Is LSA (Morning Glory) legal in Vietnam?

Legal status

Controlled. LSA is reached by IVB #16 of the danh mục annexed to Nghị định 28/2026/NĐ-CP, signed and in force 19 January 2026, which is the list the Criminal Code's own definition points at. In the decree as read: lysergic acid is a precursor; ergine itself is not listed, CAS 82-58-6 for lysergic acid.

Consequences if caught

Capital and life exposure. LSA does not reach the death penalty in Vietnam and the reason is which article it falls under, not how much of it there is. Vietnam sorts drug offences by conduct and LSA is not sorted by articles 248 to 252 at all. It is a tiền chất, a precursor, and the article that reaches it is Điều 253. Tội tàng trữ, vận chuyển, mua bán hoặc chiếm đoạt tiền chất dùng vào việc sản xuất trái phép chất ma túy. Its heaviest band, khoản 4, reads Tiền chất ở thể rắn có khối lượng 1.200 gam trở lên, and the penalty for that band is thì bị phạt tù 20 năm hoặc tù chung thân, twenty years or life imprisonment. There is no death penalty anywhere in article 253, before or after the 2025 amendment. The five conducts that do carry the heavier articles are producing, possessing, transporting, trading and appropriating a narcotic substance, and none of them is what a precursor charge alleges. Death is therefore unavailable for this substance under the narcotics articles however large the quantity, because article 253 states no death penalty in any of its bands.

If prescribed or medical

LSA has lawful industrial and pharmaceutical uses in Vietnam and the decree treats it as a precursor rather than as a narcotic substance. Danh mục IV names the ministry responsible for each precursor in its own column, so control runs through licensing rather than through a prescription. A traveller is far more likely to meet this substance as a regulated import than as a personal medicine. This batch did not fetch the licensing regulations and does not state what they require.

Documentation

Where the rule for LSA comes from. Two instruments, and they do different jobs. The list. Luật Phòng, chống ma túy số 73/2021/QH14, Điều 2 khoản 1, provides Chất ma túy là chất gây nghiện, chất hướng thần được quy định trong danh mục chất ma túy do Chính phủ ban hành. The Government, not the Assembly, decides what is a narcotic substance, and it does so by decree. The decree in force is Nghị định 28/2026/NĐ-CP, signed and in force 19 January 2026, whose Điều 3 khoản 2 repeals Nghị định 57/2022/NĐ-CP and Nghị định 90/2024/NĐ-CP. Four danh mục in seven parts, 694 entries. For LSA the placement is IVB #16, established by CAS 82-58-6 for lysergic acid. Placements in this batch were settled on the CAS number wherever the decree prints one, because a name that resembles the substance is not the substance: the decree lists 2C-B and Brolamphetamine separately, and Methoxetamine and 3-MeO-PCP separately, and matching on a name alone would have merged them. The offence. Bộ luật Hình sự số 100/2015/QH13 as amended by Luật số 86/2025/QH15, khoản 18 Điều 1, in force 1 July 2025. That amendment substituted articles 248 to 252 in full, and it is the reason this cell separates the conducts rather than saying that Vietnam has the death penalty for drugs. The consolidated text read is văn bản hợp nhất số 135/VBHN-VPQH of September 2025. Method and its limits. The decree is a scanned signed PDF with no text layer; it was rendered at 600 dots per inch and read with optical character recognition in Vietnamese, and the entries that enter this cell were checked against the page images. The Vietnamese in this cell was normalised to NFC before being checked character for character against the cached statute, because the cached file mixes composed and decomposed forms and a literal search against it returns a false zero. This cell states no figure for how often Vietnam carries out a death sentence, and cites no Vietnamese judgment, because none was read.

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