Is Ephedrine legal in Iran?

Legal status

Ephedrine is placed as a precursor rather than as a drug. Article 40 of the Anti-Narcotics Law reaches the substances in Tables I and II annexed to Article 12 of the 1988 trafficking convention and its later amendments, and the INCB Red List, 23rd edition, prints Ephedrine under the heading Substances included in Table I, with the chemical name given as alpha [1 (methylamino)ethyl] benzenemethanol.

Consequences if caught

Ephedrine carries a conduct and intent condition that no other row here carries. Article 40 reaches manufacture, purchase, sale, possession, transport, import, export and supply only where they are done knowingly and deliberately with the purpose of converting or producing narcotics or non medicinal industrial psychotropics. Where that purpose is made out the conduct takes the Article 5 penalties, which open at a fine of up to 165 million rials with up to 50 lashes at 50 grams or less. Ordinary possession of a decongestant with no such purpose is not what Article 40 describes. Iran keeps the death penalty for drug offences and uses it. Article 45, added by the Act of 1396/07/12, which is 4 October 2017, and approved by the Guardian Council on 1396/07/26, which is 18 October 2017, reaches only offences that already carry death or life imprisonment under this Law, and its paragraph (t) sets the quantity limb: «کلیه جرائم موضوع ماده (4) این قانون مشروط بر اینکه بیش از پنجاه کیلوگرم باشد و مواد موضوع ماده (8) این قانون مشروط بر اینکه بیش از دو کیلوگرم باشد و در خصوص سایر جرائم موضوع ماده (8) در صورتی‌که بیش از سه کیلوگرم باشد». The quantities are more than 50 kilograms for Article 4 offences, more than 2 kilograms for the Article 8 supply limb, and more than 3 kilograms for the other Article 8 offences of buying, keeping, concealing or transporting, which is how the Head of the Judiciary circular of 1396/10/16, meaning 6 January 2018, reads that paragraph at its own paragraph 7. Below those quantities the older capital wording does not lapse by itself, because Article 45 converts a former death case to grade one imprisonment of up to thirty years and a former life case to grade two imprisonment, with confiscation of drug proceeds in both. The money runs beside that conversion: a grade one fine up to twice its minimum for the former death case and a grade two fine for the former life case. Paragraphs (a), (b) and (c) of Article 45 carry no quantity floor at all, and reach an offender who drew or carried a weapon, a ringleader, a financial backer or investor, an offender who used a person under eighteen or a person lacking capacity, and an offender with a final prior conviction under this Law for death, life or more than fifteen years. Advisory opinion 7/99/136 applies paragraph (c) to the transport of 80 grams of heroin and to the possession of 200 kilograms of opium, which is why a weight under two kilograms is not a safe limit. At least 503 drug related executions were recorded in 2024 and 471 in 2023, roughly half of all executions and carried out by hanging, which the US Library of Congress Global Legal Monitor reports and Harm Reduction International and Amnesty International corroborate. A second figure of 485 for 2024 also sits in this project’s earlier Iran records, unattributed there, and the two were not reconciled, so both are printed rather than one being chosen. Those figures are set out here because they describe the offences that this row’s placement brings into play.

If prescribed or medical

Ephedrine is a pharmacy medicine in many countries and a Table I precursor in Iran. Carry the original packaging and the prescription, keep the quantity to personal use, and confirm the position with the Iranian embassy before travel. Iran’s own entry in the INCB Country Regulations for Travellers, 2025 sheet, admits only original and intact drugs approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration, carried with a prescription and in quantities covering the stay, and it says that beyond 6 months you must see a physician in Iran. The contact it gives is ICSA at fda.gov.ir.

