley», which Article 13 also requires to be sent to the Corte Suprema de Justicia, the Fiscalia General de la Republica and the Policia Nacional Civil so that judges and prosecutors know it. Article 13 names the Consejo Superior de Salud Publica as the body that makes it; the 2013 Reglamento names the Direccion Nacional de Medicamentos as the governing authority, and the Ley de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria dissolved that Direccion and moved its functions to the Superintendencia with effect from August 2024. That succession is stated from the Reglamento and from reporting of the Superintendencia law, whose own gazette text was not read for this cell. Article 2 defines droga in its own words: «Art. 2.- Para los efectos de esta Ley se consideran drogas las sustancias especificadas como tales en los Convenios Internacionales ratificados por El Salvador, las que se mencionan en el Código de Salud y demás leyes del país; y en general, las que indistintamente de su grado de pureza, actúan sobre el sistema nervioso central y tienen la capacidad de producir transformaciones, bien sea aumentando o disminuyendo su funcionamiento o modificando los estados de conciencia y que su uso indebido puede causar dependencia o sujeción física y psicológica.» Article 3 then prohibits activity relating to five named categories and, in letter f, «f) Cualquier otra sustancia que sea considerada droga tan nociva que amerite ser prohibida por el Consejo Superior de Salud Pública o por los convenios internacionales ratificados por el país.» The names searched across the list, in Spanish and in English, were 2-FDCK, 2-fluorodescloroketamina, 2-fluorodeschloroketamine. The matched entry was read before it was relied on, and it is «2-Fluorodescloroketamina», entry 65, at Parte B, Seccion II. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista II de la Convencion de 1971. Three routes were tried for the instrument and all three returned a document: the Asamblea Legislativa decree file, which returned the consolidated text; the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which returned the same consolidation; and the regulator's own listado page, which returned the 2026 list. Two routes returned nothing usable: the Asamblea decree index and law search paths both returned a not found page, and a fetch of the Asamblea search page failed on certificate verification. Carry any controlled medicine in its dispensing packaging with the prescription, and confirm the position with the Salvadoran embassy or consulate before you travel.
Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, Articles 2, 3, 13, 31, 32, 33, 34, 54 and 55, consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa, Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003 · Consolidation: current to Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018, Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, the last of the five reforms the text's own schedule prints, confirmed against the Fiscalia General de la Republica transparency copy · Unconstitutionality of the fine: Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments, Diario Oficial 196, Tomo 377, of 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments, Diario Oficial 152, Tomo 384, of 19 August 2009, and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010, Diario Oficial 197, Tomo 401, of 23 October 2013 · Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria, read as at 21 September 2026, the document stating its own currency to 31 March 2027 or until a new listado is issued · Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados, Decreto Ejecutivo 20, Diario Oficial of 13 February 2013, Articles 5, 26, 36, 37 and 40 · Placement: entry read at Parte B, Seccion II. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista II de la Convencion de 1971, entry 65 · Placement provenance: the Parte and Seccion stated for this row are not printed in the quoted dossier extract, and no quoted extract in that dossier carries a Parte or Seccion marker for any substance, because the dossier resolved every row against articles 2 and 3 of Decreto 153 alone and never reached the Listado. The placement is read directly from the Listado named above and not from the dossier · Penalty figures for the 2 gram line and the year bands in Articles 31, 33 and 34 carried forward from the live cell and not re-derived from a new source, then re-read against the Asamblea text. The Article 34 graver offence proviso, Articles 54 and 55 and the three unconstitutionality rulings are read from that text and are new to this cell · asamblea.gob.sv · srs.gob.sv · portaldetransparencia.fgr.gob.sv · Updated September 21, 2026
25I-NBOMe
- Legal status
- Controlled under the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003. 25I-NBOMe is printed in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria as «25I-NBOMe», entry 22, CAS 919797-19-6, at Parte B, Seccion I. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista I de la Convencion de 1971. Article 2 makes a droga any substance specified as such in the conventions El Salvador has ratified, and Article 3 prohibits every activity relating to the narcotic, depressant, stimulant, hallucinogen and cannabis categories, so a printed convention entry is reached by the definition itself. Three NBOMe derivatives are printed separately, the bromo, the chloro and the iodo, so this row is decided on the iodo entry and not on a family reading.
- Consequences if caught
- Three NBOMe derivatives are printed separately, the bromo, the chloro and the iodo, so this row is decided on the iodo entry and not on a family reading. 25I-NBOMe is inside El Salvador's drug control regime, and the penalties below are set out because they describe the offences that this row's placement brings into play. Article 34 divides possession from trafficking by a 2 gram line: possession of under 2 grams carries 1 to 3 years, possession of 2 grams or more carries 3 to 6 years, and possession of any quantity with the object of doing anything Article 33 lists carries 6 to 10 years. Article 34 closes by providing that it does not apply where the conduct fits a graver offence. There is no personal use exemption anywhere in the Ley. Article 31 sets 5 to 15 years for sowing, cultivating or harvesting, and Article 33 sets 10 to 15 years for acquiring, transferring, importing, exporting, storing, transporting, distributing, supplying or selling. Article 33's second paragraph raises the trafficking penalty by one third of the stated maximum where the act is international trafficking, so the ceiling on that route is 20 years, and Article 54 allows a court to raise the penalty by up to one third of the maximum on any of nine listed aggravating circumstances, which is a discretion and not the mandatory increase Article 33 creates. Article 55 allows the penalty to be cut to half the minimum where the accused names others or enables a seizure. The ceiling on every one of these routes is imprisonment, because the severest sanction is constitutionally barred for ordinary offences in El Salvador, so no offence in this Ley carries it. The Ley creates no lawful recreational regime and no medical regime for any substance it reaches, cannabis included: Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be imported, produced, made, extracted, possessed or used only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for making products of industrial use, and only with the health regulator's authorisation. On the fine, the Sala de lo Constitucional struck the multa in each of these three articles as a penal consequence, Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments published on 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments published on 19 August 2009 and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010 published on 23 October 2013, so no fine now attaches to cultivation, trafficking or possession under this Ley. On quantity, the 2 gram line in Article 34 is the only weight the Ley fixes; it sets no substance by substance threshold and no quantity table, so the same 2 grams applies whatever the substance is. The 2 gram line and the bands of 1 to 3, 3 to 6, 6 to 10, 5 to 15 and 10 to 15 years and the one third increase are carried forward from the live cell and were re-read against the Asamblea Legislativa text for this pass; the Article 34 graver offence proviso, the Article 54 and Article 55 provisions and the three unconstitutionality rulings are new to this cell.
- If prescribed / medical
- 25I-NBOMe reaches people as a powder, a liquid, a blotter or a pressed tablet rather than as a dispensed medicine, so there is no prescription document to carry for it, and the name a Salvadoran laboratory report would use is 25I-NBOMe. Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be held only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for industrial products, and only with the health regulator's authorisation, so there is no lawful personal quantity of it.
- Documentation
- The instrument read for this cell is the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, published in Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003, in the consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa. That text carries its own reform schedule: five reforms, the last of them Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018 in Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, so the consolidation read here is current to that reform. The same reform schedule was confirmed against a second publisher, the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which prints the identical list of five. The text also carries four rulings of the Sala de lo Constitucional, three of which strike the fine in Articles 31, 33 and 34 and the fourth of which struck the rule in Article 52 that equated preparatory acts with completed offences before that article was reformed in 2018. The substance list read for this cell is the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria. That document states its own currency in its Disposiciones generales: it was approved by that acuerdo and is «vigente hasta el 31 de marzo de 2027, o hasta que se emita un nuevo listado por parte de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria». It was read as at 21 September 2026, and the 2025 edition of the same list was fetched first and set aside once the 2026 edition was found on the regulator's own page. The list is the one Article 13 of the Ley requires, «una lista de drogas y de todas las preparaciones y especialidades farmaceuticas que las contengan de acuerdo a las categorias establecidas en la presente Ley», which Article 13 also requires to be sent to the Corte Suprema de Justicia, the Fiscalia General de la Republica and the Policia Nacional Civil so that judges and prosecutors know it. Article 13 names the Consejo Superior de Salud Publica as the body that makes it; the 2013 Reglamento names the Direccion Nacional de Medicamentos as the governing authority, and the Ley de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria dissolved that Direccion and moved its functions to the Superintendencia with effect from August 2024. That succession is stated from the Reglamento and from reporting of the Superintendencia law, whose own gazette text was not read for this cell. Article 2 defines droga in its own words: «Art. 2.- Para los efectos de esta Ley se consideran drogas las sustancias especificadas como tales en los Convenios Internacionales ratificados por El Salvador, las que se mencionan en el Código de Salud y demás leyes del país; y en general, las que indistintamente de su grado de pureza, actúan sobre el sistema nervioso central y tienen la capacidad de producir transformaciones, bien sea aumentando o disminuyendo su funcionamiento o modificando los estados de conciencia y que su uso indebido puede causar dependencia o sujeción física y psicológica.» Article 3 then prohibits activity relating to five named categories and, in letter f, «f) Cualquier otra sustancia que sea considerada droga tan nociva que amerite ser prohibida por el Consejo Superior de Salud Pública o por los convenios internacionales ratificados por el país.» The names searched across the list, in Spanish and in English, were 25I-NBOMe, NBOMe, 2-(4-yodo-2,5-dimetoxifenil)-N-(2-metoxibencil)etanamina. The matched entry was read before it was relied on, and it is «25I-NBOMe», entry 22, CAS 919797-19-6, at Parte B, Seccion I. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista I de la Convencion de 1971. Three routes were tried for the instrument and all three returned a document: the Asamblea Legislativa decree file, which returned the consolidated text; the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which returned the same consolidation; and the regulator's own listado page, which returned the 2026 list. Two routes returned nothing usable: the Asamblea decree index and law search paths both returned a not found page, and a fetch of the Asamblea search page failed on certificate verification. Carry any controlled medicine in its dispensing packaging with the prescription, and confirm the position with the Salvadoran embassy or consulate before you travel.
Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, Articles 2, 3, 13, 31, 32, 33, 34, 54 and 55, consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa, Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003 · Consolidation: current to Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018, Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, the last of the five reforms the text's own schedule prints, confirmed against the Fiscalia General de la Republica transparency copy · Unconstitutionality of the fine: Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments, Diario Oficial 196, Tomo 377, of 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments, Diario Oficial 152, Tomo 384, of 19 August 2009, and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010, Diario Oficial 197, Tomo 401, of 23 October 2013 · Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria, read as at 21 September 2026, the document stating its own currency to 31 March 2027 or until a new listado is issued · Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados, Decreto Ejecutivo 20, Diario Oficial of 13 February 2013, Articles 5, 26, 36, 37 and 40 · Placement: entry read at Parte B, Seccion I. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista I de la Convencion de 1971, entry 22, CAS 919797-19-6 · Placement provenance: the Parte and Seccion stated for this row are not printed in the quoted dossier extract, and no quoted extract in that dossier carries a Parte or Seccion marker for any substance, because the dossier resolved every row against articles 2 and 3 of Decreto 153 alone and never reached the Listado. The placement is read directly from the Listado named above and not from the dossier · Penalty figures for the 2 gram line and the year bands in Articles 31, 33 and 34 carried forward from the live cell and not re-derived from a new source, then re-read against the Asamblea text. The Article 34 graver offence proviso, Articles 54 and 55 and the three unconstitutionality rulings are read from that text and are new to this cell · asamblea.gob.sv · srs.gob.sv · portaldetransparencia.fgr.gob.sv · Updated September 21, 2026
2C-B
- Legal status
- Controlled under the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003. 2C-B is printed in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria as «2C-B», entry 46, CAS 66142-81-2, at Parte B, Seccion II. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista II de la Convencion de 1971. Article 2 makes a droga any substance specified as such in the conventions El Salvador has ratified, and Article 3 prohibits every activity relating to the narcotic, depressant, stimulant, hallucinogen and cannabis categories, so a printed convention entry is reached by the definition itself. The brominated 2C compound carries its own entry with its own CAS number, which is what separates it from the NBOMe derivative of the same ring system listed separately at Parte B Seccion I.
- Consequences if caught
- The brominated 2C compound carries its own entry with its own CAS number, which is what separates it from the NBOMe derivative of the same ring system listed separately at Parte B Seccion I. 2C-B is inside El Salvador's drug control regime, and the penalties below are set out because they describe the offences that this row's placement brings into play. Article 34 divides possession from trafficking by a 2 gram line: possession of under 2 grams carries 1 to 3 years, possession of 2 grams or more carries 3 to 6 years, and possession of any quantity with the object of doing anything Article 33 lists carries 6 to 10 years. Article 34 closes by providing that it does not apply where the conduct fits a graver offence. There is no personal use exemption anywhere in the Ley. Article 31 sets 5 to 15 years for sowing, cultivating or harvesting, and Article 33 sets 10 to 15 years for acquiring, transferring, importing, exporting, storing, transporting, distributing, supplying or selling. Article 33's second paragraph raises the trafficking penalty by one third of the stated maximum where the act is international trafficking, so the ceiling on that route is 20 years, and Article 54 allows a court to raise the penalty by up to one third of the maximum on any of nine listed aggravating circumstances, which is a discretion and not the mandatory increase Article 33 creates. Article 55 allows the penalty to be cut to half the minimum where the accused names others or enables a seizure. The ceiling on every one of these routes is imprisonment, because the severest sanction is constitutionally barred for ordinary offences in El Salvador, so no offence in this Ley carries it. The Ley creates no lawful recreational regime and no medical regime for any substance it reaches, cannabis included: Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be imported, produced, made, extracted, possessed or used only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for making products of industrial use, and only with the health regulator's authorisation. On the fine, the Sala de lo Constitucional struck the multa in each of these three articles as a penal consequence, Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments published on 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments published on 19 August 2009 and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010 published on 23 October 2013, so no fine now attaches to cultivation, trafficking or possession under this Ley. On quantity, the 2 gram line in Article 34 is the only weight the Ley fixes; it sets no substance by substance threshold and no quantity table, so the same 2 grams applies whatever the substance is. The 2 gram line and the bands of 1 to 3, 3 to 6, 6 to 10, 5 to 15 and 10 to 15 years and the one third increase are carried forward from the live cell and were re-read against the Asamblea Legislativa text for this pass; the Article 34 graver offence proviso, the Article 54 and Article 55 provisions and the three unconstitutionality rulings are new to this cell.
- If prescribed / medical
- 2C-B reaches people as a powder, a liquid, a blotter or a pressed tablet rather than as a dispensed medicine, so there is no prescription document to carry for it, and the name a Salvadoran laboratory report would use is 2C-B. Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be held only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for industrial products, and only with the health regulator's authorisation, so there is no lawful personal quantity of it.
- Documentation
- The instrument read for this cell is the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, published in Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003, in the consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa. That text carries its own reform schedule: five reforms, the last of them Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018 in Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, so the consolidation read here is current to that reform. The same reform schedule was confirmed against a second publisher, the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which prints the identical list of five. The text also carries four rulings of the Sala de lo Constitucional, three of which strike the fine in Articles 31, 33 and 34 and the fourth of which struck the rule in Article 52 that equated preparatory acts with completed offences before that article was reformed in 2018. The substance list read for this cell is the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria. That document states its own currency in its Disposiciones generales: it was approved by that acuerdo and is «vigente hasta el 31 de marzo de 2027, o hasta que se emita un nuevo listado por parte de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria». It was read as at 21 September 2026, and the 2025 edition of the same list was fetched first and set aside once the 2026 edition was found on the regulator's own page. The list is the one Article 13 of the Ley requires, «una lista de drogas y de todas las preparaciones y especialidades farmaceuticas que las contengan de acuerdo a las categorias establecidas en la presente Ley», which Article 13 also requires to be sent to the Corte Suprema de Justicia, the Fiscalia General de la Republica and the Policia Nacional Civil so that judges and prosecutors know it. Article 13 names the Consejo Superior de Salud Publica as the body that makes it; the 2013 Reglamento names the Direccion Nacional de Medicamentos as the governing authority, and the Ley de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria dissolved that Direccion and moved its functions to the Superintendencia with effect from August 2024. That succession is stated from the Reglamento and from reporting of the Superintendencia law, whose own gazette text was not read for this cell. Article 2 defines droga in its own words: «Art. 2.- Para los efectos de esta Ley se consideran drogas las sustancias especificadas como tales en los Convenios Internacionales ratificados por El Salvador, las que se mencionan en el Código de Salud y demás leyes del país; y en general, las que indistintamente de su grado de pureza, actúan sobre el sistema nervioso central y tienen la capacidad de producir transformaciones, bien sea aumentando o disminuyendo su funcionamiento o modificando los estados de conciencia y que su uso indebido puede causar dependencia o sujeción física y psicológica.» Article 3 then prohibits activity relating to five named categories and, in letter f, «f) Cualquier otra sustancia que sea considerada droga tan nociva que amerite ser prohibida por el Consejo Superior de Salud Pública o por los convenios internacionales ratificados por el país.» The names searched across the list, in Spanish and in English, were 2C-B, 4-bromo-2,5-dimetoxifenetilamina. The matched entry was read before it was relied on, and it is «2C-B», entry 46, CAS 66142-81-2, at Parte B, Seccion II. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista II de la Convencion de 1971. Three routes were tried for the instrument and all three returned a document: the Asamblea Legislativa decree file, which returned the consolidated text; the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which returned the same consolidation; and the regulator's own listado page, which returned the 2026 list. Two routes returned nothing usable: the Asamblea decree index and law search paths both returned a not found page, and a fetch of the Asamblea search page failed on certificate verification. Carry any controlled medicine in its dispensing packaging with the prescription, and confirm the position with the Salvadoran embassy or consulate before you travel.
Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, Articles 2, 3, 13, 31, 32, 33, 34, 54 and 55, consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa, Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003 · Consolidation: current to Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018, Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, the last of the five reforms the text's own schedule prints, confirmed against the Fiscalia General de la Republica transparency copy · Unconstitutionality of the fine: Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments, Diario Oficial 196, Tomo 377, of 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments, Diario Oficial 152, Tomo 384, of 19 August 2009, and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010, Diario Oficial 197, Tomo 401, of 23 October 2013 · Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria, read as at 21 September 2026, the document stating its own currency to 31 March 2027 or until a new listado is issued · Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados, Decreto Ejecutivo 20, Diario Oficial of 13 February 2013, Articles 5, 26, 36, 37 and 40 · Placement: entry read at Parte B, Seccion II. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista II de la Convencion de 1971, entry 46, CAS 66142-81-2 · Placement provenance: the Parte and Seccion stated for this row are not printed in the quoted dossier extract, and no quoted extract in that dossier carries a Parte or Seccion marker for any substance, because the dossier resolved every row against articles 2 and 3 of Decreto 153 alone and never reached the Listado. The placement is read directly from the Listado named above and not from the dossier · Penalty figures for the 2 gram line and the year bands in Articles 31, 33 and 34 carried forward from the live cell and not re-derived from a new source, then re-read against the Asamblea text. The Article 34 graver offence proviso, Articles 54 and 55 and the three unconstitutionality rulings are read from that text and are new to this cell · asamblea.gob.sv · srs.gob.sv · portaldetransparencia.fgr.gob.sv · Updated September 21, 2026
3-MMC
- Legal status
- Controlled under the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003. 3-MMC is printed in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria as «3-MMC», entry 87, CAS 1246816-62-5, at Parte B, Seccion II. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista II de la Convencion de 1971. Article 2 makes a droga any substance specified as such in the conventions El Salvador has ratified, and Article 3 prohibits every activity relating to the narcotic, depressant, stimulant, hallucinogen and cannabis categories, so a printed convention entry is reached by the definition itself. The entry name changed between editions while the substance stayed listed: the 2025 edition of the same list printed it as 3-Metilmetcatinona at entry 86, and the 2026 edition prints it as 3-MMC at entry 87 with the chemical name moved into the description column. It is the ring isomer of the mephedrone entry rather than a separate chemical family.
- Consequences if caught
- The entry name changed between editions while the substance stayed listed: the 2025 edition of the same list printed it as 3-Metilmetcatinona at entry 86, and the 2026 edition prints it as 3-MMC at entry 87 with the chemical name moved into the description column. It is the ring isomer of the mephedrone entry rather than a separate chemical family. 3-MMC is inside El Salvador's drug control regime, and the penalties below are set out because they describe the offences that this row's placement brings into play. Article 34 divides possession from trafficking by a 2 gram line: possession of under 2 grams carries 1 to 3 years, possession of 2 grams or more carries 3 to 6 years, and possession of any quantity with the object of doing anything Article 33 lists carries 6 to 10 years. Article 34 closes by providing that it does not apply where the conduct fits a graver offence. There is no personal use exemption anywhere in the Ley. Article 31 sets 5 to 15 years for sowing, cultivating or harvesting, and Article 33 sets 10 to 15 years for acquiring, transferring, importing, exporting, storing, transporting, distributing, supplying or selling. Article 33's second paragraph raises the trafficking penalty by one third of the stated maximum where the act is international trafficking, so the ceiling on that route is 20 years, and Article 54 allows a court to raise the penalty by up to one third of the maximum on any of nine listed aggravating circumstances, which is a discretion and not the mandatory increase Article 33 creates. Article 55 allows the penalty to be cut to half the minimum where the accused names others or enables a seizure. The ceiling on every one of these routes is imprisonment, because the severest sanction is constitutionally barred for ordinary offences in El Salvador, so no offence in this Ley carries it. The Ley creates no lawful recreational regime and no medical regime for any substance it reaches, cannabis included: Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be imported, produced, made, extracted, possessed or used only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for making products of industrial use, and only with the health regulator's authorisation. On the fine, the Sala de lo Constitucional struck the multa in each of these three articles as a penal consequence, Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments published on 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments published on 19 August 2009 and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010 published on 23 October 2013, so no fine now attaches to cultivation, trafficking or possession under this Ley. On quantity, the 2 gram line in Article 34 is the only weight the Ley fixes; it sets no substance by substance threshold and no quantity table, so the same 2 grams applies whatever the substance is. The 2 gram line and the bands of 1 to 3, 3 to 6, 6 to 10, 5 to 15 and 10 to 15 years and the one third increase are carried forward from the live cell and were re-read against the Asamblea Legislativa text for this pass; the Article 34 graver offence proviso, the Article 54 and Article 55 provisions and the three unconstitutionality rulings are new to this cell.
- If prescribed / medical
- 3-MMC reaches people as a powder, a liquid, a blotter or a pressed tablet rather than as a dispensed medicine, so there is no prescription document to carry for it, and the name a Salvadoran laboratory report would use is 3-MMC. Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be held only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for industrial products, and only with the health regulator's authorisation, so there is no lawful personal quantity of it.
- Documentation
- The instrument read for this cell is the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, published in Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003, in the consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa. That text carries its own reform schedule: five reforms, the last of them Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018 in Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, so the consolidation read here is current to that reform. The same reform schedule was confirmed against a second publisher, the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which prints the identical list of five. The text also carries four rulings of the Sala de lo Constitucional, three of which strike the fine in Articles 31, 33 and 34 and the fourth of which struck the rule in Article 52 that equated preparatory acts with completed offences before that article was reformed in 2018. The substance list read for this cell is the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria. That document states its own currency in its Disposiciones generales: it was approved by that acuerdo and is «vigente hasta el 31 de marzo de 2027, o hasta que se emita un nuevo listado por parte de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria». It was read as at 21 September 2026, and the 2025 edition of the same list was fetched first and set aside once the 2026 edition was found on the regulator's own page. The list is the one Article 13 of the Ley requires, «una lista de drogas y de todas las preparaciones y especialidades farmaceuticas que las contengan de acuerdo a las categorias establecidas en la presente Ley», which Article 13 also requires to be sent to the Corte Suprema de Justicia, the Fiscalia General de la Republica and the Policia Nacional Civil so that judges and prosecutors know it. Article 13 names the Consejo Superior de Salud Publica as the body that makes it; the 2013 Reglamento names the Direccion Nacional de Medicamentos as the governing authority, and the Ley de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria dissolved that Direccion and moved its functions to the Superintendencia with effect from August 2024. That succession is stated from the Reglamento and from reporting of the Superintendencia law, whose own gazette text was not read for this cell. Article 2 defines droga in its own words: «Art. 2.- Para los efectos de esta Ley se consideran drogas las sustancias especificadas como tales en los Convenios Internacionales ratificados por El Salvador, las que se mencionan en el Código de Salud y demás leyes del país; y en general, las que indistintamente de su grado de pureza, actúan sobre el sistema nervioso central y tienen la capacidad de producir transformaciones, bien sea aumentando o disminuyendo su funcionamiento o modificando los estados de conciencia y que su uso indebido puede causar dependencia o sujeción física y psicológica.» Article 3 then prohibits activity relating to five named categories and, in letter f, «f) Cualquier otra sustancia que sea considerada droga tan nociva que amerite ser prohibida por el Consejo Superior de Salud Pública o por los convenios internacionales ratificados por el país.» The names searched across the list, in Spanish and in English, were 3-MMC, 3-metilmetcatinona. The matched entry was read before it was relied on, and it is «3-MMC», entry 87, CAS 1246816-62-5, at Parte B, Seccion II. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista II de la Convencion de 1971. Three routes were tried for the instrument and all three returned a document: the Asamblea Legislativa decree file, which returned the consolidated text; the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which returned the same consolidation; and the regulator's own listado page, which returned the 2026 list. Two routes returned nothing usable: the Asamblea decree index and law search paths both returned a not found page, and a fetch of the Asamblea search page failed on certificate verification. Carry any controlled medicine in its dispensing packaging with the prescription, and confirm the position with the Salvadoran embassy or consulate before you travel.
Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, Articles 2, 3, 13, 31, 32, 33, 34, 54 and 55, consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa, Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003 · Consolidation: current to Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018, Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, the last of the five reforms the text's own schedule prints, confirmed against the Fiscalia General de la Republica transparency copy · Unconstitutionality of the fine: Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments, Diario Oficial 196, Tomo 377, of 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments, Diario Oficial 152, Tomo 384, of 19 August 2009, and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010, Diario Oficial 197, Tomo 401, of 23 October 2013 · Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria, read as at 21 September 2026, the document stating its own currency to 31 March 2027 or until a new listado is issued · Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados, Decreto Ejecutivo 20, Diario Oficial of 13 February 2013, Articles 5, 26, 36, 37 and 40 · Placement: entry read at Parte B, Seccion II. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista II de la Convencion de 1971, entry 87, CAS 1246816-62-5 · Placement provenance: the Parte and Seccion stated for this row are not printed in the quoted dossier extract, and no quoted extract in that dossier carries a Parte or Seccion marker for any substance, because the dossier resolved every row against articles 2 and 3 of Decreto 153 alone and never reached the Listado. The placement is read directly from the Listado named above and not from the dossier · Penalty figures for the 2 gram line and the year bands in Articles 31, 33 and 34 carried forward from the live cell and not re-derived from a new source, then re-read against the Asamblea text. The Article 34 graver offence proviso, Articles 54 and 55 and the three unconstitutionality rulings are read from that text and are new to this cell · asamblea.gob.sv · srs.gob.sv · portaldetransparencia.fgr.gob.sv · Updated September 21, 2026
Adderall
- Legal status
- Controlled under the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, as a group whose members are listed one by one. The group name is not named in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria; it prints «Anfetamina, Dexanfetamina», at Parte B, Seccion II. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista II de la Convencion de 1971. Article 3 prohibits activity relating to the depressant and stimulant categories and Article 2 reaches each printed entry through the conventions. No brand name is printed anywhere in the Listado. This row is resolved only through the two amphetamine salts it contains, each of which has its own entry, and never through the trade name.
- Consequences if caught
- No brand name is printed anywhere in the Listado. This row is resolved only through the two amphetamine salts it contains, each of which has its own entry, and never through the trade name. Adderall is inside El Salvador's drug control regime, and the penalties below are set out because they describe the offences that this row's placement brings into play. Article 34 divides possession from trafficking by a 2 gram line: possession of under 2 grams carries 1 to 3 years, possession of 2 grams or more carries 3 to 6 years, and possession of any quantity with the object of doing anything Article 33 lists carries 6 to 10 years. Article 34 closes by providing that it does not apply where the conduct fits a graver offence. There is no personal use exemption anywhere in the Ley. Article 31 sets 5 to 15 years for sowing, cultivating or harvesting, and Article 33 sets 10 to 15 years for acquiring, transferring, importing, exporting, storing, transporting, distributing, supplying or selling. Article 33's second paragraph raises the trafficking penalty by one third of the stated maximum where the act is international trafficking, so the ceiling on that route is 20 years, and Article 54 allows a court to raise the penalty by up to one third of the maximum on any of nine listed aggravating circumstances, which is a discretion and not the mandatory increase Article 33 creates. Article 55 allows the penalty to be cut to half the minimum where the accused names others or enables a seizure. The ceiling on every one of these routes is imprisonment, because the severest sanction is constitutionally barred for ordinary offences in El Salvador, so no offence in this Ley carries it. The Ley creates no lawful recreational regime and no medical regime for any substance it reaches, cannabis included: Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be imported, produced, made, extracted, possessed or used only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for making products of industrial use, and only with the health regulator's authorisation. On the fine, the Sala de lo Constitucional struck the multa in each of these three articles as a penal consequence, Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments published on 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments published on 19 August 2009 and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010 published on 23 October 2013, so no fine now attaches to cultivation, trafficking or possession under this Ley. On quantity, the 2 gram line in Article 34 is the only weight the Ley fixes; it sets no substance by substance threshold and no quantity table, so the same 2 grams applies whatever the substance is. The 2 gram line and the bands of 1 to 3, 3 to 6, 6 to 10, 5 to 15 and 10 to 15 years and the one third increase are carried forward from the live cell and were re-read against the Asamblea Legislativa text for this pass; the Article 34 graver offence proviso, the Article 54 and Article 55 provisions and the three unconstitutionality rulings are new to this cell.
- If prescribed / medical
- Adderall reaches people here as a dispensed medicine, and the name a Salvadoran pharmacy record or a laboratory report would use is anfetamina. Article 37 of the Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados requires that narcotics, psychotropics and agregados be prescribed on Recetarios Especiales printed by the regulator and issued to the professional, in books of at least twenty five cheque style forms and up to two hundred, and Article 40 of that Reglamento makes a special prescription valid for thirty days, with three monthly prescriptions allowed for a chronic patient. Article 14 of the Ley requires the pack to carry a warning that the product is sold only on medical prescription and is under the health regulator's control. A prescribing doctor who supplies outside the therapeutic indication commits the Article 38 offence, which carries 3 to 5 years, and a pharmacy that dispenses without the prescription commits the Article 40 offence, which carries 5 to 15 years. Carry it in its dispensing packaging with the prescription.
- Documentation
- The instrument read for this cell is the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, published in Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003, in the consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa. That text carries its own reform schedule: five reforms, the last of them Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018 in Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, so the consolidation read here is current to that reform. The same reform schedule was confirmed against a second publisher, the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which prints the identical list of five. The text also carries four rulings of the Sala de lo Constitucional, three of which strike the fine in Articles 31, 33 and 34 and the fourth of which struck the rule in Article 52 that equated preparatory acts with completed offences before that article was reformed in 2018. The substance list read for this cell is the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria. That document states its own currency in its Disposiciones generales: it was approved by that acuerdo and is «vigente hasta el 31 de marzo de 2027, o hasta que se emita un nuevo listado por parte de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria». It was read as at 21 September 2026, and the 2025 edition of the same list was fetched first and set aside once the 2026 edition was found on the regulator's own page. The list is the one Article 13 of the Ley requires, «una lista de drogas y de todas las preparaciones y especialidades farmaceuticas que las contengan de acuerdo a las categorias establecidas en la presente Ley», which Article 13 also requires to be sent to the Corte Suprema de Justicia, the Fiscalia General de la Republica and the Policia Nacional Civil so that judges and prosecutors know it. Article 13 names the Consejo Superior de Salud Publica as the body that makes it; the 2013 Reglamento names the Direccion Nacional de Medicamentos as the governing authority, and the Ley de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria dissolved that Direccion and moved its functions to the Superintendencia with effect from August 2024. That succession is stated from the Reglamento and from reporting of the Superintendencia law, whose own gazette text was not read for this cell. Article 2 defines droga in its own words: «Art. 2.- Para los efectos de esta Ley se consideran drogas las sustancias especificadas como tales en los Convenios Internacionales ratificados por El Salvador, las que se mencionan en el Código de Salud y demás leyes del país; y en general, las que indistintamente de su grado de pureza, actúan sobre el sistema nervioso central y tienen la capacidad de producir transformaciones, bien sea aumentando o disminuyendo su funcionamiento o modificando los estados de conciencia y que su uso indebido puede causar dependencia o sujeción física y psicológica.» Article 3 then prohibits activity relating to five named categories and, in letter f, «f) Cualquier otra sustancia que sea considerada droga tan nociva que amerite ser prohibida por el Consejo Superior de Salud Pública o por los convenios internacionales ratificados por el país.» The names searched across the list, in Spanish and in English, were anfetamina, dexanfetamina, dextroanfetamina, Adderall. No entry was returned under the row's own name. The entry relied on instead was read in full and it is «Anfetamina, Dexanfetamina», at Parte B, Seccion II. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista II de la Convencion de 1971. Three routes were tried for the instrument and all three returned a document: the Asamblea Legislativa decree file, which returned the consolidated text; the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which returned the same consolidation; and the regulator's own listado page, which returned the 2026 list. Two routes returned nothing usable: the Asamblea decree index and law search paths both returned a not found page, and a fetch of the Asamblea search page failed on certificate verification. Carry any controlled medicine in its dispensing packaging with the prescription, and confirm the position with the Salvadoran embassy or consulate before you travel.
Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, Articles 2, 3, 13, 31, 32, 33, 34, 54 and 55, consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa, Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003 · Consolidation: current to Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018, Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, the last of the five reforms the text's own schedule prints, confirmed against the Fiscalia General de la Republica transparency copy · Unconstitutionality of the fine: Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments, Diario Oficial 196, Tomo 377, of 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments, Diario Oficial 152, Tomo 384, of 19 August 2009, and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010, Diario Oficial 197, Tomo 401, of 23 October 2013 · Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria, read as at 21 September 2026, the document stating its own currency to 31 March 2027 or until a new listado is issued · Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados, Decreto Ejecutivo 20, Diario Oficial of 13 February 2013, Articles 5, 26, 36, 37 and 40 · Placement: the row's own name returned no entry · the entry relied on is at Parte B, Seccion II. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista II de la Convencion de 1971 · Placement provenance: the Parte and Seccion stated for this row are not printed in the quoted dossier extract, and no quoted extract in that dossier carries a Parte or Seccion marker for any substance, because the dossier resolved every row against articles 2 and 3 of Decreto 153 alone and never reached the Listado. The placement is read directly from the Listado named above and not from the dossier · Penalty figures for the 2 gram line and the year bands in Articles 31, 33 and 34 carried forward from the live cell and not re-derived from a new source, then re-read against the Asamblea text. The Article 34 graver offence proviso, Articles 54 and 55 and the three unconstitutionality rulings are read from that text and are new to this cell · asamblea.gob.sv · srs.gob.sv · portaldetransparencia.fgr.gob.sv · Updated September 21, 2026
Alcohol
- Legal status
- Not a controlled drug for the purposes of Articles 31 to 34 of the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003. Article 2's third paragraph provides that alcoholic drinks, tobacco, and solvents and inhalants, although within this subject matter, are to be regulated by special laws: «Las bebidas alcohólicas, el tabaco, y los solventes e inhalantes, no obstante estar enmarcadas dentro de esta materia, serán reguladas por leyes especiales.» Alcohol is also not named in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria. Article 2's third paragraph names bebidas alcoholicas first among the three things it sends to special laws, so this row's exclusion is written into the statute rather than inferred from an absence.
- Consequences if caught
- Article 2's third paragraph names bebidas alcoholicas first among the three things it sends to special laws, so this row's exclusion is written into the statute rather than inferred from an absence. Alcohol is outside the offences that Articles 31, 33 and 34 create, and the penalties below are set out because this row is placed outside that regime, so they are recorded as El Salvador's published drug penalties and not as this substance's exposure. Article 34 divides possession from trafficking by a 2 gram line: possession of under 2 grams carries 1 to 3 years, possession of 2 grams or more carries 3 to 6 years, and possession of any quantity with the object of doing anything Article 33 lists carries 6 to 10 years. Article 34 closes by providing that it does not apply where the conduct fits a graver offence. There is no personal use exemption anywhere in the Ley. Article 31 sets 5 to 15 years for sowing, cultivating or harvesting, and Article 33 sets 10 to 15 years for acquiring, transferring, importing, exporting, storing, transporting, distributing, supplying or selling. Article 33's second paragraph raises the trafficking penalty by one third of the stated maximum where the act is international trafficking, so the ceiling on that route is 20 years, and Article 54 allows a court to raise the penalty by up to one third of the maximum on any of nine listed aggravating circumstances, which is a discretion and not the mandatory increase Article 33 creates. Article 55 allows the penalty to be cut to half the minimum where the accused names others or enables a seizure. The ceiling on every one of these routes is imprisonment, because the severest sanction is constitutionally barred for ordinary offences in El Salvador, so no offence in this Ley carries it. The Ley creates no lawful recreational regime and no medical regime for any substance it reaches, cannabis included: Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be imported, produced, made, extracted, possessed or used only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for making products of industrial use, and only with the health regulator's authorisation. On the fine, the Sala de lo Constitucional struck the multa in each of these three articles as a penal consequence, Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments published on 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments published on 19 August 2009 and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010 published on 23 October 2013, so no fine now attaches to cultivation, trafficking or possession under this Ley. On quantity, the 2 gram line in Article 34 is the only weight the Ley fixes; it sets no substance by substance threshold and no quantity table, so the same 2 grams applies whatever the substance is. The 2 gram line and the bands of 1 to 3, 3 to 6, 6 to 10, 5 to 15 and 10 to 15 years and the one third increase are carried forward from the live cell and were re-read against the Asamblea Legislativa text for this pass; the Article 34 graver offence proviso, the Article 54 and Article 55 provisions and the three unconstitutionality rulings are new to this cell.
- If prescribed / medical
- Alcohol is sold as an ordinary consumer or industrial product rather than dispensed on a prescription, so there is no prescription document to carry for it and the name a Salvadoran record would use is alcohol. The special prescription machinery in Article 37 of the Reglamento is built for narcotics, psychotropics and agregados and has nothing to say about a product outside those three categories.
- Documentation
- The instrument read for this cell is the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, published in Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003, in the consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa. That text carries its own reform schedule: five reforms, the last of them Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018 in Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, so the consolidation read here is current to that reform. The same reform schedule was confirmed against a second publisher, the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which prints the identical list of five. The text also carries four rulings of the Sala de lo Constitucional, three of which strike the fine in Articles 31, 33 and 34 and the fourth of which struck the rule in Article 52 that equated preparatory acts with completed offences before that article was reformed in 2018. The substance list read for this cell is the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria. That document states its own currency in its Disposiciones generales: it was approved by that acuerdo and is «vigente hasta el 31 de marzo de 2027, o hasta que se emita un nuevo listado por parte de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria». It was read as at 21 September 2026, and the 2025 edition of the same list was fetched first and set aside once the 2026 edition was found on the regulator's own page. The list is the one Article 13 of the Ley requires, «una lista de drogas y de todas las preparaciones y especialidades farmaceuticas que las contengan de acuerdo a las categorias establecidas en la presente Ley», which Article 13 also requires to be sent to the Corte Suprema de Justicia, the Fiscalia General de la Republica and the Policia Nacional Civil so that judges and prosecutors know it. Article 13 names the Consejo Superior de Salud Publica as the body that makes it; the 2013 Reglamento names the Direccion Nacional de Medicamentos as the governing authority, and the Ley de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria dissolved that Direccion and moved its functions to the Superintendencia with effect from August 2024. That succession is stated from the Reglamento and from reporting of the Superintendencia law, whose own gazette text was not read for this cell. Article 2 defines droga in its own words: «Art. 2.- Para los efectos de esta Ley se consideran drogas las sustancias especificadas como tales en los Convenios Internacionales ratificados por El Salvador, las que se mencionan en el Código de Salud y demás leyes del país; y en general, las que indistintamente de su grado de pureza, actúan sobre el sistema nervioso central y tienen la capacidad de producir transformaciones, bien sea aumentando o disminuyendo su funcionamiento o modificando los estados de conciencia y que su uso indebido puede causar dependencia o sujeción física y psicológica.» Article 3 then prohibits activity relating to five named categories and, in letter f, «f) Cualquier otra sustancia que sea considerada droga tan nociva que amerite ser prohibida por el Consejo Superior de Salud Pública o por los convenios internacionales ratificados por el país.» The names searched across the list, in Spanish and in English, were alcohol, etanol, bebidas alcoholicas. No entry was returned for any of them, and none of them produced an occurrence of any kind in the list. Three routes were tried for the instrument and all three returned a document: the Asamblea Legislativa decree file, which returned the consolidated text; the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which returned the same consolidation; and the regulator's own listado page, which returned the 2026 list. Two routes returned nothing usable: the Asamblea decree index and law search paths both returned a not found page, and a fetch of the Asamblea search page failed on certificate verification. Carry any controlled medicine in its dispensing packaging with the prescription, and confirm the position with the Salvadoran embassy or consulate before you travel.
Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, Articles 2, 3, 13, 31, 32, 33, 34, 54 and 55, consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa, Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003 · Consolidation: current to Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018, Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, the last of the five reforms the text's own schedule prints, confirmed against the Fiscalia General de la Republica transparency copy · Unconstitutionality of the fine: Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments, Diario Oficial 196, Tomo 377, of 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments, Diario Oficial 152, Tomo 384, of 19 August 2009, and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010, Diario Oficial 197, Tomo 401, of 23 October 2013 · Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria, read as at 21 September 2026, the document stating its own currency to 31 March 2027 or until a new listado is issued · Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados, Decreto Ejecutivo 20, Diario Oficial of 13 February 2013, Articles 5, 26, 36, 37 and 40 · Placement: reserved to leyes especiales by the third paragraph of Article 2 · no entry returned in the listado · Penalty figures for the 2 gram line and the year bands in Articles 31, 33 and 34 carried forward from the live cell and not re-derived from a new source, then re-read against the Asamblea text. The Article 34 graver offence proviso, Articles 54 and 55 and the three unconstitutionality rulings are read from that text and are new to this cell · asamblea.gob.sv · srs.gob.sv · portaldetransparencia.fgr.gob.sv · Updated September 21, 2026
Amphetamine
- Legal status
- Controlled under the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003. Amphetamine is printed in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria as «Anfetamina», entry 40, CAS 300-62-9, at Parte B, Seccion II. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista II de la Convencion de 1971. Article 2 makes a droga any substance specified as such in the conventions El Salvador has ratified, and Article 3 prohibits every activity relating to the narcotic, depressant, stimulant, hallucinogen and cannabis categories, so a printed convention entry is reached by the definition itself. The racemate at n.o 40, the dextro isomer at n.o 53 and the levo isomer at n.o 69 are three printed entries, so this row is the racemate and not the family.
- Consequences if caught
- The racemate at n.o 40, the dextro isomer at n.o 53 and the levo isomer at n.o 69 are three printed entries, so this row is the racemate and not the family. Amphetamine is inside El Salvador's drug control regime, and the penalties below are set out because they describe the offences that this row's placement brings into play. Article 34 divides possession from trafficking by a 2 gram line: possession of under 2 grams carries 1 to 3 years, possession of 2 grams or more carries 3 to 6 years, and possession of any quantity with the object of doing anything Article 33 lists carries 6 to 10 years. Article 34 closes by providing that it does not apply where the conduct fits a graver offence. There is no personal use exemption anywhere in the Ley. Article 31 sets 5 to 15 years for sowing, cultivating or harvesting, and Article 33 sets 10 to 15 years for acquiring, transferring, importing, exporting, storing, transporting, distributing, supplying or selling. Article 33's second paragraph raises the trafficking penalty by one third of the stated maximum where the act is international trafficking, so the ceiling on that route is 20 years, and Article 54 allows a court to raise the penalty by up to one third of the maximum on any of nine listed aggravating circumstances, which is a discretion and not the mandatory increase Article 33 creates. Article 55 allows the penalty to be cut to half the minimum where the accused names others or enables a seizure. The ceiling on every one of these routes is imprisonment, because the severest sanction is constitutionally barred for ordinary offences in El Salvador, so no offence in this Ley carries it. The Ley creates no lawful recreational regime and no medical regime for any substance it reaches, cannabis included: Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be imported, produced, made, extracted, possessed or used only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for making products of industrial use, and only with the health regulator's authorisation. On the fine, the Sala de lo Constitucional struck the multa in each of these three articles as a penal consequence, Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments published on 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments published on 19 August 2009 and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010 published on 23 October 2013, so no fine now attaches to cultivation, trafficking or possession under this Ley. On quantity, the 2 gram line in Article 34 is the only weight the Ley fixes; it sets no substance by substance threshold and no quantity table, so the same 2 grams applies whatever the substance is. The 2 gram line and the bands of 1 to 3, 3 to 6, 6 to 10, 5 to 15 and 10 to 15 years and the one third increase are carried forward from the live cell and were re-read against the Asamblea Legislativa text for this pass; the Article 34 graver offence proviso, the Article 54 and Article 55 provisions and the three unconstitutionality rulings are new to this cell.
- If prescribed / medical
- Amphetamine reaches people here as a dispensed medicine, and the name a Salvadoran pharmacy record or a laboratory report would use is anfetamina. Article 37 of the Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados requires that narcotics, psychotropics and agregados be prescribed on Recetarios Especiales printed by the regulator and issued to the professional, in books of at least twenty five cheque style forms and up to two hundred, and Article 40 of that Reglamento makes a special prescription valid for thirty days, with three monthly prescriptions allowed for a chronic patient. Article 14 of the Ley requires the pack to carry a warning that the product is sold only on medical prescription and is under the health regulator's control. A prescribing doctor who supplies outside the therapeutic indication commits the Article 38 offence, which carries 3 to 5 years, and a pharmacy that dispenses without the prescription commits the Article 40 offence, which carries 5 to 15 years. Carry it in its dispensing packaging with the prescription.
- Documentation
- The instrument read for this cell is the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, published in Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003, in the consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa. That text carries its own reform schedule: five reforms, the last of them Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018 in Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, so the consolidation read here is current to that reform. The same reform schedule was confirmed against a second publisher, the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which prints the identical list of five. The text also carries four rulings of the Sala de lo Constitucional, three of which strike the fine in Articles 31, 33 and 34 and the fourth of which struck the rule in Article 52 that equated preparatory acts with completed offences before that article was reformed in 2018. The substance list read for this cell is the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria. That document states its own currency in its Disposiciones generales: it was approved by that acuerdo and is «vigente hasta el 31 de marzo de 2027, o hasta que se emita un nuevo listado por parte de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria». It was read as at 21 September 2026, and the 2025 edition of the same list was fetched first and set aside once the 2026 edition was found on the regulator's own page. The list is the one Article 13 of the Ley requires, «una lista de drogas y de todas las preparaciones y especialidades farmaceuticas que las contengan de acuerdo a las categorias establecidas en la presente Ley», which Article 13 also requires to be sent to the Corte Suprema de Justicia, the Fiscalia General de la Republica and the Policia Nacional Civil so that judges and prosecutors know it. Article 13 names the Consejo Superior de Salud Publica as the body that makes it; the 2013 Reglamento names the Direccion Nacional de Medicamentos as the governing authority, and the Ley de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria dissolved that Direccion and moved its functions to the Superintendencia with effect from August 2024. That succession is stated from the Reglamento and from reporting of the Superintendencia law, whose own gazette text was not read for this cell. Article 2 defines droga in its own words: «Art. 2.- Para los efectos de esta Ley se consideran drogas las sustancias especificadas como tales en los Convenios Internacionales ratificados por El Salvador, las que se mencionan en el Código de Salud y demás leyes del país; y en general, las que indistintamente de su grado de pureza, actúan sobre el sistema nervioso central y tienen la capacidad de producir transformaciones, bien sea aumentando o disminuyendo su funcionamiento o modificando los estados de conciencia y que su uso indebido puede causar dependencia o sujeción física y psicológica.» Article 3 then prohibits activity relating to five named categories and, in letter f, «f) Cualquier otra sustancia que sea considerada droga tan nociva que amerite ser prohibida por el Consejo Superior de Salud Pública o por los convenios internacionales ratificados por el país.» The names searched across the list, in Spanish and in English, were anfetamina, amfetamina, dexanfetamina, levanfetamina. The matched entry was read before it was relied on, and it is «Anfetamina», entry 40, CAS 300-62-9, at Parte B, Seccion II. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista II de la Convencion de 1971. Three routes were tried for the instrument and all three returned a document: the Asamblea Legislativa decree file, which returned the consolidated text; the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which returned the same consolidation; and the regulator's own listado page, which returned the 2026 list. Two routes returned nothing usable: the Asamblea decree index and law search paths both returned a not found page, and a fetch of the Asamblea search page failed on certificate verification. Carry any controlled medicine in its dispensing packaging with the prescription, and confirm the position with the Salvadoran embassy or consulate before you travel.
Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, Articles 2, 3, 13, 31, 32, 33, 34, 54 and 55, consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa, Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003 · Consolidation: current to Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018, Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, the last of the five reforms the text's own schedule prints, confirmed against the Fiscalia General de la Republica transparency copy · Unconstitutionality of the fine: Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments, Diario Oficial 196, Tomo 377, of 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments, Diario Oficial 152, Tomo 384, of 19 August 2009, and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010, Diario Oficial 197, Tomo 401, of 23 October 2013 · Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria, read as at 21 September 2026, the document stating its own currency to 31 March 2027 or until a new listado is issued · Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados, Decreto Ejecutivo 20, Diario Oficial of 13 February 2013, Articles 5, 26, 36, 37 and 40 · Placement: entry read at Parte B, Seccion II. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista II de la Convencion de 1971, entry 40, CAS 300-62-9 · Placement provenance: the Parte and Seccion stated for this row are not printed in the quoted dossier extract, and no quoted extract in that dossier carries a Parte or Seccion marker for any substance, because the dossier resolved every row against articles 2 and 3 of Decreto 153 alone and never reached the Listado. The placement is read directly from the Listado named above and not from the dossier · Penalty figures for the 2 gram line and the year bands in Articles 31, 33 and 34 carried forward from the live cell and not re-derived from a new source, then re-read against the Asamblea text. The Article 34 graver offence proviso, Articles 54 and 55 and the three unconstitutionality rulings are read from that text and are new to this cell · asamblea.gob.sv · srs.gob.sv · portaldetransparencia.fgr.gob.sv · Updated September 21, 2026
Amyl Nitrite
- Legal status
- Not a controlled drug for the purposes of Articles 31 to 34 of the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003. Article 2's third paragraph provides that alcoholic drinks, tobacco, and solvents and inhalants, although within this subject matter, are to be regulated by special laws: «Las bebidas alcohólicas, el tabaco, y los solventes e inhalantes, no obstante estar enmarcadas dentro de esta materia, serán reguladas por leyes especiales.» Amyl nitrite is also not named in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria. It is the named alkyl nitrite behind the poppers product class, and the same reservation of inhalants to special laws reaches it, which is a different route from the absence findings in this batch.
- Consequences if caught
- It is the named alkyl nitrite behind the poppers product class, and the same reservation of inhalants to special laws reaches it, which is a different route from the absence findings in this batch. Amyl nitrite is outside the offences that Articles 31, 33 and 34 create, and the penalties below are set out because this row is placed outside that regime, so they are recorded as El Salvador's published drug penalties and not as this substance's exposure. Article 34 divides possession from trafficking by a 2 gram line: possession of under 2 grams carries 1 to 3 years, possession of 2 grams or more carries 3 to 6 years, and possession of any quantity with the object of doing anything Article 33 lists carries 6 to 10 years. Article 34 closes by providing that it does not apply where the conduct fits a graver offence. There is no personal use exemption anywhere in the Ley. Article 31 sets 5 to 15 years for sowing, cultivating or harvesting, and Article 33 sets 10 to 15 years for acquiring, transferring, importing, exporting, storing, transporting, distributing, supplying or selling. Article 33's second paragraph raises the trafficking penalty by one third of the stated maximum where the act is international trafficking, so the ceiling on that route is 20 years, and Article 54 allows a court to raise the penalty by up to one third of the maximum on any of nine listed aggravating circumstances, which is a discretion and not the mandatory increase Article 33 creates. Article 55 allows the penalty to be cut to half the minimum where the accused names others or enables a seizure. The ceiling on every one of these routes is imprisonment, because the severest sanction is constitutionally barred for ordinary offences in El Salvador, so no offence in this Ley carries it. The Ley creates no lawful recreational regime and no medical regime for any substance it reaches, cannabis included: Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be imported, produced, made, extracted, possessed or used only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for making products of industrial use, and only with the health regulator's authorisation. On the fine, the Sala de lo Constitucional struck the multa in each of these three articles as a penal consequence, Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments published on 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments published on 19 August 2009 and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010 published on 23 October 2013, so no fine now attaches to cultivation, trafficking or possession under this Ley. On quantity, the 2 gram line in Article 34 is the only weight the Ley fixes; it sets no substance by substance threshold and no quantity table, so the same 2 grams applies whatever the substance is. The 2 gram line and the bands of 1 to 3, 3 to 6, 6 to 10, 5 to 15 and 10 to 15 years and the one third increase are carried forward from the live cell and were re-read against the Asamblea Legislativa text for this pass; the Article 34 graver offence proviso, the Article 54 and Article 55 provisions and the three unconstitutionality rulings are new to this cell.
- If prescribed / medical
- Amyl nitrite is sold as an ordinary consumer or industrial product rather than dispensed on a prescription, so there is no prescription document to carry for it and the name a Salvadoran record would use is nitrito de amilo. The special prescription machinery in Article 37 of the Reglamento is built for narcotics, psychotropics and agregados and has nothing to say about a product outside those three categories.
- Documentation
- The instrument read for this cell is the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, published in Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003, in the consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa. That text carries its own reform schedule: five reforms, the last of them Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018 in Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, so the consolidation read here is current to that reform. The same reform schedule was confirmed against a second publisher, the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which prints the identical list of five. The text also carries four rulings of the Sala de lo Constitucional, three of which strike the fine in Articles 31, 33 and 34 and the fourth of which struck the rule in Article 52 that equated preparatory acts with completed offences before that article was reformed in 2018. The substance list read for this cell is the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria. That document states its own currency in its Disposiciones generales: it was approved by that acuerdo and is «vigente hasta el 31 de marzo de 2027, o hasta que se emita un nuevo listado por parte de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria». It was read as at 21 September 2026, and the 2025 edition of the same list was fetched first and set aside once the 2026 edition was found on the regulator's own page. The list is the one Article 13 of the Ley requires, «una lista de drogas y de todas las preparaciones y especialidades farmaceuticas que las contengan de acuerdo a las categorias establecidas en la presente Ley», which Article 13 also requires to be sent to the Corte Suprema de Justicia, the Fiscalia General de la Republica and the Policia Nacional Civil so that judges and prosecutors know it. Article 13 names the Consejo Superior de Salud Publica as the body that makes it; the 2013 Reglamento names the Direccion Nacional de Medicamentos as the governing authority, and the Ley de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria dissolved that Direccion and moved its functions to the Superintendencia with effect from August 2024. That succession is stated from the Reglamento and from reporting of the Superintendencia law, whose own gazette text was not read for this cell. Article 2 defines droga in its own words: «Art. 2.- Para los efectos de esta Ley se consideran drogas las sustancias especificadas como tales en los Convenios Internacionales ratificados por El Salvador, las que se mencionan en el Código de Salud y demás leyes del país; y en general, las que indistintamente de su grado de pureza, actúan sobre el sistema nervioso central y tienen la capacidad de producir transformaciones, bien sea aumentando o disminuyendo su funcionamiento o modificando los estados de conciencia y que su uso indebido puede causar dependencia o sujeción física y psicológica.» Article 3 then prohibits activity relating to five named categories and, in letter f, «f) Cualquier otra sustancia que sea considerada droga tan nociva que amerite ser prohibida por el Consejo Superior de Salud Pública o por los convenios internacionales ratificados por el país.» The names searched across the list, in Spanish and in English, were nitrito de amilo, nitrito de isoamilo, nitritos. No entry was returned for any of them, and none of them produced an occurrence of any kind in the list. Three routes were tried for the instrument and all three returned a document: the Asamblea Legislativa decree file, which returned the consolidated text; the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which returned the same consolidation; and the regulator's own listado page, which returned the 2026 list. Two routes returned nothing usable: the Asamblea decree index and law search paths both returned a not found page, and a fetch of the Asamblea search page failed on certificate verification. Carry any controlled medicine in its dispensing packaging with the prescription, and confirm the position with the Salvadoran embassy or consulate before you travel.
Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, Articles 2, 3, 13, 31, 32, 33, 34, 54 and 55, consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa, Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003 · Consolidation: current to Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018, Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, the last of the five reforms the text's own schedule prints, confirmed against the Fiscalia General de la Republica transparency copy · Unconstitutionality of the fine: Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments, Diario Oficial 196, Tomo 377, of 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments, Diario Oficial 152, Tomo 384, of 19 August 2009, and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010, Diario Oficial 197, Tomo 401, of 23 October 2013 · Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria, read as at 21 September 2026, the document stating its own currency to 31 March 2027 or until a new listado is issued · Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados, Decreto Ejecutivo 20, Diario Oficial of 13 February 2013, Articles 5, 26, 36, 37 and 40 · Placement: reserved to leyes especiales by the third paragraph of Article 2 · no entry returned in the listado · Penalty figures for the 2 gram line and the year bands in Articles 31, 33 and 34 carried forward from the live cell and not re-derived from a new source, then re-read against the Asamblea text. The Article 34 graver offence proviso, Articles 54 and 55 and the three unconstitutionality rulings are read from that text and are new to this cell · asamblea.gob.sv · srs.gob.sv · portaldetransparencia.fgr.gob.sv · Updated September 21, 2026
Ayahuasca
- Legal status
- Controlled under the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003. Ayahuasca is reached through a named constituent rather than under its own name: it is not named in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria, which instead prints «Dimetiltriptamina (DMT)», entry 4, CAS 61-50-7, at Parte B, Seccion I. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista I de la Convencion de 1971. Article 2's second paragraph makes seeds, flowering tops, plants and parts of them a droga where they are used as raw material for making one, which is the route this row travels. Neither vine nor leaf nor the harmala alkaloids are printed. The brew reaches the regime only through Article 2's second paragraph and the named Dimetiltriptamina entry, and a preparation that carries no DMT would not meet it.
- Consequences if caught
- Neither vine nor leaf nor the harmala alkaloids are printed. The brew reaches the regime only through Article 2's second paragraph and the named Dimetiltriptamina entry, and a preparation that carries no DMT would not meet it. Ayahuasca is inside El Salvador's drug control regime, and the penalties below are set out because they describe the offences that this row's placement brings into play. Article 34 divides possession from trafficking by a 2 gram line: possession of under 2 grams carries 1 to 3 years, possession of 2 grams or more carries 3 to 6 years, and possession of any quantity with the object of doing anything Article 33 lists carries 6 to 10 years. Article 34 closes by providing that it does not apply where the conduct fits a graver offence. There is no personal use exemption anywhere in the Ley. Article 31 sets 5 to 15 years for sowing, cultivating or harvesting, and Article 33 sets 10 to 15 years for acquiring, transferring, importing, exporting, storing, transporting, distributing, supplying or selling. Article 33's second paragraph raises the trafficking penalty by one third of the stated maximum where the act is international trafficking, so the ceiling on that route is 20 years, and Article 54 allows a court to raise the penalty by up to one third of the maximum on any of nine listed aggravating circumstances, which is a discretion and not the mandatory increase Article 33 creates. Article 55 allows the penalty to be cut to half the minimum where the accused names others or enables a seizure. The ceiling on every one of these routes is imprisonment, because the severest sanction is constitutionally barred for ordinary offences in El Salvador, so no offence in this Ley carries it. The Ley creates no lawful recreational regime and no medical regime for any substance it reaches, cannabis included: Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be imported, produced, made, extracted, possessed or used only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for making products of industrial use, and only with the health regulator's authorisation. On the fine, the Sala de lo Constitucional struck the multa in each of these three articles as a penal consequence, Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments published on 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments published on 19 August 2009 and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010 published on 23 October 2013, so no fine now attaches to cultivation, trafficking or possession under this Ley. On quantity, the 2 gram line in Article 34 is the only weight the Ley fixes; it sets no substance by substance threshold and no quantity table, so the same 2 grams applies whatever the substance is. The 2 gram line and the bands of 1 to 3, 3 to 6, 6 to 10, 5 to 15 and 10 to 15 years and the one third increase are carried forward from the live cell and were re-read against the Asamblea Legislativa text for this pass; the Article 34 graver offence proviso, the Article 54 and Article 55 provisions and the three unconstitutionality rulings are new to this cell.
- If prescribed / medical
- Ayahuasca is botanical material rather than a dispensed medicine, so there is no prescription document to carry for it, and the name a laboratory report would use is the constituent rather than the plant. No Salvadoran authorisation exists for carrying it for personal use; Article 3's final paragraph allows the listed substances to be held only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, making medicines, medical treatment or industrial products, and only with the health regulator's authorisation.
- Documentation
- The instrument read for this cell is the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, published in Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003, in the consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa. That text carries its own reform schedule: five reforms, the last of them Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018 in Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, so the consolidation read here is current to that reform. The same reform schedule was confirmed against a second publisher, the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which prints the identical list of five. The text also carries four rulings of the Sala de lo Constitucional, three of which strike the fine in Articles 31, 33 and 34 and the fourth of which struck the rule in Article 52 that equated preparatory acts with completed offences before that article was reformed in 2018. The substance list read for this cell is the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria. That document states its own currency in its Disposiciones generales: it was approved by that acuerdo and is «vigente hasta el 31 de marzo de 2027, o hasta que se emita un nuevo listado por parte de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria». It was read as at 21 September 2026, and the 2025 edition of the same list was fetched first and set aside once the 2026 edition was found on the regulator's own page. The list is the one Article 13 of the Ley requires, «una lista de drogas y de todas las preparaciones y especialidades farmaceuticas que las contengan de acuerdo a las categorias establecidas en la presente Ley», which Article 13 also requires to be sent to the Corte Suprema de Justicia, the Fiscalia General de la Republica and the Policia Nacional Civil so that judges and prosecutors know it. Article 13 names the Consejo Superior de Salud Publica as the body that makes it; the 2013 Reglamento names the Direccion Nacional de Medicamentos as the governing authority, and the Ley de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria dissolved that Direccion and moved its functions to the Superintendencia with effect from August 2024. That succession is stated from the Reglamento and from reporting of the Superintendencia law, whose own gazette text was not read for this cell. Article 2 defines droga in its own words: «Art. 2.- Para los efectos de esta Ley se consideran drogas las sustancias especificadas como tales en los Convenios Internacionales ratificados por El Salvador, las que se mencionan en el Código de Salud y demás leyes del país; y en general, las que indistintamente de su grado de pureza, actúan sobre el sistema nervioso central y tienen la capacidad de producir transformaciones, bien sea aumentando o disminuyendo su funcionamiento o modificando los estados de conciencia y que su uso indebido puede causar dependencia o sujeción física y psicológica.» Article 3 then prohibits activity relating to five named categories and, in letter f, «f) Cualquier otra sustancia que sea considerada droga tan nociva que amerite ser prohibida por el Consejo Superior de Salud Pública o por los convenios internacionales ratificados por el país.» The names searched across the list, in Spanish and in English, were ayahuasca, Banisteriopsis caapi, Psychotria viridis, harmina, dimetiltriptamina. No entry was returned under the row's own name. The entry relied on instead was read in full and it is «Dimetiltriptamina (DMT)», entry 4, CAS 61-50-7, at Parte B, Seccion I. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista I de la Convencion de 1971. Three routes were tried for the instrument and all three returned a document: the Asamblea Legislativa decree file, which returned the consolidated text; the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which returned the same consolidation; and the regulator's own listado page, which returned the 2026 list. Two routes returned nothing usable: the Asamblea decree index and law search paths both returned a not found page, and a fetch of the Asamblea search page failed on certificate verification. Carry any controlled medicine in its dispensing packaging with the prescription, and confirm the position with the Salvadoran embassy or consulate before you travel.
Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, Articles 2, 3, 13, 31, 32, 33, 34, 54 and 55, consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa, Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003 · Consolidation: current to Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018, Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, the last of the five reforms the text's own schedule prints, confirmed against the Fiscalia General de la Republica transparency copy · Unconstitutionality of the fine: Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments, Diario Oficial 196, Tomo 377, of 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments, Diario Oficial 152, Tomo 384, of 19 August 2009, and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010, Diario Oficial 197, Tomo 401, of 23 October 2013 · Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria, read as at 21 September 2026, the document stating its own currency to 31 March 2027 or until a new listado is issued · Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados, Decreto Ejecutivo 20, Diario Oficial of 13 February 2013, Articles 5, 26, 36, 37 and 40 · Placement: the row's own name returned no entry · the entry relied on is at Parte B, Seccion I. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista I de la Convencion de 1971, entry 4 · Placement provenance: the Parte and Seccion stated for this row are not printed in the quoted dossier extract, and no quoted extract in that dossier carries a Parte or Seccion marker for any substance, because the dossier resolved every row against articles 2 and 3 of Decreto 153 alone and never reached the Listado. The placement is read directly from the Listado named above and not from the dossier · Penalty figures for the 2 gram line and the year bands in Articles 31, 33 and 34 carried forward from the live cell and not re-derived from a new source, then re-read against the Asamblea text. The Article 34 graver offence proviso, Articles 54 and 55 and the three unconstitutionality rulings are read from that text and are new to this cell · asamblea.gob.sv · srs.gob.sv · portaldetransparencia.fgr.gob.sv · Updated September 21, 2026
Barbiturates
- Legal status
- Controlled under the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, as a group whose members are listed one by one. The group name is not named in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria; it prints «Barbital, Fenobarbital, Secobarbital, Amobarbital and their listed siblings», at Parte B, Seccion IV. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista IV de la Convencion de 1971. Article 3 prohibits activity relating to the depressant and stimulant categories and Article 2 reaches each printed entry through the conventions. No entry reads barbituricos. The members are spread across three different convention sections, Secobarbital in Parte B Seccion II, Amobarbital, Butalbital, Ciclobarbital and Pentobarbital in Seccion III, and Barbital, Fenobarbital, Metilfenobarbital, Alobarbital, Butobarbital and Secbutabarbital in Seccion IV, so the class carries three different classifications at once.
- Consequences if caught
- No entry reads barbituricos. The members are spread across three different convention sections, Secobarbital in Parte B Seccion II, Amobarbital, Butalbital, Ciclobarbital and Pentobarbital in Seccion III, and Barbital, Fenobarbital, Metilfenobarbital, Alobarbital, Butobarbital and Secbutabarbital in Seccion IV, so the class carries three different classifications at once. The barbiturates is inside El Salvador's drug control regime, and the penalties below are set out because they describe the offences that this row's placement brings into play. Article 34 divides possession from trafficking by a 2 gram line: possession of under 2 grams carries 1 to 3 years, possession of 2 grams or more carries 3 to 6 years, and possession of any quantity with the object of doing anything Article 33 lists carries 6 to 10 years. Article 34 closes by providing that it does not apply where the conduct fits a graver offence. There is no personal use exemption anywhere in the Ley. Article 31 sets 5 to 15 years for sowing, cultivating or harvesting, and Article 33 sets 10 to 15 years for acquiring, transferring, importing, exporting, storing, transporting, distributing, supplying or selling. Article 33's second paragraph raises the trafficking penalty by one third of the stated maximum where the act is international trafficking, so the ceiling on that route is 20 years, and Article 54 allows a court to raise the penalty by up to one third of the maximum on any of nine listed aggravating circumstances, which is a discretion and not the mandatory increase Article 33 creates. Article 55 allows the penalty to be cut to half the minimum where the accused names others or enables a seizure. The ceiling on every one of these routes is imprisonment, because the severest sanction is constitutionally barred for ordinary offences in El Salvador, so no offence in this Ley carries it. The Ley creates no lawful recreational regime and no medical regime for any substance it reaches, cannabis included: Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be imported, produced, made, extracted, possessed or used only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for making products of industrial use, and only with the health regulator's authorisation. On the fine, the Sala de lo Constitucional struck the multa in each of these three articles as a penal consequence, Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments published on 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments published on 19 August 2009 and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010 published on 23 October 2013, so no fine now attaches to cultivation, trafficking or possession under this Ley. On quantity, the 2 gram line in Article 34 is the only weight the Ley fixes; it sets no substance by substance threshold and no quantity table, so the same 2 grams applies whatever the substance is. The 2 gram line and the bands of 1 to 3, 3 to 6, 6 to 10, 5 to 15 and 10 to 15 years and the one third increase are carried forward from the live cell and were re-read against the Asamblea Legislativa text for this pass; the Article 34 graver offence proviso, the Article 54 and Article 55 provisions and the three unconstitutionality rulings are new to this cell.
- If prescribed / medical
- The barbiturates reaches people here as a dispensed medicine, and the name a Salvadoran pharmacy record or a laboratory report would use is barbiturico. Article 37 of the Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados requires that narcotics, psychotropics and agregados be prescribed on Recetarios Especiales printed by the regulator and issued to the professional, in books of at least twenty five cheque style forms and up to two hundred, and Article 40 of that Reglamento makes a special prescription valid for thirty days, with three monthly prescriptions allowed for a chronic patient. Article 14 of the Ley requires the pack to carry a warning that the product is sold only on medical prescription and is under the health regulator's control. A prescribing doctor who supplies outside the therapeutic indication commits the Article 38 offence, which carries 3 to 5 years, and a pharmacy that dispenses without the prescription commits the Article 40 offence, which carries 5 to 15 years. Carry it in its dispensing packaging with the prescription.
- Documentation
- The instrument read for this cell is the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, published in Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003, in the consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa. That text carries its own reform schedule: five reforms, the last of them Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018 in Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, so the consolidation read here is current to that reform. The same reform schedule was confirmed against a second publisher, the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which prints the identical list of five. The text also carries four rulings of the Sala de lo Constitucional, three of which strike the fine in Articles 31, 33 and 34 and the fourth of which struck the rule in Article 52 that equated preparatory acts with completed offences before that article was reformed in 2018. The substance list read for this cell is the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria. That document states its own currency in its Disposiciones generales: it was approved by that acuerdo and is «vigente hasta el 31 de marzo de 2027, o hasta que se emita un nuevo listado por parte de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria». It was read as at 21 September 2026, and the 2025 edition of the same list was fetched first and set aside once the 2026 edition was found on the regulator's own page. The list is the one Article 13 of the Ley requires, «una lista de drogas y de todas las preparaciones y especialidades farmaceuticas que las contengan de acuerdo a las categorias establecidas en la presente Ley», which Article 13 also requires to be sent to the Corte Suprema de Justicia, the Fiscalia General de la Republica and the Policia Nacional Civil so that judges and prosecutors know it. Article 13 names the Consejo Superior de Salud Publica as the body that makes it; the 2013 Reglamento names the Direccion Nacional de Medicamentos as the governing authority, and the Ley de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria dissolved that Direccion and moved its functions to the Superintendencia with effect from August 2024. That succession is stated from the Reglamento and from reporting of the Superintendencia law, whose own gazette text was not read for this cell. Article 2 defines droga in its own words: «Art. 2.- Para los efectos de esta Ley se consideran drogas las sustancias especificadas como tales en los Convenios Internacionales ratificados por El Salvador, las que se mencionan en el Código de Salud y demás leyes del país; y en general, las que indistintamente de su grado de pureza, actúan sobre el sistema nervioso central y tienen la capacidad de producir transformaciones, bien sea aumentando o disminuyendo su funcionamiento o modificando los estados de conciencia y que su uso indebido puede causar dependencia o sujeción física y psicológica.» Article 3 then prohibits activity relating to five named categories and, in letter f, «f) Cualquier otra sustancia que sea considerada droga tan nociva que amerite ser prohibida por el Consejo Superior de Salud Pública o por los convenios internacionales ratificados por el país.» The names searched across the list, in Spanish and in English, were barbiturico, barbital, fenobarbital, secobarbital, amobarbital, pentobarbital, butalbital, ciclobarbital. No entry was returned under the row's own name. The entry relied on instead was read in full and it is «Barbital, Fenobarbital, Secobarbital, Amobarbital and their listed siblings», at Parte B, Seccion IV. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista IV de la Convencion de 1971. Three routes were tried for the instrument and all three returned a document: the Asamblea Legislativa decree file, which returned the consolidated text; the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which returned the same consolidation; and the regulator's own listado page, which returned the 2026 list. Two routes returned nothing usable: the Asamblea decree index and law search paths both returned a not found page, and a fetch of the Asamblea search page failed on certificate verification. Carry any controlled medicine in its dispensing packaging with the prescription, and confirm the position with the Salvadoran embassy or consulate before you travel.
Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, Articles 2, 3, 13, 31, 32, 33, 34, 54 and 55, consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa, Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003 · Consolidation: current to Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018, Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, the last of the five reforms the text's own schedule prints, confirmed against the Fiscalia General de la Republica transparency copy · Unconstitutionality of the fine: Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments, Diario Oficial 196, Tomo 377, of 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments, Diario Oficial 152, Tomo 384, of 19 August 2009, and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010, Diario Oficial 197, Tomo 401, of 23 October 2013 · Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria, read as at 21 September 2026, the document stating its own currency to 31 March 2027 or until a new listado is issued · Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados, Decreto Ejecutivo 20, Diario Oficial of 13 February 2013, Articles 5, 26, 36, 37 and 40 · Placement: the row's own name returned no entry · the entry relied on is at Parte B, Seccion IV. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista IV de la Convencion de 1971 · Placement provenance: the Parte and Seccion stated for this row are not printed in the quoted dossier extract, and no quoted extract in that dossier carries a Parte or Seccion marker for any substance, because the dossier resolved every row against articles 2 and 3 of Decreto 153 alone and never reached the Listado. The placement is read directly from the Listado named above and not from the dossier · Penalty figures for the 2 gram line and the year bands in Articles 31, 33 and 34 carried forward from the live cell and not re-derived from a new source, then re-read against the Asamblea text. The Article 34 graver offence proviso, Articles 54 and 55 and the three unconstitutionality rulings are read from that text and are new to this cell · asamblea.gob.sv · srs.gob.sv · portaldetransparencia.fgr.gob.sv · Updated September 21, 2026
Benzodiazepines
- Legal status
- Controlled under the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, as a group whose members are listed one by one. The group name is not named in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria; it prints «Alprazolam, Diazepam, Clonazepam, Lorazepam and their listed siblings», at Parte B, Seccion IV. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista IV de la Convencion de 1971. Article 3 prohibits activity relating to the depressant and stimulant categories and Article 2 reaches each printed entry through the conventions. No entry reads benzodiazepinas. The Listado enumerates the members one by one and puts them in two different convention lists, Flunitrazepam in Parte B Seccion III and the rest in Seccion IV, so a class answer would flatten a real difference.
- Consequences if caught
- No entry reads benzodiazepinas. The Listado enumerates the members one by one and puts them in two different convention lists, Flunitrazepam in Parte B Seccion III and the rest in Seccion IV, so a class answer would flatten a real difference. The benzodiazepines is inside El Salvador's drug control regime, and the penalties below are set out because they describe the offences that this row's placement brings into play. Article 34 divides possession from trafficking by a 2 gram line: possession of under 2 grams carries 1 to 3 years, possession of 2 grams or more carries 3 to 6 years, and possession of any quantity with the object of doing anything Article 33 lists carries 6 to 10 years. Article 34 closes by providing that it does not apply where the conduct fits a graver offence. There is no personal use exemption anywhere in the Ley. Article 31 sets 5 to 15 years for sowing, cultivating or harvesting, and Article 33 sets 10 to 15 years for acquiring, transferring, importing, exporting, storing, transporting, distributing, supplying or selling. Article 33's second paragraph raises the trafficking penalty by one third of the stated maximum where the act is international trafficking, so the ceiling on that route is 20 years, and Article 54 allows a court to raise the penalty by up to one third of the maximum on any of nine listed aggravating circumstances, which is a discretion and not the mandatory increase Article 33 creates. Article 55 allows the penalty to be cut to half the minimum where the accused names others or enables a seizure. The ceiling on every one of these routes is imprisonment, because the severest sanction is constitutionally barred for ordinary offences in El Salvador, so no offence in this Ley carries it. The Ley creates no lawful recreational regime and no medical regime for any substance it reaches, cannabis included: Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be imported, produced, made, extracted, possessed or used only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for making products of industrial use, and only with the health regulator's authorisation. On the fine, the Sala de lo Constitucional struck the multa in each of these three articles as a penal consequence, Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments published on 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments published on 19 August 2009 and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010 published on 23 October 2013, so no fine now attaches to cultivation, trafficking or possession under this Ley. On quantity, the 2 gram line in Article 34 is the only weight the Ley fixes; it sets no substance by substance threshold and no quantity table, so the same 2 grams applies whatever the substance is. The 2 gram line and the bands of 1 to 3, 3 to 6, 6 to 10, 5 to 15 and 10 to 15 years and the one third increase are carried forward from the live cell and were re-read against the Asamblea Legislativa text for this pass; the Article 34 graver offence proviso, the Article 54 and Article 55 provisions and the three unconstitutionality rulings are new to this cell.
- If prescribed / medical
- The benzodiazepines reaches people here as a dispensed medicine, and the name a Salvadoran pharmacy record or a laboratory report would use is benzodiazepina. Article 37 of the Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados requires that narcotics, psychotropics and agregados be prescribed on Recetarios Especiales printed by the regulator and issued to the professional, in books of at least twenty five cheque style forms and up to two hundred, and Article 40 of that Reglamento makes a special prescription valid for thirty days, with three monthly prescriptions allowed for a chronic patient. Article 14 of the Ley requires the pack to carry a warning that the product is sold only on medical prescription and is under the health regulator's control. A prescribing doctor who supplies outside the therapeutic indication commits the Article 38 offence, which carries 3 to 5 years, and a pharmacy that dispenses without the prescription commits the Article 40 offence, which carries 5 to 15 years. Carry it in its dispensing packaging with the prescription.
- Documentation
- The instrument read for this cell is the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, published in Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003, in the consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa. That text carries its own reform schedule: five reforms, the last of them Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018 in Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, so the consolidation read here is current to that reform. The same reform schedule was confirmed against a second publisher, the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which prints the identical list of five. The text also carries four rulings of the Sala de lo Constitucional, three of which strike the fine in Articles 31, 33 and 34 and the fourth of which struck the rule in Article 52 that equated preparatory acts with completed offences before that article was reformed in 2018. The substance list read for this cell is the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria. That document states its own currency in its Disposiciones generales: it was approved by that acuerdo and is «vigente hasta el 31 de marzo de 2027, o hasta que se emita un nuevo listado por parte de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria». It was read as at 21 September 2026, and the 2025 edition of the same list was fetched first and set aside once the 2026 edition was found on the regulator's own page. The list is the one Article 13 of the Ley requires, «una lista de drogas y de todas las preparaciones y especialidades farmaceuticas que las contengan de acuerdo a las categorias establecidas en la presente Ley», which Article 13 also requires to be sent to the Corte Suprema de Justicia, the Fiscalia General de la Republica and the Policia Nacional Civil so that judges and prosecutors know it. Article 13 names the Consejo Superior de Salud Publica as the body that makes it; the 2013 Reglamento names the Direccion Nacional de Medicamentos as the governing authority, and the Ley de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria dissolved that Direccion and moved its functions to the Superintendencia with effect from August 2024. That succession is stated from the Reglamento and from reporting of the Superintendencia law, whose own gazette text was not read for this cell. Article 2 defines droga in its own words: «Art. 2.- Para los efectos de esta Ley se consideran drogas las sustancias especificadas como tales en los Convenios Internacionales ratificados por El Salvador, las que se mencionan en el Código de Salud y demás leyes del país; y en general, las que indistintamente de su grado de pureza, actúan sobre el sistema nervioso central y tienen la capacidad de producir transformaciones, bien sea aumentando o disminuyendo su funcionamiento o modificando los estados de conciencia y que su uso indebido puede causar dependencia o sujeción física y psicológica.» Article 3 then prohibits activity relating to five named categories and, in letter f, «f) Cualquier otra sustancia que sea considerada droga tan nociva que amerite ser prohibida por el Consejo Superior de Salud Pública o por los convenios internacionales ratificados por el país.» The names searched across the list, in Spanish and in English, were benzodiazepina, alprazolam, diazepam, clonazepam, lorazepam, midazolam, triazolam, bromazepam, clordiazepoxido, nitrazepam, flunitrazepam, nimetazepam, etizolam. No entry was returned under the row's own name. The entry relied on instead was read in full and it is «Alprazolam, Diazepam, Clonazepam, Lorazepam and their listed siblings», at Parte B, Seccion IV. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista IV de la Convencion de 1971. Three routes were tried for the instrument and all three returned a document: the Asamblea Legislativa decree file, which returned the consolidated text; the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which returned the same consolidation; and the regulator's own listado page, which returned the 2026 list. Two routes returned nothing usable: the Asamblea decree index and law search paths both returned a not found page, and a fetch of the Asamblea search page failed on certificate verification. Carry any controlled medicine in its dispensing packaging with the prescription, and confirm the position with the Salvadoran embassy or consulate before you travel.
Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, Articles 2, 3, 13, 31, 32, 33, 34, 54 and 55, consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa, Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003 · Consolidation: current to Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018, Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, the last of the five reforms the text's own schedule prints, confirmed against the Fiscalia General de la Republica transparency copy · Unconstitutionality of the fine: Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments, Diario Oficial 196, Tomo 377, of 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments, Diario Oficial 152, Tomo 384, of 19 August 2009, and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010, Diario Oficial 197, Tomo 401, of 23 October 2013 · Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria, read as at 21 September 2026, the document stating its own currency to 31 March 2027 or until a new listado is issued · Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados, Decreto Ejecutivo 20, Diario Oficial of 13 February 2013, Articles 5, 26, 36, 37 and 40 · Placement: the row's own name returned no entry · the entry relied on is at Parte B, Seccion IV. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista IV de la Convencion de 1971 · Placement provenance: the Parte and Seccion stated for this row are not printed in the quoted dossier extract, and no quoted extract in that dossier carries a Parte or Seccion marker for any substance, because the dossier resolved every row against articles 2 and 3 of Decreto 153 alone and never reached the Listado. The placement is read directly from the Listado named above and not from the dossier · Penalty figures for the 2 gram line and the year bands in Articles 31, 33 and 34 carried forward from the live cell and not re-derived from a new source, then re-read against the Asamblea text. The Article 34 graver offence proviso, Articles 54 and 55 and the three unconstitutionality rulings are read from that text and are new to this cell · asamblea.gob.sv · srs.gob.sv · portaldetransparencia.fgr.gob.sv · Updated September 21, 2026
Buprenorphine
- Legal status
- Controlled under the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003. Buprenorphine is printed in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria as «Buprenorfina», entry 107, CAS 52485-79-7, at Parte B, Seccion III. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista III de la Convencion de 1971. Article 2 makes a droga any substance specified as such in the conventions El Salvador has ratified, and Article 3 prohibits every activity relating to the narcotic, depressant, stimulant, hallucinogen and cannabis categories, so a printed convention entry is reached by the definition itself. Although it is an opioid it is not in Parte A at all. It is a psicotropico in the 1971 Lista III section, which is the lighter of the two regimes the Listado operates.
- Consequences if caught
- Although it is an opioid it is not in Parte A at all. It is a psicotropico in the 1971 Lista III section, which is the lighter of the two regimes the Listado operates. Buprenorphine is inside El Salvador's drug control regime, and the penalties below are set out because they describe the offences that this row's placement brings into play. Article 34 divides possession from trafficking by a 2 gram line: possession of under 2 grams carries 1 to 3 years, possession of 2 grams or more carries 3 to 6 years, and possession of any quantity with the object of doing anything Article 33 lists carries 6 to 10 years. Article 34 closes by providing that it does not apply where the conduct fits a graver offence. There is no personal use exemption anywhere in the Ley. Article 31 sets 5 to 15 years for sowing, cultivating or harvesting, and Article 33 sets 10 to 15 years for acquiring, transferring, importing, exporting, storing, transporting, distributing, supplying or selling. Article 33's second paragraph raises the trafficking penalty by one third of the stated maximum where the act is international trafficking, so the ceiling on that route is 20 years, and Article 54 allows a court to raise the penalty by up to one third of the maximum on any of nine listed aggravating circumstances, which is a discretion and not the mandatory increase Article 33 creates. Article 55 allows the penalty to be cut to half the minimum where the accused names others or enables a seizure. The ceiling on every one of these routes is imprisonment, because the severest sanction is constitutionally barred for ordinary offences in El Salvador, so no offence in this Ley carries it. The Ley creates no lawful recreational regime and no medical regime for any substance it reaches, cannabis included: Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be imported, produced, made, extracted, possessed or used only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for making products of industrial use, and only with the health regulator's authorisation. On the fine, the Sala de lo Constitucional struck the multa in each of these three articles as a penal consequence, Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments published on 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments published on 19 August 2009 and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010 published on 23 October 2013, so no fine now attaches to cultivation, trafficking or possession under this Ley. On quantity, the 2 gram line in Article 34 is the only weight the Ley fixes; it sets no substance by substance threshold and no quantity table, so the same 2 grams applies whatever the substance is. The 2 gram line and the bands of 1 to 3, 3 to 6, 6 to 10, 5 to 15 and 10 to 15 years and the one third increase are carried forward from the live cell and were re-read against the Asamblea Legislativa text for this pass; the Article 34 graver offence proviso, the Article 54 and Article 55 provisions and the three unconstitutionality rulings are new to this cell.
- If prescribed / medical
- Buprenorphine reaches people here as a dispensed medicine, and the name a Salvadoran pharmacy record or a laboratory report would use is buprenorfina. Article 37 of the Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados requires that narcotics, psychotropics and agregados be prescribed on Recetarios Especiales printed by the regulator and issued to the professional, in books of at least twenty five cheque style forms and up to two hundred, and Article 40 of that Reglamento makes a special prescription valid for thirty days, with three monthly prescriptions allowed for a chronic patient. Article 14 of the Ley requires the pack to carry a warning that the product is sold only on medical prescription and is under the health regulator's control. A prescribing doctor who supplies outside the therapeutic indication commits the Article 38 offence, which carries 3 to 5 years, and a pharmacy that dispenses without the prescription commits the Article 40 offence, which carries 5 to 15 years. Carry it in its dispensing packaging with the prescription.
- Documentation
- The instrument read for this cell is the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, published in Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003, in the consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa. That text carries its own reform schedule: five reforms, the last of them Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018 in Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, so the consolidation read here is current to that reform. The same reform schedule was confirmed against a second publisher, the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which prints the identical list of five. The text also carries four rulings of the Sala de lo Constitucional, three of which strike the fine in Articles 31, 33 and 34 and the fourth of which struck the rule in Article 52 that equated preparatory acts with completed offences before that article was reformed in 2018. The substance list read for this cell is the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria. That document states its own currency in its Disposiciones generales: it was approved by that acuerdo and is «vigente hasta el 31 de marzo de 2027, o hasta que se emita un nuevo listado por parte de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria». It was read as at 21 September 2026, and the 2025 edition of the same list was fetched first and set aside once the 2026 edition was found on the regulator's own page. The list is the one Article 13 of the Ley requires, «una lista de drogas y de todas las preparaciones y especialidades farmaceuticas que las contengan de acuerdo a las categorias establecidas en la presente Ley», which Article 13 also requires to be sent to the Corte Suprema de Justicia, the Fiscalia General de la Republica and the Policia Nacional Civil so that judges and prosecutors know it. Article 13 names the Consejo Superior de Salud Publica as the body that makes it; the 2013 Reglamento names the Direccion Nacional de Medicamentos as the governing authority, and the Ley de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria dissolved that Direccion and moved its functions to the Superintendencia with effect from August 2024. That succession is stated from the Reglamento and from reporting of the Superintendencia law, whose own gazette text was not read for this cell. Article 2 defines droga in its own words: «Art. 2.- Para los efectos de esta Ley se consideran drogas las sustancias especificadas como tales en los Convenios Internacionales ratificados por El Salvador, las que se mencionan en el Código de Salud y demás leyes del país; y en general, las que indistintamente de su grado de pureza, actúan sobre el sistema nervioso central y tienen la capacidad de producir transformaciones, bien sea aumentando o disminuyendo su funcionamiento o modificando los estados de conciencia y que su uso indebido puede causar dependencia o sujeción física y psicológica.» Article 3 then prohibits activity relating to five named categories and, in letter f, «f) Cualquier otra sustancia que sea considerada droga tan nociva que amerite ser prohibida por el Consejo Superior de Salud Pública o por los convenios internacionales ratificados por el país.» The names searched across the list, in Spanish and in English, were buprenorfina. The matched entry was read before it was relied on, and it is «Buprenorfina», entry 107, CAS 52485-79-7, at Parte B, Seccion III. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista III de la Convencion de 1971. Three routes were tried for the instrument and all three returned a document: the Asamblea Legislativa decree file, which returned the consolidated text; the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which returned the same consolidation; and the regulator's own listado page, which returned the 2026 list. Two routes returned nothing usable: the Asamblea decree index and law search paths both returned a not found page, and a fetch of the Asamblea search page failed on certificate verification. Carry any controlled medicine in its dispensing packaging with the prescription, and confirm the position with the Salvadoran embassy or consulate before you travel.
Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, Articles 2, 3, 13, 31, 32, 33, 34, 54 and 55, consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa, Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003 · Consolidation: current to Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018, Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, the last of the five reforms the text's own schedule prints, confirmed against the Fiscalia General de la Republica transparency copy · Unconstitutionality of the fine: Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments, Diario Oficial 196, Tomo 377, of 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments, Diario Oficial 152, Tomo 384, of 19 August 2009, and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010, Diario Oficial 197, Tomo 401, of 23 October 2013 · Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria, read as at 21 September 2026, the document stating its own currency to 31 March 2027 or until a new listado is issued · Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados, Decreto Ejecutivo 20, Diario Oficial of 13 February 2013, Articles 5, 26, 36, 37 and 40 · Placement: entry read at Parte B, Seccion III. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista III de la Convencion de 1971, entry 107, CAS 52485-79-7 · Placement provenance: the Parte and Seccion stated for this row are not printed in the quoted dossier extract, and no quoted extract in that dossier carries a Parte or Seccion marker for any substance, because the dossier resolved every row against articles 2 and 3 of Decreto 153 alone and never reached the Listado. The placement is read directly from the Listado named above and not from the dossier · Penalty figures for the 2 gram line and the year bands in Articles 31, 33 and 34 carried forward from the live cell and not re-derived from a new source, then re-read against the Asamblea text. The Article 34 graver offence proviso, Articles 54 and 55 and the three unconstitutionality rulings are read from that text and are new to this cell · asamblea.gob.sv · srs.gob.sv · portaldetransparencia.fgr.gob.sv · Updated September 21, 2026
Cannabis / THC
- Legal status
- Controlled under the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003. Cannabis is printed in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria as «Cannabis», entry 29, CAS 8063-14-7, at Parte A, Seccion I. Estupefacientes incluidos en la Lista I de la Convencion de 1961. Article 2 makes a droga any substance specified as such in the conventions El Salvador has ratified, and Article 3 prohibits every activity relating to the narcotic, depressant, stimulant, hallucinogen and cannabis categories, so a printed convention entry is reached by the definition itself. Three separate entries are printed, the flowering or fruiting tops with the resin unextracted, the separated resin, and extracts and tinctures at n.o 30, so the plant material and its extracts are named separately. The plant is a estupefaciente in Parte A while its principal active, tetrahidrocannabinol, is a psicotropico in Parte B, so the plant and the molecule carry different classifications.
- Consequences if caught
- Three separate entries are printed, the flowering or fruiting tops with the resin unextracted, the separated resin, and extracts and tinctures at n.o 30, so the plant material and its extracts are named separately. The plant is a estupefaciente in Parte A while its principal active, tetrahidrocannabinol, is a psicotropico in Parte B, so the plant and the molecule carry different classifications. Cannabis is inside El Salvador's drug control regime, and the penalties below are set out because they describe the offences that this row's placement brings into play. Article 34 divides possession from trafficking by a 2 gram line: possession of under 2 grams carries 1 to 3 years, possession of 2 grams or more carries 3 to 6 years, and possession of any quantity with the object of doing anything Article 33 lists carries 6 to 10 years. Article 34 closes by providing that it does not apply where the conduct fits a graver offence. There is no personal use exemption anywhere in the Ley. Article 31 sets 5 to 15 years for sowing, cultivating or harvesting, and Article 33 sets 10 to 15 years for acquiring, transferring, importing, exporting, storing, transporting, distributing, supplying or selling. Article 33's second paragraph raises the trafficking penalty by one third of the stated maximum where the act is international trafficking, so the ceiling on that route is 20 years, and Article 54 allows a court to raise the penalty by up to one third of the maximum on any of nine listed aggravating circumstances, which is a discretion and not the mandatory increase Article 33 creates. Article 55 allows the penalty to be cut to half the minimum where the accused names others or enables a seizure. The ceiling on every one of these routes is imprisonment, because the severest sanction is constitutionally barred for ordinary offences in El Salvador, so no offence in this Ley carries it. The Ley creates no lawful recreational regime and no medical regime for any substance it reaches, cannabis included: Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be imported, produced, made, extracted, possessed or used only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for making products of industrial use, and only with the health regulator's authorisation. On the fine, the Sala de lo Constitucional struck the multa in each of these three articles as a penal consequence, Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments published on 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments published on 19 August 2009 and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010 published on 23 October 2013, so no fine now attaches to cultivation, trafficking or possession under this Ley. On quantity, the 2 gram line in Article 34 is the only weight the Ley fixes; it sets no substance by substance threshold and no quantity table, so the same 2 grams applies whatever the substance is. The 2 gram line and the bands of 1 to 3, 3 to 6, 6 to 10, 5 to 15 and 10 to 15 years and the one third increase are carried forward from the live cell and were re-read against the Asamblea Legislativa text for this pass; the Article 34 graver offence proviso, the Article 54 and Article 55 provisions and the three unconstitutionality rulings are new to this cell.
- If prescribed / medical
- Cannabis reaches people as a powder, a liquid, a blotter or a pressed tablet rather than as a dispensed medicine, so there is no prescription document to carry for it, and the name a Salvadoran laboratory report would use is cannabis. Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be held only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for industrial products, and only with the health regulator's authorisation, so there is no lawful personal quantity of it.
- Documentation
- The instrument read for this cell is the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, published in Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003, in the consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa. That text carries its own reform schedule: five reforms, the last of them Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018 in Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, so the consolidation read here is current to that reform. The same reform schedule was confirmed against a second publisher, the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which prints the identical list of five. The text also carries four rulings of the Sala de lo Constitucional, three of which strike the fine in Articles 31, 33 and 34 and the fourth of which struck the rule in Article 52 that equated preparatory acts with completed offences before that article was reformed in 2018. The substance list read for this cell is the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria. That document states its own currency in its Disposiciones generales: it was approved by that acuerdo and is «vigente hasta el 31 de marzo de 2027, o hasta que se emita un nuevo listado por parte de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria». It was read as at 21 September 2026, and the 2025 edition of the same list was fetched first and set aside once the 2026 edition was found on the regulator's own page. The list is the one Article 13 of the Ley requires, «una lista de drogas y de todas las preparaciones y especialidades farmaceuticas que las contengan de acuerdo a las categorias establecidas en la presente Ley», which Article 13 also requires to be sent to the Corte Suprema de Justicia, the Fiscalia General de la Republica and the Policia Nacional Civil so that judges and prosecutors know it. Article 13 names the Consejo Superior de Salud Publica as the body that makes it; the 2013 Reglamento names the Direccion Nacional de Medicamentos as the governing authority, and the Ley de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria dissolved that Direccion and moved its functions to the Superintendencia with effect from August 2024. That succession is stated from the Reglamento and from reporting of the Superintendencia law, whose own gazette text was not read for this cell. Article 2 defines droga in its own words: «Art. 2.- Para los efectos de esta Ley se consideran drogas las sustancias especificadas como tales en los Convenios Internacionales ratificados por El Salvador, las que se mencionan en el Código de Salud y demás leyes del país; y en general, las que indistintamente de su grado de pureza, actúan sobre el sistema nervioso central y tienen la capacidad de producir transformaciones, bien sea aumentando o disminuyendo su funcionamiento o modificando los estados de conciencia y que su uso indebido puede causar dependencia o sujeción física y psicológica.» Article 3 then prohibits activity relating to five named categories and, in letter f, «f) Cualquier otra sustancia que sea considerada droga tan nociva que amerite ser prohibida por el Consejo Superior de Salud Pública o por los convenios internacionales ratificados por el país.» The names searched across the list, in Spanish and in English, were cannabis, marihuana, resina de cannabis, tetrahidrocannabinol. The matched entry was read before it was relied on, and it is «Cannabis», entry 29, CAS 8063-14-7, at Parte A, Seccion I. Estupefacientes incluidos en la Lista I de la Convencion de 1961. Three routes were tried for the instrument and all three returned a document: the Asamblea Legislativa decree file, which returned the consolidated text; the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which returned the same consolidation; and the regulator's own listado page, which returned the 2026 list. Two routes returned nothing usable: the Asamblea decree index and law search paths both returned a not found page, and a fetch of the Asamblea search page failed on certificate verification. Carry any controlled medicine in its dispensing packaging with the prescription, and confirm the position with the Salvadoran embassy or consulate before you travel.
Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, Articles 2, 3, 13, 31, 32, 33, 34, 54 and 55, consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa, Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003 · Consolidation: current to Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018, Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, the last of the five reforms the text's own schedule prints, confirmed against the Fiscalia General de la Republica transparency copy · Unconstitutionality of the fine: Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments, Diario Oficial 196, Tomo 377, of 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments, Diario Oficial 152, Tomo 384, of 19 August 2009, and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010, Diario Oficial 197, Tomo 401, of 23 October 2013 · Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria, read as at 21 September 2026, the document stating its own currency to 31 March 2027 or until a new listado is issued · Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados, Decreto Ejecutivo 20, Diario Oficial of 13 February 2013, Articles 5, 26, 36, 37 and 40 · Placement: entry read at Parte A, Seccion I. Estupefacientes incluidos en la Lista I de la Convencion de 1961, entry 29, CAS 8063-14-7 · Placement provenance: the Parte and Seccion stated for this row are not printed in the quoted dossier extract, and no quoted extract in that dossier carries a Parte or Seccion marker for any substance, because the dossier resolved every row against articles 2 and 3 of Decreto 153 alone and never reached the Listado. The placement is read directly from the Listado named above and not from the dossier · Penalty figures for the 2 gram line and the year bands in Articles 31, 33 and 34 carried forward from the live cell and not re-derived from a new source, then re-read against the Asamblea text. The Article 34 graver offence proviso, Articles 54 and 55 and the three unconstitutionality rulings are read from that text and are new to this cell · asamblea.gob.sv · srs.gob.sv · portaldetransparencia.fgr.gob.sv · Updated September 21, 2026
Cathinone
- Legal status
- Controlled under the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003. Cathinone is printed in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria as «Catinona», entry 1, CAS 71031-15-7, at Parte B, Seccion I. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista I de la Convencion de 1971. Article 2 makes a droga any substance specified as such in the conventions El Salvador has ratified, and Article 3 prohibits every activity relating to the narcotic, depressant, stimulant, hallucinogen and cannabis categories, so a printed convention entry is reached by the definition itself. It is the first entry printed in the whole psychotropic Parte, and its reduced relative Catina sits two convention lists lower in Parte B Seccion III, so the pair straddles the strictest and a mild classification.
- Consequences if caught
- It is the first entry printed in the whole psychotropic Parte, and its reduced relative Catina sits two convention lists lower in Parte B Seccion III, so the pair straddles the strictest and a mild classification. Cathinone is inside El Salvador's drug control regime, and the penalties below are set out because they describe the offences that this row's placement brings into play. Article 34 divides possession from trafficking by a 2 gram line: possession of under 2 grams carries 1 to 3 years, possession of 2 grams or more carries 3 to 6 years, and possession of any quantity with the object of doing anything Article 33 lists carries 6 to 10 years. Article 34 closes by providing that it does not apply where the conduct fits a graver offence. There is no personal use exemption anywhere in the Ley. Article 31 sets 5 to 15 years for sowing, cultivating or harvesting, and Article 33 sets 10 to 15 years for acquiring, transferring, importing, exporting, storing, transporting, distributing, supplying or selling. Article 33's second paragraph raises the trafficking penalty by one third of the stated maximum where the act is international trafficking, so the ceiling on that route is 20 years, and Article 54 allows a court to raise the penalty by up to one third of the maximum on any of nine listed aggravating circumstances, which is a discretion and not the mandatory increase Article 33 creates. Article 55 allows the penalty to be cut to half the minimum where the accused names others or enables a seizure. The ceiling on every one of these routes is imprisonment, because the severest sanction is constitutionally barred for ordinary offences in El Salvador, so no offence in this Ley carries it. The Ley creates no lawful recreational regime and no medical regime for any substance it reaches, cannabis included: Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be imported, produced, made, extracted, possessed or used only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for making products of industrial use, and only with the health regulator's authorisation. On the fine, the Sala de lo Constitucional struck the multa in each of these three articles as a penal consequence, Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments published on 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments published on 19 August 2009 and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010 published on 23 October 2013, so no fine now attaches to cultivation, trafficking or possession under this Ley. On quantity, the 2 gram line in Article 34 is the only weight the Ley fixes; it sets no substance by substance threshold and no quantity table, so the same 2 grams applies whatever the substance is. The 2 gram line and the bands of 1 to 3, 3 to 6, 6 to 10, 5 to 15 and 10 to 15 years and the one third increase are carried forward from the live cell and were re-read against the Asamblea Legislativa text for this pass; the Article 34 graver offence proviso, the Article 54 and Article 55 provisions and the three unconstitutionality rulings are new to this cell.
- If prescribed / medical
- Cathinone reaches people as a powder, a liquid, a blotter or a pressed tablet rather than as a dispensed medicine, so there is no prescription document to carry for it, and the name a Salvadoran laboratory report would use is catinona. Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be held only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for industrial products, and only with the health regulator's authorisation, so there is no lawful personal quantity of it.
- Documentation
- The instrument read for this cell is the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, published in Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003, in the consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa. That text carries its own reform schedule: five reforms, the last of them Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018 in Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, so the consolidation read here is current to that reform. The same reform schedule was confirmed against a second publisher, the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which prints the identical list of five. The text also carries four rulings of the Sala de lo Constitucional, three of which strike the fine in Articles 31, 33 and 34 and the fourth of which struck the rule in Article 52 that equated preparatory acts with completed offences before that article was reformed in 2018. The substance list read for this cell is the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria. That document states its own currency in its Disposiciones generales: it was approved by that acuerdo and is «vigente hasta el 31 de marzo de 2027, o hasta que se emita un nuevo listado por parte de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria». It was read as at 21 September 2026, and the 2025 edition of the same list was fetched first and set aside once the 2026 edition was found on the regulator's own page. The list is the one Article 13 of the Ley requires, «una lista de drogas y de todas las preparaciones y especialidades farmaceuticas que las contengan de acuerdo a las categorias establecidas en la presente Ley», which Article 13 also requires to be sent to the Corte Suprema de Justicia, the Fiscalia General de la Republica and the Policia Nacional Civil so that judges and prosecutors know it. Article 13 names the Consejo Superior de Salud Publica as the body that makes it; the 2013 Reglamento names the Direccion Nacional de Medicamentos as the governing authority, and the Ley de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria dissolved that Direccion and moved its functions to the Superintendencia with effect from August 2024. That succession is stated from the Reglamento and from reporting of the Superintendencia law, whose own gazette text was not read for this cell. Article 2 defines droga in its own words: «Art. 2.- Para los efectos de esta Ley se consideran drogas las sustancias especificadas como tales en los Convenios Internacionales ratificados por El Salvador, las que se mencionan en el Código de Salud y demás leyes del país; y en general, las que indistintamente de su grado de pureza, actúan sobre el sistema nervioso central y tienen la capacidad de producir transformaciones, bien sea aumentando o disminuyendo su funcionamiento o modificando los estados de conciencia y que su uso indebido puede causar dependencia o sujeción física y psicológica.» Article 3 then prohibits activity relating to five named categories and, in letter f, «f) Cualquier otra sustancia que sea considerada droga tan nociva que amerite ser prohibida por el Consejo Superior de Salud Pública o por los convenios internacionales ratificados por el país.» The names searched across the list, in Spanish and in English, were catinona, cathinone, catina. The matched entry was read before it was relied on, and it is «Catinona», entry 1, CAS 71031-15-7, at Parte B, Seccion I. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista I de la Convencion de 1971. Three routes were tried for the instrument and all three returned a document: the Asamblea Legislativa decree file, which returned the consolidated text; the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which returned the same consolidation; and the regulator's own listado page, which returned the 2026 list. Two routes returned nothing usable: the Asamblea decree index and law search paths both returned a not found page, and a fetch of the Asamblea search page failed on certificate verification. Carry any controlled medicine in its dispensing packaging with the prescription, and confirm the position with the Salvadoran embassy or consulate before you travel.
Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, Articles 2, 3, 13, 31, 32, 33, 34, 54 and 55, consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa, Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003 · Consolidation: current to Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018, Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, the last of the five reforms the text's own schedule prints, confirmed against the Fiscalia General de la Republica transparency copy · Unconstitutionality of the fine: Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments, Diario Oficial 196, Tomo 377, of 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments, Diario Oficial 152, Tomo 384, of 19 August 2009, and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010, Diario Oficial 197, Tomo 401, of 23 October 2013 · Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria, read as at 21 September 2026, the document stating its own currency to 31 March 2027 or until a new listado is issued · Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados, Decreto Ejecutivo 20, Diario Oficial of 13 February 2013, Articles 5, 26, 36, 37 and 40 · Placement: entry read at Parte B, Seccion I. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista I de la Convencion de 1971, entry 1, CAS 71031-15-7 · Placement provenance: the Parte and Seccion stated for this row are not printed in the quoted dossier extract, and no quoted extract in that dossier carries a Parte or Seccion marker for any substance, because the dossier resolved every row against articles 2 and 3 of Decreto 153 alone and never reached the Listado. The placement is read directly from the Listado named above and not from the dossier · Penalty figures for the 2 gram line and the year bands in Articles 31, 33 and 34 carried forward from the live cell and not re-derived from a new source, then re-read against the Asamblea text. The Article 34 graver offence proviso, Articles 54 and 55 and the three unconstitutionality rulings are read from that text and are new to this cell · asamblea.gob.sv · srs.gob.sv · portaldetransparencia.fgr.gob.sv · Updated September 21, 2026
Clonazepam
- Legal status
- Controlled under the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003. Clonazepam is printed in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria as «Clonazepam», entry 128, CAS 1622-61-3, at Parte B, Seccion IV. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista IV de la Convencion de 1971. Article 2 makes a droga any substance specified as such in the conventions El Salvador has ratified, and Article 3 prohibits every activity relating to the narcotic, depressant, stimulant, hallucinogen and cannabis categories, so a printed convention entry is reached by the definition itself. It is the nitro substituted member of the set, printed with that ring description, which is what separates it from Nitrazepam at n.o 164 sharing the same nitro feature.
- Consequences if caught
- It is the nitro substituted member of the set, printed with that ring description, which is what separates it from Nitrazepam at n.o 164 sharing the same nitro feature. Clonazepam is inside El Salvador's drug control regime, and the penalties below are set out because they describe the offences that this row's placement brings into play. Article 34 divides possession from trafficking by a 2 gram line: possession of under 2 grams carries 1 to 3 years, possession of 2 grams or more carries 3 to 6 years, and possession of any quantity with the object of doing anything Article 33 lists carries 6 to 10 years. Article 34 closes by providing that it does not apply where the conduct fits a graver offence. There is no personal use exemption anywhere in the Ley. Article 31 sets 5 to 15 years for sowing, cultivating or harvesting, and Article 33 sets 10 to 15 years for acquiring, transferring, importing, exporting, storing, transporting, distributing, supplying or selling. Article 33's second paragraph raises the trafficking penalty by one third of the stated maximum where the act is international trafficking, so the ceiling on that route is 20 years, and Article 54 allows a court to raise the penalty by up to one third of the maximum on any of nine listed aggravating circumstances, which is a discretion and not the mandatory increase Article 33 creates. Article 55 allows the penalty to be cut to half the minimum where the accused names others or enables a seizure. The ceiling on every one of these routes is imprisonment, because the severest sanction is constitutionally barred for ordinary offences in El Salvador, so no offence in this Ley carries it. The Ley creates no lawful recreational regime and no medical regime for any substance it reaches, cannabis included: Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be imported, produced, made, extracted, possessed or used only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for making products of industrial use, and only with the health regulator's authorisation. On the fine, the Sala de lo Constitucional struck the multa in each of these three articles as a penal consequence, Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments published on 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments published on 19 August 2009 and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010 published on 23 October 2013, so no fine now attaches to cultivation, trafficking or possession under this Ley. On quantity, the 2 gram line in Article 34 is the only weight the Ley fixes; it sets no substance by substance threshold and no quantity table, so the same 2 grams applies whatever the substance is. The 2 gram line and the bands of 1 to 3, 3 to 6, 6 to 10, 5 to 15 and 10 to 15 years and the one third increase are carried forward from the live cell and were re-read against the Asamblea Legislativa text for this pass; the Article 34 graver offence proviso, the Article 54 and Article 55 provisions and the three unconstitutionality rulings are new to this cell.
- If prescribed / medical
- Clonazepam reaches people here as a dispensed medicine, and the name a Salvadoran pharmacy record or a laboratory report would use is clonazepam. Article 37 of the Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados requires that narcotics, psychotropics and agregados be prescribed on Recetarios Especiales printed by the regulator and issued to the professional, in books of at least twenty five cheque style forms and up to two hundred, and Article 40 of that Reglamento makes a special prescription valid for thirty days, with three monthly prescriptions allowed for a chronic patient. Article 14 of the Ley requires the pack to carry a warning that the product is sold only on medical prescription and is under the health regulator's control. A prescribing doctor who supplies outside the therapeutic indication commits the Article 38 offence, which carries 3 to 5 years, and a pharmacy that dispenses without the prescription commits the Article 40 offence, which carries 5 to 15 years. Carry it in its dispensing packaging with the prescription.
