Is Heroin legal in Poland?

Also known as: diacetylmorphine, smack

Legal status

Controlled, and named twice in the same annex. «HEROINA» is entry lp. 78 in group I-N of Załącznik nr 2, the narcotic annex, with the designation opening diacetylomorfina. The identical entry appears again at lp. 9 of group IV-N, which is the tier article 33(2) confines to research and, where marked, to veterinary medicine. The double listing is in the printed text and is not an artefact of this reading.

Consequences if caught

Capital exposure: none. Poland has no death penalty, and the heaviest band the 2005 Act reaches for any conduct with this substance is a term of years. Possession is an offence under article 62(1) of the 2005 Act and the band there is up to three years. Where the quantity is considerable, article 62(2) sets a band of one year to ten years. In a case of lesser gravity article 62(3) provides instead for a fine, a restriction of liberty or up to one year. Article 62a lets proceedings be discontinued, even before the decision to open an investigation, where the quantity is insignificant and intended for the holder's own use and a penalty would be inexpedient. That is a power of the prosecutor and not an entitlement of the holder, so it is not decriminalisation. The group IV-N appearance is the stricter of the two, because it removes the medical use that article 33(1) would otherwise permit for a group I-N substance. Article 63 reaches the raw material rather than the drug: article 63(1) punishes cultivating opium poppy other than the low morphine variety with up to three years, and article 63(2) gathering poppy milk, opium or poppy straw. Supply offences sit apart from possession. Article 56 punishes putting such a substance on the market with a fine and six months to eight years, and article 56(3) raises that to a fine and two years to twelve years where the quantity is considerable. Article 59(1) punishes supply for gain with one year to ten years. The published Poland entry records that about 24 per cent of possession cases were discontinued under article 62a in 2023 and gives 25 g in Germany as its cross-border example. Those figures are carried forward from the published Poland entry and were not re-derived in this pass.

If prescribed or medical

Not a prescribed traveller medicine in this form. The group IV-N listing confines it to research.

Documentation

No personal import route exists, because a listed substance may be brought in only under the licensing chapter of the 2005 Act and not on a traveller's own account. The certificate issued under article 75 of the Convention implementing the Schengen Agreement is the route for a prescribed controlled medicine and does not reach a substance for which no prescription can be written. The group IV-N appearance removes the medical use that article 33(1) would otherwise allow, so no certificate route can open for it.

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