Is Kratom legal in Jordan?
Also known as: mitragyna speciosa, ketum
- Legal status
- Whether Kratom is currently scheduled under Law No. 23 of 2016, the Jordanian narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances law, is not established, and this cell says so rather than choosing a side. The substance-specific search is recorded as «سجل البحث الخاص بـ kratom: بُحثت الأسماء والمرادفات والصيغة الكيميائية ولم يُعثر على قيد مطابق في ملف 29-12-2025؛ وتعذر فحص متن ملف 16-09-2026.», an item-specific search record for Kratom: the names, synonyms and chemical formula were searched, no matching entry was found in the 29 December 2025 file, and the body of the 16 September 2026 file could not be examined. The terms run were Kratom, Mitragyna speciosa and the Arabic plant variants, cross-checked against mitragynine and 7-hydroxymitragynine. Neither the species nor its principal alkaloid names were located, so the plant route and the constituent route are unresolved together, which is why this row cannot be closed from the alkaloid rows and they cannot be closed from it. The gap is procedural rather than interpretive. The Jordan Food and Drug Administration names a current schedules file dated 16 September 2026 whose body could not be retrieved, so the last fully searchable official text is the consolidation updated 29 December 2025. Absence from a schedule is not a finding of legality in Jordan, because article 14(a) reaches «... من غير المواد المنصوص عليها في الجداول المرفقة بهذا القانون بقصد أحداث التخدير أو أي إثر آخر ضار بالعقل.», substances other than those specified in the schedules attached to this Law taken with intent to cause intoxication or another harmful effect on the mind, and article 19(a)(1) separately reaches a plant producing narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances. Article 37 provides «لمجلس الوزراء بناء على تنسيب الوزير إجراء تعديل على أي من الجداول الملحقة بهذا القانون بحذف أي مادة منه أو إضافة أي مادة أخرى اليه أو تعديل النسب أو المواصفات أو الشروط الخاصة والمتعلقة بأي منها على ان يتم نشر ذلك في الجريدة الرسمية.», so the Council of Ministers may add a plant or a substance by a decision published in the Official Gazette.
- Consequences if caught
- Capital exposure: not established. Neither Mitragyna speciosa nor its alkaloids were found in the last searchable schedule, so the placement that the penalty depends on is still open and two branches follow. If the plant and its alkaloids are genuinely unscheduled, article 14 of Law No. 23 of 2016 supplies non-capital possession, use and trafficking routes, with no weight threshold and with neither life imprisonment nor death available. If a Council of Ministers decision under article 37 has added the plant or an alkaloid to a schedule since the last searchable consolidation, two provisions become available at once: articles 19 and 20 in the ordinary way, and article 19(a)(1), which reaches a plant producing narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances as such, so a leaf can be the offence without any extraction step. Article 19(b) then provides «تكون العقوبة الأشغال الشاقة المؤبدة», life imprisonment, mandatory once a listed aggravator is proved, and article 20 provides «يعاقب بالإعدام», death, mandatory where the international drug gang or international criminal activity trigger is present, at any quantity. Stating one branch as the answer would be a guess, and a traveller should read the harsher one.
- If prescribed or medical
- No prescribing consequence can be drawn from Law No. 23 of 2016 for Kratom, because the control status that would drive it is not established, and there is no Jordanian medical route for a kratom preparation to describe. The more likely Jordanian control for imported leaf, powder or capsules is the food, supplement and import regime rather than the narcotics schedules, and that regime was not audited for this table. The country-level position is that Law No. 23 of 2016 fixes control status and does not fix prescribing or dispensing conditions, so a route here is unread rather than absent.
- Documentation
- No carriage instruction can be drawn from this Law for Kratom, because a document requirement is something a control imposes and the control status could not be closed. Do not read the missing instruction as permission to carry leaf, powder, capsules or an extract. A botanical product is inspected as a foodstuff as well as a possible drug, and a concentrated extract invites a laboratory reading that ordinary leaf does not. The Jordan Food and Drug Administration is the body that can settle a specific case, in writing and before you fly rather than at the airport. The search recorded above was run against the schedules consolidation updated 29 December 2025 and read on 17 September 2026.
- Jordan, Law No. 23 of 2016, schedule status not closed for Kratom after a substance-specific search whose log is set out in the legal status field of this cell
- article 14(a) is the fallback route if the plant and its alkaloids are genuinely unscheduled, and articles 19(a)(1), 19, 20 and 37 are the provisions that would apply if a later Council of Ministers decision has scheduled either
- read at https://www.jfda.jo/ebv4.0/root_storage/ar/eb_list_page/%D9%82%D8%A7%D9%86%D9%88%D9%86_%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%AE%D8%AF%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%AA_%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%A4%D8%AB%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%AA_%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9%D9%82%D9%84%D9%8A%D8%A9_%D9%84%D8%B3%D9%86%D8%A9_2016_%D9%88%D8%AA%D8%B9%D8%AF%D9%8A%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%AA%D9%87.pdf, the Jordan Food and Drug Administration's own consolidation of the Law, with the official schedules at https://www.jfda.jo/ebv4.0/root_storage/ar/eb_list_page/%D8%AC%D8%AF%D8%A7%D9%88%D9%84_%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%AF_%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%AE%D8%AF%D8%B1%D8%A9_%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%A4%D8%AB%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%AA_%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9%D9%82%D9%84%D9%8A%D8%A9_%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B3%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%A6%D9%81_%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%83%D9%8A%D9%85%D9%8A%D8%A7%D8%A6%D9%8A%D8%A9_29-12-2025.pdf and the regulator's legislation index at https://jfda.jo/Ar/List/%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%82%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%86%D9%8A%D9%86
- Law No. 23 of 2016 was published in Official Gazette No. 5402 on 16 June 2016 and took effect on 15 August 2016, as amended by Law No. 24 of 2021, Gazette No. 5746 of 23 September 2021, in force 23 October 2021
- the amendment horizon is 16 September 2026 and the body of the 16 September 2026 schedules file could not be retrieved, so the last fully searchable official schedule text is the consolidation updated 29 December 2025
- the regulator's copyright page permits viewing and printing for personal and non-commercial use, permits linking, and permits short portions to be republished unchanged with attribution, which is the basis on which the Arabic above is quoted
- read as at 17 September 2026
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Court records
We have not yet assessed whether court records are publicly available for this jurisdiction.
Other substances confirmed in Jordan
Same substance, other countries
Drug laws and enforcement change and vary within a country. This is not legal advice. Always confirm with Jordan’s embassy or official drug authority before traveling; penalties can be severe, including imprisonment.
Before you travel
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