- Documentation
- The instrument read for this cell is the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, published in Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003, in the consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa. That text carries its own reform schedule: five reforms, the last of them Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018 in Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, so the consolidation read here is current to that reform. The same reform schedule was confirmed against a second publisher, the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which prints the identical list of five. The text also carries four rulings of the Sala de lo Constitucional, three of which strike the fine in Articles 31, 33 and 34 and the fourth of which struck the rule in Article 52 that equated preparatory acts with completed offences before that article was reformed in 2018. The substance list read for this cell is the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria. That document states its own currency in its Disposiciones generales: it was approved by that acuerdo and is «vigente hasta el 31 de marzo de 2027, o hasta que se emita un nuevo listado por parte de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria». It was read as at 21 September 2026, and the 2025 edition of the same list was fetched first and set aside once the 2026 edition was found on the regulator's own page. The list is the one Article 13 of the Ley requires, «una lista de drogas y de todas las preparaciones y especialidades farmaceuticas que las contengan de acuerdo a las categorias establecidas en la presente Ley», which Article 13 also requires to be sent to the Corte Suprema de Justicia, the Fiscalia General de la Republica and the Policia Nacional Civil so that judges and prosecutors know it. Article 13 names the Consejo Superior de Salud Publica as the body that makes it; the 2013 Reglamento names the Direccion Nacional de Medicamentos as the governing authority, and the Ley de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria dissolved that Direccion and moved its functions to the Superintendencia with effect from August 2024. That succession is stated from the Reglamento and from reporting of the Superintendencia law, whose own gazette text was not read for this cell. Article 2 defines droga in its own words: «Art. 2.- Para los efectos de esta Ley se consideran drogas las sustancias especificadas como tales en los Convenios Internacionales ratificados por El Salvador, las que se mencionan en el Código de Salud y demás leyes del país; y en general, las que indistintamente de su grado de pureza, actúan sobre el sistema nervioso central y tienen la capacidad de producir transformaciones, bien sea aumentando o disminuyendo su funcionamiento o modificando los estados de conciencia y que su uso indebido puede causar dependencia o sujeción física y psicológica.» Article 3 then prohibits activity relating to five named categories and, in letter f, «f) Cualquier otra sustancia que sea considerada droga tan nociva que amerite ser prohibida por el Consejo Superior de Salud Pública o por los convenios internacionales ratificados por el país.» The names searched across the list, in Spanish and in English, were clonazepam. The matched entry was read before it was relied on, and it is «Clonazepam», entry 128, CAS 1622-61-3, at Parte B, Seccion IV. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista IV de la Convencion de 1971. Three routes were tried for the instrument and all three returned a document: the Asamblea Legislativa decree file, which returned the consolidated text; the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which returned the same consolidation; and the regulator's own listado page, which returned the 2026 list. Two routes returned nothing usable: the Asamblea decree index and law search paths both returned a not found page, and a fetch of the Asamblea search page failed on certificate verification. Carry any controlled medicine in its dispensing packaging with the prescription, and confirm the position with the Salvadoran embassy or consulate before you travel.
Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, Articles 2, 3, 13, 31, 32, 33, 34, 54 and 55, consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa, Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003 · Consolidation: current to Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018, Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, the last of the five reforms the text's own schedule prints, confirmed against the Fiscalia General de la Republica transparency copy · Unconstitutionality of the fine: Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments, Diario Oficial 196, Tomo 377, of 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments, Diario Oficial 152, Tomo 384, of 19 August 2009, and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010, Diario Oficial 197, Tomo 401, of 23 October 2013 · Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria, read as at 21 September 2026, the document stating its own currency to 31 March 2027 or until a new listado is issued · Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados, Decreto Ejecutivo 20, Diario Oficial of 13 February 2013, Articles 5, 26, 36, 37 and 40 · Placement: entry read at Parte B, Seccion IV. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista IV de la Convencion de 1971, entry 128, CAS 1622-61-3 · Placement provenance: the Parte and Seccion stated for this row are not printed in the quoted dossier extract, and no quoted extract in that dossier carries a Parte or Seccion marker for any substance, because the dossier resolved every row against articles 2 and 3 of Decreto 153 alone and never reached the Listado. The placement is read directly from the Listado named above and not from the dossier · Penalty figures for the 2 gram line and the year bands in Articles 31, 33 and 34 carried forward from the live cell and not re-derived from a new source, then re-read against the Asamblea text. The Article 34 graver offence proviso, Articles 54 and 55 and the three unconstitutionality rulings are read from that text and are new to this cell · asamblea.gob.sv · srs.gob.sv · portaldetransparencia.fgr.gob.sv · Updated September 21, 2026
Cocaine
- Legal status
- Controlled under the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003. Cocaine is printed in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria as «Cocaina», entry 36, CAS 50-36-2, at Parte A, Seccion I. Estupefacientes incluidos en la Lista I de la Convencion de 1961. Article 2 makes a droga any substance specified as such in the conventions El Salvador has ratified, and Article 3 prohibits every activity relating to the narcotic, depressant, stimulant, hallucinogen and cannabis categories, so a printed convention entry is reached by the definition itself. Three linked entries are printed, the leaf at n.o 35, the alkaloid at n.o 36 and ecgonina at n.o 53, so the leaf and the alkaloid are reached separately rather than one through the other. Parte A Seccion IV then exempts certain preparations from control and from the retained special prescription, leaving them on an ordinary medical prescription instead, and its entry 4 reaches preparations carrying no more than 0.1 per cent cocaine calculated as cocaine base and mixed with one or more further ingredients so that the narcotic cannot be separated by readily applicable means or in amounts dangerous to public health.
- Consequences if caught
- Three linked entries are printed, the leaf at n.o 35, the alkaloid at n.o 36 and ecgonina at n.o 53, so the leaf and the alkaloid are reached separately rather than one through the other. Parte A Seccion IV then exempts certain preparations from control and from the retained special prescription, leaving them on an ordinary medical prescription instead, and its entry 4 reaches preparations carrying no more than 0.1 per cent cocaine calculated as cocaine base and mixed with one or more further ingredients so that the narcotic cannot be separated by readily applicable means or in amounts dangerous to public health. Cocaine is inside El Salvador's drug control regime, and the penalties below are set out because they describe the offences that this row's placement brings into play. Article 34 divides possession from trafficking by a 2 gram line: possession of under 2 grams carries 1 to 3 years, possession of 2 grams or more carries 3 to 6 years, and possession of any quantity with the object of doing anything Article 33 lists carries 6 to 10 years. Article 34 closes by providing that it does not apply where the conduct fits a graver offence. There is no personal use exemption anywhere in the Ley. Article 31 sets 5 to 15 years for sowing, cultivating or harvesting, and Article 33 sets 10 to 15 years for acquiring, transferring, importing, exporting, storing, transporting, distributing, supplying or selling. Article 33's second paragraph raises the trafficking penalty by one third of the stated maximum where the act is international trafficking, so the ceiling on that route is 20 years, and Article 54 allows a court to raise the penalty by up to one third of the maximum on any of nine listed aggravating circumstances, which is a discretion and not the mandatory increase Article 33 creates. Article 55 allows the penalty to be cut to half the minimum where the accused names others or enables a seizure. The ceiling on every one of these routes is imprisonment, because the severest sanction is constitutionally barred for ordinary offences in El Salvador, so no offence in this Ley carries it. The Ley creates no lawful recreational regime and no medical regime for any substance it reaches, cannabis included: Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be imported, produced, made, extracted, possessed or used only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for making products of industrial use, and only with the health regulator's authorisation. On the fine, the Sala de lo Constitucional struck the multa in each of these three articles as a penal consequence, Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments published on 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments published on 19 August 2009 and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010 published on 23 October 2013, so no fine now attaches to cultivation, trafficking or possession under this Ley. On quantity, the 2 gram line in Article 34 is the only weight the Ley fixes; it sets no substance by substance threshold and no quantity table, so the same 2 grams applies whatever the substance is. The 2 gram line and the bands of 1 to 3, 3 to 6, 6 to 10, 5 to 15 and 10 to 15 years and the one third increase are carried forward from the live cell and were re-read against the Asamblea Legislativa text for this pass; the Article 34 graver offence proviso, the Article 54 and Article 55 provisions and the three unconstitutionality rulings are new to this cell.
- If prescribed / medical
- Cocaine reaches people as a powder, a liquid, a blotter or a pressed tablet rather than as a dispensed medicine, so there is no prescription document to carry for it, and the name a Salvadoran laboratory report would use is cocaina. Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be held only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for industrial products, and only with the health regulator's authorisation, so there is no lawful personal quantity of it.
- Documentation
- The instrument read for this cell is the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, published in Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003, in the consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa. That text carries its own reform schedule: five reforms, the last of them Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018 in Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, so the consolidation read here is current to that reform. The same reform schedule was confirmed against a second publisher, the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which prints the identical list of five. The text also carries four rulings of the Sala de lo Constitucional, three of which strike the fine in Articles 31, 33 and 34 and the fourth of which struck the rule in Article 52 that equated preparatory acts with completed offences before that article was reformed in 2018. The substance list read for this cell is the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria. That document states its own currency in its Disposiciones generales: it was approved by that acuerdo and is «vigente hasta el 31 de marzo de 2027, o hasta que se emita un nuevo listado por parte de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria». It was read as at 21 September 2026, and the 2025 edition of the same list was fetched first and set aside once the 2026 edition was found on the regulator's own page. The list is the one Article 13 of the Ley requires, «una lista de drogas y de todas las preparaciones y especialidades farmaceuticas que las contengan de acuerdo a las categorias establecidas en la presente Ley», which Article 13 also requires to be sent to the Corte Suprema de Justicia, the Fiscalia General de la Republica and the Policia Nacional Civil so that judges and prosecutors know it. Article 13 names the Consejo Superior de Salud Publica as the body that makes it; the 2013 Reglamento names the Direccion Nacional de Medicamentos as the governing authority, and the Ley de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria dissolved that Direccion and moved its functions to the Superintendencia with effect from August 2024. That succession is stated from the Reglamento and from reporting of the Superintendencia law, whose own gazette text was not read for this cell. Article 2 defines droga in its own words: «Art. 2.- Para los efectos de esta Ley se consideran drogas las sustancias especificadas como tales en los Convenios Internacionales ratificados por El Salvador, las que se mencionan en el Código de Salud y demás leyes del país; y en general, las que indistintamente de su grado de pureza, actúan sobre el sistema nervioso central y tienen la capacidad de producir transformaciones, bien sea aumentando o disminuyendo su funcionamiento o modificando los estados de conciencia y que su uso indebido puede causar dependencia o sujeción física y psicológica.» Article 3 then prohibits activity relating to five named categories and, in letter f, «f) Cualquier otra sustancia que sea considerada droga tan nociva que amerite ser prohibida por el Consejo Superior de Salud Pública o por los convenios internacionales ratificados por el país.» The names searched across the list, in Spanish and in English, were cocaina, coca, ecgonina. The matched entry was read before it was relied on, and it is «Cocaina», entry 36, CAS 50-36-2, at Parte A, Seccion I. Estupefacientes incluidos en la Lista I de la Convencion de 1961. Three routes were tried for the instrument and all three returned a document: the Asamblea Legislativa decree file, which returned the consolidated text; the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which returned the same consolidation; and the regulator's own listado page, which returned the 2026 list. Two routes returned nothing usable: the Asamblea decree index and law search paths both returned a not found page, and a fetch of the Asamblea search page failed on certificate verification. Carry any controlled medicine in its dispensing packaging with the prescription, and confirm the position with the Salvadoran embassy or consulate before you travel.
Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, Articles 2, 3, 13, 31, 32, 33, 34, 54 and 55, consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa, Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003 · Consolidation: current to Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018, Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, the last of the five reforms the text's own schedule prints, confirmed against the Fiscalia General de la Republica transparency copy · Unconstitutionality of the fine: Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments, Diario Oficial 196, Tomo 377, of 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments, Diario Oficial 152, Tomo 384, of 19 August 2009, and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010, Diario Oficial 197, Tomo 401, of 23 October 2013 · Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria, read as at 21 September 2026, the document stating its own currency to 31 March 2027 or until a new listado is issued · Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados, Decreto Ejecutivo 20, Diario Oficial of 13 February 2013, Articles 5, 26, 36, 37 and 40 · Placement: entry read at Parte A, Seccion I. Estupefacientes incluidos en la Lista I de la Convencion de 1961, entry 36, CAS 50-36-2 · Placement provenance: the Parte and Seccion stated for this row are not printed in the quoted dossier extract, and no quoted extract in that dossier carries a Parte or Seccion marker for any substance, because the dossier resolved every row against articles 2 and 3 of Decreto 153 alone and never reached the Listado. The placement is read directly from the Listado named above and not from the dossier · Penalty figures for the 2 gram line and the year bands in Articles 31, 33 and 34 carried forward from the live cell and not re-derived from a new source, then re-read against the Asamblea text. The Article 34 graver offence proviso, Articles 54 and 55 and the three unconstitutionality rulings are read from that text and are new to this cell · asamblea.gob.sv · srs.gob.sv · portaldetransparencia.fgr.gob.sv · Updated September 21, 2026
Codeine
- Legal status
- Controlled under the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003. Codeine is printed in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria as «Codeina», entry 141, CAS 76-57-3, at Parte A, Seccion II. Estupefacientes incluidos en la Lista II de la Convencion de 1961. Article 2 makes a droga any substance specified as such in the conventions El Salvador has ratified, and Article 3 prohibits every activity relating to the narcotic, depressant, stimulant, hallucinogen and cannabis categories, so a printed convention entry is reached by the definition itself. Parte A Seccion IV exempts preparations that carry no more than 100 milligrams of the narcotic per dosage unit and no more than 2.5 per cent in undivided preparations, and codeine is named in that exemption, so a compound analgesic is treated differently from the pure substance.
- Consequences if caught
- Parte A Seccion IV exempts preparations that carry no more than 100 milligrams of the narcotic per dosage unit and no more than 2.5 per cent in undivided preparations, and codeine is named in that exemption, so a compound analgesic is treated differently from the pure substance. Codeine is inside El Salvador's drug control regime, and the penalties below are set out because they describe the offences that this row's placement brings into play. Article 34 divides possession from trafficking by a 2 gram line: possession of under 2 grams carries 1 to 3 years, possession of 2 grams or more carries 3 to 6 years, and possession of any quantity with the object of doing anything Article 33 lists carries 6 to 10 years. Article 34 closes by providing that it does not apply where the conduct fits a graver offence. There is no personal use exemption anywhere in the Ley. Article 31 sets 5 to 15 years for sowing, cultivating or harvesting, and Article 33 sets 10 to 15 years for acquiring, transferring, importing, exporting, storing, transporting, distributing, supplying or selling. Article 33's second paragraph raises the trafficking penalty by one third of the stated maximum where the act is international trafficking, so the ceiling on that route is 20 years, and Article 54 allows a court to raise the penalty by up to one third of the maximum on any of nine listed aggravating circumstances, which is a discretion and not the mandatory increase Article 33 creates. Article 55 allows the penalty to be cut to half the minimum where the accused names others or enables a seizure. The ceiling on every one of these routes is imprisonment, because the severest sanction is constitutionally barred for ordinary offences in El Salvador, so no offence in this Ley carries it. The Ley creates no lawful recreational regime and no medical regime for any substance it reaches, cannabis included: Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be imported, produced, made, extracted, possessed or used only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for making products of industrial use, and only with the health regulator's authorisation. On the fine, the Sala de lo Constitucional struck the multa in each of these three articles as a penal consequence, Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments published on 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments published on 19 August 2009 and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010 published on 23 October 2013, so no fine now attaches to cultivation, trafficking or possession under this Ley. On quantity, the 2 gram line in Article 34 is the only weight the Ley fixes; it sets no substance by substance threshold and no quantity table, so the same 2 grams applies whatever the substance is. The 2 gram line and the bands of 1 to 3, 3 to 6, 6 to 10, 5 to 15 and 10 to 15 years and the one third increase are carried forward from the live cell and were re-read against the Asamblea Legislativa text for this pass; the Article 34 graver offence proviso, the Article 54 and Article 55 provisions and the three unconstitutionality rulings are new to this cell.
- If prescribed / medical
- Codeine reaches people here as a dispensed medicine, and the name a Salvadoran pharmacy record or a laboratory report would use is codeina. Article 37 of the Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados requires that narcotics, psychotropics and agregados be prescribed on Recetarios Especiales printed by the regulator and issued to the professional, in books of at least twenty five cheque style forms and up to two hundred, and Article 40 of that Reglamento makes a special prescription valid for thirty days, with three monthly prescriptions allowed for a chronic patient. Article 14 of the Ley requires the pack to carry a warning that the product is sold only on medical prescription and is under the health regulator's control. A prescribing doctor who supplies outside the therapeutic indication commits the Article 38 offence, which carries 3 to 5 years, and a pharmacy that dispenses without the prescription commits the Article 40 offence, which carries 5 to 15 years. Carry it in its dispensing packaging with the prescription.
- Documentation
- The instrument read for this cell is the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, published in Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003, in the consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa. That text carries its own reform schedule: five reforms, the last of them Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018 in Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, so the consolidation read here is current to that reform. The same reform schedule was confirmed against a second publisher, the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which prints the identical list of five. The text also carries four rulings of the Sala de lo Constitucional, three of which strike the fine in Articles 31, 33 and 34 and the fourth of which struck the rule in Article 52 that equated preparatory acts with completed offences before that article was reformed in 2018. The substance list read for this cell is the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria. That document states its own currency in its Disposiciones generales: it was approved by that acuerdo and is «vigente hasta el 31 de marzo de 2027, o hasta que se emita un nuevo listado por parte de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria». It was read as at 21 September 2026, and the 2025 edition of the same list was fetched first and set aside once the 2026 edition was found on the regulator's own page. The list is the one Article 13 of the Ley requires, «una lista de drogas y de todas las preparaciones y especialidades farmaceuticas que las contengan de acuerdo a las categorias establecidas en la presente Ley», which Article 13 also requires to be sent to the Corte Suprema de Justicia, the Fiscalia General de la Republica and the Policia Nacional Civil so that judges and prosecutors know it. Article 13 names the Consejo Superior de Salud Publica as the body that makes it; the 2013 Reglamento names the Direccion Nacional de Medicamentos as the governing authority, and the Ley de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria dissolved that Direccion and moved its functions to the Superintendencia with effect from August 2024. That succession is stated from the Reglamento and from reporting of the Superintendencia law, whose own gazette text was not read for this cell. Article 2 defines droga in its own words: «Art. 2.- Para los efectos de esta Ley se consideran drogas las sustancias especificadas como tales en los Convenios Internacionales ratificados por El Salvador, las que se mencionan en el Código de Salud y demás leyes del país; y en general, las que indistintamente de su grado de pureza, actúan sobre el sistema nervioso central y tienen la capacidad de producir transformaciones, bien sea aumentando o disminuyendo su funcionamiento o modificando los estados de conciencia y que su uso indebido puede causar dependencia o sujeción física y psicológica.» Article 3 then prohibits activity relating to five named categories and, in letter f, «f) Cualquier otra sustancia que sea considerada droga tan nociva que amerite ser prohibida por el Consejo Superior de Salud Pública o por los convenios internacionales ratificados por el país.» The names searched across the list, in Spanish and in English, were codeina, 3-metilmorfina. The matched entry was read before it was relied on, and it is «Codeina», entry 141, CAS 76-57-3, at Parte A, Seccion II. Estupefacientes incluidos en la Lista II de la Convencion de 1961. Three routes were tried for the instrument and all three returned a document: the Asamblea Legislativa decree file, which returned the consolidated text; the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which returned the same consolidation; and the regulator's own listado page, which returned the 2026 list. Two routes returned nothing usable: the Asamblea decree index and law search paths both returned a not found page, and a fetch of the Asamblea search page failed on certificate verification. Carry any controlled medicine in its dispensing packaging with the prescription, and confirm the position with the Salvadoran embassy or consulate before you travel.
Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, Articles 2, 3, 13, 31, 32, 33, 34, 54 and 55, consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa, Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003 · Consolidation: current to Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018, Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, the last of the five reforms the text's own schedule prints, confirmed against the Fiscalia General de la Republica transparency copy · Unconstitutionality of the fine: Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments, Diario Oficial 196, Tomo 377, of 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments, Diario Oficial 152, Tomo 384, of 19 August 2009, and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010, Diario Oficial 197, Tomo 401, of 23 October 2013 · Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria, read as at 21 September 2026, the document stating its own currency to 31 March 2027 or until a new listado is issued · Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados, Decreto Ejecutivo 20, Diario Oficial of 13 February 2013, Articles 5, 26, 36, 37 and 40 · Placement: entry read at Parte A, Seccion II. Estupefacientes incluidos en la Lista II de la Convencion de 1961, entry 141, CAS 76-57-3 · Placement provenance: the Parte and Seccion stated for this row are not printed in the quoted dossier extract, and no quoted extract in that dossier carries a Parte or Seccion marker for any substance, because the dossier resolved every row against articles 2 and 3 of Decreto 153 alone and never reached the Listado. The placement is read directly from the Listado named above and not from the dossier · Penalty figures for the 2 gram line and the year bands in Articles 31, 33 and 34 carried forward from the live cell and not re-derived from a new source, then re-read against the Asamblea text. The Article 34 graver offence proviso, Articles 54 and 55 and the three unconstitutionality rulings are read from that text and are new to this cell · asamblea.gob.sv · srs.gob.sv · portaldetransparencia.fgr.gob.sv · Updated September 21, 2026
Crack Cocaine
- Legal status
- Controlled under the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003. Crack cocaine is reached through a named constituent rather than under its own name: it is not named in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria, which instead prints «Cocaina», entry 36, CAS 50-36-2, at Parte A, Seccion I. Estupefacientes incluidos en la Lista I de la Convencion de 1961. Article 2's second paragraph makes seeds, flowering tops, plants and parts of them a droga where they are used as raw material for making one, which is the route this row travels. No preparation of cocaine is printed under a street name. This row is the smokable free base of the alkaloid at n.o 36, and it is reached as that alkaloid and not as a separate entry. The Parte A Seccion IV exemption for weak cocaine preparations cannot touch it, because that exemption turns on the narcotic being unseparable by readily applicable means and a smokable base is the separated narcotic itself.
- Consequences if caught
- No preparation of cocaine is printed under a street name. This row is the smokable free base of the alkaloid at n.o 36, and it is reached as that alkaloid and not as a separate entry. The Parte A Seccion IV exemption for weak cocaine preparations cannot touch it, because that exemption turns on the narcotic being unseparable by readily applicable means and a smokable base is the separated narcotic itself. Crack cocaine is inside El Salvador's drug control regime, and the penalties below are set out because they describe the offences that this row's placement brings into play. Article 34 divides possession from trafficking by a 2 gram line: possession of under 2 grams carries 1 to 3 years, possession of 2 grams or more carries 3 to 6 years, and possession of any quantity with the object of doing anything Article 33 lists carries 6 to 10 years. Article 34 closes by providing that it does not apply where the conduct fits a graver offence. There is no personal use exemption anywhere in the Ley. Article 31 sets 5 to 15 years for sowing, cultivating or harvesting, and Article 33 sets 10 to 15 years for acquiring, transferring, importing, exporting, storing, transporting, distributing, supplying or selling. Article 33's second paragraph raises the trafficking penalty by one third of the stated maximum where the act is international trafficking, so the ceiling on that route is 20 years, and Article 54 allows a court to raise the penalty by up to one third of the maximum on any of nine listed aggravating circumstances, which is a discretion and not the mandatory increase Article 33 creates. Article 55 allows the penalty to be cut to half the minimum where the accused names others or enables a seizure. The ceiling on every one of these routes is imprisonment, because the severest sanction is constitutionally barred for ordinary offences in El Salvador, so no offence in this Ley carries it. The Ley creates no lawful recreational regime and no medical regime for any substance it reaches, cannabis included: Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be imported, produced, made, extracted, possessed or used only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for making products of industrial use, and only with the health regulator's authorisation. On the fine, the Sala de lo Constitucional struck the multa in each of these three articles as a penal consequence, Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments published on 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments published on 19 August 2009 and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010 published on 23 October 2013, so no fine now attaches to cultivation, trafficking or possession under this Ley. On quantity, the 2 gram line in Article 34 is the only weight the Ley fixes; it sets no substance by substance threshold and no quantity table, so the same 2 grams applies whatever the substance is. The 2 gram line and the bands of 1 to 3, 3 to 6, 6 to 10, 5 to 15 and 10 to 15 years and the one third increase are carried forward from the live cell and were re-read against the Asamblea Legislativa text for this pass; the Article 34 graver offence proviso, the Article 54 and Article 55 provisions and the three unconstitutionality rulings are new to this cell.
- If prescribed / medical
- Crack cocaine reaches people as a powder, a liquid, a blotter or a pressed tablet rather than as a dispensed medicine, so there is no prescription document to carry for it, and the name a Salvadoran laboratory report would use is crack. Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be held only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for industrial products, and only with the health regulator's authorisation, so there is no lawful personal quantity of it.
- Documentation
- The instrument read for this cell is the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, published in Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003, in the consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa. That text carries its own reform schedule: five reforms, the last of them Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018 in Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, so the consolidation read here is current to that reform. The same reform schedule was confirmed against a second publisher, the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which prints the identical list of five. The text also carries four rulings of the Sala de lo Constitucional, three of which strike the fine in Articles 31, 33 and 34 and the fourth of which struck the rule in Article 52 that equated preparatory acts with completed offences before that article was reformed in 2018. The substance list read for this cell is the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria. That document states its own currency in its Disposiciones generales: it was approved by that acuerdo and is «vigente hasta el 31 de marzo de 2027, o hasta que se emita un nuevo listado por parte de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria». It was read as at 21 September 2026, and the 2025 edition of the same list was fetched first and set aside once the 2026 edition was found on the regulator's own page. The list is the one Article 13 of the Ley requires, «una lista de drogas y de todas las preparaciones y especialidades farmaceuticas que las contengan de acuerdo a las categorias establecidas en la presente Ley», which Article 13 also requires to be sent to the Corte Suprema de Justicia, the Fiscalia General de la Republica and the Policia Nacional Civil so that judges and prosecutors know it. Article 13 names the Consejo Superior de Salud Publica as the body that makes it; the 2013 Reglamento names the Direccion Nacional de Medicamentos as the governing authority, and the Ley de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria dissolved that Direccion and moved its functions to the Superintendencia with effect from August 2024. That succession is stated from the Reglamento and from reporting of the Superintendencia law, whose own gazette text was not read for this cell. Article 2 defines droga in its own words: «Art. 2.- Para los efectos de esta Ley se consideran drogas las sustancias especificadas como tales en los Convenios Internacionales ratificados por El Salvador, las que se mencionan en el Código de Salud y demás leyes del país; y en general, las que indistintamente de su grado de pureza, actúan sobre el sistema nervioso central y tienen la capacidad de producir transformaciones, bien sea aumentando o disminuyendo su funcionamiento o modificando los estados de conciencia y que su uso indebido puede causar dependencia o sujeción física y psicológica.» Article 3 then prohibits activity relating to five named categories and, in letter f, «f) Cualquier otra sustancia que sea considerada droga tan nociva que amerite ser prohibida por el Consejo Superior de Salud Pública o por los convenios internacionales ratificados por el país.» The names searched across the list, in Spanish and in English, were crack, cocaina base, pasta base, cocaina. No entry was returned under the row's own name. The entry relied on instead was read in full and it is «Cocaina», entry 36, CAS 50-36-2, at Parte A, Seccion I. Estupefacientes incluidos en la Lista I de la Convencion de 1961. Three routes were tried for the instrument and all three returned a document: the Asamblea Legislativa decree file, which returned the consolidated text; the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which returned the same consolidation; and the regulator's own listado page, which returned the 2026 list. Two routes returned nothing usable: the Asamblea decree index and law search paths both returned a not found page, and a fetch of the Asamblea search page failed on certificate verification. Carry any controlled medicine in its dispensing packaging with the prescription, and confirm the position with the Salvadoran embassy or consulate before you travel.
Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, Articles 2, 3, 13, 31, 32, 33, 34, 54 and 55, consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa, Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003 · Consolidation: current to Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018, Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, the last of the five reforms the text's own schedule prints, confirmed against the Fiscalia General de la Republica transparency copy · Unconstitutionality of the fine: Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments, Diario Oficial 196, Tomo 377, of 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments, Diario Oficial 152, Tomo 384, of 19 August 2009, and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010, Diario Oficial 197, Tomo 401, of 23 October 2013 · Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria, read as at 21 September 2026, the document stating its own currency to 31 March 2027 or until a new listado is issued · Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados, Decreto Ejecutivo 20, Diario Oficial of 13 February 2013, Articles 5, 26, 36, 37 and 40 · Placement: the row's own name returned no entry · the entry relied on is at Parte A, Seccion I. Estupefacientes incluidos en la Lista I de la Convencion de 1961, entry 36 · Placement provenance: the Parte and Seccion stated for this row are not printed in the quoted dossier extract, and no quoted extract in that dossier carries a Parte or Seccion marker for any substance, because the dossier resolved every row against articles 2 and 3 of Decreto 153 alone and never reached the Listado. The placement is read directly from the Listado named above and not from the dossier · Penalty figures for the 2 gram line and the year bands in Articles 31, 33 and 34 carried forward from the live cell and not re-derived from a new source, then re-read against the Asamblea text. The Article 34 graver offence proviso, Articles 54 and 55 and the three unconstitutionality rulings are read from that text and are new to this cell · asamblea.gob.sv · srs.gob.sv · portaldetransparencia.fgr.gob.sv · Updated September 21, 2026
Delta-8-THC
- Legal status
- Controlled under the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003. Delta-8-THC is printed in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria as «Delta-8-THC», entry 36, CAS 5957-75-5, at Parte B, Seccion I. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista I de la Convencion de 1971. Article 2 makes a droga any substance specified as such in the conventions El Salvador has ratified, and Article 3 prohibits every activity relating to the narcotic, depressant, stimulant, hallucinogen and cannabis categories, so a printed convention entry is reached by the definition itself. It is one of six THC isomers printed by name under the tetrahidrocannabinol entry, each with its own number and stereochemical description, so this row is decided on a named isomer and not on the word THC.
- Consequences if caught
- It is one of six THC isomers printed by name under the tetrahidrocannabinol entry, each with its own number and stereochemical description, so this row is decided on a named isomer and not on the word THC. Delta-8-THC is inside El Salvador's drug control regime, and the penalties below are set out because they describe the offences that this row's placement brings into play. Article 34 divides possession from trafficking by a 2 gram line: possession of under 2 grams carries 1 to 3 years, possession of 2 grams or more carries 3 to 6 years, and possession of any quantity with the object of doing anything Article 33 lists carries 6 to 10 years. Article 34 closes by providing that it does not apply where the conduct fits a graver offence. There is no personal use exemption anywhere in the Ley. Article 31 sets 5 to 15 years for sowing, cultivating or harvesting, and Article 33 sets 10 to 15 years for acquiring, transferring, importing, exporting, storing, transporting, distributing, supplying or selling. Article 33's second paragraph raises the trafficking penalty by one third of the stated maximum where the act is international trafficking, so the ceiling on that route is 20 years, and Article 54 allows a court to raise the penalty by up to one third of the maximum on any of nine listed aggravating circumstances, which is a discretion and not the mandatory increase Article 33 creates. Article 55 allows the penalty to be cut to half the minimum where the accused names others or enables a seizure. The ceiling on every one of these routes is imprisonment, because the severest sanction is constitutionally barred for ordinary offences in El Salvador, so no offence in this Ley carries it. The Ley creates no lawful recreational regime and no medical regime for any substance it reaches, cannabis included: Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be imported, produced, made, extracted, possessed or used only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for making products of industrial use, and only with the health regulator's authorisation. On the fine, the Sala de lo Constitucional struck the multa in each of these three articles as a penal consequence, Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments published on 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments published on 19 August 2009 and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010 published on 23 October 2013, so no fine now attaches to cultivation, trafficking or possession under this Ley. On quantity, the 2 gram line in Article 34 is the only weight the Ley fixes; it sets no substance by substance threshold and no quantity table, so the same 2 grams applies whatever the substance is. The 2 gram line and the bands of 1 to 3, 3 to 6, 6 to 10, 5 to 15 and 10 to 15 years and the one third increase are carried forward from the live cell and were re-read against the Asamblea Legislativa text for this pass; the Article 34 graver offence proviso, the Article 54 and Article 55 provisions and the three unconstitutionality rulings are new to this cell.
- If prescribed / medical
- Delta-8-THC reaches people as a powder, a liquid, a blotter or a pressed tablet rather than as a dispensed medicine, so there is no prescription document to carry for it, and the name a Salvadoran laboratory report would use is delta-8-THC. Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be held only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for industrial products, and only with the health regulator's authorisation, so there is no lawful personal quantity of it.
- Documentation
- The instrument read for this cell is the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, published in Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003, in the consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa. That text carries its own reform schedule: five reforms, the last of them Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018 in Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, so the consolidation read here is current to that reform. The same reform schedule was confirmed against a second publisher, the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which prints the identical list of five. The text also carries four rulings of the Sala de lo Constitucional, three of which strike the fine in Articles 31, 33 and 34 and the fourth of which struck the rule in Article 52 that equated preparatory acts with completed offences before that article was reformed in 2018. The substance list read for this cell is the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria. That document states its own currency in its Disposiciones generales: it was approved by that acuerdo and is «vigente hasta el 31 de marzo de 2027, o hasta que se emita un nuevo listado por parte de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria». It was read as at 21 September 2026, and the 2025 edition of the same list was fetched first and set aside once the 2026 edition was found on the regulator's own page. The list is the one Article 13 of the Ley requires, «una lista de drogas y de todas las preparaciones y especialidades farmaceuticas que las contengan de acuerdo a las categorias establecidas en la presente Ley», which Article 13 also requires to be sent to the Corte Suprema de Justicia, the Fiscalia General de la Republica and the Policia Nacional Civil so that judges and prosecutors know it. Article 13 names the Consejo Superior de Salud Publica as the body that makes it; the 2013 Reglamento names the Direccion Nacional de Medicamentos as the governing authority, and the Ley de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria dissolved that Direccion and moved its functions to the Superintendencia with effect from August 2024. That succession is stated from the Reglamento and from reporting of the Superintendencia law, whose own gazette text was not read for this cell. Article 2 defines droga in its own words: «Art. 2.- Para los efectos de esta Ley se consideran drogas las sustancias especificadas como tales en los Convenios Internacionales ratificados por El Salvador, las que se mencionan en el Código de Salud y demás leyes del país; y en general, las que indistintamente de su grado de pureza, actúan sobre el sistema nervioso central y tienen la capacidad de producir transformaciones, bien sea aumentando o disminuyendo su funcionamiento o modificando los estados de conciencia y que su uso indebido puede causar dependencia o sujeción física y psicológica.» Article 3 then prohibits activity relating to five named categories and, in letter f, «f) Cualquier otra sustancia que sea considerada droga tan nociva que amerite ser prohibida por el Consejo Superior de Salud Pública o por los convenios internacionales ratificados por el país.» The names searched across the list, in Spanish and in English, were delta-8-THC, delta-8-tetrahidrocannabinol. The matched entry was read before it was relied on, and it is «Delta-8-THC», entry 36, CAS 5957-75-5, at Parte B, Seccion I. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista I de la Convencion de 1971. Three routes were tried for the instrument and all three returned a document: the Asamblea Legislativa decree file, which returned the consolidated text; the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which returned the same consolidation; and the regulator's own listado page, which returned the 2026 list. Two routes returned nothing usable: the Asamblea decree index and law search paths both returned a not found page, and a fetch of the Asamblea search page failed on certificate verification. Carry any controlled medicine in its dispensing packaging with the prescription, and confirm the position with the Salvadoran embassy or consulate before you travel.
Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, Articles 2, 3, 13, 31, 32, 33, 34, 54 and 55, consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa, Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003 · Consolidation: current to Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018, Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, the last of the five reforms the text's own schedule prints, confirmed against the Fiscalia General de la Republica transparency copy · Unconstitutionality of the fine: Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments, Diario Oficial 196, Tomo 377, of 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments, Diario Oficial 152, Tomo 384, of 19 August 2009, and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010, Diario Oficial 197, Tomo 401, of 23 October 2013 · Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria, read as at 21 September 2026, the document stating its own currency to 31 March 2027 or until a new listado is issued · Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados, Decreto Ejecutivo 20, Diario Oficial of 13 February 2013, Articles 5, 26, 36, 37 and 40 · Placement: entry read at Parte B, Seccion I. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista I de la Convencion de 1971, entry 36, CAS 5957-75-5 · Placement provenance: the Parte and Seccion stated for this row are not printed in the quoted dossier extract, and no quoted extract in that dossier carries a Parte or Seccion marker for any substance, because the dossier resolved every row against articles 2 and 3 of Decreto 153 alone and never reached the Listado. The placement is read directly from the Listado named above and not from the dossier · Penalty figures for the 2 gram line and the year bands in Articles 31, 33 and 34 carried forward from the live cell and not re-derived from a new source, then re-read against the Asamblea text. The Article 34 graver offence proviso, Articles 54 and 55 and the three unconstitutionality rulings are read from that text and are new to this cell · asamblea.gob.sv · srs.gob.sv · portaldetransparencia.fgr.gob.sv · Updated September 21, 2026
Diazepam
- Legal status
- Controlled under the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003. Diazepam is printed in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria as «Diazepam», entry 134, CAS 439-14-5, at Parte B, Seccion IV. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista IV de la Convencion de 1971. Article 2 makes a droga any substance specified as such in the conventions El Salvador has ratified, and Article 3 prohibits every activity relating to the narcotic, depressant, stimulant, hallucinogen and cannabis categories, so a printed convention entry is reached by the definition itself. The chlorinated analogue Diclazepam and the fluorinated Fludiazepam each carry their own entries near it, so this row is the parent and nothing wider.
- Consequences if caught
- The chlorinated analogue Diclazepam and the fluorinated Fludiazepam each carry their own entries near it, so this row is the parent and nothing wider. Diazepam is inside El Salvador's drug control regime, and the penalties below are set out because they describe the offences that this row's placement brings into play. Article 34 divides possession from trafficking by a 2 gram line: possession of under 2 grams carries 1 to 3 years, possession of 2 grams or more carries 3 to 6 years, and possession of any quantity with the object of doing anything Article 33 lists carries 6 to 10 years. Article 34 closes by providing that it does not apply where the conduct fits a graver offence. There is no personal use exemption anywhere in the Ley. Article 31 sets 5 to 15 years for sowing, cultivating or harvesting, and Article 33 sets 10 to 15 years for acquiring, transferring, importing, exporting, storing, transporting, distributing, supplying or selling. Article 33's second paragraph raises the trafficking penalty by one third of the stated maximum where the act is international trafficking, so the ceiling on that route is 20 years, and Article 54 allows a court to raise the penalty by up to one third of the maximum on any of nine listed aggravating circumstances, which is a discretion and not the mandatory increase Article 33 creates. Article 55 allows the penalty to be cut to half the minimum where the accused names others or enables a seizure. The ceiling on every one of these routes is imprisonment, because the severest sanction is constitutionally barred for ordinary offences in El Salvador, so no offence in this Ley carries it. The Ley creates no lawful recreational regime and no medical regime for any substance it reaches, cannabis included: Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be imported, produced, made, extracted, possessed or used only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for making products of industrial use, and only with the health regulator's authorisation. On the fine, the Sala de lo Constitucional struck the multa in each of these three articles as a penal consequence, Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments published on 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments published on 19 August 2009 and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010 published on 23 October 2013, so no fine now attaches to cultivation, trafficking or possession under this Ley. On quantity, the 2 gram line in Article 34 is the only weight the Ley fixes; it sets no substance by substance threshold and no quantity table, so the same 2 grams applies whatever the substance is. The 2 gram line and the bands of 1 to 3, 3 to 6, 6 to 10, 5 to 15 and 10 to 15 years and the one third increase are carried forward from the live cell and were re-read against the Asamblea Legislativa text for this pass; the Article 34 graver offence proviso, the Article 54 and Article 55 provisions and the three unconstitutionality rulings are new to this cell.
- If prescribed / medical
- Diazepam reaches people here as a dispensed medicine, and the name a Salvadoran pharmacy record or a laboratory report would use is diazepam. Article 37 of the Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados requires that narcotics, psychotropics and agregados be prescribed on Recetarios Especiales printed by the regulator and issued to the professional, in books of at least twenty five cheque style forms and up to two hundred, and Article 40 of that Reglamento makes a special prescription valid for thirty days, with three monthly prescriptions allowed for a chronic patient. Article 14 of the Ley requires the pack to carry a warning that the product is sold only on medical prescription and is under the health regulator's control. A prescribing doctor who supplies outside the therapeutic indication commits the Article 38 offence, which carries 3 to 5 years, and a pharmacy that dispenses without the prescription commits the Article 40 offence, which carries 5 to 15 years. Carry it in its dispensing packaging with the prescription.
- Documentation
- The instrument read for this cell is the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, published in Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003, in the consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa. That text carries its own reform schedule: five reforms, the last of them Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018 in Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, so the consolidation read here is current to that reform. The same reform schedule was confirmed against a second publisher, the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which prints the identical list of five. The text also carries four rulings of the Sala de lo Constitucional, three of which strike the fine in Articles 31, 33 and 34 and the fourth of which struck the rule in Article 52 that equated preparatory acts with completed offences before that article was reformed in 2018. The substance list read for this cell is the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria. That document states its own currency in its Disposiciones generales: it was approved by that acuerdo and is «vigente hasta el 31 de marzo de 2027, o hasta que se emita un nuevo listado por parte de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria». It was read as at 21 September 2026, and the 2025 edition of the same list was fetched first and set aside once the 2026 edition was found on the regulator's own page. The list is the one Article 13 of the Ley requires, «una lista de drogas y de todas las preparaciones y especialidades farmaceuticas que las contengan de acuerdo a las categorias establecidas en la presente Ley», which Article 13 also requires to be sent to the Corte Suprema de Justicia, the Fiscalia General de la Republica and the Policia Nacional Civil so that judges and prosecutors know it. Article 13 names the Consejo Superior de Salud Publica as the body that makes it; the 2013 Reglamento names the Direccion Nacional de Medicamentos as the governing authority, and the Ley de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria dissolved that Direccion and moved its functions to the Superintendencia with effect from August 2024. That succession is stated from the Reglamento and from reporting of the Superintendencia law, whose own gazette text was not read for this cell. Article 2 defines droga in its own words: «Art. 2.- Para los efectos de esta Ley se consideran drogas las sustancias especificadas como tales en los Convenios Internacionales ratificados por El Salvador, las que se mencionan en el Código de Salud y demás leyes del país; y en general, las que indistintamente de su grado de pureza, actúan sobre el sistema nervioso central y tienen la capacidad de producir transformaciones, bien sea aumentando o disminuyendo su funcionamiento o modificando los estados de conciencia y que su uso indebido puede causar dependencia o sujeción física y psicológica.» Article 3 then prohibits activity relating to five named categories and, in letter f, «f) Cualquier otra sustancia que sea considerada droga tan nociva que amerite ser prohibida por el Consejo Superior de Salud Pública o por los convenios internacionales ratificados por el país.» The names searched across the list, in Spanish and in English, were diazepam. The matched entry was read before it was relied on, and it is «Diazepam», entry 134, CAS 439-14-5, at Parte B, Seccion IV. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista IV de la Convencion de 1971. Three routes were tried for the instrument and all three returned a document: the Asamblea Legislativa decree file, which returned the consolidated text; the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which returned the same consolidation; and the regulator's own listado page, which returned the 2026 list. Two routes returned nothing usable: the Asamblea decree index and law search paths both returned a not found page, and a fetch of the Asamblea search page failed on certificate verification. Carry any controlled medicine in its dispensing packaging with the prescription, and confirm the position with the Salvadoran embassy or consulate before you travel.
Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, Articles 2, 3, 13, 31, 32, 33, 34, 54 and 55, consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa, Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003 · Consolidation: current to Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018, Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, the last of the five reforms the text's own schedule prints, confirmed against the Fiscalia General de la Republica transparency copy · Unconstitutionality of the fine: Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments, Diario Oficial 196, Tomo 377, of 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments, Diario Oficial 152, Tomo 384, of 19 August 2009, and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010, Diario Oficial 197, Tomo 401, of 23 October 2013 · Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria, read as at 21 September 2026, the document stating its own currency to 31 March 2027 or until a new listado is issued · Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados, Decreto Ejecutivo 20, Diario Oficial of 13 February 2013, Articles 5, 26, 36, 37 and 40 · Placement: entry read at Parte B, Seccion IV. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista IV de la Convencion de 1971, entry 134, CAS 439-14-5 · Placement provenance: the Parte and Seccion stated for this row are not printed in the quoted dossier extract, and no quoted extract in that dossier carries a Parte or Seccion marker for any substance, because the dossier resolved every row against articles 2 and 3 of Decreto 153 alone and never reached the Listado. The placement is read directly from the Listado named above and not from the dossier · Penalty figures for the 2 gram line and the year bands in Articles 31, 33 and 34 carried forward from the live cell and not re-derived from a new source, then re-read against the Asamblea text. The Article 34 graver offence proviso, Articles 54 and 55 and the three unconstitutionality rulings are read from that text and are new to this cell · asamblea.gob.sv · srs.gob.sv · portaldetransparencia.fgr.gob.sv · Updated September 21, 2026
DMT
- Legal status
- Controlled under the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003. DMT is printed in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria as «Dimetiltriptamina (DMT)», entry 4, CAS 61-50-7, at Parte B, Seccion I. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista I de la Convencion de 1971. Article 2 makes a droga any substance specified as such in the conventions El Salvador has ratified, and Article 3 prohibits every activity relating to the narcotic, depressant, stimulant, hallucinogen and cannabis categories, so a printed convention entry is reached by the definition itself. The entry is the free base under its chemical name, which is what distinguishes this row from the botanical preparations that contain it.
- Consequences if caught
- The entry is the free base under its chemical name, which is what distinguishes this row from the botanical preparations that contain it. DMT is inside El Salvador's drug control regime, and the penalties below are set out because they describe the offences that this row's placement brings into play. Article 34 divides possession from trafficking by a 2 gram line: possession of under 2 grams carries 1 to 3 years, possession of 2 grams or more carries 3 to 6 years, and possession of any quantity with the object of doing anything Article 33 lists carries 6 to 10 years. Article 34 closes by providing that it does not apply where the conduct fits a graver offence. There is no personal use exemption anywhere in the Ley. Article 31 sets 5 to 15 years for sowing, cultivating or harvesting, and Article 33 sets 10 to 15 years for acquiring, transferring, importing, exporting, storing, transporting, distributing, supplying or selling. Article 33's second paragraph raises the trafficking penalty by one third of the stated maximum where the act is international trafficking, so the ceiling on that route is 20 years, and Article 54 allows a court to raise the penalty by up to one third of the maximum on any of nine listed aggravating circumstances, which is a discretion and not the mandatory increase Article 33 creates. Article 55 allows the penalty to be cut to half the minimum where the accused names others or enables a seizure. The ceiling on every one of these routes is imprisonment, because the severest sanction is constitutionally barred for ordinary offences in El Salvador, so no offence in this Ley carries it. The Ley creates no lawful recreational regime and no medical regime for any substance it reaches, cannabis included: Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be imported, produced, made, extracted, possessed or used only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for making products of industrial use, and only with the health regulator's authorisation. On the fine, the Sala de lo Constitucional struck the multa in each of these three articles as a penal consequence, Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments published on 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments published on 19 August 2009 and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010 published on 23 October 2013, so no fine now attaches to cultivation, trafficking or possession under this Ley. On quantity, the 2 gram line in Article 34 is the only weight the Ley fixes; it sets no substance by substance threshold and no quantity table, so the same 2 grams applies whatever the substance is. The 2 gram line and the bands of 1 to 3, 3 to 6, 6 to 10, 5 to 15 and 10 to 15 years and the one third increase are carried forward from the live cell and were re-read against the Asamblea Legislativa text for this pass; the Article 34 graver offence proviso, the Article 54 and Article 55 provisions and the three unconstitutionality rulings are new to this cell.
- If prescribed / medical
- DMT reaches people as a powder, a liquid, a blotter or a pressed tablet rather than as a dispensed medicine, so there is no prescription document to carry for it, and the name a Salvadoran laboratory report would use is dimetiltriptamina. Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be held only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for industrial products, and only with the health regulator's authorisation, so there is no lawful personal quantity of it.
- Documentation
- The instrument read for this cell is the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, published in Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003, in the consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa. That text carries its own reform schedule: five reforms, the last of them Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018 in Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, so the consolidation read here is current to that reform. The same reform schedule was confirmed against a second publisher, the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which prints the identical list of five. The text also carries four rulings of the Sala de lo Constitucional, three of which strike the fine in Articles 31, 33 and 34 and the fourth of which struck the rule in Article 52 that equated preparatory acts with completed offences before that article was reformed in 2018. The substance list read for this cell is the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria. That document states its own currency in its Disposiciones generales: it was approved by that acuerdo and is «vigente hasta el 31 de marzo de 2027, o hasta que se emita un nuevo listado por parte de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria». It was read as at 21 September 2026, and the 2025 edition of the same list was fetched first and set aside once the 2026 edition was found on the regulator's own page. The list is the one Article 13 of the Ley requires, «una lista de drogas y de todas las preparaciones y especialidades farmaceuticas que las contengan de acuerdo a las categorias establecidas en la presente Ley», which Article 13 also requires to be sent to the Corte Suprema de Justicia, the Fiscalia General de la Republica and the Policia Nacional Civil so that judges and prosecutors know it. Article 13 names the Consejo Superior de Salud Publica as the body that makes it; the 2013 Reglamento names the Direccion Nacional de Medicamentos as the governing authority, and the Ley de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria dissolved that Direccion and moved its functions to the Superintendencia with effect from August 2024. That succession is stated from the Reglamento and from reporting of the Superintendencia law, whose own gazette text was not read for this cell. Article 2 defines droga in its own words: «Art. 2.- Para los efectos de esta Ley se consideran drogas las sustancias especificadas como tales en los Convenios Internacionales ratificados por El Salvador, las que se mencionan en el Código de Salud y demás leyes del país; y en general, las que indistintamente de su grado de pureza, actúan sobre el sistema nervioso central y tienen la capacidad de producir transformaciones, bien sea aumentando o disminuyendo su funcionamiento o modificando los estados de conciencia y que su uso indebido puede causar dependencia o sujeción física y psicológica.» Article 3 then prohibits activity relating to five named categories and, in letter f, «f) Cualquier otra sustancia que sea considerada droga tan nociva que amerite ser prohibida por el Consejo Superior de Salud Pública o por los convenios internacionales ratificados por el país.» The names searched across the list, in Spanish and in English, were dimetiltriptamina, DMT, N,N-dimetiltriptamina. The matched entry was read before it was relied on, and it is «Dimetiltriptamina (DMT)», entry 4, CAS 61-50-7, at Parte B, Seccion I. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista I de la Convencion de 1971. Three routes were tried for the instrument and all three returned a document: the Asamblea Legislativa decree file, which returned the consolidated text; the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which returned the same consolidation; and the regulator's own listado page, which returned the 2026 list. Two routes returned nothing usable: the Asamblea decree index and law search paths both returned a not found page, and a fetch of the Asamblea search page failed on certificate verification. Carry any controlled medicine in its dispensing packaging with the prescription, and confirm the position with the Salvadoran embassy or consulate before you travel.
Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, Articles 2, 3, 13, 31, 32, 33, 34, 54 and 55, consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa, Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003 · Consolidation: current to Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018, Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, the last of the five reforms the text's own schedule prints, confirmed against the Fiscalia General de la Republica transparency copy · Unconstitutionality of the fine: Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments, Diario Oficial 196, Tomo 377, of 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments, Diario Oficial 152, Tomo 384, of 19 August 2009, and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010, Diario Oficial 197, Tomo 401, of 23 October 2013 · Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria, read as at 21 September 2026, the document stating its own currency to 31 March 2027 or until a new listado is issued · Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados, Decreto Ejecutivo 20, Diario Oficial of 13 February 2013, Articles 5, 26, 36, 37 and 40 · Placement: entry read at Parte B, Seccion I. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista I de la Convencion de 1971, entry 4, CAS 61-50-7 · Placement provenance: the Parte and Seccion stated for this row are not printed in the quoted dossier extract, and no quoted extract in that dossier carries a Parte or Seccion marker for any substance, because the dossier resolved every row against articles 2 and 3 of Decreto 153 alone and never reached the Listado. The placement is read directly from the Listado named above and not from the dossier · Penalty figures for the 2 gram line and the year bands in Articles 31, 33 and 34 carried forward from the live cell and not re-derived from a new source, then re-read against the Asamblea text. The Article 34 graver offence proviso, Articles 54 and 55 and the three unconstitutionality rulings are read from that text and are new to this cell · asamblea.gob.sv · srs.gob.sv · portaldetransparencia.fgr.gob.sv · Updated September 21, 2026
DOM
- Legal status
- Controlled under the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003. DOM is printed in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria as «Dimetoxianfetamina (STP o DOM)», entry 30, CAS 15588-95-1, at Parte B, Seccion I. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista I de la Convencion de 1971. Article 2 makes a droga any substance specified as such in the conventions El Salvador has ratified, and Article 3 prohibits every activity relating to the narcotic, depressant, stimulant, hallucinogen and cannabis categories, so a printed convention entry is reached by the definition itself. Both street abbreviations are printed inside the entry name itself, and the brominated analogue Brolanfetamina is a separate entry at n.o 7.
- Consequences if caught
- Both street abbreviations are printed inside the entry name itself, and the brominated analogue Brolanfetamina is a separate entry at n.o 7. DOM is inside El Salvador's drug control regime, and the penalties below are set out because they describe the offences that this row's placement brings into play. Article 34 divides possession from trafficking by a 2 gram line: possession of under 2 grams carries 1 to 3 years, possession of 2 grams or more carries 3 to 6 years, and possession of any quantity with the object of doing anything Article 33 lists carries 6 to 10 years. Article 34 closes by providing that it does not apply where the conduct fits a graver offence. There is no personal use exemption anywhere in the Ley. Article 31 sets 5 to 15 years for sowing, cultivating or harvesting, and Article 33 sets 10 to 15 years for acquiring, transferring, importing, exporting, storing, transporting, distributing, supplying or selling. Article 33's second paragraph raises the trafficking penalty by one third of the stated maximum where the act is international trafficking, so the ceiling on that route is 20 years, and Article 54 allows a court to raise the penalty by up to one third of the maximum on any of nine listed aggravating circumstances, which is a discretion and not the mandatory increase Article 33 creates. Article 55 allows the penalty to be cut to half the minimum where the accused names others or enables a seizure. The ceiling on every one of these routes is imprisonment, because the severest sanction is constitutionally barred for ordinary offences in El Salvador, so no offence in this Ley carries it. The Ley creates no lawful recreational regime and no medical regime for any substance it reaches, cannabis included: Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be imported, produced, made, extracted, possessed or used only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for making products of industrial use, and only with the health regulator's authorisation. On the fine, the Sala de lo Constitucional struck the multa in each of these three articles as a penal consequence, Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments published on 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments published on 19 August 2009 and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010 published on 23 October 2013, so no fine now attaches to cultivation, trafficking or possession under this Ley. On quantity, the 2 gram line in Article 34 is the only weight the Ley fixes; it sets no substance by substance threshold and no quantity table, so the same 2 grams applies whatever the substance is. The 2 gram line and the bands of 1 to 3, 3 to 6, 6 to 10, 5 to 15 and 10 to 15 years and the one third increase are carried forward from the live cell and were re-read against the Asamblea Legislativa text for this pass; the Article 34 graver offence proviso, the Article 54 and Article 55 provisions and the three unconstitutionality rulings are new to this cell.
