Legal status in Malaysia

Per-substance legal status for Malaysia, from sourced statutes where available. Legal information, not legal advice; drug laws change, so confirm with the destination’s embassy or drug authority before you travel.

86 confirmed substances2 not individually verifiedLast updated October 8, 2026

Confirmed legal status

2-FDCK

Legal status: 2-FDCK is not named in either Act, and the settled part of the answer is the part that matters: it is not in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, so it is not a dangerous drug and section 39B cannot reach it. Ketamine is in Part III of that Schedule, but Part III's generic clause reaches only isomers, esters, ethers and salts, and 2-FDCK is a fluorinated analogue of ketamine, which is none of those. What does reach it is the Poisons Act 1952: Methoxetamine is a Third Schedule psychotropic substance and paragraph 3(a) of that Schedule extends it to «the analogues, homologues, compounds, intermediates, derivatives, isomers, esters, ethers and salts... and other substances structurally derived». That limb turns on resemblance rather than on a named relationship, so whether it bites on 2-FDCK is a judgment a court would make.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. 2-FDCK is not in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952. «Ketamine» is, in Part III, but the only generic extensions that Part carries are its isomers, its esters and ethers, and its salts, and 2-FDCK is a fluorinated analogue, which is none of the four. The Act has no analogue provision anywhere in it. Section 39B is the only capital provision in Malaysian drug law, and section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», which section 2 defines as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule». A substance outside that Schedule cannot be trafficked within the meaning of section 39B however much of it there is, the section 37(da) presumption weights do not reach it, and neither do the section 39A enhanced penalties. What applies instead is section 30 of the Poisons Act 1952, which provides at subsection (3) that «no person shall import, export, manufacture, compound, mix, dispense, sell, supply, administer, possess or use any psychotropic substance otherwise than in accordance with any regulations applicable thereto», and at subsection (5) that a contravention is punishable «to a fine not exceeding ten thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding four years or both». Section 30(4) carries a possession presumption of its own: a person found with the substance in his custody or control «shall be deemed to have been in possession of the substance and to have known the nature of the substance, until he proves to the contrary». Four years and ten thousand ringgit against death. That is the single largest cliff in Malaysian drug law and it turns entirely on which of two schedules a substance sits in. And the ground can move under it: section 45A of the Dangerous Drugs Act lets the Minister add a substance to the First Schedule by order, and section 30(2) of the Poisons Act lets him amend the Third Schedule the same way.
If prescribed / medical: The prescription question for 2-FDCK has no clean answer under either statute. 2-FDCK is named in neither Act. The settled part is that it is not in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952: ketamine is in Part III, but the Part III generic clause reaches isomers, esters, ethers and salts only, and a fluorinated analogue is none of those. What may reach it is paragraph 3(a) of the Poisons Act Third Schedule, which extends the substances in that Schedule to «the analogues, homologues, compounds, intermediates, derivatives, isomers, esters, ethers and salts of the substances mentioned in this Schedule and other substances structurally derived». That limb turns on resemblance rather than on a named relationship, so whether it bites on 2-FDCK is a judgment a court would make and not a fact this cell can state. What this cell does not state is whether it is a registered product, an unregistered product or a prohibited import under the medicines and customs instruments, because none of those instruments was read for it.
Documentation: No documentation requirement can be stated for 2-FDCK, because the route through the two statutes is unsettled and the paperwork would depend on which route applies. The entry that might reach it is «Methoxetamine (MXE)» in the Third Schedule read with paragraph 3(a), and whether that limb bites is a judgment rather than a fact, so no paperwork requirement follows from it with certainty. Carry any prescription and the original packaging as a matter of course. Product registration with the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency and the customs prohibited imports orders are separate regimes and neither was read for this cell. If the Poisons Act route is the right one, the one month personal import allowance in regulation 4(2)(a) of the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 and the section 30(5) penalty would be the provisions in point. This cell does not assert that they apply.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 First Schedule in all five Parts, with 2-FDCK or fluorodeschloroketamine not found in it · the Poisons Act 1952 Third Schedule including paragraph 3(a), the nearest entry being «Methoxetamine (MXE)» · the Poisons List · and the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 incorporating P.U. (A) 405/2018 · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

2-FDCK in Malaysia, full detail →

25I-NBOMe

Legal status: 25I-NBOMe is named in Part III of the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 as «2-(4-iodo-2,5-dimethoxyphenyl)-N-(2-methoxybenzyl) ethanamine (25I-NBOMe)». Its two siblings are named in the same Part: 25B-NBOMe and 25C-NBOMe. It is therefore a dangerous drug within section 2, which defines one as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule». It is also a Third Schedule psychotropic substance under the Poisons Act 1952, and the Poisons List carries it too.
Consequences if caught: Part III of the First Schedule names «2-(4-iodo-2,5-dimethoxyphenyl)-N-(2-methoxybenzyl) ethanamine (25I-NBOMe)», and its two siblings are named in the same Part, as «2-(4-bromo-2,5-dimethoxyphenyl)-N-(2-methoxybenzyl) ethanamine (25B-NBOMe)» and «2-(4-chloro-2,5-dimethoxyphenyl)-N-(2-methoxybenzyl) ethanamine (25C-NBOMe)». Section 39B(2) therefore reaches it, with death or imprisonment for life. The chain is short and it passes through no weight at any point. Section 2 defines a «dangerous drug» as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule», section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», whether on your own behalf or on behalf of any other person, and section 39B(2) sets the penalty. And the word «trafficking» is itself defined in section 2, far wider than selling: it «includes the doing of any of the following acts, that is to say, manufacturing, importing, exporting, keeping, concealing, buying, selling, giving, receiving, storing, administering, transporting, carrying, sending, delivering, procuring, supplying or distributing any dangerous drug otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act». Keeping, carrying and storing are on that list, so nothing commercial has to be shown. It has no section 37(da) presumption weight, and neither do 25B-NBOMe or 25C-NBOMe. The Act's fourteen weighted substances are all amphetamine-type compounds and none of the NBOMe series is among them. So there is no presumption to rebut and no threshold to stay under, and section 39B(2) applies in the same terms as it would to a weighed substance. The other presumption is still there. Section 37(d) provides that any person found to have had in his custody or under his control anything whatsoever containing a dangerous drug «shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have been in possession of such drug and shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have known the nature of such drug». The words «until the contrary is proved» put the defendant to proof on both limbs, on the possession and on the knowledge. Death is available and it is no longer mandatory, and the change has a date. Section 39B(2) once read simply «on conviction with death». The Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017, Act A1558, in force 15 March 2018, opened a narrow gate out of that, a date carried forward from the earlier reading and not re-derived in this pass. The Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, came into operation on 4 July 2023, and section 54 of it is the whole of what it did to the Dangerous Drugs Act: it substituted «be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes» for fifteen strokes in subsection (2), and it deleted subsections (2A) and (2B), which were the mandatory death machinery. Section 39B(2) now reads, in full: «Any person who contravenes any of the provisions of subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence against this Act and shall be punished on conviction with death or imprisonment for life and shall, if he is not sentenced to death, be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes.» So the court chooses between death and imprisonment for life with no precondition, and at least twelve strokes follow any sentence that is not death. Act 846 is widely described as replacing life with a term of thirty to forty years. It did that in the Penal Code, the Firearms (Increased Penalties) Act 1971, the Arms Act 1960, the Kidnapping Act 1961, the Strategic Trade Act 2010 and the Criminal Procedure Code. It did not do it here: the words «imprisonment for life» in section 39B(2) are untouched and no definition of that phrase appears anywhere in the Dangerous Drugs Act, so no year figure is stated in this cell. Section 55 of Act 846 applies the amended section to anyone sentenced after it came into operation even where the offence was committed before. Below trafficking, the possession offence is section 12. Section 11(1) provides that «This Part applies to dangerous drugs listed in Parts III, IV and V of the First Schedule», which is what brings a Part III substance inside Part IV of the Act. Section 12(2) then prohibits having such a drug in your possession, custody or control «unless he is authorized to be in possession, custody or control of such drug or is deemed to be so authorized under this Act or the regulations made thereunder», and section 12(3) punishes a contravention with «a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Self-administration is section 15(1), at a fine not exceeding five thousand ringgit or imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, and section 38B(1) then requires supervision for not less than two and not more than three years after the sentence has been served. Three procedural consequences follow automatically. Section 41(1) removes a section 39B charge from the Sessions Court and the Magistrates' Court, so it is tried in the High Court, and section 41A(3) has it tried by a judge sitting alone. Section 41B(1) provides that bail «shall not be granted» where the offence is punishable with death, and also where it is punishable with imprisonment for more than five years. Section 38A, which lets a court deal with a drug dependant under eighteen under the Drug Dependants (Treatment and Rehabilitation) Act 1983 rather than punish him, is expressly unavailable for a section 39B offence. Section 39C separately escalates a repeat offender under the consumption and possession provisions to not less than five and not more than seven years with not more than three strokes. The substance is active at microgramme doses and is usually carried on blotter. The Act contains nothing that weighs an active fraction rather than a preparation, so the paper counts with the drug in any weight-based inference a court draws. The list can move under all of this. Section 45A is headed «Power of the Minister to vary First Schedule» and it operates either on a decision of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs or of the United Nations Organization altering the Schedules to the Single Convention, or simply where the Minister «considers it expedient to add a substance to, or remove a substance from, or vary the First Schedule, he may by order make the requisite modifications». An order takes effect on gazetting and there is no notice period. He has used it twice since the text read here, by P.U. (A) 97 gazetted 2 April 2024 and P.U. (A) 416 gazetted 25 November 2025, both carried forward from the earlier reading and neither re-read in this pass. The text read for this cell is the Attorney General's Chambers updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», and a later order is not ruled out.
If prescribed / medical: There is no prescription route for 25I-NBOMe in Malaysia, and this cell states that rather than leaving a reader to infer it. Every prohibition in the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, and the definition of trafficking in section 2, is qualified by the words «otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act», so a lawful holding is one that sits inside an authority granted under the Act. The authority the Act contemplates is a licence or a regulation made under it, and here there is nothing for one to attach to. It is reached at Part III of the First Schedule: it is named in terms. Neither Act evidences a registered product containing it. It is a psychotropic substance under the Poisons Act 1952 as well, named in the Third Schedule as «2-(4-iodo-2,5-dimethoxyphenyl)-N-(2-methoxybenzly)ethanamine(251-NBOMe)», the spelling and the digit being the publisher's. Its two siblings 25B-NBOMe and 25C-NBOMe are named in the same Third Schedule.
Documentation: There is no document to carry, because there is no lawful holding for a document to evidence. This cell says so plainly rather than leave a traveller looking for paperwork that does not exist for 25I-NBOMe. The entry that forecloses the question is «2-(4-iodo-2,5-dimethoxyphenyl)-N-(2-methoxybenzyl) ethanamine (25I-NBOMe)», reached at Part III of the First Schedule. Section 25 of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, the traveller provision, turns on a medicinal preparation supplied by or on the prescription of a medical practitioner residing outside Malaysia, so it has nothing to attach to here. It is also confined to Part V of the Act, the external trade Part, and would not answer a possession charge even if it did apply. Getting the paperwork wrong is not a paperwork penalty. Section 37(d) provides that «any person who is found to have had in his custody or under his control anything whatsoever containing any dangerous drug shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have been in possession of such drug and shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have known the nature of such drug», and section 37(da) can then presume trafficking from the weight of the material alone. A foreign prescription, a licence issued in another country, and religious or traditional use are none of them provided for anywhere in the Act. The entry the document has to answer to, in the First Schedule itself, is «2-(4-iodo-2,5-dimethoxyphenyl)-N-(2-methoxybenzyl) ethanamine (25I-NBOMe)» at Part III. If the document does not answer the entry, the charge is section 12(2) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, possession of a dangerous drug without authority, and section 12(3) sets «a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Section 12(4) adds whipping of not more than three strokes where the person convicted is a public officer employed at a prison, rehabilitation centre, police lock-up or place of detention.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 in all five Parts, the entry found at Part III of the First Schedule as «2-(4-iodo-2,5-dimethoxyphenyl)-N-(2-methoxybenzyl) ethanamine (25I-NBOMe)» · sections 2, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 11(1), 16, 25, 37(d), 37(da), 39A, 39B and 45A of that Act · the Poisons Act 1952 Poisons List and Third Schedule both read · the Poisons Act 1952 Third Schedule read in full · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

25I-NBOMe in Malaysia, full detail →

2C-B

Legal status: 2C-B is named in Part III of the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, in full as «4-bromo-2, 5-dimethoxyphenylethylamine (2C-B)». It is a dangerous drug and it has no section 37(da) presumption weight. Two entries down sits «Dimethoxybromoamphetamine (DOB)», which is a different substance and does have one, at 50 grammes. The two are not interchangeable: 2C-B is a phenethylamine and DOB is the alpha-methylated amphetamine. Reading the DOB weight onto 2C-B would import a presumption the schedule does not give it. The Poisons List carries 2C-B separately with the dangerous drug marker.
Consequences if caught: Part III of the First Schedule names «4-bromo-2, 5-dimethoxyphenylethylamine (2C-B)» in full, abbreviation and all. Section 2 makes it a dangerous drug and section 39B(2) answers trafficking in it with death or imprisonment for life. The chain is short and it passes through no weight at any point. Section 2 defines a «dangerous drug» as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule», section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», whether on your own behalf or on behalf of any other person, and section 39B(2) sets the penalty. And the word «trafficking» is itself defined in section 2, far wider than selling: it «includes the doing of any of the following acts, that is to say, manufacturing, importing, exporting, keeping, concealing, buying, selling, giving, receiving, storing, administering, transporting, carrying, sending, delivering, procuring, supplying or distributing any dangerous drug otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act». Keeping, carrying and storing are on that list, so nothing commercial has to be shown. It has no section 37(da) presumption weight. Two entries away sits «Dimethoxybromoamphetamine (DOB)», which does have one, at 50 grammes under subparagraph (xiv), and the two are not interchangeable: 2C-B is a phenethylamine and DOB is the alpha-methylated amphetamine. Reading the DOB weight onto 2C-B would import a presumption the Act does not give it. So there is no presumption to rebut and no threshold to stay under, and section 39B(2) applies in the same terms as it would to a weighed substance. The other presumption is still there. Section 37(d) provides that any person found to have had in his custody or under his control anything whatsoever containing a dangerous drug «shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have been in possession of such drug and shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have known the nature of such drug». The words «until the contrary is proved» put the defendant to proof on both limbs, on the possession and on the knowledge. Death is available and it is no longer mandatory, and the change has a date. Section 39B(2) once read simply «on conviction with death». The Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017, Act A1558, in force 15 March 2018, opened a narrow gate out of that, a date carried forward from the earlier reading and not re-derived in this pass. The Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, came into operation on 4 July 2023, and section 54 of it is the whole of what it did to the Dangerous Drugs Act: it substituted «be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes» for fifteen strokes in subsection (2), and it deleted subsections (2A) and (2B), which were the mandatory death machinery. Section 39B(2) now reads, in full: «Any person who contravenes any of the provisions of subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence against this Act and shall be punished on conviction with death or imprisonment for life and shall, if he is not sentenced to death, be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes.» So the court chooses between death and imprisonment for life with no precondition, and at least twelve strokes follow any sentence that is not death. Act 846 is widely described as replacing life with a term of thirty to forty years. It did that in the Penal Code, the Firearms (Increased Penalties) Act 1971, the Arms Act 1960, the Kidnapping Act 1961, the Strategic Trade Act 2010 and the Criminal Procedure Code. It did not do it here: the words «imprisonment for life» in section 39B(2) are untouched and no definition of that phrase appears anywhere in the Dangerous Drugs Act, so no year figure is stated in this cell. Section 55 of Act 846 applies the amended section to anyone sentenced after it came into operation even where the offence was committed before. Below trafficking, the possession offence is section 12. Section 11(1) provides that «This Part applies to dangerous drugs listed in Parts III, IV and V of the First Schedule», which is what brings a Part III substance inside Part IV of the Act. Section 12(2) then prohibits having such a drug in your possession, custody or control «unless he is authorized to be in possession, custody or control of such drug or is deemed to be so authorized under this Act or the regulations made thereunder», and section 12(3) punishes a contravention with «a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Self-administration is section 15(1), at a fine not exceeding five thousand ringgit or imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, and section 38B(1) then requires supervision for not less than two and not more than three years after the sentence has been served. Three procedural consequences follow automatically. Section 41(1) removes a section 39B charge from the Sessions Court and the Magistrates' Court, so it is tried in the High Court, and section 41A(3) has it tried by a judge sitting alone. Section 41B(1) provides that bail «shall not be granted» where the offence is punishable with death, and also where it is punishable with imprisonment for more than five years. Section 38A, which lets a court deal with a drug dependant under eighteen under the Drug Dependants (Treatment and Rehabilitation) Act 1983 rather than punish him, is expressly unavailable for a section 39B offence. Section 39C separately escalates a repeat offender under the consumption and possession provisions to not less than five and not more than seven years with not more than three strokes. The absence of a weight is not a lighter position. It changes how the prosecution proves trafficking, from a presumption the defendant must rebut to proof of the acts in the section 2 definition, and it changes nothing about the sentence in section 39B(2). The list can move under all of this. Section 45A is headed «Power of the Minister to vary First Schedule» and it operates either on a decision of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs or of the United Nations Organization altering the Schedules to the Single Convention, or simply where the Minister «considers it expedient to add a substance to, or remove a substance from, or vary the First Schedule, he may by order make the requisite modifications». An order takes effect on gazetting and there is no notice period. He has used it twice since the text read here, by P.U. (A) 97 gazetted 2 April 2024 and P.U. (A) 416 gazetted 25 November 2025, both carried forward from the earlier reading and neither re-read in this pass. The text read for this cell is the Attorney General's Chambers updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», and a later order is not ruled out.
If prescribed / medical: There is no prescription route for 2C-B in Malaysia, and this cell states that rather than leaving a reader to infer it. Every prohibition in the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, and the definition of trafficking in section 2, is qualified by the words «otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act», so a lawful holding is one that sits inside an authority granted under the Act. The authority the Act contemplates is a licence or a regulation made under it, and here there is nothing for one to attach to. It is reached at Part III of the First Schedule: it is named in terms. Neither Act evidences a registered product containing it. Two entries down sits «Dimethoxybromoamphetamine (DOB)», which is a different substance with a presumption weight of its own. Nothing in the Act makes a prescription of one an authority for the other.
Documentation: There is no document to carry, because there is no lawful holding for a document to evidence. This cell says so plainly rather than leave a traveller looking for paperwork that does not exist for 2C-B. The entry that forecloses the question is «4-bromo-2, 5-dimethoxyphenylethylamine (2C-B)», reached at Part III of the First Schedule. Section 25 of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, the traveller provision, turns on a medicinal preparation supplied by or on the prescription of a medical practitioner residing outside Malaysia, so it has nothing to attach to here. It is also confined to Part V of the Act, the external trade Part, and would not answer a possession charge even if it did apply. Getting the paperwork wrong is not a paperwork penalty. Section 37(d) provides that «any person who is found to have had in his custody or under his control anything whatsoever containing any dangerous drug shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have been in possession of such drug and shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have known the nature of such drug», and section 37(da) can then presume trafficking from the weight of the material alone. A foreign prescription, a licence issued in another country, and religious or traditional use are none of them provided for anywhere in the Act. The entry the document has to answer to, in the First Schedule itself, is «4-bromo-2, 5-dimethoxyphenylethylamine (2C-B)» at Part III. If the document does not answer the entry, the charge is section 12(2) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, possession of a dangerous drug without authority, and section 12(3) sets «a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Section 12(4) adds whipping of not more than three strokes where the person convicted is a public officer employed at a prison, rehabilitation centre, police lock-up or place of detention.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 in all five Parts, the entry found at Part III of the First Schedule as «4-bromo-2, 5-dimethoxyphenylethylamine (2C-B)» · sections 2, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 11(1), 16, 25, 37(d), 37(da), 39A, 39B and 45A of that Act · the Poisons Act 1952 Poisons List and Third Schedule both read · the Poisons Act 1952 Third Schedule read in full · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

2C-B in Malaysia, full detail →

2C-E

Legal status: 2C-E is named nowhere in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 and nowhere in the Poisons Act 1952. Its close relative 2C-B is named, as «4-bromo-2, 5-dimethoxyphenylethylamine (2C-B)», but Part III's generic clause reaches only «The isomers... The esters and ethers... The salts» of the drugs listed, and 2C-E, the 4-ethyl compound, is not an isomer of the 4-bromo one: they do not share a molecular formula. The Dangerous Drugs Act contains no analogue clause at all, measured across the whole Act. So on the text 2C-E is not a dangerous drug. That is a statement about the schedule as amended to 25 November 2025, and section 45A lets the Minister add it by order at any time.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. 2C-E is in neither list. «4-bromo-2, 5-dimethoxyphenylethylamine (2C-B)» is in Part III of the First Schedule and 2C-E is not an isomer of it, because the 4-ethyl and the 4-bromo compounds do not share a molecular formula, and isomers, esters, ethers and salts are the whole of Part III's generic reach. Section 39B is the only capital provision in Malaysian drug law, and section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», which section 2 defines as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule». A substance outside that Schedule cannot be trafficked within the meaning of section 39B however much of it there is, the section 37(da) presumption weights do not reach it, and neither do the section 39A enhanced penalties. It is not in the Third Schedule to the Poisons Act 1952 either, so the section 30 psychotropic offence does not reach it. Do not read that as permission. The Dangerous Drugs Act carries no analogue clause at all, measured across the whole Act, so a substance is in or out on the naming; but section 45A provides that where the Minister «considers it expedient to add a substance to, or remove a substance from, or vary the First Schedule, he may by order make the requisite modifications», and he has used it twice since the consolidated text, by P.U. (A) 97 gazetted 2 April 2024 and P.U. (A) 416 gazetted 25 November 2025. An order takes effect on gazetting and there is no notice period. Customs may also treat an unlisted substance as a prohibited import under a separate order that was not read for this cell.
If prescribed / medical: Neither drug statute reaches 2C-E, so neither supplies a prescription route for it and neither requires one. Its close relative 2C-B is named in Part III of the First Schedule as «4-bromo-2, 5-dimethoxyphenylethylamine (2C-B)», but the 4-ethyl compound is not an isomer of the 4-bromo one, because they do not share a molecular formula. Part III extends only to isomers, esters, ethers and salts, and the Dangerous Drugs Act contains no analogue clause anywhere in it. What this cell does not state is whether it is a registered product, an unregistered product or a prohibited import under the medicines and customs instruments, because none of those instruments was read for it.
Documentation: No documentation requirement arises under either drug statute, because neither reaches 2C-E. There is no entry for a document to answer to. The nearest one, «4-bromo-2, 5-dimethoxyphenylethylamine (2C-B)», names a different compound. That is not the same as saying it may be brought in freely. Product registration with the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency and the customs prohibited imports orders are separate regimes, neither was read for this cell, and nothing is stated here about either. Carry any prescription and the original packaging as a matter of course, and expect the question at the border to be settled by those other regimes rather than by the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 or the Poisons Act 1952.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: both schedules in full, the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 First Schedule in all five Parts and the Poisons Act 1952 Poisons List and Third Schedule, with 2C-E found in neither as a controlled entry · sections 2, 11(1) and 45A of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 and sections 30(1) and 32(2) of the Poisons Act 1952 · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

2C-E in Malaysia, full detail →

2C-I

Legal status: 2C-I is named nowhere in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 and nowhere in the Poisons Act 1952. What is named is its N-benzyl derivative, 25I-NBOMe, in Part III, and 2C-B. 2C-I is neither an isomer, an ester, an ether nor a salt of either, and those four are the only generic extensions Part III carries; the Act has no analogue clause. So on the text 2C-I is not a dangerous drug. That is a statement about the schedule as amended to 25 November 2025, and section 45A lets the Minister add it by order at any time.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. 2C-I is in neither list. What Part III of the First Schedule names is its N-benzyl derivative, «2-(4-iodo-2,5-dimethoxyphenyl)-N-(2-methoxybenzyl) ethanamine (25I-NBOMe)», and 2C-B. A parent compound is not an isomer, an ester, an ether or a salt of its own N-benzyl derivative, and those four are the only extensions Part III carries. Section 39B is the only capital provision in Malaysian drug law, and section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», which section 2 defines as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule». A substance outside that Schedule cannot be trafficked within the meaning of section 39B however much of it there is, the section 37(da) presumption weights do not reach it, and neither do the section 39A enhanced penalties. It is not in the Third Schedule to the Poisons Act 1952 either, so the section 30 psychotropic offence does not reach it. Do not read that as permission. The Dangerous Drugs Act carries no analogue clause at all, measured across the whole Act, so a substance is in or out on the naming; but section 45A provides that where the Minister «considers it expedient to add a substance to, or remove a substance from, or vary the First Schedule, he may by order make the requisite modifications», and he has used it twice since the consolidated text, by P.U. (A) 97 gazetted 2 April 2024 and P.U. (A) 416 gazetted 25 November 2025. An order takes effect on gazetting and there is no notice period. Customs may also treat an unlisted substance as a prohibited import under a separate order that was not read for this cell.
If prescribed / medical: Neither drug statute reaches 2C-I, so neither supplies a prescription route for it and neither requires one. What is named in Part III is its N-benzyl derivative, as «2-(4-iodo-2,5-dimethoxyphenyl)-N-(2-methoxybenzyl) ethanamine (25I-NBOMe)», and 2C-B. 2C-I is neither an isomer, an ester, an ether nor a salt of either of them, and those four are the only generic extensions Part III carries. What this cell does not state is whether it is a registered product, an unregistered product or a prohibited import under the medicines and customs instruments, because none of those instruments was read for it.
Documentation: No documentation requirement arises under either drug statute, because neither reaches 2C-I. There is no entry for a document to answer to. The nearest one names its N-benzyl derivative and not 2C-I itself. That is not the same as saying it may be brought in freely. Product registration with the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency and the customs prohibited imports orders are separate regimes, neither was read for this cell, and nothing is stated here about either. Carry any prescription and the original packaging as a matter of course, and expect the question at the border to be settled by those other regimes rather than by the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 or the Poisons Act 1952.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: both schedules in full, the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 First Schedule in all five Parts and the Poisons Act 1952 Poisons List and Third Schedule, with 2C-I found in neither as a controlled entry · sections 2, 11(1) and 45A of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 and sections 30(1) and 32(2) of the Poisons Act 1952 · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

2C-I in Malaysia, full detail →

2C-T-7

Legal status: 2C-T-7 is named nowhere in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 and nowhere in the Poisons Act 1952. The 4-propylthio group puts it outside every named phenethylamine in Part III, and Part III extends only to isomers, esters, ethers and salts of what it names. The Dangerous Drugs Act has no analogue clause. So on the text 2C-T-7 is not a dangerous drug. That is a statement about the schedule as amended to 25 November 2025, and section 45A lets the Minister add it by order at any time.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. 2C-T-7 is in neither list. The 4-propylthio group puts it outside every phenethylamine Part III of the First Schedule names, and that Part extends only to the isomers, esters, ethers and salts of what it names. Section 39B is the only capital provision in Malaysian drug law, and section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», which section 2 defines as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule». A substance outside that Schedule cannot be trafficked within the meaning of section 39B however much of it there is, the section 37(da) presumption weights do not reach it, and neither do the section 39A enhanced penalties. It is not in the Third Schedule to the Poisons Act 1952 either, so the section 30 psychotropic offence does not reach it. Do not read that as permission. The Dangerous Drugs Act carries no analogue clause at all, measured across the whole Act, so a substance is in or out on the naming; but section 45A provides that where the Minister «considers it expedient to add a substance to, or remove a substance from, or vary the First Schedule, he may by order make the requisite modifications», and he has used it twice since the consolidated text, by P.U. (A) 97 gazetted 2 April 2024 and P.U. (A) 416 gazetted 25 November 2025. An order takes effect on gazetting and there is no notice period. Customs may also treat an unlisted substance as a prohibited import under a separate order that was not read for this cell.
If prescribed / medical: Neither drug statute reaches 2C-T-7, so neither supplies a prescription route for it and neither requires one. The 4-propylthio group puts it outside every named phenethylamine in Part III. Part III extends only to isomers, esters, ethers and salts of what it names, and the Act has no analogue clause. What this cell does not state is whether it is a registered product, an unregistered product or a prohibited import under the medicines and customs instruments, because none of those instruments was read for it.
Documentation: No documentation requirement arises under either drug statute, because neither reaches 2C-T-7. There is no entry for a document to answer to, and the 4-propylthio group is what keeps it outside every named phenethylamine in Part III. That is not the same as saying it may be brought in freely. Product registration with the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency and the customs prohibited imports orders are separate regimes, neither was read for this cell, and nothing is stated here about either. Carry any prescription and the original packaging as a matter of course, and expect the question at the border to be settled by those other regimes rather than by the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 or the Poisons Act 1952.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: both schedules in full, the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 First Schedule in all five Parts and the Poisons Act 1952 Poisons List and Third Schedule, with 2C-T-7 or its systematic name found in neither as a controlled entry · sections 2, 11(1) and 45A of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 and sections 30(1) and 32(2) of the Poisons Act 1952 · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

2C-T-7 in Malaysia, full detail →

3-MMC

Legal status: 3-MMC is a psychotropic substance under the Poisons Act 1952, named in the Third Schedule as «3-Methylmethcathinone (3-MMC)», and it is in the Poisons List. It is NOT in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952. Methcathinone and Cathinone are both in Part III of that Schedule, but 3-MMC is a ring-methylated analogue of methcathinone rather than an isomer, ester, ether or salt of it, and those four are the only generic extensions Part III carries. The consequence is the whole answer: section 39B, and with it the death penalty, reaches only a dangerous drug, and 3-MMC is not one.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. 3-MMC is not in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952. «Cathinone» and «Methcathinone» are both in Part III, and so are «Eutylone» and «N-Ethylnorpentylone (Ephylone)», but 3-MMC is a ring-methylated analogue of methcathinone rather than an isomer, ester, ether or salt of it. Section 39B is the only capital provision in Malaysian drug law, and section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», which section 2 defines as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule». A substance outside that Schedule cannot be trafficked within the meaning of section 39B however much of it there is, the section 37(da) presumption weights do not reach it, and neither do the section 39A enhanced penalties. What applies instead is section 30 of the Poisons Act 1952, which provides at subsection (3) that «no person shall import, export, manufacture, compound, mix, dispense, sell, supply, administer, possess or use any psychotropic substance otherwise than in accordance with any regulations applicable thereto», and at subsection (5) that a contravention is punishable «to a fine not exceeding ten thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding four years or both». Section 30(4) carries a possession presumption of its own: a person found with the substance in his custody or control «shall be deemed to have been in possession of the substance and to have known the nature of the substance, until he proves to the contrary». Four years and ten thousand ringgit against death. That is the single largest cliff in Malaysian drug law and it turns entirely on which of two schedules a substance sits in. And the ground can move under it: section 45A of the Dangerous Drugs Act lets the Minister add a substance to the First Schedule by order, and section 30(2) of the Poisons Act lets him amend the Third Schedule the same way.
If prescribed / medical: This is a prescription-supply question and not a trafficking one. 3-MMC is a psychotropic substance under the Poisons Act 1952, named in terms, appearing in the Third Schedule as «3-Methylmethcathinone (3-MMC)» and in the Poisons List as «3-Methylmethcathinone (3-». Section 30(1) provides that «In this section, “psychotropic substance” means any of the substances specified in the Third Schedule», and section 30(3) then prohibits importing, exporting, manufacturing, compounding, mixing, dispensing, selling, supplying, administering, possessing or using such a substance «otherwise than in accordance with any regulations applicable thereto made under this Act». Those regulations are the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989, and regulation 3 is the one a patient stands on: possession is prohibited unless «he is authorised to be in possession of such psychotropic substance under these Regulations» and the substance is for a lawful purpose and obtained under them. Regulation 3(2)(l) places a person lawfully supplied «in accordance with a prescription lawfully given by a registered medical practitioner, registered dentist Division I of a veterinary surgeon» inside that authority, the wording of that paragraph being the publisher's. Cathinone and methcathinone are dangerous drugs under the other Act, but 3-MMC is a ring-methylated analogue rather than an isomer, ester, ether or salt of either, so it does not follow them into the First Schedule.
Documentation: Carry the prescription and the dispensing label with the medicine, in its original packaging. The entry the prescription has to answer to is «3-Methylmethcathinone (3-MMC)» in the Third Schedule, with «3-Methylmethcathinone (3-» in the Poisons List beside it. Regulation 4(2)(a) of the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 is the traveller provision and it fixes a figure the Dangerous Drugs Act never does: a person arriving in or leaving Malaysia who carries, as part of personal luggage and solely for personal or family use, a prepared or packaged medicine containing a psychotropic substance is outside the import authorisation requirement, provided the quantity is «not exceeding such quantities as may be reasonably required for one month's use by one person» and it has been lawfully supplied by or on the prescription of a qualified medical practitioner. Section 30(4) presumes possession and knowledge from custody or control: a person found with the substance «shall be deemed to have been in possession of the substance and to have known the nature of the substance, until he proves to the contrary». The prescription is what rebuts it. The penalty under section 30(5) is «a fine not exceeding ten thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding four years or both». The control is the Poisons Act 1952 and its regulations rather than the Dangerous Drugs Act, so the trafficking regime and its presumptions are not in play for 3-MMC.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: the Poisons Act 1952 Third Schedule, the entry found as «3-Methylmethcathinone (3-MMC)», named in terms · the Poisons List, carrying «3-Methylmethcathinone (3-» · sections 30(1) to 30(5) and 32(2) of that Act · the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 incorporating P.U. (A) 405/2018, regulations 3, 4 and 9 and the Second Schedule to those Regulations, in which this substance is not named · and the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 read in all five Parts, and 3-MMC not found in any of them · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