Documentation

Ephedrine is the only row in this batch placed through the precursor route. Iran keeps the death penalty for drug offences and uses it. Article 45, added by the Act of 1396/07/12, which is 4 October 2017, and approved by the Guardian Council on 1396/07/26, which is 18 October 2017, reaches only offences that already carry death or life imprisonment under this Law, and its paragraph (t) sets the quantity limb: «کلیه جرائم موضوع ماده (4) این قانون مشروط بر اینکه بیش از پنجاه کیلوگرم باشد و مواد موضوع ماده (8) این قانون مشروط بر اینکه بیش از دو کیلوگرم باشد و در خصوص سایر جرائم موضوع ماده (8) در صورتی‌که بیش از سه کیلوگرم باشد». The quantities are more than 50 kilograms for Article 4 offences, more than 2 kilograms for the Article 8 supply limb, and more than 3 kilograms for the other Article 8 offences of buying, keeping, concealing or transporting, which is how the Head of the Judiciary circular of 1396/10/16, meaning 6 January 2018, reads that paragraph at its own paragraph 7. Below those quantities the older capital wording does not lapse by itself, because Article 45 converts a former death case to grade one imprisonment of up to thirty years and a former life case to grade two imprisonment, with confiscation of drug proceeds in both. The money runs beside that conversion: a grade one fine up to twice its minimum for the former death case and a grade two fine for the former life case. Paragraphs (a), (b) and (c) of Article 45 carry no quantity floor at all, and reach an offender who drew or carried a weapon, a ringleader, a financial backer or investor, an offender who used a person under eighteen or a person lacking capacity, and an offender with a final prior conviction under this Law for death, life or more than fifteen years. Advisory opinion 7/99/136 applies paragraph (c) to the transport of 80 grams of heroin and to the possession of 200 kilograms of opium, which is why a weight under two kilograms is not a safe limit. At least 503 drug related executions were recorded in 2024 and 471 in 2023, roughly half of all executions and carried out by hanging, which the US Library of Congress Global Legal Monitor reports and Harm Reduction International and Amnesty International corroborate. A second figure of 485 for 2024 also sits in this project’s earlier Iran records, unattributed there, and the two were not reconciled, so both are printed rather than one being chosen. Those figures are set out here because they describe the offences that this row’s placement brings into play. Version read for this cell: the Anti-Narcotics Law of 1367/08/03, which is 25 October 1988, as the publisher’s consolidation carries it, with its 1376, 1380, 1389, 1396 and 1399 amendments, meaning 1997, 2001, 2010, 2017 and 2020, and the fine revision of 1403/03/30, which is 19 June 2024, and the four psychotropic schedules as those schedules stand after the Cabinet decision of 1384/09/13, which is 4 December 2005, both read on 22 September 2026, together with the narcotics-list decree of 1338/05/02, which is July 1959, whose Article 5 carries an amendment of 1352/12/28, meaning 19 March 1974, and the Psychotropics Law of 1354/02/08, which is 28 April 1975. Item 419 of the health invalidation law of 1399/08/05, meaning 26 October 2020, names annexes 1 to 4 of the 1354 Psychotropics Law, and Judiciary advisory opinion 7/1400/434 of 1400/09/09, meaning 30 November 2021, reads that as reaching the 1354 Law’s own original annexes, which later Cabinet decisions had already displaced, so the 1384/09/13 schedules stand. Article 1 of the 1354 Psychotropics Law lets the Ministry revise these four schedules on a recommendation of the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs, but only with Cabinet approval, publication and a further fifteen days, so a change to the 1971 Psychotropic Substances Convention does not enter Iranian law by itself, and the 1961 and 1971 Convention schedules are not the Iranian list. Provenance of the placement: the schedule and entry number stated for this row was read in the instrument itself and was not taken from the project dossier, because no quoted extract in that dossier carries a schedule marker for any substance, measured across all 88 of its quotation cells on 22 September 2026. Older bands survive inside the same articles and are what Article 45 converts. Article 4 band 4 reads death and confiscation above 5 kilograms, with a note giving life imprisonment, 74 lashes and confiscation for a first offence of 20 kilograms or less that was not distributed or sold. Article 8 band 6 reads death and confiscation above 30 grams, with a note giving life imprisonment for a first offence of no more than 100 grams that was not distributed or sold. Before the 1396 Act, meaning before 2017, the reported capital thresholds were far lower, at more than 30 grams of heroin or cocaine and more than 5 kilograms of opium or cannabis. The Anti-Narcotics Law itself dates from 1988 and the substances it incorporates by definition come from the narcotics list decree of 1959. Article 41 excludes authorised medical, research and industrial activity: «ساخت، تولید، خرید، فروش، ارسال، نگهداری، ورود، صدور، مصرف و حمل مواد ممنوع حسب مورد برای مصارف پزشکی، تحقیقاتی و صنعتی با مجوز وزارت بهداشت، درمان و آموزش پزشکی از شمول این قانون مستثنی است», so a medicinal use or a trade name does not by itself establish that the Ministry of Health permission exists. Carry any controlled medicine in its original packaging with the prescription, and confirm requirements with your embassy before travel.

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