- If prescribed / medical
- DOM reaches people as a powder, a liquid, a blotter or a pressed tablet rather than as a dispensed medicine, so there is no prescription document to carry for it, and the name a Salvadoran laboratory report would use is DOM. Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be held only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for industrial products, and only with the health regulator's authorisation, so there is no lawful personal quantity of it.
- Documentation
- The instrument read for this cell is the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, published in Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003, in the consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa. That text carries its own reform schedule: five reforms, the last of them Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018 in Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, so the consolidation read here is current to that reform. The same reform schedule was confirmed against a second publisher, the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which prints the identical list of five. The text also carries four rulings of the Sala de lo Constitucional, three of which strike the fine in Articles 31, 33 and 34 and the fourth of which struck the rule in Article 52 that equated preparatory acts with completed offences before that article was reformed in 2018. The substance list read for this cell is the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria. That document states its own currency in its Disposiciones generales: it was approved by that acuerdo and is «vigente hasta el 31 de marzo de 2027, o hasta que se emita un nuevo listado por parte de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria». It was read as at 21 September 2026, and the 2025 edition of the same list was fetched first and set aside once the 2026 edition was found on the regulator's own page. The list is the one Article 13 of the Ley requires, «una lista de drogas y de todas las preparaciones y especialidades farmaceuticas que las contengan de acuerdo a las categorias establecidas en la presente Ley», which Article 13 also requires to be sent to the Corte Suprema de Justicia, the Fiscalia General de la Republica and the Policia Nacional Civil so that judges and prosecutors know it. Article 13 names the Consejo Superior de Salud Publica as the body that makes it; the 2013 Reglamento names the Direccion Nacional de Medicamentos as the governing authority, and the Ley de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria dissolved that Direccion and moved its functions to the Superintendencia with effect from August 2024. That succession is stated from the Reglamento and from reporting of the Superintendencia law, whose own gazette text was not read for this cell. Article 2 defines droga in its own words: «Art. 2.- Para los efectos de esta Ley se consideran drogas las sustancias especificadas como tales en los Convenios Internacionales ratificados por El Salvador, las que se mencionan en el Código de Salud y demás leyes del país; y en general, las que indistintamente de su grado de pureza, actúan sobre el sistema nervioso central y tienen la capacidad de producir transformaciones, bien sea aumentando o disminuyendo su funcionamiento o modificando los estados de conciencia y que su uso indebido puede causar dependencia o sujeción física y psicológica.» Article 3 then prohibits activity relating to five named categories and, in letter f, «f) Cualquier otra sustancia que sea considerada droga tan nociva que amerite ser prohibida por el Consejo Superior de Salud Pública o por los convenios internacionales ratificados por el país.» The names searched across the list, in Spanish and in English, were DOM, STP, dimetoxianfetamina, 2,5-dimetoxi-4-metilanfetamina. The matched entry was read before it was relied on, and it is «Dimetoxianfetamina (STP o DOM)», entry 30, CAS 15588-95-1, at Parte B, Seccion I. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista I de la Convencion de 1971. Three routes were tried for the instrument and all three returned a document: the Asamblea Legislativa decree file, which returned the consolidated text; the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which returned the same consolidation; and the regulator's own listado page, which returned the 2026 list. Two routes returned nothing usable: the Asamblea decree index and law search paths both returned a not found page, and a fetch of the Asamblea search page failed on certificate verification. Carry any controlled medicine in its dispensing packaging with the prescription, and confirm the position with the Salvadoran embassy or consulate before you travel.
Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, Articles 2, 3, 13, 31, 32, 33, 34, 54 and 55, consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa, Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003 · Consolidation: current to Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018, Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, the last of the five reforms the text's own schedule prints, confirmed against the Fiscalia General de la Republica transparency copy · Unconstitutionality of the fine: Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments, Diario Oficial 196, Tomo 377, of 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments, Diario Oficial 152, Tomo 384, of 19 August 2009, and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010, Diario Oficial 197, Tomo 401, of 23 October 2013 · Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria, read as at 21 September 2026, the document stating its own currency to 31 March 2027 or until a new listado is issued · Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados, Decreto Ejecutivo 20, Diario Oficial of 13 February 2013, Articles 5, 26, 36, 37 and 40 · Placement: entry read at Parte B, Seccion I. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista I de la Convencion de 1971, entry 30, CAS 15588-95-1 · Placement provenance: the Parte and Seccion stated for this row are not printed in the quoted dossier extract, and no quoted extract in that dossier carries a Parte or Seccion marker for any substance, because the dossier resolved every row against articles 2 and 3 of Decreto 153 alone and never reached the Listado. The placement is read directly from the Listado named above and not from the dossier · Penalty figures for the 2 gram line and the year bands in Articles 31, 33 and 34 carried forward from the live cell and not re-derived from a new source, then re-read against the Asamblea text. The Article 34 graver offence proviso, Articles 54 and 55 and the three unconstitutionality rulings are read from that text and are new to this cell · asamblea.gob.sv · srs.gob.sv · portaldetransparencia.fgr.gob.sv · Updated September 21, 2026
Ephedrine
- Legal status
- Controlled as a precursor chemical under the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003. Ephedrine is printed in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria as «Efedrina», entry 14, CAS 299-42-3, at Parte D, Seccion I. Sustancias incluidas en el cuadro I de la Convencion de 1988. It is not named in either convention Parte of that list. It is placed instead among the precursors, which is a different control from the one Articles 31, 33 and 34 create, and whether those three articles reach a precursor at all was not settled from the documents read here. This row is not placed as a drug at all. It sits in the 1988 precursor table, and the Listado adds in its own words that the import of non parenteral pharmaceutical preparations of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine is prohibited by an acuerdo of the Consejo Superior de Salud Publica, which is the delegated prohibition power Article 3 letter f creates.
- Consequences if caught
- This row is not placed as a drug at all. It sits in the 1988 precursor table, and the Listado adds in its own words that the import of non parenteral pharmaceutical preparations of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine is prohibited by an acuerdo of the Consejo Superior de Salud Publica, which is the delegated prohibition power Article 3 letter f creates. Ephedrine sits in the precursor table rather than in the drug lists, and the penalties below are recorded because whether the offence reaches this row at all is exactly what was not established. Article 34 divides possession from trafficking by a 2 gram line: possession of under 2 grams carries 1 to 3 years, possession of 2 grams or more carries 3 to 6 years, and possession of any quantity with the object of doing anything Article 33 lists carries 6 to 10 years. Article 34 closes by providing that it does not apply where the conduct fits a graver offence. There is no personal use exemption anywhere in the Ley. Article 31 sets 5 to 15 years for sowing, cultivating or harvesting, and Article 33 sets 10 to 15 years for acquiring, transferring, importing, exporting, storing, transporting, distributing, supplying or selling. Article 33's second paragraph raises the trafficking penalty by one third of the stated maximum where the act is international trafficking, so the ceiling on that route is 20 years, and Article 54 allows a court to raise the penalty by up to one third of the maximum on any of nine listed aggravating circumstances, which is a discretion and not the mandatory increase Article 33 creates. Article 55 allows the penalty to be cut to half the minimum where the accused names others or enables a seizure. The ceiling on every one of these routes is imprisonment, because the severest sanction is constitutionally barred for ordinary offences in El Salvador, so no offence in this Ley carries it. The Ley creates no lawful recreational regime and no medical regime for any substance it reaches, cannabis included: Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be imported, produced, made, extracted, possessed or used only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for making products of industrial use, and only with the health regulator's authorisation. On the fine, the Sala de lo Constitucional struck the multa in each of these three articles as a penal consequence, Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments published on 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments published on 19 August 2009 and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010 published on 23 October 2013, so no fine now attaches to cultivation, trafficking or possession under this Ley. On quantity, the 2 gram line in Article 34 is the only weight the Ley fixes; it sets no substance by substance threshold and no quantity table, so the same 2 grams applies whatever the substance is. The 2 gram line and the bands of 1 to 3, 3 to 6, 6 to 10, 5 to 15 and 10 to 15 years and the one third increase are carried forward from the live cell and were re-read against the Asamblea Legislativa text for this pass; the Article 34 graver offence proviso, the Article 54 and Article 55 provisions and the three unconstitutionality rulings are new to this cell.
- If prescribed / medical
- Ephedrine reaches people here as a dispensed medicine, and the name a Salvadoran pharmacy record or a laboratory report would use is efedrina. Article 37 of the Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados requires that narcotics, psychotropics and agregados be prescribed on Recetarios Especiales printed by the regulator and issued to the professional, in books of at least twenty five cheque style forms and up to two hundred, and Article 40 of that Reglamento makes a special prescription valid for thirty days, with three monthly prescriptions allowed for a chronic patient. Article 14 of the Ley requires the pack to carry a warning that the product is sold only on medical prescription and is under the health regulator's control. A prescribing doctor who supplies outside the therapeutic indication commits the Article 38 offence, which carries 3 to 5 years, and a pharmacy that dispenses without the prescription commits the Article 40 offence, which carries 5 to 15 years. Carry it in its dispensing packaging with the prescription.
- Documentation
- The instrument read for this cell is the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, published in Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003, in the consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa. That text carries its own reform schedule: five reforms, the last of them Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018 in Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, so the consolidation read here is current to that reform. The same reform schedule was confirmed against a second publisher, the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which prints the identical list of five. The text also carries four rulings of the Sala de lo Constitucional, three of which strike the fine in Articles 31, 33 and 34 and the fourth of which struck the rule in Article 52 that equated preparatory acts with completed offences before that article was reformed in 2018. The substance list read for this cell is the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria. That document states its own currency in its Disposiciones generales: it was approved by that acuerdo and is «vigente hasta el 31 de marzo de 2027, o hasta que se emita un nuevo listado por parte de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria». It was read as at 21 September 2026, and the 2025 edition of the same list was fetched first and set aside once the 2026 edition was found on the regulator's own page. The list is the one Article 13 of the Ley requires, «una lista de drogas y de todas las preparaciones y especialidades farmaceuticas que las contengan de acuerdo a las categorias establecidas en la presente Ley», which Article 13 also requires to be sent to the Corte Suprema de Justicia, the Fiscalia General de la Republica and the Policia Nacional Civil so that judges and prosecutors know it. Article 13 names the Consejo Superior de Salud Publica as the body that makes it; the 2013 Reglamento names the Direccion Nacional de Medicamentos as the governing authority, and the Ley de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria dissolved that Direccion and moved its functions to the Superintendencia with effect from August 2024. That succession is stated from the Reglamento and from reporting of the Superintendencia law, whose own gazette text was not read for this cell. Article 2 defines droga in its own words: «Art. 2.- Para los efectos de esta Ley se consideran drogas las sustancias especificadas como tales en los Convenios Internacionales ratificados por El Salvador, las que se mencionan en el Código de Salud y demás leyes del país; y en general, las que indistintamente de su grado de pureza, actúan sobre el sistema nervioso central y tienen la capacidad de producir transformaciones, bien sea aumentando o disminuyendo su funcionamiento o modificando los estados de conciencia y que su uso indebido puede causar dependencia o sujeción física y psicológica.» Article 3 then prohibits activity relating to five named categories and, in letter f, «f) Cualquier otra sustancia que sea considerada droga tan nociva que amerite ser prohibida por el Consejo Superior de Salud Pública o por los convenios internacionales ratificados por el país.» The names searched across the list, in Spanish and in English, were efedrina, seudoefedrina, pseudoefedrina, norefedrina. The matched entry was read before it was relied on, and it is «Efedrina», entry 14, CAS 299-42-3, at Parte D, Seccion I. Sustancias incluidas en el cuadro I de la Convencion de 1988. Three routes were tried for the instrument and all three returned a document: the Asamblea Legislativa decree file, which returned the consolidated text; the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which returned the same consolidation; and the regulator's own listado page, which returned the 2026 list. Two routes returned nothing usable: the Asamblea decree index and law search paths both returned a not found page, and a fetch of the Asamblea search page failed on certificate verification. Carry any controlled medicine in its dispensing packaging with the prescription, and confirm the position with the Salvadoran embassy or consulate before you travel.
Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, Articles 2, 3, 13, 31, 32, 33, 34, 54 and 55, consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa, Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003 · Consolidation: current to Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018, Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, the last of the five reforms the text's own schedule prints, confirmed against the Fiscalia General de la Republica transparency copy · Unconstitutionality of the fine: Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments, Diario Oficial 196, Tomo 377, of 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments, Diario Oficial 152, Tomo 384, of 19 August 2009, and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010, Diario Oficial 197, Tomo 401, of 23 October 2013 · Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria, read as at 21 September 2026, the document stating its own currency to 31 March 2027 or until a new listado is issued · Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados, Decreto Ejecutivo 20, Diario Oficial of 13 February 2013, Articles 5, 26, 36, 37 and 40 · Placement: entry read at Parte D, Seccion I. Sustancias incluidas en el cuadro I de la Convencion de 1988, entry 14, CAS 299-42-3 · Placement provenance: the Parte and Seccion stated for this row are not printed in the quoted dossier extract, and no quoted extract in that dossier carries a Parte or Seccion marker for any substance, because the dossier resolved every row against articles 2 and 3 of Decreto 153 alone and never reached the Listado. The placement is read directly from the Listado named above and not from the dossier · Penalty figures for the 2 gram line and the year bands in Articles 31, 33 and 34 carried forward from the live cell and not re-derived from a new source, then re-read against the Asamblea text. The Article 34 graver offence proviso, Articles 54 and 55 and the three unconstitutionality rulings are read from that text and are new to this cell · asamblea.gob.sv · srs.gob.sv · portaldetransparencia.fgr.gob.sv · Updated September 21, 2026
Etizolam
- Legal status
- Controlled under the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003. Etizolam is printed in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria as «Etizolam», entry 141, at Parte B, Seccion IV. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista IV de la Convencion de 1971. Article 2 makes a droga any substance specified as such in the conventions El Salvador has ratified, and Article 3 prohibits every activity relating to the narcotic, depressant, stimulant, hallucinogen and cannabis categories, so a printed convention entry is reached by the definition itself. It is a thienotriazolodiazepine rather than a benzodiazepine, printed with that ring in its own description, and it reaches this country as a research chemical rather than as a registered medicine.
- Consequences if caught
- It is a thienotriazolodiazepine rather than a benzodiazepine, printed with that ring in its own description, and it reaches this country as a research chemical rather than as a registered medicine. Etizolam is inside El Salvador's drug control regime, and the penalties below are set out because they describe the offences that this row's placement brings into play. Article 34 divides possession from trafficking by a 2 gram line: possession of under 2 grams carries 1 to 3 years, possession of 2 grams or more carries 3 to 6 years, and possession of any quantity with the object of doing anything Article 33 lists carries 6 to 10 years. Article 34 closes by providing that it does not apply where the conduct fits a graver offence. There is no personal use exemption anywhere in the Ley. Article 31 sets 5 to 15 years for sowing, cultivating or harvesting, and Article 33 sets 10 to 15 years for acquiring, transferring, importing, exporting, storing, transporting, distributing, supplying or selling. Article 33's second paragraph raises the trafficking penalty by one third of the stated maximum where the act is international trafficking, so the ceiling on that route is 20 years, and Article 54 allows a court to raise the penalty by up to one third of the maximum on any of nine listed aggravating circumstances, which is a discretion and not the mandatory increase Article 33 creates. Article 55 allows the penalty to be cut to half the minimum where the accused names others or enables a seizure. The ceiling on every one of these routes is imprisonment, because the severest sanction is constitutionally barred for ordinary offences in El Salvador, so no offence in this Ley carries it. The Ley creates no lawful recreational regime and no medical regime for any substance it reaches, cannabis included: Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be imported, produced, made, extracted, possessed or used only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for making products of industrial use, and only with the health regulator's authorisation. On the fine, the Sala de lo Constitucional struck the multa in each of these three articles as a penal consequence, Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments published on 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments published on 19 August 2009 and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010 published on 23 October 2013, so no fine now attaches to cultivation, trafficking or possession under this Ley. On quantity, the 2 gram line in Article 34 is the only weight the Ley fixes; it sets no substance by substance threshold and no quantity table, so the same 2 grams applies whatever the substance is. The 2 gram line and the bands of 1 to 3, 3 to 6, 6 to 10, 5 to 15 and 10 to 15 years and the one third increase are carried forward from the live cell and were re-read against the Asamblea Legislativa text for this pass; the Article 34 graver offence proviso, the Article 54 and Article 55 provisions and the three unconstitutionality rulings are new to this cell.
- If prescribed / medical
- Etizolam reaches people as a powder, a liquid, a blotter or a pressed tablet rather than as a dispensed medicine, so there is no prescription document to carry for it, and the name a Salvadoran laboratory report would use is etizolam. Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be held only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for industrial products, and only with the health regulator's authorisation, so there is no lawful personal quantity of it.
- Documentation
- The instrument read for this cell is the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, published in Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003, in the consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa. That text carries its own reform schedule: five reforms, the last of them Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018 in Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, so the consolidation read here is current to that reform. The same reform schedule was confirmed against a second publisher, the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which prints the identical list of five. The text also carries four rulings of the Sala de lo Constitucional, three of which strike the fine in Articles 31, 33 and 34 and the fourth of which struck the rule in Article 52 that equated preparatory acts with completed offences before that article was reformed in 2018. The substance list read for this cell is the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria. That document states its own currency in its Disposiciones generales: it was approved by that acuerdo and is «vigente hasta el 31 de marzo de 2027, o hasta que se emita un nuevo listado por parte de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria». It was read as at 21 September 2026, and the 2025 edition of the same list was fetched first and set aside once the 2026 edition was found on the regulator's own page. The list is the one Article 13 of the Ley requires, «una lista de drogas y de todas las preparaciones y especialidades farmaceuticas que las contengan de acuerdo a las categorias establecidas en la presente Ley», which Article 13 also requires to be sent to the Corte Suprema de Justicia, the Fiscalia General de la Republica and the Policia Nacional Civil so that judges and prosecutors know it. Article 13 names the Consejo Superior de Salud Publica as the body that makes it; the 2013 Reglamento names the Direccion Nacional de Medicamentos as the governing authority, and the Ley de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria dissolved that Direccion and moved its functions to the Superintendencia with effect from August 2024. That succession is stated from the Reglamento and from reporting of the Superintendencia law, whose own gazette text was not read for this cell. Article 2 defines droga in its own words: «Art. 2.- Para los efectos de esta Ley se consideran drogas las sustancias especificadas como tales en los Convenios Internacionales ratificados por El Salvador, las que se mencionan en el Código de Salud y demás leyes del país; y en general, las que indistintamente de su grado de pureza, actúan sobre el sistema nervioso central y tienen la capacidad de producir transformaciones, bien sea aumentando o disminuyendo su funcionamiento o modificando los estados de conciencia y que su uso indebido puede causar dependencia o sujeción física y psicológica.» Article 3 then prohibits activity relating to five named categories and, in letter f, «f) Cualquier otra sustancia que sea considerada droga tan nociva que amerite ser prohibida por el Consejo Superior de Salud Pública o por los convenios internacionales ratificados por el país.» The names searched across the list, in Spanish and in English, were etizolam. The matched entry was read before it was relied on, and it is «Etizolam», entry 141, at Parte B, Seccion IV. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista IV de la Convencion de 1971. Three routes were tried for the instrument and all three returned a document: the Asamblea Legislativa decree file, which returned the consolidated text; the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which returned the same consolidation; and the regulator's own listado page, which returned the 2026 list. Two routes returned nothing usable: the Asamblea decree index and law search paths both returned a not found page, and a fetch of the Asamblea search page failed on certificate verification. Carry any controlled medicine in its dispensing packaging with the prescription, and confirm the position with the Salvadoran embassy or consulate before you travel.
Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, Articles 2, 3, 13, 31, 32, 33, 34, 54 and 55, consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa, Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003 · Consolidation: current to Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018, Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, the last of the five reforms the text's own schedule prints, confirmed against the Fiscalia General de la Republica transparency copy · Unconstitutionality of the fine: Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments, Diario Oficial 196, Tomo 377, of 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments, Diario Oficial 152, Tomo 384, of 19 August 2009, and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010, Diario Oficial 197, Tomo 401, of 23 October 2013 · Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria, read as at 21 September 2026, the document stating its own currency to 31 March 2027 or until a new listado is issued · Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados, Decreto Ejecutivo 20, Diario Oficial of 13 February 2013, Articles 5, 26, 36, 37 and 40 · Placement: entry read at Parte B, Seccion IV. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista IV de la Convencion de 1971, entry 141 · Placement provenance: the Parte and Seccion stated for this row are not printed in the quoted dossier extract, and no quoted extract in that dossier carries a Parte or Seccion marker for any substance, because the dossier resolved every row against articles 2 and 3 of Decreto 153 alone and never reached the Listado. The placement is read directly from the Listado named above and not from the dossier · Penalty figures for the 2 gram line and the year bands in Articles 31, 33 and 34 carried forward from the live cell and not re-derived from a new source, then re-read against the Asamblea text. The Article 34 graver offence proviso, Articles 54 and 55 and the three unconstitutionality rulings are read from that text and are new to this cell · asamblea.gob.sv · srs.gob.sv · portaldetransparencia.fgr.gob.sv · Updated September 21, 2026
Fentanyl
- Legal status
- Controlled under the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003. Fentanyl is printed in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria as «Fentanilo», entry 66, CAS 437-38-7, at Parte A, Seccion I. Estupefacientes incluidos en la Lista I de la Convencion de 1961. Article 2 makes a droga any substance specified as such in the conventions El Salvador has ratified, and Article 3 prohibits every activity relating to the narcotic, depressant, stimulant, hallucinogen and cannabis categories, so a printed convention entry is reached by the definition itself. The parent is a Parte A entry while a separate Parte E, headed as fentanyl-related substances with no legitimate or known therapeutic use, carries seventy-four analogues, so the parent and its analogues are on different footings.
- Consequences if caught
- The parent is a Parte A entry while a separate Parte E, headed as fentanyl-related substances with no legitimate or known therapeutic use, carries seventy-four analogues, so the parent and its analogues are on different footings. Fentanyl is inside El Salvador's drug control regime, and the penalties below are set out because they describe the offences that this row's placement brings into play. Article 34 divides possession from trafficking by a 2 gram line: possession of under 2 grams carries 1 to 3 years, possession of 2 grams or more carries 3 to 6 years, and possession of any quantity with the object of doing anything Article 33 lists carries 6 to 10 years. Article 34 closes by providing that it does not apply where the conduct fits a graver offence. There is no personal use exemption anywhere in the Ley. Article 31 sets 5 to 15 years for sowing, cultivating or harvesting, and Article 33 sets 10 to 15 years for acquiring, transferring, importing, exporting, storing, transporting, distributing, supplying or selling. Article 33's second paragraph raises the trafficking penalty by one third of the stated maximum where the act is international trafficking, so the ceiling on that route is 20 years, and Article 54 allows a court to raise the penalty by up to one third of the maximum on any of nine listed aggravating circumstances, which is a discretion and not the mandatory increase Article 33 creates. Article 55 allows the penalty to be cut to half the minimum where the accused names others or enables a seizure. The ceiling on every one of these routes is imprisonment, because the severest sanction is constitutionally barred for ordinary offences in El Salvador, so no offence in this Ley carries it. The Ley creates no lawful recreational regime and no medical regime for any substance it reaches, cannabis included: Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be imported, produced, made, extracted, possessed or used only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for making products of industrial use, and only with the health regulator's authorisation. On the fine, the Sala de lo Constitucional struck the multa in each of these three articles as a penal consequence, Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments published on 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments published on 19 August 2009 and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010 published on 23 October 2013, so no fine now attaches to cultivation, trafficking or possession under this Ley. On quantity, the 2 gram line in Article 34 is the only weight the Ley fixes; it sets no substance by substance threshold and no quantity table, so the same 2 grams applies whatever the substance is. The 2 gram line and the bands of 1 to 3, 3 to 6, 6 to 10, 5 to 15 and 10 to 15 years and the one third increase are carried forward from the live cell and were re-read against the Asamblea Legislativa text for this pass; the Article 34 graver offence proviso, the Article 54 and Article 55 provisions and the three unconstitutionality rulings are new to this cell.
- If prescribed / medical
- Fentanyl reaches people here as a dispensed medicine, and the name a Salvadoran pharmacy record or a laboratory report would use is fentanilo. Article 37 of the Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados requires that narcotics, psychotropics and agregados be prescribed on Recetarios Especiales printed by the regulator and issued to the professional, in books of at least twenty five cheque style forms and up to two hundred, and Article 40 of that Reglamento makes a special prescription valid for thirty days, with three monthly prescriptions allowed for a chronic patient. Article 14 of the Ley requires the pack to carry a warning that the product is sold only on medical prescription and is under the health regulator's control. A prescribing doctor who supplies outside the therapeutic indication commits the Article 38 offence, which carries 3 to 5 years, and a pharmacy that dispenses without the prescription commits the Article 40 offence, which carries 5 to 15 years. Carry it in its dispensing packaging with the prescription.
- Documentation
- The instrument read for this cell is the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, published in Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003, in the consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa. That text carries its own reform schedule: five reforms, the last of them Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018 in Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, so the consolidation read here is current to that reform. The same reform schedule was confirmed against a second publisher, the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which prints the identical list of five. The text also carries four rulings of the Sala de lo Constitucional, three of which strike the fine in Articles 31, 33 and 34 and the fourth of which struck the rule in Article 52 that equated preparatory acts with completed offences before that article was reformed in 2018. The substance list read for this cell is the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria. That document states its own currency in its Disposiciones generales: it was approved by that acuerdo and is «vigente hasta el 31 de marzo de 2027, o hasta que se emita un nuevo listado por parte de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria». It was read as at 21 September 2026, and the 2025 edition of the same list was fetched first and set aside once the 2026 edition was found on the regulator's own page. The list is the one Article 13 of the Ley requires, «una lista de drogas y de todas las preparaciones y especialidades farmaceuticas que las contengan de acuerdo a las categorias establecidas en la presente Ley», which Article 13 also requires to be sent to the Corte Suprema de Justicia, the Fiscalia General de la Republica and the Policia Nacional Civil so that judges and prosecutors know it. Article 13 names the Consejo Superior de Salud Publica as the body that makes it; the 2013 Reglamento names the Direccion Nacional de Medicamentos as the governing authority, and the Ley de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria dissolved that Direccion and moved its functions to the Superintendencia with effect from August 2024. That succession is stated from the Reglamento and from reporting of the Superintendencia law, whose own gazette text was not read for this cell. Article 2 defines droga in its own words: «Art. 2.- Para los efectos de esta Ley se consideran drogas las sustancias especificadas como tales en los Convenios Internacionales ratificados por El Salvador, las que se mencionan en el Código de Salud y demás leyes del país; y en general, las que indistintamente de su grado de pureza, actúan sobre el sistema nervioso central y tienen la capacidad de producir transformaciones, bien sea aumentando o disminuyendo su funcionamiento o modificando los estados de conciencia y que su uso indebido puede causar dependencia o sujeción física y psicológica.» Article 3 then prohibits activity relating to five named categories and, in letter f, «f) Cualquier otra sustancia que sea considerada droga tan nociva que amerite ser prohibida por el Consejo Superior de Salud Pública o por los convenios internacionales ratificados por el país.» The names searched across the list, in Spanish and in English, were fentanilo, fentanil. The matched entry was read before it was relied on, and it is «Fentanilo», entry 66, CAS 437-38-7, at Parte A, Seccion I. Estupefacientes incluidos en la Lista I de la Convencion de 1961. Three routes were tried for the instrument and all three returned a document: the Asamblea Legislativa decree file, which returned the consolidated text; the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which returned the same consolidation; and the regulator's own listado page, which returned the 2026 list. Two routes returned nothing usable: the Asamblea decree index and law search paths both returned a not found page, and a fetch of the Asamblea search page failed on certificate verification. Carry any controlled medicine in its dispensing packaging with the prescription, and confirm the position with the Salvadoran embassy or consulate before you travel.
Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, Articles 2, 3, 13, 31, 32, 33, 34, 54 and 55, consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa, Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003 · Consolidation: current to Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018, Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, the last of the five reforms the text's own schedule prints, confirmed against the Fiscalia General de la Republica transparency copy · Unconstitutionality of the fine: Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments, Diario Oficial 196, Tomo 377, of 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments, Diario Oficial 152, Tomo 384, of 19 August 2009, and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010, Diario Oficial 197, Tomo 401, of 23 October 2013 · Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria, read as at 21 September 2026, the document stating its own currency to 31 March 2027 or until a new listado is issued · Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados, Decreto Ejecutivo 20, Diario Oficial of 13 February 2013, Articles 5, 26, 36, 37 and 40 · Placement: entry read at Parte A, Seccion I. Estupefacientes incluidos en la Lista I de la Convencion de 1961, entry 66, CAS 437-38-7 · Placement provenance: the Parte and Seccion stated for this row are not printed in the quoted dossier extract, and no quoted extract in that dossier carries a Parte or Seccion marker for any substance, because the dossier resolved every row against articles 2 and 3 of Decreto 153 alone and never reached the Listado. The placement is read directly from the Listado named above and not from the dossier · Penalty figures for the 2 gram line and the year bands in Articles 31, 33 and 34 carried forward from the live cell and not re-derived from a new source, then re-read against the Asamblea text. The Article 34 graver offence proviso, Articles 54 and 55 and the three unconstitutionality rulings are read from that text and are new to this cell · asamblea.gob.sv · srs.gob.sv · portaldetransparencia.fgr.gob.sv · Updated September 21, 2026
GHB
- Legal status
- Controlled under the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003. GHB is printed in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria as «Acido gamma-Hidroxibutirico (GHB)», entry 66, CAS 591-81-1, at Parte B, Seccion II. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista II de la Convencion de 1971. Article 2 makes a droga any substance specified as such in the conventions El Salvador has ratified, and Article 3 prohibits every activity relating to the narcotic, depressant, stimulant, hallucinogen and cannabis categories, so a printed convention entry is reached by the definition itself. The acid is printed under both its chemical name and the abbreviation, while its lactone is not printed at all, which is the distinction between this row and the GBL row.
- Consequences if caught
- The acid is printed under both its chemical name and the abbreviation, while its lactone is not printed at all, which is the distinction between this row and the GBL row. GHB is inside El Salvador's drug control regime, and the penalties below are set out because they describe the offences that this row's placement brings into play. Article 34 divides possession from trafficking by a 2 gram line: possession of under 2 grams carries 1 to 3 years, possession of 2 grams or more carries 3 to 6 years, and possession of any quantity with the object of doing anything Article 33 lists carries 6 to 10 years. Article 34 closes by providing that it does not apply where the conduct fits a graver offence. There is no personal use exemption anywhere in the Ley. Article 31 sets 5 to 15 years for sowing, cultivating or harvesting, and Article 33 sets 10 to 15 years for acquiring, transferring, importing, exporting, storing, transporting, distributing, supplying or selling. Article 33's second paragraph raises the trafficking penalty by one third of the stated maximum where the act is international trafficking, so the ceiling on that route is 20 years, and Article 54 allows a court to raise the penalty by up to one third of the maximum on any of nine listed aggravating circumstances, which is a discretion and not the mandatory increase Article 33 creates. Article 55 allows the penalty to be cut to half the minimum where the accused names others or enables a seizure. The ceiling on every one of these routes is imprisonment, because the severest sanction is constitutionally barred for ordinary offences in El Salvador, so no offence in this Ley carries it. The Ley creates no lawful recreational regime and no medical regime for any substance it reaches, cannabis included: Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be imported, produced, made, extracted, possessed or used only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for making products of industrial use, and only with the health regulator's authorisation. On the fine, the Sala de lo Constitucional struck the multa in each of these three articles as a penal consequence, Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments published on 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments published on 19 August 2009 and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010 published on 23 October 2013, so no fine now attaches to cultivation, trafficking or possession under this Ley. On quantity, the 2 gram line in Article 34 is the only weight the Ley fixes; it sets no substance by substance threshold and no quantity table, so the same 2 grams applies whatever the substance is. The 2 gram line and the bands of 1 to 3, 3 to 6, 6 to 10, 5 to 15 and 10 to 15 years and the one third increase are carried forward from the live cell and were re-read against the Asamblea Legislativa text for this pass; the Article 34 graver offence proviso, the Article 54 and Article 55 provisions and the three unconstitutionality rulings are new to this cell.
- If prescribed / medical
- GHB reaches people as a powder, a liquid, a blotter or a pressed tablet rather than as a dispensed medicine, so there is no prescription document to carry for it, and the name a Salvadoran laboratory report would use is GHB. Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be held only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for industrial products, and only with the health regulator's authorisation, so there is no lawful personal quantity of it.
- Documentation
- The instrument read for this cell is the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, published in Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003, in the consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa. That text carries its own reform schedule: five reforms, the last of them Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018 in Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, so the consolidation read here is current to that reform. The same reform schedule was confirmed against a second publisher, the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which prints the identical list of five. The text also carries four rulings of the Sala de lo Constitucional, three of which strike the fine in Articles 31, 33 and 34 and the fourth of which struck the rule in Article 52 that equated preparatory acts with completed offences before that article was reformed in 2018. The substance list read for this cell is the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria. That document states its own currency in its Disposiciones generales: it was approved by that acuerdo and is «vigente hasta el 31 de marzo de 2027, o hasta que se emita un nuevo listado por parte de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria». It was read as at 21 September 2026, and the 2025 edition of the same list was fetched first and set aside once the 2026 edition was found on the regulator's own page. The list is the one Article 13 of the Ley requires, «una lista de drogas y de todas las preparaciones y especialidades farmaceuticas que las contengan de acuerdo a las categorias establecidas en la presente Ley», which Article 13 also requires to be sent to the Corte Suprema de Justicia, the Fiscalia General de la Republica and the Policia Nacional Civil so that judges and prosecutors know it. Article 13 names the Consejo Superior de Salud Publica as the body that makes it; the 2013 Reglamento names the Direccion Nacional de Medicamentos as the governing authority, and the Ley de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria dissolved that Direccion and moved its functions to the Superintendencia with effect from August 2024. That succession is stated from the Reglamento and from reporting of the Superintendencia law, whose own gazette text was not read for this cell. Article 2 defines droga in its own words: «Art. 2.- Para los efectos de esta Ley se consideran drogas las sustancias especificadas como tales en los Convenios Internacionales ratificados por El Salvador, las que se mencionan en el Código de Salud y demás leyes del país; y en general, las que indistintamente de su grado de pureza, actúan sobre el sistema nervioso central y tienen la capacidad de producir transformaciones, bien sea aumentando o disminuyendo su funcionamiento o modificando los estados de conciencia y que su uso indebido puede causar dependencia o sujeción física y psicológica.» Article 3 then prohibits activity relating to five named categories and, in letter f, «f) Cualquier otra sustancia que sea considerada droga tan nociva que amerite ser prohibida por el Consejo Superior de Salud Pública o por los convenios internacionales ratificados por el país.» The names searched across the list, in Spanish and in English, were GHB, acido gamma-hidroxibutirico, oxibato. The matched entry was read before it was relied on, and it is «Acido gamma-Hidroxibutirico (GHB)», entry 66, CAS 591-81-1, at Parte B, Seccion II. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista II de la Convencion de 1971. Three routes were tried for the instrument and all three returned a document: the Asamblea Legislativa decree file, which returned the consolidated text; the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which returned the same consolidation; and the regulator's own listado page, which returned the 2026 list. Two routes returned nothing usable: the Asamblea decree index and law search paths both returned a not found page, and a fetch of the Asamblea search page failed on certificate verification. Carry any controlled medicine in its dispensing packaging with the prescription, and confirm the position with the Salvadoran embassy or consulate before you travel.
Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, Articles 2, 3, 13, 31, 32, 33, 34, 54 and 55, consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa, Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003 · Consolidation: current to Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018, Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, the last of the five reforms the text's own schedule prints, confirmed against the Fiscalia General de la Republica transparency copy · Unconstitutionality of the fine: Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments, Diario Oficial 196, Tomo 377, of 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments, Diario Oficial 152, Tomo 384, of 19 August 2009, and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010, Diario Oficial 197, Tomo 401, of 23 October 2013 · Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria, read as at 21 September 2026, the document stating its own currency to 31 March 2027 or until a new listado is issued · Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados, Decreto Ejecutivo 20, Diario Oficial of 13 February 2013, Articles 5, 26, 36, 37 and 40 · Placement: entry read at Parte B, Seccion II. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista II de la Convencion de 1971, entry 66, CAS 591-81-1 · Placement provenance: the Parte and Seccion stated for this row are not printed in the quoted dossier extract, and no quoted extract in that dossier carries a Parte or Seccion marker for any substance, because the dossier resolved every row against articles 2 and 3 of Decreto 153 alone and never reached the Listado. The placement is read directly from the Listado named above and not from the dossier · Penalty figures for the 2 gram line and the year bands in Articles 31, 33 and 34 carried forward from the live cell and not re-derived from a new source, then re-read against the Asamblea text. The Article 34 graver offence proviso, Articles 54 and 55 and the three unconstitutionality rulings are read from that text and are new to this cell · asamblea.gob.sv · srs.gob.sv · portaldetransparencia.fgr.gob.sv · Updated September 21, 2026
Heroin
- Legal status
- Controlled under the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003. Heroin is printed in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria as «Heroina», entry 70, CAS 561-27-3, at Parte A, Seccion I. Estupefacientes incluidos en la Lista I de la Convencion de 1961. Article 2 makes a droga any substance specified as such in the conventions El Salvador has ratified, and Article 3 prohibits every activity relating to the narcotic, depressant, stimulant, hallucinogen and cannabis categories, so a printed convention entry is reached by the definition itself. This substance is printed twice, at Parte A Seccion I and again at Parte A Seccion III, which is the 1961 Lista IV set, so it carries the heavier of the two narcotic classifications.
- Consequences if caught
- This substance is printed twice, at Parte A Seccion I and again at Parte A Seccion III, which is the 1961 Lista IV set, so it carries the heavier of the two narcotic classifications. Heroin is inside El Salvador's drug control regime, and the penalties below are set out because they describe the offences that this row's placement brings into play. Article 34 divides possession from trafficking by a 2 gram line: possession of under 2 grams carries 1 to 3 years, possession of 2 grams or more carries 3 to 6 years, and possession of any quantity with the object of doing anything Article 33 lists carries 6 to 10 years. Article 34 closes by providing that it does not apply where the conduct fits a graver offence. There is no personal use exemption anywhere in the Ley. Article 31 sets 5 to 15 years for sowing, cultivating or harvesting, and Article 33 sets 10 to 15 years for acquiring, transferring, importing, exporting, storing, transporting, distributing, supplying or selling. Article 33's second paragraph raises the trafficking penalty by one third of the stated maximum where the act is international trafficking, so the ceiling on that route is 20 years, and Article 54 allows a court to raise the penalty by up to one third of the maximum on any of nine listed aggravating circumstances, which is a discretion and not the mandatory increase Article 33 creates. Article 55 allows the penalty to be cut to half the minimum where the accused names others or enables a seizure. The ceiling on every one of these routes is imprisonment, because the severest sanction is constitutionally barred for ordinary offences in El Salvador, so no offence in this Ley carries it. The Ley creates no lawful recreational regime and no medical regime for any substance it reaches, cannabis included: Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be imported, produced, made, extracted, possessed or used only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for making products of industrial use, and only with the health regulator's authorisation. On the fine, the Sala de lo Constitucional struck the multa in each of these three articles as a penal consequence, Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments published on 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments published on 19 August 2009 and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010 published on 23 October 2013, so no fine now attaches to cultivation, trafficking or possession under this Ley. On quantity, the 2 gram line in Article 34 is the only weight the Ley fixes; it sets no substance by substance threshold and no quantity table, so the same 2 grams applies whatever the substance is. The 2 gram line and the bands of 1 to 3, 3 to 6, 6 to 10, 5 to 15 and 10 to 15 years and the one third increase are carried forward from the live cell and were re-read against the Asamblea Legislativa text for this pass; the Article 34 graver offence proviso, the Article 54 and Article 55 provisions and the three unconstitutionality rulings are new to this cell.
- If prescribed / medical
- Heroin reaches people as a powder, a liquid, a blotter or a pressed tablet rather than as a dispensed medicine, so there is no prescription document to carry for it, and the name a Salvadoran laboratory report would use is heroina. Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be held only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for industrial products, and only with the health regulator's authorisation, so there is no lawful personal quantity of it.
- Documentation
- The instrument read for this cell is the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, published in Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003, in the consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa. That text carries its own reform schedule: five reforms, the last of them Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018 in Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, so the consolidation read here is current to that reform. The same reform schedule was confirmed against a second publisher, the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which prints the identical list of five. The text also carries four rulings of the Sala de lo Constitucional, three of which strike the fine in Articles 31, 33 and 34 and the fourth of which struck the rule in Article 52 that equated preparatory acts with completed offences before that article was reformed in 2018. The substance list read for this cell is the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria. That document states its own currency in its Disposiciones generales: it was approved by that acuerdo and is «vigente hasta el 31 de marzo de 2027, o hasta que se emita un nuevo listado por parte de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria». It was read as at 21 September 2026, and the 2025 edition of the same list was fetched first and set aside once the 2026 edition was found on the regulator's own page. The list is the one Article 13 of the Ley requires, «una lista de drogas y de todas las preparaciones y especialidades farmaceuticas que las contengan de acuerdo a las categorias establecidas en la presente Ley», which Article 13 also requires to be sent to the Corte Suprema de Justicia, the Fiscalia General de la Republica and the Policia Nacional Civil so that judges and prosecutors know it. Article 13 names the Consejo Superior de Salud Publica as the body that makes it; the 2013 Reglamento names the Direccion Nacional de Medicamentos as the governing authority, and the Ley de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria dissolved that Direccion and moved its functions to the Superintendencia with effect from August 2024. That succession is stated from the Reglamento and from reporting of the Superintendencia law, whose own gazette text was not read for this cell. Article 2 defines droga in its own words: «Art. 2.- Para los efectos de esta Ley se consideran drogas las sustancias especificadas como tales en los Convenios Internacionales ratificados por El Salvador, las que se mencionan en el Código de Salud y demás leyes del país; y en general, las que indistintamente de su grado de pureza, actúan sobre el sistema nervioso central y tienen la capacidad de producir transformaciones, bien sea aumentando o disminuyendo su funcionamiento o modificando los estados de conciencia y que su uso indebido puede causar dependencia o sujeción física y psicológica.» Article 3 then prohibits activity relating to five named categories and, in letter f, «f) Cualquier otra sustancia que sea considerada droga tan nociva que amerite ser prohibida por el Consejo Superior de Salud Pública o por los convenios internacionales ratificados por el país.» The names searched across the list, in Spanish and in English, were heroina, diacetilmorfina, diamorfina. The matched entry was read before it was relied on, and it is «Heroina», entry 70, CAS 561-27-3, at Parte A, Seccion I. Estupefacientes incluidos en la Lista I de la Convencion de 1961. Three routes were tried for the instrument and all three returned a document: the Asamblea Legislativa decree file, which returned the consolidated text; the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which returned the same consolidation; and the regulator's own listado page, which returned the 2026 list. Two routes returned nothing usable: the Asamblea decree index and law search paths both returned a not found page, and a fetch of the Asamblea search page failed on certificate verification. Carry any controlled medicine in its dispensing packaging with the prescription, and confirm the position with the Salvadoran embassy or consulate before you travel.
Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, Articles 2, 3, 13, 31, 32, 33, 34, 54 and 55, consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa, Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003 · Consolidation: current to Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018, Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, the last of the five reforms the text's own schedule prints, confirmed against the Fiscalia General de la Republica transparency copy · Unconstitutionality of the fine: Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments, Diario Oficial 196, Tomo 377, of 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments, Diario Oficial 152, Tomo 384, of 19 August 2009, and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010, Diario Oficial 197, Tomo 401, of 23 October 2013 · Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria, read as at 21 September 2026, the document stating its own currency to 31 March 2027 or until a new listado is issued · Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados, Decreto Ejecutivo 20, Diario Oficial of 13 February 2013, Articles 5, 26, 36, 37 and 40 · Placement: entry read at Parte A, Seccion I. Estupefacientes incluidos en la Lista I de la Convencion de 1961, entry 70, CAS 561-27-3 · Placement provenance: the Parte and Seccion stated for this row are not printed in the quoted dossier extract, and no quoted extract in that dossier carries a Parte or Seccion marker for any substance, because the dossier resolved every row against articles 2 and 3 of Decreto 153 alone and never reached the Listado. The placement is read directly from the Listado named above and not from the dossier · Penalty figures for the 2 gram line and the year bands in Articles 31, 33 and 34 carried forward from the live cell and not re-derived from a new source, then re-read against the Asamblea text. The Article 34 graver offence proviso, Articles 54 and 55 and the three unconstitutionality rulings are read from that text and are new to this cell · asamblea.gob.sv · srs.gob.sv · portaldetransparencia.fgr.gob.sv · Updated September 21, 2026
HHC
- Legal status
- Controlled under the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003. HHC is printed in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria as «Hexahidrocannabinol (HHC)», entry 67, at Parte B, Seccion II. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista II de la Convencion de 1971. Article 2 makes a droga any substance specified as such in the conventions El Salvador has ratified, and Article 3 prohibits every activity relating to the narcotic, depressant, stimulant, hallucinogen and cannabis categories, so a printed convention entry is reached by the definition itself. It sits in Parte B Seccion II while the THC isomers sit in Seccion I, so the hydrogenated cannabinoid carries a different convention classification from the compound it is made from. This entry is new in the 2026 edition: the 2025 edition of the same list was fetched and compared for this cell and prints no hexahidrocannabinol at all, and the International Narcotics Control Board Green List, 36th edition of 2025, records the inclusion of hexahydrocannabinol in Schedule II of the 1971 Convention, which is the change the Salvadoran edition reflects. A reader working from the previous edition would get the opposite answer for this row.
- Consequences if caught
- It sits in Parte B Seccion II while the THC isomers sit in Seccion I, so the hydrogenated cannabinoid carries a different convention classification from the compound it is made from. This entry is new in the 2026 edition: the 2025 edition of the same list was fetched and compared for this cell and prints no hexahidrocannabinol at all, and the International Narcotics Control Board Green List, 36th edition of 2025, records the inclusion of hexahydrocannabinol in Schedule II of the 1971 Convention, which is the change the Salvadoran edition reflects. A reader working from the previous edition would get the opposite answer for this row. HHC is inside El Salvador's drug control regime, and the penalties below are set out because they describe the offences that this row's placement brings into play. Article 34 divides possession from trafficking by a 2 gram line: possession of under 2 grams carries 1 to 3 years, possession of 2 grams or more carries 3 to 6 years, and possession of any quantity with the object of doing anything Article 33 lists carries 6 to 10 years. Article 34 closes by providing that it does not apply where the conduct fits a graver offence. There is no personal use exemption anywhere in the Ley. Article 31 sets 5 to 15 years for sowing, cultivating or harvesting, and Article 33 sets 10 to 15 years for acquiring, transferring, importing, exporting, storing, transporting, distributing, supplying or selling. Article 33's second paragraph raises the trafficking penalty by one third of the stated maximum where the act is international trafficking, so the ceiling on that route is 20 years, and Article 54 allows a court to raise the penalty by up to one third of the maximum on any of nine listed aggravating circumstances, which is a discretion and not the mandatory increase Article 33 creates. Article 55 allows the penalty to be cut to half the minimum where the accused names others or enables a seizure. The ceiling on every one of these routes is imprisonment, because the severest sanction is constitutionally barred for ordinary offences in El Salvador, so no offence in this Ley carries it. The Ley creates no lawful recreational regime and no medical regime for any substance it reaches, cannabis included: Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be imported, produced, made, extracted, possessed or used only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for making products of industrial use, and only with the health regulator's authorisation. On the fine, the Sala de lo Constitucional struck the multa in each of these three articles as a penal consequence, Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments published on 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments published on 19 August 2009 and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010 published on 23 October 2013, so no fine now attaches to cultivation, trafficking or possession under this Ley. On quantity, the 2 gram line in Article 34 is the only weight the Ley fixes; it sets no substance by substance threshold and no quantity table, so the same 2 grams applies whatever the substance is. The 2 gram line and the bands of 1 to 3, 3 to 6, 6 to 10, 5 to 15 and 10 to 15 years and the one third increase are carried forward from the live cell and were re-read against the Asamblea Legislativa text for this pass; the Article 34 graver offence proviso, the Article 54 and Article 55 provisions and the three unconstitutionality rulings are new to this cell.
- If prescribed / medical
- HHC reaches people as a powder, a liquid, a blotter or a pressed tablet rather than as a dispensed medicine, so there is no prescription document to carry for it, and the name a Salvadoran laboratory report would use is hexahidrocannabinol. Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be held only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for industrial products, and only with the health regulator's authorisation, so there is no lawful personal quantity of it.
- Documentation
- The instrument read for this cell is the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, published in Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003, in the consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa. That text carries its own reform schedule: five reforms, the last of them Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018 in Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, so the consolidation read here is current to that reform. The same reform schedule was confirmed against a second publisher, the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which prints the identical list of five. The text also carries four rulings of the Sala de lo Constitucional, three of which strike the fine in Articles 31, 33 and 34 and the fourth of which struck the rule in Article 52 that equated preparatory acts with completed offences before that article was reformed in 2018. The substance list read for this cell is the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria. That document states its own currency in its Disposiciones generales: it was approved by that acuerdo and is «vigente hasta el 31 de marzo de 2027, o hasta que se emita un nuevo listado por parte de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria». It was read as at 21 September 2026, and the 2025 edition of the same list was fetched first and set aside once the 2026 edition was found on the regulator's own page. The list is the one Article 13 of the Ley requires, «una lista de drogas y de todas las preparaciones y especialidades farmaceuticas que las contengan de acuerdo a las categorias establecidas en la presente Ley», which Article 13 also requires to be sent to the Corte Suprema de Justicia, the Fiscalia General de la Republica and the Policia Nacional Civil so that judges and prosecutors know it. Article 13 names the Consejo Superior de Salud Publica as the body that makes it; the 2013 Reglamento names the Direccion Nacional de Medicamentos as the governing authority, and the Ley de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria dissolved that Direccion and moved its functions to the Superintendencia with effect from August 2024. That succession is stated from the Reglamento and from reporting of the Superintendencia law, whose own gazette text was not read for this cell. Article 2 defines droga in its own words: «Art. 2.- Para los efectos de esta Ley se consideran drogas las sustancias especificadas como tales en los Convenios Internacionales ratificados por El Salvador, las que se mencionan en el Código de Salud y demás leyes del país; y en general, las que indistintamente de su grado de pureza, actúan sobre el sistema nervioso central y tienen la capacidad de producir transformaciones, bien sea aumentando o disminuyendo su funcionamiento o modificando los estados de conciencia y que su uso indebido puede causar dependencia o sujeción física y psicológica.» Article 3 then prohibits activity relating to five named categories and, in letter f, «f) Cualquier otra sustancia que sea considerada droga tan nociva que amerite ser prohibida por el Consejo Superior de Salud Pública o por los convenios internacionales ratificados por el país.» The names searched across the list, in Spanish and in English, were hexahidrocannabinol, HHC. The matched entry was read before it was relied on, and it is «Hexahidrocannabinol (HHC)», entry 67, at Parte B, Seccion II. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista II de la Convencion de 1971. Three routes were tried for the instrument and all three returned a document: the Asamblea Legislativa decree file, which returned the consolidated text; the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which returned the same consolidation; and the regulator's own listado page, which returned the 2026 list. Two routes returned nothing usable: the Asamblea decree index and law search paths both returned a not found page, and a fetch of the Asamblea search page failed on certificate verification. Carry any controlled medicine in its dispensing packaging with the prescription, and confirm the position with the Salvadoran embassy or consulate before you travel.
Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, Articles 2, 3, 13, 31, 32, 33, 34, 54 and 55, consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa, Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003 · Consolidation: current to Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018, Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, the last of the five reforms the text's own schedule prints, confirmed against the Fiscalia General de la Republica transparency copy · Unconstitutionality of the fine: Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments, Diario Oficial 196, Tomo 377, of 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments, Diario Oficial 152, Tomo 384, of 19 August 2009, and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010, Diario Oficial 197, Tomo 401, of 23 October 2013 · Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria, read as at 21 September 2026, the document stating its own currency to 31 March 2027 or until a new listado is issued · Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados, Decreto Ejecutivo 20, Diario Oficial of 13 February 2013, Articles 5, 26, 36, 37 and 40 · Placement: entry read at Parte B, Seccion II. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista II de la Convencion de 1971, entry 67 · Placement provenance: the Parte and Seccion stated for this row are not printed in the quoted dossier extract, and no quoted extract in that dossier carries a Parte or Seccion marker for any substance, because the dossier resolved every row against articles 2 and 3 of Decreto 153 alone and never reached the Listado. The placement is read directly from the Listado named above and not from the dossier · Penalty figures for the 2 gram line and the year bands in Articles 31, 33 and 34 carried forward from the live cell and not re-derived from a new source, then re-read against the Asamblea text. The Article 34 graver offence proviso, Articles 54 and 55 and the three unconstitutionality rulings are read from that text and are new to this cell · asamblea.gob.sv · srs.gob.sv · portaldetransparencia.fgr.gob.sv · Updated September 21, 2026
Hydrocodone
- Legal status
- Controlled under the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003. Hydrocodone is printed in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria as «Hidrocodona», entry 71, CAS 125-29-1, at Parte A, Seccion I. Estupefacientes incluidos en la Lista I de la Convencion de 1961. Article 2 makes a droga any substance specified as such in the conventions El Salvador has ratified, and Article 3 prohibits every activity relating to the narcotic, depressant, stimulant, hallucinogen and cannabis categories, so a printed convention entry is reached by the definition itself. Despite the codeine root in its name it is printed in Parte A Seccion I as a dihydrocodeinone, not in the Seccion II codeine group, and its enol derivative Tebacon carries a separate entry.
- Consequences if caught
- Despite the codeine root in its name it is printed in Parte A Seccion I as a dihydrocodeinone, not in the Seccion II codeine group, and its enol derivative Tebacon carries a separate entry. Hydrocodone is inside El Salvador's drug control regime, and the penalties below are set out because they describe the offences that this row's placement brings into play. Article 34 divides possession from trafficking by a 2 gram line: possession of under 2 grams carries 1 to 3 years, possession of 2 grams or more carries 3 to 6 years, and possession of any quantity with the object of doing anything Article 33 lists carries 6 to 10 years. Article 34 closes by providing that it does not apply where the conduct fits a graver offence. There is no personal use exemption anywhere in the Ley. Article 31 sets 5 to 15 years for sowing, cultivating or harvesting, and Article 33 sets 10 to 15 years for acquiring, transferring, importing, exporting, storing, transporting, distributing, supplying or selling. Article 33's second paragraph raises the trafficking penalty by one third of the stated maximum where the act is international trafficking, so the ceiling on that route is 20 years, and Article 54 allows a court to raise the penalty by up to one third of the maximum on any of nine listed aggravating circumstances, which is a discretion and not the mandatory increase Article 33 creates. Article 55 allows the penalty to be cut to half the minimum where the accused names others or enables a seizure. The ceiling on every one of these routes is imprisonment, because the severest sanction is constitutionally barred for ordinary offences in El Salvador, so no offence in this Ley carries it. The Ley creates no lawful recreational regime and no medical regime for any substance it reaches, cannabis included: Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be imported, produced, made, extracted, possessed or used only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for making products of industrial use, and only with the health regulator's authorisation. On the fine, the Sala de lo Constitucional struck the multa in each of these three articles as a penal consequence, Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments published on 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments published on 19 August 2009 and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010 published on 23 October 2013, so no fine now attaches to cultivation, trafficking or possession under this Ley. On quantity, the 2 gram line in Article 34 is the only weight the Ley fixes; it sets no substance by substance threshold and no quantity table, so the same 2 grams applies whatever the substance is. The 2 gram line and the bands of 1 to 3, 3 to 6, 6 to 10, 5 to 15 and 10 to 15 years and the one third increase are carried forward from the live cell and were re-read against the Asamblea Legislativa text for this pass; the Article 34 graver offence proviso, the Article 54 and Article 55 provisions and the three unconstitutionality rulings are new to this cell.