3-MMC in Malaysia, full detail →

4-AcO-DMT

Legal status: 4-AcO-DMT is not named, and it does not need to be. Psilocin is named in Part III of the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 as «Psilocine, Psilotsin, 3-(2-dimethylaminoethyl)-4-hydroxyindole», and 4-AcO-DMT is O-acetylpsilocin, the acetate ester of it. Part III provides: «The esters and ethers, unless appearing in another Part, of the drugs in this Schedule whenever the existence of such esters or ethers is possible». An ester is a named relationship and a matter of chemistry rather than of resemblance, so 4-AcO-DMT is a dangerous drug on the face of the clause. Psilocybine is separately named in the same Part.
Consequences if caught: Section 39B(2) reaches 4-AcO-DMT through a generic clause rather than through a named entry, and the clause is a chemical one rather than a resemblance one. Part III names «Psilocine, Psilotsin, 3-(2-dimethylaminoethyl)-4-hydroxyindole», 4-AcO-DMT is O-acetylpsilocin, the acetate ester of it, and Part III provides that «The esters and ethers, unless appearing in another Part, of the drugs in this Schedule whenever the existence of such esters or ethers is possible» are included. The chain is short and it passes through no weight at any point. Section 2 defines a «dangerous drug» as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule», section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», whether on your own behalf or on behalf of any other person, and section 39B(2) sets the penalty. And the word «trafficking» is itself defined in section 2, far wider than selling: it «includes the doing of any of the following acts, that is to say, manufacturing, importing, exporting, keeping, concealing, buying, selling, giving, receiving, storing, administering, transporting, carrying, sending, delivering, procuring, supplying or distributing any dangerous drug otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act». Keeping, carrying and storing are on that list, so nothing commercial has to be shown. There is no section 37(da) presumption weight for psilocin, and none for an ester of it. Nothing in that subparagraph reaches any tryptamine. So there is no presumption to rebut and no threshold to stay under, and section 39B(2) applies in the same terms as it would to a weighed substance. The other presumption is still there. Section 37(d) provides that any person found to have had in his custody or under his control anything whatsoever containing a dangerous drug «shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have been in possession of such drug and shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have known the nature of such drug». The words «until the contrary is proved» put the defendant to proof on both limbs, on the possession and on the knowledge. Death is available and it is no longer mandatory, and the change has a date. Section 39B(2) once read simply «on conviction with death». The Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017, Act A1558, in force 15 March 2018, opened a narrow gate out of that, a date carried forward from the earlier reading and not re-derived in this pass. The Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, came into operation on 4 July 2023, and section 54 of it is the whole of what it did to the Dangerous Drugs Act: it substituted «be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes» for fifteen strokes in subsection (2), and it deleted subsections (2A) and (2B), which were the mandatory death machinery. Section 39B(2) now reads, in full: «Any person who contravenes any of the provisions of subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence against this Act and shall be punished on conviction with death or imprisonment for life and shall, if he is not sentenced to death, be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes.» So the court chooses between death and imprisonment for life with no precondition, and at least twelve strokes follow any sentence that is not death. Act 846 is widely described as replacing life with a term of thirty to forty years. It did that in the Penal Code, the Firearms (Increased Penalties) Act 1971, the Arms Act 1960, the Kidnapping Act 1961, the Strategic Trade Act 2010 and the Criminal Procedure Code. It did not do it here: the words «imprisonment for life» in section 39B(2) are untouched and no definition of that phrase appears anywhere in the Dangerous Drugs Act, so no year figure is stated in this cell. Section 55 of Act 846 applies the amended section to anyone sentenced after it came into operation even where the offence was committed before. Below trafficking, the possession offence is section 12. Section 11(1) provides that «This Part applies to dangerous drugs listed in Parts III, IV and V of the First Schedule», which is what brings a Part III substance inside Part IV of the Act. Section 12(2) then prohibits having such a drug in your possession, custody or control «unless he is authorized to be in possession, custody or control of such drug or is deemed to be so authorized under this Act or the regulations made thereunder», and section 12(3) punishes a contravention with «a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Self-administration is section 15(1), at a fine not exceeding five thousand ringgit or imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, and section 38B(1) then requires supervision for not less than two and not more than three years after the sentence has been served. Three procedural consequences follow automatically. Section 41(1) removes a section 39B charge from the Sessions Court and the Magistrates' Court, so it is tried in the High Court, and section 41A(3) has it tried by a judge sitting alone. Section 41B(1) provides that bail «shall not be granted» where the offence is punishable with death, and also where it is punishable with imprisonment for more than five years. Section 38A, which lets a court deal with a drug dependant under eighteen under the Drug Dependants (Treatment and Rehabilitation) Act 1983 rather than punish him, is expressly unavailable for a section 39B offence. Section 39C separately escalates a repeat offender under the consumption and possession provisions to not less than five and not more than seven years with not more than three strokes. This is a derivation and it is stated as one. An ester is a named relationship and a matter of chemistry, not of judgment, so the clause reads onto 4-AcO-DMT on its face, but no Malaysian decision applying the ester clause to it was found and the cell does not present the reading as settled practice. The list can move under all of this. Section 45A is headed «Power of the Minister to vary First Schedule» and it operates either on a decision of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs or of the United Nations Organization altering the Schedules to the Single Convention, or simply where the Minister «considers it expedient to add a substance to, or remove a substance from, or vary the First Schedule, he may by order make the requisite modifications». An order takes effect on gazetting and there is no notice period. He has used it twice since the text read here, by P.U. (A) 97 gazetted 2 April 2024 and P.U. (A) 416 gazetted 25 November 2025, both carried forward from the earlier reading and neither re-read in this pass. The text read for this cell is the Attorney General's Chambers updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», and a later order is not ruled out.
If prescribed / medical: There is no prescription route for 4-AcO-DMT in Malaysia, and this cell states that rather than leaving a reader to infer it. Every prohibition in the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, and the definition of trafficking in section 2, is qualified by the words «otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act», so a lawful holding is one that sits inside an authority granted under the Act. The authority the Act contemplates is a licence or a regulation made under it, and here there is nothing for one to attach to. It is reached at Part III of the First Schedule: it is the acetate ester of psilocin, which is named there, and Part III provides that «The esters and ethers, unless appearing in another Part, of the drugs in this Schedule whenever the existence of such esters or ethers is possible» are included. Neither Act evidences a registered product containing it. The route in is a clause rather than an entry, which changes what could be authorised: there is no listed drug called 4-AcO-DMT for a licence or a prescription to attach to, only psilocin and the ester clause reaching it.
Documentation: There is no document to carry, because there is no lawful holding for a document to evidence. This cell says so plainly rather than leave a traveller looking for paperwork that does not exist for 4-AcO-DMT. The entry that forecloses the question is «Psilocine, Psilotsin, 3-(2-dimethylaminoethyl)-4-hydroxyindole», reached at Part III of the First Schedule. Section 25 of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, the traveller provision, turns on a medicinal preparation supplied by or on the prescription of a medical practitioner residing outside Malaysia, so it has nothing to attach to here. It is also confined to Part V of the Act, the external trade Part, and would not answer a possession charge even if it did apply. Getting the paperwork wrong is not a paperwork penalty. Section 37(d) provides that «any person who is found to have had in his custody or under his control anything whatsoever containing any dangerous drug shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have been in possession of such drug and shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have known the nature of such drug», and section 37(da) can then presume trafficking from the weight of the material alone. A foreign prescription, a licence issued in another country, and religious or traditional use are none of them provided for anywhere in the Act. The entry the document has to answer to, in the First Schedule itself, is «Psilocine, Psilotsin, 3-(2-dimethylaminoethyl)-4-hydroxyindole» at Part III. If the document does not answer the entry, the charge is section 12(2) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, possession of a dangerous drug without authority, and section 12(3) sets «a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Section 12(4) adds whipping of not more than three strokes where the person convicted is a public officer employed at a prison, rehabilitation centre, police lock-up or place of detention.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 in all five Parts, the entry found at Part III of the First Schedule as «Psilocine, Psilotsin, 3-(2-dimethylaminoethyl)-4-hydroxyindole» · sections 2, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 11(1), 16, 25, 37(d), 37(da), 39A, 39B and 45A of that Act · the Poisons Act 1952 Poisons List and Third Schedule both read · the Poisons Act 1952 Third Schedule read in full · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

4-AcO-DMT in Malaysia, full detail →

4-HO-MET

Legal status: 4-HO-MET is named nowhere in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 and nowhere in the Poisons Act 1952. Psilocin is named in Part III, and 4-HO-MET differs from it at one N-substituent, which makes it an analogue rather than an isomer, ester, ether or salt. Those four are the only generic extensions Part III carries and the Act has no analogue clause. So on the text 4-HO-MET is not a dangerous drug and section 39B does not reach it. That is a statement about the schedule as amended to 25 November 2025.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. 4-HO-MET is in neither list. «Psilocine, Psilotsin, 3-(2-dimethylaminoethyl)-4-hydroxyindole» is in Part III of the First Schedule and 4-HO-MET differs from it at an N-substituent, which makes it an analogue and not an isomer, an ester, an ether or a salt. Section 39B is the only capital provision in Malaysian drug law, and section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», which section 2 defines as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule». A substance outside that Schedule cannot be trafficked within the meaning of section 39B however much of it there is, the section 37(da) presumption weights do not reach it, and neither do the section 39A enhanced penalties. It is not in the Third Schedule to the Poisons Act 1952 either, so the section 30 psychotropic offence does not reach it. Do not read that as permission. The Dangerous Drugs Act carries no analogue clause at all, measured across the whole Act, so a substance is in or out on the naming; but section 45A provides that where the Minister «considers it expedient to add a substance to, or remove a substance from, or vary the First Schedule, he may by order make the requisite modifications», and he has used it twice since the consolidated text, by P.U. (A) 97 gazetted 2 April 2024 and P.U. (A) 416 gazetted 25 November 2025. An order takes effect on gazetting and there is no notice period. Customs may also treat an unlisted substance as a prohibited import under a separate order that was not read for this cell.
If prescribed / medical: Neither drug statute reaches 4-HO-MET, so neither supplies a prescription route for it and neither requires one. Psilocin is named in Part III as «Psilocine, Psilotsin, 3-(2-dimethylaminoethyl)-4-hydroxyindole», and 4-HO-MET differs from it at one nitrogen substituent. That makes it an analogue rather than an isomer, ester, ether or salt, and only those four relationships are carried forward by Part III. What this cell does not state is whether it is a registered product, an unregistered product or a prohibited import under the medicines and customs instruments, because none of those instruments was read for it.
Documentation: No documentation requirement arises under either drug statute, because neither reaches 4-HO-MET. There is no entry for a document to answer to. «Psilocine, Psilotsin, 3-(2-dimethylaminoethyl)-4-hydroxyindole» is the nearest, and a single nitrogen substituent separates them. That is not the same as saying it may be brought in freely. Product registration with the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency and the customs prohibited imports orders are separate regimes, neither was read for this cell, and nothing is stated here about either. Carry any prescription and the original packaging as a matter of course, and expect the question at the border to be settled by those other regimes rather than by the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 or the Poisons Act 1952.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: both schedules in full, the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 First Schedule in all five Parts and the Poisons Act 1952 Poisons List and Third Schedule, with 4-HO-MET found in neither as a controlled entry · sections 2, 11(1) and 45A of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 and sections 30(1) and 32(2) of the Poisons Act 1952 · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

4-HO-MET in Malaysia, full detail →

5-MeO-DMT (Bufo / Toad)

Legal status: 5-MeO-DMT is named nowhere in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 and nowhere in the Poisons Act 1952. DMT is named in Part III as «DMT, N. N-dimethyltryptamine», and DET beside it, but 5-MeO-DMT is the 5-methoxy analogue of DMT rather than an isomer, ester, ether or salt of it, and those four are the only generic extensions Part III carries. So on the text it is not a dangerous drug. That is a statement about the schedule as amended to 25 November 2025, and section 45A lets the Minister add it by order at any time.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. 5-MeO-DMT is in neither list. «DMT, N. N-dimethyltryptamine» is in Part III of the First Schedule, with «DET, N, N-diethyltryptamine» beside it, but the 5-methoxy compound is an analogue of DMT rather than one of the four relationships Part III extends to. Section 39B is the only capital provision in Malaysian drug law, and section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», which section 2 defines as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule». A substance outside that Schedule cannot be trafficked within the meaning of section 39B however much of it there is, the section 37(da) presumption weights do not reach it, and neither do the section 39A enhanced penalties. It is not in the Third Schedule to the Poisons Act 1952 either, so the section 30 psychotropic offence does not reach it. Do not read that as permission. The Dangerous Drugs Act carries no analogue clause at all, measured across the whole Act, so a substance is in or out on the naming; but section 45A provides that where the Minister «considers it expedient to add a substance to, or remove a substance from, or vary the First Schedule, he may by order make the requisite modifications», and he has used it twice since the consolidated text, by P.U. (A) 97 gazetted 2 April 2024 and P.U. (A) 416 gazetted 25 November 2025. An order takes effect on gazetting and there is no notice period. Customs may also treat an unlisted substance as a prohibited import under a separate order that was not read for this cell.
If prescribed / medical: Neither drug statute reaches 5-MeO-DMT, so neither supplies a prescription route for it and neither requires one. DMT is named in Part III as «DMT, N. N-dimethyltryptamine», with «DET, N, N-diethyltryptamine» beside it. 5-MeO-DMT is the 5-methoxy analogue of DMT rather than an isomer, ester, ether or salt of it, so the Part III generic clause does not reach it. What this cell does not state is whether it is a registered product, an unregistered product or a prohibited import under the medicines and customs instruments, because none of those instruments was read for it.
Documentation: No documentation requirement arises under either drug statute, because neither reaches 5-MeO-DMT. There is no entry for a document to answer to. «DMT, N. N-dimethyltryptamine» is the nearest, and the 5-methoxy group is what keeps them apart. That is not the same as saying it may be brought in freely. Product registration with the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency and the customs prohibited imports orders are separate regimes, neither was read for this cell, and nothing is stated here about either. Carry any prescription and the original packaging as a matter of course, and expect the question at the border to be settled by those other regimes rather than by the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 or the Poisons Act 1952.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: both schedules in full, the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 First Schedule in all five Parts and the Poisons Act 1952 Poisons List and Third Schedule, with 5-MeO-DMT found in neither as a controlled entry · sections 2, 11(1) and 45A of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 and sections 30(1) and 32(2) of the Poisons Act 1952 · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

5-MeO-DMT (Bufo / Toad) in Malaysia, full detail →

6-APB

Legal status: 6-APB is named nowhere in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 and nowhere in the Poisons Act 1952. MDA is named in Part III and carries a section 37(da) weight of 50 grammes, but 6-APB is the benzofuran analogue of MDA, not an isomer, ester, ether or salt of it, and the Dangerous Drugs Act has no analogue clause. So on the text 6-APB is not a dangerous drug. That is a statement about the schedule as amended to 25 November 2025.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. 6-APB is in neither list. «Methylenedioxy-amphetamine (MDA)» is in Part III of the First Schedule and carries a 50 gramme presumption weight at section 37(da)(xviii), but 6-APB is the benzofuran analogue of MDA and not an isomer, ester, ether or salt of it, so neither the entry nor the weight reaches it. Section 39B is the only capital provision in Malaysian drug law, and section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», which section 2 defines as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule». A substance outside that Schedule cannot be trafficked within the meaning of section 39B however much of it there is, the section 37(da) presumption weights do not reach it, and neither do the section 39A enhanced penalties. It is not in the Third Schedule to the Poisons Act 1952 either, so the section 30 psychotropic offence does not reach it. Do not read that as permission. The Dangerous Drugs Act carries no analogue clause at all, measured across the whole Act, so a substance is in or out on the naming; but section 45A provides that where the Minister «considers it expedient to add a substance to, or remove a substance from, or vary the First Schedule, he may by order make the requisite modifications», and he has used it twice since the consolidated text, by P.U. (A) 97 gazetted 2 April 2024 and P.U. (A) 416 gazetted 25 November 2025. An order takes effect on gazetting and there is no notice period. Customs may also treat an unlisted substance as a prohibited import under a separate order that was not read for this cell.
If prescribed / medical: Neither drug statute reaches 6-APB, so neither supplies a prescription route for it and neither requires one. MDA is named in Part III as «Methylenedioxy-amphetamine (MDA)» and carries a trafficking presumption weight. 6-APB is the benzofuran analogue of MDA and not an isomer, ester, ether or salt of it, so neither the entry nor the weight reaches it. What this cell does not state is whether it is a registered product, an unregistered product or a prohibited import under the medicines and customs instruments, because none of those instruments was read for it.
Documentation: No documentation requirement arises under either drug statute, because neither reaches 6-APB. There is no entry for a document to answer to. «Methylenedioxy-amphetamine (MDA)» is the nearest, and a benzofuran ring is not a methylenedioxy one. That is not the same as saying it may be brought in freely. Product registration with the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency and the customs prohibited imports orders are separate regimes, neither was read for this cell, and nothing is stated here about either. Carry any prescription and the original packaging as a matter of course, and expect the question at the border to be settled by those other regimes rather than by the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 or the Poisons Act 1952.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: both schedules in full, the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 First Schedule in all five Parts and the Poisons Act 1952 Poisons List and Third Schedule, with 6-APB found in neither as a controlled entry · sections 2, 11(1) and 45A of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 and sections 30(1) and 32(2) of the Poisons Act 1952 · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

6-APB in Malaysia, full detail →

7-Hydroxymitragynine (7-OH)

Legal status: 7-hydroxymitragynine is controlled through mitragynine and through the kratom plant's alkaloids, and not under the Dangerous Drugs Act at all. Mitragynine is a psychotropic substance in the Third Schedule to the Poisons Act 1952, and the Poisons List carries both «Mitragynine» and «Mitragynine, alkoloids of». 7-hydroxymitragynine is an alkaloid of the same leaf and an oxidation product of mitragynine, so both routes reach it. Neither mitragynine nor 7-hydroxymitragynine nor Mitragyna speciosa is in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, which is the list that decides whether section 39B and the death penalty can apply at all.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. 7-hydroxymitragynine is not in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, and neither is mitragynine nor Mitragyna speciosa. Nothing in the five Parts of that Schedule names any alkaloid of the leaf, and the Act names plants where it means them, in Parts I and II for cannabis and the opium poppy and at the three extract and tincture entries in Part III. Section 39B is the only capital provision in Malaysian drug law, and section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», which section 2 defines as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule». A substance outside that Schedule cannot be trafficked within the meaning of section 39B however much of it there is, the section 37(da) presumption weights do not reach it, and neither do the section 39A enhanced penalties. What applies instead is section 30 of the Poisons Act 1952, which provides at subsection (3) that «no person shall import, export, manufacture, compound, mix, dispense, sell, supply, administer, possess or use any psychotropic substance otherwise than in accordance with any regulations applicable thereto», and at subsection (5) that a contravention is punishable «to a fine not exceeding ten thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding four years or both». Section 30(4) carries a possession presumption of its own: a person found with the substance in his custody or control «shall be deemed to have been in possession of the substance and to have known the nature of the substance, until he proves to the contrary». Four years and ten thousand ringgit against death. That is the single largest cliff in Malaysian drug law and it turns entirely on which of two schedules a substance sits in. And the ground can move under it: section 45A of the Dangerous Drugs Act lets the Minister add a substance to the First Schedule by order, and section 30(2) of the Poisons Act lets him amend the Third Schedule the same way.
If prescribed / medical: This is a prescription-supply question and not a trafficking one. 7-hydroxymitragynine is a psychotropic substance under the Poisons Act 1952, reached through mitragynine, both by paragraph 3(a) of the Third Schedule, which extends it to «the analogues, homologues, compounds, intermediates, derivatives, isomers, esters, ethers and salts of the substances mentioned in this Schedule and other substances structurally derived», and by the Poisons List entry for the alkaloids of the leaf, appearing in the Third Schedule as «Mitragynine» and in the Poisons List as «Mitragynine, alkoloids of». Section 30(1) provides that «In this section, “psychotropic substance” means any of the substances specified in the Third Schedule», and section 30(3) then prohibits importing, exporting, manufacturing, compounding, mixing, dispensing, selling, supplying, administering, possessing or using such a substance «otherwise than in accordance with any regulations applicable thereto made under this Act». Those regulations are the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989, and regulation 3 is the one a patient stands on: possession is prohibited unless «he is authorised to be in possession of such psychotropic substance under these Regulations» and the substance is for a lawful purpose and obtained under them. Regulation 3(2)(l) places a person lawfully supplied «in accordance with a prescription lawfully given by a registered medical practitioner, registered dentist Division I of a veterinary surgeon» inside that authority, the wording of that paragraph being the publisher's. The Poisons List spelling of that entry is the publisher's and it is reproduced here as printed. Neither this substance nor mitragynine nor Mitragyna speciosa is in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952.
Documentation: Carry the prescription and the dispensing label with the medicine, in its original packaging. The entry the prescription has to answer to is «Mitragynine» in the Third Schedule, with «Mitragynine, alkoloids of» in the Poisons List beside it. Regulation 4(2)(a) of the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 is the traveller provision and it fixes a figure the Dangerous Drugs Act never does: a person arriving in or leaving Malaysia who carries, as part of personal luggage and solely for personal or family use, a prepared or packaged medicine containing a psychotropic substance is outside the import authorisation requirement, provided the quantity is «not exceeding such quantities as may be reasonably required for one month's use by one person» and it has been lawfully supplied by or on the prescription of a qualified medical practitioner. Section 30(4) presumes possession and knowledge from custody or control: a person found with the substance «shall be deemed to have been in possession of the substance and to have known the nature of the substance, until he proves to the contrary». The prescription is what rebuts it. The penalty under section 30(5) is «a fine not exceeding ten thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding four years or both». The control is the Poisons Act 1952 and its regulations rather than the Dangerous Drugs Act, so the trafficking regime and its presumptions are not in play for 7-hydroxymitragynine.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: the Poisons Act 1952 Third Schedule, the entry found as «Mitragynine», reached through mitragynine, both by paragraph 3(a) of the Third Schedule, which extends it to «the analogues, homologues, compounds, intermediates, derivatives, isomers, esters, ethers and salts of the substances mentioned in this Schedule and other substances structurally derived», and by the Poisons List entry for the alkaloids of the leaf · the Poisons List, carrying «Mitragynine, alkoloids of» · sections 30(1) to 30(5) and 32(2) of that Act · the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 incorporating P.U. (A) 405/2018, regulations 3, 4 and 9 and the Second Schedule to those Regulations, in which this substance is not named · and the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 read in all five Parts, and 7-hydroxymitragynine, mitragynine or Mitragyna speciosa not found in any of them · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

7-Hydroxymitragynine (7-OH) in Malaysia, full detail →

Adderall

Legal status: Adderall has no separate legal identity. It is a mixture of dextroamphetamine and amphetamine salts, and «Amphetamine» is named in Part III of the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, with Part III extending to «The salts of the drugs listed in this Part». It is therefore a dangerous drug within section 2. A prescription does not change the listing; it changes whether the handling is «otherwise than under the authority of this Act», which is the phrase the trafficking definition in section 2 turns on. The Poisons List prints the name column for the substance Adderall is made of, as the entry «Amphetamine (DD); its salts», the parenthesis being the marker that list uses for a dangerous drug. Adderall itself appears in neither Act under that name.
Consequences if caught: Adderall has no entry and needs none: it is a mixture of dextroamphetamine and amphetamine salts, «Amphetamine» is named in Part III of the First Schedule, and that Part extends to «The salts of the drugs listed in this Part, including the salts of esters, ethers and isomers as provided above whenever the existence of such salts is possible». Section 39B(2) therefore reaches a bottle of it, with death or imprisonment for life on a trafficking conviction. The chain is short and it passes through no weight at any point. Section 2 defines a «dangerous drug» as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule», section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», whether on your own behalf or on behalf of any other person, and section 39B(2) sets the penalty. And the word «trafficking» is itself defined in section 2, far wider than selling: it «includes the doing of any of the following acts, that is to say, manufacturing, importing, exporting, keeping, concealing, buying, selling, giving, receiving, storing, administering, transporting, carrying, sending, delivering, procuring, supplying or distributing any dangerous drug otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act». Keeping, carrying and storing are on that list, so nothing commercial has to be shown. The amphetamine presumption applies. Section 37(da)(xii) is «50 grammes or more in weight of Amphetamine», the same «50 grammes or more» the whole block carries, and subparagraph (xxv) adds «a total of 50 grammes or more in weight of any combination of the dangerous drugs listed in subparagraphs (xi) to (xxiv)». The weight is of the material, and a tablet is mostly excipient, so the figure and a bottle count are very different quantities. Section 37(da) closes with the words «otherwise than in accordance with the authority of this Act or any other written law, shall be presumed, until the contrary is proved, to be trafficking in the said drug», so it is a rebuttable presumption about proof and not a definition of the offence, and the words «until the contrary is proved» are what put the defendant to proof. Section 39B(2) itself turns on quantity at no point. Below trafficking there are two further tiers, and they are a separate list from the presumption weights. Section 39A(1)(n) applies where the subject matter is 5 grammes or more but less than 30 grammes of amphetamine, and sets «imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than two years but shall not exceed five years» with «whipping of not less than three strokes but not more than nine strokes». Section 39A(2)(n) applies where the offence is «not punishable with death» and the subject matter is 30 grammes or more, and sets «imprisonment for life or for a term which shall not be less than five years» with «whipping of not less than ten strokes». Death is available and it is no longer mandatory, and the change has a date. Section 39B(2) once read simply «on conviction with death». The Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017, Act A1558, in force 15 March 2018, opened a narrow gate out of that, a date carried forward from the earlier reading and not re-derived in this pass. The Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, came into operation on 4 July 2023, and section 54 of it is the whole of what it did to the Dangerous Drugs Act: it substituted «be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes» for fifteen strokes in subsection (2), and it deleted subsections (2A) and (2B), which were the mandatory death machinery. Section 39B(2) now reads, in full: «Any person who contravenes any of the provisions of subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence against this Act and shall be punished on conviction with death or imprisonment for life and shall, if he is not sentenced to death, be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes.» So the court chooses between death and imprisonment for life with no precondition, and at least twelve strokes follow any sentence that is not death. Act 846 is widely described as replacing life with a term of thirty to forty years. It did that in the Penal Code, the Firearms (Increased Penalties) Act 1971, the Arms Act 1960, the Kidnapping Act 1961, the Strategic Trade Act 2010 and the Criminal Procedure Code. It did not do it here: the words «imprisonment for life» in section 39B(2) are untouched and no definition of that phrase appears anywhere in the Dangerous Drugs Act, so no year figure is stated in this cell. Section 55 of Act 846 applies the amended section to anyone sentenced after it came into operation even where the offence was committed before. Below trafficking, the possession offence is section 12. Section 11(1) provides that «This Part applies to dangerous drugs listed in Parts III, IV and V of the First Schedule», which is what brings a Part III substance inside Part IV of the Act. Section 12(2) then prohibits having such a drug in your possession, custody or control «unless he is authorized to be in possession, custody or control of such drug or is deemed to be so authorized under this Act or the regulations made thereunder», and section 12(3) punishes a contravention with «a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Self-administration is section 15(1), at a fine not exceeding five thousand ringgit or imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, and section 38B(1) then requires supervision for not less than two and not more than three years after the sentence has been served. Three procedural consequences follow automatically. Section 41(1) removes a section 39B charge from the Sessions Court and the Magistrates' Court, so it is tried in the High Court, and section 41A(3) has it tried by a judge sitting alone. Section 41B(1) provides that bail «shall not be granted» where the offence is punishable with death, and also where it is punishable with imprisonment for more than five years. Section 38A, which lets a court deal with a drug dependant under eighteen under the Drug Dependants (Treatment and Rehabilitation) Act 1983 rather than punish him, is expressly unavailable for a section 39B offence. Section 39C separately escalates a repeat offender under the consumption and possession provisions to not less than five and not more than seven years with not more than three strokes. A prescription does not change the listing. It changes whether the handling is «otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act», which is the phrase both the trafficking definition in section 2 and the possession prohibition in section 12(2) turn on. The Poisons List prints the name column as «Amphetamine (DD); its salts», the marker meaning dangerous drug. The list can move under all of this. Section 45A is headed «Power of the Minister to vary First Schedule» and it operates either on a decision of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs or of the United Nations Organization altering the Schedules to the Single Convention, or simply where the Minister «considers it expedient to add a substance to, or remove a substance from, or vary the First Schedule, he may by order make the requisite modifications». An order takes effect on gazetting and there is no notice period. He has used it twice since the text read here, by P.U. (A) 97 gazetted 2 April 2024 and P.U. (A) 416 gazetted 25 November 2025, both carried forward from the earlier reading and neither re-read in this pass. The text read for this cell is the Attorney General's Chambers updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», and a later order is not ruled out.
If prescribed / medical: Adderall is a dangerous drug and it is also a medicine, so both things are true of it at once. Every prohibition in the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, and the definition of trafficking in section 2, is qualified by the words «otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act», so the question for a medicine is never whether the substance is scheduled but whether the handling sits inside that authority. It is named in Part III of the First Schedule as «Amphetamine». Section 11(1) provides that «This Part applies to dangerous drugs listed in Parts III, IV and V of the First Schedule», which is what brings it inside Part IV of the Act, where section 16(1) empowers the Minister to make regulations «controlling the manufacture, sale, possession, and distribution of such drugs». Adderall has no entry of its own. It is a mixture of amphetamine salts, and Part III extends to «The salts of the drugs listed in this Part, including the salts of esters, ethers and isomers as provided above whenever the existence of such salts is possible», which is what brings the product within the Schedule. The Poisons List entry against it reads «All preparations» rather than the registered-products wording the list uses for medicines such as morphine and methadone, so no registered Malaysian product is evidenced by either Act.
Documentation: Carry the prescription and the dispensing label with the medicine, in its original packaging, and declare it on arrival. The entry the label has to answer to is «Amphetamine» at Part III of the First Schedule, and a dispensing label naming a different member of that Part is not the same thing. Adderall is a trade name and appears in neither Act, so what the label has to evidence is amphetamine and its salts. Section 25 of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 is the only personal traveller provision the Act contains, and its reach is narrower than it looks. It sits in Part V, which is the external trade Part, and it opens by providing that nothing in that Part applies to a quantity of a dangerous drug in the form of a medicinal preparation in the «possession of any person arriving in Malaysia by land, air or water from any place outside Malaysia as is reasonably required for the use of such person and which has been supplied to such person bona fide by or on the prescription of a medical practitioner residing outside Malaysia in accordance with the law of the country in which such drug was so supplied». Because the words are nothing in this Part, it answers the import control and it does not touch the possession and trafficking provisions that sit in Part IV of the Act. It is also conditional: the person «shall, as soon as possible on arrival, declare his possession of such dangerous drug to an officer having authority under this Act to search such person and shall submit to such medical examination as may be required of him». Getting the paperwork wrong is not a paperwork penalty. Section 37(d) provides that «any person who is found to have had in his custody or under his control anything whatsoever containing any dangerous drug shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have been in possession of such drug and shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have known the nature of such drug», and section 37(da) can then presume trafficking from the weight of the material alone. Neither Act fixes a number of days or a number of tablets for a dangerous drug, and this cell does not invent one. The entry the document has to answer to, in the First Schedule itself, is «Amphetamine» at Part III. If the document does not answer the entry, the charge is section 12(2) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, possession of a dangerous drug without authority, and section 12(3) sets «a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Section 12(4) adds whipping of not more than three strokes where the person convicted is a public officer employed at a prison, rehabilitation centre, police lock-up or place of detention.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 in all five Parts, the entry found at Part III of the First Schedule as «Amphetamine» · sections 2, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 11(1), 16, 25, 37(d), 37(da), 39A, 39B and 45A of that Act · the Poisons Act 1952 Poisons List, whose printed name column for amphetamine and its salts is reproduced in full in this cell's status field · the Poisons Act 1952 Third Schedule read in full · the route in is the Part III salt clause, «The salts of the drugs listed in this Part, including the salts of esters, ethers and isomers as provided above whenever the existence of such salts is possible», and not an entry named Adderall, of which there is none in either Act · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

