Is Lorazepam legal in Austria?

Legal status

Controlled in Austria as a psychotropic substance, not as a narcotic. In the Psychotropenverordnung, Annex 1 point 2 carries Lorazepam. Its close relative lormetazepam is listed separately in the same point, which shows the list works entry by entry and not by family. That entry is a bare name. It establishes placement and nothing else, and the conduct rules live in SMG §5(1) and in the §30 offence rather than in the schedule line. The psychotrope model mirrors the narcotics one: SMG §3(1) requires convention listing in Schedules III or IV together with a ministerial designation, with §3(2) available for a national addition, and the Psychotropenverordnung supplies the annexes. The Psychotropenverordnung extends its Annex 1 names to salts and preparations, and it carries no equivalent blanket derivative or isomer clause, which is a narrower reach than the narcotics instrument has. Its analogous preparation exemption runs at 0.01 per cent.

Consequences if caught

Capital exposure: none. The ceiling on this route is ten years, carried by SMG §31(3) for preparation above the threshold as a member of a criminal association and by SMG §31a(3) for trafficking in the same form. No life term reaches a psychotropic substance at any quantity, and the death penalty does not exist here. Lorazepam is a point 2 psychotrope, so even a large diverted quantity stays on the ten year psychotrope scale. SMG §30(1) reaches one year or 360 day fines for unauthorized acquisition, possession, production, carriage, import, export, offering, transfer or procurement of a psychotropic substance, and §30(2) halves that to six months for exclusively personal use. SMG §44(5) separately reaches the administrative contraventions it names with a fine of up to EUR 36,300, and the six week imprisonment there is expressly in default of payment rather than a routine additional term. Separately from that, and carried forward from this site's published Austria entry rather than re-derived from the Suchtmittelgesetz in this pass, the published penalties are these. Austrian practice is depenalised and not legalised, and the published entry says so in those terms. There is no legal minimum quantity, and possession of any amount for personal use is punishable under section 27, up to six months in prison or a fine. Under Therapie statt Strafe at section 35, small quantity personal use is typically provisionally suspended from prosecution on one to two years of probation where the person accepts counselling or treatment. Consumption itself is not criminalised, but the possession that precedes it is. Above the Grenzmenge, the threshold quantity, the offence becomes dealing or trafficking under sections 28 and 28a, up to one to three years, escalating to ten to fifteen years for commercial or organised cases. Every figure in this paragraph is a penalty range or a fine and none of them is a quantity threshold. They describe the offences that this row's placement in the Austrian Suchtgift and psychotrope lists brings into play.

If prescribed or medical

There is one country level rule here and it is SMG §5(1): medical, dental, veterinary and scientific purposes are the only ones for which a Suchtmittel may be acquired, possessed, carried, imported or exported, and only on the Act's own terms. Travel exemptions, professional licensing and medical dispensing sit inside their own provisions, so no free standing traveller allowance exists above them. Because this substance is a designated psychotrope, SMG §30(3) is available on its own terms. It removes punishment under §30(1) and §30(2) where a medicine containing a psychotropic substance, not exceeding the threshold, is acquired, possessed, carried, imported or exported for personal use or for the needs of an animal, or is offered, transferred or procured without the person drawing an advantage from it. It is not a blanket exception for psychotropic powder. The Psychotropenverordnung closes its Annexes 2 and 3 with travel certificate fields, which is where this system's documented route lives. Lorazepam sits in point 2 alongside the separately listed lormetazepam, and a dispensed course of the substance actually named on the prescription is the case SMG §30(3) addresses.

Documentation

Carry the pharmacy labelled pack, the prescription and a letter naming patient, substance, dose and treatment period, and raise the Psychotropenverordnung travel certificate with the prescriber before departure. Lorazepam and lormetazepam are separate entries, so name the one actually dispensed. The psychotrope list was read at its 18 September 2026 consolidation, whose last list amendment is BGBl II 394/2024 of 19 December 2024; the later BGBl II 10/2025 changed other provisions and not the list.

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