Is it legal in Ireland? Drug law, penalties and sources

Controlled drugs, and everything else

The Misuse of Drugs Act 1977 and the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2017 set the list of controlled drugs. For a controlled drug, possession is an offence under section 3, possession for the purpose of unlawful sale or supply is an offence under section 15, and section 15A creates a separate offence where the market value of the drugs held for supply amounts to 13,000 euro or more.

The Criminal Justice (Psychoactive Substances) Act 2010 covers what the drug act does not. Section 2(1) excludes controlled drugs, medicinal products, authorised animal remedies, intoxicating liquor, tobacco products and food placed on the market in compliance with food legislation. So the drug act is read first.

The 2010 act has no list and no possession offence

Section 1 defines a psychoactive substance by what it does. It is a substance, product, preparation, plant, fungus or natural organism which has, when consumed by a person, the capacity to produce stimulation or depression of the central nervous system resulting in hallucinations or a significant disturbance in, or significant change to, motor function, thinking, behaviour, perception, awareness or mood, or to cause a state of dependence. No substance is named anywhere in the act.

That is the opposite drafting technique to the German act, which names nine chemical scaffolds and reaches nothing outside them. Ireland's definition has no chemical boundary at all, so a new compound is covered on the day it appears.

The offences are much narrower than the definition. Section 3(1) makes it an offence to sell a psychoactive substance knowing or being reckless as to whether it is being acquired or supplied for human consumption, and section 3(2) does the same for import and export. There is no possession offence in the act. A person who holds a substance that is not a controlled drug commits no offence under either instrument by holding it.

Section 3(3) shifts the burden once sale, import or export is proved. The court may look at any indication that the substance has psychoactive effects or may be consumed like a controlled drug, at anything at the place that suggests the consumption of controlled drugs, and at whether an alternative lawful purpose is reasonable given the cost and quantity. Section 3(4) provides that a label or a statement that the product is not for human consumption does not settle the matter.

What the two regimes cost

For a controlled drug, section 27 provides that on conviction on indictment for a supply offence the court may impose a fine of such amount as it considers appropriate or, at its discretion, imprisonment for life or such lesser period as the court shall determine. Cannabis possessed for personal use has its own lower tier within section 27. The fine amounts stated in that section are pre euro pound figures in the text as revised, so this site does not quote a fine figure for it.

For a psychoactive substance, section 20 sets the penalty at a fine not exceeding 5,000 euro or imprisonment not exceeding 12 months or both on summary conviction, and a fine or imprisonment not exceeding 5 years or both on conviction on indictment.

The 1977 act's own schedule is the list as enacted in 1977. Section 2(2) lets the government add drugs by declaration order and the regulations set the schedules that decide prescribing. A substance absent from the 1977 schedule may still be a controlled drug today.

What each provision carries

Every substance confirmed against a primary source

88 substances have a status for Ireland verified against a named statute. Each row links to the full entry, with the consequences, the prescription position and the source.

Sources

• Misuse of Drugs Act 1977 (No. 12 of 1977), ss. 3, 15, 15A and 27
• Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2017 (S.I. No. 173/2017)
• Criminal Justice (Psychoactive Substances) Act 2010 (No. 22 of 2010)
• Oireachtas (Open Data) PSI Licence, incorporating CC BY 4.0 The licence under which this statutory text is reproduced.

Statute text on this page is quoted from the copies linked above. Last verified October 3, 2026.