Adderall in Malaysia, full detail →

Alcohol

Legal status: Alcohol is not a drug question in Malaysia and neither of the two drug statutes reaches it. Ethanol is not in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, so it is not a dangerous drug and section 39B cannot apply to it, and it is not a Third Schedule psychotropic substance under the Poisons Act 1952. It is instead a licensed excisable beverage for non-Muslims and a matter for the state Sharia codes for Muslims. This cell does not state the licensing age, the excise regime or any state Sharia penalty, because no such instrument was read for it.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Ethanol is in neither list. It is named nowhere in the five Parts of the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, and no beverage or solvent alcohol appears anywhere in that Act. Section 39B is the only capital provision in Malaysian drug law, and section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», which section 2 defines as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule». A substance outside that Schedule cannot be trafficked within the meaning of section 39B however much of it there is, the section 37(da) presumption weights do not reach it, and neither do the section 39A enhanced penalties. It is not in the Third Schedule to the Poisons Act 1952 either, so the section 30 psychotropic offence does not reach it. Do not read that as permission. The Dangerous Drugs Act carries no analogue clause at all, measured across the whole Act, so a substance is in or out on the naming; but section 45A provides that where the Minister «considers it expedient to add a substance to, or remove a substance from, or vary the First Schedule, he may by order make the requisite modifications», and he has used it twice since the consolidated text, by P.U. (A) 97 gazetted 2 April 2024 and P.U. (A) 416 gazetted 25 November 2025. An order takes effect on gazetting and there is no notice period. Customs may also treat an unlisted substance as a prohibited import under a separate order that was not read for this cell.
If prescribed / medical: Neither drug statute reaches alcohol, so neither supplies a prescription route for it and neither requires one. Ethanol is named in neither Act. A name search hits «Tribromoethanol» and the trichloroethanol entry, which are different substances, and those hits are what a careless sweep would report. Alcohol in Malaysia is a licensing, excise and religious-law question rather than a drug-statute one, and none of those instruments was read for this cell, so nothing is stated here about them. What this cell does not state is whether it is a registered product, an unregistered product or a prohibited import under the medicines and customs instruments, because none of those instruments was read for it.
Documentation: No documentation requirement arises under either drug statute, because neither reaches alcohol. There is no entry for a document to answer to. What a search for alcohol returns in the Poisons List is «Tribromoethanol» and the trichloroethanol entry, and a cell built on those hits would be describing the wrong substances. That is not the same as saying it may be brought in freely. Product registration with the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency and the customs prohibited imports orders are separate regimes, neither was read for this cell, and nothing is stated here about either. Carry any prescription and the original packaging as a matter of course, and expect the question at the border to be settled by those other regimes rather than by the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 or the Poisons Act 1952.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: both schedules in full, the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 First Schedule in all five Parts and the Poisons Act 1952 Poisons List and Third Schedule, with ethanol or ethyl alcohol found in neither as a controlled entry · sections 2, 11(1) and 45A of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 and sections 30(1) and 32(2) of the Poisons Act 1952 · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

Alcohol in Malaysia, full detail →

Amanita muscaria

Legal status: Amanita muscaria is named nowhere in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, and neither muscimol nor ibotenic acid appears in that Schedule or anywhere in the Poisons Act 1952. Unlike cannabis and the opium poppy, which the Dangerous Drugs Act names as plants in Parts I and II, this fungus and its two active compounds are simply absent. So on the text it is not a dangerous drug and section 39B does not reach it. That is a statement about the schedule as amended to 25 November 2025.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Amanita muscaria is in neither list, and neither muscimol nor ibotenic acid is named in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952. The Act names the two plant materials it controls, in Part I and Part II, and names no fungus at all. Section 39B is the only capital provision in Malaysian drug law, and section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», which section 2 defines as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule». A substance outside that Schedule cannot be trafficked within the meaning of section 39B however much of it there is, the section 37(da) presumption weights do not reach it, and neither do the section 39A enhanced penalties. It is not in the Third Schedule to the Poisons Act 1952 either, so the section 30 psychotropic offence does not reach it. Do not read that as permission. The Dangerous Drugs Act carries no analogue clause at all, measured across the whole Act, so a substance is in or out on the naming; but section 45A provides that where the Minister «considers it expedient to add a substance to, or remove a substance from, or vary the First Schedule, he may by order make the requisite modifications», and he has used it twice since the consolidated text, by P.U. (A) 97 gazetted 2 April 2024 and P.U. (A) 416 gazetted 25 November 2025. An order takes effect on gazetting and there is no notice period. Customs may also treat an unlisted substance as a prohibited import under a separate order that was not read for this cell.
If prescribed / medical: Neither drug statute reaches Amanita muscaria, so neither supplies a prescription route for it and neither requires one. Neither the fungus nor muscimol nor ibotenic acid appears in either Act. The Dangerous Drugs Act names plants when it means them, in Parts I and II and in its three extract entries, and this fungus and its two active compounds are simply absent from all of them. What this cell does not state is whether it is a registered product, an unregistered product or a prohibited import under the medicines and customs instruments, because none of those instruments was read for it.
Documentation: No documentation requirement arises under either drug statute, because neither reaches Amanita muscaria. There is no entry for a document to answer to, for the fungus or for muscimol or for ibotenic acid, and the Act names plants expressly when it means to reach them. That is not the same as saying it may be brought in freely. Product registration with the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency and the customs prohibited imports orders are separate regimes, neither was read for this cell, and nothing is stated here about either. Carry any prescription and the original packaging as a matter of course, and expect the question at the border to be settled by those other regimes rather than by the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 or the Poisons Act 1952.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: both schedules in full, the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 First Schedule in all five Parts and the Poisons Act 1952 Poisons List and Third Schedule, with Amanita muscaria, muscimol or ibotenic acid found in neither as a controlled entry · sections 2, 11(1) and 45A of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 and sections 30(1) and 32(2) of the Poisons Act 1952 · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

Amanita muscaria in Malaysia, full detail →

Amphetamine

Legal status: Amphetamine is named in Part III of the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 and is one of the fourteen substances the Act gives a trafficking presumption weight. It is a dangerous drug within section 2, which defines one as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule». The Poisons List prints the name column for the same substance, as the entry «Amphetamine (DD); its salts», the parenthesis being the marker that list uses for a dangerous drug, so the Poisons Act agrees with the First Schedule rather than adding to it.
Consequences if caught: Part III of the First Schedule names «Amphetamine» in one word, and it is one of only fourteen substances to which the Act gives a trafficking presumption weight of its own. Section 2 makes it a dangerous drug and section 39B(2) sets death or imprisonment for life for trafficking in it. The chain is short and it passes through no weight at any point. Section 2 defines a «dangerous drug» as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule», section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», whether on your own behalf or on behalf of any other person, and section 39B(2) sets the penalty. And the word «trafficking» is itself defined in section 2, far wider than selling: it «includes the doing of any of the following acts, that is to say, manufacturing, importing, exporting, keeping, concealing, buying, selling, giving, receiving, storing, administering, transporting, carrying, sending, delivering, procuring, supplying or distributing any dangerous drug otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act». Keeping, carrying and storing are on that list, so nothing commercial has to be shown. Section 37(da)(xii) sets the presumption at «50 grammes or more in weight of Amphetamine». Every one of the fourteen substances in that block is set at the same figure, «50 grammes or more», and subparagraph (xxv) adds «a total of 50 grammes or more in weight of any combination of the dangerous drugs listed in subparagraphs (xi) to (xxiv)», which is the fourteen-substance amphetamine-type block, so a mixed stimulant haul is added together rather than counted substance by substance. Section 37(da) closes with the words «otherwise than in accordance with the authority of this Act or any other written law, shall be presumed, until the contrary is proved, to be trafficking in the said drug», so it is a rebuttable presumption about proof and not a definition of the offence, and the words «until the contrary is proved» are what put the defendant to proof. Section 39B(2) itself turns on quantity at no point. Below trafficking there are two further tiers, and they are a separate list from the presumption weights. Section 39A(1)(n) applies where the subject matter is 5 grammes or more but less than 30 grammes of amphetamine, and sets «imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than two years but shall not exceed five years» with «whipping of not less than three strokes but not more than nine strokes». Section 39A(2)(n) applies where the offence is «not punishable with death» and the subject matter is 30 grammes or more, and sets «imprisonment for life or for a term which shall not be less than five years» with «whipping of not less than ten strokes». Death is available and it is no longer mandatory, and the change has a date. Section 39B(2) once read simply «on conviction with death». The Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017, Act A1558, in force 15 March 2018, opened a narrow gate out of that, a date carried forward from the earlier reading and not re-derived in this pass. The Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, came into operation on 4 July 2023, and section 54 of it is the whole of what it did to the Dangerous Drugs Act: it substituted «be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes» for fifteen strokes in subsection (2), and it deleted subsections (2A) and (2B), which were the mandatory death machinery. Section 39B(2) now reads, in full: «Any person who contravenes any of the provisions of subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence against this Act and shall be punished on conviction with death or imprisonment for life and shall, if he is not sentenced to death, be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes.» So the court chooses between death and imprisonment for life with no precondition, and at least twelve strokes follow any sentence that is not death. Act 846 is widely described as replacing life with a term of thirty to forty years. It did that in the Penal Code, the Firearms (Increased Penalties) Act 1971, the Arms Act 1960, the Kidnapping Act 1961, the Strategic Trade Act 2010 and the Criminal Procedure Code. It did not do it here: the words «imprisonment for life» in section 39B(2) are untouched and no definition of that phrase appears anywhere in the Dangerous Drugs Act, so no year figure is stated in this cell. Section 55 of Act 846 applies the amended section to anyone sentenced after it came into operation even where the offence was committed before. Below trafficking, the possession offence is section 12. Section 11(1) provides that «This Part applies to dangerous drugs listed in Parts III, IV and V of the First Schedule», which is what brings a Part III substance inside Part IV of the Act. Section 12(2) then prohibits having such a drug in your possession, custody or control «unless he is authorized to be in possession, custody or control of such drug or is deemed to be so authorized under this Act or the regulations made thereunder», and section 12(3) punishes a contravention with «a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Self-administration is section 15(1), at a fine not exceeding five thousand ringgit or imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, and section 38B(1) then requires supervision for not less than two and not more than three years after the sentence has been served. Three procedural consequences follow automatically. Section 41(1) removes a section 39B charge from the Sessions Court and the Magistrates' Court, so it is tried in the High Court, and section 41A(3) has it tried by a judge sitting alone. Section 41B(1) provides that bail «shall not be granted» where the offence is punishable with death, and also where it is punishable with imprisonment for more than five years. Section 38A, which lets a court deal with a drug dependant under eighteen under the Drug Dependants (Treatment and Rehabilitation) Act 1983 rather than punish him, is expressly unavailable for a section 39B offence. Section 39C separately escalates a repeat offender under the consumption and possession provisions to not less than five and not more than seven years with not more than three strokes. Part III's salt clause matters here more than for most entries, because amphetamine is dispensed and trafficked as a salt rather than as the free base. The Poisons List prints the name column for the same substance as «Amphetamine (DD); its salts», the marker meaning dangerous drug, which is the Poisons Act agreeing with the First Schedule rather than adding to it. The list can move under all of this. Section 45A is headed «Power of the Minister to vary First Schedule» and it operates either on a decision of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs or of the United Nations Organization altering the Schedules to the Single Convention, or simply where the Minister «considers it expedient to add a substance to, or remove a substance from, or vary the First Schedule, he may by order make the requisite modifications». An order takes effect on gazetting and there is no notice period. He has used it twice since the text read here, by P.U. (A) 97 gazetted 2 April 2024 and P.U. (A) 416 gazetted 25 November 2025, both carried forward from the earlier reading and neither re-read in this pass. The text read for this cell is the Attorney General's Chambers updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», and a later order is not ruled out.
If prescribed / medical: Amphetamine is a dangerous drug and it is also a medicine, so both things are true of it at once. Every prohibition in the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, and the definition of trafficking in section 2, is qualified by the words «otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act», so the question for a medicine is never whether the substance is scheduled but whether the handling sits inside that authority. It is named in Part III of the First Schedule as «Amphetamine». Section 11(1) provides that «This Part applies to dangerous drugs listed in Parts III, IV and V of the First Schedule», which is what brings it inside Part IV of the Act, where section 16(1) empowers the Minister to make regulations «controlling the manufacture, sale, possession, and distribution of such drugs». Amphetamine is one of the substances the Act gives a trafficking presumption weight, so the proof consequences of holding it without authority are heavier than for most of the Schedule. Its Poisons List entry reads «All preparations» and not the registered-products wording, so no registered Malaysian product is evidenced by either Act.
Documentation: Carry the prescription and the dispensing label with the medicine, in its original packaging, and declare it on arrival. The entry the label has to answer to is «Amphetamine» at Part III of the First Schedule, and a dispensing label naming a different member of that Part is not the same thing. Amphetamine is one of the substances carrying a section 37(da) presumption weight, so the quantity on the label matters as well as the name. Section 25 of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 is the only personal traveller provision the Act contains, and its reach is narrower than it looks. It sits in Part V, which is the external trade Part, and it opens by providing that nothing in that Part applies to a quantity of a dangerous drug in the form of a medicinal preparation in the «possession of any person arriving in Malaysia by land, air or water from any place outside Malaysia as is reasonably required for the use of such person and which has been supplied to such person bona fide by or on the prescription of a medical practitioner residing outside Malaysia in accordance with the law of the country in which such drug was so supplied». Because the words are nothing in this Part, it answers the import control and it does not touch the possession and trafficking provisions that sit in Part IV of the Act. It is also conditional: the person «shall, as soon as possible on arrival, declare his possession of such dangerous drug to an officer having authority under this Act to search such person and shall submit to such medical examination as may be required of him». Getting the paperwork wrong is not a paperwork penalty. Section 37(d) provides that «any person who is found to have had in his custody or under his control anything whatsoever containing any dangerous drug shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have been in possession of such drug and shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have known the nature of such drug», and section 37(da) can then presume trafficking from the weight of the material alone. Neither Act fixes a number of days or a number of tablets for a dangerous drug, and this cell does not invent one. The entry the document has to answer to, in the First Schedule itself, is «Amphetamine» at Part III. If the document does not answer the entry, the charge is section 12(2) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, possession of a dangerous drug without authority, and section 12(3) sets «a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Section 12(4) adds whipping of not more than three strokes where the person convicted is a public officer employed at a prison, rehabilitation centre, police lock-up or place of detention.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 in all five Parts, the entry found at Part III of the First Schedule as «Amphetamine» · sections 2, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 11(1), 16, 25, 37(d), 37(da), 39A, 39B and 45A of that Act · the Poisons Act 1952 Poisons List, whose printed name column for this substance is reproduced in full in this cell's status field · the Poisons Act 1952 Third Schedule read in full · the entry is a named one and it also appears in the section 37(da) and section 39A weight lists, which were read for it · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

Amphetamine in Malaysia, full detail →

Amyl Nitrite

Legal status: Amyl nitrite is a poison under the Poisons Act 1952, listed in the Poisons List by name and among the vasodilators, with «All preparations» against it. It is NOT in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 and it is not a Third Schedule psychotropic substance, so section 39B and the death penalty cannot reach it. No other alkyl nitrite is named in either Act.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Amyl nitrite is not in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, and no alkyl nitrite of any kind is named in any of its five Parts. Section 39B is the only capital provision in Malaysian drug law, and section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», which section 2 defines as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule». A substance outside that Schedule cannot be trafficked within the meaning of section 39B however much of it there is, the section 37(da) presumption weights do not reach it, and neither do the section 39A enhanced penalties. What applies instead is section 30 of the Poisons Act 1952, which provides at subsection (3) that «no person shall import, export, manufacture, compound, mix, dispense, sell, supply, administer, possess or use any psychotropic substance otherwise than in accordance with any regulations applicable thereto», and at subsection (5) that a contravention is punishable «to a fine not exceeding ten thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding four years or both». Section 30(4) carries a possession presumption of its own: a person found with the substance in his custody or control «shall be deemed to have been in possession of the substance and to have known the nature of the substance, until he proves to the contrary». Four years and ten thousand ringgit against death. That is the single largest cliff in Malaysian drug law and it turns entirely on which of two schedules a substance sits in. And the ground can move under it: section 45A of the Dangerous Drugs Act lets the Minister add a substance to the First Schedule by order, and section 30(2) of the Poisons Act lets him amend the Third Schedule the same way.
If prescribed / medical: Amyl nitrite is a poison under the Poisons Act 1952 but it is not a psychotropic substance under it, and that distinction decides which sections apply. Section 30(1) provides that «In this section, “psychotropic substance” means any of the substances specified in the Third Schedule». Because amyl nitrite is absent from that Schedule, section 30 and the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 do not reach it at all. What reaches it is the Poisons List, where it appears as «Amyl nitrite», together with the supply provisions in sections 19 to 25. Section 19(1) carries the prescribing route: «a registered medical practitioner may sell, supply or administer such poison to his patient for the purposes of the medical treatment of such patient only», with equivalent provision for a registered dentist Division I and a veterinary officer, and the Group the poison is placed in governs who else may sell or supply it under sections 20 to 23. It is absent from the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, so nothing in that Act applies to it. No other alkyl nitrite is named in either Act, so butyl, isobutyl and isopropyl nitrite are outside both.
Documentation: Carry the prescription and the dispensing label with the medicine, in its original packaging. That is ordinary prudence rather than a requirement the Poisons Act places on a traveller, because the Act controls who may sell and supply a poison rather than who may hold one. The entry a border officer would be reading is «Amyl nitrite» in the Poisons List. There is no Third Schedule entry for amyl nitrite to be read instead, and that absence is the whole reason the lighter sections apply. The exposure is lighter than for a psychotropic substance and it arises from different sections. Holding an ordinary poison is not prohibited as such: the provision that does prohibit possessing, section 30(3), is confined by section 30(1) to Third Schedule substances. What does touch possession is section 9(1), which provides that no person, whether licensed under the Act or not, shall «knowingly sell, supply, keep or have in his possession or under his control or store any poison otherwise than in accordance with the regulations made under this Act and in force relating to the possession, containers, packaging, labelling or storing of such poison», and section 9(2) deems that to have been done knowingly once possession is proved. So the offence is possessing a poison otherwise than in accordance with those regulations, and not possessing it at all. The regulations section 9(1) refers to were not located in this session and nothing is stated here about what they require. Section 13 separately covers possessing a poison for sale. An offence against the Act for which no other penalty is provided is punishable under section 32(2) by «a fine not exceeding three thousand ringgit or by imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year or both», rising to five thousand ringgit or two years where the court finds wilful default or culpable negligence that endangered or was likely to endanger human life. The Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989, including the one month personal import allowance in regulation 4(2)(a), do not apply to amyl nitrite, because they apply to Third Schedule psychotropic substances and it is not one.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: the Poisons Act 1952 Poisons List, the entry found as «Amyl nitrite» · sections 9(1), 9(2), 13, 19 to 25, 30(1) and 32(2) of that Act · the Third Schedule read in full, and amyl nitrite not found in it, so section 30 and the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 do not apply · and the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 read in all five Parts, and amyl nitrite not found in any of them · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

Amyl Nitrite in Malaysia, full detail →

Ayahuasca

Legal status: Ayahuasca has no entry of its own and neither Banisteriopsis caapi nor Psychotria viridis is named anywhere in either Act. What is named is its active compound: «DMT, N. N-dimethyltryptamine» is in Part III of the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, so a brew containing DMT contains a dangerous drug. The Dangerous Drugs Act names plants when it means them, in Parts I and II for cannabis and the opium poppy and at Part III for «Extract or tincture of cannabis», «Extract or tincture of coca leaves» and «Extract or tincture of opium». There is no equivalent entry for a DMT-bearing plant, so the analysis runs through the DMT the preparation contains rather than through the plants.
Consequences if caught: Section 39B(2) reaches an ayahuasca brew through what is dissolved in it. Neither Banisteriopsis caapi nor Psychotria viridis is named anywhere in either Act, but «DMT, N. N-dimethyltryptamine» is named in Part III of the First Schedule, so a brew containing dimethyltryptamine contains a dangerous drug and trafficking in it carries death or imprisonment for life. The chain is short and it passes through no weight at any point. Section 2 defines a «dangerous drug» as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule», section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», whether on your own behalf or on behalf of any other person, and section 39B(2) sets the penalty. And the word «trafficking» is itself defined in section 2, far wider than selling: it «includes the doing of any of the following acts, that is to say, manufacturing, importing, exporting, keeping, concealing, buying, selling, giving, receiving, storing, administering, transporting, carrying, sending, delivering, procuring, supplying or distributing any dangerous drug otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act». Keeping, carrying and storing are on that list, so nothing commercial has to be shown. There is no section 37(da) presumption weight for DMT, and none for a preparation containing it. A liquid would in any event be weighed as a liquid, and the Act nowhere provides for assaying an active fraction out of a preparation. So there is no presumption to rebut and no threshold to stay under, and section 39B(2) applies in the same terms as it would to a weighed substance. The other presumption is still there. Section 37(d) provides that any person found to have had in his custody or under his control anything whatsoever containing a dangerous drug «shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have been in possession of such drug and shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have known the nature of such drug». The words «until the contrary is proved» put the defendant to proof on both limbs, on the possession and on the knowledge. Death is available and it is no longer mandatory, and the change has a date. Section 39B(2) once read simply «on conviction with death». The Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017, Act A1558, in force 15 March 2018, opened a narrow gate out of that, a date carried forward from the earlier reading and not re-derived in this pass. The Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, came into operation on 4 July 2023, and section 54 of it is the whole of what it did to the Dangerous Drugs Act: it substituted «be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes» for fifteen strokes in subsection (2), and it deleted subsections (2A) and (2B), which were the mandatory death machinery. Section 39B(2) now reads, in full: «Any person who contravenes any of the provisions of subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence against this Act and shall be punished on conviction with death or imprisonment for life and shall, if he is not sentenced to death, be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes.» So the court chooses between death and imprisonment for life with no precondition, and at least twelve strokes follow any sentence that is not death. Act 846 is widely described as replacing life with a term of thirty to forty years. It did that in the Penal Code, the Firearms (Increased Penalties) Act 1971, the Arms Act 1960, the Kidnapping Act 1961, the Strategic Trade Act 2010 and the Criminal Procedure Code. It did not do it here: the words «imprisonment for life» in section 39B(2) are untouched and no definition of that phrase appears anywhere in the Dangerous Drugs Act, so no year figure is stated in this cell. Section 55 of Act 846 applies the amended section to anyone sentenced after it came into operation even where the offence was committed before. Below trafficking, the possession offence is section 12. Section 11(1) provides that «This Part applies to dangerous drugs listed in Parts III, IV and V of the First Schedule», which is what brings a Part III substance inside Part IV of the Act. Section 12(2) then prohibits having such a drug in your possession, custody or control «unless he is authorized to be in possession, custody or control of such drug or is deemed to be so authorized under this Act or the regulations made thereunder», and section 12(3) punishes a contravention with «a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Self-administration is section 15(1), at a fine not exceeding five thousand ringgit or imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, and section 38B(1) then requires supervision for not less than two and not more than three years after the sentence has been served. Three procedural consequences follow automatically. Section 41(1) removes a section 39B charge from the Sessions Court and the Magistrates' Court, so it is tried in the High Court, and section 41A(3) has it tried by a judge sitting alone. Section 41B(1) provides that bail «shall not be granted» where the offence is punishable with death, and also where it is punishable with imprisonment for more than five years. Section 38A, which lets a court deal with a drug dependant under eighteen under the Drug Dependants (Treatment and Rehabilitation) Act 1983 rather than punish him, is expressly unavailable for a section 39B offence. Section 39C separately escalates a repeat offender under the consumption and possession provisions to not less than five and not more than seven years with not more than three strokes. The plant question is worth stating exactly, because the Act draws the distinction itself. It names plants when it means them, in Parts I and II and at «Extract or tincture of cannabis», «Extract or tincture of coca leaves» and «Extract or tincture of opium» in Part III. There is no equivalent entry for a dimethyltryptamine-bearing plant, so the analysis runs through the compound and not through the vine or the leaf. Religious or ceremonial use is provided for nowhere in the Act. The list can move under all of this. Section 45A is headed «Power of the Minister to vary First Schedule» and it operates either on a decision of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs or of the United Nations Organization altering the Schedules to the Single Convention, or simply where the Minister «considers it expedient to add a substance to, or remove a substance from, or vary the First Schedule, he may by order make the requisite modifications». An order takes effect on gazetting and there is no notice period. He has used it twice since the text read here, by P.U. (A) 97 gazetted 2 April 2024 and P.U. (A) 416 gazetted 25 November 2025, both carried forward from the earlier reading and neither re-read in this pass. The text read for this cell is the Attorney General's Chambers updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», and a later order is not ruled out.
If prescribed / medical: There is no prescription route for ayahuasca in Malaysia, and this cell states that rather than leaving a reader to infer it. Every prohibition in the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, and the definition of trafficking in section 2, is qualified by the words «otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act», so a lawful holding is one that sits inside an authority granted under the Act. The authority the Act contemplates is a licence or a regulation made under it, and here there is nothing for one to attach to. It is reached at Part III of the First Schedule: the brew contains DMT, which is named there, while neither Banisteriopsis caapi nor Psychotria viridis is named anywhere in either Act. Neither Act evidences a registered product containing it. The Act names plants when it means them, in Parts I and II and in the three extract entries of Part III, and it names no DMT-bearing plant, so there is nothing for a religious or a botanical authorisation to attach to.
Documentation: There is no document to carry, because there is no lawful holding for a document to evidence. This cell says so plainly rather than leave a traveller looking for paperwork that does not exist for ayahuasca. The entry that forecloses the question is «DMT, N. N-dimethyltryptamine», reached at Part III of the First Schedule. Section 25 of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, the traveller provision, turns on a medicinal preparation supplied by or on the prescription of a medical practitioner residing outside Malaysia, so it has nothing to attach to here. It is also confined to Part V of the Act, the external trade Part, and would not answer a possession charge even if it did apply. Getting the paperwork wrong is not a paperwork penalty. Section 37(d) provides that «any person who is found to have had in his custody or under his control anything whatsoever containing any dangerous drug shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have been in possession of such drug and shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have known the nature of such drug», and section 37(da) can then presume trafficking from the weight of the material alone. A foreign prescription, a licence issued in another country, and religious or traditional use are none of them provided for anywhere in the Act. The entry the document has to answer to, in the First Schedule itself, is «DMT, N. N-dimethyltryptamine» at Part III. If the document does not answer the entry, the charge is section 12(2) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, possession of a dangerous drug without authority, and section 12(3) sets «a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Section 12(4) adds whipping of not more than three strokes where the person convicted is a public officer employed at a prison, rehabilitation centre, police lock-up or place of detention.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 in all five Parts, the entry found at Part III of the First Schedule as «DMT, N. N-dimethyltryptamine» · sections 2, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 11(1), 16, 25, 37(d), 37(da), 39A, 39B and 45A of that Act · the Poisons Act 1952 Poisons List and Third Schedule both read · the Poisons Act 1952 Third Schedule read in full · the route in is the DMT the brew contains and not any entry for a plant · Banisteriopsis caapi and Psychotria viridis were searched for in both Acts and found in neither · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

Ayahuasca in Malaysia, full detail →

Barbiturates

Legal status: The barbiturates are controlled as a class under the Poisons Act 1952 and not under the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952. The Poisons List carries «Barbituric acid and other substances structurally derived therefrom; their compounds; their salts», and the Third Schedule repeats the same class formula among the psychotropic substances. Structural derivation from barbituric acid is a fact of chemistry rather than a resemblance judgment, so the class formula is doing objective work. No barbiturate is named in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952. The Third Schedule formula in full, as printed, is «Barbituric acid and other substances structurally derived therefrom; their compounds».
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. No barbiturate is in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952. The five Parts of that Schedule name no barbiturate individually and carry no class formula at all, since their only generic clauses are the isomer, ester, ether and salt clauses attached to substances already named. Section 39B is the only capital provision in Malaysian drug law, and section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», which section 2 defines as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule». A substance outside that Schedule cannot be trafficked within the meaning of section 39B however much of it there is, the section 37(da) presumption weights do not reach it, and neither do the section 39A enhanced penalties. What applies instead is section 30 of the Poisons Act 1952, which provides at subsection (3) that «no person shall import, export, manufacture, compound, mix, dispense, sell, supply, administer, possess or use any psychotropic substance otherwise than in accordance with any regulations applicable thereto», and at subsection (5) that a contravention is punishable «to a fine not exceeding ten thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding four years or both». Section 30(4) carries a possession presumption of its own: a person found with the substance in his custody or control «shall be deemed to have been in possession of the substance and to have known the nature of the substance, until he proves to the contrary». Four years and ten thousand ringgit against death. That is the single largest cliff in Malaysian drug law and it turns entirely on which of two schedules a substance sits in. And the ground can move under it: section 45A of the Dangerous Drugs Act lets the Minister add a substance to the First Schedule by order, and section 30(2) of the Poisons Act lets him amend the Third Schedule the same way.
If prescribed / medical: This is a prescription-supply question and not a trafficking one. The barbiturates is a psychotropic substance under the Poisons Act 1952, reached by class, structural derivation from barbituric acid being a matter of chemistry rather than of resemblance, appearing in the Third Schedule as «Barbituric acid and other substances structurally derived therefrom; their compounds» and in the Poisons List as «Barbituric acid and other substances structurally derived therefrom; their compounds; their salts». Section 30(1) provides that «In this section, “psychotropic substance” means any of the substances specified in the Third Schedule», and section 30(3) then prohibits importing, exporting, manufacturing, compounding, mixing, dispensing, selling, supplying, administering, possessing or using such a substance «otherwise than in accordance with any regulations applicable thereto made under this Act». Those regulations are the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989, and regulation 3 is the one a patient stands on: possession is prohibited unless «he is authorised to be in possession of such psychotropic substance under these Regulations» and the substance is for a lawful purpose and obtained under them. Regulation 3(2)(l) places a person lawfully supplied «in accordance with a prescription lawfully given by a registered medical practitioner, registered dentist Division I of a veterinary surgeon» inside that authority, the wording of that paragraph being the publisher's. Secobarbital is additionally named in the Second Schedule to the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989, so an individual barbiturate may carry the regulation 9 export-authorisation requirement that the class entry does not.
Documentation: Carry the prescription and the dispensing label with the medicine, in its original packaging. The entry the prescription has to answer to is «Barbituric acid and other substances structurally derived therefrom; their compounds» in the Third Schedule, with «Barbituric acid and other substances structurally derived therefrom; their compounds; their salts» in the Poisons List beside it. Regulation 4(2)(a) of the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 is the traveller provision and it fixes a figure the Dangerous Drugs Act never does: a person arriving in or leaving Malaysia who carries, as part of personal luggage and solely for personal or family use, a prepared or packaged medicine containing a psychotropic substance is outside the import authorisation requirement, provided the quantity is «not exceeding such quantities as may be reasonably required for one month's use by one person» and it has been lawfully supplied by or on the prescription of a qualified medical practitioner. This substance carries an extra requirement that most do not. It is named in the Second Schedule to those Regulations, and regulation 9 provides that a psychotropic substance in that Schedule imported into Malaysia, or brought in transit from a country party to the 1971 Convention, «shall be accompanied by a valid and subsisting export authorisation duly issued by the competent authority of the country from which it is exported», to be produced on demand to a Drug Enforcement Officer, a police officer not below the rank of Inspector or a senior officer of Customs. Section 30(4) presumes possession and knowledge from custody or control: a person found with the substance «shall be deemed to have been in possession of the substance and to have known the nature of the substance, until he proves to the contrary». The prescription is what rebuts it. The penalty under section 30(5) is «a fine not exceeding ten thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding four years or both». The control is the Poisons Act 1952 and its regulations rather than the Dangerous Drugs Act, so the trafficking regime and its presumptions are not in play for the barbiturates.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: the Poisons Act 1952 Third Schedule, the entry whose printed class formula is reproduced in full in this cell's status field, reached by class, structural derivation from barbituric acid being a matter of chemistry rather than of resemblance · the Poisons List, whose printed class formula for the same class is reproduced in full in this cell's status field · sections 30(1) to 30(5) and 32(2) of that Act · the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 incorporating P.U. (A) 405/2018, regulations 3, 4 and 9 and the Second Schedule to those Regulations, in which this substance is named · and the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 read in all five Parts, and barbituric acid or any barbiturate not found in any of them · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