- If prescribed / medical
- Hydrocodone reaches people here as a dispensed medicine, and the name a Salvadoran pharmacy record or a laboratory report would use is hidrocodona. Article 37 of the Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados requires that narcotics, psychotropics and agregados be prescribed on Recetarios Especiales printed by the regulator and issued to the professional, in books of at least twenty five cheque style forms and up to two hundred, and Article 40 of that Reglamento makes a special prescription valid for thirty days, with three monthly prescriptions allowed for a chronic patient. Article 14 of the Ley requires the pack to carry a warning that the product is sold only on medical prescription and is under the health regulator's control. A prescribing doctor who supplies outside the therapeutic indication commits the Article 38 offence, which carries 3 to 5 years, and a pharmacy that dispenses without the prescription commits the Article 40 offence, which carries 5 to 15 years. Carry it in its dispensing packaging with the prescription.
- Documentation
- The instrument read for this cell is the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, published in Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003, in the consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa. That text carries its own reform schedule: five reforms, the last of them Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018 in Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, so the consolidation read here is current to that reform. The same reform schedule was confirmed against a second publisher, the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which prints the identical list of five. The text also carries four rulings of the Sala de lo Constitucional, three of which strike the fine in Articles 31, 33 and 34 and the fourth of which struck the rule in Article 52 that equated preparatory acts with completed offences before that article was reformed in 2018. The substance list read for this cell is the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria. That document states its own currency in its Disposiciones generales: it was approved by that acuerdo and is «vigente hasta el 31 de marzo de 2027, o hasta que se emita un nuevo listado por parte de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria». It was read as at 21 September 2026, and the 2025 edition of the same list was fetched first and set aside once the 2026 edition was found on the regulator's own page. The list is the one Article 13 of the Ley requires, «una lista de drogas y de todas las preparaciones y especialidades farmaceuticas que las contengan de acuerdo a las categorias establecidas en la presente Ley», which Article 13 also requires to be sent to the Corte Suprema de Justicia, the Fiscalia General de la Republica and the Policia Nacional Civil so that judges and prosecutors know it. Article 13 names the Consejo Superior de Salud Publica as the body that makes it; the 2013 Reglamento names the Direccion Nacional de Medicamentos as the governing authority, and the Ley de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria dissolved that Direccion and moved its functions to the Superintendencia with effect from August 2024. That succession is stated from the Reglamento and from reporting of the Superintendencia law, whose own gazette text was not read for this cell. Article 2 defines droga in its own words: «Art. 2.- Para los efectos de esta Ley se consideran drogas las sustancias especificadas como tales en los Convenios Internacionales ratificados por El Salvador, las que se mencionan en el Código de Salud y demás leyes del país; y en general, las que indistintamente de su grado de pureza, actúan sobre el sistema nervioso central y tienen la capacidad de producir transformaciones, bien sea aumentando o disminuyendo su funcionamiento o modificando los estados de conciencia y que su uso indebido puede causar dependencia o sujeción física y psicológica.» Article 3 then prohibits activity relating to five named categories and, in letter f, «f) Cualquier otra sustancia que sea considerada droga tan nociva que amerite ser prohibida por el Consejo Superior de Salud Pública o por los convenios internacionales ratificados por el país.» The names searched across the list, in Spanish and in English, were hidrocodona, dihidrocodeinona. The matched entry was read before it was relied on, and it is «Hidrocodona», entry 71, CAS 125-29-1, at Parte A, Seccion I. Estupefacientes incluidos en la Lista I de la Convencion de 1961. Three routes were tried for the instrument and all three returned a document: the Asamblea Legislativa decree file, which returned the consolidated text; the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which returned the same consolidation; and the regulator's own listado page, which returned the 2026 list. Two routes returned nothing usable: the Asamblea decree index and law search paths both returned a not found page, and a fetch of the Asamblea search page failed on certificate verification. Carry any controlled medicine in its dispensing packaging with the prescription, and confirm the position with the Salvadoran embassy or consulate before you travel.
Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, Articles 2, 3, 13, 31, 32, 33, 34, 54 and 55, consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa, Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003 · Consolidation: current to Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018, Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, the last of the five reforms the text's own schedule prints, confirmed against the Fiscalia General de la Republica transparency copy · Unconstitutionality of the fine: Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments, Diario Oficial 196, Tomo 377, of 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments, Diario Oficial 152, Tomo 384, of 19 August 2009, and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010, Diario Oficial 197, Tomo 401, of 23 October 2013 · Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria, read as at 21 September 2026, the document stating its own currency to 31 March 2027 or until a new listado is issued · Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados, Decreto Ejecutivo 20, Diario Oficial of 13 February 2013, Articles 5, 26, 36, 37 and 40 · Placement: entry read at Parte A, Seccion I. Estupefacientes incluidos en la Lista I de la Convencion de 1961, entry 71, CAS 125-29-1 · Placement provenance: the Parte and Seccion stated for this row are not printed in the quoted dossier extract, and no quoted extract in that dossier carries a Parte or Seccion marker for any substance, because the dossier resolved every row against articles 2 and 3 of Decreto 153 alone and never reached the Listado. The placement is read directly from the Listado named above and not from the dossier · Penalty figures for the 2 gram line and the year bands in Articles 31, 33 and 34 carried forward from the live cell and not re-derived from a new source, then re-read against the Asamblea text. The Article 34 graver offence proviso, Articles 54 and 55 and the three unconstitutionality rulings are read from that text and are new to this cell · asamblea.gob.sv · srs.gob.sv · portaldetransparencia.fgr.gob.sv · Updated September 21, 2026
Ketamine
- Legal status
- Controlled under the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003. Ketamine is printed in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria as «Ketamina (uso veterinario y humano)», entry 11, CAS 6740-88-1, at Parte C, Seccion III. Otros Agregados. It is not named in either convention Parte of that list. It sits in Parte C, the national additions, so it is reached not by the convention limb of Article 2 but by the limb that reads on any substance acting on the central nervous system whose misuse can cause dependence, together with Article 13, which constitutes this list and requires it to be sent to the courts and the prosecution service. This row is not carried by either convention Parte. It is a national addition, and the Listado marks it for veterinary and human use in the same entry, which is the distinction that matters for a traveller carrying it as a medicine.
- Consequences if caught
- This row is not carried by either convention Parte. It is a national addition, and the Listado marks it for veterinary and human use in the same entry, which is the distinction that matters for a traveller carrying it as a medicine. Ketamine is inside El Salvador's drug control regime, and the penalties below are set out because they describe the offences that this row's placement brings into play. Article 34 divides possession from trafficking by a 2 gram line: possession of under 2 grams carries 1 to 3 years, possession of 2 grams or more carries 3 to 6 years, and possession of any quantity with the object of doing anything Article 33 lists carries 6 to 10 years. Article 34 closes by providing that it does not apply where the conduct fits a graver offence. There is no personal use exemption anywhere in the Ley. Article 31 sets 5 to 15 years for sowing, cultivating or harvesting, and Article 33 sets 10 to 15 years for acquiring, transferring, importing, exporting, storing, transporting, distributing, supplying or selling. Article 33's second paragraph raises the trafficking penalty by one third of the stated maximum where the act is international trafficking, so the ceiling on that route is 20 years, and Article 54 allows a court to raise the penalty by up to one third of the maximum on any of nine listed aggravating circumstances, which is a discretion and not the mandatory increase Article 33 creates. Article 55 allows the penalty to be cut to half the minimum where the accused names others or enables a seizure. The ceiling on every one of these routes is imprisonment, because the severest sanction is constitutionally barred for ordinary offences in El Salvador, so no offence in this Ley carries it. The Ley creates no lawful recreational regime and no medical regime for any substance it reaches, cannabis included: Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be imported, produced, made, extracted, possessed or used only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for making products of industrial use, and only with the health regulator's authorisation. On the fine, the Sala de lo Constitucional struck the multa in each of these three articles as a penal consequence, Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments published on 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments published on 19 August 2009 and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010 published on 23 October 2013, so no fine now attaches to cultivation, trafficking or possession under this Ley. On quantity, the 2 gram line in Article 34 is the only weight the Ley fixes; it sets no substance by substance threshold and no quantity table, so the same 2 grams applies whatever the substance is. The 2 gram line and the bands of 1 to 3, 3 to 6, 6 to 10, 5 to 15 and 10 to 15 years and the one third increase are carried forward from the live cell and were re-read against the Asamblea Legislativa text for this pass; the Article 34 graver offence proviso, the Article 54 and Article 55 provisions and the three unconstitutionality rulings are new to this cell.
- If prescribed / medical
- Ketamine reaches people here as a dispensed medicine, and the name a Salvadoran pharmacy record or a laboratory report would use is ketamina. Article 37 of the Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados requires that narcotics, psychotropics and agregados be prescribed on Recetarios Especiales printed by the regulator and issued to the professional, in books of at least twenty five cheque style forms and up to two hundred, and Article 40 of that Reglamento makes a special prescription valid for thirty days, with three monthly prescriptions allowed for a chronic patient. Article 14 of the Ley requires the pack to carry a warning that the product is sold only on medical prescription and is under the health regulator's control. A prescribing doctor who supplies outside the therapeutic indication commits the Article 38 offence, which carries 3 to 5 years, and a pharmacy that dispenses without the prescription commits the Article 40 offence, which carries 5 to 15 years. Carry it in its dispensing packaging with the prescription.
- Documentation
- The instrument read for this cell is the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, published in Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003, in the consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa. That text carries its own reform schedule: five reforms, the last of them Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018 in Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, so the consolidation read here is current to that reform. The same reform schedule was confirmed against a second publisher, the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which prints the identical list of five. The text also carries four rulings of the Sala de lo Constitucional, three of which strike the fine in Articles 31, 33 and 34 and the fourth of which struck the rule in Article 52 that equated preparatory acts with completed offences before that article was reformed in 2018. The substance list read for this cell is the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria. That document states its own currency in its Disposiciones generales: it was approved by that acuerdo and is «vigente hasta el 31 de marzo de 2027, o hasta que se emita un nuevo listado por parte de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria». It was read as at 21 September 2026, and the 2025 edition of the same list was fetched first and set aside once the 2026 edition was found on the regulator's own page. The list is the one Article 13 of the Ley requires, «una lista de drogas y de todas las preparaciones y especialidades farmaceuticas que las contengan de acuerdo a las categorias establecidas en la presente Ley», which Article 13 also requires to be sent to the Corte Suprema de Justicia, the Fiscalia General de la Republica and the Policia Nacional Civil so that judges and prosecutors know it. Article 13 names the Consejo Superior de Salud Publica as the body that makes it; the 2013 Reglamento names the Direccion Nacional de Medicamentos as the governing authority, and the Ley de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria dissolved that Direccion and moved its functions to the Superintendencia with effect from August 2024. That succession is stated from the Reglamento and from reporting of the Superintendencia law, whose own gazette text was not read for this cell. Article 2 defines droga in its own words: «Art. 2.- Para los efectos de esta Ley se consideran drogas las sustancias especificadas como tales en los Convenios Internacionales ratificados por El Salvador, las que se mencionan en el Código de Salud y demás leyes del país; y en general, las que indistintamente de su grado de pureza, actúan sobre el sistema nervioso central y tienen la capacidad de producir transformaciones, bien sea aumentando o disminuyendo su funcionamiento o modificando los estados de conciencia y que su uso indebido puede causar dependencia o sujeción física y psicológica.» Article 3 then prohibits activity relating to five named categories and, in letter f, «f) Cualquier otra sustancia que sea considerada droga tan nociva que amerite ser prohibida por el Consejo Superior de Salud Pública o por los convenios internacionales ratificados por el país.» The names searched across the list, in Spanish and in English, were ketamina, quetamina. The matched entry was read before it was relied on, and it is «Ketamina (uso veterinario y humano)», entry 11, CAS 6740-88-1, at Parte C, Seccion III. Otros Agregados. Three routes were tried for the instrument and all three returned a document: the Asamblea Legislativa decree file, which returned the consolidated text; the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which returned the same consolidation; and the regulator's own listado page, which returned the 2026 list. Two routes returned nothing usable: the Asamblea decree index and law search paths both returned a not found page, and a fetch of the Asamblea search page failed on certificate verification. Carry any controlled medicine in its dispensing packaging with the prescription, and confirm the position with the Salvadoran embassy or consulate before you travel.
Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, Articles 2, 3, 13, 31, 32, 33, 34, 54 and 55, consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa, Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003 · Consolidation: current to Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018, Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, the last of the five reforms the text's own schedule prints, confirmed against the Fiscalia General de la Republica transparency copy · Unconstitutionality of the fine: Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments, Diario Oficial 196, Tomo 377, of 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments, Diario Oficial 152, Tomo 384, of 19 August 2009, and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010, Diario Oficial 197, Tomo 401, of 23 October 2013 · Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria, read as at 21 September 2026, the document stating its own currency to 31 March 2027 or until a new listado is issued · Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados, Decreto Ejecutivo 20, Diario Oficial of 13 February 2013, Articles 5, 26, 36, 37 and 40 · Placement: entry read at Parte C, Seccion III. Otros Agregados, entry 11, CAS 6740-88-1 · Placement provenance: the Parte and Seccion stated for this row are not printed in the quoted dossier extract, and no quoted extract in that dossier carries a Parte or Seccion marker for any substance, because the dossier resolved every row against articles 2 and 3 of Decreto 153 alone and never reached the Listado. The placement is read directly from the Listado named above and not from the dossier · Penalty figures for the 2 gram line and the year bands in Articles 31, 33 and 34 carried forward from the live cell and not re-derived from a new source, then re-read against the Asamblea text. The Article 34 graver offence proviso, Articles 54 and 55 and the three unconstitutionality rulings are read from that text and are new to this cell · asamblea.gob.sv · srs.gob.sv · portaldetransparencia.fgr.gob.sv · Updated September 21, 2026
Khat
- Legal status
- Controlled under the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003. Khat is reached through a named constituent rather than under its own name: it is not named in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria, which instead prints «Catinona», entry 1, CAS 71031-15-7, at Parte B, Seccion I. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista I de la Convencion de 1971. Article 2's second paragraph makes seeds, flowering tops, plants and parts of them a droga where they are used as raw material for making one, which is the route this row travels. The shrub is not printed. Its two alkaloids are, Catinona at Parte B Seccion I and Catina at Parte B Seccion III, and they sit in different convention lists, so the leaf's treatment depends on which alkaloid a laboratory reports.
- Consequences if caught
- The shrub is not printed. Its two alkaloids are, Catinona at Parte B Seccion I and Catina at Parte B Seccion III, and they sit in different convention lists, so the leaf's treatment depends on which alkaloid a laboratory reports. Khat is inside El Salvador's drug control regime, and the penalties below are set out because they describe the offences that this row's placement brings into play. Article 34 divides possession from trafficking by a 2 gram line: possession of under 2 grams carries 1 to 3 years, possession of 2 grams or more carries 3 to 6 years, and possession of any quantity with the object of doing anything Article 33 lists carries 6 to 10 years. Article 34 closes by providing that it does not apply where the conduct fits a graver offence. There is no personal use exemption anywhere in the Ley. Article 31 sets 5 to 15 years for sowing, cultivating or harvesting, and Article 33 sets 10 to 15 years for acquiring, transferring, importing, exporting, storing, transporting, distributing, supplying or selling. Article 33's second paragraph raises the trafficking penalty by one third of the stated maximum where the act is international trafficking, so the ceiling on that route is 20 years, and Article 54 allows a court to raise the penalty by up to one third of the maximum on any of nine listed aggravating circumstances, which is a discretion and not the mandatory increase Article 33 creates. Article 55 allows the penalty to be cut to half the minimum where the accused names others or enables a seizure. The ceiling on every one of these routes is imprisonment, because the severest sanction is constitutionally barred for ordinary offences in El Salvador, so no offence in this Ley carries it. The Ley creates no lawful recreational regime and no medical regime for any substance it reaches, cannabis included: Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be imported, produced, made, extracted, possessed or used only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for making products of industrial use, and only with the health regulator's authorisation. On the fine, the Sala de lo Constitucional struck the multa in each of these three articles as a penal consequence, Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments published on 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments published on 19 August 2009 and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010 published on 23 October 2013, so no fine now attaches to cultivation, trafficking or possession under this Ley. On quantity, the 2 gram line in Article 34 is the only weight the Ley fixes; it sets no substance by substance threshold and no quantity table, so the same 2 grams applies whatever the substance is. The 2 gram line and the bands of 1 to 3, 3 to 6, 6 to 10, 5 to 15 and 10 to 15 years and the one third increase are carried forward from the live cell and were re-read against the Asamblea Legislativa text for this pass; the Article 34 graver offence proviso, the Article 54 and Article 55 provisions and the three unconstitutionality rulings are new to this cell.
- If prescribed / medical
- Khat is botanical material rather than a dispensed medicine, so there is no prescription document to carry for it, and the name a laboratory report would use is the constituent rather than the plant. No Salvadoran authorisation exists for carrying it for personal use; Article 3's final paragraph allows the listed substances to be held only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, making medicines, medical treatment or industrial products, and only with the health regulator's authorisation.
- Documentation
- The instrument read for this cell is the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, published in Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003, in the consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa. That text carries its own reform schedule: five reforms, the last of them Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018 in Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, so the consolidation read here is current to that reform. The same reform schedule was confirmed against a second publisher, the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which prints the identical list of five. The text also carries four rulings of the Sala de lo Constitucional, three of which strike the fine in Articles 31, 33 and 34 and the fourth of which struck the rule in Article 52 that equated preparatory acts with completed offences before that article was reformed in 2018. The substance list read for this cell is the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria. That document states its own currency in its Disposiciones generales: it was approved by that acuerdo and is «vigente hasta el 31 de marzo de 2027, o hasta que se emita un nuevo listado por parte de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria». It was read as at 21 September 2026, and the 2025 edition of the same list was fetched first and set aside once the 2026 edition was found on the regulator's own page. The list is the one Article 13 of the Ley requires, «una lista de drogas y de todas las preparaciones y especialidades farmaceuticas que las contengan de acuerdo a las categorias establecidas en la presente Ley», which Article 13 also requires to be sent to the Corte Suprema de Justicia, the Fiscalia General de la Republica and the Policia Nacional Civil so that judges and prosecutors know it. Article 13 names the Consejo Superior de Salud Publica as the body that makes it; the 2013 Reglamento names the Direccion Nacional de Medicamentos as the governing authority, and the Ley de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria dissolved that Direccion and moved its functions to the Superintendencia with effect from August 2024. That succession is stated from the Reglamento and from reporting of the Superintendencia law, whose own gazette text was not read for this cell. Article 2 defines droga in its own words: «Art. 2.- Para los efectos de esta Ley se consideran drogas las sustancias especificadas como tales en los Convenios Internacionales ratificados por El Salvador, las que se mencionan en el Código de Salud y demás leyes del país; y en general, las que indistintamente de su grado de pureza, actúan sobre el sistema nervioso central y tienen la capacidad de producir transformaciones, bien sea aumentando o disminuyendo su funcionamiento o modificando los estados de conciencia y que su uso indebido puede causar dependencia o sujeción física y psicológica.» Article 3 then prohibits activity relating to five named categories and, in letter f, «f) Cualquier otra sustancia que sea considerada droga tan nociva que amerite ser prohibida por el Consejo Superior de Salud Pública o por los convenios internacionales ratificados por el país.» The names searched across the list, in Spanish and in English, were khat, qat, Catha edulis, catinona, catina. No entry was returned under the row's own name. The entry relied on instead was read in full and it is «Catinona», entry 1, CAS 71031-15-7, at Parte B, Seccion I. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista I de la Convencion de 1971. Three routes were tried for the instrument and all three returned a document: the Asamblea Legislativa decree file, which returned the consolidated text; the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which returned the same consolidation; and the regulator's own listado page, which returned the 2026 list. Two routes returned nothing usable: the Asamblea decree index and law search paths both returned a not found page, and a fetch of the Asamblea search page failed on certificate verification. Carry any controlled medicine in its dispensing packaging with the prescription, and confirm the position with the Salvadoran embassy or consulate before you travel.
Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, Articles 2, 3, 13, 31, 32, 33, 34, 54 and 55, consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa, Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003 · Consolidation: current to Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018, Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, the last of the five reforms the text's own schedule prints, confirmed against the Fiscalia General de la Republica transparency copy · Unconstitutionality of the fine: Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments, Diario Oficial 196, Tomo 377, of 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments, Diario Oficial 152, Tomo 384, of 19 August 2009, and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010, Diario Oficial 197, Tomo 401, of 23 October 2013 · Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria, read as at 21 September 2026, the document stating its own currency to 31 March 2027 or until a new listado is issued · Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados, Decreto Ejecutivo 20, Diario Oficial of 13 February 2013, Articles 5, 26, 36, 37 and 40 · Placement: the row's own name returned no entry · the entry relied on is at Parte B, Seccion I. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista I de la Convencion de 1971, entry 1 · Placement provenance: the Parte and Seccion stated for this row are not printed in the quoted dossier extract, and no quoted extract in that dossier carries a Parte or Seccion marker for any substance, because the dossier resolved every row against articles 2 and 3 of Decreto 153 alone and never reached the Listado. The placement is read directly from the Listado named above and not from the dossier · Penalty figures for the 2 gram line and the year bands in Articles 31, 33 and 34 carried forward from the live cell and not re-derived from a new source, then re-read against the Asamblea text. The Article 34 graver offence proviso, Articles 54 and 55 and the three unconstitutionality rulings are read from that text and are new to this cell · asamblea.gob.sv · srs.gob.sv · portaldetransparencia.fgr.gob.sv · Updated September 21, 2026
Lorazepam
- Legal status
- Controlled under the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003. Lorazepam is printed in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria as «Lorazepam», entry 153, CAS 846-49-1, at Parte B, Seccion IV. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista IV de la Convencion de 1971. Article 2 makes a droga any substance specified as such in the conventions El Salvador has ratified, and Article 3 prohibits every activity relating to the narcotic, depressant, stimulant, hallucinogen and cannabis categories, so a printed convention entry is reached by the definition itself. The 3-hydroxy feature in the printed chemical description is what distinguishes it from Delorazepam at n.o 133, which shares the same dichlorophenyl skeleton without it.
- Consequences if caught
- The 3-hydroxy feature in the printed chemical description is what distinguishes it from Delorazepam at n.o 133, which shares the same dichlorophenyl skeleton without it. Lorazepam is inside El Salvador's drug control regime, and the penalties below are set out because they describe the offences that this row's placement brings into play. Article 34 divides possession from trafficking by a 2 gram line: possession of under 2 grams carries 1 to 3 years, possession of 2 grams or more carries 3 to 6 years, and possession of any quantity with the object of doing anything Article 33 lists carries 6 to 10 years. Article 34 closes by providing that it does not apply where the conduct fits a graver offence. There is no personal use exemption anywhere in the Ley. Article 31 sets 5 to 15 years for sowing, cultivating or harvesting, and Article 33 sets 10 to 15 years for acquiring, transferring, importing, exporting, storing, transporting, distributing, supplying or selling. Article 33's second paragraph raises the trafficking penalty by one third of the stated maximum where the act is international trafficking, so the ceiling on that route is 20 years, and Article 54 allows a court to raise the penalty by up to one third of the maximum on any of nine listed aggravating circumstances, which is a discretion and not the mandatory increase Article 33 creates. Article 55 allows the penalty to be cut to half the minimum where the accused names others or enables a seizure. The ceiling on every one of these routes is imprisonment, because the severest sanction is constitutionally barred for ordinary offences in El Salvador, so no offence in this Ley carries it. The Ley creates no lawful recreational regime and no medical regime for any substance it reaches, cannabis included: Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be imported, produced, made, extracted, possessed or used only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for making products of industrial use, and only with the health regulator's authorisation. On the fine, the Sala de lo Constitucional struck the multa in each of these three articles as a penal consequence, Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments published on 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments published on 19 August 2009 and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010 published on 23 October 2013, so no fine now attaches to cultivation, trafficking or possession under this Ley. On quantity, the 2 gram line in Article 34 is the only weight the Ley fixes; it sets no substance by substance threshold and no quantity table, so the same 2 grams applies whatever the substance is. The 2 gram line and the bands of 1 to 3, 3 to 6, 6 to 10, 5 to 15 and 10 to 15 years and the one third increase are carried forward from the live cell and were re-read against the Asamblea Legislativa text for this pass; the Article 34 graver offence proviso, the Article 54 and Article 55 provisions and the three unconstitutionality rulings are new to this cell.
- If prescribed / medical
- Lorazepam reaches people here as a dispensed medicine, and the name a Salvadoran pharmacy record or a laboratory report would use is lorazepam. Article 37 of the Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados requires that narcotics, psychotropics and agregados be prescribed on Recetarios Especiales printed by the regulator and issued to the professional, in books of at least twenty five cheque style forms and up to two hundred, and Article 40 of that Reglamento makes a special prescription valid for thirty days, with three monthly prescriptions allowed for a chronic patient. Article 14 of the Ley requires the pack to carry a warning that the product is sold only on medical prescription and is under the health regulator's control. A prescribing doctor who supplies outside the therapeutic indication commits the Article 38 offence, which carries 3 to 5 years, and a pharmacy that dispenses without the prescription commits the Article 40 offence, which carries 5 to 15 years. Carry it in its dispensing packaging with the prescription.
- Documentation
- The instrument read for this cell is the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, published in Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003, in the consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa. That text carries its own reform schedule: five reforms, the last of them Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018 in Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, so the consolidation read here is current to that reform. The same reform schedule was confirmed against a second publisher, the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which prints the identical list of five. The text also carries four rulings of the Sala de lo Constitucional, three of which strike the fine in Articles 31, 33 and 34 and the fourth of which struck the rule in Article 52 that equated preparatory acts with completed offences before that article was reformed in 2018. The substance list read for this cell is the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria. That document states its own currency in its Disposiciones generales: it was approved by that acuerdo and is «vigente hasta el 31 de marzo de 2027, o hasta que se emita un nuevo listado por parte de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria». It was read as at 21 September 2026, and the 2025 edition of the same list was fetched first and set aside once the 2026 edition was found on the regulator's own page. The list is the one Article 13 of the Ley requires, «una lista de drogas y de todas las preparaciones y especialidades farmaceuticas que las contengan de acuerdo a las categorias establecidas en la presente Ley», which Article 13 also requires to be sent to the Corte Suprema de Justicia, the Fiscalia General de la Republica and the Policia Nacional Civil so that judges and prosecutors know it. Article 13 names the Consejo Superior de Salud Publica as the body that makes it; the 2013 Reglamento names the Direccion Nacional de Medicamentos as the governing authority, and the Ley de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria dissolved that Direccion and moved its functions to the Superintendencia with effect from August 2024. That succession is stated from the Reglamento and from reporting of the Superintendencia law, whose own gazette text was not read for this cell. Article 2 defines droga in its own words: «Art. 2.- Para los efectos de esta Ley se consideran drogas las sustancias especificadas como tales en los Convenios Internacionales ratificados por El Salvador, las que se mencionan en el Código de Salud y demás leyes del país; y en general, las que indistintamente de su grado de pureza, actúan sobre el sistema nervioso central y tienen la capacidad de producir transformaciones, bien sea aumentando o disminuyendo su funcionamiento o modificando los estados de conciencia y que su uso indebido puede causar dependencia o sujeción física y psicológica.» Article 3 then prohibits activity relating to five named categories and, in letter f, «f) Cualquier otra sustancia que sea considerada droga tan nociva que amerite ser prohibida por el Consejo Superior de Salud Pública o por los convenios internacionales ratificados por el país.» The names searched across the list, in Spanish and in English, were lorazepam. The matched entry was read before it was relied on, and it is «Lorazepam», entry 153, CAS 846-49-1, at Parte B, Seccion IV. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista IV de la Convencion de 1971. Three routes were tried for the instrument and all three returned a document: the Asamblea Legislativa decree file, which returned the consolidated text; the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which returned the same consolidation; and the regulator's own listado page, which returned the 2026 list. Two routes returned nothing usable: the Asamblea decree index and law search paths both returned a not found page, and a fetch of the Asamblea search page failed on certificate verification. Carry any controlled medicine in its dispensing packaging with the prescription, and confirm the position with the Salvadoran embassy or consulate before you travel.
Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, Articles 2, 3, 13, 31, 32, 33, 34, 54 and 55, consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa, Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003 · Consolidation: current to Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018, Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, the last of the five reforms the text's own schedule prints, confirmed against the Fiscalia General de la Republica transparency copy · Unconstitutionality of the fine: Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments, Diario Oficial 196, Tomo 377, of 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments, Diario Oficial 152, Tomo 384, of 19 August 2009, and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010, Diario Oficial 197, Tomo 401, of 23 October 2013 · Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria, read as at 21 September 2026, the document stating its own currency to 31 March 2027 or until a new listado is issued · Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados, Decreto Ejecutivo 20, Diario Oficial of 13 February 2013, Articles 5, 26, 36, 37 and 40 · Placement: entry read at Parte B, Seccion IV. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista IV de la Convencion de 1971, entry 153, CAS 846-49-1 · Placement provenance: the Parte and Seccion stated for this row are not printed in the quoted dossier extract, and no quoted extract in that dossier carries a Parte or Seccion marker for any substance, because the dossier resolved every row against articles 2 and 3 of Decreto 153 alone and never reached the Listado. The placement is read directly from the Listado named above and not from the dossier · Penalty figures for the 2 gram line and the year bands in Articles 31, 33 and 34 carried forward from the live cell and not re-derived from a new source, then re-read against the Asamblea text. The Article 34 graver offence proviso, Articles 54 and 55 and the three unconstitutionality rulings are read from that text and are new to this cell · asamblea.gob.sv · srs.gob.sv · portaldetransparencia.fgr.gob.sv · Updated September 21, 2026
LSD
- Legal status
- Controlled under the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003. LSD is printed in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria as «(+)-Lisergida (LSD, LSD-25)», entry 10, at Parte B, Seccion I. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista I de la Convencion de 1971. Article 2 makes a droga any substance specified as such in the conventions El Salvador has ratified, and Article 3 prohibits every activity relating to the narcotic, depressant, stimulant, hallucinogen and cannabis categories, so a printed convention entry is reached by the definition itself. The Listado prints the parent lysergamide under its own name and under the abbreviation, so this row is decided on the printed name and not on the lysergamide family.
- Consequences if caught
- The Listado prints the parent lysergamide under its own name and under the abbreviation, so this row is decided on the printed name and not on the lysergamide family. LSD is inside El Salvador's drug control regime, and the penalties below are set out because they describe the offences that this row's placement brings into play. Article 34 divides possession from trafficking by a 2 gram line: possession of under 2 grams carries 1 to 3 years, possession of 2 grams or more carries 3 to 6 years, and possession of any quantity with the object of doing anything Article 33 lists carries 6 to 10 years. Article 34 closes by providing that it does not apply where the conduct fits a graver offence. There is no personal use exemption anywhere in the Ley. Article 31 sets 5 to 15 years for sowing, cultivating or harvesting, and Article 33 sets 10 to 15 years for acquiring, transferring, importing, exporting, storing, transporting, distributing, supplying or selling. Article 33's second paragraph raises the trafficking penalty by one third of the stated maximum where the act is international trafficking, so the ceiling on that route is 20 years, and Article 54 allows a court to raise the penalty by up to one third of the maximum on any of nine listed aggravating circumstances, which is a discretion and not the mandatory increase Article 33 creates. Article 55 allows the penalty to be cut to half the minimum where the accused names others or enables a seizure. The ceiling on every one of these routes is imprisonment, because the severest sanction is constitutionally barred for ordinary offences in El Salvador, so no offence in this Ley carries it. The Ley creates no lawful recreational regime and no medical regime for any substance it reaches, cannabis included: Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be imported, produced, made, extracted, possessed or used only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for making products of industrial use, and only with the health regulator's authorisation. On the fine, the Sala de lo Constitucional struck the multa in each of these three articles as a penal consequence, Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments published on 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments published on 19 August 2009 and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010 published on 23 October 2013, so no fine now attaches to cultivation, trafficking or possession under this Ley. On quantity, the 2 gram line in Article 34 is the only weight the Ley fixes; it sets no substance by substance threshold and no quantity table, so the same 2 grams applies whatever the substance is. The 2 gram line and the bands of 1 to 3, 3 to 6, 6 to 10, 5 to 15 and 10 to 15 years and the one third increase are carried forward from the live cell and were re-read against the Asamblea Legislativa text for this pass; the Article 34 graver offence proviso, the Article 54 and Article 55 provisions and the three unconstitutionality rulings are new to this cell.
- If prescribed / medical
- LSD reaches people as a powder, a liquid, a blotter or a pressed tablet rather than as a dispensed medicine, so there is no prescription document to carry for it, and the name a Salvadoran laboratory report would use is LSD. Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be held only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for industrial products, and only with the health regulator's authorisation, so there is no lawful personal quantity of it.
- Documentation
- The instrument read for this cell is the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, published in Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003, in the consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa. That text carries its own reform schedule: five reforms, the last of them Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018 in Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, so the consolidation read here is current to that reform. The same reform schedule was confirmed against a second publisher, the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which prints the identical list of five. The text also carries four rulings of the Sala de lo Constitucional, three of which strike the fine in Articles 31, 33 and 34 and the fourth of which struck the rule in Article 52 that equated preparatory acts with completed offences before that article was reformed in 2018. The substance list read for this cell is the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria. That document states its own currency in its Disposiciones generales: it was approved by that acuerdo and is «vigente hasta el 31 de marzo de 2027, o hasta que se emita un nuevo listado por parte de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria». It was read as at 21 September 2026, and the 2025 edition of the same list was fetched first and set aside once the 2026 edition was found on the regulator's own page. The list is the one Article 13 of the Ley requires, «una lista de drogas y de todas las preparaciones y especialidades farmaceuticas que las contengan de acuerdo a las categorias establecidas en la presente Ley», which Article 13 also requires to be sent to the Corte Suprema de Justicia, the Fiscalia General de la Republica and the Policia Nacional Civil so that judges and prosecutors know it. Article 13 names the Consejo Superior de Salud Publica as the body that makes it; the 2013 Reglamento names the Direccion Nacional de Medicamentos as the governing authority, and the Ley de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria dissolved that Direccion and moved its functions to the Superintendencia with effect from August 2024. That succession is stated from the Reglamento and from reporting of the Superintendencia law, whose own gazette text was not read for this cell. Article 2 defines droga in its own words: «Art. 2.- Para los efectos de esta Ley se consideran drogas las sustancias especificadas como tales en los Convenios Internacionales ratificados por El Salvador, las que se mencionan en el Código de Salud y demás leyes del país; y en general, las que indistintamente de su grado de pureza, actúan sobre el sistema nervioso central y tienen la capacidad de producir transformaciones, bien sea aumentando o disminuyendo su funcionamiento o modificando los estados de conciencia y que su uso indebido puede causar dependencia o sujeción física y psicológica.» Article 3 then prohibits activity relating to five named categories and, in letter f, «f) Cualquier otra sustancia que sea considerada droga tan nociva que amerite ser prohibida por el Consejo Superior de Salud Pública o por los convenios internacionales ratificados por el país.» The names searched across the list, in Spanish and in English, were LSD, lisergida, dietilamida del acido lisergico. The matched entry was read before it was relied on, and it is «(+)-Lisergida (LSD, LSD-25)», entry 10, at Parte B, Seccion I. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista I de la Convencion de 1971. Three routes were tried for the instrument and all three returned a document: the Asamblea Legislativa decree file, which returned the consolidated text; the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which returned the same consolidation; and the regulator's own listado page, which returned the 2026 list. Two routes returned nothing usable: the Asamblea decree index and law search paths both returned a not found page, and a fetch of the Asamblea search page failed on certificate verification. Carry any controlled medicine in its dispensing packaging with the prescription, and confirm the position with the Salvadoran embassy or consulate before you travel.
Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, Articles 2, 3, 13, 31, 32, 33, 34, 54 and 55, consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa, Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003 · Consolidation: current to Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018, Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, the last of the five reforms the text's own schedule prints, confirmed against the Fiscalia General de la Republica transparency copy · Unconstitutionality of the fine: Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments, Diario Oficial 196, Tomo 377, of 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments, Diario Oficial 152, Tomo 384, of 19 August 2009, and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010, Diario Oficial 197, Tomo 401, of 23 October 2013 · Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria, read as at 21 September 2026, the document stating its own currency to 31 March 2027 or until a new listado is issued · Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados, Decreto Ejecutivo 20, Diario Oficial of 13 February 2013, Articles 5, 26, 36, 37 and 40 · Placement: entry read at Parte B, Seccion I. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista I de la Convencion de 1971, entry 10 · Placement provenance: the Parte and Seccion stated for this row are not printed in the quoted dossier extract, and no quoted extract in that dossier carries a Parte or Seccion marker for any substance, because the dossier resolved every row against articles 2 and 3 of Decreto 153 alone and never reached the Listado. The placement is read directly from the Listado named above and not from the dossier · Penalty figures for the 2 gram line and the year bands in Articles 31, 33 and 34 carried forward from the live cell and not re-derived from a new source, then re-read against the Asamblea text. The Article 34 graver offence proviso, Articles 54 and 55 and the three unconstitutionality rulings are read from that text and are new to this cell · asamblea.gob.sv · srs.gob.sv · portaldetransparencia.fgr.gob.sv · Updated September 21, 2026
MDA
- Legal status
- Controlled under the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003. MDA is printed in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria as «Tenanfetamina (MDA)», entry 14, CAS 4764-17-4, at Parte B, Seccion I. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista I de la Convencion de 1971. Article 2 makes a droga any substance specified as such in the conventions El Salvador has ratified, and Article 3 prohibits every activity relating to the narcotic, depressant, stimulant, hallucinogen and cannabis categories, so a printed convention entry is reached by the definition itself. The Listado prints it under the international non proprietary name Tenanfetamina with the familiar abbreviation in brackets, so a search on the abbreviation alone would have missed the entry name.
- Consequences if caught
- The Listado prints it under the international non proprietary name Tenanfetamina with the familiar abbreviation in brackets, so a search on the abbreviation alone would have missed the entry name. MDA is inside El Salvador's drug control regime, and the penalties below are set out because they describe the offences that this row's placement brings into play. Article 34 divides possession from trafficking by a 2 gram line: possession of under 2 grams carries 1 to 3 years, possession of 2 grams or more carries 3 to 6 years, and possession of any quantity with the object of doing anything Article 33 lists carries 6 to 10 years. Article 34 closes by providing that it does not apply where the conduct fits a graver offence. There is no personal use exemption anywhere in the Ley. Article 31 sets 5 to 15 years for sowing, cultivating or harvesting, and Article 33 sets 10 to 15 years for acquiring, transferring, importing, exporting, storing, transporting, distributing, supplying or selling. Article 33's second paragraph raises the trafficking penalty by one third of the stated maximum where the act is international trafficking, so the ceiling on that route is 20 years, and Article 54 allows a court to raise the penalty by up to one third of the maximum on any of nine listed aggravating circumstances, which is a discretion and not the mandatory increase Article 33 creates. Article 55 allows the penalty to be cut to half the minimum where the accused names others or enables a seizure. The ceiling on every one of these routes is imprisonment, because the severest sanction is constitutionally barred for ordinary offences in El Salvador, so no offence in this Ley carries it. The Ley creates no lawful recreational regime and no medical regime for any substance it reaches, cannabis included: Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be imported, produced, made, extracted, possessed or used only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for making products of industrial use, and only with the health regulator's authorisation. On the fine, the Sala de lo Constitucional struck the multa in each of these three articles as a penal consequence, Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments published on 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments published on 19 August 2009 and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010 published on 23 October 2013, so no fine now attaches to cultivation, trafficking or possession under this Ley. On quantity, the 2 gram line in Article 34 is the only weight the Ley fixes; it sets no substance by substance threshold and no quantity table, so the same 2 grams applies whatever the substance is. The 2 gram line and the bands of 1 to 3, 3 to 6, 6 to 10, 5 to 15 and 10 to 15 years and the one third increase are carried forward from the live cell and were re-read against the Asamblea Legislativa text for this pass; the Article 34 graver offence proviso, the Article 54 and Article 55 provisions and the three unconstitutionality rulings are new to this cell.
- If prescribed / medical
- MDA reaches people as a powder, a liquid, a blotter or a pressed tablet rather than as a dispensed medicine, so there is no prescription document to carry for it, and the name a Salvadoran laboratory report would use is MDA. Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be held only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for industrial products, and only with the health regulator's authorisation, so there is no lawful personal quantity of it.
- Documentation
- The instrument read for this cell is the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, published in Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003, in the consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa. That text carries its own reform schedule: five reforms, the last of them Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018 in Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, so the consolidation read here is current to that reform. The same reform schedule was confirmed against a second publisher, the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which prints the identical list of five. The text also carries four rulings of the Sala de lo Constitucional, three of which strike the fine in Articles 31, 33 and 34 and the fourth of which struck the rule in Article 52 that equated preparatory acts with completed offences before that article was reformed in 2018. The substance list read for this cell is the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria. That document states its own currency in its Disposiciones generales: it was approved by that acuerdo and is «vigente hasta el 31 de marzo de 2027, o hasta que se emita un nuevo listado por parte de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria». It was read as at 21 September 2026, and the 2025 edition of the same list was fetched first and set aside once the 2026 edition was found on the regulator's own page. The list is the one Article 13 of the Ley requires, «una lista de drogas y de todas las preparaciones y especialidades farmaceuticas que las contengan de acuerdo a las categorias establecidas en la presente Ley», which Article 13 also requires to be sent to the Corte Suprema de Justicia, the Fiscalia General de la Republica and the Policia Nacional Civil so that judges and prosecutors know it. Article 13 names the Consejo Superior de Salud Publica as the body that makes it; the 2013 Reglamento names the Direccion Nacional de Medicamentos as the governing authority, and the Ley de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria dissolved that Direccion and moved its functions to the Superintendencia with effect from August 2024. That succession is stated from the Reglamento and from reporting of the Superintendencia law, whose own gazette text was not read for this cell. Article 2 defines droga in its own words: «Art. 2.- Para los efectos de esta Ley se consideran drogas las sustancias especificadas como tales en los Convenios Internacionales ratificados por El Salvador, las que se mencionan en el Código de Salud y demás leyes del país; y en general, las que indistintamente de su grado de pureza, actúan sobre el sistema nervioso central y tienen la capacidad de producir transformaciones, bien sea aumentando o disminuyendo su funcionamiento o modificando los estados de conciencia y que su uso indebido puede causar dependencia o sujeción física y psicológica.» Article 3 then prohibits activity relating to five named categories and, in letter f, «f) Cualquier otra sustancia que sea considerada droga tan nociva que amerite ser prohibida por el Consejo Superior de Salud Pública o por los convenios internacionales ratificados por el país.» The names searched across the list, in Spanish and in English, were MDA, tenanfetamina, metilendioxianfetamina. The matched entry was read before it was relied on, and it is «Tenanfetamina (MDA)», entry 14, CAS 4764-17-4, at Parte B, Seccion I. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista I de la Convencion de 1971. Three routes were tried for the instrument and all three returned a document: the Asamblea Legislativa decree file, which returned the consolidated text; the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which returned the same consolidation; and the regulator's own listado page, which returned the 2026 list. Two routes returned nothing usable: the Asamblea decree index and law search paths both returned a not found page, and a fetch of the Asamblea search page failed on certificate verification. Carry any controlled medicine in its dispensing packaging with the prescription, and confirm the position with the Salvadoran embassy or consulate before you travel.
Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, Articles 2, 3, 13, 31, 32, 33, 34, 54 and 55, consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa, Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003 · Consolidation: current to Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018, Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, the last of the five reforms the text's own schedule prints, confirmed against the Fiscalia General de la Republica transparency copy · Unconstitutionality of the fine: Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments, Diario Oficial 196, Tomo 377, of 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments, Diario Oficial 152, Tomo 384, of 19 August 2009, and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010, Diario Oficial 197, Tomo 401, of 23 October 2013 · Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria, read as at 21 September 2026, the document stating its own currency to 31 March 2027 or until a new listado is issued · Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados, Decreto Ejecutivo 20, Diario Oficial of 13 February 2013, Articles 5, 26, 36, 37 and 40 · Placement: entry read at Parte B, Seccion I. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista I de la Convencion de 1971, entry 14, CAS 4764-17-4 · Placement provenance: the Parte and Seccion stated for this row are not printed in the quoted dossier extract, and no quoted extract in that dossier carries a Parte or Seccion marker for any substance, because the dossier resolved every row against articles 2 and 3 of Decreto 153 alone and never reached the Listado. The placement is read directly from the Listado named above and not from the dossier · Penalty figures for the 2 gram line and the year bands in Articles 31, 33 and 34 carried forward from the live cell and not re-derived from a new source, then re-read against the Asamblea text. The Article 34 graver offence proviso, Articles 54 and 55 and the three unconstitutionality rulings are read from that text and are new to this cell · asamblea.gob.sv · srs.gob.sv · portaldetransparencia.fgr.gob.sv · Updated September 21, 2026
MDMA
- Legal status
- Controlled under the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003. MDMA is printed in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria as «MDMA», entry 12, CAS 42542-10-9, at Parte B, Seccion I. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista I de la Convencion de 1971. Article 2 makes a droga any substance specified as such in the conventions El Salvador has ratified, and Article 3 prohibits every activity relating to the narcotic, depressant, stimulant, hallucinogen and cannabis categories, so a printed convention entry is reached by the definition itself. The abbreviation is the printed entry name here, and the cathinone analogue Metilona is listed separately as beta-ceto-MDMA, so the two are not read together.
- Consequences if caught
- The abbreviation is the printed entry name here, and the cathinone analogue Metilona is listed separately as beta-ceto-MDMA, so the two are not read together. MDMA is inside El Salvador's drug control regime, and the penalties below are set out because they describe the offences that this row's placement brings into play. Article 34 divides possession from trafficking by a 2 gram line: possession of under 2 grams carries 1 to 3 years, possession of 2 grams or more carries 3 to 6 years, and possession of any quantity with the object of doing anything Article 33 lists carries 6 to 10 years. Article 34 closes by providing that it does not apply where the conduct fits a graver offence. There is no personal use exemption anywhere in the Ley. Article 31 sets 5 to 15 years for sowing, cultivating or harvesting, and Article 33 sets 10 to 15 years for acquiring, transferring, importing, exporting, storing, transporting, distributing, supplying or selling. Article 33's second paragraph raises the trafficking penalty by one third of the stated maximum where the act is international trafficking, so the ceiling on that route is 20 years, and Article 54 allows a court to raise the penalty by up to one third of the maximum on any of nine listed aggravating circumstances, which is a discretion and not the mandatory increase Article 33 creates. Article 55 allows the penalty to be cut to half the minimum where the accused names others or enables a seizure. The ceiling on every one of these routes is imprisonment, because the severest sanction is constitutionally barred for ordinary offences in El Salvador, so no offence in this Ley carries it. The Ley creates no lawful recreational regime and no medical regime for any substance it reaches, cannabis included: Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be imported, produced, made, extracted, possessed or used only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for making products of industrial use, and only with the health regulator's authorisation. On the fine, the Sala de lo Constitucional struck the multa in each of these three articles as a penal consequence, Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments published on 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments published on 19 August 2009 and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010 published on 23 October 2013, so no fine now attaches to cultivation, trafficking or possession under this Ley. On quantity, the 2 gram line in Article 34 is the only weight the Ley fixes; it sets no substance by substance threshold and no quantity table, so the same 2 grams applies whatever the substance is. The 2 gram line and the bands of 1 to 3, 3 to 6, 6 to 10, 5 to 15 and 10 to 15 years and the one third increase are carried forward from the live cell and were re-read against the Asamblea Legislativa text for this pass; the Article 34 graver offence proviso, the Article 54 and Article 55 provisions and the three unconstitutionality rulings are new to this cell.
- If prescribed / medical
- MDMA reaches people as a powder, a liquid, a blotter or a pressed tablet rather than as a dispensed medicine, so there is no prescription document to carry for it, and the name a Salvadoran laboratory report would use is MDMA. Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be held only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for industrial products, and only with the health regulator's authorisation, so there is no lawful personal quantity of it.
- Documentation
- The instrument read for this cell is the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, published in Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003, in the consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa. That text carries its own reform schedule: five reforms, the last of them Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018 in Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, so the consolidation read here is current to that reform. The same reform schedule was confirmed against a second publisher, the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which prints the identical list of five. The text also carries four rulings of the Sala de lo Constitucional, three of which strike the fine in Articles 31, 33 and 34 and the fourth of which struck the rule in Article 52 that equated preparatory acts with completed offences before that article was reformed in 2018. The substance list read for this cell is the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria. That document states its own currency in its Disposiciones generales: it was approved by that acuerdo and is «vigente hasta el 31 de marzo de 2027, o hasta que se emita un nuevo listado por parte de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria». It was read as at 21 September 2026, and the 2025 edition of the same list was fetched first and set aside once the 2026 edition was found on the regulator's own page. The list is the one Article 13 of the Ley requires, «una lista de drogas y de todas las preparaciones y especialidades farmaceuticas que las contengan de acuerdo a las categorias establecidas en la presente Ley», which Article 13 also requires to be sent to the Corte Suprema de Justicia, the Fiscalia General de la Republica and the Policia Nacional Civil so that judges and prosecutors know it. Article 13 names the Consejo Superior de Salud Publica as the body that makes it; the 2013 Reglamento names the Direccion Nacional de Medicamentos as the governing authority, and the Ley de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria dissolved that Direccion and moved its functions to the Superintendencia with effect from August 2024. That succession is stated from the Reglamento and from reporting of the Superintendencia law, whose own gazette text was not read for this cell. Article 2 defines droga in its own words: «Art. 2.- Para los efectos de esta Ley se consideran drogas las sustancias especificadas como tales en los Convenios Internacionales ratificados por El Salvador, las que se mencionan en el Código de Salud y demás leyes del país; y en general, las que indistintamente de su grado de pureza, actúan sobre el sistema nervioso central y tienen la capacidad de producir transformaciones, bien sea aumentando o disminuyendo su funcionamiento o modificando los estados de conciencia y que su uso indebido puede causar dependencia o sujeción física y psicológica.» Article 3 then prohibits activity relating to five named categories and, in letter f, «f) Cualquier otra sustancia que sea considerada droga tan nociva que amerite ser prohibida por el Consejo Superior de Salud Pública o por los convenios internacionales ratificados por el país.» The names searched across the list, in Spanish and in English, were MDMA, metilendioximetanfetamina. The matched entry was read before it was relied on, and it is «MDMA», entry 12, CAS 42542-10-9, at Parte B, Seccion I. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista I de la Convencion de 1971. Three routes were tried for the instrument and all three returned a document: the Asamblea Legislativa decree file, which returned the consolidated text; the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which returned the same consolidation; and the regulator's own listado page, which returned the 2026 list. Two routes returned nothing usable: the Asamblea decree index and law search paths both returned a not found page, and a fetch of the Asamblea search page failed on certificate verification. Carry any controlled medicine in its dispensing packaging with the prescription, and confirm the position with the Salvadoran embassy or consulate before you travel.
Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, Articles 2, 3, 13, 31, 32, 33, 34, 54 and 55, consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa, Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003 · Consolidation: current to Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018, Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, the last of the five reforms the text's own schedule prints, confirmed against the Fiscalia General de la Republica transparency copy · Unconstitutionality of the fine: Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments, Diario Oficial 196, Tomo 377, of 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments, Diario Oficial 152, Tomo 384, of 19 August 2009, and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010, Diario Oficial 197, Tomo 401, of 23 October 2013 · Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria, read as at 21 September 2026, the document stating its own currency to 31 March 2027 or until a new listado is issued · Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados, Decreto Ejecutivo 20, Diario Oficial of 13 February 2013, Articles 5, 26, 36, 37 and 40 · Placement: entry read at Parte B, Seccion I. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista I de la Convencion de 1971, entry 12, CAS 42542-10-9 · Placement provenance: the Parte and Seccion stated for this row are not printed in the quoted dossier extract, and no quoted extract in that dossier carries a Parte or Seccion marker for any substance, because the dossier resolved every row against articles 2 and 3 of Decreto 153 alone and never reached the Listado. The placement is read directly from the Listado named above and not from the dossier · Penalty figures for the 2 gram line and the year bands in Articles 31, 33 and 34 carried forward from the live cell and not re-derived from a new source, then re-read against the Asamblea text. The Article 34 graver offence proviso, Articles 54 and 55 and the three unconstitutionality rulings are read from that text and are new to this cell · asamblea.gob.sv · srs.gob.sv · portaldetransparencia.fgr.gob.sv · Updated September 21, 2026
MDPV
- Legal status
- Controlled under the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003. MDPV is printed in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria as «MDPV, 3,4-metilendioxipirovalerona», entry 76, at Parte B, Seccion II. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista II de la Convencion de 1971. Article 2 makes a droga any substance specified as such in the conventions El Salvador has ratified, and Article 3 prohibits every activity relating to the narcotic, depressant, stimulant, hallucinogen and cannabis categories, so a printed convention entry is reached by the definition itself. It is the pyrrolidine cathinone in this set, and its printed entry name carries both the abbreviation and the full chemical name.
- Consequences if caught
- It is the pyrrolidine cathinone in this set, and its printed entry name carries both the abbreviation and the full chemical name. MDPV is inside El Salvador's drug control regime, and the penalties below are set out because they describe the offences that this row's placement brings into play. Article 34 divides possession from trafficking by a 2 gram line: possession of under 2 grams carries 1 to 3 years, possession of 2 grams or more carries 3 to 6 years, and possession of any quantity with the object of doing anything Article 33 lists carries 6 to 10 years. Article 34 closes by providing that it does not apply where the conduct fits a graver offence. There is no personal use exemption anywhere in the Ley. Article 31 sets 5 to 15 years for sowing, cultivating or harvesting, and Article 33 sets 10 to 15 years for acquiring, transferring, importing, exporting, storing, transporting, distributing, supplying or selling. Article 33's second paragraph raises the trafficking penalty by one third of the stated maximum where the act is international trafficking, so the ceiling on that route is 20 years, and Article 54 allows a court to raise the penalty by up to one third of the maximum on any of nine listed aggravating circumstances, which is a discretion and not the mandatory increase Article 33 creates. Article 55 allows the penalty to be cut to half the minimum where the accused names others or enables a seizure. The ceiling on every one of these routes is imprisonment, because the severest sanction is constitutionally barred for ordinary offences in El Salvador, so no offence in this Ley carries it. The Ley creates no lawful recreational regime and no medical regime for any substance it reaches, cannabis included: Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be imported, produced, made, extracted, possessed or used only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for making products of industrial use, and only with the health regulator's authorisation. On the fine, the Sala de lo Constitucional struck the multa in each of these three articles as a penal consequence, Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments published on 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments published on 19 August 2009 and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010 published on 23 October 2013, so no fine now attaches to cultivation, trafficking or possession under this Ley. On quantity, the 2 gram line in Article 34 is the only weight the Ley fixes; it sets no substance by substance threshold and no quantity table, so the same 2 grams applies whatever the substance is. The 2 gram line and the bands of 1 to 3, 3 to 6, 6 to 10, 5 to 15 and 10 to 15 years and the one third increase are carried forward from the live cell and were re-read against the Asamblea Legislativa text for this pass; the Article 34 graver offence proviso, the Article 54 and Article 55 provisions and the three unconstitutionality rulings are new to this cell.
