Is Khat legal in Malta?

Legal status

Khat is governed by the Medical and Kindred Professions Ordinance, Chapter 31, and not by the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance. Malta runs two drug ordinances and a cell that answers from one when the substance sits in the other is wrong. Khat is the exception to Malta's schedule model: it is on no schedule. Article 40B of Chapter 31 creates a standalone plant offence for it, and the penalties sit in that same article rather than in article 120A. The provision reads "Any person who... has in his possession... the whole or any portion of the plant Khat... shall be guilty of an offence against this Ordinance." Khat is controlled by the standalone plant offence in Chapter 31 article 40B, independently of the separate Part A cathinone entry. The separate Part A entry for cathinone is a different control and does not displace article 40B.

Consequences if caught

Capital and life exposure. Malta has no death penalty and no Maltese drug offence can bring one. The ceiling is ten years and a fine of €23,293.73, set by Chapter 31 article 40B(2)(a) for the Criminal Court. Khat is not on a schedule, so neither the Part A life ceiling in article 120A(2)(a)(i) nor the Part B ten year ceiling in article 120A(2)(a)(ii) is the operative provision; article 40B is a standalone plant offence with its own penalty. The Chapter 537 Commissioner route does not apply, and the reason is textual: Chapter 537 defines a prohibited drug by pointing to Chapter 31 article 120A or Chapter 101 article 22, and the article 40B khat offence is neither of those. A traveller carrying khat therefore has no diversion route at all, which is a harsher position than a Part B psychotropic on the same ceiling.

If prescribed or medical

The ordinance that controls khat is the Medical and Kindred Professions Ordinance, Chapter 31, and khat is the one substance here that sits on no list at all: article 40B is a standalone plant offence rather than an entry in the Third Schedule. Khat is on no schedule, so there is no scheduled medicinal form of it and article 40B is a plant offence rather than a control on a medicine. The offence is committed by possessing the whole or any portion of the plant, which leaves no room for a dispensed form of the plant itself. What this source does not establish is the prescribing and dispensing conditions themselves. The dossier read the two controlled drug ordinances and Chapter 537 and says in terms that it ‘did not attempt to decide separate medicines, pharmacy, veterinary, poisons, tobacco, alcohol, food, product-safety, or driving laws’. Treat the prescribing route as unread here rather than as absent.

Documentation

There is nothing to carry that makes khat lawful in Malta, and no document is identified anywhere in the texts read for this row that would authorise a traveller to bring the plant in. The offence is written around possession of the whole or any portion of the plant, so the form it is carried in changes nothing and a foreign purchase receipt or a customary-use explanation is not a defence the provision makes room for. An absence in what was read is not proof that no scheme exists, so a Maltese mission is the place to settle a specific case before you travel. The provenance is the consolidated English text of the Medical and Kindred Professions Ordinance, Chapter 31 on Legislation Malta, read on 18 September 2026 at https://legislation.mt/eli/cap/31/eng. The amendment horizon is 18 September 2026, and on that date the consolidated texts stood at Chapter 31 through Legal Notice 46 of 2026, Chapter 101 through Legal Notice 97 of 2025, Chapter 537 through Acts VII and XII of 2025, and Chapter 628 through Act XII of 2025. Legislation Malta prints the footer ‘© Dritt tal-awtur: L-Uffiċċju tal-Avukat tal-Istat’ on each page, no open reuse licence was located, and only the words needed to identify the provision are quoted here.

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