Barbiturates in Malaysia, full detail →

Benzodiazepines

Legal status: Controlled under both the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 and the Poisons Act 1952, depending on the member. That split is the difference between a four year maximum and the death penalty. TWO of them are dangerous drugs: «Flunitrazepam» and «Nimetazepam» are both named in Part III of the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, and the Poisons List marks each of them «(DD)». Every other benzodiazepine is caught only by the Poisons Act 1952, through the Poisons List formula «Diazepam and other substances structurally derived from 1, 4-benzodiazepine; their salts, unless specified elsewhere» and the matching Third Schedule entry. Etizolam, a thienodiazepine, is named separately in the Third Schedule. So a single answer for the family is wrong in both directions.
Consequences if caught: Section 39B(2) reaches two benzodiazepines and no others. «Flunitrazepam» and «Nimetazepam» are named in Part III of the First Schedule, so for those two the sentence on a trafficking conviction is death or imprisonment for life. For every other member of the family this cell asserts no capital exposure at all, because none of them is in that Schedule, and a class answer here would be wrong in both directions. The chain is short and it passes through no weight at any point. Section 2 defines a «dangerous drug» as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule», section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», whether on your own behalf or on behalf of any other person, and section 39B(2) sets the penalty. And the word «trafficking» is itself defined in section 2, far wider than selling: it «includes the doing of any of the following acts, that is to say, manufacturing, importing, exporting, keeping, concealing, buying, selling, giving, receiving, storing, administering, transporting, carrying, sending, delivering, procuring, supplying or distributing any dangerous drug otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act». Keeping, carrying and storing are on that list, so nothing commercial has to be shown. Neither of the two carries a section 37(da) presumption weight. So there is no presumption to rebut and no threshold to stay under, and section 39B(2) applies in the same terms as it would to a weighed substance. The other presumption is still there. Section 37(d) provides that any person found to have had in his custody or under his control anything whatsoever containing a dangerous drug «shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have been in possession of such drug and shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have known the nature of such drug». The words «until the contrary is proved» put the defendant to proof on both limbs, on the possession and on the knowledge. Death is available and it is no longer mandatory, and the change has a date. Section 39B(2) once read simply «on conviction with death». The Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017, Act A1558, in force 15 March 2018, opened a narrow gate out of that, a date carried forward from the earlier reading and not re-derived in this pass. The Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, came into operation on 4 July 2023, and section 54 of it is the whole of what it did to the Dangerous Drugs Act: it substituted «be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes» for fifteen strokes in subsection (2), and it deleted subsections (2A) and (2B), which were the mandatory death machinery. Section 39B(2) now reads, in full: «Any person who contravenes any of the provisions of subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence against this Act and shall be punished on conviction with death or imprisonment for life and shall, if he is not sentenced to death, be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes.» So the court chooses between death and imprisonment for life with no precondition, and at least twelve strokes follow any sentence that is not death. Act 846 is widely described as replacing life with a term of thirty to forty years. It did that in the Penal Code, the Firearms (Increased Penalties) Act 1971, the Arms Act 1960, the Kidnapping Act 1961, the Strategic Trade Act 2010 and the Criminal Procedure Code. It did not do it here: the words «imprisonment for life» in section 39B(2) are untouched and no definition of that phrase appears anywhere in the Dangerous Drugs Act, so no year figure is stated in this cell. Section 55 of Act 846 applies the amended section to anyone sentenced after it came into operation even where the offence was committed before. Below trafficking, the possession offence is section 12. Section 11(1) provides that «This Part applies to dangerous drugs listed in Parts III, IV and V of the First Schedule», which is what brings a Part III substance inside Part IV of the Act. Section 12(2) then prohibits having such a drug in your possession, custody or control «unless he is authorized to be in possession, custody or control of such drug or is deemed to be so authorized under this Act or the regulations made thereunder», and section 12(3) punishes a contravention with «a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Self-administration is section 15(1), at a fine not exceeding five thousand ringgit or imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, and section 38B(1) then requires supervision for not less than two and not more than three years after the sentence has been served. Three procedural consequences follow automatically. Section 41(1) removes a section 39B charge from the Sessions Court and the Magistrates' Court, so it is tried in the High Court, and section 41A(3) has it tried by a judge sitting alone. Section 41B(1) provides that bail «shall not be granted» where the offence is punishable with death, and also where it is punishable with imprisonment for more than five years. Section 38A, which lets a court deal with a drug dependant under eighteen under the Drug Dependants (Treatment and Rehabilitation) Act 1983 rather than punish him, is expressly unavailable for a section 39B offence. Section 39C separately escalates a repeat offender under the consumption and possession provisions to not less than five and not more than seven years with not more than three strokes. Where the rest of the family sits is a Poisons Act question and the finding is carried forward from the earlier reading of that Act rather than re-derived here: the Poisons List catches them by the class formula anchored on diazepam, and etizolam, a thienodiazepine rather than a 1,4-benzodiazepine, is named separately. A prescription written abroad for one of the two named substances and a prescription written for any of the others are therefore not the same document in Malaysia, and the difference is the whole distance between a fine and section 39B. The list can move under all of this. Section 45A is headed «Power of the Minister to vary First Schedule» and it operates either on a decision of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs or of the United Nations Organization altering the Schedules to the Single Convention, or simply where the Minister «considers it expedient to add a substance to, or remove a substance from, or vary the First Schedule, he may by order make the requisite modifications». An order takes effect on gazetting and there is no notice period. He has used it twice since the text read here, by P.U. (A) 97 gazetted 2 April 2024 and P.U. (A) 416 gazetted 25 November 2025, both carried forward from the earlier reading and neither re-read in this pass. The text read for this cell is the Attorney General's Chambers updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», and a later order is not ruled out.
If prescribed / medical: The prescription answer for the benzodiazepines is two answers, and a single one would be wrong whichever way it went. Two of them are dangerous drugs and the rest are not. «Flunitrazepam» and «Nimetazepam» are named in Part III of the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952. Every other benzodiazepine is reached only by the Poisons Act 1952, through the Third Schedule entry «Diazepam and other subtances structurally derivated from 1,4-benzodiazepine except flumazenil and pirenzepine» and the matching Poisons List entry «Diazepam and other substances structurally derived from 1, 4-benzodiazepine; their salts, unless specified elsewhere». Etizolam, a thienodiazepine rather than a 1,4-benzodiazepine, is named separately in the Third Schedule. For flunitrazepam and nimetazepam the Dangerous Drugs Act governs. Every prohibition in the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, and the definition of trafficking in section 2, is qualified by the words «otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act», so a lawful holding is one that sits inside an authority granted under the Act. A supply dispensed inside that authority is outside the offence. For every other benzodiazepine the Poisons Act governs. Section 30(3) prohibits possessing a psychotropic substance «otherwise than in accordance with any regulations applicable thereto made under this Act». Those regulations are the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989, and regulation 3 is the one a patient stands on: possession is prohibited unless «he is authorised to be in possession of such psychotropic substance under these Regulations» and the substance is for a lawful purpose and obtained under them. Regulation 3(2)(l) places a person lawfully supplied «in accordance with a prescription lawfully given by a registered medical practitioner, registered dentist Division I of a veterinary surgeon» inside that authority, the wording of that paragraph being the publisher's.
Documentation: Carry the prescription and the dispensing label with the medicine, in its original packaging, and know which benzodiazepine it is, because the answer differs between them. The entry decides it: «Flunitrazepam» and «Nimetazepam» in Part III of the First Schedule on one side, and «Diazepam and other subtances structurally derivated from 1,4-benzodiazepine except flumazenil and pirenzepine» in the Third Schedule on the other. For flunitrazepam and nimetazepam the Dangerous Drugs Act applies. Section 25 of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 is the only personal traveller provision the Act contains, and its reach is narrower than it looks. It sits in Part V, which is the external trade Part, and it opens by providing that nothing in that Part applies to a quantity of a dangerous drug in the form of a medicinal preparation in the «possession of any person arriving in Malaysia by land, air or water from any place outside Malaysia as is reasonably required for the use of such person and which has been supplied to such person bona fide by or on the prescription of a medical practitioner residing outside Malaysia in accordance with the law of the country in which such drug was so supplied». Because the words are nothing in this Part, it answers the import control and it does not touch the possession and trafficking provisions that sit in Part IV of the Act. It is also conditional: the person «shall, as soon as possible on arrival, declare his possession of such dangerous drug to an officer having authority under this Act to search such person and shall submit to such medical examination as may be required of him». Getting the paperwork wrong is not a paperwork penalty. Section 37(d) provides that «any person who is found to have had in his custody or under his control anything whatsoever containing any dangerous drug shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have been in possession of such drug and shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have known the nature of such drug», and section 37(da) can then presume trafficking from the weight of the material alone. For every other benzodiazepine the Poisons Act applies. Regulation 4(2)(a) of the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 is the traveller provision and it fixes a figure the Dangerous Drugs Act never does: a person arriving in or leaving Malaysia who carries, as part of personal luggage and solely for personal or family use, a prepared or packaged medicine containing a psychotropic substance is outside the import authorisation requirement, provided the quantity is «not exceeding such quantities as may be reasonably required for one month's use by one person» and it has been lawfully supplied by or on the prescription of a qualified medical practitioner. Section 30(4) presumes possession and knowledge from custody or control: a person found with the substance «shall be deemed to have been in possession of the substance and to have known the nature of the substance, until he proves to the contrary». The prescription is what rebuts it. The penalty under section 30(5) is «a fine not exceeding ten thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding four years or both». A traveller who cannot name the molecule cannot tell which of those two paragraphs governs. The entry the document has to answer to, in the First Schedule itself, is «Nimetazepam» at Part III, «Flunitrazepam» at Part III. If the document does not answer the entry, the charge is section 12(2) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, possession of a dangerous drug without authority, and section 12(3) sets «a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Section 12(4) adds whipping of not more than three strokes where the person convicted is a public officer employed at a prison, rehabilitation centre, police lock-up or place of detention.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 First Schedule in all five Parts, which names «Flunitrazepam» and «Nimetazepam» in Part III and no other benzodiazepine · the Poisons Act 1952 Third Schedule and Poisons List, which carry the 1,4-benzodiazepine class formula and name etizolam separately · sections 2, 11(1), 25, 37 and 45A of the first Act and sections 30(1) to 30(5) of the second · and the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 incorporating P.U. (A) 405/2018 · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated October 8, 2026

Benzodiazepines in Malaysia, full detail →

Buprenorphine

Legal status: Buprenorphine is a psychotropic substance under the Poisons Act 1952, named in the Third Schedule and in the Poisons List as «Buprenorphine; its salts». It is NOT in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952. That is the whole answer on the point that matters: section 39B reaches only a dangerous drug, and buprenorphine is not one, so the death penalty is not available for any buprenorphine offence. Methadone, by contrast, is in Part III of the Dangerous Drugs Act schedule, so the two substitution medicines sit under different statutes with different ceilings.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Buprenorphine is not in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952. «Methadone» is, in Part III, so the two substitution medicines sit under different statutes and only one of them can reach section 39B. Section 39B is the only capital provision in Malaysian drug law, and section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», which section 2 defines as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule». A substance outside that Schedule cannot be trafficked within the meaning of section 39B however much of it there is, the section 37(da) presumption weights do not reach it, and neither do the section 39A enhanced penalties. What applies instead is section 30 of the Poisons Act 1952, which provides at subsection (3) that «no person shall import, export, manufacture, compound, mix, dispense, sell, supply, administer, possess or use any psychotropic substance otherwise than in accordance with any regulations applicable thereto», and at subsection (5) that a contravention is punishable «to a fine not exceeding ten thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding four years or both». Section 30(4) carries a possession presumption of its own: a person found with the substance in his custody or control «shall be deemed to have been in possession of the substance and to have known the nature of the substance, until he proves to the contrary». Four years and ten thousand ringgit against death. That is the single largest cliff in Malaysian drug law and it turns entirely on which of two schedules a substance sits in. And the ground can move under it: section 45A of the Dangerous Drugs Act lets the Minister add a substance to the First Schedule by order, and section 30(2) of the Poisons Act lets him amend the Third Schedule the same way.
If prescribed / medical: This is a prescription-supply question and not a trafficking one. Buprenorphine is a psychotropic substance under the Poisons Act 1952, named in terms, appearing in the Third Schedule as «Buprenorphine» and in the Poisons List as «Buprenorphine; its salts». Section 30(1) provides that «In this section, “psychotropic substance” means any of the substances specified in the Third Schedule», and section 30(3) then prohibits importing, exporting, manufacturing, compounding, mixing, dispensing, selling, supplying, administering, possessing or using such a substance «otherwise than in accordance with any regulations applicable thereto made under this Act». Those regulations are the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989, and regulation 3 is the one a patient stands on: possession is prohibited unless «he is authorised to be in possession of such psychotropic substance under these Regulations» and the substance is for a lawful purpose and obtained under them. Regulation 3(2)(l) places a person lawfully supplied «in accordance with a prescription lawfully given by a registered medical practitioner, registered dentist Division I of a veterinary surgeon» inside that authority, the wording of that paragraph being the publisher's. Regulation 12A of the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 deals expressly with the sale and supply of buprenorphine and methadone to a registered medical practitioner. Methadone is a dangerous drug and buprenorphine is not, so the two substitution medicines are authorised under different statutes.
Documentation: Carry the prescription and the dispensing label with the medicine, in its original packaging. The entry the prescription has to answer to is «Buprenorphine» in the Third Schedule, with «Buprenorphine; its salts» in the Poisons List beside it. Regulation 4(2)(a) of the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 is the traveller provision and it fixes a figure the Dangerous Drugs Act never does: a person arriving in or leaving Malaysia who carries, as part of personal luggage and solely for personal or family use, a prepared or packaged medicine containing a psychotropic substance is outside the import authorisation requirement, provided the quantity is «not exceeding such quantities as may be reasonably required for one month's use by one person» and it has been lawfully supplied by or on the prescription of a qualified medical practitioner. Section 30(4) presumes possession and knowledge from custody or control: a person found with the substance «shall be deemed to have been in possession of the substance and to have known the nature of the substance, until he proves to the contrary». The prescription is what rebuts it. The penalty under section 30(5) is «a fine not exceeding ten thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding four years or both». The control is the Poisons Act 1952 and its regulations rather than the Dangerous Drugs Act, so the trafficking regime and its presumptions are not in play for buprenorphine.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: the Poisons Act 1952 Third Schedule, the entry found as «Buprenorphine», named in terms · the Poisons List, whose printed name column for this substance is reproduced in full in this cell's status field · sections 30(1) to 30(5) and 32(2) of that Act · the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 incorporating P.U. (A) 405/2018, regulations 3, 4 and 9 and the Second Schedule to those Regulations, in which this substance is not named · and the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 read in all five Parts, and buprenorphine not found in any of them · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

Buprenorphine in Malaysia, full detail →

Caffeine

Legal status: Caffeine is a poison under the Poisons Act 1952, listed in the Poisons List with «All preparations» against it and an express exemption for caffeine in unlimited quantities in certain forms. It is not in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 and it is not a Third Schedule psychotropic substance. The Poisons Act listing is a medicines-supply control, not a prohibition on drinking coffee: it governs who may import, compound, sell and supply it.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Caffeine is not in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952. It is named in none of the five Parts, and no stimulant of the xanthine class appears anywhere in that Act. It is worth saying plainly because caffeine is a common cutting agent, and cutting a listed stimulant with it does not make the caffeine a dangerous drug, although it does add to the weight of the mixture that is measured against that stimulant's own figure. Section 39B is the only capital provision in Malaysian drug law, and section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», which section 2 defines as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule». A substance outside that Schedule cannot be trafficked within the meaning of section 39B however much of it there is, the section 37(da) presumption weights do not reach it, and neither do the section 39A enhanced penalties. What applies instead is section 30 of the Poisons Act 1952, which provides at subsection (3) that «no person shall import, export, manufacture, compound, mix, dispense, sell, supply, administer, possess or use any psychotropic substance otherwise than in accordance with any regulations applicable thereto», and at subsection (5) that a contravention is punishable «to a fine not exceeding ten thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding four years or both». Section 30(4) carries a possession presumption of its own: a person found with the substance in his custody or control «shall be deemed to have been in possession of the substance and to have known the nature of the substance, until he proves to the contrary». Four years and ten thousand ringgit against death. That is the single largest cliff in Malaysian drug law and it turns entirely on which of two schedules a substance sits in. And the ground can move under it: section 45A of the Dangerous Drugs Act lets the Minister add a substance to the First Schedule by order, and section 30(2) of the Poisons Act lets him amend the Third Schedule the same way.
If prescribed / medical: Caffeine is a poison under the Poisons Act 1952 but it is not a psychotropic substance under it, and that distinction decides which sections apply. Section 30(1) provides that «In this section, “psychotropic substance” means any of the substances specified in the Third Schedule». Because caffeine is absent from that Schedule, section 30 and the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 do not reach it at all. What reaches it is the Poisons List, where it appears as «Caffeine», together with the supply provisions in sections 19 to 25. Section 19(1) carries the prescribing route: «a registered medical practitioner may sell, supply or administer such poison to his patient for the purposes of the medical treatment of such patient only», with equivalent provision for a registered dentist Division I and a veterinary officer, and the Group the poison is placed in governs who else may sell or supply it under sections 20 to 23. It is absent from the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, so nothing in that Act applies to it. The Poisons List entry is a control on who may import, compound, sell and supply it and carries an express exemption for caffeine in unlimited quantities in certain forms. It is not a control on drinking coffee.
Documentation: Carry the prescription and the dispensing label with the medicine, in its original packaging. That is ordinary prudence rather than a requirement the Poisons Act places on a traveller, because the Act controls who may sell and supply a poison rather than who may hold one. The entry a border officer would be reading is «Caffeine» in the Poisons List. There is no Third Schedule entry for caffeine to be read instead, and that absence is the whole reason the lighter sections apply. The exposure is lighter than for a psychotropic substance and it arises from different sections. Holding an ordinary poison is not prohibited as such: the provision that does prohibit possessing, section 30(3), is confined by section 30(1) to Third Schedule substances. What does touch possession is section 9(1), which provides that no person, whether licensed under the Act or not, shall «knowingly sell, supply, keep or have in his possession or under his control or store any poison otherwise than in accordance with the regulations made under this Act and in force relating to the possession, containers, packaging, labelling or storing of such poison», and section 9(2) deems that to have been done knowingly once possession is proved. So the offence is possessing a poison otherwise than in accordance with those regulations, and not possessing it at all. The regulations section 9(1) refers to were not located in this session and nothing is stated here about what they require. Section 13 separately covers possessing a poison for sale. An offence against the Act for which no other penalty is provided is punishable under section 32(2) by «a fine not exceeding three thousand ringgit or by imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year or both», rising to five thousand ringgit or two years where the court finds wilful default or culpable negligence that endangered or was likely to endanger human life. The Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989, including the one month personal import allowance in regulation 4(2)(a), do not apply to caffeine, because they apply to Third Schedule psychotropic substances and it is not one.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: the Poisons Act 1952 Poisons List, the entry found as «Caffeine» · sections 9(1), 9(2), 13, 19 to 25, 30(1) and 32(2) of that Act · the Third Schedule read in full, and caffeine not found in it, so section 30 and the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 do not apply · and the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 read in all five Parts, and caffeine not found in any of them · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

Caffeine in Malaysia, full detail →

Cannabinol

Legal status: Cannabinol is not named in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, and it is not one of the cannabinoids that are. Part III names «delta-8-tetrahydrocannabinol», «delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol», their 8-beta-hydroxy and 11-hydroxy forms, «11-nor-delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol-9-carboxylic acid», «Parahexyl» and «Tetrahydrocannabinols» under a specific chemical designation. Cannabinol is the fully aromatic oxidation product of THC, and is neither a tetrahydrocannabinol nor an isomer, ester, ether or salt of one. It matters far more where the cannabinol is: in practice it is in cannabis, and «Cannabis» is named in Parts I and II and «Extract or tincture of cannabis» in Part III, so cannabinol inside plant material or an extract is caught by those entries and not by any entry of its own.
Consequences if caught: Section 39B(2) reaches cannabinol through the material it is in, not through an entry of its own. Cannabinol is not named in the First Schedule and it is not a tetrahydrocannabinol, but section 2 defines cannabis as «any part of any plant of the genus Cannabis from which there is found to be present resin irrespective of its quantity», so cannabinol inside plant material or inside an extract is caught by «Cannabis» in Parts I and II and by «Extract or tincture of cannabis» in Part III. The chain is short and it passes through no weight at any point. Section 2 defines a «dangerous drug» as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule», section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», whether on your own behalf or on behalf of any other person, and section 39B(2) sets the penalty. And the word «trafficking» is itself defined in section 2, far wider than selling: it «includes the doing of any of the following acts, that is to say, manufacturing, importing, exporting, keeping, concealing, buying, selling, giving, receiving, storing, administering, transporting, carrying, sending, delivering, procuring, supplying or distributing any dangerous drug otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act». Keeping, carrying and storing are on that list, so nothing commercial has to be shown. The weight that counts is the weight of the material. Section 37(da)(vi) to (viii) set 200 grammes for cannabis, for cannabis resin and for the two combined, and no cannabinol content is assayed against it. Section 37(da) closes with the words «otherwise than in accordance with the authority of this Act or any other written law, shall be presumed, until the contrary is proved, to be trafficking in the said drug», so it is a rebuttable presumption about proof and not a definition of the offence, and the words «until the contrary is proved» are what put the defendant to proof. Section 39B(2) itself turns on quantity at no point. Below trafficking there are two further tiers, and they are a separate list from the presumption weights. Section 39A(1)(f) to (h) applies where the subject matter is 20 grammes or more but less than 50 grammes of the material, and sets «imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than two years but shall not exceed five years» with «whipping of not less than three strokes but not more than nine strokes». Section 39A(2)(f) to (h) applies where the offence is «not punishable with death» and the subject matter is 50 grammes or more of it, and sets «imprisonment for life or for a term which shall not be less than five years» with «whipping of not less than ten strokes». Death is available and it is no longer mandatory, and the change has a date. Section 39B(2) once read simply «on conviction with death». The Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017, Act A1558, in force 15 March 2018, opened a narrow gate out of that, a date carried forward from the earlier reading and not re-derived in this pass. The Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, came into operation on 4 July 2023, and section 54 of it is the whole of what it did to the Dangerous Drugs Act: it substituted «be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes» for fifteen strokes in subsection (2), and it deleted subsections (2A) and (2B), which were the mandatory death machinery. Section 39B(2) now reads, in full: «Any person who contravenes any of the provisions of subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence against this Act and shall be punished on conviction with death or imprisonment for life and shall, if he is not sentenced to death, be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes.» So the court chooses between death and imprisonment for life with no precondition, and at least twelve strokes follow any sentence that is not death. Act 846 is widely described as replacing life with a term of thirty to forty years. It did that in the Penal Code, the Firearms (Increased Penalties) Act 1971, the Arms Act 1960, the Kidnapping Act 1961, the Strategic Trade Act 2010 and the Criminal Procedure Code. It did not do it here: the words «imprisonment for life» in section 39B(2) are untouched and no definition of that phrase appears anywhere in the Dangerous Drugs Act, so no year figure is stated in this cell. Section 55 of Act 846 applies the amended section to anyone sentenced after it came into operation even where the offence was committed before. Below trafficking the possession offence is not section 12, and that catches people out. Section 11(1) confines Part IV of the Act, where section 12 sits, to «dangerous drugs listed in Parts III, IV and V of the First Schedule», so a Part I or Part II entry is reached by different sections. Section 6 makes keeping or having in possession, custody or control any cannabis, or the seeds of the plant, an offence punishable by «a fine not exceeding twenty thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Section 9(1)(b) does the same on the same penalty, because section 8 construes every reference to prepared opium in that Part of the Act as including «cannabis, cannabis resin and substances of which such resin forms the base». Consumption is section 10(2), at a fine not exceeding five thousand ringgit or imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or both, and it reaches possessing a pipe or other utensil as well as smoking. Section 15, the self-administration provision, does not apply at all, because it is confined to drugs in Parts III and IV of the Schedule. Three procedural consequences follow automatically. Section 41(1) removes a section 39B charge from the Sessions Court and the Magistrates' Court, so it is tried in the High Court, and section 41A(3) has it tried by a judge sitting alone. Section 41B(1) provides that bail «shall not be granted» where the offence is punishable with death, and also where it is punishable with imprisonment for more than five years. Section 38A, which lets a court deal with a drug dependant under eighteen under the Drug Dependants (Treatment and Rehabilitation) Act 1983 rather than punish him, is expressly unavailable for a section 39B offence. Section 39C separately escalates a repeat offender under the consumption and possession provisions to not less than five and not more than seven years with not more than three strokes. Isolated cannabinol, synthesised or fully purified away from plant material, is a different question, and on the text of the Act it is not a dangerous drug: Part III names delta-8 and delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol, their 8-beta-hydroxy and 11-hydroxy forms, «11-nor-delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol-9-carboxylic acid», «Parahexyl» and «Tetrahydrocannabinols» under a fixed chemical designation, and cannabinol, the fully aromatic oxidation product, is none of them and is not an isomer of any of them. It is not in the Third Schedule to the Poisons Act 1952 either, so the section 30 psychotropic offence does not reach it. Do not read that as permission. The Dangerous Drugs Act carries no analogue clause at all, measured across the whole Act, so a substance is in or out on the naming; but section 45A provides that where the Minister «considers it expedient to add a substance to, or remove a substance from, or vary the First Schedule, he may by order make the requisite modifications», and he has used it twice since the consolidated text, by P.U. (A) 97 gazetted 2 April 2024 and P.U. (A) 416 gazetted 25 November 2025. An order takes effect on gazetting and there is no notice period. Customs may also treat an unlisted substance as a prohibited import under a separate order that was not read for this cell.
If prescribed / medical: The prescription question for cannabinol has no clean answer under either statute. Cannabinol has no entry of its own in either Act and it is not one of the cannabinoids that are named. Part III names «delta-8-tetrahydrocannabinol» and «delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol», their hydroxy forms, parahexyl and a tetrahydrocannabinol entry under a specific chemical designation, and cannabinol is the fully aromatic oxidation product of THC, neither a tetrahydrocannabinol nor an isomer, ester, ether or salt of one. Where the cannabinol is decides the answer: in practice it is in cannabis, and cannabis is named in Parts I and II with «Extract or tincture of cannabis» in Part III, so cannabinol inside plant material or an extract is caught by those entries and not by any entry of its own. Isolated cannabinol from a source carrying no cannabis resin is reached by neither Act on the text. What this cell does not state is whether it is a registered product, an unregistered product or a prohibited import under the medicines and customs instruments, because none of those instruments was read for it.
Documentation: No documentation requirement can be stated for cannabinol, because the route through the two statutes is unsettled and the paperwork would depend on which route applies. What decides the paperwork is what the cannabinol is in. Inside plant material or an extract the governing entries are the cannabis ones in Parts I and II and «Extract or tincture of cannabis» in Part III, and the answer is the cannabis answer. Isolated from a source carrying no resin, there is no entry at all. Carry any prescription and the original packaging as a matter of course. Product registration with the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency and the customs prohibited imports orders are separate regimes and neither was read for this cell. If the Poisons Act route is the right one, the one month personal import allowance in regulation 4(2)(a) of the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 and the section 30(5) penalty would be the provisions in point. This cell does not assert that they apply. The entry the document has to answer to, in the First Schedule itself, is «Cannabis» at Part I, «Cannabis» at Part II, «Extract or tincture of cannabis» at Part III. If the document does not answer the entry, the charge is not section 12 at all. Section 11(1) confines that section to Parts III, IV and V of the Schedule, so a Part I or Part II entry is charged under section 6 or under section 9(1) read with section 8, each carrying «a fine not exceeding twenty thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both».