- If prescribed / medical
- MDPV reaches people as a powder, a liquid, a blotter or a pressed tablet rather than as a dispensed medicine, so there is no prescription document to carry for it, and the name a Salvadoran laboratory report would use is MDPV. Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be held only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for industrial products, and only with the health regulator's authorisation, so there is no lawful personal quantity of it.
- Documentation
- The instrument read for this cell is the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, published in Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003, in the consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa. That text carries its own reform schedule: five reforms, the last of them Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018 in Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, so the consolidation read here is current to that reform. The same reform schedule was confirmed against a second publisher, the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which prints the identical list of five. The text also carries four rulings of the Sala de lo Constitucional, three of which strike the fine in Articles 31, 33 and 34 and the fourth of which struck the rule in Article 52 that equated preparatory acts with completed offences before that article was reformed in 2018. The substance list read for this cell is the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria. That document states its own currency in its Disposiciones generales: it was approved by that acuerdo and is «vigente hasta el 31 de marzo de 2027, o hasta que se emita un nuevo listado por parte de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria». It was read as at 21 September 2026, and the 2025 edition of the same list was fetched first and set aside once the 2026 edition was found on the regulator's own page. The list is the one Article 13 of the Ley requires, «una lista de drogas y de todas las preparaciones y especialidades farmaceuticas que las contengan de acuerdo a las categorias establecidas en la presente Ley», which Article 13 also requires to be sent to the Corte Suprema de Justicia, the Fiscalia General de la Republica and the Policia Nacional Civil so that judges and prosecutors know it. Article 13 names the Consejo Superior de Salud Publica as the body that makes it; the 2013 Reglamento names the Direccion Nacional de Medicamentos as the governing authority, and the Ley de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria dissolved that Direccion and moved its functions to the Superintendencia with effect from August 2024. That succession is stated from the Reglamento and from reporting of the Superintendencia law, whose own gazette text was not read for this cell. Article 2 defines droga in its own words: «Art. 2.- Para los efectos de esta Ley se consideran drogas las sustancias especificadas como tales en los Convenios Internacionales ratificados por El Salvador, las que se mencionan en el Código de Salud y demás leyes del país; y en general, las que indistintamente de su grado de pureza, actúan sobre el sistema nervioso central y tienen la capacidad de producir transformaciones, bien sea aumentando o disminuyendo su funcionamiento o modificando los estados de conciencia y que su uso indebido puede causar dependencia o sujeción física y psicológica.» Article 3 then prohibits activity relating to five named categories and, in letter f, «f) Cualquier otra sustancia que sea considerada droga tan nociva que amerite ser prohibida por el Consejo Superior de Salud Pública o por los convenios internacionales ratificados por el país.» The names searched across the list, in Spanish and in English, were MDPV, metilendioxipirovalerona, pirovalerona. The matched entry was read before it was relied on, and it is «MDPV, 3,4-metilendioxipirovalerona», entry 76, at Parte B, Seccion II. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista II de la Convencion de 1971. Three routes were tried for the instrument and all three returned a document: the Asamblea Legislativa decree file, which returned the consolidated text; the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which returned the same consolidation; and the regulator's own listado page, which returned the 2026 list. Two routes returned nothing usable: the Asamblea decree index and law search paths both returned a not found page, and a fetch of the Asamblea search page failed on certificate verification. Carry any controlled medicine in its dispensing packaging with the prescription, and confirm the position with the Salvadoran embassy or consulate before you travel.
Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, Articles 2, 3, 13, 31, 32, 33, 34, 54 and 55, consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa, Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003 · Consolidation: current to Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018, Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, the last of the five reforms the text's own schedule prints, confirmed against the Fiscalia General de la Republica transparency copy · Unconstitutionality of the fine: Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments, Diario Oficial 196, Tomo 377, of 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments, Diario Oficial 152, Tomo 384, of 19 August 2009, and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010, Diario Oficial 197, Tomo 401, of 23 October 2013 · Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria, read as at 21 September 2026, the document stating its own currency to 31 March 2027 or until a new listado is issued · Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados, Decreto Ejecutivo 20, Diario Oficial of 13 February 2013, Articles 5, 26, 36, 37 and 40 · Placement: entry read at Parte B, Seccion II. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista II de la Convencion de 1971, entry 76 · Placement provenance: the Parte and Seccion stated for this row are not printed in the quoted dossier extract, and no quoted extract in that dossier carries a Parte or Seccion marker for any substance, because the dossier resolved every row against articles 2 and 3 of Decreto 153 alone and never reached the Listado. The placement is read directly from the Listado named above and not from the dossier · Penalty figures for the 2 gram line and the year bands in Articles 31, 33 and 34 carried forward from the live cell and not re-derived from a new source, then re-read against the Asamblea text. The Article 34 graver offence proviso, Articles 54 and 55 and the three unconstitutionality rulings are read from that text and are new to this cell · asamblea.gob.sv · srs.gob.sv · portaldetransparencia.fgr.gob.sv · Updated September 21, 2026
Mephedrone (4-MMC)
- Legal status
- Controlled under the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003. Mephedrone is printed in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria as «Mefedrona, 4-metilmetcatinona», entry 77, at Parte B, Seccion II. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista II de la Convencion de 1971. Article 2 makes a droga any substance specified as such in the conventions El Salvador has ratified, and Article 3 prohibits every activity relating to the narcotic, depressant, stimulant, hallucinogen and cannabis categories, so a printed convention entry is reached by the definition itself. The 4-methyl and 3-methyl ring isomers carry separate entries at n.os 77 and 87, so position on the ring decides which entry answers a laboratory report.
- Consequences if caught
- The 4-methyl and 3-methyl ring isomers carry separate entries at n.os 77 and 87, so position on the ring decides which entry answers a laboratory report. Mephedrone is inside El Salvador's drug control regime, and the penalties below are set out because they describe the offences that this row's placement brings into play. Article 34 divides possession from trafficking by a 2 gram line: possession of under 2 grams carries 1 to 3 years, possession of 2 grams or more carries 3 to 6 years, and possession of any quantity with the object of doing anything Article 33 lists carries 6 to 10 years. Article 34 closes by providing that it does not apply where the conduct fits a graver offence. There is no personal use exemption anywhere in the Ley. Article 31 sets 5 to 15 years for sowing, cultivating or harvesting, and Article 33 sets 10 to 15 years for acquiring, transferring, importing, exporting, storing, transporting, distributing, supplying or selling. Article 33's second paragraph raises the trafficking penalty by one third of the stated maximum where the act is international trafficking, so the ceiling on that route is 20 years, and Article 54 allows a court to raise the penalty by up to one third of the maximum on any of nine listed aggravating circumstances, which is a discretion and not the mandatory increase Article 33 creates. Article 55 allows the penalty to be cut to half the minimum where the accused names others or enables a seizure. The ceiling on every one of these routes is imprisonment, because the severest sanction is constitutionally barred for ordinary offences in El Salvador, so no offence in this Ley carries it. The Ley creates no lawful recreational regime and no medical regime for any substance it reaches, cannabis included: Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be imported, produced, made, extracted, possessed or used only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for making products of industrial use, and only with the health regulator's authorisation. On the fine, the Sala de lo Constitucional struck the multa in each of these three articles as a penal consequence, Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments published on 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments published on 19 August 2009 and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010 published on 23 October 2013, so no fine now attaches to cultivation, trafficking or possession under this Ley. On quantity, the 2 gram line in Article 34 is the only weight the Ley fixes; it sets no substance by substance threshold and no quantity table, so the same 2 grams applies whatever the substance is. The 2 gram line and the bands of 1 to 3, 3 to 6, 6 to 10, 5 to 15 and 10 to 15 years and the one third increase are carried forward from the live cell and were re-read against the Asamblea Legislativa text for this pass; the Article 34 graver offence proviso, the Article 54 and Article 55 provisions and the three unconstitutionality rulings are new to this cell.
- If prescribed / medical
- Mephedrone reaches people as a powder, a liquid, a blotter or a pressed tablet rather than as a dispensed medicine, so there is no prescription document to carry for it, and the name a Salvadoran laboratory report would use is mefedrona. Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be held only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for industrial products, and only with the health regulator's authorisation, so there is no lawful personal quantity of it.
- Documentation
- The instrument read for this cell is the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, published in Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003, in the consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa. That text carries its own reform schedule: five reforms, the last of them Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018 in Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, so the consolidation read here is current to that reform. The same reform schedule was confirmed against a second publisher, the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which prints the identical list of five. The text also carries four rulings of the Sala de lo Constitucional, three of which strike the fine in Articles 31, 33 and 34 and the fourth of which struck the rule in Article 52 that equated preparatory acts with completed offences before that article was reformed in 2018. The substance list read for this cell is the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria. That document states its own currency in its Disposiciones generales: it was approved by that acuerdo and is «vigente hasta el 31 de marzo de 2027, o hasta que se emita un nuevo listado por parte de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria». It was read as at 21 September 2026, and the 2025 edition of the same list was fetched first and set aside once the 2026 edition was found on the regulator's own page. The list is the one Article 13 of the Ley requires, «una lista de drogas y de todas las preparaciones y especialidades farmaceuticas que las contengan de acuerdo a las categorias establecidas en la presente Ley», which Article 13 also requires to be sent to the Corte Suprema de Justicia, the Fiscalia General de la Republica and the Policia Nacional Civil so that judges and prosecutors know it. Article 13 names the Consejo Superior de Salud Publica as the body that makes it; the 2013 Reglamento names the Direccion Nacional de Medicamentos as the governing authority, and the Ley de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria dissolved that Direccion and moved its functions to the Superintendencia with effect from August 2024. That succession is stated from the Reglamento and from reporting of the Superintendencia law, whose own gazette text was not read for this cell. Article 2 defines droga in its own words: «Art. 2.- Para los efectos de esta Ley se consideran drogas las sustancias especificadas como tales en los Convenios Internacionales ratificados por El Salvador, las que se mencionan en el Código de Salud y demás leyes del país; y en general, las que indistintamente de su grado de pureza, actúan sobre el sistema nervioso central y tienen la capacidad de producir transformaciones, bien sea aumentando o disminuyendo su funcionamiento o modificando los estados de conciencia y que su uso indebido puede causar dependencia o sujeción física y psicológica.» Article 3 then prohibits activity relating to five named categories and, in letter f, «f) Cualquier otra sustancia que sea considerada droga tan nociva que amerite ser prohibida por el Consejo Superior de Salud Pública o por los convenios internacionales ratificados por el país.» The names searched across the list, in Spanish and in English, were mefedrona, 4-metilmetcatinona, mephedrone. The matched entry was read before it was relied on, and it is «Mefedrona, 4-metilmetcatinona», entry 77, at Parte B, Seccion II. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista II de la Convencion de 1971. Three routes were tried for the instrument and all three returned a document: the Asamblea Legislativa decree file, which returned the consolidated text; the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which returned the same consolidation; and the regulator's own listado page, which returned the 2026 list. Two routes returned nothing usable: the Asamblea decree index and law search paths both returned a not found page, and a fetch of the Asamblea search page failed on certificate verification. Carry any controlled medicine in its dispensing packaging with the prescription, and confirm the position with the Salvadoran embassy or consulate before you travel.
Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, Articles 2, 3, 13, 31, 32, 33, 34, 54 and 55, consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa, Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003 · Consolidation: current to Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018, Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, the last of the five reforms the text's own schedule prints, confirmed against the Fiscalia General de la Republica transparency copy · Unconstitutionality of the fine: Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments, Diario Oficial 196, Tomo 377, of 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments, Diario Oficial 152, Tomo 384, of 19 August 2009, and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010, Diario Oficial 197, Tomo 401, of 23 October 2013 · Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria, read as at 21 September 2026, the document stating its own currency to 31 March 2027 or until a new listado is issued · Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados, Decreto Ejecutivo 20, Diario Oficial of 13 February 2013, Articles 5, 26, 36, 37 and 40 · Placement: entry read at Parte B, Seccion II. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista II de la Convencion de 1971, entry 77 · Placement provenance: the Parte and Seccion stated for this row are not printed in the quoted dossier extract, and no quoted extract in that dossier carries a Parte or Seccion marker for any substance, because the dossier resolved every row against articles 2 and 3 of Decreto 153 alone and never reached the Listado. The placement is read directly from the Listado named above and not from the dossier · Penalty figures for the 2 gram line and the year bands in Articles 31, 33 and 34 carried forward from the live cell and not re-derived from a new source, then re-read against the Asamblea text. The Article 34 graver offence proviso, Articles 54 and 55 and the three unconstitutionality rulings are read from that text and are new to this cell · asamblea.gob.sv · srs.gob.sv · portaldetransparencia.fgr.gob.sv · Updated September 21, 2026
Mescaline
- Legal status
- Controlled under the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003. Mescaline is printed in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria as «Mescalina», entry 11, CAS 54-04-6, at Parte B, Seccion I. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista I de la Convencion de 1971. Article 2 makes a droga any substance specified as such in the conventions El Salvador has ratified, and Article 3 prohibits every activity relating to the narcotic, depressant, stimulant, hallucinogen and cannabis categories, so a printed convention entry is reached by the definition itself. The alkaloid is named; the cactus that yields it is not, which is the distinction this row turns on.
- Consequences if caught
- The alkaloid is named; the cactus that yields it is not, which is the distinction this row turns on. Mescaline is inside El Salvador's drug control regime, and the penalties below are set out because they describe the offences that this row's placement brings into play. Article 34 divides possession from trafficking by a 2 gram line: possession of under 2 grams carries 1 to 3 years, possession of 2 grams or more carries 3 to 6 years, and possession of any quantity with the object of doing anything Article 33 lists carries 6 to 10 years. Article 34 closes by providing that it does not apply where the conduct fits a graver offence. There is no personal use exemption anywhere in the Ley. Article 31 sets 5 to 15 years for sowing, cultivating or harvesting, and Article 33 sets 10 to 15 years for acquiring, transferring, importing, exporting, storing, transporting, distributing, supplying or selling. Article 33's second paragraph raises the trafficking penalty by one third of the stated maximum where the act is international trafficking, so the ceiling on that route is 20 years, and Article 54 allows a court to raise the penalty by up to one third of the maximum on any of nine listed aggravating circumstances, which is a discretion and not the mandatory increase Article 33 creates. Article 55 allows the penalty to be cut to half the minimum where the accused names others or enables a seizure. The ceiling on every one of these routes is imprisonment, because the severest sanction is constitutionally barred for ordinary offences in El Salvador, so no offence in this Ley carries it. The Ley creates no lawful recreational regime and no medical regime for any substance it reaches, cannabis included: Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be imported, produced, made, extracted, possessed or used only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for making products of industrial use, and only with the health regulator's authorisation. On the fine, the Sala de lo Constitucional struck the multa in each of these three articles as a penal consequence, Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments published on 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments published on 19 August 2009 and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010 published on 23 October 2013, so no fine now attaches to cultivation, trafficking or possession under this Ley. On quantity, the 2 gram line in Article 34 is the only weight the Ley fixes; it sets no substance by substance threshold and no quantity table, so the same 2 grams applies whatever the substance is. The 2 gram line and the bands of 1 to 3, 3 to 6, 6 to 10, 5 to 15 and 10 to 15 years and the one third increase are carried forward from the live cell and were re-read against the Asamblea Legislativa text for this pass; the Article 34 graver offence proviso, the Article 54 and Article 55 provisions and the three unconstitutionality rulings are new to this cell.
- If prescribed / medical
- Mescaline reaches people as a powder, a liquid, a blotter or a pressed tablet rather than as a dispensed medicine, so there is no prescription document to carry for it, and the name a Salvadoran laboratory report would use is mescalina. Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be held only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for industrial products, and only with the health regulator's authorisation, so there is no lawful personal quantity of it.
- Documentation
- The instrument read for this cell is the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, published in Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003, in the consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa. That text carries its own reform schedule: five reforms, the last of them Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018 in Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, so the consolidation read here is current to that reform. The same reform schedule was confirmed against a second publisher, the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which prints the identical list of five. The text also carries four rulings of the Sala de lo Constitucional, three of which strike the fine in Articles 31, 33 and 34 and the fourth of which struck the rule in Article 52 that equated preparatory acts with completed offences before that article was reformed in 2018. The substance list read for this cell is the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria. That document states its own currency in its Disposiciones generales: it was approved by that acuerdo and is «vigente hasta el 31 de marzo de 2027, o hasta que se emita un nuevo listado por parte de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria». It was read as at 21 September 2026, and the 2025 edition of the same list was fetched first and set aside once the 2026 edition was found on the regulator's own page. The list is the one Article 13 of the Ley requires, «una lista de drogas y de todas las preparaciones y especialidades farmaceuticas que las contengan de acuerdo a las categorias establecidas en la presente Ley», which Article 13 also requires to be sent to the Corte Suprema de Justicia, the Fiscalia General de la Republica and the Policia Nacional Civil so that judges and prosecutors know it. Article 13 names the Consejo Superior de Salud Publica as the body that makes it; the 2013 Reglamento names the Direccion Nacional de Medicamentos as the governing authority, and the Ley de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria dissolved that Direccion and moved its functions to the Superintendencia with effect from August 2024. That succession is stated from the Reglamento and from reporting of the Superintendencia law, whose own gazette text was not read for this cell. Article 2 defines droga in its own words: «Art. 2.- Para los efectos de esta Ley se consideran drogas las sustancias especificadas como tales en los Convenios Internacionales ratificados por El Salvador, las que se mencionan en el Código de Salud y demás leyes del país; y en general, las que indistintamente de su grado de pureza, actúan sobre el sistema nervioso central y tienen la capacidad de producir transformaciones, bien sea aumentando o disminuyendo su funcionamiento o modificando los estados de conciencia y que su uso indebido puede causar dependencia o sujeción física y psicológica.» Article 3 then prohibits activity relating to five named categories and, in letter f, «f) Cualquier otra sustancia que sea considerada droga tan nociva que amerite ser prohibida por el Consejo Superior de Salud Pública o por los convenios internacionales ratificados por el país.» The names searched across the list, in Spanish and in English, were mescalina, mezcalina. The matched entry was read before it was relied on, and it is «Mescalina», entry 11, CAS 54-04-6, at Parte B, Seccion I. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista I de la Convencion de 1971. Three routes were tried for the instrument and all three returned a document: the Asamblea Legislativa decree file, which returned the consolidated text; the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which returned the same consolidation; and the regulator's own listado page, which returned the 2026 list. Two routes returned nothing usable: the Asamblea decree index and law search paths both returned a not found page, and a fetch of the Asamblea search page failed on certificate verification. Carry any controlled medicine in its dispensing packaging with the prescription, and confirm the position with the Salvadoran embassy or consulate before you travel.
Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, Articles 2, 3, 13, 31, 32, 33, 34, 54 and 55, consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa, Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003 · Consolidation: current to Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018, Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, the last of the five reforms the text's own schedule prints, confirmed against the Fiscalia General de la Republica transparency copy · Unconstitutionality of the fine: Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments, Diario Oficial 196, Tomo 377, of 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments, Diario Oficial 152, Tomo 384, of 19 August 2009, and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010, Diario Oficial 197, Tomo 401, of 23 October 2013 · Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria, read as at 21 September 2026, the document stating its own currency to 31 March 2027 or until a new listado is issued · Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados, Decreto Ejecutivo 20, Diario Oficial of 13 February 2013, Articles 5, 26, 36, 37 and 40 · Placement: entry read at Parte B, Seccion I. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista I de la Convencion de 1971, entry 11, CAS 54-04-6 · Placement provenance: the Parte and Seccion stated for this row are not printed in the quoted dossier extract, and no quoted extract in that dossier carries a Parte or Seccion marker for any substance, because the dossier resolved every row against articles 2 and 3 of Decreto 153 alone and never reached the Listado. The placement is read directly from the Listado named above and not from the dossier · Penalty figures for the 2 gram line and the year bands in Articles 31, 33 and 34 carried forward from the live cell and not re-derived from a new source, then re-read against the Asamblea text. The Article 34 graver offence proviso, Articles 54 and 55 and the three unconstitutionality rulings are read from that text and are new to this cell · asamblea.gob.sv · srs.gob.sv · portaldetransparencia.fgr.gob.sv · Updated September 21, 2026
Methadone
- Legal status
- Controlled under the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003. Methadone is printed in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria as «Metadona», entry 81, CAS 76-99-3, at Parte A, Seccion I. Estupefacientes incluidos en la Lista I de la Convencion de 1961. Article 2 makes a droga any substance specified as such in the conventions El Salvador has ratified, and Article 3 prohibits every activity relating to the narcotic, depressant, stimulant, hallucinogen and cannabis categories, so a printed convention entry is reached by the definition itself. The synthetic intermediate of methadone is printed as its own entry at n.o 82, so the finished substance and the intermediate are controlled separately.
- Consequences if caught
- The synthetic intermediate of methadone is printed as its own entry at n.o 82, so the finished substance and the intermediate are controlled separately. Methadone is inside El Salvador's drug control regime, and the penalties below are set out because they describe the offences that this row's placement brings into play. Article 34 divides possession from trafficking by a 2 gram line: possession of under 2 grams carries 1 to 3 years, possession of 2 grams or more carries 3 to 6 years, and possession of any quantity with the object of doing anything Article 33 lists carries 6 to 10 years. Article 34 closes by providing that it does not apply where the conduct fits a graver offence. There is no personal use exemption anywhere in the Ley. Article 31 sets 5 to 15 years for sowing, cultivating or harvesting, and Article 33 sets 10 to 15 years for acquiring, transferring, importing, exporting, storing, transporting, distributing, supplying or selling. Article 33's second paragraph raises the trafficking penalty by one third of the stated maximum where the act is international trafficking, so the ceiling on that route is 20 years, and Article 54 allows a court to raise the penalty by up to one third of the maximum on any of nine listed aggravating circumstances, which is a discretion and not the mandatory increase Article 33 creates. Article 55 allows the penalty to be cut to half the minimum where the accused names others or enables a seizure. The ceiling on every one of these routes is imprisonment, because the severest sanction is constitutionally barred for ordinary offences in El Salvador, so no offence in this Ley carries it. The Ley creates no lawful recreational regime and no medical regime for any substance it reaches, cannabis included: Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be imported, produced, made, extracted, possessed or used only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for making products of industrial use, and only with the health regulator's authorisation. On the fine, the Sala de lo Constitucional struck the multa in each of these three articles as a penal consequence, Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments published on 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments published on 19 August 2009 and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010 published on 23 October 2013, so no fine now attaches to cultivation, trafficking or possession under this Ley. On quantity, the 2 gram line in Article 34 is the only weight the Ley fixes; it sets no substance by substance threshold and no quantity table, so the same 2 grams applies whatever the substance is. The 2 gram line and the bands of 1 to 3, 3 to 6, 6 to 10, 5 to 15 and 10 to 15 years and the one third increase are carried forward from the live cell and were re-read against the Asamblea Legislativa text for this pass; the Article 34 graver offence proviso, the Article 54 and Article 55 provisions and the three unconstitutionality rulings are new to this cell.
- If prescribed / medical
- Methadone reaches people here as a dispensed medicine, and the name a Salvadoran pharmacy record or a laboratory report would use is metadona. Article 37 of the Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados requires that narcotics, psychotropics and agregados be prescribed on Recetarios Especiales printed by the regulator and issued to the professional, in books of at least twenty five cheque style forms and up to two hundred, and Article 40 of that Reglamento makes a special prescription valid for thirty days, with three monthly prescriptions allowed for a chronic patient. Article 14 of the Ley requires the pack to carry a warning that the product is sold only on medical prescription and is under the health regulator's control. A prescribing doctor who supplies outside the therapeutic indication commits the Article 38 offence, which carries 3 to 5 years, and a pharmacy that dispenses without the prescription commits the Article 40 offence, which carries 5 to 15 years. Carry it in its dispensing packaging with the prescription.
- Documentation
- The instrument read for this cell is the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, published in Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003, in the consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa. That text carries its own reform schedule: five reforms, the last of them Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018 in Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, so the consolidation read here is current to that reform. The same reform schedule was confirmed against a second publisher, the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which prints the identical list of five. The text also carries four rulings of the Sala de lo Constitucional, three of which strike the fine in Articles 31, 33 and 34 and the fourth of which struck the rule in Article 52 that equated preparatory acts with completed offences before that article was reformed in 2018. The substance list read for this cell is the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria. That document states its own currency in its Disposiciones generales: it was approved by that acuerdo and is «vigente hasta el 31 de marzo de 2027, o hasta que se emita un nuevo listado por parte de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria». It was read as at 21 September 2026, and the 2025 edition of the same list was fetched first and set aside once the 2026 edition was found on the regulator's own page. The list is the one Article 13 of the Ley requires, «una lista de drogas y de todas las preparaciones y especialidades farmaceuticas que las contengan de acuerdo a las categorias establecidas en la presente Ley», which Article 13 also requires to be sent to the Corte Suprema de Justicia, the Fiscalia General de la Republica and the Policia Nacional Civil so that judges and prosecutors know it. Article 13 names the Consejo Superior de Salud Publica as the body that makes it; the 2013 Reglamento names the Direccion Nacional de Medicamentos as the governing authority, and the Ley de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria dissolved that Direccion and moved its functions to the Superintendencia with effect from August 2024. That succession is stated from the Reglamento and from reporting of the Superintendencia law, whose own gazette text was not read for this cell. Article 2 defines droga in its own words: «Art. 2.- Para los efectos de esta Ley se consideran drogas las sustancias especificadas como tales en los Convenios Internacionales ratificados por El Salvador, las que se mencionan en el Código de Salud y demás leyes del país; y en general, las que indistintamente de su grado de pureza, actúan sobre el sistema nervioso central y tienen la capacidad de producir transformaciones, bien sea aumentando o disminuyendo su funcionamiento o modificando los estados de conciencia y que su uso indebido puede causar dependencia o sujeción física y psicológica.» Article 3 then prohibits activity relating to five named categories and, in letter f, «f) Cualquier otra sustancia que sea considerada droga tan nociva que amerite ser prohibida por el Consejo Superior de Salud Pública o por los convenios internacionales ratificados por el país.» The names searched across the list, in Spanish and in English, were metadona, isometadona, normetadona. The matched entry was read before it was relied on, and it is «Metadona», entry 81, CAS 76-99-3, at Parte A, Seccion I. Estupefacientes incluidos en la Lista I de la Convencion de 1961. Three routes were tried for the instrument and all three returned a document: the Asamblea Legislativa decree file, which returned the consolidated text; the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which returned the same consolidation; and the regulator's own listado page, which returned the 2026 list. Two routes returned nothing usable: the Asamblea decree index and law search paths both returned a not found page, and a fetch of the Asamblea search page failed on certificate verification. Carry any controlled medicine in its dispensing packaging with the prescription, and confirm the position with the Salvadoran embassy or consulate before you travel.
Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, Articles 2, 3, 13, 31, 32, 33, 34, 54 and 55, consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa, Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003 · Consolidation: current to Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018, Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, the last of the five reforms the text's own schedule prints, confirmed against the Fiscalia General de la Republica transparency copy · Unconstitutionality of the fine: Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments, Diario Oficial 196, Tomo 377, of 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments, Diario Oficial 152, Tomo 384, of 19 August 2009, and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010, Diario Oficial 197, Tomo 401, of 23 October 2013 · Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria, read as at 21 September 2026, the document stating its own currency to 31 March 2027 or until a new listado is issued · Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados, Decreto Ejecutivo 20, Diario Oficial of 13 February 2013, Articles 5, 26, 36, 37 and 40 · Placement: entry read at Parte A, Seccion I. Estupefacientes incluidos en la Lista I de la Convencion de 1961, entry 81, CAS 76-99-3 · Placement provenance: the Parte and Seccion stated for this row are not printed in the quoted dossier extract, and no quoted extract in that dossier carries a Parte or Seccion marker for any substance, because the dossier resolved every row against articles 2 and 3 of Decreto 153 alone and never reached the Listado. The placement is read directly from the Listado named above and not from the dossier · Penalty figures for the 2 gram line and the year bands in Articles 31, 33 and 34 carried forward from the live cell and not re-derived from a new source, then re-read against the Asamblea text. The Article 34 graver offence proviso, Articles 54 and 55 and the three unconstitutionality rulings are read from that text and are new to this cell · asamblea.gob.sv · srs.gob.sv · portaldetransparencia.fgr.gob.sv · Updated September 21, 2026
Methamphetamine
- Legal status
- Controlled under the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003. Methamphetamine is printed in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria as «Metanfetamina», entry 72, CAS 537-46-2, at Parte B, Seccion II. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista II de la Convencion de 1971. Article 2 makes a droga any substance specified as such in the conventions El Salvador has ratified, and Article 3 prohibits every activity relating to the narcotic, depressant, stimulant, hallucinogen and cannabis categories, so a printed convention entry is reached by the definition itself. The dextro isomer, the levo isomer and the racemate each carry a separate entry at n.os 72, 70 and 75, so an isomer report is answered without extending any one entry.
- Consequences if caught
- The dextro isomer, the levo isomer and the racemate each carry a separate entry at n.os 72, 70 and 75, so an isomer report is answered without extending any one entry. Methamphetamine is inside El Salvador's drug control regime, and the penalties below are set out because they describe the offences that this row's placement brings into play. Article 34 divides possession from trafficking by a 2 gram line: possession of under 2 grams carries 1 to 3 years, possession of 2 grams or more carries 3 to 6 years, and possession of any quantity with the object of doing anything Article 33 lists carries 6 to 10 years. Article 34 closes by providing that it does not apply where the conduct fits a graver offence. There is no personal use exemption anywhere in the Ley. Article 31 sets 5 to 15 years for sowing, cultivating or harvesting, and Article 33 sets 10 to 15 years for acquiring, transferring, importing, exporting, storing, transporting, distributing, supplying or selling. Article 33's second paragraph raises the trafficking penalty by one third of the stated maximum where the act is international trafficking, so the ceiling on that route is 20 years, and Article 54 allows a court to raise the penalty by up to one third of the maximum on any of nine listed aggravating circumstances, which is a discretion and not the mandatory increase Article 33 creates. Article 55 allows the penalty to be cut to half the minimum where the accused names others or enables a seizure. The ceiling on every one of these routes is imprisonment, because the severest sanction is constitutionally barred for ordinary offences in El Salvador, so no offence in this Ley carries it. The Ley creates no lawful recreational regime and no medical regime for any substance it reaches, cannabis included: Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be imported, produced, made, extracted, possessed or used only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for making products of industrial use, and only with the health regulator's authorisation. On the fine, the Sala de lo Constitucional struck the multa in each of these three articles as a penal consequence, Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments published on 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments published on 19 August 2009 and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010 published on 23 October 2013, so no fine now attaches to cultivation, trafficking or possession under this Ley. On quantity, the 2 gram line in Article 34 is the only weight the Ley fixes; it sets no substance by substance threshold and no quantity table, so the same 2 grams applies whatever the substance is. The 2 gram line and the bands of 1 to 3, 3 to 6, 6 to 10, 5 to 15 and 10 to 15 years and the one third increase are carried forward from the live cell and were re-read against the Asamblea Legislativa text for this pass; the Article 34 graver offence proviso, the Article 54 and Article 55 provisions and the three unconstitutionality rulings are new to this cell.
- If prescribed / medical
- Methamphetamine reaches people as a powder, a liquid, a blotter or a pressed tablet rather than as a dispensed medicine, so there is no prescription document to carry for it, and the name a Salvadoran laboratory report would use is metanfetamina. Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be held only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for industrial products, and only with the health regulator's authorisation, so there is no lawful personal quantity of it.
- Documentation
- The instrument read for this cell is the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, published in Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003, in the consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa. That text carries its own reform schedule: five reforms, the last of them Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018 in Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, so the consolidation read here is current to that reform. The same reform schedule was confirmed against a second publisher, the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which prints the identical list of five. The text also carries four rulings of the Sala de lo Constitucional, three of which strike the fine in Articles 31, 33 and 34 and the fourth of which struck the rule in Article 52 that equated preparatory acts with completed offences before that article was reformed in 2018. The substance list read for this cell is the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria. That document states its own currency in its Disposiciones generales: it was approved by that acuerdo and is «vigente hasta el 31 de marzo de 2027, o hasta que se emita un nuevo listado por parte de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria». It was read as at 21 September 2026, and the 2025 edition of the same list was fetched first and set aside once the 2026 edition was found on the regulator's own page. The list is the one Article 13 of the Ley requires, «una lista de drogas y de todas las preparaciones y especialidades farmaceuticas que las contengan de acuerdo a las categorias establecidas en la presente Ley», which Article 13 also requires to be sent to the Corte Suprema de Justicia, the Fiscalia General de la Republica and the Policia Nacional Civil so that judges and prosecutors know it. Article 13 names the Consejo Superior de Salud Publica as the body that makes it; the 2013 Reglamento names the Direccion Nacional de Medicamentos as the governing authority, and the Ley de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria dissolved that Direccion and moved its functions to the Superintendencia with effect from August 2024. That succession is stated from the Reglamento and from reporting of the Superintendencia law, whose own gazette text was not read for this cell. Article 2 defines droga in its own words: «Art. 2.- Para los efectos de esta Ley se consideran drogas las sustancias especificadas como tales en los Convenios Internacionales ratificados por El Salvador, las que se mencionan en el Código de Salud y demás leyes del país; y en general, las que indistintamente de su grado de pureza, actúan sobre el sistema nervioso central y tienen la capacidad de producir transformaciones, bien sea aumentando o disminuyendo su funcionamiento o modificando los estados de conciencia y que su uso indebido puede causar dependencia o sujeción física y psicológica.» Article 3 then prohibits activity relating to five named categories and, in letter f, «f) Cualquier otra sustancia que sea considerada droga tan nociva que amerite ser prohibida por el Consejo Superior de Salud Pública o por los convenios internacionales ratificados por el país.» The names searched across the list, in Spanish and in English, were metanfetamina, levometanfetamina, racemato de metanfetamina. The matched entry was read before it was relied on, and it is «Metanfetamina», entry 72, CAS 537-46-2, at Parte B, Seccion II. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista II de la Convencion de 1971. Three routes were tried for the instrument and all three returned a document: the Asamblea Legislativa decree file, which returned the consolidated text; the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which returned the same consolidation; and the regulator's own listado page, which returned the 2026 list. Two routes returned nothing usable: the Asamblea decree index and law search paths both returned a not found page, and a fetch of the Asamblea search page failed on certificate verification. Carry any controlled medicine in its dispensing packaging with the prescription, and confirm the position with the Salvadoran embassy or consulate before you travel.
Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, Articles 2, 3, 13, 31, 32, 33, 34, 54 and 55, consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa, Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003 · Consolidation: current to Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018, Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, the last of the five reforms the text's own schedule prints, confirmed against the Fiscalia General de la Republica transparency copy · Unconstitutionality of the fine: Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments, Diario Oficial 196, Tomo 377, of 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments, Diario Oficial 152, Tomo 384, of 19 August 2009, and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010, Diario Oficial 197, Tomo 401, of 23 October 2013 · Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria, read as at 21 September 2026, the document stating its own currency to 31 March 2027 or until a new listado is issued · Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados, Decreto Ejecutivo 20, Diario Oficial of 13 February 2013, Articles 5, 26, 36, 37 and 40 · Placement: entry read at Parte B, Seccion II. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista II de la Convencion de 1971, entry 72, CAS 537-46-2 · Placement provenance: the Parte and Seccion stated for this row are not printed in the quoted dossier extract, and no quoted extract in that dossier carries a Parte or Seccion marker for any substance, because the dossier resolved every row against articles 2 and 3 of Decreto 153 alone and never reached the Listado. The placement is read directly from the Listado named above and not from the dossier · Penalty figures for the 2 gram line and the year bands in Articles 31, 33 and 34 carried forward from the live cell and not re-derived from a new source, then re-read against the Asamblea text. The Article 34 graver offence proviso, Articles 54 and 55 and the three unconstitutionality rulings are read from that text and are new to this cell · asamblea.gob.sv · srs.gob.sv · portaldetransparencia.fgr.gob.sv · Updated September 21, 2026
Methaqualone (Quaaludes)
- Legal status
- Controlled under the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003. Methaqualone is printed in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria as «Metacualona», entry 73, CAS 72-44-6, at Parte B, Seccion II. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista II de la Convencion de 1971. Article 2 makes a droga any substance specified as such in the conventions El Salvador has ratified, and Article 3 prohibits every activity relating to the narcotic, depressant, stimulant, hallucinogen and cannabis categories, so a printed convention entry is reached by the definition itself. The Spanish spelling drops the qu, and the related quinazolinone Mecloqualona is printed separately, so the entry answers this compound alone.
- Consequences if caught
- The Spanish spelling drops the qu, and the related quinazolinone Mecloqualona is printed separately, so the entry answers this compound alone. Methaqualone is inside El Salvador's drug control regime, and the penalties below are set out because they describe the offences that this row's placement brings into play. Article 34 divides possession from trafficking by a 2 gram line: possession of under 2 grams carries 1 to 3 years, possession of 2 grams or more carries 3 to 6 years, and possession of any quantity with the object of doing anything Article 33 lists carries 6 to 10 years. Article 34 closes by providing that it does not apply where the conduct fits a graver offence. There is no personal use exemption anywhere in the Ley. Article 31 sets 5 to 15 years for sowing, cultivating or harvesting, and Article 33 sets 10 to 15 years for acquiring, transferring, importing, exporting, storing, transporting, distributing, supplying or selling. Article 33's second paragraph raises the trafficking penalty by one third of the stated maximum where the act is international trafficking, so the ceiling on that route is 20 years, and Article 54 allows a court to raise the penalty by up to one third of the maximum on any of nine listed aggravating circumstances, which is a discretion and not the mandatory increase Article 33 creates. Article 55 allows the penalty to be cut to half the minimum where the accused names others or enables a seizure. The ceiling on every one of these routes is imprisonment, because the severest sanction is constitutionally barred for ordinary offences in El Salvador, so no offence in this Ley carries it. The Ley creates no lawful recreational regime and no medical regime for any substance it reaches, cannabis included: Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be imported, produced, made, extracted, possessed or used only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for making products of industrial use, and only with the health regulator's authorisation. On the fine, the Sala de lo Constitucional struck the multa in each of these three articles as a penal consequence, Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments published on 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments published on 19 August 2009 and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010 published on 23 October 2013, so no fine now attaches to cultivation, trafficking or possession under this Ley. On quantity, the 2 gram line in Article 34 is the only weight the Ley fixes; it sets no substance by substance threshold and no quantity table, so the same 2 grams applies whatever the substance is. The 2 gram line and the bands of 1 to 3, 3 to 6, 6 to 10, 5 to 15 and 10 to 15 years and the one third increase are carried forward from the live cell and were re-read against the Asamblea Legislativa text for this pass; the Article 34 graver offence proviso, the Article 54 and Article 55 provisions and the three unconstitutionality rulings are new to this cell.
- If prescribed / medical
- Methaqualone reaches people as a powder, a liquid, a blotter or a pressed tablet rather than as a dispensed medicine, so there is no prescription document to carry for it, and the name a Salvadoran laboratory report would use is metacualona. Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be held only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for industrial products, and only with the health regulator's authorisation, so there is no lawful personal quantity of it.
- Documentation
- The instrument read for this cell is the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, published in Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003, in the consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa. That text carries its own reform schedule: five reforms, the last of them Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018 in Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, so the consolidation read here is current to that reform. The same reform schedule was confirmed against a second publisher, the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which prints the identical list of five. The text also carries four rulings of the Sala de lo Constitucional, three of which strike the fine in Articles 31, 33 and 34 and the fourth of which struck the rule in Article 52 that equated preparatory acts with completed offences before that article was reformed in 2018. The substance list read for this cell is the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria. That document states its own currency in its Disposiciones generales: it was approved by that acuerdo and is «vigente hasta el 31 de marzo de 2027, o hasta que se emita un nuevo listado por parte de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria». It was read as at 21 September 2026, and the 2025 edition of the same list was fetched first and set aside once the 2026 edition was found on the regulator's own page. The list is the one Article 13 of the Ley requires, «una lista de drogas y de todas las preparaciones y especialidades farmaceuticas que las contengan de acuerdo a las categorias establecidas en la presente Ley», which Article 13 also requires to be sent to the Corte Suprema de Justicia, the Fiscalia General de la Republica and the Policia Nacional Civil so that judges and prosecutors know it. Article 13 names the Consejo Superior de Salud Publica as the body that makes it; the 2013 Reglamento names the Direccion Nacional de Medicamentos as the governing authority, and the Ley de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria dissolved that Direccion and moved its functions to the Superintendencia with effect from August 2024. That succession is stated from the Reglamento and from reporting of the Superintendencia law, whose own gazette text was not read for this cell. Article 2 defines droga in its own words: «Art. 2.- Para los efectos de esta Ley se consideran drogas las sustancias especificadas como tales en los Convenios Internacionales ratificados por El Salvador, las que se mencionan en el Código de Salud y demás leyes del país; y en general, las que indistintamente de su grado de pureza, actúan sobre el sistema nervioso central y tienen la capacidad de producir transformaciones, bien sea aumentando o disminuyendo su funcionamiento o modificando los estados de conciencia y que su uso indebido puede causar dependencia o sujeción física y psicológica.» Article 3 then prohibits activity relating to five named categories and, in letter f, «f) Cualquier otra sustancia que sea considerada droga tan nociva que amerite ser prohibida por el Consejo Superior de Salud Pública o por los convenios internacionales ratificados por el país.» The names searched across the list, in Spanish and in English, were metacualona, metaqualona, mandrax. The matched entry was read before it was relied on, and it is «Metacualona», entry 73, CAS 72-44-6, at Parte B, Seccion II. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista II de la Convencion de 1971. Three routes were tried for the instrument and all three returned a document: the Asamblea Legislativa decree file, which returned the consolidated text; the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which returned the same consolidation; and the regulator's own listado page, which returned the 2026 list. Two routes returned nothing usable: the Asamblea decree index and law search paths both returned a not found page, and a fetch of the Asamblea search page failed on certificate verification. Carry any controlled medicine in its dispensing packaging with the prescription, and confirm the position with the Salvadoran embassy or consulate before you travel.
Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, Articles 2, 3, 13, 31, 32, 33, 34, 54 and 55, consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa, Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003 · Consolidation: current to Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018, Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, the last of the five reforms the text's own schedule prints, confirmed against the Fiscalia General de la Republica transparency copy · Unconstitutionality of the fine: Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments, Diario Oficial 196, Tomo 377, of 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments, Diario Oficial 152, Tomo 384, of 19 August 2009, and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010, Diario Oficial 197, Tomo 401, of 23 October 2013 · Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria, read as at 21 September 2026, the document stating its own currency to 31 March 2027 or until a new listado is issued · Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados, Decreto Ejecutivo 20, Diario Oficial of 13 February 2013, Articles 5, 26, 36, 37 and 40 · Placement: entry read at Parte B, Seccion II. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista II de la Convencion de 1971, entry 73, CAS 72-44-6 · Placement provenance: the Parte and Seccion stated for this row are not printed in the quoted dossier extract, and no quoted extract in that dossier carries a Parte or Seccion marker for any substance, because the dossier resolved every row against articles 2 and 3 of Decreto 153 alone and never reached the Listado. The placement is read directly from the Listado named above and not from the dossier · Penalty figures for the 2 gram line and the year bands in Articles 31, 33 and 34 carried forward from the live cell and not re-derived from a new source, then re-read against the Asamblea text. The Article 34 graver offence proviso, Articles 54 and 55 and the three unconstitutionality rulings are read from that text and are new to this cell · asamblea.gob.sv · srs.gob.sv · portaldetransparencia.fgr.gob.sv · Updated September 21, 2026
Methylone
- Legal status
- Controlled under the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003. Methylone is printed in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria as «Metilona, beta-ceto-MDMA», entry 78, at Parte B, Seccion II. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista II de la Convencion de 1971. Article 2 makes a droga any substance specified as such in the conventions El Salvador has ratified, and Article 3 prohibits every activity relating to the narcotic, depressant, stimulant, hallucinogen and cannabis categories, so a printed convention entry is reached by the definition itself. It is printed with its relationship to MDMA in the entry name itself, yet it sits in a different convention section from MDMA, which is in Parte B Seccion I.
- Consequences if caught
- It is printed with its relationship to MDMA in the entry name itself, yet it sits in a different convention section from MDMA, which is in Parte B Seccion I. Methylone is inside El Salvador's drug control regime, and the penalties below are set out because they describe the offences that this row's placement brings into play. Article 34 divides possession from trafficking by a 2 gram line: possession of under 2 grams carries 1 to 3 years, possession of 2 grams or more carries 3 to 6 years, and possession of any quantity with the object of doing anything Article 33 lists carries 6 to 10 years. Article 34 closes by providing that it does not apply where the conduct fits a graver offence. There is no personal use exemption anywhere in the Ley. Article 31 sets 5 to 15 years for sowing, cultivating or harvesting, and Article 33 sets 10 to 15 years for acquiring, transferring, importing, exporting, storing, transporting, distributing, supplying or selling. Article 33's second paragraph raises the trafficking penalty by one third of the stated maximum where the act is international trafficking, so the ceiling on that route is 20 years, and Article 54 allows a court to raise the penalty by up to one third of the maximum on any of nine listed aggravating circumstances, which is a discretion and not the mandatory increase Article 33 creates. Article 55 allows the penalty to be cut to half the minimum where the accused names others or enables a seizure. The ceiling on every one of these routes is imprisonment, because the severest sanction is constitutionally barred for ordinary offences in El Salvador, so no offence in this Ley carries it. The Ley creates no lawful recreational regime and no medical regime for any substance it reaches, cannabis included: Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be imported, produced, made, extracted, possessed or used only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for making products of industrial use, and only with the health regulator's authorisation. On the fine, the Sala de lo Constitucional struck the multa in each of these three articles as a penal consequence, Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments published on 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments published on 19 August 2009 and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010 published on 23 October 2013, so no fine now attaches to cultivation, trafficking or possession under this Ley. On quantity, the 2 gram line in Article 34 is the only weight the Ley fixes; it sets no substance by substance threshold and no quantity table, so the same 2 grams applies whatever the substance is. The 2 gram line and the bands of 1 to 3, 3 to 6, 6 to 10, 5 to 15 and 10 to 15 years and the one third increase are carried forward from the live cell and were re-read against the Asamblea Legislativa text for this pass; the Article 34 graver offence proviso, the Article 54 and Article 55 provisions and the three unconstitutionality rulings are new to this cell.
- If prescribed / medical
- Methylone reaches people as a powder, a liquid, a blotter or a pressed tablet rather than as a dispensed medicine, so there is no prescription document to carry for it, and the name a Salvadoran laboratory report would use is metilona. Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be held only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for industrial products, and only with the health regulator's authorisation, so there is no lawful personal quantity of it.
- Documentation
- The instrument read for this cell is the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, published in Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003, in the consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa. That text carries its own reform schedule: five reforms, the last of them Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018 in Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, so the consolidation read here is current to that reform. The same reform schedule was confirmed against a second publisher, the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which prints the identical list of five. The text also carries four rulings of the Sala de lo Constitucional, three of which strike the fine in Articles 31, 33 and 34 and the fourth of which struck the rule in Article 52 that equated preparatory acts with completed offences before that article was reformed in 2018. The substance list read for this cell is the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria. That document states its own currency in its Disposiciones generales: it was approved by that acuerdo and is «vigente hasta el 31 de marzo de 2027, o hasta que se emita un nuevo listado por parte de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria». It was read as at 21 September 2026, and the 2025 edition of the same list was fetched first and set aside once the 2026 edition was found on the regulator's own page. The list is the one Article 13 of the Ley requires, «una lista de drogas y de todas las preparaciones y especialidades farmaceuticas que las contengan de acuerdo a las categorias establecidas en la presente Ley», which Article 13 also requires to be sent to the Corte Suprema de Justicia, the Fiscalia General de la Republica and the Policia Nacional Civil so that judges and prosecutors know it. Article 13 names the Consejo Superior de Salud Publica as the body that makes it; the 2013 Reglamento names the Direccion Nacional de Medicamentos as the governing authority, and the Ley de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria dissolved that Direccion and moved its functions to the Superintendencia with effect from August 2024. That succession is stated from the Reglamento and from reporting of the Superintendencia law, whose own gazette text was not read for this cell. Article 2 defines droga in its own words: «Art. 2.- Para los efectos de esta Ley se consideran drogas las sustancias especificadas como tales en los Convenios Internacionales ratificados por El Salvador, las que se mencionan en el Código de Salud y demás leyes del país; y en general, las que indistintamente de su grado de pureza, actúan sobre el sistema nervioso central y tienen la capacidad de producir transformaciones, bien sea aumentando o disminuyendo su funcionamiento o modificando los estados de conciencia y que su uso indebido puede causar dependencia o sujeción física y psicológica.» Article 3 then prohibits activity relating to five named categories and, in letter f, «f) Cualquier otra sustancia que sea considerada droga tan nociva que amerite ser prohibida por el Consejo Superior de Salud Pública o por los convenios internacionales ratificados por el país.» The names searched across the list, in Spanish and in English, were metilona, methylone, beta-ceto-MDMA. The matched entry was read before it was relied on, and it is «Metilona, beta-ceto-MDMA», entry 78, at Parte B, Seccion II. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista II de la Convencion de 1971. Three routes were tried for the instrument and all three returned a document: the Asamblea Legislativa decree file, which returned the consolidated text; the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which returned the same consolidation; and the regulator's own listado page, which returned the 2026 list. Two routes returned nothing usable: the Asamblea decree index and law search paths both returned a not found page, and a fetch of the Asamblea search page failed on certificate verification. Carry any controlled medicine in its dispensing packaging with the prescription, and confirm the position with the Salvadoran embassy or consulate before you travel.
Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, Articles 2, 3, 13, 31, 32, 33, 34, 54 and 55, consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa, Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003 · Consolidation: current to Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018, Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, the last of the five reforms the text's own schedule prints, confirmed against the Fiscalia General de la Republica transparency copy · Unconstitutionality of the fine: Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments, Diario Oficial 196, Tomo 377, of 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments, Diario Oficial 152, Tomo 384, of 19 August 2009, and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010, Diario Oficial 197, Tomo 401, of 23 October 2013 · Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria, read as at 21 September 2026, the document stating its own currency to 31 March 2027 or until a new listado is issued · Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados, Decreto Ejecutivo 20, Diario Oficial of 13 February 2013, Articles 5, 26, 36, 37 and 40 · Placement: entry read at Parte B, Seccion II. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista II de la Convencion de 1971, entry 78 · Placement provenance: the Parte and Seccion stated for this row are not printed in the quoted dossier extract, and no quoted extract in that dossier carries a Parte or Seccion marker for any substance, because the dossier resolved every row against articles 2 and 3 of Decreto 153 alone and never reached the Listado. The placement is read directly from the Listado named above and not from the dossier · Penalty figures for the 2 gram line and the year bands in Articles 31, 33 and 34 carried forward from the live cell and not re-derived from a new source, then re-read against the Asamblea text. The Article 34 graver offence proviso, Articles 54 and 55 and the three unconstitutionality rulings are read from that text and are new to this cell · asamblea.gob.sv · srs.gob.sv · portaldetransparencia.fgr.gob.sv · Updated September 21, 2026
Methylphenidate
- Legal status
- Controlled under the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003. Methylphenidate is printed in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria as «Metilfenidato», entry 74, CAS 113-45-1, at Parte B, Seccion II. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista II de la Convencion de 1971. Article 2 makes a droga any substance specified as such in the conventions El Salvador has ratified, and Article 3 prohibits every activity relating to the narcotic, depressant, stimulant, hallucinogen and cannabis categories, so a printed convention entry is reached by the definition itself. It sits in the 1971 Lista II section alongside the amphetamines rather than in the milder Lista IV section that carries most prescription stimulant adjacent medicines.
- Consequences if caught
- It sits in the 1971 Lista II section alongside the amphetamines rather than in the milder Lista IV section that carries most prescription stimulant adjacent medicines. Methylphenidate is inside El Salvador's drug control regime, and the penalties below are set out because they describe the offences that this row's placement brings into play. Article 34 divides possession from trafficking by a 2 gram line: possession of under 2 grams carries 1 to 3 years, possession of 2 grams or more carries 3 to 6 years, and possession of any quantity with the object of doing anything Article 33 lists carries 6 to 10 years. Article 34 closes by providing that it does not apply where the conduct fits a graver offence. There is no personal use exemption anywhere in the Ley. Article 31 sets 5 to 15 years for sowing, cultivating or harvesting, and Article 33 sets 10 to 15 years for acquiring, transferring, importing, exporting, storing, transporting, distributing, supplying or selling. Article 33's second paragraph raises the trafficking penalty by one third of the stated maximum where the act is international trafficking, so the ceiling on that route is 20 years, and Article 54 allows a court to raise the penalty by up to one third of the maximum on any of nine listed aggravating circumstances, which is a discretion and not the mandatory increase Article 33 creates. Article 55 allows the penalty to be cut to half the minimum where the accused names others or enables a seizure. The ceiling on every one of these routes is imprisonment, because the severest sanction is constitutionally barred for ordinary offences in El Salvador, so no offence in this Ley carries it. The Ley creates no lawful recreational regime and no medical regime for any substance it reaches, cannabis included: Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be imported, produced, made, extracted, possessed or used only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for making products of industrial use, and only with the health regulator's authorisation. On the fine, the Sala de lo Constitucional struck the multa in each of these three articles as a penal consequence, Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments published on 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments published on 19 August 2009 and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010 published on 23 October 2013, so no fine now attaches to cultivation, trafficking or possession under this Ley. On quantity, the 2 gram line in Article 34 is the only weight the Ley fixes; it sets no substance by substance threshold and no quantity table, so the same 2 grams applies whatever the substance is. The 2 gram line and the bands of 1 to 3, 3 to 6, 6 to 10, 5 to 15 and 10 to 15 years and the one third increase are carried forward from the live cell and were re-read against the Asamblea Legislativa text for this pass; the Article 34 graver offence proviso, the Article 54 and Article 55 provisions and the three unconstitutionality rulings are new to this cell.
- If prescribed / medical
- Methylphenidate reaches people here as a dispensed medicine, and the name a Salvadoran pharmacy record or a laboratory report would use is metilfenidato. Article 37 of the Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados requires that narcotics, psychotropics and agregados be prescribed on Recetarios Especiales printed by the regulator and issued to the professional, in books of at least twenty five cheque style forms and up to two hundred, and Article 40 of that Reglamento makes a special prescription valid for thirty days, with three monthly prescriptions allowed for a chronic patient. Article 14 of the Ley requires the pack to carry a warning that the product is sold only on medical prescription and is under the health regulator's control. A prescribing doctor who supplies outside the therapeutic indication commits the Article 38 offence, which carries 3 to 5 years, and a pharmacy that dispenses without the prescription commits the Article 40 offence, which carries 5 to 15 years. Carry it in its dispensing packaging with the prescription.
