Is GHB legal in United Arab Emirates?

Legal status

Gamma-hydroxybutyrate is controlled in Schedule 6 of Decision No. 158 of 2025, the psychotropic Schedule II equivalent branch, at the printed entry «حمض غاما-هيدروكسي بيوتيريك؛ GHB», which prints the acid name in Arabic alongside the abbreviation. The dossier's finding is that this Schedule 6 placement is what gives the row Article 58's trafficking consequence rather than Article 57's mandatory death wording. Read against the lactone row in this table, which is at Schedule 8, item 39, the pair shows the instrument placing a substance and its precursor in different schedules that nonetheless fall inside the same article. The row runs through Articles 11, 43 and 58, with Schedule 10 carrying the quantity bands. The placement was read on 20 September 2026.

Consequences if caught

Article 58 reaches Schedules 3, 6, 7 and 8, and this substance is in Schedule 6, so the article applies to the row. The dossier records Article 58 as providing death or life imprisonment as alternatives for its stated trafficking or promotion trigger, which makes death discretionary rather than mandatory, and records that the article states no quantity. The Schedule 10 bands do not gate that route. Because the substance is handled as a liquid in small doses, a volume based intuition is especially tempting here, and the article supplies nothing to support it: the route attaches to the schedule and the conduct. Article 43 carries the personal use route for this branch, with its tariff unstated in the dossier.

If prescribed or medical

The dossier records at the modafinil row that a 268 entry ministry travellers list was checked and expressly not used as a schedule. Attached to this substance: the Schedule 6 placement at «حمض غاما-هيدروكسي بيوتيريك؛ GHB». The substance has a licensed medical use for narcolepsy in some health systems, and the dossier records no corresponding Emirati prescribing route, traveller allowance or permit procedure, so a patient prescribed it elsewhere has a question the dossier does not answer and it is deferred here.

Documentation

If the substance was lawfully prescribed elsewhere, carry the prescription, the original dispensing packaging and a letter from the prescribing service, and settle the permit question with the health ministry before travelling, because no Emirati procedure is recorded in the dossier. Provenance: the Schedule 6 placement and the entry «حمض غاما-هيدروكسي بيوتيريك؛ GHB» were read on 20 September 2026, with the capital analysis resting on Article 58 and its death or life alternative rather than on the Schedule 10 bands.

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