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: both schedules in full, the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 First Schedule in all five Parts and the Poisons Act 1952 Poisons List and Third Schedule, with cannabinol found in neither as a controlled entry · sections 2, 11(1) and 45A of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 and sections 30(1) and 32(2) of the Poisons Act 1952 · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

Cannabinol in Malaysia, full detail →

Cannabis / THC

Legal status: Cannabis is named three times over in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952: in Part I as «Cannabis», in Part II as «Cannabis» and as «Cannabis resin and substances of which such resin forms the base», and in Part III as «Extract or tincture of cannabis». Section 2 defines it: «‘cannabis’ means any part of any plant of the genus Cannabis from which there is found to be present resin irrespective of its quantity, and by whatever name the plant may be designated», and «‘cannabis resin’ means the separated resin, whether crude or purified». The words «irrespective of its quantity» are what make any trace of resin enough. Delta-8-THC and delta-9-THC are separately named in Part III.
Consequences if caught: Cannabis is named four times over in the First Schedule, in Part I as «Cannabis», in Part II as «Cannabis» and as «Cannabis resin and substances of which such resin forms the base», and in Part III as «Extract or tincture of cannabis». Every one of those makes it a dangerous drug within section 2, and section 39B(2) answers a trafficking charge with death or imprisonment for life. The chain is short and it passes through no weight at any point. Section 2 defines a «dangerous drug» as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule», section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», whether on your own behalf or on behalf of any other person, and section 39B(2) sets the penalty. And the word «trafficking» is itself defined in section 2, far wider than selling: it «includes the doing of any of the following acts, that is to say, manufacturing, importing, exporting, keeping, concealing, buying, selling, giving, receiving, storing, administering, transporting, carrying, sending, delivering, procuring, supplying or distributing any dangerous drug otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act». Keeping, carrying and storing are on that list, so nothing commercial has to be shown. Section 37(da)(vi), (vii) and (viii) set the presumption at «200 grammes or more in weight of cannabis», the same for cannabis resin, and a combined 200 grammes for the two together. Because section 2 defines cannabis as any part of the plant in which resin is present «irrespective of its quantity», those 200 grammes are weighed against the plant material and not against any cannabinoid content. Section 37(da) closes with the words «otherwise than in accordance with the authority of this Act or any other written law, shall be presumed, until the contrary is proved, to be trafficking in the said drug», so it is a rebuttable presumption about proof and not a definition of the offence, and the words «until the contrary is proved» are what put the defendant to proof. Section 39B(2) itself turns on quantity at no point. Below trafficking there are two further tiers, and they are a separate list from the presumption weights. Section 39A(1)(f), (g) and (h) applies where the subject matter is 20 grammes or more but less than 50 grammes of cannabis or cannabis resin, and sets «imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than two years but shall not exceed five years» with «whipping of not less than three strokes but not more than nine strokes». Section 39A(2)(f), (g) and (h) applies where the offence is «not punishable with death» and the subject matter is 50 grammes or more, and sets «imprisonment for life or for a term which shall not be less than five years» with «whipping of not less than ten strokes». Death is available and it is no longer mandatory, and the change has a date. Section 39B(2) once read simply «on conviction with death». The Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017, Act A1558, in force 15 March 2018, opened a narrow gate out of that, a date carried forward from the earlier reading and not re-derived in this pass. The Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, came into operation on 4 July 2023, and section 54 of it is the whole of what it did to the Dangerous Drugs Act: it substituted «be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes» for fifteen strokes in subsection (2), and it deleted subsections (2A) and (2B), which were the mandatory death machinery. Section 39B(2) now reads, in full: «Any person who contravenes any of the provisions of subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence against this Act and shall be punished on conviction with death or imprisonment for life and shall, if he is not sentenced to death, be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes.» So the court chooses between death and imprisonment for life with no precondition, and at least twelve strokes follow any sentence that is not death. Act 846 is widely described as replacing life with a term of thirty to forty years. It did that in the Penal Code, the Firearms (Increased Penalties) Act 1971, the Arms Act 1960, the Kidnapping Act 1961, the Strategic Trade Act 2010 and the Criminal Procedure Code. It did not do it here: the words «imprisonment for life» in section 39B(2) are untouched and no definition of that phrase appears anywhere in the Dangerous Drugs Act, so no year figure is stated in this cell. Section 55 of Act 846 applies the amended section to anyone sentenced after it came into operation even where the offence was committed before. Below trafficking the possession offence is not section 12, and that catches people out. Section 11(1) confines Part IV of the Act, where section 12 sits, to «dangerous drugs listed in Parts III, IV and V of the First Schedule», so a Part I or Part II entry is reached by different sections. Section 6 makes keeping or having in possession, custody or control any cannabis, or the seeds of the plant, an offence punishable by «a fine not exceeding twenty thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Section 9(1)(b) does the same on the same penalty, because section 8 construes every reference to prepared opium in that Part of the Act as including «cannabis, cannabis resin and substances of which such resin forms the base». Consumption is section 10(2), at a fine not exceeding five thousand ringgit or imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or both, and it reaches possessing a pipe or other utensil as well as smoking. Section 15, the self-administration provision, does not apply at all, because it is confined to drugs in Parts III and IV of the Schedule. Three procedural consequences follow automatically. Section 41(1) removes a section 39B charge from the Sessions Court and the Magistrates' Court, so it is tried in the High Court, and section 41A(3) has it tried by a judge sitting alone. Section 41B(1) provides that bail «shall not be granted» where the offence is punishable with death, and also where it is punishable with imprisonment for more than five years. Section 38A, which lets a court deal with a drug dependant under eighteen under the Drug Dependants (Treatment and Rehabilitation) Act 1983 rather than punish him, is expressly unavailable for a section 39B offence. Section 39C separately escalates a repeat offender under the consumption and possession provisions to not less than five and not more than seven years with not more than three strokes. Cultivation is separate and it is the harshest non-capital provision in the Act. Section 6B(1) prohibits planting or cultivating any plant from which cannabis may be obtained, or allowing one to be planted on land you own or occupy, and section 6B(3) punishes a contravention «with imprisonment for life and with whipping of not less than six strokes». Section 6B(4) presumes that whoever is found on the land planted it. The list can move under all of this. Section 45A is headed «Power of the Minister to vary First Schedule» and it operates either on a decision of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs or of the United Nations Organization altering the Schedules to the Single Convention, or simply where the Minister «considers it expedient to add a substance to, or remove a substance from, or vary the First Schedule, he may by order make the requisite modifications». An order takes effect on gazetting and there is no notice period. He has used it twice since the text read here, by P.U. (A) 97 gazetted 2 April 2024 and P.U. (A) 416 gazetted 25 November 2025, both carried forward from the earlier reading and neither re-read in this pass. The text read for this cell is the Attorney General's Chambers updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», and a later order is not ruled out.
If prescribed / medical: There is no prescription route for cannabis in Malaysia, and this cell states that rather than leaving a reader to infer it. Every prohibition in the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, and the definition of trafficking in section 2, is qualified by the words «otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act», so a lawful holding is one that sits inside an authority granted under the Act. The authority the Act contemplates is a licence or a regulation made under it, and here there is nothing for one to attach to. It is reached at Parts I, II and III of the First Schedule: it is named three times over. Neither Act evidences a registered product containing it. The Parts matter more for cannabis than for anything else in this set. Section 11(1) provides that «This Part applies to dangerous drugs listed in Parts III, IV and V of the First Schedule», so Part IV of the Act, which is where section 16 authorises regulations «controlling the manufacture, sale, possession, and distribution of such drugs», does not reach the Part I and Part II cannabis entries at all. What reaches those is section 6, under which a person who «Any person who keeps or has in his possession, custody or control any raw opium, coca leaves, poppy-straw or cannabis or the seeds of the plants from which they may be obtained either directly or indirectly» commits an offence unless it is under an authorization referred to in sections 4 and 5, and section 9, which prohibits possession of prepared opium outright and is extended by section 8, which provides that «In this Part any reference to prepared opium or opium shall be construed as including a reference to cannabis, cannabis resin and substances of which such resin forms the base». There is no prescription anywhere in that structure.
Documentation: There is no document to carry, because there is no lawful holding for a document to evidence. This cell says so plainly rather than leave a traveller looking for paperwork that does not exist for cannabis. The entry that forecloses the question is «Cannabis», reached at Parts I, II and III of the First Schedule. Section 25 of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, the traveller provision, turns on a medicinal preparation supplied by or on the prescription of a medical practitioner residing outside Malaysia, so it has nothing to attach to here. It is also confined to Part V of the Act, the external trade Part, and would not answer a possession charge even if it did apply. Getting the paperwork wrong is not a paperwork penalty. Section 37(d) provides that «any person who is found to have had in his custody or under his control anything whatsoever containing any dangerous drug shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have been in possession of such drug and shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have known the nature of such drug», and section 37(da) can then presume trafficking from the weight of the material alone. A foreign prescription, a licence issued in another country, and religious or traditional use are none of them provided for anywhere in the Act. The entry the document has to answer to, in the First Schedule itself, is «Cannabis» at Part I, «Cannabis» at Part II, «Cannabis resin and substances of which such resin forms the base» at Part II, «Extract or tincture of cannabis» at Part III. If the document does not answer the entry, which section is charged depends on which Part the entry sits in. A Part III entry is section 12(2), punishable under section 12(3) by «a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». A Part I or Part II entry is outside that section by section 11(1) and is charged under section 6 or section 9(1) instead, at twenty thousand ringgit or five years.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 in all five Parts, the entry found at Parts I, II and III of the First Schedule as «Cannabis» · sections 2, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 11(1), 16, 25, 37(d), 37(da), 39A, 39B and 45A of that Act · the Poisons Act 1952 Poisons List and Third Schedule both read · the Poisons Act 1952 Third Schedule read in full · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

Cannabis / THC in Malaysia, full detail →

Cathinone

Legal status: Cathinone is named in Part III of the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, and «Methcathinone» is named in the same Part. It is a dangerous drug. Cathine, the milder alkaloid of the same plant, is not: it sits in the Poisons Act 1952 Third Schedule and the Poisons List instead, without the dangerous drug marker. So the two principal khat alkaloids fall under different statutes with different ceilings. Mephedrone, methylone and 3-MMC, all synthetic cathinones, are likewise Poisons Act substances and not dangerous drugs.
Consequences if caught: Part III of the First Schedule names «Cathinone», and «Methcathinone» four lines further on. Section 2 makes each a dangerous drug and section 39B(2) answers trafficking in either with death or imprisonment for life. The chain is short and it passes through no weight at any point. Section 2 defines a «dangerous drug» as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule», section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», whether on your own behalf or on behalf of any other person, and section 39B(2) sets the penalty. And the word «trafficking» is itself defined in section 2, far wider than selling: it «includes the doing of any of the following acts, that is to say, manufacturing, importing, exporting, keeping, concealing, buying, selling, giving, receiving, storing, administering, transporting, carrying, sending, delivering, procuring, supplying or distributing any dangerous drug otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act». Keeping, carrying and storing are on that list, so nothing commercial has to be shown. Neither has a section 37(da) presumption weight. Two other cathinones in the same Part, «Eutylone» and «N-Ethylnorpentylone (Ephylone)», have none either. So there is no presumption to rebut and no threshold to stay under, and section 39B(2) applies in the same terms as it would to a weighed substance. The other presumption is still there. Section 37(d) provides that any person found to have had in his custody or under his control anything whatsoever containing a dangerous drug «shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have been in possession of such drug and shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have known the nature of such drug». The words «until the contrary is proved» put the defendant to proof on both limbs, on the possession and on the knowledge. Death is available and it is no longer mandatory, and the change has a date. Section 39B(2) once read simply «on conviction with death». The Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017, Act A1558, in force 15 March 2018, opened a narrow gate out of that, a date carried forward from the earlier reading and not re-derived in this pass. The Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, came into operation on 4 July 2023, and section 54 of it is the whole of what it did to the Dangerous Drugs Act: it substituted «be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes» for fifteen strokes in subsection (2), and it deleted subsections (2A) and (2B), which were the mandatory death machinery. Section 39B(2) now reads, in full: «Any person who contravenes any of the provisions of subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence against this Act and shall be punished on conviction with death or imprisonment for life and shall, if he is not sentenced to death, be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes.» So the court chooses between death and imprisonment for life with no precondition, and at least twelve strokes follow any sentence that is not death. Act 846 is widely described as replacing life with a term of thirty to forty years. It did that in the Penal Code, the Firearms (Increased Penalties) Act 1971, the Arms Act 1960, the Kidnapping Act 1961, the Strategic Trade Act 2010 and the Criminal Procedure Code. It did not do it here: the words «imprisonment for life» in section 39B(2) are untouched and no definition of that phrase appears anywhere in the Dangerous Drugs Act, so no year figure is stated in this cell. Section 55 of Act 846 applies the amended section to anyone sentenced after it came into operation even where the offence was committed before. Below trafficking, the possession offence is section 12. Section 11(1) provides that «This Part applies to dangerous drugs listed in Parts III, IV and V of the First Schedule», which is what brings a Part III substance inside Part IV of the Act. Section 12(2) then prohibits having such a drug in your possession, custody or control «unless he is authorized to be in possession, custody or control of such drug or is deemed to be so authorized under this Act or the regulations made thereunder», and section 12(3) punishes a contravention with «a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Self-administration is section 15(1), at a fine not exceeding five thousand ringgit or imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, and section 38B(1) then requires supervision for not less than two and not more than three years after the sentence has been served. Three procedural consequences follow automatically. Section 41(1) removes a section 39B charge from the Sessions Court and the Magistrates' Court, so it is tried in the High Court, and section 41A(3) has it tried by a judge sitting alone. Section 41B(1) provides that bail «shall not be granted» where the offence is punishable with death, and also where it is punishable with imprisonment for more than five years. Section 38A, which lets a court deal with a drug dependant under eighteen under the Drug Dependants (Treatment and Rehabilitation) Act 1983 rather than punish him, is expressly unavailable for a section 39B offence. Section 39C separately escalates a repeat offender under the consumption and possession provisions to not less than five and not more than seven years with not more than three strokes. The synthetic cathinones do not travel as a class in Malaysia. Four are dangerous drugs, named individually in Part III; mephedrone, methylone, 3-MMC and MDPV are not in the First Schedule at all, and Part III's generic clause reaches only isomers, esters, ethers and salts, which none of them is. The list can move under all of this. Section 45A is headed «Power of the Minister to vary First Schedule» and it operates either on a decision of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs or of the United Nations Organization altering the Schedules to the Single Convention, or simply where the Minister «considers it expedient to add a substance to, or remove a substance from, or vary the First Schedule, he may by order make the requisite modifications». An order takes effect on gazetting and there is no notice period. He has used it twice since the text read here, by P.U. (A) 97 gazetted 2 April 2024 and P.U. (A) 416 gazetted 25 November 2025, both carried forward from the earlier reading and neither re-read in this pass. The text read for this cell is the Attorney General's Chambers updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», and a later order is not ruled out.
If prescribed / medical: There is no prescription route for cathinone in Malaysia, and this cell states that rather than leaving a reader to infer it. Every prohibition in the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, and the definition of trafficking in section 2, is qualified by the words «otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act», so a lawful holding is one that sits inside an authority granted under the Act. The authority the Act contemplates is a licence or a regulation made under it, and here there is nothing for one to attach to. It is reached at Part III of the First Schedule: it is named in terms. Neither Act evidences a registered product containing it. Cathine, the milder alkaloid of the same plant, is not a dangerous drug: it sits in the Poisons Act 1952 Third Schedule instead, so the two khat alkaloids are authorised, if at all, under different statutes.
Documentation: There is no document to carry, because there is no lawful holding for a document to evidence. This cell says so plainly rather than leave a traveller looking for paperwork that does not exist for cathinone. The entry that forecloses the question is «Cathinone», reached at Part III of the First Schedule. Section 25 of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, the traveller provision, turns on a medicinal preparation supplied by or on the prescription of a medical practitioner residing outside Malaysia, so it has nothing to attach to here. It is also confined to Part V of the Act, the external trade Part, and would not answer a possession charge even if it did apply. Getting the paperwork wrong is not a paperwork penalty. Section 37(d) provides that «any person who is found to have had in his custody or under his control anything whatsoever containing any dangerous drug shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have been in possession of such drug and shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have known the nature of such drug», and section 37(da) can then presume trafficking from the weight of the material alone. A foreign prescription, a licence issued in another country, and religious or traditional use are none of them provided for anywhere in the Act. The entry the document has to answer to, in the First Schedule itself, is «Cathinone» at Part III. If the document does not answer the entry, the charge is section 12(2) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, possession of a dangerous drug without authority, and section 12(3) sets «a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Section 12(4) adds whipping of not more than three strokes where the person convicted is a public officer employed at a prison, rehabilitation centre, police lock-up or place of detention.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 in all five Parts, the entry found at Part III of the First Schedule as «Cathinone» · sections 2, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 11(1), 16, 25, 37(d), 37(da), 39A, 39B and 45A of that Act · the Poisons Act 1952 Poisons List and Third Schedule both read · the Poisons Act 1952 Third Schedule read in full · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

Cathinone in Malaysia, full detail →

CBD

Legal status: Cannabidiol is named nowhere in either Act, and in Malaysia that is not the question. Section 2 of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 defines cannabis as «any part of any plant of the genus Cannabis from which there is found to be present resin irrespective of its quantity, and by whatever name the plant may be designated». A cannabidiol product made from cannabis plant material in which resin is present is therefore cannabis itself, a dangerous drug under Parts I and II, whatever its THC content and whatever the label says. Part III adds «Extract or tincture of cannabis». There is no cannabidiol exemption and no THC threshold anywhere in the Act. The Poisons List entry reads «Cannabis, its resin, extracts and tinctures of» with the dangerous drug marker, exempting only corn paints for external use.
Consequences if caught: Section 39B(2) reaches the material and not the molecule. Cannabidiol is named nowhere in the First Schedule, but section 2 defines cannabis as «any part of any plant of the genus Cannabis from which there is found to be present resin irrespective of its quantity, and by whatever name the plant may be designated», so a cannabidiol product made from resin-bearing plant material is itself cannabis, a dangerous drug under Parts I and II, and an extract of it is «Extract or tincture of cannabis» in Part III. The chain is short and it passes through no weight at any point. Section 2 defines a «dangerous drug» as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule», section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», whether on your own behalf or on behalf of any other person, and section 39B(2) sets the penalty. And the word «trafficking» is itself defined in section 2, far wider than selling: it «includes the doing of any of the following acts, that is to say, manufacturing, importing, exporting, keeping, concealing, buying, selling, giving, receiving, storing, administering, transporting, carrying, sending, delivering, procuring, supplying or distributing any dangerous drug otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act». Keeping, carrying and storing are on that list, so nothing commercial has to be shown. The cannabis presumption weights apply to the material as found. Section 37(da)(vi) is «200 grammes or more in weight of cannabis», (vii) the same for cannabis resin and (viii) a combined 200 grammes. There is no cannabidiol figure and no cannabinoid assay anywhere in the Act: the words «irrespective of its quantity» in section 2 are what make the whole weight count. Section 37(da) closes with the words «otherwise than in accordance with the authority of this Act or any other written law, shall be presumed, until the contrary is proved, to be trafficking in the said drug», so it is a rebuttable presumption about proof and not a definition of the offence, and the words «until the contrary is proved» are what put the defendant to proof. Section 39B(2) itself turns on quantity at no point. Below trafficking there are two further tiers, and they are a separate list from the presumption weights. Section 39A(1)(f) to (h) applies where the subject matter is 20 grammes or more but less than 50 grammes of the material, and sets «imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than two years but shall not exceed five years» with «whipping of not less than three strokes but not more than nine strokes». Section 39A(2)(f) to (h) applies where the offence is «not punishable with death» and the subject matter is 50 grammes or more of it, and sets «imprisonment for life or for a term which shall not be less than five years» with «whipping of not less than ten strokes». Death is available and it is no longer mandatory, and the change has a date. Section 39B(2) once read simply «on conviction with death». The Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017, Act A1558, in force 15 March 2018, opened a narrow gate out of that, a date carried forward from the earlier reading and not re-derived in this pass. The Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, came into operation on 4 July 2023, and section 54 of it is the whole of what it did to the Dangerous Drugs Act: it substituted «be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes» for fifteen strokes in subsection (2), and it deleted subsections (2A) and (2B), which were the mandatory death machinery. Section 39B(2) now reads, in full: «Any person who contravenes any of the provisions of subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence against this Act and shall be punished on conviction with death or imprisonment for life and shall, if he is not sentenced to death, be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes.» So the court chooses between death and imprisonment for life with no precondition, and at least twelve strokes follow any sentence that is not death. Act 846 is widely described as replacing life with a term of thirty to forty years. It did that in the Penal Code, the Firearms (Increased Penalties) Act 1971, the Arms Act 1960, the Kidnapping Act 1961, the Strategic Trade Act 2010 and the Criminal Procedure Code. It did not do it here: the words «imprisonment for life» in section 39B(2) are untouched and no definition of that phrase appears anywhere in the Dangerous Drugs Act, so no year figure is stated in this cell. Section 55 of Act 846 applies the amended section to anyone sentenced after it came into operation even where the offence was committed before. Below trafficking the possession offence is not section 12, and that catches people out. Section 11(1) confines Part IV of the Act, where section 12 sits, to «dangerous drugs listed in Parts III, IV and V of the First Schedule», so a Part I or Part II entry is reached by different sections. Section 6 makes keeping or having in possession, custody or control any cannabis, or the seeds of the plant, an offence punishable by «a fine not exceeding twenty thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Section 9(1)(b) does the same on the same penalty, because section 8 construes every reference to prepared opium in that Part of the Act as including «cannabis, cannabis resin and substances of which such resin forms the base». Consumption is section 10(2), at a fine not exceeding five thousand ringgit or imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or both, and it reaches possessing a pipe or other utensil as well as smoking. Section 15, the self-administration provision, does not apply at all, because it is confined to drugs in Parts III and IV of the Schedule. Three procedural consequences follow automatically. Section 41(1) removes a section 39B charge from the Sessions Court and the Magistrates' Court, so it is tried in the High Court, and section 41A(3) has it tried by a judge sitting alone. Section 41B(1) provides that bail «shall not be granted» where the offence is punishable with death, and also where it is punishable with imprisonment for more than five years. Section 38A, which lets a court deal with a drug dependant under eighteen under the Drug Dependants (Treatment and Rehabilitation) Act 1983 rather than punish him, is expressly unavailable for a section 39B offence. Section 39C separately escalates a repeat offender under the consumption and possession provisions to not less than five and not more than seven years with not more than three strokes. The consequence for a traveller is unusually sharp. A product sold lawfully abroad as a food supplement, and labelled as containing no tetrahydrocannabinol at all, is still cannabis in Malaysia if resin-bearing plant material went into it. A product genuinely free of such material falls outside the definition, and this cell does not state which side of that line any particular product sits on. The list can move under all of this. Section 45A is headed «Power of the Minister to vary First Schedule» and it operates either on a decision of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs or of the United Nations Organization altering the Schedules to the Single Convention, or simply where the Minister «considers it expedient to add a substance to, or remove a substance from, or vary the First Schedule, he may by order make the requisite modifications». An order takes effect on gazetting and there is no notice period. He has used it twice since the text read here, by P.U. (A) 97 gazetted 2 April 2024 and P.U. (A) 416 gazetted 25 November 2025, both carried forward from the earlier reading and neither re-read in this pass. The text read for this cell is the Attorney General's Chambers updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», and a later order is not ruled out.
If prescribed / medical: There is no prescription route for cannabidiol in Malaysia, and this cell states that rather than leaving a reader to infer it. Every prohibition in the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, and the definition of trafficking in section 2, is qualified by the words «otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act», so a lawful holding is one that sits inside an authority granted under the Act. The authority the Act contemplates is a licence or a regulation made under it, and here there is nothing for one to attach to. It is reached at Parts I, II and III of the First Schedule, through the cannabis entries rather than through any entry of its own: cannabidiol is named nowhere in either Act, but section 2 defines cannabis in those words, so a cannabidiol product made from plant material in which resin is present is cannabis itself. Neither Act evidences a registered product containing it. There is no cannabidiol exemption and no content threshold anywhere in the Act, and the Poisons List entry «(DD) Cannabis, its resin, extracts and tinctures of; cannabin tannate» exempts only corn paints for external use. A product that is genuinely free of resin-bearing material falls outside the definition, and this cell does not state which side of that line any particular product sits on.
Documentation: There is no document to carry, because there is no lawful holding for a document to evidence. This cell says so plainly rather than leave a traveller looking for paperwork that does not exist for cannabidiol. The entry that forecloses the question is «any part of any plant of the genus Cannabis from which there is found to be present resin irrespective of its quantity, and by whatever name the plant may be designated», reached at Parts I, II and III of the First Schedule, through the cannabis entries rather than through any entry of its own. Section 25 of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, the traveller provision, turns on a medicinal preparation supplied by or on the prescription of a medical practitioner residing outside Malaysia, so it has nothing to attach to here. It is also confined to Part V of the Act, the external trade Part, and would not answer a possession charge even if it did apply. Getting the paperwork wrong is not a paperwork penalty. Section 37(d) provides that «any person who is found to have had in his custody or under his control anything whatsoever containing any dangerous drug shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have been in possession of such drug and shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have known the nature of such drug», and section 37(da) can then presume trafficking from the weight of the material alone. A foreign prescription, a licence issued in another country, and religious or traditional use are none of them provided for anywhere in the Act. The entry the document has to answer to, in the First Schedule itself, is «Cannabis» at Part I, «Cannabis» at Part II, «Extract or tincture of cannabis» at Part III. If the document does not answer the entry, the charge is not section 12 at all. Section 11(1) confines that section to Parts III, IV and V of the Schedule, so a Part I or Part II entry is charged under section 6 or under section 9(1) read with section 8, each carrying «a fine not exceeding twenty thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both».

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 in all five Parts, the entry found at Parts I, II and III of the First Schedule, through the cannabis entries rather than through any entry of its own as «any part of any plant of the genus Cannabis from which there is found to be present resin irrespective of its quantity, and by whatever name the plant may be designated» · sections 2, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 11(1), 16, 25, 37(d), 37(da), 39A, 39B and 45A of that Act · the Poisons Act 1952 Poisons List and Third Schedule both read · the Poisons Act 1952 Third Schedule read in full · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

CBD in Malaysia, full detail →

Clonazepam

Legal status: Clonazepam is not named in either Act by its own name. It is caught by class, in the Poisons List under the Poisons Act 1952 as one of the «substances structurally derived from 1, 4-benzodiazepine», and again in the Third Schedule of psychotropic substances. It is NOT in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952. Flunitrazepam and nimetazepam are, which is why the family cannot be answered in one line. The Poisons List formula in full, as printed, is «Diazepam and other substances structurally derived from 1, 4-benzodiazepine; their salts, unless specified elsewhere».
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Clonazepam is not in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952. The only two benzodiazepines in it are «Flunitrazepam» and «Nimetazepam», both in Part III, and clonazepam is neither, nor an isomer, ester, ether or salt of either. Section 39B is the only capital provision in Malaysian drug law, and section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», which section 2 defines as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule». A substance outside that Schedule cannot be trafficked within the meaning of section 39B however much of it there is, the section 37(da) presumption weights do not reach it, and neither do the section 39A enhanced penalties. What applies instead is section 30 of the Poisons Act 1952, which provides at subsection (3) that «no person shall import, export, manufacture, compound, mix, dispense, sell, supply, administer, possess or use any psychotropic substance otherwise than in accordance with any regulations applicable thereto», and at subsection (5) that a contravention is punishable «to a fine not exceeding ten thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding four years or both». Section 30(4) carries a possession presumption of its own: a person found with the substance in his custody or control «shall be deemed to have been in possession of the substance and to have known the nature of the substance, until he proves to the contrary». Four years and ten thousand ringgit against death. That is the single largest cliff in Malaysian drug law and it turns entirely on which of two schedules a substance sits in. And the ground can move under it: section 45A of the Dangerous Drugs Act lets the Minister add a substance to the First Schedule by order, and section 30(2) of the Poisons Act lets him amend the Third Schedule the same way.
If prescribed / medical: This is a prescription-supply question and not a trafficking one. Clonazepam is a psychotropic substance under the Poisons Act 1952, reached by class and not by name, appearing in the Third Schedule as «Diazepam and other subtances structurally derivated from 1,4-benzodiazepine except flumazenil and pirenzepine» and in the Poisons List as «Diazepam and other substances structurally derived from 1, 4-benzodiazepine; their salts, unless specified elsewhere». Section 30(1) provides that «In this section, “psychotropic substance” means any of the substances specified in the Third Schedule», and section 30(3) then prohibits importing, exporting, manufacturing, compounding, mixing, dispensing, selling, supplying, administering, possessing or using such a substance «otherwise than in accordance with any regulations applicable thereto made under this Act». Those regulations are the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989, and regulation 3 is the one a patient stands on: possession is prohibited unless «he is authorised to be in possession of such psychotropic substance under these Regulations» and the substance is for a lawful purpose and obtained under them. Regulation 3(2)(l) places a person lawfully supplied «in accordance with a prescription lawfully given by a registered medical practitioner, registered dentist Division I of a veterinary surgeon» inside that authority, the wording of that paragraph being the publisher's. Flunitrazepam and nimetazepam are the two benzodiazepines that are dangerous drugs instead, so the class formula does not describe the whole family.
Documentation: Carry the prescription and the dispensing label with the medicine, in its original packaging. The entry the prescription has to answer to is «Diazepam and other subtances structurally derivated from 1,4-benzodiazepine except flumazenil and pirenzepine» in the Third Schedule, with «Diazepam and other substances structurally derived from 1, 4-benzodiazepine; their salts, unless specified elsewhere» in the Poisons List beside it. Regulation 4(2)(a) of the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 is the traveller provision and it fixes a figure the Dangerous Drugs Act never does: a person arriving in or leaving Malaysia who carries, as part of personal luggage and solely for personal or family use, a prepared or packaged medicine containing a psychotropic substance is outside the import authorisation requirement, provided the quantity is «not exceeding such quantities as may be reasonably required for one month's use by one person» and it has been lawfully supplied by or on the prescription of a qualified medical practitioner. Section 30(4) presumes possession and knowledge from custody or control: a person found with the substance «shall be deemed to have been in possession of the substance and to have known the nature of the substance, until he proves to the contrary». The prescription is what rebuts it. The penalty under section 30(5) is «a fine not exceeding ten thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding four years or both». The control is the Poisons Act 1952 and its regulations rather than the Dangerous Drugs Act, so the trafficking regime and its presumptions are not in play for clonazepam.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: the Poisons Act 1952 Third Schedule, the entry found as «Diazepam and other subtances structurally derivated from 1,4-benzodiazepine except flumazenil and pirenzepine», reached by class and not by name · the Poisons List, whose printed class formula anchored on diazepam is reproduced in full in this cell's status field · sections 30(1) to 30(5) and 32(2) of that Act · the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 incorporating P.U. (A) 405/2018, regulations 3, 4 and 9 and the Second Schedule to those Regulations, in which this substance is not named · and the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 read in all five Parts, and clonazepam under its own name not found in any of them · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