- Documentation
- The instrument read for this cell is the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, published in Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003, in the consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa. That text carries its own reform schedule: five reforms, the last of them Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018 in Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, so the consolidation read here is current to that reform. The same reform schedule was confirmed against a second publisher, the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which prints the identical list of five. The text also carries four rulings of the Sala de lo Constitucional, three of which strike the fine in Articles 31, 33 and 34 and the fourth of which struck the rule in Article 52 that equated preparatory acts with completed offences before that article was reformed in 2018. The substance list read for this cell is the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria. That document states its own currency in its Disposiciones generales: it was approved by that acuerdo and is «vigente hasta el 31 de marzo de 2027, o hasta que se emita un nuevo listado por parte de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria». It was read as at 21 September 2026, and the 2025 edition of the same list was fetched first and set aside once the 2026 edition was found on the regulator's own page. The list is the one Article 13 of the Ley requires, «una lista de drogas y de todas las preparaciones y especialidades farmaceuticas que las contengan de acuerdo a las categorias establecidas en la presente Ley», which Article 13 also requires to be sent to the Corte Suprema de Justicia, the Fiscalia General de la Republica and the Policia Nacional Civil so that judges and prosecutors know it. Article 13 names the Consejo Superior de Salud Publica as the body that makes it; the 2013 Reglamento names the Direccion Nacional de Medicamentos as the governing authority, and the Ley de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria dissolved that Direccion and moved its functions to the Superintendencia with effect from August 2024. That succession is stated from the Reglamento and from reporting of the Superintendencia law, whose own gazette text was not read for this cell. Article 2 defines droga in its own words: «Art. 2.- Para los efectos de esta Ley se consideran drogas las sustancias especificadas como tales en los Convenios Internacionales ratificados por El Salvador, las que se mencionan en el Código de Salud y demás leyes del país; y en general, las que indistintamente de su grado de pureza, actúan sobre el sistema nervioso central y tienen la capacidad de producir transformaciones, bien sea aumentando o disminuyendo su funcionamiento o modificando los estados de conciencia y que su uso indebido puede causar dependencia o sujeción física y psicológica.» Article 3 then prohibits activity relating to five named categories and, in letter f, «f) Cualquier otra sustancia que sea considerada droga tan nociva que amerite ser prohibida por el Consejo Superior de Salud Pública o por los convenios internacionales ratificados por el país.» The names searched across the list, in Spanish and in English, were metilfenidato. The matched entry was read before it was relied on, and it is «Metilfenidato», entry 74, CAS 113-45-1, at Parte B, Seccion II. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista II de la Convencion de 1971. Three routes were tried for the instrument and all three returned a document: the Asamblea Legislativa decree file, which returned the consolidated text; the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which returned the same consolidation; and the regulator's own listado page, which returned the 2026 list. Two routes returned nothing usable: the Asamblea decree index and law search paths both returned a not found page, and a fetch of the Asamblea search page failed on certificate verification. Carry any controlled medicine in its dispensing packaging with the prescription, and confirm the position with the Salvadoran embassy or consulate before you travel.
Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, Articles 2, 3, 13, 31, 32, 33, 34, 54 and 55, consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa, Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003 · Consolidation: current to Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018, Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, the last of the five reforms the text's own schedule prints, confirmed against the Fiscalia General de la Republica transparency copy · Unconstitutionality of the fine: Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments, Diario Oficial 196, Tomo 377, of 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments, Diario Oficial 152, Tomo 384, of 19 August 2009, and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010, Diario Oficial 197, Tomo 401, of 23 October 2013 · Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria, read as at 21 September 2026, the document stating its own currency to 31 March 2027 or until a new listado is issued · Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados, Decreto Ejecutivo 20, Diario Oficial of 13 February 2013, Articles 5, 26, 36, 37 and 40 · Placement: entry read at Parte B, Seccion II. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista II de la Convencion de 1971, entry 74, CAS 113-45-1 · Placement provenance: the Parte and Seccion stated for this row are not printed in the quoted dossier extract, and no quoted extract in that dossier carries a Parte or Seccion marker for any substance, because the dossier resolved every row against articles 2 and 3 of Decreto 153 alone and never reached the Listado. The placement is read directly from the Listado named above and not from the dossier · Penalty figures for the 2 gram line and the year bands in Articles 31, 33 and 34 carried forward from the live cell and not re-derived from a new source, then re-read against the Asamblea text. The Article 34 graver offence proviso, Articles 54 and 55 and the three unconstitutionality rulings are read from that text and are new to this cell · asamblea.gob.sv · srs.gob.sv · portaldetransparencia.fgr.gob.sv · Updated September 21, 2026
Morphine
- Legal status
- Controlled under the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003. Morphine is printed in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria as «Morfina», entry 95, CAS 57-27-2, at Parte A, Seccion I. Estupefacientes incluidos en la Lista I de la Convencion de 1961. Article 2 makes a droga any substance specified as such in the conventions El Salvador has ratified, and Article 3 prohibits every activity relating to the narcotic, depressant, stimulant, hallucinogen and cannabis categories, so a printed convention entry is reached by the definition itself. The entry describes it as the principal alkaloid of opium and of poppy straw, and a second entry at n.o 96 covers pentavalent nitrogen derivatives of morphine separately. Parte A Seccion IV then exempts certain preparations from control and from the retained special prescription, leaving them on an ordinary medical prescription instead, and the same entry 4 that exempts weak cocaine preparations also reaches opium or morphine preparations carrying no more than 0.2 per cent morphine calculated as anhydrous morphine base, on the same inseparability condition.
- Consequences if caught
- The entry describes it as the principal alkaloid of opium and of poppy straw, and a second entry at n.o 96 covers pentavalent nitrogen derivatives of morphine separately. Parte A Seccion IV then exempts certain preparations from control and from the retained special prescription, leaving them on an ordinary medical prescription instead, and the same entry 4 that exempts weak cocaine preparations also reaches opium or morphine preparations carrying no more than 0.2 per cent morphine calculated as anhydrous morphine base, on the same inseparability condition. Morphine is inside El Salvador's drug control regime, and the penalties below are set out because they describe the offences that this row's placement brings into play. Article 34 divides possession from trafficking by a 2 gram line: possession of under 2 grams carries 1 to 3 years, possession of 2 grams or more carries 3 to 6 years, and possession of any quantity with the object of doing anything Article 33 lists carries 6 to 10 years. Article 34 closes by providing that it does not apply where the conduct fits a graver offence. There is no personal use exemption anywhere in the Ley. Article 31 sets 5 to 15 years for sowing, cultivating or harvesting, and Article 33 sets 10 to 15 years for acquiring, transferring, importing, exporting, storing, transporting, distributing, supplying or selling. Article 33's second paragraph raises the trafficking penalty by one third of the stated maximum where the act is international trafficking, so the ceiling on that route is 20 years, and Article 54 allows a court to raise the penalty by up to one third of the maximum on any of nine listed aggravating circumstances, which is a discretion and not the mandatory increase Article 33 creates. Article 55 allows the penalty to be cut to half the minimum where the accused names others or enables a seizure. The ceiling on every one of these routes is imprisonment, because the severest sanction is constitutionally barred for ordinary offences in El Salvador, so no offence in this Ley carries it. The Ley creates no lawful recreational regime and no medical regime for any substance it reaches, cannabis included: Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be imported, produced, made, extracted, possessed or used only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for making products of industrial use, and only with the health regulator's authorisation. On the fine, the Sala de lo Constitucional struck the multa in each of these three articles as a penal consequence, Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments published on 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments published on 19 August 2009 and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010 published on 23 October 2013, so no fine now attaches to cultivation, trafficking or possession under this Ley. On quantity, the 2 gram line in Article 34 is the only weight the Ley fixes; it sets no substance by substance threshold and no quantity table, so the same 2 grams applies whatever the substance is. The 2 gram line and the bands of 1 to 3, 3 to 6, 6 to 10, 5 to 15 and 10 to 15 years and the one third increase are carried forward from the live cell and were re-read against the Asamblea Legislativa text for this pass; the Article 34 graver offence proviso, the Article 54 and Article 55 provisions and the three unconstitutionality rulings are new to this cell.
- If prescribed / medical
- Morphine reaches people here as a dispensed medicine, and the name a Salvadoran pharmacy record or a laboratory report would use is morfina. Article 37 of the Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados requires that narcotics, psychotropics and agregados be prescribed on Recetarios Especiales printed by the regulator and issued to the professional, in books of at least twenty five cheque style forms and up to two hundred, and Article 40 of that Reglamento makes a special prescription valid for thirty days, with three monthly prescriptions allowed for a chronic patient. Article 14 of the Ley requires the pack to carry a warning that the product is sold only on medical prescription and is under the health regulator's control. A prescribing doctor who supplies outside the therapeutic indication commits the Article 38 offence, which carries 3 to 5 years, and a pharmacy that dispenses without the prescription commits the Article 40 offence, which carries 5 to 15 years. Carry it in its dispensing packaging with the prescription.
- Documentation
- The instrument read for this cell is the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, published in Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003, in the consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa. That text carries its own reform schedule: five reforms, the last of them Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018 in Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, so the consolidation read here is current to that reform. The same reform schedule was confirmed against a second publisher, the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which prints the identical list of five. The text also carries four rulings of the Sala de lo Constitucional, three of which strike the fine in Articles 31, 33 and 34 and the fourth of which struck the rule in Article 52 that equated preparatory acts with completed offences before that article was reformed in 2018. The substance list read for this cell is the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria. That document states its own currency in its Disposiciones generales: it was approved by that acuerdo and is «vigente hasta el 31 de marzo de 2027, o hasta que se emita un nuevo listado por parte de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria». It was read as at 21 September 2026, and the 2025 edition of the same list was fetched first and set aside once the 2026 edition was found on the regulator's own page. The list is the one Article 13 of the Ley requires, «una lista de drogas y de todas las preparaciones y especialidades farmaceuticas que las contengan de acuerdo a las categorias establecidas en la presente Ley», which Article 13 also requires to be sent to the Corte Suprema de Justicia, the Fiscalia General de la Republica and the Policia Nacional Civil so that judges and prosecutors know it. Article 13 names the Consejo Superior de Salud Publica as the body that makes it; the 2013 Reglamento names the Direccion Nacional de Medicamentos as the governing authority, and the Ley de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria dissolved that Direccion and moved its functions to the Superintendencia with effect from August 2024. That succession is stated from the Reglamento and from reporting of the Superintendencia law, whose own gazette text was not read for this cell. Article 2 defines droga in its own words: «Art. 2.- Para los efectos de esta Ley se consideran drogas las sustancias especificadas como tales en los Convenios Internacionales ratificados por El Salvador, las que se mencionan en el Código de Salud y demás leyes del país; y en general, las que indistintamente de su grado de pureza, actúan sobre el sistema nervioso central y tienen la capacidad de producir transformaciones, bien sea aumentando o disminuyendo su funcionamiento o modificando los estados de conciencia y que su uso indebido puede causar dependencia o sujeción física y psicológica.» Article 3 then prohibits activity relating to five named categories and, in letter f, «f) Cualquier otra sustancia que sea considerada droga tan nociva que amerite ser prohibida por el Consejo Superior de Salud Pública o por los convenios internacionales ratificados por el país.» The names searched across the list, in Spanish and in English, were morfina, sulfato de morfina. The matched entry was read before it was relied on, and it is «Morfina», entry 95, CAS 57-27-2, at Parte A, Seccion I. Estupefacientes incluidos en la Lista I de la Convencion de 1961. Three routes were tried for the instrument and all three returned a document: the Asamblea Legislativa decree file, which returned the consolidated text; the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which returned the same consolidation; and the regulator's own listado page, which returned the 2026 list. Two routes returned nothing usable: the Asamblea decree index and law search paths both returned a not found page, and a fetch of the Asamblea search page failed on certificate verification. Carry any controlled medicine in its dispensing packaging with the prescription, and confirm the position with the Salvadoran embassy or consulate before you travel.
Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, Articles 2, 3, 13, 31, 32, 33, 34, 54 and 55, consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa, Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003 · Consolidation: current to Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018, Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, the last of the five reforms the text's own schedule prints, confirmed against the Fiscalia General de la Republica transparency copy · Unconstitutionality of the fine: Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments, Diario Oficial 196, Tomo 377, of 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments, Diario Oficial 152, Tomo 384, of 19 August 2009, and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010, Diario Oficial 197, Tomo 401, of 23 October 2013 · Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria, read as at 21 September 2026, the document stating its own currency to 31 March 2027 or until a new listado is issued · Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados, Decreto Ejecutivo 20, Diario Oficial of 13 February 2013, Articles 5, 26, 36, 37 and 40 · Placement: entry read at Parte A, Seccion I. Estupefacientes incluidos en la Lista I de la Convencion de 1961, entry 95, CAS 57-27-2 · Placement provenance: the Parte and Seccion stated for this row are not printed in the quoted dossier extract, and no quoted extract in that dossier carries a Parte or Seccion marker for any substance, because the dossier resolved every row against articles 2 and 3 of Decreto 153 alone and never reached the Listado. The placement is read directly from the Listado named above and not from the dossier · Penalty figures for the 2 gram line and the year bands in Articles 31, 33 and 34 carried forward from the live cell and not re-derived from a new source, then re-read against the Asamblea text. The Article 34 graver offence proviso, Articles 54 and 55 and the three unconstitutionality rulings are read from that text and are new to this cell · asamblea.gob.sv · srs.gob.sv · portaldetransparencia.fgr.gob.sv · Updated September 21, 2026
MXE
- Legal status
- Controlled under the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003. MXE is printed in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria as «Metoxetamina, MXE», entry 79, CAS 1239943-76-0, at Parte B, Seccion II. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista II de la Convencion de 1971. Article 2 makes a droga any substance specified as such in the conventions El Salvador has ratified, and Article 3 prohibits every activity relating to the narcotic, depressant, stimulant, hallucinogen and cannabis categories, so a printed convention entry is reached by the definition itself. The arylcyclohexylamine that this row names is printed in a convention section, while ketamine itself is only in the national additions part, so the analogue carries a convention classification the parent does not.
- Consequences if caught
- The arylcyclohexylamine that this row names is printed in a convention section, while ketamine itself is only in the national additions part, so the analogue carries a convention classification the parent does not. MXE is inside El Salvador's drug control regime, and the penalties below are set out because they describe the offences that this row's placement brings into play. Article 34 divides possession from trafficking by a 2 gram line: possession of under 2 grams carries 1 to 3 years, possession of 2 grams or more carries 3 to 6 years, and possession of any quantity with the object of doing anything Article 33 lists carries 6 to 10 years. Article 34 closes by providing that it does not apply where the conduct fits a graver offence. There is no personal use exemption anywhere in the Ley. Article 31 sets 5 to 15 years for sowing, cultivating or harvesting, and Article 33 sets 10 to 15 years for acquiring, transferring, importing, exporting, storing, transporting, distributing, supplying or selling. Article 33's second paragraph raises the trafficking penalty by one third of the stated maximum where the act is international trafficking, so the ceiling on that route is 20 years, and Article 54 allows a court to raise the penalty by up to one third of the maximum on any of nine listed aggravating circumstances, which is a discretion and not the mandatory increase Article 33 creates. Article 55 allows the penalty to be cut to half the minimum where the accused names others or enables a seizure. The ceiling on every one of these routes is imprisonment, because the severest sanction is constitutionally barred for ordinary offences in El Salvador, so no offence in this Ley carries it. The Ley creates no lawful recreational regime and no medical regime for any substance it reaches, cannabis included: Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be imported, produced, made, extracted, possessed or used only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for making products of industrial use, and only with the health regulator's authorisation. On the fine, the Sala de lo Constitucional struck the multa in each of these three articles as a penal consequence, Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments published on 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments published on 19 August 2009 and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010 published on 23 October 2013, so no fine now attaches to cultivation, trafficking or possession under this Ley. On quantity, the 2 gram line in Article 34 is the only weight the Ley fixes; it sets no substance by substance threshold and no quantity table, so the same 2 grams applies whatever the substance is. The 2 gram line and the bands of 1 to 3, 3 to 6, 6 to 10, 5 to 15 and 10 to 15 years and the one third increase are carried forward from the live cell and were re-read against the Asamblea Legislativa text for this pass; the Article 34 graver offence proviso, the Article 54 and Article 55 provisions and the three unconstitutionality rulings are new to this cell.
- If prescribed / medical
- MXE reaches people as a powder, a liquid, a blotter or a pressed tablet rather than as a dispensed medicine, so there is no prescription document to carry for it, and the name a Salvadoran laboratory report would use is metoxetamina. Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be held only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for industrial products, and only with the health regulator's authorisation, so there is no lawful personal quantity of it.
- Documentation
- The instrument read for this cell is the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, published in Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003, in the consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa. That text carries its own reform schedule: five reforms, the last of them Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018 in Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, so the consolidation read here is current to that reform. The same reform schedule was confirmed against a second publisher, the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which prints the identical list of five. The text also carries four rulings of the Sala de lo Constitucional, three of which strike the fine in Articles 31, 33 and 34 and the fourth of which struck the rule in Article 52 that equated preparatory acts with completed offences before that article was reformed in 2018. The substance list read for this cell is the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria. That document states its own currency in its Disposiciones generales: it was approved by that acuerdo and is «vigente hasta el 31 de marzo de 2027, o hasta que se emita un nuevo listado por parte de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria». It was read as at 21 September 2026, and the 2025 edition of the same list was fetched first and set aside once the 2026 edition was found on the regulator's own page. The list is the one Article 13 of the Ley requires, «una lista de drogas y de todas las preparaciones y especialidades farmaceuticas que las contengan de acuerdo a las categorias establecidas en la presente Ley», which Article 13 also requires to be sent to the Corte Suprema de Justicia, the Fiscalia General de la Republica and the Policia Nacional Civil so that judges and prosecutors know it. Article 13 names the Consejo Superior de Salud Publica as the body that makes it; the 2013 Reglamento names the Direccion Nacional de Medicamentos as the governing authority, and the Ley de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria dissolved that Direccion and moved its functions to the Superintendencia with effect from August 2024. That succession is stated from the Reglamento and from reporting of the Superintendencia law, whose own gazette text was not read for this cell. Article 2 defines droga in its own words: «Art. 2.- Para los efectos de esta Ley se consideran drogas las sustancias especificadas como tales en los Convenios Internacionales ratificados por El Salvador, las que se mencionan en el Código de Salud y demás leyes del país; y en general, las que indistintamente de su grado de pureza, actúan sobre el sistema nervioso central y tienen la capacidad de producir transformaciones, bien sea aumentando o disminuyendo su funcionamiento o modificando los estados de conciencia y que su uso indebido puede causar dependencia o sujeción física y psicológica.» Article 3 then prohibits activity relating to five named categories and, in letter f, «f) Cualquier otra sustancia que sea considerada droga tan nociva que amerite ser prohibida por el Consejo Superior de Salud Pública o por los convenios internacionales ratificados por el país.» The names searched across the list, in Spanish and in English, were metoxetamina, MXE. The matched entry was read before it was relied on, and it is «Metoxetamina, MXE», entry 79, CAS 1239943-76-0, at Parte B, Seccion II. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista II de la Convencion de 1971. Three routes were tried for the instrument and all three returned a document: the Asamblea Legislativa decree file, which returned the consolidated text; the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which returned the same consolidation; and the regulator's own listado page, which returned the 2026 list. Two routes returned nothing usable: the Asamblea decree index and law search paths both returned a not found page, and a fetch of the Asamblea search page failed on certificate verification. Carry any controlled medicine in its dispensing packaging with the prescription, and confirm the position with the Salvadoran embassy or consulate before you travel.
Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, Articles 2, 3, 13, 31, 32, 33, 34, 54 and 55, consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa, Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003 · Consolidation: current to Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018, Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, the last of the five reforms the text's own schedule prints, confirmed against the Fiscalia General de la Republica transparency copy · Unconstitutionality of the fine: Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments, Diario Oficial 196, Tomo 377, of 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments, Diario Oficial 152, Tomo 384, of 19 August 2009, and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010, Diario Oficial 197, Tomo 401, of 23 October 2013 · Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria, read as at 21 September 2026, the document stating its own currency to 31 March 2027 or until a new listado is issued · Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados, Decreto Ejecutivo 20, Diario Oficial of 13 February 2013, Articles 5, 26, 36, 37 and 40 · Placement: entry read at Parte B, Seccion II. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista II de la Convencion de 1971, entry 79, CAS 1239943-76-0 · Placement provenance: the Parte and Seccion stated for this row are not printed in the quoted dossier extract, and no quoted extract in that dossier carries a Parte or Seccion marker for any substance, because the dossier resolved every row against articles 2 and 3 of Decreto 153 alone and never reached the Listado. The placement is read directly from the Listado named above and not from the dossier · Penalty figures for the 2 gram line and the year bands in Articles 31, 33 and 34 carried forward from the live cell and not re-derived from a new source, then re-read against the Asamblea text. The Article 34 graver offence proviso, Articles 54 and 55 and the three unconstitutionality rulings are read from that text and are new to this cell · asamblea.gob.sv · srs.gob.sv · portaldetransparencia.fgr.gob.sv · Updated September 21, 2026
Nimetazepam
- Legal status
- Controlled under the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003. Nimetazepam is printed in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria as «Nimetazepam», entry 163, CAS 2011-67-8, at Parte B, Seccion IV. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista IV de la Convencion de 1971. Article 2 makes a droga any substance specified as such in the conventions El Salvador has ratified, and Article 3 prohibits every activity relating to the narcotic, depressant, stimulant, hallucinogen and cannabis categories, so a printed convention entry is reached by the definition itself. It is a nitrobenzodiazepine that has no registered medicine here, and it is printed next to Nitrazepam at n.o 164, which shares the nitro group and does have medical use.
- Consequences if caught
- It is a nitrobenzodiazepine that has no registered medicine here, and it is printed next to Nitrazepam at n.o 164, which shares the nitro group and does have medical use. Nimetazepam is inside El Salvador's drug control regime, and the penalties below are set out because they describe the offences that this row's placement brings into play. Article 34 divides possession from trafficking by a 2 gram line: possession of under 2 grams carries 1 to 3 years, possession of 2 grams or more carries 3 to 6 years, and possession of any quantity with the object of doing anything Article 33 lists carries 6 to 10 years. Article 34 closes by providing that it does not apply where the conduct fits a graver offence. There is no personal use exemption anywhere in the Ley. Article 31 sets 5 to 15 years for sowing, cultivating or harvesting, and Article 33 sets 10 to 15 years for acquiring, transferring, importing, exporting, storing, transporting, distributing, supplying or selling. Article 33's second paragraph raises the trafficking penalty by one third of the stated maximum where the act is international trafficking, so the ceiling on that route is 20 years, and Article 54 allows a court to raise the penalty by up to one third of the maximum on any of nine listed aggravating circumstances, which is a discretion and not the mandatory increase Article 33 creates. Article 55 allows the penalty to be cut to half the minimum where the accused names others or enables a seizure. The ceiling on every one of these routes is imprisonment, because the severest sanction is constitutionally barred for ordinary offences in El Salvador, so no offence in this Ley carries it. The Ley creates no lawful recreational regime and no medical regime for any substance it reaches, cannabis included: Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be imported, produced, made, extracted, possessed or used only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for making products of industrial use, and only with the health regulator's authorisation. On the fine, the Sala de lo Constitucional struck the multa in each of these three articles as a penal consequence, Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments published on 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments published on 19 August 2009 and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010 published on 23 October 2013, so no fine now attaches to cultivation, trafficking or possession under this Ley. On quantity, the 2 gram line in Article 34 is the only weight the Ley fixes; it sets no substance by substance threshold and no quantity table, so the same 2 grams applies whatever the substance is. The 2 gram line and the bands of 1 to 3, 3 to 6, 6 to 10, 5 to 15 and 10 to 15 years and the one third increase are carried forward from the live cell and were re-read against the Asamblea Legislativa text for this pass; the Article 34 graver offence proviso, the Article 54 and Article 55 provisions and the three unconstitutionality rulings are new to this cell.
- If prescribed / medical
- Nimetazepam reaches people as a powder, a liquid, a blotter or a pressed tablet rather than as a dispensed medicine, so there is no prescription document to carry for it, and the name a Salvadoran laboratory report would use is nimetazepam. Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be held only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for industrial products, and only with the health regulator's authorisation, so there is no lawful personal quantity of it.
- Documentation
- The instrument read for this cell is the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, published in Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003, in the consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa. That text carries its own reform schedule: five reforms, the last of them Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018 in Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, so the consolidation read here is current to that reform. The same reform schedule was confirmed against a second publisher, the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which prints the identical list of five. The text also carries four rulings of the Sala de lo Constitucional, three of which strike the fine in Articles 31, 33 and 34 and the fourth of which struck the rule in Article 52 that equated preparatory acts with completed offences before that article was reformed in 2018. The substance list read for this cell is the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria. That document states its own currency in its Disposiciones generales: it was approved by that acuerdo and is «vigente hasta el 31 de marzo de 2027, o hasta que se emita un nuevo listado por parte de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria». It was read as at 21 September 2026, and the 2025 edition of the same list was fetched first and set aside once the 2026 edition was found on the regulator's own page. The list is the one Article 13 of the Ley requires, «una lista de drogas y de todas las preparaciones y especialidades farmaceuticas que las contengan de acuerdo a las categorias establecidas en la presente Ley», which Article 13 also requires to be sent to the Corte Suprema de Justicia, the Fiscalia General de la Republica and the Policia Nacional Civil so that judges and prosecutors know it. Article 13 names the Consejo Superior de Salud Publica as the body that makes it; the 2013 Reglamento names the Direccion Nacional de Medicamentos as the governing authority, and the Ley de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria dissolved that Direccion and moved its functions to the Superintendencia with effect from August 2024. That succession is stated from the Reglamento and from reporting of the Superintendencia law, whose own gazette text was not read for this cell. Article 2 defines droga in its own words: «Art. 2.- Para los efectos de esta Ley se consideran drogas las sustancias especificadas como tales en los Convenios Internacionales ratificados por El Salvador, las que se mencionan en el Código de Salud y demás leyes del país; y en general, las que indistintamente de su grado de pureza, actúan sobre el sistema nervioso central y tienen la capacidad de producir transformaciones, bien sea aumentando o disminuyendo su funcionamiento o modificando los estados de conciencia y que su uso indebido puede causar dependencia o sujeción física y psicológica.» Article 3 then prohibits activity relating to five named categories and, in letter f, «f) Cualquier otra sustancia que sea considerada droga tan nociva que amerite ser prohibida por el Consejo Superior de Salud Pública o por los convenios internacionales ratificados por el país.» The names searched across the list, in Spanish and in English, were nimetazepam. The matched entry was read before it was relied on, and it is «Nimetazepam», entry 163, CAS 2011-67-8, at Parte B, Seccion IV. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista IV de la Convencion de 1971. Three routes were tried for the instrument and all three returned a document: the Asamblea Legislativa decree file, which returned the consolidated text; the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which returned the same consolidation; and the regulator's own listado page, which returned the 2026 list. Two routes returned nothing usable: the Asamblea decree index and law search paths both returned a not found page, and a fetch of the Asamblea search page failed on certificate verification. Carry any controlled medicine in its dispensing packaging with the prescription, and confirm the position with the Salvadoran embassy or consulate before you travel.
Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, Articles 2, 3, 13, 31, 32, 33, 34, 54 and 55, consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa, Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003 · Consolidation: current to Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018, Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, the last of the five reforms the text's own schedule prints, confirmed against the Fiscalia General de la Republica transparency copy · Unconstitutionality of the fine: Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments, Diario Oficial 196, Tomo 377, of 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments, Diario Oficial 152, Tomo 384, of 19 August 2009, and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010, Diario Oficial 197, Tomo 401, of 23 October 2013 · Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria, read as at 21 September 2026, the document stating its own currency to 31 March 2027 or until a new listado is issued · Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados, Decreto Ejecutivo 20, Diario Oficial of 13 February 2013, Articles 5, 26, 36, 37 and 40 · Placement: entry read at Parte B, Seccion IV. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista IV de la Convencion de 1971, entry 163, CAS 2011-67-8 · Placement provenance: the Parte and Seccion stated for this row are not printed in the quoted dossier extract, and no quoted extract in that dossier carries a Parte or Seccion marker for any substance, because the dossier resolved every row against articles 2 and 3 of Decreto 153 alone and never reached the Listado. The placement is read directly from the Listado named above and not from the dossier · Penalty figures for the 2 gram line and the year bands in Articles 31, 33 and 34 carried forward from the live cell and not re-derived from a new source, then re-read against the Asamblea text. The Article 34 graver offence proviso, Articles 54 and 55 and the three unconstitutionality rulings are read from that text and are new to this cell · asamblea.gob.sv · srs.gob.sv · portaldetransparencia.fgr.gob.sv · Updated September 21, 2026
Opium
- Legal status
- Controlled under the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003. Opium is printed in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria as «Opio», entry 110, CAS 8008-60-4, at Parte A, Seccion I. Estupefacientes incluidos en la Lista I de la Convencion de 1961. Article 2 makes a droga any substance specified as such in the conventions El Salvador has ratified, and Article 3 prohibits every activity relating to the narcotic, depressant, stimulant, hallucinogen and cannabis categories, so a printed convention entry is reached by the definition itself. The entry describes it as the coagulated juice of the poppy of the species Papaver somniferum L. and poppy straw concentrate is a separate entry at n.o 38, so the raw material and the concentrate are controlled apart. Parte A Seccion IV then exempts certain preparations from control and from the retained special prescription, leaving them on an ordinary medical prescription instead: entry 4 reaches opium or morphine preparations carrying no more than 0.2 per cent morphine calculated as anhydrous morphine base, and entry 7 names Pulvis ipecacuanhae et opii compositus, a preparation of a tenth opium powder and a tenth ipecacuanha root mixed with eight tenths of any other powdered ingredient carrying no narcotic.
- Consequences if caught
- The entry describes it as the coagulated juice of the poppy of the species Papaver somniferum L. and poppy straw concentrate is a separate entry at n.o 38, so the raw material and the concentrate are controlled apart. Parte A Seccion IV then exempts certain preparations from control and from the retained special prescription, leaving them on an ordinary medical prescription instead: entry 4 reaches opium or morphine preparations carrying no more than 0.2 per cent morphine calculated as anhydrous morphine base, and entry 7 names Pulvis ipecacuanhae et opii compositus, a preparation of a tenth opium powder and a tenth ipecacuanha root mixed with eight tenths of any other powdered ingredient carrying no narcotic. Opium is inside El Salvador's drug control regime, and the penalties below are set out because they describe the offences that this row's placement brings into play. Article 34 divides possession from trafficking by a 2 gram line: possession of under 2 grams carries 1 to 3 years, possession of 2 grams or more carries 3 to 6 years, and possession of any quantity with the object of doing anything Article 33 lists carries 6 to 10 years. Article 34 closes by providing that it does not apply where the conduct fits a graver offence. There is no personal use exemption anywhere in the Ley. Article 31 sets 5 to 15 years for sowing, cultivating or harvesting, and Article 33 sets 10 to 15 years for acquiring, transferring, importing, exporting, storing, transporting, distributing, supplying or selling. Article 33's second paragraph raises the trafficking penalty by one third of the stated maximum where the act is international trafficking, so the ceiling on that route is 20 years, and Article 54 allows a court to raise the penalty by up to one third of the maximum on any of nine listed aggravating circumstances, which is a discretion and not the mandatory increase Article 33 creates. Article 55 allows the penalty to be cut to half the minimum where the accused names others or enables a seizure. The ceiling on every one of these routes is imprisonment, because the severest sanction is constitutionally barred for ordinary offences in El Salvador, so no offence in this Ley carries it. The Ley creates no lawful recreational regime and no medical regime for any substance it reaches, cannabis included: Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be imported, produced, made, extracted, possessed or used only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for making products of industrial use, and only with the health regulator's authorisation. On the fine, the Sala de lo Constitucional struck the multa in each of these three articles as a penal consequence, Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments published on 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments published on 19 August 2009 and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010 published on 23 October 2013, so no fine now attaches to cultivation, trafficking or possession under this Ley. On quantity, the 2 gram line in Article 34 is the only weight the Ley fixes; it sets no substance by substance threshold and no quantity table, so the same 2 grams applies whatever the substance is. The 2 gram line and the bands of 1 to 3, 3 to 6, 6 to 10, 5 to 15 and 10 to 15 years and the one third increase are carried forward from the live cell and were re-read against the Asamblea Legislativa text for this pass; the Article 34 graver offence proviso, the Article 54 and Article 55 provisions and the three unconstitutionality rulings are new to this cell.
- If prescribed / medical
- Opium reaches people as a powder, a liquid, a blotter or a pressed tablet rather than as a dispensed medicine, so there is no prescription document to carry for it, and the name a Salvadoran laboratory report would use is opio. Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be held only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for industrial products, and only with the health regulator's authorisation, so there is no lawful personal quantity of it.
- Documentation
- The instrument read for this cell is the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, published in Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003, in the consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa. That text carries its own reform schedule: five reforms, the last of them Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018 in Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, so the consolidation read here is current to that reform. The same reform schedule was confirmed against a second publisher, the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which prints the identical list of five. The text also carries four rulings of the Sala de lo Constitucional, three of which strike the fine in Articles 31, 33 and 34 and the fourth of which struck the rule in Article 52 that equated preparatory acts with completed offences before that article was reformed in 2018. The substance list read for this cell is the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria. That document states its own currency in its Disposiciones generales: it was approved by that acuerdo and is «vigente hasta el 31 de marzo de 2027, o hasta que se emita un nuevo listado por parte de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria». It was read as at 21 September 2026, and the 2025 edition of the same list was fetched first and set aside once the 2026 edition was found on the regulator's own page. The list is the one Article 13 of the Ley requires, «una lista de drogas y de todas las preparaciones y especialidades farmaceuticas que las contengan de acuerdo a las categorias establecidas en la presente Ley», which Article 13 also requires to be sent to the Corte Suprema de Justicia, the Fiscalia General de la Republica and the Policia Nacional Civil so that judges and prosecutors know it. Article 13 names the Consejo Superior de Salud Publica as the body that makes it; the 2013 Reglamento names the Direccion Nacional de Medicamentos as the governing authority, and the Ley de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria dissolved that Direccion and moved its functions to the Superintendencia with effect from August 2024. That succession is stated from the Reglamento and from reporting of the Superintendencia law, whose own gazette text was not read for this cell. Article 2 defines droga in its own words: «Art. 2.- Para los efectos de esta Ley se consideran drogas las sustancias especificadas como tales en los Convenios Internacionales ratificados por El Salvador, las que se mencionan en el Código de Salud y demás leyes del país; y en general, las que indistintamente de su grado de pureza, actúan sobre el sistema nervioso central y tienen la capacidad de producir transformaciones, bien sea aumentando o disminuyendo su funcionamiento o modificando los estados de conciencia y que su uso indebido puede causar dependencia o sujeción física y psicológica.» Article 3 then prohibits activity relating to five named categories and, in letter f, «f) Cualquier otra sustancia que sea considerada droga tan nociva que amerite ser prohibida por el Consejo Superior de Salud Pública o por los convenios internacionales ratificados por el país.» The names searched across the list, in Spanish and in English, were opio, adormidera, Papaver somniferum, paja de adormidera. The matched entry was read before it was relied on, and it is «Opio», entry 110, CAS 8008-60-4, at Parte A, Seccion I. Estupefacientes incluidos en la Lista I de la Convencion de 1961. Three routes were tried for the instrument and all three returned a document: the Asamblea Legislativa decree file, which returned the consolidated text; the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which returned the same consolidation; and the regulator's own listado page, which returned the 2026 list. Two routes returned nothing usable: the Asamblea decree index and law search paths both returned a not found page, and a fetch of the Asamblea search page failed on certificate verification. Carry any controlled medicine in its dispensing packaging with the prescription, and confirm the position with the Salvadoran embassy or consulate before you travel.
Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, Articles 2, 3, 13, 31, 32, 33, 34, 54 and 55, consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa, Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003 · Consolidation: current to Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018, Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, the last of the five reforms the text's own schedule prints, confirmed against the Fiscalia General de la Republica transparency copy · Unconstitutionality of the fine: Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments, Diario Oficial 196, Tomo 377, of 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments, Diario Oficial 152, Tomo 384, of 19 August 2009, and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010, Diario Oficial 197, Tomo 401, of 23 October 2013 · Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria, read as at 21 September 2026, the document stating its own currency to 31 March 2027 or until a new listado is issued · Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados, Decreto Ejecutivo 20, Diario Oficial of 13 February 2013, Articles 5, 26, 36, 37 and 40 · Placement: entry read at Parte A, Seccion I. Estupefacientes incluidos en la Lista I de la Convencion de 1961, entry 110, CAS 8008-60-4 · Placement provenance: the Parte and Seccion stated for this row are not printed in the quoted dossier extract, and no quoted extract in that dossier carries a Parte or Seccion marker for any substance, because the dossier resolved every row against articles 2 and 3 of Decreto 153 alone and never reached the Listado. The placement is read directly from the Listado named above and not from the dossier · Penalty figures for the 2 gram line and the year bands in Articles 31, 33 and 34 carried forward from the live cell and not re-derived from a new source, then re-read against the Asamblea text. The Article 34 graver offence proviso, Articles 54 and 55 and the three unconstitutionality rulings are read from that text and are new to this cell · asamblea.gob.sv · srs.gob.sv · portaldetransparencia.fgr.gob.sv · Updated September 21, 2026
Oxycodone
- Legal status
- Controlled under the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003. Oxycodone is printed in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria as «Oxicodona», entry 113, CAS 76-42-6, at Parte A, Seccion I. Estupefacientes incluidos en la Lista I de la Convencion de 1961. Article 2 makes a droga any substance specified as such in the conventions El Salvador has ratified, and Article 3 prohibits every activity relating to the narcotic, depressant, stimulant, hallucinogen and cannabis categories, so a printed convention entry is reached by the definition itself. It is printed as a 14-hydroxydihydrocodeinone and a morphine derivative, which places it with the semisynthetic opioids rather than with the codeine group in Parte A Seccion II.
- Consequences if caught
- It is printed as a 14-hydroxydihydrocodeinone and a morphine derivative, which places it with the semisynthetic opioids rather than with the codeine group in Parte A Seccion II. Oxycodone is inside El Salvador's drug control regime, and the penalties below are set out because they describe the offences that this row's placement brings into play. Article 34 divides possession from trafficking by a 2 gram line: possession of under 2 grams carries 1 to 3 years, possession of 2 grams or more carries 3 to 6 years, and possession of any quantity with the object of doing anything Article 33 lists carries 6 to 10 years. Article 34 closes by providing that it does not apply where the conduct fits a graver offence. There is no personal use exemption anywhere in the Ley. Article 31 sets 5 to 15 years for sowing, cultivating or harvesting, and Article 33 sets 10 to 15 years for acquiring, transferring, importing, exporting, storing, transporting, distributing, supplying or selling. Article 33's second paragraph raises the trafficking penalty by one third of the stated maximum where the act is international trafficking, so the ceiling on that route is 20 years, and Article 54 allows a court to raise the penalty by up to one third of the maximum on any of nine listed aggravating circumstances, which is a discretion and not the mandatory increase Article 33 creates. Article 55 allows the penalty to be cut to half the minimum where the accused names others or enables a seizure. The ceiling on every one of these routes is imprisonment, because the severest sanction is constitutionally barred for ordinary offences in El Salvador, so no offence in this Ley carries it. The Ley creates no lawful recreational regime and no medical regime for any substance it reaches, cannabis included: Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be imported, produced, made, extracted, possessed or used only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for making products of industrial use, and only with the health regulator's authorisation. On the fine, the Sala de lo Constitucional struck the multa in each of these three articles as a penal consequence, Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments published on 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments published on 19 August 2009 and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010 published on 23 October 2013, so no fine now attaches to cultivation, trafficking or possession under this Ley. On quantity, the 2 gram line in Article 34 is the only weight the Ley fixes; it sets no substance by substance threshold and no quantity table, so the same 2 grams applies whatever the substance is. The 2 gram line and the bands of 1 to 3, 3 to 6, 6 to 10, 5 to 15 and 10 to 15 years and the one third increase are carried forward from the live cell and were re-read against the Asamblea Legislativa text for this pass; the Article 34 graver offence proviso, the Article 54 and Article 55 provisions and the three unconstitutionality rulings are new to this cell.
- If prescribed / medical
- Oxycodone reaches people here as a dispensed medicine, and the name a Salvadoran pharmacy record or a laboratory report would use is oxicodona. Article 37 of the Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados requires that narcotics, psychotropics and agregados be prescribed on Recetarios Especiales printed by the regulator and issued to the professional, in books of at least twenty five cheque style forms and up to two hundred, and Article 40 of that Reglamento makes a special prescription valid for thirty days, with three monthly prescriptions allowed for a chronic patient. Article 14 of the Ley requires the pack to carry a warning that the product is sold only on medical prescription and is under the health regulator's control. A prescribing doctor who supplies outside the therapeutic indication commits the Article 38 offence, which carries 3 to 5 years, and a pharmacy that dispenses without the prescription commits the Article 40 offence, which carries 5 to 15 years. Carry it in its dispensing packaging with the prescription.
- Documentation
- The instrument read for this cell is the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, published in Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003, in the consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa. That text carries its own reform schedule: five reforms, the last of them Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018 in Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, so the consolidation read here is current to that reform. The same reform schedule was confirmed against a second publisher, the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which prints the identical list of five. The text also carries four rulings of the Sala de lo Constitucional, three of which strike the fine in Articles 31, 33 and 34 and the fourth of which struck the rule in Article 52 that equated preparatory acts with completed offences before that article was reformed in 2018. The substance list read for this cell is the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria. That document states its own currency in its Disposiciones generales: it was approved by that acuerdo and is «vigente hasta el 31 de marzo de 2027, o hasta que se emita un nuevo listado por parte de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria». It was read as at 21 September 2026, and the 2025 edition of the same list was fetched first and set aside once the 2026 edition was found on the regulator's own page. The list is the one Article 13 of the Ley requires, «una lista de drogas y de todas las preparaciones y especialidades farmaceuticas que las contengan de acuerdo a las categorias establecidas en la presente Ley», which Article 13 also requires to be sent to the Corte Suprema de Justicia, the Fiscalia General de la Republica and the Policia Nacional Civil so that judges and prosecutors know it. Article 13 names the Consejo Superior de Salud Publica as the body that makes it; the 2013 Reglamento names the Direccion Nacional de Medicamentos as the governing authority, and the Ley de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria dissolved that Direccion and moved its functions to the Superintendencia with effect from August 2024. That succession is stated from the Reglamento and from reporting of the Superintendencia law, whose own gazette text was not read for this cell. Article 2 defines droga in its own words: «Art. 2.- Para los efectos de esta Ley se consideran drogas las sustancias especificadas como tales en los Convenios Internacionales ratificados por El Salvador, las que se mencionan en el Código de Salud y demás leyes del país; y en general, las que indistintamente de su grado de pureza, actúan sobre el sistema nervioso central y tienen la capacidad de producir transformaciones, bien sea aumentando o disminuyendo su funcionamiento o modificando los estados de conciencia y que su uso indebido puede causar dependencia o sujeción física y psicológica.» Article 3 then prohibits activity relating to five named categories and, in letter f, «f) Cualquier otra sustancia que sea considerada droga tan nociva que amerite ser prohibida por el Consejo Superior de Salud Pública o por los convenios internacionales ratificados por el país.» The names searched across the list, in Spanish and in English, were oxicodona. The matched entry was read before it was relied on, and it is «Oxicodona», entry 113, CAS 76-42-6, at Parte A, Seccion I. Estupefacientes incluidos en la Lista I de la Convencion de 1961. Three routes were tried for the instrument and all three returned a document: the Asamblea Legislativa decree file, which returned the consolidated text; the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which returned the same consolidation; and the regulator's own listado page, which returned the 2026 list. Two routes returned nothing usable: the Asamblea decree index and law search paths both returned a not found page, and a fetch of the Asamblea search page failed on certificate verification. Carry any controlled medicine in its dispensing packaging with the prescription, and confirm the position with the Salvadoran embassy or consulate before you travel.
Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, Articles 2, 3, 13, 31, 32, 33, 34, 54 and 55, consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa, Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003 · Consolidation: current to Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018, Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, the last of the five reforms the text's own schedule prints, confirmed against the Fiscalia General de la Republica transparency copy · Unconstitutionality of the fine: Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments, Diario Oficial 196, Tomo 377, of 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments, Diario Oficial 152, Tomo 384, of 19 August 2009, and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010, Diario Oficial 197, Tomo 401, of 23 October 2013 · Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria, read as at 21 September 2026, the document stating its own currency to 31 March 2027 or until a new listado is issued · Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados, Decreto Ejecutivo 20, Diario Oficial of 13 February 2013, Articles 5, 26, 36, 37 and 40 · Placement: entry read at Parte A, Seccion I. Estupefacientes incluidos en la Lista I de la Convencion de 1961, entry 113, CAS 76-42-6 · Placement provenance: the Parte and Seccion stated for this row are not printed in the quoted dossier extract, and no quoted extract in that dossier carries a Parte or Seccion marker for any substance, because the dossier resolved every row against articles 2 and 3 of Decreto 153 alone and never reached the Listado. The placement is read directly from the Listado named above and not from the dossier · Penalty figures for the 2 gram line and the year bands in Articles 31, 33 and 34 carried forward from the live cell and not re-derived from a new source, then re-read against the Asamblea text. The Article 34 graver offence proviso, Articles 54 and 55 and the three unconstitutionality rulings are read from that text and are new to this cell · asamblea.gob.sv · srs.gob.sv · portaldetransparencia.fgr.gob.sv · Updated September 21, 2026
PCP
- Legal status
- Controlled under the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003. PCP is printed in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria as «Fenciclidina (PCP)», entry 91, CAS 77-10-1, at Parte B, Seccion II. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista II de la Convencion de 1971. Article 2 makes a droga any substance specified as such in the conventions El Salvador has ratified, and Article 3 prohibits every activity relating to the narcotic, depressant, stimulant, hallucinogen and cannabis categories, so a printed convention entry is reached by the definition itself. The Listado carries the parent, the pyrrolidine analogue PCPY and the 3-methoxy analogue as three separate entries, so the parent is reached on its own name.
- Consequences if caught
- The Listado carries the parent, the pyrrolidine analogue PCPY and the 3-methoxy analogue as three separate entries, so the parent is reached on its own name. PCP is inside El Salvador's drug control regime, and the penalties below are set out because they describe the offences that this row's placement brings into play. Article 34 divides possession from trafficking by a 2 gram line: possession of under 2 grams carries 1 to 3 years, possession of 2 grams or more carries 3 to 6 years, and possession of any quantity with the object of doing anything Article 33 lists carries 6 to 10 years. Article 34 closes by providing that it does not apply where the conduct fits a graver offence. There is no personal use exemption anywhere in the Ley. Article 31 sets 5 to 15 years for sowing, cultivating or harvesting, and Article 33 sets 10 to 15 years for acquiring, transferring, importing, exporting, storing, transporting, distributing, supplying or selling. Article 33's second paragraph raises the trafficking penalty by one third of the stated maximum where the act is international trafficking, so the ceiling on that route is 20 years, and Article 54 allows a court to raise the penalty by up to one third of the maximum on any of nine listed aggravating circumstances, which is a discretion and not the mandatory increase Article 33 creates. Article 55 allows the penalty to be cut to half the minimum where the accused names others or enables a seizure. The ceiling on every one of these routes is imprisonment, because the severest sanction is constitutionally barred for ordinary offences in El Salvador, so no offence in this Ley carries it. The Ley creates no lawful recreational regime and no medical regime for any substance it reaches, cannabis included: Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be imported, produced, made, extracted, possessed or used only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for making products of industrial use, and only with the health regulator's authorisation. On the fine, the Sala de lo Constitucional struck the multa in each of these three articles as a penal consequence, Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments published on 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments published on 19 August 2009 and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010 published on 23 October 2013, so no fine now attaches to cultivation, trafficking or possession under this Ley. On quantity, the 2 gram line in Article 34 is the only weight the Ley fixes; it sets no substance by substance threshold and no quantity table, so the same 2 grams applies whatever the substance is. The 2 gram line and the bands of 1 to 3, 3 to 6, 6 to 10, 5 to 15 and 10 to 15 years and the one third increase are carried forward from the live cell and were re-read against the Asamblea Legislativa text for this pass; the Article 34 graver offence proviso, the Article 54 and Article 55 provisions and the three unconstitutionality rulings are new to this cell.
- If prescribed / medical
- PCP reaches people as a powder, a liquid, a blotter or a pressed tablet rather than as a dispensed medicine, so there is no prescription document to carry for it, and the name a Salvadoran laboratory report would use is fenciclidina. Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be held only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for industrial products, and only with the health regulator's authorisation, so there is no lawful personal quantity of it.
- Documentation
- The instrument read for this cell is the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, published in Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003, in the consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa. That text carries its own reform schedule: five reforms, the last of them Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018 in Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, so the consolidation read here is current to that reform. The same reform schedule was confirmed against a second publisher, the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which prints the identical list of five. The text also carries four rulings of the Sala de lo Constitucional, three of which strike the fine in Articles 31, 33 and 34 and the fourth of which struck the rule in Article 52 that equated preparatory acts with completed offences before that article was reformed in 2018. The substance list read for this cell is the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria. That document states its own currency in its Disposiciones generales: it was approved by that acuerdo and is «vigente hasta el 31 de marzo de 2027, o hasta que se emita un nuevo listado por parte de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria». It was read as at 21 September 2026, and the 2025 edition of the same list was fetched first and set aside once the 2026 edition was found on the regulator's own page. The list is the one Article 13 of the Ley requires, «una lista de drogas y de todas las preparaciones y especialidades farmaceuticas que las contengan de acuerdo a las categorias establecidas en la presente Ley», which Article 13 also requires to be sent to the Corte Suprema de Justicia, the Fiscalia General de la Republica and the Policia Nacional Civil so that judges and prosecutors know it. Article 13 names the Consejo Superior de Salud Publica as the body that makes it; the 2013 Reglamento names the Direccion Nacional de Medicamentos as the governing authority, and the Ley de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria dissolved that Direccion and moved its functions to the Superintendencia with effect from August 2024. That succession is stated from the Reglamento and from reporting of the Superintendencia law, whose own gazette text was not read for this cell. Article 2 defines droga in its own words: «Art. 2.- Para los efectos de esta Ley se consideran drogas las sustancias especificadas como tales en los Convenios Internacionales ratificados por El Salvador, las que se mencionan en el Código de Salud y demás leyes del país; y en general, las que indistintamente de su grado de pureza, actúan sobre el sistema nervioso central y tienen la capacidad de producir transformaciones, bien sea aumentando o disminuyendo su funcionamiento o modificando los estados de conciencia y que su uso indebido puede causar dependencia o sujeción física y psicológica.» Article 3 then prohibits activity relating to five named categories and, in letter f, «f) Cualquier otra sustancia que sea considerada droga tan nociva que amerite ser prohibida por el Consejo Superior de Salud Pública o por los convenios internacionales ratificados por el país.» The names searched across the list, in Spanish and in English, were fenciclidina, PCP. The matched entry was read before it was relied on, and it is «Fenciclidina (PCP)», entry 91, CAS 77-10-1, at Parte B, Seccion II. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista II de la Convencion de 1971. Three routes were tried for the instrument and all three returned a document: the Asamblea Legislativa decree file, which returned the consolidated text; the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which returned the same consolidation; and the regulator's own listado page, which returned the 2026 list. Two routes returned nothing usable: the Asamblea decree index and law search paths both returned a not found page, and a fetch of the Asamblea search page failed on certificate verification. Carry any controlled medicine in its dispensing packaging with the prescription, and confirm the position with the Salvadoran embassy or consulate before you travel.
Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, Articles 2, 3, 13, 31, 32, 33, 34, 54 and 55, consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa, Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003 · Consolidation: current to Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018, Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, the last of the five reforms the text's own schedule prints, confirmed against the Fiscalia General de la Republica transparency copy · Unconstitutionality of the fine: Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments, Diario Oficial 196, Tomo 377, of 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments, Diario Oficial 152, Tomo 384, of 19 August 2009, and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010, Diario Oficial 197, Tomo 401, of 23 October 2013 · Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria, read as at 21 September 2026, the document stating its own currency to 31 March 2027 or until a new listado is issued · Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados, Decreto Ejecutivo 20, Diario Oficial of 13 February 2013, Articles 5, 26, 36, 37 and 40 · Placement: entry read at Parte B, Seccion II. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista II de la Convencion de 1971, entry 91, CAS 77-10-1 · Placement provenance: the Parte and Seccion stated for this row are not printed in the quoted dossier extract, and no quoted extract in that dossier carries a Parte or Seccion marker for any substance, because the dossier resolved every row against articles 2 and 3 of Decreto 153 alone and never reached the Listado. The placement is read directly from the Listado named above and not from the dossier · Penalty figures for the 2 gram line and the year bands in Articles 31, 33 and 34 carried forward from the live cell and not re-derived from a new source, then re-read against the Asamblea text. The Article 34 graver offence proviso, Articles 54 and 55 and the three unconstitutionality rulings are read from that text and are new to this cell · asamblea.gob.sv · srs.gob.sv · portaldetransparencia.fgr.gob.sv · Updated September 21, 2026
Peyote
- Legal status
- Controlled under the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003. Peyote is reached through a named constituent rather than under its own name: it is not named in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria, which instead prints «Mescalina», entry 11, CAS 54-04-6, at Parte B, Seccion I. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista I de la Convencion de 1971. Article 2's second paragraph makes seeds, flowering tops, plants and parts of them a droga where they are used as raw material for making one, which is the route this row travels. No cactus is named anywhere in the Listado. This row reaches the regime only through Article 2's second paragraph, which makes a plant a droga where it is used as raw material for making one, and the drug in question is the named Mescalina entry.
- Consequences if caught
- No cactus is named anywhere in the Listado. This row reaches the regime only through Article 2's second paragraph, which makes a plant a droga where it is used as raw material for making one, and the drug in question is the named Mescalina entry. Peyote is inside El Salvador's drug control regime, and the penalties below are set out because they describe the offences that this row's placement brings into play. Article 34 divides possession from trafficking by a 2 gram line: possession of under 2 grams carries 1 to 3 years, possession of 2 grams or more carries 3 to 6 years, and possession of any quantity with the object of doing anything Article 33 lists carries 6 to 10 years. Article 34 closes by providing that it does not apply where the conduct fits a graver offence. There is no personal use exemption anywhere in the Ley. Article 31 sets 5 to 15 years for sowing, cultivating or harvesting, and Article 33 sets 10 to 15 years for acquiring, transferring, importing, exporting, storing, transporting, distributing, supplying or selling. Article 33's second paragraph raises the trafficking penalty by one third of the stated maximum where the act is international trafficking, so the ceiling on that route is 20 years, and Article 54 allows a court to raise the penalty by up to one third of the maximum on any of nine listed aggravating circumstances, which is a discretion and not the mandatory increase Article 33 creates. Article 55 allows the penalty to be cut to half the minimum where the accused names others or enables a seizure. The ceiling on every one of these routes is imprisonment, because the severest sanction is constitutionally barred for ordinary offences in El Salvador, so no offence in this Ley carries it. The Ley creates no lawful recreational regime and no medical regime for any substance it reaches, cannabis included: Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be imported, produced, made, extracted, possessed or used only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for making products of industrial use, and only with the health regulator's authorisation. On the fine, the Sala de lo Constitucional struck the multa in each of these three articles as a penal consequence, Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments published on 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments published on 19 August 2009 and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010 published on 23 October 2013, so no fine now attaches to cultivation, trafficking or possession under this Ley. On quantity, the 2 gram line in Article 34 is the only weight the Ley fixes; it sets no substance by substance threshold and no quantity table, so the same 2 grams applies whatever the substance is. The 2 gram line and the bands of 1 to 3, 3 to 6, 6 to 10, 5 to 15 and 10 to 15 years and the one third increase are carried forward from the live cell and were re-read against the Asamblea Legislativa text for this pass; the Article 34 graver offence proviso, the Article 54 and Article 55 provisions and the three unconstitutionality rulings are new to this cell.
