Is Khat legal in Costa Rica?

Legal status

Controlled through named members rather than through one entry, so the exposure turns on which member is in hand. Article 1 of Ley 7786, as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, fixes the scope by reference to the substances included in the 1961 and 1971 Conventions and the 1988 Convention, and the Ministerio de Salud reproduces those listas in Spanish in its national fiscalizacion list and adds a short Otros agregados section of national additions. The members were read in Listas I and III of the 1971 Convention. The offence articles are 58 and 77. [Certain] for the placements, with the entry text recorded in the documentation.

Consequences if caught

Capital exposure: none. Article 21 of the Constitution provides "La vida humana es inviolable", the human life is inviolable, and the word "muerte" appears zero times across the 81 pages of the consolidated Act. Both of those were measured in this pass and together they are what carries the heading. Costa Rica is an abolitionist state of long standing, [Likely] on the nineteenth century date, which was not re-derived here. Unauthorised trafficking conduct carries eight to fifteen years. Article 58 provides "Se impondra pena de prision de ocho a quince anos a quien, sin autorizacion legal, distribuya, comercie, suministre, fabrique, elabore, refine, transforme, extraiga, prepare, cultive, produzca, transporte, almacene o venda las drogas". That is eight to fifteen years for unauthorised distribution, commerce, supply, manufacture, processing, extraction, preparation, cultivation, production, transport, storage or sale. Article 77 raises the range to eight to twenty years where one of its eight enumerated aggravating circumstances is present, and twenty years is the ceiling this Act identifies. No article states a weight threshold, so the trigger is the unauthorised act and never a quantity. The second paragraph of article 58 reaches possession only "para cualquiera de los fines expresados", that is possession for one of those trafficking purposes. Ley 7786 creates no offence of consumption and no offence of simple possession for personal use. Article 79 answers a person consuming in a public place with voluntary and free treatment in a public or private health centre, not with a penalty.

If prescribed or medical

A lawful medical route exists only through the authorisation the Act itself demands. Article 58 opens with the words "sin autorizacion legal", so conduct carried out under a Costa Rican authorisation falls outside the offence and conduct without one falls inside it whatever the amount. Article 2 confines handling to the quantities needed for medical treatment, toxicological and chemical analysis and research, and requires authorised prescribers to use the official forms supplied by the Ministerio de Salud, whose entries carry the character of a sworn declaration. The Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes administers that control under Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025 and publishes the fiscalizacion list. The national list files this row among the psicotropicos rather than the estupefacientes, which is the less strict of the two prescription regimes it operates.