Clonazepam in Malaysia, full detail →

Cocaine

Legal status: Cocaine is named in Part III of the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, and coca is reached twice more: «Coca Leaves» in Part I and «Extract or tincture of coca leaves» and «Ecgonine» in Part III. Part V exempts preparations containing not more than 0.1 per cent of cocaine calculated as cocaine base, but the heading of that Part limits it to preparations for the export of which export authorizations are not required, so it is an export-paperwork exemption and not a possession exemption. Coca leaves carry their own separate presumption weight of 2,000 grammes.
Consequences if caught: Part III of the First Schedule names «Cocaine», and coca is reached three more times: «Coca Leaves» in Part I, «Extract or tincture of coca leaves» and «Ecgonine» in Part III. Section 39B(2) attaches to all of them, with death or imprisonment for life on conviction for trafficking. The chain is short and it passes through no weight at any point. Section 2 defines a «dangerous drug» as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule», section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», whether on your own behalf or on behalf of any other person, and section 39B(2) sets the penalty. And the word «trafficking» is itself defined in section 2, far wider than selling: it «includes the doing of any of the following acts, that is to say, manufacturing, importing, exporting, keeping, concealing, buying, selling, giving, receiving, storing, administering, transporting, carrying, sending, delivering, procuring, supplying or distributing any dangerous drug otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act». Keeping, carrying and storing are on that list, so nothing commercial has to be shown. Section 37(da)(ix) sets the cocaine presumption at «40 grammes or more in weight of cocaine». Coca leaves have a separate and far higher figure at subparagraph (x), «2,000 grammes or more in weight of coca leaves», and the two are not aggregated by any subparagraph. Section 37(da) closes with the words «otherwise than in accordance with the authority of this Act or any other written law, shall be presumed, until the contrary is proved, to be trafficking in the said drug», so it is a rebuttable presumption about proof and not a definition of the offence, and the words «until the contrary is proved» are what put the defendant to proof. Section 39B(2) itself turns on quantity at no point. Below trafficking there are two further tiers, and they are a separate list from the presumption weights. Section 39A(1)(e) applies where the subject matter is 5 grammes or more but less than 15 grammes of cocaine, and sets «imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than two years but shall not exceed five years» with «whipping of not less than three strokes but not more than nine strokes». Section 39A(2)(e) applies where the offence is «not punishable with death» and the subject matter is 15 grammes or more, and sets «imprisonment for life or for a term which shall not be less than five years» with «whipping of not less than ten strokes». Coca leaves have their own tiers at section 39A(1)(l) and section 39A(2)(l), 250 to 750 grammes and 750 grammes or more. Death is available and it is no longer mandatory, and the change has a date. Section 39B(2) once read simply «on conviction with death». The Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017, Act A1558, in force 15 March 2018, opened a narrow gate out of that, a date carried forward from the earlier reading and not re-derived in this pass. The Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, came into operation on 4 July 2023, and section 54 of it is the whole of what it did to the Dangerous Drugs Act: it substituted «be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes» for fifteen strokes in subsection (2), and it deleted subsections (2A) and (2B), which were the mandatory death machinery. Section 39B(2) now reads, in full: «Any person who contravenes any of the provisions of subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence against this Act and shall be punished on conviction with death or imprisonment for life and shall, if he is not sentenced to death, be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes.» So the court chooses between death and imprisonment for life with no precondition, and at least twelve strokes follow any sentence that is not death. Act 846 is widely described as replacing life with a term of thirty to forty years. It did that in the Penal Code, the Firearms (Increased Penalties) Act 1971, the Arms Act 1960, the Kidnapping Act 1961, the Strategic Trade Act 2010 and the Criminal Procedure Code. It did not do it here: the words «imprisonment for life» in section 39B(2) are untouched and no definition of that phrase appears anywhere in the Dangerous Drugs Act, so no year figure is stated in this cell. Section 55 of Act 846 applies the amended section to anyone sentenced after it came into operation even where the offence was committed before. Below trafficking the possession offence depends on which coca entry is in issue, because the two sit in different Parts. Cocaine itself, the extract or tincture and ecgonine are all in Part III, so section 11(1) brings them inside Part IV of the Act and section 12(3) applies: «a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Coca leaves are in Part I and are outside that Part of the Act entirely; section 6 reaches them instead, at «a fine not exceeding twenty thousand ringgit» or five years or both. Self-administration of cocaine is section 15(1), five thousand ringgit or two years, with two to three years of supervision afterwards under section 38B(1). Three procedural consequences follow automatically. Section 41(1) removes a section 39B charge from the Sessions Court and the Magistrates' Court, so it is tried in the High Court, and section 41A(3) has it tried by a judge sitting alone. Section 41B(1) provides that bail «shall not be granted» where the offence is punishable with death, and also where it is punishable with imprisonment for more than five years. Section 38A, which lets a court deal with a drug dependant under eighteen under the Drug Dependants (Treatment and Rehabilitation) Act 1983 rather than punish him, is expressly unavailable for a section 39B offence. Section 39C separately escalates a repeat offender under the consumption and possession provisions to not less than five and not more than seven years with not more than three strokes. Part V exempts «Preparations of cocaine containing not more than 0.1 per cent of cocaine calculated as cocaine base», but that Part's own heading confines it to preparations for the export of which export authorizations are not required, so it is an export paperwork exemption and it answers nothing about possession or about trafficking. The list can move under all of this. Section 45A is headed «Power of the Minister to vary First Schedule» and it operates either on a decision of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs or of the United Nations Organization altering the Schedules to the Single Convention, or simply where the Minister «considers it expedient to add a substance to, or remove a substance from, or vary the First Schedule, he may by order make the requisite modifications». An order takes effect on gazetting and there is no notice period. He has used it twice since the text read here, by P.U. (A) 97 gazetted 2 April 2024 and P.U. (A) 416 gazetted 25 November 2025, both carried forward from the earlier reading and neither re-read in this pass. The text read for this cell is the Attorney General's Chambers updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», and a later order is not ruled out.
If prescribed / medical: Cocaine is a dangerous drug and it is also a medicine, so both things are true of it at once. Every prohibition in the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, and the definition of trafficking in section 2, is qualified by the words «otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act», so the question for a medicine is never whether the substance is scheduled but whether the handling sits inside that authority. It is named in Part III of the First Schedule as «Cocaine». Section 11(1) provides that «This Part applies to dangerous drugs listed in Parts III, IV and V of the First Schedule», which is what brings it inside Part IV of the Act, where section 16(1) empowers the Minister to make regulations «controlling the manufacture, sale, possession, and distribution of such drugs». That registered Malaysian products containing it exist is on the face of the Poisons List, which carries «(DD) Cocaine» with the registered-products wording against it rather than the ordinary preparations wording. Coca is reached twice more, as «Coca Leaves» in Part I and as «Extract or tincture of coca leaves» in Part III. The Part I listing matters here because section 11(1) applies Part IV of the Act only to the drugs in Parts III, IV and V of the First Schedule, so coca leaf is controlled instead by section 6, which makes bare possession an offence unless it is under an authorization referred to in sections 4 and 5.
Documentation: Carry the prescription and the dispensing label with the medicine, in its original packaging, and declare it on arrival. The entry the label has to answer to is «Cocaine» at Part III of the First Schedule, and a dispensing label naming a different member of that Part is not the same thing. Section 25 of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 is the only personal traveller provision the Act contains, and its reach is narrower than it looks. It sits in Part V, which is the external trade Part, and it opens by providing that nothing in that Part applies to a quantity of a dangerous drug in the form of a medicinal preparation in the «possession of any person arriving in Malaysia by land, air or water from any place outside Malaysia as is reasonably required for the use of such person and which has been supplied to such person bona fide by or on the prescription of a medical practitioner residing outside Malaysia in accordance with the law of the country in which such drug was so supplied». Because the words are nothing in this Part, it answers the import control and it does not touch the possession and trafficking provisions that sit in Part IV of the Act. It is also conditional: the person «shall, as soon as possible on arrival, declare his possession of such dangerous drug to an officer having authority under this Act to search such person and shall submit to such medical examination as may be required of him». Getting the paperwork wrong is not a paperwork penalty. Section 37(d) provides that «any person who is found to have had in his custody or under his control anything whatsoever containing any dangerous drug shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have been in possession of such drug and shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have known the nature of such drug», and section 37(da) can then presume trafficking from the weight of the material alone. Neither Act fixes a number of days or a number of tablets for a dangerous drug, and this cell does not invent one. The entry the document has to answer to, in the First Schedule itself, is «Coca Leaves» at Part I, «Cocaine» at Part III, «Extract or tincture of coca leaves» at Part III, «Ecgonine» at Part III. If the document does not answer the entry, which section is charged depends on which Part the entry sits in. A Part III entry is section 12(2), punishable under section 12(3) by «a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». A Part I or Part II entry is outside that section by section 11(1) and is charged under section 6 or section 9(1) instead, at twenty thousand ringgit or five years.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 in all five Parts, the entry found at Part III of the First Schedule as «Cocaine» · sections 2, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 11(1), 16, 25, 37(d), 37(da), 39A, 39B and 45A of that Act · the Poisons Act 1952 Poisons List, carrying «(DD) Cocaine» · the Poisons Act 1952 Third Schedule read in full · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

Cocaine in Malaysia, full detail →

Codeine

Legal status: Codeine is in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, at PART IV, which is the lighter Part that also carries Acetyldihydrocodeine, Dextropropoxyphene, Dihydrocodeine, Ethylmorphine, Nicocodine, Nicodicodine, Norcodeine, Pholcodine and Propiram, together with their isomers and salts. Being in Part IV rather than Part III changes nothing about section 39B. Section 2 defines a dangerous drug as anything «for the time being comprised in the First Schedule», without distinguishing between its Parts, and section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug». The Poisons List carries codeine with the dangerous drug marker against «All products registered».
Consequences if caught: Codeine is in the First Schedule at Part IV, the shorter Part that also carries «Acetyldihydrocodeine», «Dextropropoxyphene», «Dihydrocodeine», «Ethylmorphine», «Nicocodine», «Nicodicodine», «Norcodeine», «Pholcodine» and «Propiram». Being in Part IV rather than Part III changes nothing about section 39B: section 2 defines a dangerous drug as anything «for the time being comprised in the First Schedule» without distinguishing between its Parts, so section 39B(2), death or imprisonment for life, applies in the same terms. The chain is short and it passes through no weight at any point. Section 2 defines a «dangerous drug» as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule», section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», whether on your own behalf or on behalf of any other person, and section 39B(2) sets the penalty. And the word «trafficking» is itself defined in section 2, far wider than selling: it «includes the doing of any of the following acts, that is to say, manufacturing, importing, exporting, keeping, concealing, buying, selling, giving, receiving, storing, administering, transporting, carrying, sending, delivering, procuring, supplying or distributing any dangerous drug otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act». Keeping, carrying and storing are on that list, so nothing commercial has to be shown. It has no section 37(da) presumption weight. No Part IV substance has one. So there is no presumption to rebut and no threshold to stay under, and section 39B(2) applies in the same terms as it would to a weighed substance. The other presumption is still there. Section 37(d) provides that any person found to have had in his custody or under his control anything whatsoever containing a dangerous drug «shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have been in possession of such drug and shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have known the nature of such drug». The words «until the contrary is proved» put the defendant to proof on both limbs, on the possession and on the knowledge. Death is available and it is no longer mandatory, and the change has a date. Section 39B(2) once read simply «on conviction with death». The Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017, Act A1558, in force 15 March 2018, opened a narrow gate out of that, a date carried forward from the earlier reading and not re-derived in this pass. The Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, came into operation on 4 July 2023, and section 54 of it is the whole of what it did to the Dangerous Drugs Act: it substituted «be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes» for fifteen strokes in subsection (2), and it deleted subsections (2A) and (2B), which were the mandatory death machinery. Section 39B(2) now reads, in full: «Any person who contravenes any of the provisions of subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence against this Act and shall be punished on conviction with death or imprisonment for life and shall, if he is not sentenced to death, be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes.» So the court chooses between death and imprisonment for life with no precondition, and at least twelve strokes follow any sentence that is not death. Act 846 is widely described as replacing life with a term of thirty to forty years. It did that in the Penal Code, the Firearms (Increased Penalties) Act 1971, the Arms Act 1960, the Kidnapping Act 1961, the Strategic Trade Act 2010 and the Criminal Procedure Code. It did not do it here: the words «imprisonment for life» in section 39B(2) are untouched and no definition of that phrase appears anywhere in the Dangerous Drugs Act, so no year figure is stated in this cell. Section 55 of Act 846 applies the amended section to anyone sentenced after it came into operation even where the offence was committed before. Below trafficking, the possession offence is section 12, and Part IV of the Schedule is inside it on the same footing as Part III. Section 11(1) provides that «This Part applies to dangerous drugs listed in Parts III, IV and V of the First Schedule». Section 12(2) prohibits possession, custody or control without authority and section 12(3) punishes it with «a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Section 12(1)(a) restricts import for Parts III, IV and V alike, while section 12(1)(b) restricts export for Parts III and IV only. Self-administration is section 15(1), a fine not exceeding five thousand ringgit or two years, followed by two to three years of supervision under section 38B(1). Three procedural consequences follow automatically. Section 41(1) removes a section 39B charge from the Sessions Court and the Magistrates' Court, so it is tried in the High Court, and section 41A(3) has it tried by a judge sitting alone. Section 41B(1) provides that bail «shall not be granted» where the offence is punishable with death, and also where it is punishable with imprisonment for more than five years. Section 38A, which lets a court deal with a drug dependant under eighteen under the Drug Dependants (Treatment and Rehabilitation) Act 1983 rather than punish him, is expressly unavailable for a section 39B offence. Section 39C separately escalates a repeat offender under the consumption and possession provisions to not less than five and not more than seven years with not more than three strokes. Part IV's generic reach is narrower than Part III's in one respect and not in the one usually assumed. Part IV carries its own isomer clause and its own salt clause and no ester or ether clause of its own. But Part III's ester and ether clause is not confined to Part III: it reads «The esters and ethers, unless appearing in another Part, of the drugs in this Schedule whenever the existence of such esters or ethers is possible», and the words are «this Schedule» where the isomer and salt clauses beside it both read «this Part». So esters and ethers of a Part IV drug are reached too, subject to the proviso, and «Ethylmorphine», the ethyl ether of morphine, is what that proviso is for: it is named in Part IV in its own right. Section 11(1) brings Parts III, IV and V alike inside Part IV of the Act, so sections 12 to 16 apply to codeine exactly as they apply to morphine. The list can move under all of this. Section 45A is headed «Power of the Minister to vary First Schedule» and it operates either on a decision of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs or of the United Nations Organization altering the Schedules to the Single Convention, or simply where the Minister «considers it expedient to add a substance to, or remove a substance from, or vary the First Schedule, he may by order make the requisite modifications». An order takes effect on gazetting and there is no notice period. He has used it twice since the text read here, by P.U. (A) 97 gazetted 2 April 2024 and P.U. (A) 416 gazetted 25 November 2025, both carried forward from the earlier reading and neither re-read in this pass. The text read for this cell is the Attorney General's Chambers updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», and a later order is not ruled out.
If prescribed / medical: Codeine is a dangerous drug and it is also a medicine, so both things are true of it at once. Every prohibition in the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, and the definition of trafficking in section 2, is qualified by the words «otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act», so the question for a medicine is never whether the substance is scheduled but whether the handling sits inside that authority. It is named in Part IV of the First Schedule as «Codeine». Section 11(1) provides that «This Part applies to dangerous drugs listed in Parts III, IV and V of the First Schedule», which is what brings it inside Part IV of the Act, where section 16(1) empowers the Minister to make regulations «controlling the manufacture, sale, possession, and distribution of such drugs». That registered Malaysian products containing it exist is on the face of the Poisons List, which carries «(DD) Codeine» with the registered-products wording against it rather than the ordinary preparations wording. A registered Malaysian product containing it is additionally caught by the Poisons Act 1952, because item 2 of the Third Schedule covers any product registered under the Control of Drugs and Cosmetics Regulations 1984 containing «Dihydrocodeine», so section 30 and the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 run alongside the Dangerous Drugs Act for the product. Part IV is a distinct Part with its own generic clause: it extends to «The isomers, unless specifically excepted, of the drugs in this Part whenever the existence of such isomers is possible within the specific chemical designation» and to the salts of those drugs, but it carries no ester and ether clause of its own, the ester clause in Part III being expressed to reach the drugs in the Schedule. Being in Part IV rather than Part III changes nothing about section 39B, because section 2 defines a dangerous drug as anything comprised in the First Schedule without distinguishing its Parts.
Documentation: Carry the prescription and the dispensing label with the medicine, in its original packaging, and declare it on arrival. The entry the label has to answer to is «Codeine» at Part IV of the First Schedule, and a dispensing label naming a different member of that Part is not the same thing. Section 25 of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 is the only personal traveller provision the Act contains, and its reach is narrower than it looks. It sits in Part V, which is the external trade Part, and it opens by providing that nothing in that Part applies to a quantity of a dangerous drug in the form of a medicinal preparation in the «possession of any person arriving in Malaysia by land, air or water from any place outside Malaysia as is reasonably required for the use of such person and which has been supplied to such person bona fide by or on the prescription of a medical practitioner residing outside Malaysia in accordance with the law of the country in which such drug was so supplied». Because the words are nothing in this Part, it answers the import control and it does not touch the possession and trafficking provisions that sit in Part IV of the Act. It is also conditional: the person «shall, as soon as possible on arrival, declare his possession of such dangerous drug to an officer having authority under this Act to search such person and shall submit to such medical examination as may be required of him». There is a second requirement for codeine that the Dangerous Drugs Act does not mention. A registered product containing it is also a psychotropic substance under item 2 of the Poisons Act Third Schedule, so regulation 4(2)(a) of the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 is the traveller provision and it fixes a figure the Dangerous Drugs Act never does: a person arriving in or leaving Malaysia who carries, as part of personal luggage and solely for personal or family use, a prepared or packaged medicine containing a psychotropic substance is outside the import authorisation requirement, provided the quantity is «not exceeding such quantities as may be reasonably required for one month's use by one person» and it has been lawfully supplied by or on the prescription of a qualified medical practitioner. Getting the paperwork wrong is not a paperwork penalty. Section 37(d) provides that «any person who is found to have had in his custody or under his control anything whatsoever containing any dangerous drug shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have been in possession of such drug and shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have known the nature of such drug», and section 37(da) can then presume trafficking from the weight of the material alone. The one month figure comes from those Regulations and not from the Dangerous Drugs Act, which fixes no quantity at all. The entry the document has to answer to, in the First Schedule itself, is «Codeine» at Part IV. If the document does not answer the entry, the charge is section 12(2) and section 12(3) sets «a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Part IV of the Schedule is inside Part IV of the Act on the same footing as Part III, by section 11(1), so the lighter Schedule Part buys nothing here.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 in all five Parts, the entry found at Part IV of the First Schedule as «Codeine» · sections 2, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 11(1), 16, 25, 37(d), 37(da), 39A, 39B and 45A of that Act · the Poisons Act 1952 Poisons List, carrying «(DD) Codeine» · the Poisons Act 1952 Third Schedule at item 2, which names «Dihydrocodeine» among the substances whose registered products it covers, with sections 30(1) to 30(5) and the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 incorporating P.U. (A) 405/2018 · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

Codeine in Malaysia, full detail →

Crack Cocaine

Legal status: Crack has no separate identity in Malaysian law. It is cocaine in its base form, and «Cocaine» is named in Part III of the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, with that Part extending to «The salts of the drugs listed in this Part». Part V's exemption for preparations containing not more than 0.1 per cent cocaine is an export-authorisation exemption and not a possession one, and crack is far above that in any event. The presumption weight is measured against the material, so a rock is weighed as it is found.
Consequences if caught: Crack has no separate identity in Malaysian law and needs none. It is cocaine in its free base form, «Cocaine» is named in Part III of the First Schedule, and that Part extends to «The salts of the drugs listed in this Part, including the salts of esters, ethers and isomers as provided above whenever the existence of such salts is possible». Section 39B(2) therefore reaches it directly, with death or imprisonment for life. The chain is short and it passes through no weight at any point. Section 2 defines a «dangerous drug» as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule», section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», whether on your own behalf or on behalf of any other person, and section 39B(2) sets the penalty. And the word «trafficking» is itself defined in section 2, far wider than selling: it «includes the doing of any of the following acts, that is to say, manufacturing, importing, exporting, keeping, concealing, buying, selling, giving, receiving, storing, administering, transporting, carrying, sending, delivering, procuring, supplying or distributing any dangerous drug otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act». Keeping, carrying and storing are on that list, so nothing commercial has to be shown. The cocaine presumption at section 37(da)(ix), «40 grammes or more in weight of cocaine», is what applies, and it is measured against the material as seized. A rock is weighed as it is found, not assayed, so the bulking agent counts toward the 40 grammes. Coca leaves are a separate entry with a separate and far higher figure, subparagraph (x), «2,000 grammes or more in weight of coca leaves», and no subparagraph aggregates the two. Section 37(da) closes with the words «otherwise than in accordance with the authority of this Act or any other written law, shall be presumed, until the contrary is proved, to be trafficking in the said drug», so it is a rebuttable presumption about proof and not a definition of the offence, and the words «until the contrary is proved» are what put the defendant to proof. Section 39B(2) itself turns on quantity at no point. Below trafficking there are two further tiers, and they are a separate list from the presumption weights. Section 39A(1)(e) applies where the subject matter is 5 grammes or more but less than 15 grammes of cocaine, and sets «imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than two years but shall not exceed five years» with «whipping of not less than three strokes but not more than nine strokes». Section 39A(2)(e) applies where the offence is «not punishable with death» and the subject matter is 15 grammes or more, and sets «imprisonment for life or for a term which shall not be less than five years» with «whipping of not less than ten strokes». Death is available and it is no longer mandatory, and the change has a date. Section 39B(2) once read simply «on conviction with death». The Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017, Act A1558, in force 15 March 2018, opened a narrow gate out of that, a date carried forward from the earlier reading and not re-derived in this pass. The Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, came into operation on 4 July 2023, and section 54 of it is the whole of what it did to the Dangerous Drugs Act: it substituted «be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes» for fifteen strokes in subsection (2), and it deleted subsections (2A) and (2B), which were the mandatory death machinery. Section 39B(2) now reads, in full: «Any person who contravenes any of the provisions of subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence against this Act and shall be punished on conviction with death or imprisonment for life and shall, if he is not sentenced to death, be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes.» So the court chooses between death and imprisonment for life with no precondition, and at least twelve strokes follow any sentence that is not death. Act 846 is widely described as replacing life with a term of thirty to forty years. It did that in the Penal Code, the Firearms (Increased Penalties) Act 1971, the Arms Act 1960, the Kidnapping Act 1961, the Strategic Trade Act 2010 and the Criminal Procedure Code. It did not do it here: the words «imprisonment for life» in section 39B(2) are untouched and no definition of that phrase appears anywhere in the Dangerous Drugs Act, so no year figure is stated in this cell. Section 55 of Act 846 applies the amended section to anyone sentenced after it came into operation even where the offence was committed before. Below trafficking, the possession offence is section 12. Section 11(1) provides that «This Part applies to dangerous drugs listed in Parts III, IV and V of the First Schedule», which is what brings a Part III substance inside Part IV of the Act. Section 12(2) then prohibits having such a drug in your possession, custody or control «unless he is authorized to be in possession, custody or control of such drug or is deemed to be so authorized under this Act or the regulations made thereunder», and section 12(3) punishes a contravention with «a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Self-administration is section 15(1), at a fine not exceeding five thousand ringgit or imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, and section 38B(1) then requires supervision for not less than two and not more than three years after the sentence has been served. Three procedural consequences follow automatically. Section 41(1) removes a section 39B charge from the Sessions Court and the Magistrates' Court, so it is tried in the High Court, and section 41A(3) has it tried by a judge sitting alone. Section 41B(1) provides that bail «shall not be granted» where the offence is punishable with death, and also where it is punishable with imprisonment for more than five years. Section 38A, which lets a court deal with a drug dependant under eighteen under the Drug Dependants (Treatment and Rehabilitation) Act 1983 rather than punish him, is expressly unavailable for a section 39B offence. Section 39C separately escalates a repeat offender under the consumption and possession provisions to not less than five and not more than seven years with not more than three strokes. The Part V exemption for preparations at or below 0.1 per cent cocaine base is an export authorisation exemption on its own heading, and crack is far above that figure in any event. The list can move under all of this. Section 45A is headed «Power of the Minister to vary First Schedule» and it operates either on a decision of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs or of the United Nations Organization altering the Schedules to the Single Convention, or simply where the Minister «considers it expedient to add a substance to, or remove a substance from, or vary the First Schedule, he may by order make the requisite modifications». An order takes effect on gazetting and there is no notice period. He has used it twice since the text read here, by P.U. (A) 97 gazetted 2 April 2024 and P.U. (A) 416 gazetted 25 November 2025, both carried forward from the earlier reading and neither re-read in this pass. The text read for this cell is the Attorney General's Chambers updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», and a later order is not ruled out.
If prescribed / medical: There is no prescription route for crack cocaine in Malaysia, and this cell states that rather than leaving a reader to infer it. Every prohibition in the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, and the definition of trafficking in section 2, is qualified by the words «otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act», so a lawful holding is one that sits inside an authority granted under the Act. The authority the Act contemplates is a licence or a regulation made under it, and here there is nothing for one to attach to. It is reached at Part III of the First Schedule: it is cocaine in base form and Part III extends to «The salts of the drugs listed in this Part, including the salts of esters, ethers and isomers as provided above whenever the existence of such salts is possible». Neither Act evidences a registered product containing it. The Part V exemption for preparations containing not more than 0.1 per cent of cocaine is confined by that Part's heading to preparations for the export of which export authorizations are not required, so it is an export-paperwork provision and reaches nothing a traveller carries for use.
Documentation: There is no document to carry, because there is no lawful holding for a document to evidence. This cell says so plainly rather than leave a traveller looking for paperwork that does not exist for crack cocaine. The entry that forecloses the question is «Cocaine», reached at Part III of the First Schedule. Section 25 of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, the traveller provision, turns on a medicinal preparation supplied by or on the prescription of a medical practitioner residing outside Malaysia, so it has nothing to attach to here. It is also confined to Part V of the Act, the external trade Part, and would not answer a possession charge even if it did apply. Getting the paperwork wrong is not a paperwork penalty. Section 37(d) provides that «any person who is found to have had in his custody or under his control anything whatsoever containing any dangerous drug shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have been in possession of such drug and shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have known the nature of such drug», and section 37(da) can then presume trafficking from the weight of the material alone. A foreign prescription, a licence issued in another country, and religious or traditional use are none of them provided for anywhere in the Act. The entry the document has to answer to, in the First Schedule itself, is «Cocaine» at Part III. If the document does not answer the entry, the charge is section 12(2) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, possession of a dangerous drug without authority, and section 12(3) sets «a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Section 12(4) adds whipping of not more than three strokes where the person convicted is a public officer employed at a prison, rehabilitation centre, police lock-up or place of detention.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 in all five Parts, the entry found at Part III of the First Schedule as «Cocaine» · sections 2, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 11(1), 16, 25, 37(d), 37(da), 39A, 39B and 45A of that Act · the Poisons Act 1952 Poisons List and Third Schedule both read · the Poisons Act 1952 Third Schedule read in full · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

Crack Cocaine in Malaysia, full detail →

Delta-8-THC

Legal status: Delta-8-THC is named in Part III of the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 in terms, as «delta-8-tetrahydrocannabinol», immediately before «delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol». Its hydroxy metabolites are named too, as «8-beta-hydroxy-delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol» and «11-hydroxy-delta-8-tetrahydrocannabinol». There is no threshold, no hemp carve-out and no exemption. Malaysia therefore does not have the delta-8 loophole that exists in some other jurisdictions: the isomer is named in the Act rather than left to argument.
Consequences if caught: Malaysia closed the delta-8 argument by naming the isomer. Part III of the First Schedule carries «delta-8-tetrahydrocannabinol» on the line immediately before «delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol», so section 2 makes it a dangerous drug on its own terms and section 39B(2) answers trafficking in it with death or imprisonment for life. The chain is short and it passes through no weight at any point. Section 2 defines a «dangerous drug» as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule», section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», whether on your own behalf or on behalf of any other person, and section 39B(2) sets the penalty. And the word «trafficking» is itself defined in section 2, far wider than selling: it «includes the doing of any of the following acts, that is to say, manufacturing, importing, exporting, keeping, concealing, buying, selling, giving, receiving, storing, administering, transporting, carrying, sending, delivering, procuring, supplying or distributing any dangerous drug otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act». Keeping, carrying and storing are on that list, so nothing commercial has to be shown. It has no section 37(da) presumption weight of its own. The 200 gramme cannabis figures at subparagraphs (vi) to (viii) attach to cannabis and cannabis resin, not to a named cannabinoid, so a delta-8 preparation that is not plant material has no figure at all and the prosecution proves trafficking without a presumption. So there is no presumption to rebut and no threshold to stay under, and section 39B(2) applies in the same terms as it would to a weighed substance. The other presumption is still there. Section 37(d) provides that any person found to have had in his custody or under his control anything whatsoever containing a dangerous drug «shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have been in possession of such drug and shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have known the nature of such drug». The words «until the contrary is proved» put the defendant to proof on both limbs, on the possession and on the knowledge. Death is available and it is no longer mandatory, and the change has a date. Section 39B(2) once read simply «on conviction with death». The Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017, Act A1558, in force 15 March 2018, opened a narrow gate out of that, a date carried forward from the earlier reading and not re-derived in this pass. The Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, came into operation on 4 July 2023, and section 54 of it is the whole of what it did to the Dangerous Drugs Act: it substituted «be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes» for fifteen strokes in subsection (2), and it deleted subsections (2A) and (2B), which were the mandatory death machinery. Section 39B(2) now reads, in full: «Any person who contravenes any of the provisions of subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence against this Act and shall be punished on conviction with death or imprisonment for life and shall, if he is not sentenced to death, be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes.» So the court chooses between death and imprisonment for life with no precondition, and at least twelve strokes follow any sentence that is not death. Act 846 is widely described as replacing life with a term of thirty to forty years. It did that in the Penal Code, the Firearms (Increased Penalties) Act 1971, the Arms Act 1960, the Kidnapping Act 1961, the Strategic Trade Act 2010 and the Criminal Procedure Code. It did not do it here: the words «imprisonment for life» in section 39B(2) are untouched and no definition of that phrase appears anywhere in the Dangerous Drugs Act, so no year figure is stated in this cell. Section 55 of Act 846 applies the amended section to anyone sentenced after it came into operation even where the offence was committed before. Below trafficking, the possession offence is section 12. Section 11(1) provides that «This Part applies to dangerous drugs listed in Parts III, IV and V of the First Schedule», which is what brings a Part III substance inside Part IV of the Act. Section 12(2) then prohibits having such a drug in your possession, custody or control «unless he is authorized to be in possession, custody or control of such drug or is deemed to be so authorized under this Act or the regulations made thereunder», and section 12(3) punishes a contravention with «a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Self-administration is section 15(1), at a fine not exceeding five thousand ringgit or imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, and section 38B(1) then requires supervision for not less than two and not more than three years after the sentence has been served. Three procedural consequences follow automatically. Section 41(1) removes a section 39B charge from the Sessions Court and the Magistrates' Court, so it is tried in the High Court, and section 41A(3) has it tried by a judge sitting alone. Section 41B(1) provides that bail «shall not be granted» where the offence is punishable with death, and also where it is punishable with imprisonment for more than five years. Section 38A, which lets a court deal with a drug dependant under eighteen under the Drug Dependants (Treatment and Rehabilitation) Act 1983 rather than punish him, is expressly unavailable for a section 39B offence. Section 39C separately escalates a repeat offender under the consumption and possession provisions to not less than five and not more than seven years with not more than three strokes. Part III also names the hydroxy metabolites, as «11-hydroxy-delta-8-tetrahydrocannabinol» and «8-beta-hydroxy-delta-9-tetrahydroxycannabinol», spelling as printed. There is no hemp carve-out, no percentage and no exemption anywhere in the Act. The list can move under all of this. Section 45A is headed «Power of the Minister to vary First Schedule» and it operates either on a decision of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs or of the United Nations Organization altering the Schedules to the Single Convention, or simply where the Minister «considers it expedient to add a substance to, or remove a substance from, or vary the First Schedule, he may by order make the requisite modifications». An order takes effect on gazetting and there is no notice period. He has used it twice since the text read here, by P.U. (A) 97 gazetted 2 April 2024 and P.U. (A) 416 gazetted 25 November 2025, both carried forward from the earlier reading and neither re-read in this pass. The text read for this cell is the Attorney General's Chambers updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», and a later order is not ruled out.
If prescribed / medical: There is no prescription route for Delta-8-THC in Malaysia, and this cell states that rather than leaving a reader to infer it. Every prohibition in the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, and the definition of trafficking in section 2, is qualified by the words «otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act», so a lawful holding is one that sits inside an authority granted under the Act. The authority the Act contemplates is a licence or a regulation made under it, and here there is nothing for one to attach to. It is reached at Part III of the First Schedule: it is named in terms, immediately before «delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol». Neither Act evidences a registered product containing it. There is no threshold and no hemp carve-out, so the isomer that is treated as a gap in some other jurisdictions is named on the face of the Malaysian Schedule and there is nothing to argue about and nothing to license.
Documentation: There is no document to carry, because there is no lawful holding for a document to evidence. This cell says so plainly rather than leave a traveller looking for paperwork that does not exist for Delta-8-THC. The entry that forecloses the question is «delta-8-tetrahydrocannabinol», reached at Part III of the First Schedule. Section 25 of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, the traveller provision, turns on a medicinal preparation supplied by or on the prescription of a medical practitioner residing outside Malaysia, so it has nothing to attach to here. It is also confined to Part V of the Act, the external trade Part, and would not answer a possession charge even if it did apply. Getting the paperwork wrong is not a paperwork penalty. Section 37(d) provides that «any person who is found to have had in his custody or under his control anything whatsoever containing any dangerous drug shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have been in possession of such drug and shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have known the nature of such drug», and section 37(da) can then presume trafficking from the weight of the material alone. A foreign prescription, a licence issued in another country, and religious or traditional use are none of them provided for anywhere in the Act. The entry the document has to answer to, in the First Schedule itself, is «delta-8-tetrahydrocannabinol» at Part III. If the document does not answer the entry, the charge is section 12(2) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, possession of a dangerous drug without authority, and section 12(3) sets «a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Section 12(4) adds whipping of not more than three strokes where the person convicted is a public officer employed at a prison, rehabilitation centre, police lock-up or place of detention.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 in all five Parts, the entry found at Part III of the First Schedule as «delta-8-tetrahydrocannabinol» · sections 2, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 11(1), 16, 25, 37(d), 37(da), 39A, 39B and 45A of that Act · the Poisons Act 1952 Poisons List and Third Schedule both read · the Poisons Act 1952 Third Schedule read in full · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