- If prescribed / medical
- Peyote is botanical material rather than a dispensed medicine, so there is no prescription document to carry for it, and the name a laboratory report would use is the constituent rather than the plant. No Salvadoran authorisation exists for carrying it for personal use; Article 3's final paragraph allows the listed substances to be held only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, making medicines, medical treatment or industrial products, and only with the health regulator's authorisation.
- Documentation
- The instrument read for this cell is the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, published in Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003, in the consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa. That text carries its own reform schedule: five reforms, the last of them Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018 in Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, so the consolidation read here is current to that reform. The same reform schedule was confirmed against a second publisher, the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which prints the identical list of five. The text also carries four rulings of the Sala de lo Constitucional, three of which strike the fine in Articles 31, 33 and 34 and the fourth of which struck the rule in Article 52 that equated preparatory acts with completed offences before that article was reformed in 2018. The substance list read for this cell is the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria. That document states its own currency in its Disposiciones generales: it was approved by that acuerdo and is «vigente hasta el 31 de marzo de 2027, o hasta que se emita un nuevo listado por parte de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria». It was read as at 21 September 2026, and the 2025 edition of the same list was fetched first and set aside once the 2026 edition was found on the regulator's own page. The list is the one Article 13 of the Ley requires, «una lista de drogas y de todas las preparaciones y especialidades farmaceuticas que las contengan de acuerdo a las categorias establecidas en la presente Ley», which Article 13 also requires to be sent to the Corte Suprema de Justicia, the Fiscalia General de la Republica and the Policia Nacional Civil so that judges and prosecutors know it. Article 13 names the Consejo Superior de Salud Publica as the body that makes it; the 2013 Reglamento names the Direccion Nacional de Medicamentos as the governing authority, and the Ley de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria dissolved that Direccion and moved its functions to the Superintendencia with effect from August 2024. That succession is stated from the Reglamento and from reporting of the Superintendencia law, whose own gazette text was not read for this cell. Article 2 defines droga in its own words: «Art. 2.- Para los efectos de esta Ley se consideran drogas las sustancias especificadas como tales en los Convenios Internacionales ratificados por El Salvador, las que se mencionan en el Código de Salud y demás leyes del país; y en general, las que indistintamente de su grado de pureza, actúan sobre el sistema nervioso central y tienen la capacidad de producir transformaciones, bien sea aumentando o disminuyendo su funcionamiento o modificando los estados de conciencia y que su uso indebido puede causar dependencia o sujeción física y psicológica.» Article 3 then prohibits activity relating to five named categories and, in letter f, «f) Cualquier otra sustancia que sea considerada droga tan nociva que amerite ser prohibida por el Consejo Superior de Salud Pública o por los convenios internacionales ratificados por el país.» The names searched across the list, in Spanish and in English, were peyote, Lophophora, Lophophora williamsii, mescalina. No entry was returned under the row's own name. The entry relied on instead was read in full and it is «Mescalina», entry 11, CAS 54-04-6, at Parte B, Seccion I. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista I de la Convencion de 1971. Three routes were tried for the instrument and all three returned a document: the Asamblea Legislativa decree file, which returned the consolidated text; the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which returned the same consolidation; and the regulator's own listado page, which returned the 2026 list. Two routes returned nothing usable: the Asamblea decree index and law search paths both returned a not found page, and a fetch of the Asamblea search page failed on certificate verification. Carry any controlled medicine in its dispensing packaging with the prescription, and confirm the position with the Salvadoran embassy or consulate before you travel.
Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, Articles 2, 3, 13, 31, 32, 33, 34, 54 and 55, consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa, Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003 · Consolidation: current to Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018, Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, the last of the five reforms the text's own schedule prints, confirmed against the Fiscalia General de la Republica transparency copy · Unconstitutionality of the fine: Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments, Diario Oficial 196, Tomo 377, of 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments, Diario Oficial 152, Tomo 384, of 19 August 2009, and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010, Diario Oficial 197, Tomo 401, of 23 October 2013 · Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria, read as at 21 September 2026, the document stating its own currency to 31 March 2027 or until a new listado is issued · Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados, Decreto Ejecutivo 20, Diario Oficial of 13 February 2013, Articles 5, 26, 36, 37 and 40 · Placement: the row's own name returned no entry · the entry relied on is at Parte B, Seccion I. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista I de la Convencion de 1971, entry 11 · Placement provenance: the Parte and Seccion stated for this row are not printed in the quoted dossier extract, and no quoted extract in that dossier carries a Parte or Seccion marker for any substance, because the dossier resolved every row against articles 2 and 3 of Decreto 153 alone and never reached the Listado. The placement is read directly from the Listado named above and not from the dossier · Penalty figures for the 2 gram line and the year bands in Articles 31, 33 and 34 carried forward from the live cell and not re-derived from a new source, then re-read against the Asamblea text. The Article 34 graver offence proviso, Articles 54 and 55 and the three unconstitutionality rulings are read from that text and are new to this cell · asamblea.gob.sv · srs.gob.sv · portaldetransparencia.fgr.gob.sv · Updated September 21, 2026
Poppers
- Legal status
- Not a controlled drug for the purposes of Articles 31 to 34 of the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003. Article 2's third paragraph provides that alcoholic drinks, tobacco, and solvents and inhalants, although within this subject matter, are to be regulated by special laws: «Las bebidas alcohólicas, el tabaco, y los solventes e inhalantes, no obstante estar enmarcadas dentro de esta materia, serán reguladas por leyes especiales.» Poppers is also not named in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria. No nitrite of any kind is printed in the Listado. This row is an inhalant product class, and Article 2's third paragraph sends inhalants to special laws rather than to the drug offences.
- Consequences if caught
- No nitrite of any kind is printed in the Listado. This row is an inhalant product class, and Article 2's third paragraph sends inhalants to special laws rather than to the drug offences. Poppers is outside the offences that Articles 31, 33 and 34 create, and the penalties below are set out because this row is placed outside that regime, so they are recorded as El Salvador's published drug penalties and not as this substance's exposure. Article 34 divides possession from trafficking by a 2 gram line: possession of under 2 grams carries 1 to 3 years, possession of 2 grams or more carries 3 to 6 years, and possession of any quantity with the object of doing anything Article 33 lists carries 6 to 10 years. Article 34 closes by providing that it does not apply where the conduct fits a graver offence. There is no personal use exemption anywhere in the Ley. Article 31 sets 5 to 15 years for sowing, cultivating or harvesting, and Article 33 sets 10 to 15 years for acquiring, transferring, importing, exporting, storing, transporting, distributing, supplying or selling. Article 33's second paragraph raises the trafficking penalty by one third of the stated maximum where the act is international trafficking, so the ceiling on that route is 20 years, and Article 54 allows a court to raise the penalty by up to one third of the maximum on any of nine listed aggravating circumstances, which is a discretion and not the mandatory increase Article 33 creates. Article 55 allows the penalty to be cut to half the minimum where the accused names others or enables a seizure. The ceiling on every one of these routes is imprisonment, because the severest sanction is constitutionally barred for ordinary offences in El Salvador, so no offence in this Ley carries it. The Ley creates no lawful recreational regime and no medical regime for any substance it reaches, cannabis included: Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be imported, produced, made, extracted, possessed or used only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for making products of industrial use, and only with the health regulator's authorisation. On the fine, the Sala de lo Constitucional struck the multa in each of these three articles as a penal consequence, Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments published on 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments published on 19 August 2009 and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010 published on 23 October 2013, so no fine now attaches to cultivation, trafficking or possession under this Ley. On quantity, the 2 gram line in Article 34 is the only weight the Ley fixes; it sets no substance by substance threshold and no quantity table, so the same 2 grams applies whatever the substance is. The 2 gram line and the bands of 1 to 3, 3 to 6, 6 to 10, 5 to 15 and 10 to 15 years and the one third increase are carried forward from the live cell and were re-read against the Asamblea Legislativa text for this pass; the Article 34 graver offence proviso, the Article 54 and Article 55 provisions and the three unconstitutionality rulings are new to this cell.
- If prescribed / medical
- Poppers is sold as an ordinary consumer or industrial product rather than dispensed on a prescription, so there is no prescription document to carry for it and the name a Salvadoran record would use is poppers. The special prescription machinery in Article 37 of the Reglamento is built for narcotics, psychotropics and agregados and has nothing to say about a product outside those three categories.
- Documentation
- The instrument read for this cell is the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, published in Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003, in the consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa. That text carries its own reform schedule: five reforms, the last of them Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018 in Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, so the consolidation read here is current to that reform. The same reform schedule was confirmed against a second publisher, the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which prints the identical list of five. The text also carries four rulings of the Sala de lo Constitucional, three of which strike the fine in Articles 31, 33 and 34 and the fourth of which struck the rule in Article 52 that equated preparatory acts with completed offences before that article was reformed in 2018. The substance list read for this cell is the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria. That document states its own currency in its Disposiciones generales: it was approved by that acuerdo and is «vigente hasta el 31 de marzo de 2027, o hasta que se emita un nuevo listado por parte de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria». It was read as at 21 September 2026, and the 2025 edition of the same list was fetched first and set aside once the 2026 edition was found on the regulator's own page. The list is the one Article 13 of the Ley requires, «una lista de drogas y de todas las preparaciones y especialidades farmaceuticas que las contengan de acuerdo a las categorias establecidas en la presente Ley», which Article 13 also requires to be sent to the Corte Suprema de Justicia, the Fiscalia General de la Republica and the Policia Nacional Civil so that judges and prosecutors know it. Article 13 names the Consejo Superior de Salud Publica as the body that makes it; the 2013 Reglamento names the Direccion Nacional de Medicamentos as the governing authority, and the Ley de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria dissolved that Direccion and moved its functions to the Superintendencia with effect from August 2024. That succession is stated from the Reglamento and from reporting of the Superintendencia law, whose own gazette text was not read for this cell. Article 2 defines droga in its own words: «Art. 2.- Para los efectos de esta Ley se consideran drogas las sustancias especificadas como tales en los Convenios Internacionales ratificados por El Salvador, las que se mencionan en el Código de Salud y demás leyes del país; y en general, las que indistintamente de su grado de pureza, actúan sobre el sistema nervioso central y tienen la capacidad de producir transformaciones, bien sea aumentando o disminuyendo su funcionamiento o modificando los estados de conciencia y que su uso indebido puede causar dependencia o sujeción física y psicológica.» Article 3 then prohibits activity relating to five named categories and, in letter f, «f) Cualquier otra sustancia que sea considerada droga tan nociva que amerite ser prohibida por el Consejo Superior de Salud Pública o por los convenios internacionales ratificados por el país.» The names searched across the list, in Spanish and in English, were poppers, nitrito de alquilo, nitritos. No entry was returned for any of them, and none of them produced an occurrence of any kind in the list. Three routes were tried for the instrument and all three returned a document: the Asamblea Legislativa decree file, which returned the consolidated text; the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which returned the same consolidation; and the regulator's own listado page, which returned the 2026 list. Two routes returned nothing usable: the Asamblea decree index and law search paths both returned a not found page, and a fetch of the Asamblea search page failed on certificate verification. Carry any controlled medicine in its dispensing packaging with the prescription, and confirm the position with the Salvadoran embassy or consulate before you travel.
Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, Articles 2, 3, 13, 31, 32, 33, 34, 54 and 55, consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa, Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003 · Consolidation: current to Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018, Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, the last of the five reforms the text's own schedule prints, confirmed against the Fiscalia General de la Republica transparency copy · Unconstitutionality of the fine: Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments, Diario Oficial 196, Tomo 377, of 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments, Diario Oficial 152, Tomo 384, of 19 August 2009, and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010, Diario Oficial 197, Tomo 401, of 23 October 2013 · Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria, read as at 21 September 2026, the document stating its own currency to 31 March 2027 or until a new listado is issued · Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados, Decreto Ejecutivo 20, Diario Oficial of 13 February 2013, Articles 5, 26, 36, 37 and 40 · Placement: reserved to leyes especiales by the third paragraph of Article 2 · no entry returned in the listado · Penalty figures for the 2 gram line and the year bands in Articles 31, 33 and 34 carried forward from the live cell and not re-derived from a new source, then re-read against the Asamblea text. The Article 34 graver offence proviso, Articles 54 and 55 and the three unconstitutionality rulings are read from that text and are new to this cell · asamblea.gob.sv · srs.gob.sv · portaldetransparencia.fgr.gob.sv · Updated September 21, 2026
Psilocybin
- Legal status
- Controlled under the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003. Psilocybin is printed in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria as «Psilocibina», entry 27, CAS 520-52-5, at Parte B, Seccion I. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista I de la Convencion de 1971. Article 2 makes a droga any substance specified as such in the conventions El Salvador has ratified, and Article 3 prohibits every activity relating to the narcotic, depressant, stimulant, hallucinogen and cannabis categories, so a printed convention entry is reached by the definition itself. Both the phosphate ester and the free alkaloid carry their own entries here, Psilocibina at n.o 27 and Psilocina at n.o 26, so a mushroom preparation meets a named entry whichever of the two a laboratory reports.
- Consequences if caught
- Both the phosphate ester and the free alkaloid carry their own entries here, Psilocibina at n.o 27 and Psilocina at n.o 26, so a mushroom preparation meets a named entry whichever of the two a laboratory reports. Psilocybin is inside El Salvador's drug control regime, and the penalties below are set out because they describe the offences that this row's placement brings into play. Article 34 divides possession from trafficking by a 2 gram line: possession of under 2 grams carries 1 to 3 years, possession of 2 grams or more carries 3 to 6 years, and possession of any quantity with the object of doing anything Article 33 lists carries 6 to 10 years. Article 34 closes by providing that it does not apply where the conduct fits a graver offence. There is no personal use exemption anywhere in the Ley. Article 31 sets 5 to 15 years for sowing, cultivating or harvesting, and Article 33 sets 10 to 15 years for acquiring, transferring, importing, exporting, storing, transporting, distributing, supplying or selling. Article 33's second paragraph raises the trafficking penalty by one third of the stated maximum where the act is international trafficking, so the ceiling on that route is 20 years, and Article 54 allows a court to raise the penalty by up to one third of the maximum on any of nine listed aggravating circumstances, which is a discretion and not the mandatory increase Article 33 creates. Article 55 allows the penalty to be cut to half the minimum where the accused names others or enables a seizure. The ceiling on every one of these routes is imprisonment, because the severest sanction is constitutionally barred for ordinary offences in El Salvador, so no offence in this Ley carries it. The Ley creates no lawful recreational regime and no medical regime for any substance it reaches, cannabis included: Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be imported, produced, made, extracted, possessed or used only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for making products of industrial use, and only with the health regulator's authorisation. On the fine, the Sala de lo Constitucional struck the multa in each of these three articles as a penal consequence, Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments published on 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments published on 19 August 2009 and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010 published on 23 October 2013, so no fine now attaches to cultivation, trafficking or possession under this Ley. On quantity, the 2 gram line in Article 34 is the only weight the Ley fixes; it sets no substance by substance threshold and no quantity table, so the same 2 grams applies whatever the substance is. The 2 gram line and the bands of 1 to 3, 3 to 6, 6 to 10, 5 to 15 and 10 to 15 years and the one third increase are carried forward from the live cell and were re-read against the Asamblea Legislativa text for this pass; the Article 34 graver offence proviso, the Article 54 and Article 55 provisions and the three unconstitutionality rulings are new to this cell.
- If prescribed / medical
- Psilocybin reaches people as a powder, a liquid, a blotter or a pressed tablet rather than as a dispensed medicine, so there is no prescription document to carry for it, and the name a Salvadoran laboratory report would use is psilocibina. Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be held only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for industrial products, and only with the health regulator's authorisation, so there is no lawful personal quantity of it.
- Documentation
- The instrument read for this cell is the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, published in Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003, in the consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa. That text carries its own reform schedule: five reforms, the last of them Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018 in Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, so the consolidation read here is current to that reform. The same reform schedule was confirmed against a second publisher, the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which prints the identical list of five. The text also carries four rulings of the Sala de lo Constitucional, three of which strike the fine in Articles 31, 33 and 34 and the fourth of which struck the rule in Article 52 that equated preparatory acts with completed offences before that article was reformed in 2018. The substance list read for this cell is the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria. That document states its own currency in its Disposiciones generales: it was approved by that acuerdo and is «vigente hasta el 31 de marzo de 2027, o hasta que se emita un nuevo listado por parte de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria». It was read as at 21 September 2026, and the 2025 edition of the same list was fetched first and set aside once the 2026 edition was found on the regulator's own page. The list is the one Article 13 of the Ley requires, «una lista de drogas y de todas las preparaciones y especialidades farmaceuticas que las contengan de acuerdo a las categorias establecidas en la presente Ley», which Article 13 also requires to be sent to the Corte Suprema de Justicia, the Fiscalia General de la Republica and the Policia Nacional Civil so that judges and prosecutors know it. Article 13 names the Consejo Superior de Salud Publica as the body that makes it; the 2013 Reglamento names the Direccion Nacional de Medicamentos as the governing authority, and the Ley de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria dissolved that Direccion and moved its functions to the Superintendencia with effect from August 2024. That succession is stated from the Reglamento and from reporting of the Superintendencia law, whose own gazette text was not read for this cell. Article 2 defines droga in its own words: «Art. 2.- Para los efectos de esta Ley se consideran drogas las sustancias especificadas como tales en los Convenios Internacionales ratificados por El Salvador, las que se mencionan en el Código de Salud y demás leyes del país; y en general, las que indistintamente de su grado de pureza, actúan sobre el sistema nervioso central y tienen la capacidad de producir transformaciones, bien sea aumentando o disminuyendo su funcionamiento o modificando los estados de conciencia y que su uso indebido puede causar dependencia o sujeción física y psicológica.» Article 3 then prohibits activity relating to five named categories and, in letter f, «f) Cualquier otra sustancia que sea considerada droga tan nociva que amerite ser prohibida por el Consejo Superior de Salud Pública o por los convenios internacionales ratificados por el país.» The names searched across the list, in Spanish and in English, were psilocibina, psilocina, psilocybine. The matched entry was read before it was relied on, and it is «Psilocibina», entry 27, CAS 520-52-5, at Parte B, Seccion I. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista I de la Convencion de 1971. Three routes were tried for the instrument and all three returned a document: the Asamblea Legislativa decree file, which returned the consolidated text; the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which returned the same consolidation; and the regulator's own listado page, which returned the 2026 list. Two routes returned nothing usable: the Asamblea decree index and law search paths both returned a not found page, and a fetch of the Asamblea search page failed on certificate verification. Carry any controlled medicine in its dispensing packaging with the prescription, and confirm the position with the Salvadoran embassy or consulate before you travel.
Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, Articles 2, 3, 13, 31, 32, 33, 34, 54 and 55, consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa, Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003 · Consolidation: current to Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018, Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, the last of the five reforms the text's own schedule prints, confirmed against the Fiscalia General de la Republica transparency copy · Unconstitutionality of the fine: Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments, Diario Oficial 196, Tomo 377, of 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments, Diario Oficial 152, Tomo 384, of 19 August 2009, and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010, Diario Oficial 197, Tomo 401, of 23 October 2013 · Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria, read as at 21 September 2026, the document stating its own currency to 31 March 2027 or until a new listado is issued · Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados, Decreto Ejecutivo 20, Diario Oficial of 13 February 2013, Articles 5, 26, 36, 37 and 40 · Placement: entry read at Parte B, Seccion I. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista I de la Convencion de 1971, entry 27, CAS 520-52-5 · Placement provenance: the Parte and Seccion stated for this row are not printed in the quoted dossier extract, and no quoted extract in that dossier carries a Parte or Seccion marker for any substance, because the dossier resolved every row against articles 2 and 3 of Decreto 153 alone and never reached the Listado. The placement is read directly from the Listado named above and not from the dossier · Penalty figures for the 2 gram line and the year bands in Articles 31, 33 and 34 carried forward from the live cell and not re-derived from a new source, then re-read against the Asamblea text. The Article 34 graver offence proviso, Articles 54 and 55 and the three unconstitutionality rulings are read from that text and are new to this cell · asamblea.gob.sv · srs.gob.sv · portaldetransparencia.fgr.gob.sv · Updated September 21, 2026
Tobacco
- Legal status
- Not a controlled drug for the purposes of Articles 31 to 34 of the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003. Article 2's third paragraph provides that alcoholic drinks, tobacco, and solvents and inhalants, although within this subject matter, are to be regulated by special laws: «Las bebidas alcohólicas, el tabaco, y los solventes e inhalantes, no obstante estar enmarcadas dentro de esta materia, serán reguladas por leyes especiales.» Tobacco is also not named in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria. Article 2's third paragraph names el tabaco in the same sentence as alcoholic drinks, so the leaf product is reserved to special laws by name, which is not true of the alkaloid row beside it.
- Consequences if caught
- Article 2's third paragraph names el tabaco in the same sentence as alcoholic drinks, so the leaf product is reserved to special laws by name, which is not true of the alkaloid row beside it. Tobacco is outside the offences that Articles 31, 33 and 34 create, and the penalties below are set out because this row is placed outside that regime, so they are recorded as El Salvador's published drug penalties and not as this substance's exposure. Article 34 divides possession from trafficking by a 2 gram line: possession of under 2 grams carries 1 to 3 years, possession of 2 grams or more carries 3 to 6 years, and possession of any quantity with the object of doing anything Article 33 lists carries 6 to 10 years. Article 34 closes by providing that it does not apply where the conduct fits a graver offence. There is no personal use exemption anywhere in the Ley. Article 31 sets 5 to 15 years for sowing, cultivating or harvesting, and Article 33 sets 10 to 15 years for acquiring, transferring, importing, exporting, storing, transporting, distributing, supplying or selling. Article 33's second paragraph raises the trafficking penalty by one third of the stated maximum where the act is international trafficking, so the ceiling on that route is 20 years, and Article 54 allows a court to raise the penalty by up to one third of the maximum on any of nine listed aggravating circumstances, which is a discretion and not the mandatory increase Article 33 creates. Article 55 allows the penalty to be cut to half the minimum where the accused names others or enables a seizure. The ceiling on every one of these routes is imprisonment, because the severest sanction is constitutionally barred for ordinary offences in El Salvador, so no offence in this Ley carries it. The Ley creates no lawful recreational regime and no medical regime for any substance it reaches, cannabis included: Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be imported, produced, made, extracted, possessed or used only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for making products of industrial use, and only with the health regulator's authorisation. On the fine, the Sala de lo Constitucional struck the multa in each of these three articles as a penal consequence, Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments published on 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments published on 19 August 2009 and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010 published on 23 October 2013, so no fine now attaches to cultivation, trafficking or possession under this Ley. On quantity, the 2 gram line in Article 34 is the only weight the Ley fixes; it sets no substance by substance threshold and no quantity table, so the same 2 grams applies whatever the substance is. The 2 gram line and the bands of 1 to 3, 3 to 6, 6 to 10, 5 to 15 and 10 to 15 years and the one third increase are carried forward from the live cell and were re-read against the Asamblea Legislativa text for this pass; the Article 34 graver offence proviso, the Article 54 and Article 55 provisions and the three unconstitutionality rulings are new to this cell.
- If prescribed / medical
- Tobacco is sold as an ordinary consumer or industrial product rather than dispensed on a prescription, so there is no prescription document to carry for it and the name a Salvadoran record would use is tabaco. The special prescription machinery in Article 37 of the Reglamento is built for narcotics, psychotropics and agregados and has nothing to say about a product outside those three categories.
- Documentation
- The instrument read for this cell is the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, published in Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003, in the consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa. That text carries its own reform schedule: five reforms, the last of them Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018 in Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, so the consolidation read here is current to that reform. The same reform schedule was confirmed against a second publisher, the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which prints the identical list of five. The text also carries four rulings of the Sala de lo Constitucional, three of which strike the fine in Articles 31, 33 and 34 and the fourth of which struck the rule in Article 52 that equated preparatory acts with completed offences before that article was reformed in 2018. The substance list read for this cell is the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria. That document states its own currency in its Disposiciones generales: it was approved by that acuerdo and is «vigente hasta el 31 de marzo de 2027, o hasta que se emita un nuevo listado por parte de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria». It was read as at 21 September 2026, and the 2025 edition of the same list was fetched first and set aside once the 2026 edition was found on the regulator's own page. The list is the one Article 13 of the Ley requires, «una lista de drogas y de todas las preparaciones y especialidades farmaceuticas que las contengan de acuerdo a las categorias establecidas en la presente Ley», which Article 13 also requires to be sent to the Corte Suprema de Justicia, the Fiscalia General de la Republica and the Policia Nacional Civil so that judges and prosecutors know it. Article 13 names the Consejo Superior de Salud Publica as the body that makes it; the 2013 Reglamento names the Direccion Nacional de Medicamentos as the governing authority, and the Ley de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria dissolved that Direccion and moved its functions to the Superintendencia with effect from August 2024. That succession is stated from the Reglamento and from reporting of the Superintendencia law, whose own gazette text was not read for this cell. Article 2 defines droga in its own words: «Art. 2.- Para los efectos de esta Ley se consideran drogas las sustancias especificadas como tales en los Convenios Internacionales ratificados por El Salvador, las que se mencionan en el Código de Salud y demás leyes del país; y en general, las que indistintamente de su grado de pureza, actúan sobre el sistema nervioso central y tienen la capacidad de producir transformaciones, bien sea aumentando o disminuyendo su funcionamiento o modificando los estados de conciencia y que su uso indebido puede causar dependencia o sujeción física y psicológica.» Article 3 then prohibits activity relating to five named categories and, in letter f, «f) Cualquier otra sustancia que sea considerada droga tan nociva que amerite ser prohibida por el Consejo Superior de Salud Pública o por los convenios internacionales ratificados por el país.» The names searched across the list, in Spanish and in English, were tabaco, Nicotiana tabacum. No entry was returned for any of them, and none of them produced an occurrence of any kind in the list. Three routes were tried for the instrument and all three returned a document: the Asamblea Legislativa decree file, which returned the consolidated text; the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which returned the same consolidation; and the regulator's own listado page, which returned the 2026 list. Two routes returned nothing usable: the Asamblea decree index and law search paths both returned a not found page, and a fetch of the Asamblea search page failed on certificate verification. Carry any controlled medicine in its dispensing packaging with the prescription, and confirm the position with the Salvadoran embassy or consulate before you travel.
Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, Articles 2, 3, 13, 31, 32, 33, 34, 54 and 55, consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa, Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003 · Consolidation: current to Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018, Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, the last of the five reforms the text's own schedule prints, confirmed against the Fiscalia General de la Republica transparency copy · Unconstitutionality of the fine: Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments, Diario Oficial 196, Tomo 377, of 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments, Diario Oficial 152, Tomo 384, of 19 August 2009, and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010, Diario Oficial 197, Tomo 401, of 23 October 2013 · Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria, read as at 21 September 2026, the document stating its own currency to 31 March 2027 or until a new listado is issued · Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados, Decreto Ejecutivo 20, Diario Oficial of 13 February 2013, Articles 5, 26, 36, 37 and 40 · Placement: reserved to leyes especiales by the third paragraph of Article 2 · no entry returned in the listado · Penalty figures for the 2 gram line and the year bands in Articles 31, 33 and 34 carried forward from the live cell and not re-derived from a new source, then re-read against the Asamblea text. The Article 34 graver offence proviso, Articles 54 and 55 and the three unconstitutionality rulings are read from that text and are new to this cell · asamblea.gob.sv · srs.gob.sv · portaldetransparencia.fgr.gob.sv · Updated September 21, 2026
Xanax (Alprazolam)
- Legal status
- Controlled under the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003. Alprazolam is printed in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria as «Alprazolam», entry 115, CAS 28981-97-7, at Parte B, Seccion IV. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista IV de la Convencion de 1971. Article 2 makes a droga any substance specified as such in the conventions El Salvador has ratified, and Article 3 prohibits every activity relating to the narcotic, depressant, stimulant, hallucinogen and cannabis categories, so a printed convention entry is reached by the definition itself. The triazolobenzodiazepine ring is the printed chemical description, and a fluorinated relative, Flualprazolam, carries a separate entry at n.o 146, so the two are not read as one.
- Consequences if caught
- The triazolobenzodiazepine ring is the printed chemical description, and a fluorinated relative, Flualprazolam, carries a separate entry at n.o 146, so the two are not read as one. Alprazolam is inside El Salvador's drug control regime, and the penalties below are set out because they describe the offences that this row's placement brings into play. Article 34 divides possession from trafficking by a 2 gram line: possession of under 2 grams carries 1 to 3 years, possession of 2 grams or more carries 3 to 6 years, and possession of any quantity with the object of doing anything Article 33 lists carries 6 to 10 years. Article 34 closes by providing that it does not apply where the conduct fits a graver offence. There is no personal use exemption anywhere in the Ley. Article 31 sets 5 to 15 years for sowing, cultivating or harvesting, and Article 33 sets 10 to 15 years for acquiring, transferring, importing, exporting, storing, transporting, distributing, supplying or selling. Article 33's second paragraph raises the trafficking penalty by one third of the stated maximum where the act is international trafficking, so the ceiling on that route is 20 years, and Article 54 allows a court to raise the penalty by up to one third of the maximum on any of nine listed aggravating circumstances, which is a discretion and not the mandatory increase Article 33 creates. Article 55 allows the penalty to be cut to half the minimum where the accused names others or enables a seizure. The ceiling on every one of these routes is imprisonment, because the severest sanction is constitutionally barred for ordinary offences in El Salvador, so no offence in this Ley carries it. The Ley creates no lawful recreational regime and no medical regime for any substance it reaches, cannabis included: Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be imported, produced, made, extracted, possessed or used only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for making products of industrial use, and only with the health regulator's authorisation. On the fine, the Sala de lo Constitucional struck the multa in each of these three articles as a penal consequence, Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments published on 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments published on 19 August 2009 and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010 published on 23 October 2013, so no fine now attaches to cultivation, trafficking or possession under this Ley. On quantity, the 2 gram line in Article 34 is the only weight the Ley fixes; it sets no substance by substance threshold and no quantity table, so the same 2 grams applies whatever the substance is. The 2 gram line and the bands of 1 to 3, 3 to 6, 6 to 10, 5 to 15 and 10 to 15 years and the one third increase are carried forward from the live cell and were re-read against the Asamblea Legislativa text for this pass; the Article 34 graver offence proviso, the Article 54 and Article 55 provisions and the three unconstitutionality rulings are new to this cell.
- If prescribed / medical
- Alprazolam reaches people here as a dispensed medicine, and the name a Salvadoran pharmacy record or a laboratory report would use is alprazolam. Article 37 of the Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados requires that narcotics, psychotropics and agregados be prescribed on Recetarios Especiales printed by the regulator and issued to the professional, in books of at least twenty five cheque style forms and up to two hundred, and Article 40 of that Reglamento makes a special prescription valid for thirty days, with three monthly prescriptions allowed for a chronic patient. Article 14 of the Ley requires the pack to carry a warning that the product is sold only on medical prescription and is under the health regulator's control. A prescribing doctor who supplies outside the therapeutic indication commits the Article 38 offence, which carries 3 to 5 years, and a pharmacy that dispenses without the prescription commits the Article 40 offence, which carries 5 to 15 years. Carry it in its dispensing packaging with the prescription.
- Documentation
- The instrument read for this cell is the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, published in Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003, in the consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa. That text carries its own reform schedule: five reforms, the last of them Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018 in Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, so the consolidation read here is current to that reform. The same reform schedule was confirmed against a second publisher, the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which prints the identical list of five. The text also carries four rulings of the Sala de lo Constitucional, three of which strike the fine in Articles 31, 33 and 34 and the fourth of which struck the rule in Article 52 that equated preparatory acts with completed offences before that article was reformed in 2018. The substance list read for this cell is the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria. That document states its own currency in its Disposiciones generales: it was approved by that acuerdo and is «vigente hasta el 31 de marzo de 2027, o hasta que se emita un nuevo listado por parte de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria». It was read as at 21 September 2026, and the 2025 edition of the same list was fetched first and set aside once the 2026 edition was found on the regulator's own page. The list is the one Article 13 of the Ley requires, «una lista de drogas y de todas las preparaciones y especialidades farmaceuticas que las contengan de acuerdo a las categorias establecidas en la presente Ley», which Article 13 also requires to be sent to the Corte Suprema de Justicia, the Fiscalia General de la Republica and the Policia Nacional Civil so that judges and prosecutors know it. Article 13 names the Consejo Superior de Salud Publica as the body that makes it; the 2013 Reglamento names the Direccion Nacional de Medicamentos as the governing authority, and the Ley de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria dissolved that Direccion and moved its functions to the Superintendencia with effect from August 2024. That succession is stated from the Reglamento and from reporting of the Superintendencia law, whose own gazette text was not read for this cell. Article 2 defines droga in its own words: «Art. 2.- Para los efectos de esta Ley se consideran drogas las sustancias especificadas como tales en los Convenios Internacionales ratificados por El Salvador, las que se mencionan en el Código de Salud y demás leyes del país; y en general, las que indistintamente de su grado de pureza, actúan sobre el sistema nervioso central y tienen la capacidad de producir transformaciones, bien sea aumentando o disminuyendo su funcionamiento o modificando los estados de conciencia y que su uso indebido puede causar dependencia o sujeción física y psicológica.» Article 3 then prohibits activity relating to five named categories and, in letter f, «f) Cualquier otra sustancia que sea considerada droga tan nociva que amerite ser prohibida por el Consejo Superior de Salud Pública o por los convenios internacionales ratificados por el país.» The names searched across the list, in Spanish and in English, were alprazolam. The matched entry was read before it was relied on, and it is «Alprazolam», entry 115, CAS 28981-97-7, at Parte B, Seccion IV. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista IV de la Convencion de 1971. Three routes were tried for the instrument and all three returned a document: the Asamblea Legislativa decree file, which returned the consolidated text; the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which returned the same consolidation; and the regulator's own listado page, which returned the 2026 list. Two routes returned nothing usable: the Asamblea decree index and law search paths both returned a not found page, and a fetch of the Asamblea search page failed on certificate verification. Carry any controlled medicine in its dispensing packaging with the prescription, and confirm the position with the Salvadoran embassy or consulate before you travel.
Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, Articles 2, 3, 13, 31, 32, 33, 34, 54 and 55, consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa, Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003 · Consolidation: current to Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018, Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, the last of the five reforms the text's own schedule prints, confirmed against the Fiscalia General de la Republica transparency copy · Unconstitutionality of the fine: Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments, Diario Oficial 196, Tomo 377, of 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments, Diario Oficial 152, Tomo 384, of 19 August 2009, and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010, Diario Oficial 197, Tomo 401, of 23 October 2013 · Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria, read as at 21 September 2026, the document stating its own currency to 31 March 2027 or until a new listado is issued · Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados, Decreto Ejecutivo 20, Diario Oficial of 13 February 2013, Articles 5, 26, 36, 37 and 40 · Placement: entry read at Parte B, Seccion IV. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista IV de la Convencion de 1971, entry 115, CAS 28981-97-7 · Placement provenance: the Parte and Seccion stated for this row are not printed in the quoted dossier extract, and no quoted extract in that dossier carries a Parte or Seccion marker for any substance, because the dossier resolved every row against articles 2 and 3 of Decreto 153 alone and never reached the Listado. The placement is read directly from the Listado named above and not from the dossier · Penalty figures for the 2 gram line and the year bands in Articles 31, 33 and 34 carried forward from the live cell and not re-derived from a new source, then re-read against the Asamblea text. The Article 34 graver offence proviso, Articles 54 and 55 and the three unconstitutionality rulings are read from that text and are new to this cell · asamblea.gob.sv · srs.gob.sv · portaldetransparencia.fgr.gob.sv · Updated September 21, 2026
Xylazine
- Legal status
- Controlled under the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003. Xylazine is printed in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria as «Xilazina», entry 5, CAS 7361-61-7, at Parte C, Seccion II. Tranquilizantes de uso veterinario. It is not named in either convention Parte of that list. It sits in Parte C, the national additions, so it is reached not by the convention limb of Article 2 but by the limb that reads on any substance acting on the central nervous system whose misuse can cause dependence, together with Article 13, which constitutes this list and requires it to be sent to the courts and the prosecution service. This row sits in the veterinary tranquilliser section of the national additions, which is a control on a licensed animal medicine rather than a convention placement, and it is the only row in this set placed there.
- Consequences if caught
- This row sits in the veterinary tranquilliser section of the national additions, which is a control on a licensed animal medicine rather than a convention placement, and it is the only row in this set placed there. Xylazine is inside El Salvador's drug control regime, and the penalties below are set out because they describe the offences that this row's placement brings into play. Article 34 divides possession from trafficking by a 2 gram line: possession of under 2 grams carries 1 to 3 years, possession of 2 grams or more carries 3 to 6 years, and possession of any quantity with the object of doing anything Article 33 lists carries 6 to 10 years. Article 34 closes by providing that it does not apply where the conduct fits a graver offence. There is no personal use exemption anywhere in the Ley. Article 31 sets 5 to 15 years for sowing, cultivating or harvesting, and Article 33 sets 10 to 15 years for acquiring, transferring, importing, exporting, storing, transporting, distributing, supplying or selling. Article 33's second paragraph raises the trafficking penalty by one third of the stated maximum where the act is international trafficking, so the ceiling on that route is 20 years, and Article 54 allows a court to raise the penalty by up to one third of the maximum on any of nine listed aggravating circumstances, which is a discretion and not the mandatory increase Article 33 creates. Article 55 allows the penalty to be cut to half the minimum where the accused names others or enables a seizure. The ceiling on every one of these routes is imprisonment, because the severest sanction is constitutionally barred for ordinary offences in El Salvador, so no offence in this Ley carries it. The Ley creates no lawful recreational regime and no medical regime for any substance it reaches, cannabis included: Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be imported, produced, made, extracted, possessed or used only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for making products of industrial use, and only with the health regulator's authorisation. On the fine, the Sala de lo Constitucional struck the multa in each of these three articles as a penal consequence, Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments published on 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments published on 19 August 2009 and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010 published on 23 October 2013, so no fine now attaches to cultivation, trafficking or possession under this Ley. On quantity, the 2 gram line in Article 34 is the only weight the Ley fixes; it sets no substance by substance threshold and no quantity table, so the same 2 grams applies whatever the substance is. The 2 gram line and the bands of 1 to 3, 3 to 6, 6 to 10, 5 to 15 and 10 to 15 years and the one third increase are carried forward from the live cell and were re-read against the Asamblea Legislativa text for this pass; the Article 34 graver offence proviso, the Article 54 and Article 55 provisions and the three unconstitutionality rulings are new to this cell.
- If prescribed / medical
- Xylazine is a veterinary medicine rather than a human one, and the name a Salvadoran record would use is xilazina. The Reglamento treats agregados alongside narcotics and psychotropics, so Article 37's Recetarios Especiales requirement reaches a veterinary prescription as well, and Article 36 of that Reglamento allows veterinarians to prescribe. A traveller does not carry this as a personal medicine; a veterinary professional carrying it needs the regulator's authorisation.
- Documentation
- The instrument read for this cell is the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, published in Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003, in the consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa. That text carries its own reform schedule: five reforms, the last of them Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018 in Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, so the consolidation read here is current to that reform. The same reform schedule was confirmed against a second publisher, the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which prints the identical list of five. The text also carries four rulings of the Sala de lo Constitucional, three of which strike the fine in Articles 31, 33 and 34 and the fourth of which struck the rule in Article 52 that equated preparatory acts with completed offences before that article was reformed in 2018. The substance list read for this cell is the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria. That document states its own currency in its Disposiciones generales: it was approved by that acuerdo and is «vigente hasta el 31 de marzo de 2027, o hasta que se emita un nuevo listado por parte de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria». It was read as at 21 September 2026, and the 2025 edition of the same list was fetched first and set aside once the 2026 edition was found on the regulator's own page. The list is the one Article 13 of the Ley requires, «una lista de drogas y de todas las preparaciones y especialidades farmaceuticas que las contengan de acuerdo a las categorias establecidas en la presente Ley», which Article 13 also requires to be sent to the Corte Suprema de Justicia, the Fiscalia General de la Republica and the Policia Nacional Civil so that judges and prosecutors know it. Article 13 names the Consejo Superior de Salud Publica as the body that makes it; the 2013 Reglamento names the Direccion Nacional de Medicamentos as the governing authority, and the Ley de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria dissolved that Direccion and moved its functions to the Superintendencia with effect from August 2024. That succession is stated from the Reglamento and from reporting of the Superintendencia law, whose own gazette text was not read for this cell. Article 2 defines droga in its own words: «Art. 2.- Para los efectos de esta Ley se consideran drogas las sustancias especificadas como tales en los Convenios Internacionales ratificados por El Salvador, las que se mencionan en el Código de Salud y demás leyes del país; y en general, las que indistintamente de su grado de pureza, actúan sobre el sistema nervioso central y tienen la capacidad de producir transformaciones, bien sea aumentando o disminuyendo su funcionamiento o modificando los estados de conciencia y que su uso indebido puede causar dependencia o sujeción física y psicológica.» Article 3 then prohibits activity relating to five named categories and, in letter f, «f) Cualquier otra sustancia que sea considerada droga tan nociva que amerite ser prohibida por el Consejo Superior de Salud Pública o por los convenios internacionales ratificados por el país.» The names searched across the list, in Spanish and in English, were xilazina, xilacina. The matched entry was read before it was relied on, and it is «Xilazina», entry 5, CAS 7361-61-7, at Parte C, Seccion II. Tranquilizantes de uso veterinario. Three routes were tried for the instrument and all three returned a document: the Asamblea Legislativa decree file, which returned the consolidated text; the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which returned the same consolidation; and the regulator's own listado page, which returned the 2026 list. Two routes returned nothing usable: the Asamblea decree index and law search paths both returned a not found page, and a fetch of the Asamblea search page failed on certificate verification. Carry any controlled medicine in its dispensing packaging with the prescription, and confirm the position with the Salvadoran embassy or consulate before you travel.
Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, Articles 2, 3, 13, 31, 32, 33, 34, 54 and 55, consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa, Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003 · Consolidation: current to Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018, Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, the last of the five reforms the text's own schedule prints, confirmed against the Fiscalia General de la Republica transparency copy · Unconstitutionality of the fine: Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments, Diario Oficial 196, Tomo 377, of 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments, Diario Oficial 152, Tomo 384, of 19 August 2009, and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010, Diario Oficial 197, Tomo 401, of 23 October 2013 · Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria, read as at 21 September 2026, the document stating its own currency to 31 March 2027 or until a new listado is issued · Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados, Decreto Ejecutivo 20, Diario Oficial of 13 February 2013, Articles 5, 26, 36, 37 and 40 · Placement: entry read at Parte C, Seccion II. Tranquilizantes de uso veterinario, entry 5, CAS 7361-61-7 · Placement provenance: the Parte and Seccion stated for this row are not printed in the quoted dossier extract, and no quoted extract in that dossier carries a Parte or Seccion marker for any substance, because the dossier resolved every row against articles 2 and 3 of Decreto 153 alone and never reached the Listado. The placement is read directly from the Listado named above and not from the dossier · Penalty figures for the 2 gram line and the year bands in Articles 31, 33 and 34 carried forward from the live cell and not re-derived from a new source, then re-read against the Asamblea text. The Article 34 graver offence proviso, Articles 54 and 55 and the three unconstitutionality rulings are read from that text and are new to this cell · asamblea.gob.sv · srs.gob.sv · portaldetransparencia.fgr.gob.sv · Updated September 21, 2026
Zolpidem
- Legal status
- Controlled under the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003. Zolpidem is printed in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria as «Zolpidem», entry 181, at Parte B, Seccion IV. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista IV de la Convencion de 1971. Article 2 makes a droga any substance specified as such in the conventions El Salvador has ratified, and Article 3 prohibits every activity relating to the narcotic, depressant, stimulant, hallucinogen and cannabis categories, so a printed convention entry is reached by the definition itself. The imidazopyridine hypnotic is printed in a convention section, while the two structurally related Z-drugs zopiclona and eszopiclona sit instead in the national additions part, so this set of medicines is split across two Partes.
- Consequences if caught
- The imidazopyridine hypnotic is printed in a convention section, while the two structurally related Z-drugs zopiclona and eszopiclona sit instead in the national additions part, so this set of medicines is split across two Partes. Zolpidem is inside El Salvador's drug control regime, and the penalties below are set out because they describe the offences that this row's placement brings into play. Article 34 divides possession from trafficking by a 2 gram line: possession of under 2 grams carries 1 to 3 years, possession of 2 grams or more carries 3 to 6 years, and possession of any quantity with the object of doing anything Article 33 lists carries 6 to 10 years. Article 34 closes by providing that it does not apply where the conduct fits a graver offence. There is no personal use exemption anywhere in the Ley. Article 31 sets 5 to 15 years for sowing, cultivating or harvesting, and Article 33 sets 10 to 15 years for acquiring, transferring, importing, exporting, storing, transporting, distributing, supplying or selling. Article 33's second paragraph raises the trafficking penalty by one third of the stated maximum where the act is international trafficking, so the ceiling on that route is 20 years, and Article 54 allows a court to raise the penalty by up to one third of the maximum on any of nine listed aggravating circumstances, which is a discretion and not the mandatory increase Article 33 creates. Article 55 allows the penalty to be cut to half the minimum where the accused names others or enables a seizure. The ceiling on every one of these routes is imprisonment, because the severest sanction is constitutionally barred for ordinary offences in El Salvador, so no offence in this Ley carries it. The Ley creates no lawful recreational regime and no medical regime for any substance it reaches, cannabis included: Article 3's final paragraph permits a listed substance to be imported, produced, made, extracted, possessed or used only in the quantities strictly necessary for scientific research, for making medicines, for medical treatment or for making products of industrial use, and only with the health regulator's authorisation. On the fine, the Sala de lo Constitucional struck the multa in each of these three articles as a penal consequence, Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments published on 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments published on 19 August 2009 and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010 published on 23 October 2013, so no fine now attaches to cultivation, trafficking or possession under this Ley. On quantity, the 2 gram line in Article 34 is the only weight the Ley fixes; it sets no substance by substance threshold and no quantity table, so the same 2 grams applies whatever the substance is. The 2 gram line and the bands of 1 to 3, 3 to 6, 6 to 10, 5 to 15 and 10 to 15 years and the one third increase are carried forward from the live cell and were re-read against the Asamblea Legislativa text for this pass; the Article 34 graver offence proviso, the Article 54 and Article 55 provisions and the three unconstitutionality rulings are new to this cell.
- If prescribed / medical
- Zolpidem reaches people here as a dispensed medicine, and the name a Salvadoran pharmacy record or a laboratory report would use is zolpidem. Article 37 of the Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados requires that narcotics, psychotropics and agregados be prescribed on Recetarios Especiales printed by the regulator and issued to the professional, in books of at least twenty five cheque style forms and up to two hundred, and Article 40 of that Reglamento makes a special prescription valid for thirty days, with three monthly prescriptions allowed for a chronic patient. Article 14 of the Ley requires the pack to carry a warning that the product is sold only on medical prescription and is under the health regulator's control. A prescribing doctor who supplies outside the therapeutic indication commits the Article 38 offence, which carries 3 to 5 years, and a pharmacy that dispenses without the prescription commits the Article 40 offence, which carries 5 to 15 years. Carry it in its dispensing packaging with the prescription.
- Documentation
- The instrument read for this cell is the Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, published in Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003, in the consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa. That text carries its own reform schedule: five reforms, the last of them Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018 in Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, so the consolidation read here is current to that reform. The same reform schedule was confirmed against a second publisher, the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which prints the identical list of five. The text also carries four rulings of the Sala de lo Constitucional, three of which strike the fine in Articles 31, 33 and 34 and the fourth of which struck the rule in Article 52 that equated preparatory acts with completed offences before that article was reformed in 2018. The substance list read for this cell is the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria. That document states its own currency in its Disposiciones generales: it was approved by that acuerdo and is «vigente hasta el 31 de marzo de 2027, o hasta que se emita un nuevo listado por parte de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria». It was read as at 21 September 2026, and the 2025 edition of the same list was fetched first and set aside once the 2026 edition was found on the regulator's own page. The list is the one Article 13 of the Ley requires, «una lista de drogas y de todas las preparaciones y especialidades farmaceuticas que las contengan de acuerdo a las categorias establecidas en la presente Ley», which Article 13 also requires to be sent to the Corte Suprema de Justicia, the Fiscalia General de la Republica and the Policia Nacional Civil so that judges and prosecutors know it. Article 13 names the Consejo Superior de Salud Publica as the body that makes it; the 2013 Reglamento names the Direccion Nacional de Medicamentos as the governing authority, and the Ley de la Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria dissolved that Direccion and moved its functions to the Superintendencia with effect from August 2024. That succession is stated from the Reglamento and from reporting of the Superintendencia law, whose own gazette text was not read for this cell. Article 2 defines droga in its own words: «Art. 2.- Para los efectos de esta Ley se consideran drogas las sustancias especificadas como tales en los Convenios Internacionales ratificados por El Salvador, las que se mencionan en el Código de Salud y demás leyes del país; y en general, las que indistintamente de su grado de pureza, actúan sobre el sistema nervioso central y tienen la capacidad de producir transformaciones, bien sea aumentando o disminuyendo su funcionamiento o modificando los estados de conciencia y que su uso indebido puede causar dependencia o sujeción física y psicológica.» Article 3 then prohibits activity relating to five named categories and, in letter f, «f) Cualquier otra sustancia que sea considerada droga tan nociva que amerite ser prohibida por el Consejo Superior de Salud Pública o por los convenios internacionales ratificados por el país.» The names searched across the list, in Spanish and in English, were zolpidem. The matched entry was read before it was relied on, and it is «Zolpidem», entry 181, at Parte B, Seccion IV. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista IV de la Convencion de 1971. Three routes were tried for the instrument and all three returned a document: the Asamblea Legislativa decree file, which returned the consolidated text; the transparency portal of the Fiscalia General de la Republica, which returned the same consolidation; and the regulator's own listado page, which returned the 2026 list. Two routes returned nothing usable: the Asamblea decree index and law search paths both returned a not found page, and a fetch of the Asamblea search page failed on certificate verification. Carry any controlled medicine in its dispensing packaging with the prescription, and confirm the position with the Salvadoran embassy or consulate before you travel.
Ley Reguladora de las Actividades Relativas a las Drogas, Decreto Legislativo 153 of 2 October 2003, Articles 2, 3, 13, 31, 32, 33, 34, 54 and 55, consolidated text published by the Asamblea Legislativa, Diario Oficial 208, Tomo 361, of 7 November 2003 · Consolidation: current to Decreto Legislativo 78 of 25 July 2018, Diario Oficial 156, Tomo 420, of 24 August 2018, the last of the five reforms the text's own schedule prints, confirmed against the Fiscalia General de la Republica transparency copy · Unconstitutionality of the fine: Article 34 by the accumulated 2006 judgments, Diario Oficial 196, Tomo 377, of 22 October 2007, Article 33 by the 92-2007 judgments, Diario Oficial 152, Tomo 384, of 19 August 2009, and Article 31 by judgment 45-2010, Diario Oficial 197, Tomo 401, of 23 October 2013 · Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados 2026, approved by Acuerdo SI.2026.03.20-01 of the Superintendencia de Regulacion Sanitaria, read as at 21 September 2026, the document stating its own currency to 31 March 2027 or until a new listado is issued · Reglamento de Estupefacientes, Sicotropicos, Precursores, Sustancias y Productos Quimicos y Agregados, Decreto Ejecutivo 20, Diario Oficial of 13 February 2013, Articles 5, 26, 36, 37 and 40 · Placement: entry read at Parte B, Seccion IV. Psicotropicos incluidos en la Lista IV de la Convencion de 1971, entry 181 · Placement provenance: the Parte and Seccion stated for this row are not printed in the quoted dossier extract, and no quoted extract in that dossier carries a Parte or Seccion marker for any substance, because the dossier resolved every row against articles 2 and 3 of Decreto 153 alone and never reached the Listado. The placement is read directly from the Listado named above and not from the dossier · Penalty figures for the 2 gram line and the year bands in Articles 31, 33 and 34 carried forward from the live cell and not re-derived from a new source, then re-read against the Asamblea text. The Article 34 graver offence proviso, Articles 54 and 55 and the three unconstitutionality rulings are read from that text and are new to this cell · asamblea.gob.sv · srs.gob.sv · portaldetransparencia.fgr.gob.sv · Updated September 21, 2026
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Not individually verified
32 substances are not individually verified for El Salvador
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 El Salvador’s drug authority or your embassy.
| Substance | What we found |
|---|---|
| 1P-LSD | Not confirmed. 1P-LSD is not named in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y... |
| 2C-E | Not confirmed. 2C-E is not named in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y... |
| 2C-I | Not confirmed. 2C-I is not named in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y... |
| 2C-T-7 | Not confirmed. 2C-T-7 is not named in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y... |
| 4-AcO-DMT | Not confirmed. 4-AcO-DMT is not named in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y... |
| 4-HO-MET | Not confirmed. 4-HO-MET is not named in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y... |
| 5-MeO-DMT (Bufo / Toad) | Not confirmed. 5-MeO-DMT is not named in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y... |
| 6-APB | Not confirmed. 6-APB is not named in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y... |
| 7-Hydroxymitragynine (7-OH) | Not confirmed. 7-hydroxymitragynine is not named in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos... |
| Amanita muscaria | Not confirmed. Amanita muscaria is not named in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos... |
| Caffeine | Not confirmed. Caffeine is not named in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y... |
| Cannabinol | Not confirmed. Cannabinol is not named in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y... |
| CBD | Not confirmed. CBD is not named in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados... |
| DXM | Not confirmed. Dextromethorphan is not named in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos... |
| Gabapentin | Not confirmed. Gabapentin is not named in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y... |
| GBL | Not confirmed. GBL is not named in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados... |
| Kratom | Not confirmed. Kratom is not named in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y... |
| LSA (Morning Glory) | Not confirmed. LSA is not named in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y agregados... |
| Memantine | Not confirmed. Memantine is not named in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y... |
| Mitragynine | Not confirmed. Mitragynine is not named in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y... |
| Modafinil | Not confirmed. Modafinil is not named in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y... |
| Nicotine | Not confirmed. Nicotine is not named in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y... |
| Nitrous Oxide | Not confirmed. Nitrous oxide is not named in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y... |
| Phenibut | Not confirmed. Phenibut is not named in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y... |
| Pink Cocaine / Tusi | Not confirmed. Pink cocaine is not named in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y... |
| Pregabalin | Not confirmed. Pregabalin is not named in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y... |
| Quetiapine | Not confirmed. Quetiapine is not named in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y... |
| Salvia divinorum | Not confirmed. Salvia divinorum is not named in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos... |
| Scopolamine (Devil's Breath) | Not confirmed. Scopolamine is not named in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y... |
| Synthetic Cannabinoids (K2 / Spice) | Not confirmed. The synthetic cannabinoids is not named in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos... |
| THC-P | Not confirmed. THC-P is not named in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y... |
| Tramadol | Not confirmed. Tramadol is not named in the Listado de sustancias estupefacientes, psicotropicos, precursores y... |
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 →