Is Khat legal in New Zealand?

Legal status

Not a controlled drug on the text cited, and the absence was tested rather than assumed. Khat, the fresh-chewed leaf of Catha edulis, has no exact entry in Schedules 1 to 3 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, and the closed schedules were read together with the open section 2 analogue limb, whose definition excludes substances that are approved medicines or that lack substantial structural similarity to a controlled drug. That is why this is recorded as a positive closed-list absence and not as an unresolved question. Cathinone, its principal alkaloid, has its own row in this table and is named in Schedule 2 as Class B, so the leaf and its alkaloid do not answer alike in this dossier. One route stays open: sale of an unapproved psychoactive product can engage the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 even where no controlled drug classification attaches. This was read against the consolidation current at 20 September 2026; the 2026 Classification and Presumption of Supply Order was made but no commencement instrument was located by that horizon, so nothing it proposes is treated as law here.

Consequences if caught

Capital exposure: none. New Zealand has no death penalty. No Misuse of Drugs Act ceiling attaches to khat either, because it is not established as a controlled drug on the cited text, so neither the section 6 dealing maximum nor the section 7 possession maximum has anything to fasten on. The exposure that does exist sits in the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013, on the route for unlawful sale of an unapproved psychoactive product, whose penalties are statutory and non-capital. That route reaches supply rather than a person carrying the substance. Fresh leaf is the form this row addresses, and the cathinone row of this same table names that leaf's principal alkaloid as a Class B controlled drug with its own section 6 and section 7 figures. The two rows therefore point in opposite directions, and neither of them, nor the source read here, settles what a preparation or extract made from this leaf is charged on.

If prescribed or medical

Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: khat is not established as a controlled drug on the text cited, so the Misuse of Drugs Act placement is a negative one and neither section 6 nor section 7 attaches to it. Fresh leaf perishes quickly and is not a prescription item, and the question of the isolated alkaloid belongs to the cathinone row rather than to this one. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.

Documentation

Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026 and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 together, because the finding for khat needs both: the first for the negative and the second for the route that remains. Read the cathinone row beside this one rather than in place of it, because the two rows record opposite findings and this dossier does not join them up. Carry the reasoning and not only the result, because a negative is worth no more than the limb it was tested against, and here that limb is the section 2 exclusion for approved medicines and for substances lacking substantial structural similarity. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

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