Documentation

Consolidation read: Ley 7786 of 30 April 1998 as integrally reformed by Ley 8204, in the Texto Completo Norma 8204 print published by the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas, which carries its own generation date of 19 November 2018. The same ranges, ocho a quince anos in article 58 and de ocho a veinte anos in article 77, were independently read on 18 September 2026 against the later Sinalevi record of Ley 7786, version 13 of 13, so the 2018 print is corroborated rather than assumed current. Control model, re derived from the statute in this pass. Costa Rica prints no annex of controlled substances in its drug Act: across the 81 pages the only drug names anywhere are in article 96, on the disposal of seized marihuana, cocaina and heroina. Article 1 regulates "estupefacientes, psicotropicos, sustancias inhalables y demas drogas y farmacos susceptibles de producir dependencias fisicas o psiquicas, incluidos en la Convencion Unica sobre Estupefacientes... de 1961... asi como en el Convenio de Viena sobre Sustancias Psicotropicas, de 21 de febrero de 1971... asimismo, en la Convencion... de 1988". Its second paragraph is a different thing and is often misread as the control annex: it has the Ministerio de Salud and the MAG draw up and publish in La Gaceta "las listas de estupefacientes, psicotropicos y similares Licitos", the licit ones, which is the authorisation side. The incorporation is ambulatory: article 36 defines precursors as Cuadro I of the 1988 Convention "y sus anexos, asi como los que se le incorporen en el futuro", and article 100 gives the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas a mandate framed by the conventions and by "los listados oficiales, publicados periodicamente en La Gaceta". The second limb, measured. The national list is the Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes, Direccion de Drogas y Estupefacientes of the Ministerio de Salud, updated 10 September 2026 and signed that day by Dra. Mariela Alfaro Segura. It runs to 27 pages in three sections, estupefacientes, psicotropicos and Otros agregados, and it names its own legal basis as the Reglamento para el control de drogas, estupefacientes y psicotropicas N. 45161-S, the instrument cited elsewhere as Decreto 45161-S of 17 June 2025. The two titles are the same text. A reading of 18 September 2026 records that the decree gives the competent body the function "Elaborar y actualizar la lista de sustancias oficialmente consideradas estupefacientes o psicotropicos y similares de uso regulado" and that its five annexes are forms rather than a substance schedule; that quotation is carried from that reading and was not re derived here. The whole of Otros agregados is twelve entries: metilfenidato, tapentadol and the synthetic cannabinoid JWH-073 among the estupefacientes, and ketamina, esketamina, mexazolam, zaleplon, zopiclona and the piperazines mCPP, CPP, TFMPP and 1,4 dibencilpiperazina among the psicotropicos. Amending Act in force between that list and this reading, read in the official gazette in this pass. Ley 10961 of 9 June 2026, published in Alcance 78 to La Gaceta 113 of 19 June 2026, provides "Rige tres meses a partir de su publicacion" and so took effect on 19 September 2026. It runs to four articles: it adds article 15 quater to Ley 7786 on the anti-money-laundering duties of virtual asset service providers, carries that cross reference into articles 16, 16 bis, 25, 33, 33 bis, 86 and 123, reforms the article 81 administrative fines, and allows three months for regulations. Every Ley 7786 article it touches is money laundering machinery, and it leaves articles 1, 2, 36, 58, 73, 74, 77, 77 bis and 79 untouched, so it moves no row in this batch. Method note. The 2026-09-20 Costa Rica dossier was used only as the slug list and as one of the two term list sources. Its outcome column, its instrument column and its quotation column were not treated as evidence and no placement in this batch rests on them; every placement is the entry read in the list the statute incorporates. Two of its readings were not adopted: it treated ergometrina and ergina as one row when they are separate substances on separate limbs, and it left dextrometorfano unresolved when the instrument excludes it in terms. Sibling name traps were checked rather than assumed. Anchored matching correctly did not return bencilmorfina, desomorfina, dihidromorfina, metildihidromorfina, mirofina or diacetilmorfina for the morfina row, isometadona, normetadona or the metadona intermediario for the metadona row, metcatinona or 4-metiletcatinona for the catinona row, MMDA or N-etil MDA for the MDA row, beta-ceto-MDMA for the MDMA row, levometanfetamina for the metanfetamina row, PCPY for the PCP row, brolanfetamina for the anfetamina row, or norpseudoefedrina for the efedrina row. Two extraction zeroes were false and were recovered by re interrogation: hexahidrocannabinol and 2-fluorodescloroketamina are both line wrapped in the source and a column based read missed both. Routes run for the instrument in this pass. pgrweb.go.cr/scij is a JavaScript shell: the Ley 8204 and Ley 7786 records and the sinalevi.go.cr record each returned about 25 KB that renders to 1,159 characters of site chrome and no statutory text, so a size threshold would have cleared all three. imprentanacional.go.cr served the official gazette carrying Ley 10961. The institutional reproduction at icd.go.cr served the consolidated Act, and ministeriodesalud.go.cr served the national list and the circulars. The schedule pages were checked for hidden content: the list PDF holds one image object repeated on all 27 pages, which is the ministry letterhead, and its byte size is accounted for by that banner, so no entry is carried in an image. Khat is a plant rather than a listed name, and Catha edulis does not appear as an entry. Its control follows the two alkaloids it carries, and both are entered: "PC 010, Catinona, (-)-(S)-2-aminopropiofenona" and "PC 009, CAS 492-39-7, Catina, (+)-norpseudoefedrina, (+)-(S)-alfa-[(S)-1-aminoetil]alcohol bencilico", all in Listas I and III of the 1971 Convention. Carry the prescription and the dispensing label, and expect the authorisation rather than the amount to be what is asked about. There is no personal allowance to fall back on, because no article of Ley 7786 fixes a threshold. Sourcing, re derived in this pass and not carried: the two Junta de Vigilancia de Drogas urls cited by this row are DIRECTORIES and not documents. The listing page names the national fiscalisation list but does not carry it; the list is a separate PDF behind a numbered link, and that PDF is what the placement in this row actually rests on. Both documents are now fetched and cited by their own urls: "Lista de sustancias sometidas a fiscalizacion nacional, incluidos los medicamentos psicotropicos y estupefacientes", and "Lista de Estupefacientes y Sustancias Psicotropicas Sometidas a Fiscalizacion Nacional". The first carries the Otros agregados section this row's reasoning refers to [Certain, read from the fetched PDF]. The circulars page cited alongside them exposes no document at all.

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