Is Ketamine legal in Thailand?

Also known as: ket, special k

Legal status

Ketamine is a Category 2 psychotropic substance in Thailand. The Ministry of Public Health naming notification published in the Royal Gazette in B.E. 2565 prints วัตถุออกฤทธิ์ในประเภท 2, psychotropic substances in category 2, and names ketamine beneath it. This table's 2-FDCK and MXE rows each record ketamine as the near entry they rejected, so the placement reaches this molecule and not its analogues. Section 94 of the Narcotics Code B.E. 2564 is the psychotropic limb and section 149 carries the penalties. This is the criminal classification taken from the naming notification and not from a traveller permit label, and the two are different documents answering different questions.

Consequences if caught

Capital exposure: none. Section 149 provides neither a death penalty nor life imprisonment, and for Ketamine that is the end of it: the maximum stated for a Category 2 psychotropic is 7 years, with no death penalty, no life imprisonment and no quantity threshold as the trigger. The limb of this Code that can reach life or death is section 145 paragraph 3, it belongs to Category I narcotics, and a psychotropic placement does not carry a person into it. English accounts that merge the narcotic categories with the psychotropic categories produce exactly that error, and it is the reason this row states the ceiling before anything else. The 2-FDCK and MXE rows in this table each rejected ketamine as a near entry, so the 7 year section 149 ceiling stated here reaches this molecule and not its analogues.

If prescribed or medical

Ketamine sits in psychotropic Category 2 under the B.E. 2565 naming notification, with a 7 year section 149 maximum, and that placement is a classification rather than a permission. Thailand's country level traveller rule for personal medication was not established by this reading. The sources opened were the Narcotics Code B.E. 2564, the Thai FDA narcotics table updated 15 September 2025 and the B.E. 2565 psychotropic naming notices in the Royal Gazette, and the dossier is explicit that its findings come from those naming instruments and not from a traveller permit label, so no import permit route, no personal supply quantity ceiling and no certificate requirement can be stated here for Ketamine. The notification read here is the criminal naming instrument and not the permit schedule, so it cannot say whether a foreign prescription, a quantity limit or an advance certificate would make a lawful entry. What is missing from this row is the permission, not the classification, and the gap is in what was read rather than a finding that no lawful route exists. A veterinary or anaesthetic supply is not a separate entry here, and two analogue rows in this set did not settle at all.

Documentation

Carry the prescription and the original dispensing packaging with a doctor's letter naming the patient, the active ingredient, the dose and the treatment period, and do not assume they settle the question: what was established for Ketamine is a Category 2 psychotropic placement in the B.E. 2565 naming notification, not a traveller route. Check that an analysis names ketamine itself, because the 2-FDCK and MXE rows in this set are both unresolved. The reading was taken on 20 September 2026 from the Royal Gazette psychotropic naming notification, at https://www.ratchakitcha.soc.go.th/DATA/PDF/2565/E/182/T_0008.PDF. No express open reuse licence was located on the cited page, so only the wording needed for verification is reproduced, with attribution and a direct link. The names and categories are set by ministerial notification, and the publications do not certify that no later notification exists, so re-read before relying on this.

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