Is Hydrocodone legal in Iceland?

Legal status

Controlled in Iceland. It is printed in Fylgiskjal I as "Hydrocodone", and the row identifies it by the printed chemical name "4,5-epoxy-3-methoxy-17-methylmorphinan-6-one". Its Alþjóðasamningar column prints "N I", referring the row to the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, to whose schedules 1. gr. of the reglugerð ties every N marker. A medicine containing a substance carrying an N I to N IV or a P I to P III marker is "eftirritunarskyld", inside the copy-record regime for prescribing and dispensing set by 3. gr. Column B of its row is blank, and the blank is the answer: the 2. gr. prohibition reaches only a substance marked "x" in the "dálki B í fylgiskjali I", so this row sits outside it and on the licensed medical route instead. 3. gr. of lög nr. 65/1974 confines such a substance to use in Iceland "læknisfræðilegum og vísindalegum tilgangi", for medical and scientific purposes, and limits import, export, sale, purchase, exchange, delivery, receipt, production, preparation and possession to pharmacists, pharmaceutical wholesalers, manufacturers and holders of a specific Lyfjastofnun licence applied for on each occasion, while 1. mgr. 6. gr. of the reglugerð makes import, export, manufacture and wholesale of a marked substance conditional on a Lyfjastofnun licence. Hydrocodone sits with fentanyl and codeine on the blank side of column B while morphine and oxycodone carry an "x", so the opioid rows do not move together and the column has to be read row by row.

Consequences if caught

The offence provisions reach this row through its placement, so they are set out here in full. The custodial ceiling for an offence against the Act and against the regulations made under it is imprisonment for up to 6 years, which 5. gr. of lög nr. 65/1974, the Narcotics Act, prints as "fangelsi allt að 6 árum", and the aggravated offence at article 173a of almenn hegningarlög nr. 19/1940, the General Penal Code, carries imprisonment for up to 12 years. Iceland prints no quantity band: neither the Act nor the reglugerð sets a weight, a purity or a number of doses that moves an offence from one tier to another, and article 173a turns instead on supplying narcotics to many people, on handing them over for substantial payment, or on doing so in another particularly culpable way, its second paragraph extending the same ceiling to production, preparation, import, export, purchase, delivery, receipt and possession carried out for that purpose. The fine is separate again: 5. gr. of lög nr. 65/1974 sets a fine as the alternative to imprisonment for the base offence, the same article makes the substances, the proceeds of unlawful sale and the articles used forfeit to the Treasury, and it directs increased punishment for a repeat offence involving import or distribution. The 12 year ceiling is not the original figure: 1. gr. of lög nr. 32/2001 raised the aggravated ceiling from 10 to 12 years at article 173a of the General Penal Code, where 10 years had stood since lög nr. 64/1974, and that Act prints the substitution as "kemur: 12 árum". Possession is unlawful and consumption is not among the conduct the two instruments enumerate. 2. gr. of lög nr. 65/1974 and 2. gr. of the reglugerð, headed "Bannákvæði", both list import, export, sale, purchase, exchange, delivery, receipt, production, preparation and possession, and neither of them prints consumption in that list. Iceland has not decriminalised possession. What it has done instead is 2. gr. a of the Act, inserted by lög nr. 48/2020 and amended by lög nr. 41/2025, which lets the Directorate of Health licence a "neyslurými", a supervised consumption room governed by reglugerð nr. 170/2021, in which a user may hold the quantity he intends to consume there. Those figures are not recited here as general background: they describe the offences that this row's placement brings into play. The list read for this cell is Fylgiskjal I of reglugerð nr. 233/2001, read at api.reglugerd.is on 22 September 2026 in the consolidation the publisher serves as current, which carries amendments 1 to 19 and its own last amendment date of 9 August 2025 from reglugerð nr. 879/2025. That consolidation is one amendment behind the law and this cell says so: the 20th amendment, reglugerð nr. 1036/2025, is flagged pending by the publisher although its own 3. gr. commences it on 1 November 2025, and the two texts of 5. gr. visibly differ, the served one opening at pharmacy stock sent to Lyfjastofnun and the amending one opening at the holder of a pharmacy, wholesale or manufacturing licence. It was read in full and it rewrites 5. gr. and the heading of 7. gr. and nothing else, leaving both Fylgiskjöl untouched and printing no transitory article. The Act and the penal code were read in the Lagasafn consolidation stamped "Íslensk lög 1. september 2026", útgáfa 157c, whose own note records that lög nr. 85/2026 will amend the Act from 1 January 2027; that Act was read and its 51. gr. only renames the authority in 2. gr. b. A scan of the 360 regulations the publisher issued between 27 November 2025 and 7 September 2026 found no further amendment, so this cell does not rule out a later change to the list.

If prescribed or medical

This row is outside the 2. gr. prohibition and on the licensed medical route, so a prescribed medicine containing it is the ordinary case rather than an exception, and the traveller rule applies to it in full. Iceland puts the traveller rule in reglugerð nr. 1277/2022 um innflutning einstaklinga á lyfjum til eigin nota, and its 5. gr. governs every medicine that contains, even in part, a substance printed in Fylgiskjal I of reglugerð nr. 233/2001, which is where this row sits. A traveller with no registered domicile in Iceland may carry 30 days at the defined daily dose. A person whose registered domicile is in Iceland may carry 30 days if the medicine was obtained in Iceland and can produce documents showing that, but only 7 days at the defined daily dose if it was obtained abroad, extended to 30 days by a declaration from a doctor holding a valid Icelandic licence stating that the medicine is medically necessary. A traveller moving within the Schengen area may instead present a certificate issued or confirmed by the competent authority of the country of residence under article 75 of the Schengen Convention, and such a certificate is valid for at most 30 days from its issue. Narcotic medicines may not be sent to Iceland by post or by freight at all, and where an import falls outside these permissions 5. gr. routes it back to lög nr. 65/1974. Lyfjastofnun may exempt under 7. gr. but for a medicine under 5. gr. that exemption has to be in hand before the traveller arrives.

Documentation

Customs must be shown a doctor's certificate or the prescription together with its directions for use, or the dispensing label, proving both that the medicine was lawfully obtained and that the quantity carried is necessary, and 3. gr. of reglugerð nr. 1277/2022 lets customs seek an opinion from a public body or a health professional where it suspects the document is wrong or forged. This row is on the licensed medical route rather than inside the prohibition, so the ordinary dispensed packaging with its label and the prescription is what is asked for, and the quantity ceiling in 5. gr. is a condition of the permission rather than a guideline, which means the paperwork and the amount have to be right together. Nothing may be sent ahead by post or freight.

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