Is Etizolam legal in Kuwait?

Legal status

Controlled substance under Decree Law 159 of 2025. Etizolam is listed at Group 2, table 4, serial P4-96. It is not on the Group 4 list.

Consequences if caught

Conduct distinction. Article 49 punishes taking or possessing Etizolam for personal use with imprisonment not exceeding five years and a fine not exceeding five thousand dinars, rising to ten years where the offence happens in a prison, police station, rehabilitation or addiction treatment centre, place of worship, educational place or sports club. Article 48 punishes possession, import, smuggling, purchase, production or manufacture without any of the statutory intents with up to ten years, rising to fifteen in those same places. Article 50 punishes running a place for consumption with up to ten years, or fifteen years and a fine of fifty thousand to one hundred thousand dinars if done for money. Intent to traffic is what moves the conduct into the capital articles. Capital and life exposure. Article 42 of Decree Law 159 of 2025 reaches bringing in or smuggling with intent to traffic, producing or manufacturing with intent to traffic, and cultivating a plant listed in table 5 with intent to traffic. It opens يعاقب بالإعدام أو الحبس المؤبد, death or life imprisonment, with a fine of one hundred thousand to two million dinars, so death is discretionary on the article's own wording. Article 43 reaches possessing, buying or selling with intent to traffic, promoting, and bartering or supplying for money for consumption, and opens the same way, with a fine of fifty thousand to five hundred thousand dinars. Neither article sets a quantity threshold. The trigger is بقصد الإتجار, the purpose of trafficking, and it is the fine, not the penalty, that scales to the value of the goods. Article 44 makes death mandatory where an article 42 or 43 offence carries an aggravating circumstance. It reads تكون العقوبة الإعدام في الجرائم المنصوص عليها في المادتين السابقتين إذا توفر فيها ظرف من الظروف المشددة and states no alternative penalty. The circumstances are recidivism, using a minor or a person of unsound mind or anyone under the offender's authority, giving the substance to a minor to consume, commission in a prison, police station, rehabilitation or addiction treatment centre, place of worship, educational place or sports club, and abuse of official position. Article 45 makes death mandatory for founding or running a gang organisation, even abroad, for article 42 or 43 offences, reading يعاقب بالإعدام alone.

If prescribed or medical

Etizolam is a scheduled substance, so the licensing and prescribing chapters of Decree Law 159 of 2025 govern any lawful handling of them. Article 20 limits a doctor's prescription to two weeks at a time for Group 1 narcotic preparations in tables 1, 2 and 3 and two months for Group 2 psychotropic preparations in tables 2, 3 and 4. Article 26 lets a patient arriving in the country bring in table 1 narcotic preparations sufficient for fifteen days and table 2, 3 and 4 psychotropic preparations. Article 53 punishes a prescriber who writes for consumption against accepted medical standards. Carry a certified prescription and a medical report, and obtain Ministry of Health clearance before travelling.

Documentation

The governing instrument is Decree Law 159 of 2025 on combating narcotics and psychotropic substances and regulating their use and trade, eighty four articles in thirteen chapters, gazetted in Kuwait Al-Youm on 1 December 2025 and in force from 15 December 2025. Article 83 repealed Law 74 of 1983 and Decree Law 48 of 1987 and merged them. The schedules do not sit in the law. Article 40 reads يجوز بقرار من الوزير تعديل الجداول أو المجموعات المرفقة بهذا المرسوم بقانون، بالحذف، أو بالإضافة, so the Minister of Health amends them by decision. The last such amendment read for this cell is Decision 165 of 2026, made on 24 May 2026 and gazetted in Kuwait Al-Youm issue 1793 on 31 May 2026, whose article five annexes the complete updated schedules. The schedules are arranged as Group 1, narcotic substances, tables 1 to 6, Group 2, psychotropic substances, tables 1 to 4, Group 3, chemical precursors, and a Group 4 list of the substances article 52 names. Group 3 was not reprinted in the annex and was not read for this cell. Foreign nationals are liable to deportation after sentence. Kuwait retains and imposes the death penalty for drug trafficking. Placement for Etizolam: Group 2, table 4, serial P4-96. It is not on the Group 4 list. The schedule row was read directly in the scanned gazette annex, in both of the two optical character recognition passes.

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