Delta-8-THC in Malaysia, full detail →

Diazepam

Legal status: Controlled under the Poisons Act 1952 rather than the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952. Diazepam is the named anchor of the benzodiazepine class formula in both Poisons Act 1952 lists: the Poisons List reads «Diazepam and other substances structurally derived from 1, 4-benzodiazepine; their salts, unless specified elsewhere», and the Third Schedule of psychotropic substances reads «Diazepam and other subtances structurally derivated from 1,4-benzodiazepine except flumazenil and pirenzepine». It is NOT in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952. Flunitrazepam and nimetazepam are, so the family straddles the two Acts.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Diazepam is not in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, although it is the named anchor of the benzodiazepine class formula in the Poisons Act lists. The only two benzodiazepines the First Schedule names are «Flunitrazepam» and «Nimetazepam», in Part III. Section 39B is the only capital provision in Malaysian drug law, and section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», which section 2 defines as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule». A substance outside that Schedule cannot be trafficked within the meaning of section 39B however much of it there is, the section 37(da) presumption weights do not reach it, and neither do the section 39A enhanced penalties. What applies instead is section 30 of the Poisons Act 1952, which provides at subsection (3) that «no person shall import, export, manufacture, compound, mix, dispense, sell, supply, administer, possess or use any psychotropic substance otherwise than in accordance with any regulations applicable thereto», and at subsection (5) that a contravention is punishable «to a fine not exceeding ten thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding four years or both». Section 30(4) carries a possession presumption of its own: a person found with the substance in his custody or control «shall be deemed to have been in possession of the substance and to have known the nature of the substance, until he proves to the contrary». Four years and ten thousand ringgit against death. That is the single largest cliff in Malaysian drug law and it turns entirely on which of two schedules a substance sits in. And the ground can move under it: section 45A of the Dangerous Drugs Act lets the Minister add a substance to the First Schedule by order, and section 30(2) of the Poisons Act lets him amend the Third Schedule the same way.
If prescribed / medical: This is a prescription-supply question and not a trafficking one. Diazepam is a psychotropic substance under the Poisons Act 1952, named as the anchor of the class formula in both Poisons Act lists, appearing in the Third Schedule as «Diazepam and other subtances structurally derivated from 1,4-benzodiazepine except flumazenil and pirenzepine» and in the Poisons List as «Diazepam and other substances structurally derived from 1, 4-benzodiazepine; their salts, unless specified elsewhere». Section 30(1) provides that «In this section, “psychotropic substance” means any of the substances specified in the Third Schedule», and section 30(3) then prohibits importing, exporting, manufacturing, compounding, mixing, dispensing, selling, supplying, administering, possessing or using such a substance «otherwise than in accordance with any regulations applicable thereto made under this Act». Those regulations are the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989, and regulation 3 is the one a patient stands on: possession is prohibited unless «he is authorised to be in possession of such psychotropic substance under these Regulations» and the substance is for a lawful purpose and obtained under them. Regulation 3(2)(l) places a person lawfully supplied «in accordance with a prescription lawfully given by a registered medical practitioner, registered dentist Division I of a veterinary surgeon» inside that authority, the wording of that paragraph being the publisher's. Diazepam is the substance the formula is built around, so for it alone the class entry and a named entry come to the same thing. The express exceptions in the Third Schedule entry are flumazenil and pirenzepine and nothing else.
Documentation: Carry the prescription and the dispensing label with the medicine, in its original packaging. The entry the prescription has to answer to is «Diazepam and other subtances structurally derivated from 1,4-benzodiazepine except flumazenil and pirenzepine» in the Third Schedule, with «Diazepam and other substances structurally derived from 1, 4-benzodiazepine; their salts, unless specified elsewhere» in the Poisons List beside it. Regulation 4(2)(a) of the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 is the traveller provision and it fixes a figure the Dangerous Drugs Act never does: a person arriving in or leaving Malaysia who carries, as part of personal luggage and solely for personal or family use, a prepared or packaged medicine containing a psychotropic substance is outside the import authorisation requirement, provided the quantity is «not exceeding such quantities as may be reasonably required for one month's use by one person» and it has been lawfully supplied by or on the prescription of a qualified medical practitioner. Section 30(4) presumes possession and knowledge from custody or control: a person found with the substance «shall be deemed to have been in possession of the substance and to have known the nature of the substance, until he proves to the contrary». The prescription is what rebuts it. The penalty under section 30(5) is «a fine not exceeding ten thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding four years or both». The control is the Poisons Act 1952 and its regulations rather than the Dangerous Drugs Act, so the trafficking regime and its presumptions are not in play for diazepam.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: the Poisons Act 1952 Third Schedule, the entry found as «Diazepam and other subtances structurally derivated from 1,4-benzodiazepine except flumazenil and pirenzepine», named as the anchor of the class formula in both Poisons Act lists · the Poisons List, whose printed class formula anchored on diazepam is reproduced in full in this cell's status field · sections 30(1) to 30(5) and 32(2) of that Act · the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 incorporating P.U. (A) 405/2018, regulations 3, 4 and 9 and the Second Schedule to those Regulations, in which this substance is not named · and the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 read in all five Parts, and diazepam not found in any of them · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated October 8, 2026

Diazepam in Malaysia, full detail →

DMT

Legal status: DMT is named in Part III of the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 as «DMT, N. N-dimethyltryptamine», with «DET, N, N-diethyltryptamine» and «Etryptamine» beside it. It is a dangerous drug and it has no section 37(da) presumption weight.
Consequences if caught: Part III of the First Schedule names «DMT, N. N-dimethyltryptamine», punctuation as printed, with «DET, N, N-diethyltryptamine» and «Etryptamine» beside it. Section 39B(2) reaches it, with death or imprisonment for life on a trafficking conviction. The chain is short and it passes through no weight at any point. Section 2 defines a «dangerous drug» as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule», section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», whether on your own behalf or on behalf of any other person, and section 39B(2) sets the penalty. And the word «trafficking» is itself defined in section 2, far wider than selling: it «includes the doing of any of the following acts, that is to say, manufacturing, importing, exporting, keeping, concealing, buying, selling, giving, receiving, storing, administering, transporting, carrying, sending, delivering, procuring, supplying or distributing any dangerous drug otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act». Keeping, carrying and storing are on that list, so nothing commercial has to be shown. It has no section 37(da) presumption weight. None of the tryptamines in Part III has one; the fourteen weighted substances are all amphetamine-type compounds. So there is no presumption to rebut and no threshold to stay under, and section 39B(2) applies in the same terms as it would to a weighed substance. The other presumption is still there. Section 37(d) provides that any person found to have had in his custody or under his control anything whatsoever containing a dangerous drug «shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have been in possession of such drug and shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have known the nature of such drug». The words «until the contrary is proved» put the defendant to proof on both limbs, on the possession and on the knowledge. Death is available and it is no longer mandatory, and the change has a date. Section 39B(2) once read simply «on conviction with death». The Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017, Act A1558, in force 15 March 2018, opened a narrow gate out of that, a date carried forward from the earlier reading and not re-derived in this pass. The Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, came into operation on 4 July 2023, and section 54 of it is the whole of what it did to the Dangerous Drugs Act: it substituted «be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes» for fifteen strokes in subsection (2), and it deleted subsections (2A) and (2B), which were the mandatory death machinery. Section 39B(2) now reads, in full: «Any person who contravenes any of the provisions of subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence against this Act and shall be punished on conviction with death or imprisonment for life and shall, if he is not sentenced to death, be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes.» So the court chooses between death and imprisonment for life with no precondition, and at least twelve strokes follow any sentence that is not death. Act 846 is widely described as replacing life with a term of thirty to forty years. It did that in the Penal Code, the Firearms (Increased Penalties) Act 1971, the Arms Act 1960, the Kidnapping Act 1961, the Strategic Trade Act 2010 and the Criminal Procedure Code. It did not do it here: the words «imprisonment for life» in section 39B(2) are untouched and no definition of that phrase appears anywhere in the Dangerous Drugs Act, so no year figure is stated in this cell. Section 55 of Act 846 applies the amended section to anyone sentenced after it came into operation even where the offence was committed before. Below trafficking, the possession offence is section 12. Section 11(1) provides that «This Part applies to dangerous drugs listed in Parts III, IV and V of the First Schedule», which is what brings a Part III substance inside Part IV of the Act. Section 12(2) then prohibits having such a drug in your possession, custody or control «unless he is authorized to be in possession, custody or control of such drug or is deemed to be so authorized under this Act or the regulations made thereunder», and section 12(3) punishes a contravention with «a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Self-administration is section 15(1), at a fine not exceeding five thousand ringgit or imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, and section 38B(1) then requires supervision for not less than two and not more than three years after the sentence has been served. Three procedural consequences follow automatically. Section 41(1) removes a section 39B charge from the Sessions Court and the Magistrates' Court, so it is tried in the High Court, and section 41A(3) has it tried by a judge sitting alone. Section 41B(1) provides that bail «shall not be granted» where the offence is punishable with death, and also where it is punishable with imprisonment for more than five years. Section 38A, which lets a court deal with a drug dependant under eighteen under the Drug Dependants (Treatment and Rehabilitation) Act 1983 rather than punish him, is expressly unavailable for a section 39B offence. Section 39C separately escalates a repeat offender under the consumption and possession provisions to not less than five and not more than seven years with not more than three strokes. The Act names plants when it means them, in Parts I and II for cannabis and the opium poppy and at Part III for the extracts and tinctures of cannabis, coca leaves and opium. There is no entry for any tryptamine-bearing plant, so a preparation is reached through the DMT it contains. The list can move under all of this. Section 45A is headed «Power of the Minister to vary First Schedule» and it operates either on a decision of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs or of the United Nations Organization altering the Schedules to the Single Convention, or simply where the Minister «considers it expedient to add a substance to, or remove a substance from, or vary the First Schedule, he may by order make the requisite modifications». An order takes effect on gazetting and there is no notice period. He has used it twice since the text read here, by P.U. (A) 97 gazetted 2 April 2024 and P.U. (A) 416 gazetted 25 November 2025, both carried forward from the earlier reading and neither re-read in this pass. The text read for this cell is the Attorney General's Chambers updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», and a later order is not ruled out.
If prescribed / medical: There is no prescription route for DMT in Malaysia, and this cell states that rather than leaving a reader to infer it. Every prohibition in the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, and the definition of trafficking in section 2, is qualified by the words «otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act», so a lawful holding is one that sits inside an authority granted under the Act. The authority the Act contemplates is a licence or a regulation made under it, and here there is nothing for one to attach to. It is reached at Part III of the First Schedule: it is named in terms. Neither Act evidences a registered product containing it. «DET, N, N-diethyltryptamine» and «Etryptamine» are named beside it, each as its own entry.
Documentation: There is no document to carry, because there is no lawful holding for a document to evidence. This cell says so plainly rather than leave a traveller looking for paperwork that does not exist for DMT. The entry that forecloses the question is «DMT, N. N-dimethyltryptamine», reached at Part III of the First Schedule. Section 25 of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, the traveller provision, turns on a medicinal preparation supplied by or on the prescription of a medical practitioner residing outside Malaysia, so it has nothing to attach to here. It is also confined to Part V of the Act, the external trade Part, and would not answer a possession charge even if it did apply. Getting the paperwork wrong is not a paperwork penalty. Section 37(d) provides that «any person who is found to have had in his custody or under his control anything whatsoever containing any dangerous drug shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have been in possession of such drug and shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have known the nature of such drug», and section 37(da) can then presume trafficking from the weight of the material alone. A foreign prescription, a licence issued in another country, and religious or traditional use are none of them provided for anywhere in the Act. The entry the document has to answer to, in the First Schedule itself, is «DMT, N. N-dimethyltryptamine» at Part III. If the document does not answer the entry, the charge is section 12(2) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, possession of a dangerous drug without authority, and section 12(3) sets «a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Section 12(4) adds whipping of not more than three strokes where the person convicted is a public officer employed at a prison, rehabilitation centre, police lock-up or place of detention.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 in all five Parts, the entry found at Part III of the First Schedule as «DMT, N. N-dimethyltryptamine» · sections 2, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 11(1), 16, 25, 37(d), 37(da), 39A, 39B and 45A of that Act · the Poisons Act 1952 Poisons List and Third Schedule both read · the Poisons Act 1952 Third Schedule read in full · the entry is a named one, read together with the neighbouring entries for DET and etryptamine, each of which is separate · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

DMT in Malaysia, full detail →

DOM

Legal status: DOM is in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 and a search for the letters DOM or for STP will not find it. The entry, in Part III, is the systematic name: «2-amino-1-(2, 5-dimethoxy-4-methyl) phenylpropane». The same systematic name is what section 37(da)(xi) and section 39A use, so DOM does carry a trafficking presumption weight even though the schedule never prints the abbreviation. This is the clearest case in the Malaysian schedule of a substance that is present and invisible to a name search.
Consequences if caught: DOM is in the First Schedule and a search for the letters DOM or for STP will not find it. The Part III entry is the systematic name, «2-amino-1-(2, 5-dimethoxy-4-methyl) phenylpropane», and section 39B(2) reaches it like any other dangerous drug, with death or imprisonment for life. The chain is short and it passes through no weight at any point. Section 2 defines a «dangerous drug» as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule», section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», whether on your own behalf or on behalf of any other person, and section 39B(2) sets the penalty. And the word «trafficking» is itself defined in section 2, far wider than selling: it «includes the doing of any of the following acts, that is to say, manufacturing, importing, exporting, keeping, concealing, buying, selling, giving, receiving, storing, administering, transporting, carrying, sending, delivering, procuring, supplying or distributing any dangerous drug otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act». Keeping, carrying and storing are on that list, so nothing commercial has to be shown. It also carries a presumption weight, and the same systematic name is what section 37(da)(xi) uses: «50 grammes or more in weight of 2-Amino-1-(2, 5-dimethoxy-4-methyl) phenylpropane», the «50 grammes or more» shared across the block. It heads the fourteen-substance block, and subparagraph (xxv) adds «a total of 50 grammes or more in weight of any combination of the dangerous drugs listed in subparagraphs (xi) to (xxiv)». Section 37(da) closes with the words «otherwise than in accordance with the authority of this Act or any other written law, shall be presumed, until the contrary is proved, to be trafficking in the said drug», so it is a rebuttable presumption about proof and not a definition of the offence, and the words «until the contrary is proved» are what put the defendant to proof. Section 39B(2) itself turns on quantity at no point. Below trafficking there are two further tiers, and they are a separate list from the presumption weights. Section 39A(1)(m) applies where the subject matter is 5 grammes or more but less than 30 grammes of it, and sets «imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than two years but shall not exceed five years» with «whipping of not less than three strokes but not more than nine strokes». Section 39A(2)(m) applies where the offence is «not punishable with death» and the subject matter is 30 grammes or more, and sets «imprisonment for life or for a term which shall not be less than five years» with «whipping of not less than ten strokes». Death is available and it is no longer mandatory, and the change has a date. Section 39B(2) once read simply «on conviction with death». The Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017, Act A1558, in force 15 March 2018, opened a narrow gate out of that, a date carried forward from the earlier reading and not re-derived in this pass. The Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, came into operation on 4 July 2023, and section 54 of it is the whole of what it did to the Dangerous Drugs Act: it substituted «be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes» for fifteen strokes in subsection (2), and it deleted subsections (2A) and (2B), which were the mandatory death machinery. Section 39B(2) now reads, in full: «Any person who contravenes any of the provisions of subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence against this Act and shall be punished on conviction with death or imprisonment for life and shall, if he is not sentenced to death, be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes.» So the court chooses between death and imprisonment for life with no precondition, and at least twelve strokes follow any sentence that is not death. Act 846 is widely described as replacing life with a term of thirty to forty years. It did that in the Penal Code, the Firearms (Increased Penalties) Act 1971, the Arms Act 1960, the Kidnapping Act 1961, the Strategic Trade Act 2010 and the Criminal Procedure Code. It did not do it here: the words «imprisonment for life» in section 39B(2) are untouched and no definition of that phrase appears anywhere in the Dangerous Drugs Act, so no year figure is stated in this cell. Section 55 of Act 846 applies the amended section to anyone sentenced after it came into operation even where the offence was committed before. Below trafficking, the possession offence is section 12. Section 11(1) provides that «This Part applies to dangerous drugs listed in Parts III, IV and V of the First Schedule», which is what brings a Part III substance inside Part IV of the Act. Section 12(2) then prohibits having such a drug in your possession, custody or control «unless he is authorized to be in possession, custody or control of such drug or is deemed to be so authorized under this Act or the regulations made thereunder», and section 12(3) punishes a contravention with «a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Self-administration is section 15(1), at a fine not exceeding five thousand ringgit or imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, and section 38B(1) then requires supervision for not less than two and not more than three years after the sentence has been served. Three procedural consequences follow automatically. Section 41(1) removes a section 39B charge from the Sessions Court and the Magistrates' Court, so it is tried in the High Court, and section 41A(3) has it tried by a judge sitting alone. Section 41B(1) provides that bail «shall not be granted» where the offence is punishable with death, and also where it is punishable with imprisonment for more than five years. Section 38A, which lets a court deal with a drug dependant under eighteen under the Drug Dependants (Treatment and Rehabilitation) Act 1983 rather than punish him, is expressly unavailable for a section 39B offence. Section 39C separately escalates a repeat offender under the consumption and possession provisions to not less than five and not more than seven years with not more than three strokes. This is the clearest case in the Malaysian schedule of a substance that is present and invisible to a name search. Three neighbours are printed the same way and are separate substances with separate weights: «2, 5-Dimethoxyamphetamine (DMA)», «Dimethoxybromoamphetamine (DOB)» and «2, 5-Dimethoxy-4-ethylamphetamine (DOET)». The list can move under all of this. Section 45A is headed «Power of the Minister to vary First Schedule» and it operates either on a decision of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs or of the United Nations Organization altering the Schedules to the Single Convention, or simply where the Minister «considers it expedient to add a substance to, or remove a substance from, or vary the First Schedule, he may by order make the requisite modifications». An order takes effect on gazetting and there is no notice period. He has used it twice since the text read here, by P.U. (A) 97 gazetted 2 April 2024 and P.U. (A) 416 gazetted 25 November 2025, both carried forward from the earlier reading and neither re-read in this pass. The text read for this cell is the Attorney General's Chambers updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», and a later order is not ruled out.
If prescribed / medical: There is no prescription route for DOM in Malaysia, and this cell states that rather than leaving a reader to infer it. Every prohibition in the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, and the definition of trafficking in section 2, is qualified by the words «otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act», so a lawful holding is one that sits inside an authority granted under the Act. The authority the Act contemplates is a licence or a regulation made under it, and here there is nothing for one to attach to. It is reached at Part III of the First Schedule: it is named there under its systematic name and not under the letters DOM or STP. Neither Act evidences a registered product containing it. The Poisons List carries the same substance twice, as «STP or DOM or 2-amino-1-(2, 5-dimethoxy-4-methyl) phenylpropane (DD)» and as «1-(2,5-Dimethoxy-4-methylphenyl)propan-2-amine (STP/DOM) (DD)», both with the dangerous drug marker, so the two lists agree even though only one of them prints the abbreviation.
Documentation: There is no document to carry, because there is no lawful holding for a document to evidence. This cell says so plainly rather than leave a traveller looking for paperwork that does not exist for DOM. The entry that forecloses the question is «2-amino-1-(2, 5-dimethoxy-4-methyl) phenylpropane», reached at Part III of the First Schedule. Section 25 of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, the traveller provision, turns on a medicinal preparation supplied by or on the prescription of a medical practitioner residing outside Malaysia, so it has nothing to attach to here. It is also confined to Part V of the Act, the external trade Part, and would not answer a possession charge even if it did apply. Getting the paperwork wrong is not a paperwork penalty. Section 37(d) provides that «any person who is found to have had in his custody or under his control anything whatsoever containing any dangerous drug shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have been in possession of such drug and shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have known the nature of such drug», and section 37(da) can then presume trafficking from the weight of the material alone. A foreign prescription, a licence issued in another country, and religious or traditional use are none of them provided for anywhere in the Act. The entry the document has to answer to, in the First Schedule itself, is «2-amino-1-(2, 5-dimethoxy-4-methyl) phenylpropane» at Part III. If the document does not answer the entry, the charge is section 12(2) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, possession of a dangerous drug without authority, and section 12(3) sets «a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Section 12(4) adds whipping of not more than three strokes where the person convicted is a public officer employed at a prison, rehabilitation centre, police lock-up or place of detention.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 in all five Parts, the entry found at Part III of the First Schedule as «2-amino-1-(2, 5-dimethoxy-4-methyl) phenylpropane» · sections 2, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 11(1), 16, 25, 37(d), 37(da), 39A, 39B and 45A of that Act · the Poisons Act 1952 Poisons List and Third Schedule both read · the Poisons Act 1952 Third Schedule read in full · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

DOM in Malaysia, full detail →

Ephedrine

Legal status: Ephedrine is NOT in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, which settles the point that matters: it is not a dangerous drug and section 39B cannot reach it. What controls it is less tidy than the live corpus assumes. Searched by name, «Ephedrine» and «Pseudoephedrine» do not appear as entries in the Poisons List at all; what appears is «Ephedra, alkaloids of» and «N-Methylephedrine», and the precursor chemicals in that list are entries such as «Acetic anhydride» and «N-acetylanthranilic acid». So ephedrine is controlled as an alkaloid of Ephedra, and a separate precursor instrument, if one exists, was not located in this session. What is settled is the absence from the dangerous drugs schedule.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Ephedrine is not in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952. It is named in none of the five Parts, and neither is pseudoephedrine, so neither is a dangerous drug however it is used. Section 39B is the only capital provision in Malaysian drug law, and section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», which section 2 defines as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule». A substance outside that Schedule cannot be trafficked within the meaning of section 39B however much of it there is, the section 37(da) presumption weights do not reach it, and neither do the section 39A enhanced penalties. What applies instead is section 30 of the Poisons Act 1952, which provides at subsection (3) that «no person shall import, export, manufacture, compound, mix, dispense, sell, supply, administer, possess or use any psychotropic substance otherwise than in accordance with any regulations applicable thereto», and at subsection (5) that a contravention is punishable «to a fine not exceeding ten thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding four years or both». Section 30(4) carries a possession presumption of its own: a person found with the substance in his custody or control «shall be deemed to have been in possession of the substance and to have known the nature of the substance, until he proves to the contrary». Four years and ten thousand ringgit against death. That is the single largest cliff in Malaysian drug law and it turns entirely on which of two schedules a substance sits in. And the ground can move under it: section 45A of the Dangerous Drugs Act lets the Minister add a substance to the First Schedule by order, and section 30(2) of the Poisons Act lets him amend the Third Schedule the same way.
If prescribed / medical: Ephedrine is a poison under the Poisons Act 1952 but it is not a psychotropic substance under it, and that distinction decides which sections apply. Section 30(1) provides that «In this section, “psychotropic substance” means any of the substances specified in the Third Schedule». Because ephedrine is absent from that Schedule, section 30 and the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 do not reach it at all. What reaches it is the Poisons List, where it appears as «Ephedra, alkaloids of, including synthetic preparations», together with the supply provisions in sections 19 to 25. Section 19(1) carries the prescribing route: «a registered medical practitioner may sell, supply or administer such poison to his patient for the purposes of the medical treatment of such patient only», with equivalent provision for a registered dentist Division I and a veterinary officer, and the Group the poison is placed in governs who else may sell or supply it under sections 20 to 23. It is absent from the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, so nothing in that Act applies to it. Neither ephedrine nor pseudoephedrine appears in the Poisons List under its own name, which is the trap here: the entry that reaches it is the one for the alkaloids of the plant. Whether a separate precursor instrument applies was not established, because no such instrument was located in this session.
Documentation: Carry the prescription and the dispensing label with the medicine, in its original packaging. That is ordinary prudence rather than a requirement the Poisons Act places on a traveller, because the Act controls who may sell and supply a poison rather than who may hold one. The entry a border officer would be reading is «Ephedra, alkaloids of, including synthetic preparations» in the Poisons List. There is no Third Schedule entry for ephedrine to be read instead, and that absence is the whole reason the lighter sections apply. The exposure is lighter than for a psychotropic substance and it arises from different sections. Holding an ordinary poison is not prohibited as such: the provision that does prohibit possessing, section 30(3), is confined by section 30(1) to Third Schedule substances. What does touch possession is section 9(1), which provides that no person, whether licensed under the Act or not, shall «knowingly sell, supply, keep or have in his possession or under his control or store any poison otherwise than in accordance with the regulations made under this Act and in force relating to the possession, containers, packaging, labelling or storing of such poison», and section 9(2) deems that to have been done knowingly once possession is proved. So the offence is possessing a poison otherwise than in accordance with those regulations, and not possessing it at all. The regulations section 9(1) refers to were not located in this session and nothing is stated here about what they require. Section 13 separately covers possessing a poison for sale. An offence against the Act for which no other penalty is provided is punishable under section 32(2) by «a fine not exceeding three thousand ringgit or by imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year or both», rising to five thousand ringgit or two years where the court finds wilful default or culpable negligence that endangered or was likely to endanger human life. The Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989, including the one month personal import allowance in regulation 4(2)(a), do not apply to ephedrine, because they apply to Third Schedule psychotropic substances and it is not one.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: the Poisons Act 1952 Poisons List, the entry found as «Ephedra, alkaloids of, including synthetic preparations» · sections 9(1), 9(2), 13, 19 to 25, 30(1) and 32(2) of that Act · the Third Schedule read in full, and ephedrine, pseudoephedrine or Ephedra not found in it, so section 30 and the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 do not apply · and the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 read in all five Parts, and ephedrine, pseudoephedrine or Ephedra not found in any of them · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

Ephedrine in Malaysia, full detail →

Etizolam

Legal status: Etizolam is a psychotropic substance under the Poisons Act 1952, named in the Third Schedule and in the Poisons List by its own name rather than through the benzodiazepine class formula, which is correct because it is a thienodiazepine and not a 1,4-benzodiazepine. It is NOT in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952. Flunitrazepam and nimetazepam are, and etizolam is not, so it sits with the great majority of the family rather than with those two.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Etizolam is not in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952. «Flunitrazepam» and «Nimetazepam» are, in Part III, and etizolam is a thienodiazepine rather than either of them or an isomer, ester, ether or salt of either. Section 39B is the only capital provision in Malaysian drug law, and section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», which section 2 defines as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule». A substance outside that Schedule cannot be trafficked within the meaning of section 39B however much of it there is, the section 37(da) presumption weights do not reach it, and neither do the section 39A enhanced penalties. What applies instead is section 30 of the Poisons Act 1952, which provides at subsection (3) that «no person shall import, export, manufacture, compound, mix, dispense, sell, supply, administer, possess or use any psychotropic substance otherwise than in accordance with any regulations applicable thereto», and at subsection (5) that a contravention is punishable «to a fine not exceeding ten thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding four years or both». Section 30(4) carries a possession presumption of its own: a person found with the substance in his custody or control «shall be deemed to have been in possession of the substance and to have known the nature of the substance, until he proves to the contrary». Four years and ten thousand ringgit against death. That is the single largest cliff in Malaysian drug law and it turns entirely on which of two schedules a substance sits in. And the ground can move under it: section 45A of the Dangerous Drugs Act lets the Minister add a substance to the First Schedule by order, and section 30(2) of the Poisons Act lets him amend the Third Schedule the same way.
If prescribed / medical: This is a prescription-supply question and not a trafficking one. Etizolam is a psychotropic substance under the Poisons Act 1952, named in terms rather than through the benzodiazepine class formula, appearing in the Third Schedule as «Etizolam» and in the Poisons List as «Etizolam». Section 30(1) provides that «In this section, “psychotropic substance” means any of the substances specified in the Third Schedule», and section 30(3) then prohibits importing, exporting, manufacturing, compounding, mixing, dispensing, selling, supplying, administering, possessing or using such a substance «otherwise than in accordance with any regulations applicable thereto made under this Act». Those regulations are the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989, and regulation 3 is the one a patient stands on: possession is prohibited unless «he is authorised to be in possession of such psychotropic substance under these Regulations» and the substance is for a lawful purpose and obtained under them. Regulation 3(2)(l) places a person lawfully supplied «in accordance with a prescription lawfully given by a registered medical practitioner, registered dentist Division I of a veterinary surgeon» inside that authority, the wording of that paragraph being the publisher's. That is the correct treatment for it, because etizolam is a thienodiazepine and not a 1,4-benzodiazepine, so the class formula would not have reached it.
Documentation: Carry the prescription and the dispensing label with the medicine, in its original packaging. The entry the prescription has to answer to is «Etizolam» in the Third Schedule, with «Etizolam» in the Poisons List beside it. Regulation 4(2)(a) of the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 is the traveller provision and it fixes a figure the Dangerous Drugs Act never does: a person arriving in or leaving Malaysia who carries, as part of personal luggage and solely for personal or family use, a prepared or packaged medicine containing a psychotropic substance is outside the import authorisation requirement, provided the quantity is «not exceeding such quantities as may be reasonably required for one month's use by one person» and it has been lawfully supplied by or on the prescription of a qualified medical practitioner. Section 30(4) presumes possession and knowledge from custody or control: a person found with the substance «shall be deemed to have been in possession of the substance and to have known the nature of the substance, until he proves to the contrary». The prescription is what rebuts it. The penalty under section 30(5) is «a fine not exceeding ten thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding four years or both». The control is the Poisons Act 1952 and its regulations rather than the Dangerous Drugs Act, so the trafficking regime and its presumptions are not in play for etizolam.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: the Poisons Act 1952 Third Schedule, the entry found as «Etizolam», named in terms rather than through the benzodiazepine class formula · the Poisons List, carrying «Etizolam» · sections 30(1) to 30(5) and 32(2) of that Act · the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 incorporating P.U. (A) 405/2018, regulations 3, 4 and 9 and the Second Schedule to those Regulations, in which this substance is not named · and the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 read in all five Parts, and etizolam not found in any of them · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

Etizolam in Malaysia, full detail →

Fentanyl

Legal status: Fentanyl is named in Part III of the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, and Part III names roughly twenty further fentanyls with it, among them Carfentanil, Acetylfentanyl, Acryloylfentanyl, Alpha-methylfentanyl, Butyrfentanyl, Crotonylfentanyl, Cyclopropylfentanyl, Furanyl fentanyl, Ocfentanil, Orthofluorofentanyl, Para-fluorofentanyl, Valerylfentanyl and Tetrahydrofuranyl fentanyl. It is also in the Poisons Act Third Schedule at item 2, which covers registered products containing it. Fentanyl has NO section 37(da) presumption weight, and that is the single most misleading feature of this schedule.
Consequences if caught: Part III of the First Schedule names «Fentanyl», and roughly twenty further fentanyls with it, among them Carfentanil, Acetylfentanyl, Acryloylfentanyl, Alpha-methylfentanyl, Butyrfentanyl, Crotonylfentanyl, Cyclopropylfentanyl, Furanyl fentanyl, Methoxyacetylfentanyl, Ocfentanil, Orthofluorofentanyl, Para-fluorofentanyl, Valerylfentanyl and «Tetrahydrofuranyl fentanyl (THF-F)». Section 39B(2) reaches every one of them, with death or imprisonment for life. The chain is short and it passes through no weight at any point. Section 2 defines a «dangerous drug» as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule», section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», whether on your own behalf or on behalf of any other person, and section 39B(2) sets the penalty. And the word «trafficking» is itself defined in section 2, far wider than selling: it «includes the doing of any of the following acts, that is to say, manufacturing, importing, exporting, keeping, concealing, buying, selling, giving, receiving, storing, administering, transporting, carrying, sending, delivering, procuring, supplying or distributing any dangerous drug otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act». Keeping, carrying and storing are on that list, so nothing commercial has to be shown. Fentanyl has no section 37(da) presumption weight, and that is the single most misleading feature of this Schedule. The weighted substances are heroin, morphine, monoacetylmorphines, opium, cannabis, cocaine, coca leaves and fourteen amphetamine-type compounds, and no fentanyl is among them. So there is no presumption to rebut and no threshold to stay under, and section 39B(2) applies in the same terms as it would to a weighed substance. The other presumption is still there. Section 37(d) provides that any person found to have had in his custody or under his control anything whatsoever containing a dangerous drug «shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have been in possession of such drug and shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have known the nature of such drug». The words «until the contrary is proved» put the defendant to proof on both limbs, on the possession and on the knowledge. Death is available and it is no longer mandatory, and the change has a date. Section 39B(2) once read simply «on conviction with death». The Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017, Act A1558, in force 15 March 2018, opened a narrow gate out of that, a date carried forward from the earlier reading and not re-derived in this pass. The Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, came into operation on 4 July 2023, and section 54 of it is the whole of what it did to the Dangerous Drugs Act: it substituted «be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes» for fifteen strokes in subsection (2), and it deleted subsections (2A) and (2B), which were the mandatory death machinery. Section 39B(2) now reads, in full: «Any person who contravenes any of the provisions of subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence against this Act and shall be punished on conviction with death or imprisonment for life and shall, if he is not sentenced to death, be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes.» So the court chooses between death and imprisonment for life with no precondition, and at least twelve strokes follow any sentence that is not death. Act 846 is widely described as replacing life with a term of thirty to forty years. It did that in the Penal Code, the Firearms (Increased Penalties) Act 1971, the Arms Act 1960, the Kidnapping Act 1961, the Strategic Trade Act 2010 and the Criminal Procedure Code. It did not do it here: the words «imprisonment for life» in section 39B(2) are untouched and no definition of that phrase appears anywhere in the Dangerous Drugs Act, so no year figure is stated in this cell. Section 55 of Act 846 applies the amended section to anyone sentenced after it came into operation even where the offence was committed before. Below trafficking, the possession offence is section 12. Section 11(1) provides that «This Part applies to dangerous drugs listed in Parts III, IV and V of the First Schedule», which is what brings a Part III substance inside Part IV of the Act. Section 12(2) then prohibits having such a drug in your possession, custody or control «unless he is authorized to be in possession, custody or control of such drug or is deemed to be so authorized under this Act or the regulations made thereunder», and section 12(3) punishes a contravention with «a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Self-administration is section 15(1), at a fine not exceeding five thousand ringgit or imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, and section 38B(1) then requires supervision for not less than two and not more than three years after the sentence has been served. Three procedural consequences follow automatically. Section 41(1) removes a section 39B charge from the Sessions Court and the Magistrates' Court, so it is tried in the High Court, and section 41A(3) has it tried by a judge sitting alone. Section 41B(1) provides that bail «shall not be granted» where the offence is punishable with death, and also where it is punishable with imprisonment for more than five years. Section 38A, which lets a court deal with a drug dependant under eighteen under the Drug Dependants (Treatment and Rehabilitation) Act 1983 rather than punish him, is expressly unavailable for a section 39B offence. Section 39C separately escalates a repeat offender under the consumption and possession provisions to not less than five and not more than seven years with not more than three strokes. The absence of a weight is not a lighter position. It means the prosecution proves an act within the section 2 trafficking definition instead of relying on a presumption, and section 39B(2) then applies unchanged. The list can move under all of this. Section 45A is headed «Power of the Minister to vary First Schedule» and it operates either on a decision of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs or of the United Nations Organization altering the Schedules to the Single Convention, or simply where the Minister «considers it expedient to add a substance to, or remove a substance from, or vary the First Schedule, he may by order make the requisite modifications». An order takes effect on gazetting and there is no notice period. He has used it twice since the text read here, by P.U. (A) 97 gazetted 2 April 2024 and P.U. (A) 416 gazetted 25 November 2025, both carried forward from the earlier reading and neither re-read in this pass. The text read for this cell is the Attorney General's Chambers updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», and a later order is not ruled out.
If prescribed / medical: Fentanyl is a dangerous drug and it is also a medicine, so both things are true of it at once. Every prohibition in the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, and the definition of trafficking in section 2, is qualified by the words «otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act», so the question for a medicine is never whether the substance is scheduled but whether the handling sits inside that authority. It is named in Part III of the First Schedule as «Fentanyl». Section 11(1) provides that «This Part applies to dangerous drugs listed in Parts III, IV and V of the First Schedule», which is what brings it inside Part IV of the Act, where section 16(1) empowers the Minister to make regulations «controlling the manufacture, sale, possession, and distribution of such drugs». That registered Malaysian products containing it exist is on the face of the Poisons List, which carries «(DD) Fentanyl» with the registered-products wording against it rather than the ordinary preparations wording. A registered Malaysian product containing it is additionally caught by the Poisons Act 1952, because item 2 of the Third Schedule covers any product registered under the Control of Drugs and Cosmetics Regulations 1984 containing «Fentanyl», so section 30 and the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 run alongside the Dangerous Drugs Act for the product. Part III names roughly twenty further fentanyls beside it, and each is a separate entry rather than a member of a class, because the Act has no analogue clause.
Documentation: Carry the prescription and the dispensing label with the medicine, in its original packaging, and declare it on arrival. The entry the label has to answer to is «Fentanyl» at Part III of the First Schedule, and a dispensing label naming a different member of that Part is not the same thing. Section 25 of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 is the only personal traveller provision the Act contains, and its reach is narrower than it looks. It sits in Part V, which is the external trade Part, and it opens by providing that nothing in that Part applies to a quantity of a dangerous drug in the form of a medicinal preparation in the «possession of any person arriving in Malaysia by land, air or water from any place outside Malaysia as is reasonably required for the use of such person and which has been supplied to such person bona fide by or on the prescription of a medical practitioner residing outside Malaysia in accordance with the law of the country in which such drug was so supplied». Because the words are nothing in this Part, it answers the import control and it does not touch the possession and trafficking provisions that sit in Part IV of the Act. It is also conditional: the person «shall, as soon as possible on arrival, declare his possession of such dangerous drug to an officer having authority under this Act to search such person and shall submit to such medical examination as may be required of him». There is a second requirement for fentanyl that the Dangerous Drugs Act does not mention. A registered product containing it is also a psychotropic substance under item 2 of the Poisons Act Third Schedule, so regulation 4(2)(a) of the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 is the traveller provision and it fixes a figure the Dangerous Drugs Act never does: a person arriving in or leaving Malaysia who carries, as part of personal luggage and solely for personal or family use, a prepared or packaged medicine containing a psychotropic substance is outside the import authorisation requirement, provided the quantity is «not exceeding such quantities as may be reasonably required for one month's use by one person» and it has been lawfully supplied by or on the prescription of a qualified medical practitioner. Getting the paperwork wrong is not a paperwork penalty. Section 37(d) provides that «any person who is found to have had in his custody or under his control anything whatsoever containing any dangerous drug shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have been in possession of such drug and shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have known the nature of such drug», and section 37(da) can then presume trafficking from the weight of the material alone. The one month figure comes from those Regulations and not from the Dangerous Drugs Act, which fixes no quantity at all. The entry the document has to answer to, in the First Schedule itself, is «Fentanyl» at Part III. If the document does not answer the entry, the charge is section 12(2) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, possession of a dangerous drug without authority, and section 12(3) sets «a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Section 12(4) adds whipping of not more than three strokes where the person convicted is a public officer employed at a prison, rehabilitation centre, police lock-up or place of detention.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 in all five Parts, the entry found at Part III of the First Schedule as «Fentanyl» · sections 2, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 11(1), 16, 25, 37(d), 37(da), 39A, 39B and 45A of that Act · the Poisons Act 1952 Poisons List, carrying «(DD) Fentanyl» · the Poisons Act 1952 Third Schedule at item 2, which names «Fentanyl» among the substances whose registered products it covers, with sections 30(1) to 30(5) and the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 incorporating P.U. (A) 405/2018 · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

Fentanyl in Malaysia, full detail →

Gabapentin

Legal status: Gabapentin is a prescription poison under the Poisons Act 1952, listed in the Poisons List by name and among the anticonvulsants with «All preparations» against it. It is NOT in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 and it is not a Third Schedule psychotropic substance, so section 39B and the death penalty cannot reach it. Pregabalin is listed in the same way.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Gabapentin is not in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, and neither is pregabalin. Neither is named in any of the five Parts, and nothing in that Schedule reaches a gabapentinoid by class, because its only generic clauses are the isomer, ester, ether and salt clauses attached to substances it has already named. Section 39B is the only capital provision in Malaysian drug law, and section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», which section 2 defines as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule». A substance outside that Schedule cannot be trafficked within the meaning of section 39B however much of it there is, the section 37(da) presumption weights do not reach it, and neither do the section 39A enhanced penalties. What applies instead is section 30 of the Poisons Act 1952, which provides at subsection (3) that «no person shall import, export, manufacture, compound, mix, dispense, sell, supply, administer, possess or use any psychotropic substance otherwise than in accordance with any regulations applicable thereto», and at subsection (5) that a contravention is punishable «to a fine not exceeding ten thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding four years or both». Section 30(4) carries a possession presumption of its own: a person found with the substance in his custody or control «shall be deemed to have been in possession of the substance and to have known the nature of the substance, until he proves to the contrary». Four years and ten thousand ringgit against death. That is the single largest cliff in Malaysian drug law and it turns entirely on which of two schedules a substance sits in. And the ground can move under it: section 45A of the Dangerous Drugs Act lets the Minister add a substance to the First Schedule by order, and section 30(2) of the Poisons Act lets him amend the Third Schedule the same way.
If prescribed / medical: Gabapentin is a poison under the Poisons Act 1952 but it is not a psychotropic substance under it, and that distinction decides which sections apply. Section 30(1) provides that «In this section, “psychotropic substance” means any of the substances specified in the Third Schedule». Because gabapentin is absent from that Schedule, section 30 and the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 do not reach it at all. What reaches it is the Poisons List, where it appears as «Gabapentin», together with the supply provisions in sections 19 to 25. Section 19(1) carries the prescribing route: «a registered medical practitioner may sell, supply or administer such poison to his patient for the purposes of the medical treatment of such patient only», with equivalent provision for a registered dentist Division I and a veterinary officer, and the Group the poison is placed in governs who else may sell or supply it under sections 20 to 23. It is absent from the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, so nothing in that Act applies to it. Pregabalin is listed in the same way and in the same part of the list.
Documentation: Carry the prescription and the dispensing label with the medicine, in its original packaging. That is ordinary prudence rather than a requirement the Poisons Act places on a traveller, because the Act controls who may sell and supply a poison rather than who may hold one. The entry a border officer would be reading is «Gabapentin» in the Poisons List. There is no Third Schedule entry for gabapentin to be read instead, and that absence is the whole reason the lighter sections apply. The exposure is lighter than for a psychotropic substance and it arises from different sections. Holding an ordinary poison is not prohibited as such: the provision that does prohibit possessing, section 30(3), is confined by section 30(1) to Third Schedule substances. What does touch possession is section 9(1), which provides that no person, whether licensed under the Act or not, shall «knowingly sell, supply, keep or have in his possession or under his control or store any poison otherwise than in accordance with the regulations made under this Act and in force relating to the possession, containers, packaging, labelling or storing of such poison», and section 9(2) deems that to have been done knowingly once possession is proved. So the offence is possessing a poison otherwise than in accordance with those regulations, and not possessing it at all. The regulations section 9(1) refers to were not located in this session and nothing is stated here about what they require. Section 13 separately covers possessing a poison for sale. An offence against the Act for which no other penalty is provided is punishable under section 32(2) by «a fine not exceeding three thousand ringgit or by imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year or both», rising to five thousand ringgit or two years where the court finds wilful default or culpable negligence that endangered or was likely to endanger human life. The Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989, including the one month personal import allowance in regulation 4(2)(a), do not apply to gabapentin, because they apply to Third Schedule psychotropic substances and it is not one.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: the Poisons Act 1952 Poisons List, the entry found as «Gabapentin» · sections 9(1), 9(2), 13, 19 to 25, 30(1) and 32(2) of that Act · the Third Schedule read in full, and gabapentin not found in it, so section 30 and the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 do not apply · and the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 read in all five Parts, and gabapentin not found in any of them · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

Gabapentin in Malaysia, full detail →

GBL

Legal status: GBL is not named, and it does not need to be. «Gamma hydroxybutyric acid (GHB)» is named in Part III of the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, and gamma-butyrolactone is the lactone of that acid, which is to say its intramolecular ester. Part III provides: «The esters and ethers, unless appearing in another Part, of the drugs in this Schedule whenever the existence of such esters or ethers is possible». An ester is a named relationship rather than a resemblance judgment, so GBL reads onto the clause on the face of the words. No Malaysian decision applying the ester clause to GBL was found, so the reading is stated with its basis rather than asserted as settled practice.
Consequences if caught: Section 39B(2) reaches gamma-butyrolactone through a generic clause and not through an entry of its own, and the clause is stated here rather than asserted. «Gamma hydroxybutyric acid (GHB)» is named in Part III of the First Schedule, GBL is the lactone of that acid, which is to say its intramolecular ester, and Part III provides that «The esters and ethers, unless appearing in another Part, of the drugs in this Schedule whenever the existence of such esters or ethers is possible» are included. The chain is short and it passes through no weight at any point. Section 2 defines a «dangerous drug» as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule», section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», whether on your own behalf or on behalf of any other person, and section 39B(2) sets the penalty. And the word «trafficking» is itself defined in section 2, far wider than selling: it «includes the doing of any of the following acts, that is to say, manufacturing, importing, exporting, keeping, concealing, buying, selling, giving, receiving, storing, administering, transporting, carrying, sending, delivering, procuring, supplying or distributing any dangerous drug otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act». Keeping, carrying and storing are on that list, so nothing commercial has to be shown. There is no section 37(da) presumption weight for GHB, and none for an ester of it. So there is no presumption to rebut and no threshold to stay under, and section 39B(2) applies in the same terms as it would to a weighed substance. The other presumption is still there. Section 37(d) provides that any person found to have had in his custody or under his control anything whatsoever containing a dangerous drug «shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have been in possession of such drug and shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have known the nature of such drug». The words «until the contrary is proved» put the defendant to proof on both limbs, on the possession and on the knowledge. Death is available and it is no longer mandatory, and the change has a date. Section 39B(2) once read simply «on conviction with death». The Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017, Act A1558, in force 15 March 2018, opened a narrow gate out of that, a date carried forward from the earlier reading and not re-derived in this pass. The Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, came into operation on 4 July 2023, and section 54 of it is the whole of what it did to the Dangerous Drugs Act: it substituted «be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes» for fifteen strokes in subsection (2), and it deleted subsections (2A) and (2B), which were the mandatory death machinery. Section 39B(2) now reads, in full: «Any person who contravenes any of the provisions of subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence against this Act and shall be punished on conviction with death or imprisonment for life and shall, if he is not sentenced to death, be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes.» So the court chooses between death and imprisonment for life with no precondition, and at least twelve strokes follow any sentence that is not death. Act 846 is widely described as replacing life with a term of thirty to forty years. It did that in the Penal Code, the Firearms (Increased Penalties) Act 1971, the Arms Act 1960, the Kidnapping Act 1961, the Strategic Trade Act 2010 and the Criminal Procedure Code. It did not do it here: the words «imprisonment for life» in section 39B(2) are untouched and no definition of that phrase appears anywhere in the Dangerous Drugs Act, so no year figure is stated in this cell. Section 55 of Act 846 applies the amended section to anyone sentenced after it came into operation even where the offence was committed before. Below trafficking, the possession offence is section 12. Section 11(1) provides that «This Part applies to dangerous drugs listed in Parts III, IV and V of the First Schedule», which is what brings a Part III substance inside Part IV of the Act. Section 12(2) then prohibits having such a drug in your possession, custody or control «unless he is authorized to be in possession, custody or control of such drug or is deemed to be so authorized under this Act or the regulations made thereunder», and section 12(3) punishes a contravention with «a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Self-administration is section 15(1), at a fine not exceeding five thousand ringgit or imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, and section 38B(1) then requires supervision for not less than two and not more than three years after the sentence has been served. Three procedural consequences follow automatically. Section 41(1) removes a section 39B charge from the Sessions Court and the Magistrates' Court, so it is tried in the High Court, and section 41A(3) has it tried by a judge sitting alone. Section 41B(1) provides that bail «shall not be granted» where the offence is punishable with death, and also where it is punishable with imprisonment for more than five years. Section 38A, which lets a court deal with a drug dependant under eighteen under the Drug Dependants (Treatment and Rehabilitation) Act 1983 rather than punish him, is expressly unavailable for a section 39B offence. Section 39C separately escalates a repeat offender under the consumption and possession provisions to not less than five and not more than seven years with not more than three strokes. This is a derivation, and the honest form of it is to say what it rests on. An ester is a named relationship rather than a resemblance judgment, so the clause reads onto GBL on the face of the words, but no Malaysian decision applying the ester clause to GBL was found and this cell does not present the reading as settled practice. The Dangerous Drugs Act contains no analogue provision at all, measured across the whole Act, so there is no second route. The list can move under all of this. Section 45A is headed «Power of the Minister to vary First Schedule» and it operates either on a decision of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs or of the United Nations Organization altering the Schedules to the Single Convention, or simply where the Minister «considers it expedient to add a substance to, or remove a substance from, or vary the First Schedule, he may by order make the requisite modifications». An order takes effect on gazetting and there is no notice period. He has used it twice since the text read here, by P.U. (A) 97 gazetted 2 April 2024 and P.U. (A) 416 gazetted 25 November 2025, both carried forward from the earlier reading and neither re-read in this pass. The text read for this cell is the Attorney General's Chambers updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», and a later order is not ruled out.
If prescribed / medical: There is no prescription route for GBL in Malaysia, and this cell states that rather than leaving a reader to infer it. Every prohibition in the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, and the definition of trafficking in section 2, is qualified by the words «otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act», so a lawful holding is one that sits inside an authority granted under the Act. The authority the Act contemplates is a licence or a regulation made under it, and here there is nothing for one to attach to. It is reached at Part III of the First Schedule: it is the lactone, which is to say the intramolecular ester, of GHB, and Part III provides that «The esters and ethers, unless appearing in another Part, of the drugs in this Schedule whenever the existence of such esters or ethers is possible» are included. Neither Act evidences a registered product containing it. No Malaysian decision applying the ester clause to gamma-butyrolactone was found, so the reading is stated with its basis rather than as settled practice. The Poisons List carries «Gamma Butyrolactone» as a separate entry. Gamma-butyrolactone is also an industrial solvent, and nothing in either Act creates a personal authorisation for it.
Documentation: There is no document to carry, because there is no lawful holding for a document to evidence. This cell says so plainly rather than leave a traveller looking for paperwork that does not exist for GBL. The entry that forecloses the question is «Gamma hydroxybutyric acid (GHB)», reached at Part III of the First Schedule. Section 25 of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, the traveller provision, turns on a medicinal preparation supplied by or on the prescription of a medical practitioner residing outside Malaysia, so it has nothing to attach to here. It is also confined to Part V of the Act, the external trade Part, and would not answer a possession charge even if it did apply. Getting the paperwork wrong is not a paperwork penalty. Section 37(d) provides that «any person who is found to have had in his custody or under his control anything whatsoever containing any dangerous drug shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have been in possession of such drug and shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have known the nature of such drug», and section 37(da) can then presume trafficking from the weight of the material alone. A foreign prescription, a licence issued in another country, and religious or traditional use are none of them provided for anywhere in the Act. The entry the document has to answer to, in the First Schedule itself, is «Gamma hydroxybutyric acid (GHB)» at Part III. If the document does not answer the entry, the charge is section 12(2) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, possession of a dangerous drug without authority, and section 12(3) sets «a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Section 12(4) adds whipping of not more than three strokes where the person convicted is a public officer employed at a prison, rehabilitation centre, police lock-up or place of detention.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 in all five Parts, the entry found at Part III of the First Schedule as «Gamma hydroxybutyric acid (GHB)» · sections 2, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 11(1), 16, 25, 37(d), 37(da), 39A, 39B and 45A of that Act · the Poisons Act 1952 Poisons List and Third Schedule both read · the Poisons Act 1952 Third Schedule read in full · the route in is the Part III ester clause, «The esters and ethers, unless appearing in another Part, of the drugs in this Schedule whenever the existence of such esters or ethers is possible», and not an entry naming gamma-butyrolactone, which appears in the Poisons List but not in the First Schedule · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

GBL in Malaysia, full detail →

GHB

Legal status: GHB is named in Part III of the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 in terms, as «Gamma hydroxybutyric acid (GHB)». It is a dangerous drug and it has no section 37(da) presumption weight. It is not in the Poisons Act Third Schedule, so the Dangerous Drugs Act is the whole of its control.
Consequences if caught: Part III of the First Schedule names «Gamma hydroxybutyric acid (GHB)» in terms. Section 2 makes it a dangerous drug and section 39B(2) answers trafficking in it with death or imprisonment for life. The chain is short and it passes through no weight at any point. Section 2 defines a «dangerous drug» as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule», section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», whether on your own behalf or on behalf of any other person, and section 39B(2) sets the penalty. And the word «trafficking» is itself defined in section 2, far wider than selling: it «includes the doing of any of the following acts, that is to say, manufacturing, importing, exporting, keeping, concealing, buying, selling, giving, receiving, storing, administering, transporting, carrying, sending, delivering, procuring, supplying or distributing any dangerous drug otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act». Keeping, carrying and storing are on that list, so nothing commercial has to be shown. It has no section 37(da) presumption weight, so no quantity of it raises a presumption of trafficking. So there is no presumption to rebut and no threshold to stay under, and section 39B(2) applies in the same terms as it would to a weighed substance. The other presumption is still there. Section 37(d) provides that any person found to have had in his custody or under his control anything whatsoever containing a dangerous drug «shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have been in possession of such drug and shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have known the nature of such drug». The words «until the contrary is proved» put the defendant to proof on both limbs, on the possession and on the knowledge. Death is available and it is no longer mandatory, and the change has a date. Section 39B(2) once read simply «on conviction with death». The Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017, Act A1558, in force 15 March 2018, opened a narrow gate out of that, a date carried forward from the earlier reading and not re-derived in this pass. The Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, came into operation on 4 July 2023, and section 54 of it is the whole of what it did to the Dangerous Drugs Act: it substituted «be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes» for fifteen strokes in subsection (2), and it deleted subsections (2A) and (2B), which were the mandatory death machinery. Section 39B(2) now reads, in full: «Any person who contravenes any of the provisions of subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence against this Act and shall be punished on conviction with death or imprisonment for life and shall, if he is not sentenced to death, be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes.» So the court chooses between death and imprisonment for life with no precondition, and at least twelve strokes follow any sentence that is not death. Act 846 is widely described as replacing life with a term of thirty to forty years. It did that in the Penal Code, the Firearms (Increased Penalties) Act 1971, the Arms Act 1960, the Kidnapping Act 1961, the Strategic Trade Act 2010 and the Criminal Procedure Code. It did not do it here: the words «imprisonment for life» in section 39B(2) are untouched and no definition of that phrase appears anywhere in the Dangerous Drugs Act, so no year figure is stated in this cell. Section 55 of Act 846 applies the amended section to anyone sentenced after it came into operation even where the offence was committed before. Below trafficking, the possession offence is section 12. Section 11(1) provides that «This Part applies to dangerous drugs listed in Parts III, IV and V of the First Schedule», which is what brings a Part III substance inside Part IV of the Act. Section 12(2) then prohibits having such a drug in your possession, custody or control «unless he is authorized to be in possession, custody or control of such drug or is deemed to be so authorized under this Act or the regulations made thereunder», and section 12(3) punishes a contravention with «a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Self-administration is section 15(1), at a fine not exceeding five thousand ringgit or imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, and section 38B(1) then requires supervision for not less than two and not more than three years after the sentence has been served. Three procedural consequences follow automatically. Section 41(1) removes a section 39B charge from the Sessions Court and the Magistrates' Court, so it is tried in the High Court, and section 41A(3) has it tried by a judge sitting alone. Section 41B(1) provides that bail «shall not be granted» where the offence is punishable with death, and also where it is punishable with imprisonment for more than five years. Section 38A, which lets a court deal with a drug dependant under eighteen under the Drug Dependants (Treatment and Rehabilitation) Act 1983 rather than punish him, is expressly unavailable for a section 39B offence. Section 39C separately escalates a repeat offender under the consumption and possession provisions to not less than five and not more than seven years with not more than three strokes. GHB is handled as a solution, and the Act has no provision anywhere for assaying an active fraction out of a preparation. A bottle is what it weighs. The list can move under all of this. Section 45A is headed «Power of the Minister to vary First Schedule» and it operates either on a decision of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs or of the United Nations Organization altering the Schedules to the Single Convention, or simply where the Minister «considers it expedient to add a substance to, or remove a substance from, or vary the First Schedule, he may by order make the requisite modifications». An order takes effect on gazetting and there is no notice period. He has used it twice since the text read here, by P.U. (A) 97 gazetted 2 April 2024 and P.U. (A) 416 gazetted 25 November 2025, both carried forward from the earlier reading and neither re-read in this pass. The text read for this cell is the Attorney General's Chambers updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», and a later order is not ruled out.
If prescribed / medical: There is no prescription route for GHB in Malaysia, and this cell states that rather than leaving a reader to infer it. Every prohibition in the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, and the definition of trafficking in section 2, is qualified by the words «otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act», so a lawful holding is one that sits inside an authority granted under the Act. The authority the Act contemplates is a licence or a regulation made under it, and here there is nothing for one to attach to. It is reached at Part III of the First Schedule: it is named in terms. Neither Act evidences a registered product containing it. It is not in the Poisons Act Third Schedule, so unlike ketamine or methadone it has no second control running alongside, and the Dangerous Drugs Act is the whole of the answer for it.
Documentation: There is no document to carry, because there is no lawful holding for a document to evidence. This cell says so plainly rather than leave a traveller looking for paperwork that does not exist for GHB. The entry that forecloses the question is «Gamma hydroxybutyric acid (GHB)», reached at Part III of the First Schedule. Section 25 of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, the traveller provision, turns on a medicinal preparation supplied by or on the prescription of a medical practitioner residing outside Malaysia, so it has nothing to attach to here. It is also confined to Part V of the Act, the external trade Part, and would not answer a possession charge even if it did apply. Getting the paperwork wrong is not a paperwork penalty. Section 37(d) provides that «any person who is found to have had in his custody or under his control anything whatsoever containing any dangerous drug shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have been in possession of such drug and shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have known the nature of such drug», and section 37(da) can then presume trafficking from the weight of the material alone. A foreign prescription, a licence issued in another country, and religious or traditional use are none of them provided for anywhere in the Act. The entry the document has to answer to, in the First Schedule itself, is «Gamma hydroxybutyric acid (GHB)» at Part III. If the document does not answer the entry, the charge is section 12(2) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, possession of a dangerous drug without authority, and section 12(3) sets «a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Section 12(4) adds whipping of not more than three strokes where the person convicted is a public officer employed at a prison, rehabilitation centre, police lock-up or place of detention.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 in all five Parts, the entry found at Part III of the First Schedule as «Gamma hydroxybutyric acid (GHB)» · sections 2, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 11(1), 16, 25, 37(d), 37(da), 39A, 39B and 45A of that Act · the Poisons Act 1952 Poisons List and Third Schedule both read · the Poisons Act 1952 Third Schedule read in full · the entry is a named one, and the Poisons Act Third Schedule was read and GHB not found in it, so the Dangerous Drugs Act is the whole of the control · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

GHB in Malaysia, full detail →

Heroin

Legal status: Heroin is named in Part III of the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, with «Monoacetylmorphines» named separately in the same Part. It carries the lowest trafficking presumption weight in the Act. It is the substance the Malaysian capital regime was built around and the weights below reflect that.
Consequences if caught: Section 39B(2) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 is the provision every heroin trafficking charge in Malaysia is brought under, and it reads on death or imprisonment for life. Part III of the First Schedule names «Heroin», with «Monoacetylmorphines» and «Diacetylmorphine»'s relatives in the same alphabetical run. The chain is short and it passes through no weight at any point. Section 2 defines a «dangerous drug» as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule», section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», whether on your own behalf or on behalf of any other person, and section 39B(2) sets the penalty. And the word «trafficking» is itself defined in section 2, far wider than selling: it «includes the doing of any of the following acts, that is to say, manufacturing, importing, exporting, keeping, concealing, buying, selling, giving, receiving, storing, administering, transporting, carrying, sending, delivering, procuring, supplying or distributing any dangerous drug otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act». Keeping, carrying and storing are on that list, so nothing commercial has to be shown. Heroin carries the lowest presumption weight in the Act. Section 37(da)(i) sets it at «15 grammes or more in weight of heroin», subparagraph (ii) sets the same figure for morphine as «15 grammes or more in weight of morphine», and subparagraph (iiia) adds that «a total of 15 grammes or more in weight of heroin, morphine and monoacetylmorphines or a total of 15 grammes or more in weight of any two of the said dangerous drugs» does the same, so a mixed opiate haul is added together. Section 37(da) closes with the words «otherwise than in accordance with the authority of this Act or any other written law, shall be presumed, until the contrary is proved, to be trafficking in the said drug», so it is a rebuttable presumption about proof and not a definition of the offence, and the words «until the contrary is proved» are what put the defendant to proof. Section 39B(2) itself turns on quantity at no point. Below trafficking there are two further tiers, and they are a separate list from the presumption weights. Section 39A(1)(a) applies where the subject matter is 2 grammes or more but less than 5 grammes of heroin, and sets «imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than two years but shall not exceed five years» with «whipping of not less than three strokes but not more than nine strokes». Section 39A(2)(a) applies where the offence is «not punishable with death» and the subject matter is 5 grammes or more, and sets «imprisonment for life or for a term which shall not be less than five years» with «whipping of not less than ten strokes». Death is available and it is no longer mandatory, and the change has a date. Section 39B(2) once read simply «on conviction with death». The Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017, Act A1558, in force 15 March 2018, opened a narrow gate out of that, a date carried forward from the earlier reading and not re-derived in this pass. The Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, came into operation on 4 July 2023, and section 54 of it is the whole of what it did to the Dangerous Drugs Act: it substituted «be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes» for fifteen strokes in subsection (2), and it deleted subsections (2A) and (2B), which were the mandatory death machinery. Section 39B(2) now reads, in full: «Any person who contravenes any of the provisions of subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence against this Act and shall be punished on conviction with death or imprisonment for life and shall, if he is not sentenced to death, be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes.» So the court chooses between death and imprisonment for life with no precondition, and at least twelve strokes follow any sentence that is not death. Act 846 is widely described as replacing life with a term of thirty to forty years. It did that in the Penal Code, the Firearms (Increased Penalties) Act 1971, the Arms Act 1960, the Kidnapping Act 1961, the Strategic Trade Act 2010 and the Criminal Procedure Code. It did not do it here: the words «imprisonment for life» in section 39B(2) are untouched and no definition of that phrase appears anywhere in the Dangerous Drugs Act, so no year figure is stated in this cell. Section 55 of Act 846 applies the amended section to anyone sentenced after it came into operation even where the offence was committed before. Below trafficking, the possession offence is section 12. Section 11(1) provides that «This Part applies to dangerous drugs listed in Parts III, IV and V of the First Schedule», which is what brings a Part III substance inside Part IV of the Act. Section 12(2) then prohibits having such a drug in your possession, custody or control «unless he is authorized to be in possession, custody or control of such drug or is deemed to be so authorized under this Act or the regulations made thereunder», and section 12(3) punishes a contravention with «a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Self-administration is section 15(1), at a fine not exceeding five thousand ringgit or imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, and section 38B(1) then requires supervision for not less than two and not more than three years after the sentence has been served. Three procedural consequences follow automatically. Section 41(1) removes a section 39B charge from the Sessions Court and the Magistrates' Court, so it is tried in the High Court, and section 41A(3) has it tried by a judge sitting alone. Section 41B(1) provides that bail «shall not be granted» where the offence is punishable with death, and also where it is punishable with imprisonment for more than five years. Section 38A, which lets a court deal with a drug dependant under eighteen under the Drug Dependants (Treatment and Rehabilitation) Act 1983 rather than punish him, is expressly unavailable for a section 39B offence. Section 39C separately escalates a repeat offender under the consumption and possession provisions to not less than five and not more than seven years with not more than three strokes. Fifteen grammes is about the weight of three sugar cubes. That is the whole distance between the section 39A tier and a presumption that puts a defendant to proof against a capital charge. The list can move under all of this. Section 45A is headed «Power of the Minister to vary First Schedule» and it operates either on a decision of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs or of the United Nations Organization altering the Schedules to the Single Convention, or simply where the Minister «considers it expedient to add a substance to, or remove a substance from, or vary the First Schedule, he may by order make the requisite modifications». An order takes effect on gazetting and there is no notice period. He has used it twice since the text read here, by P.U. (A) 97 gazetted 2 April 2024 and P.U. (A) 416 gazetted 25 November 2025, both carried forward from the earlier reading and neither re-read in this pass. The text read for this cell is the Attorney General's Chambers updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», and a later order is not ruled out.
If prescribed / medical: There is no prescription route for heroin in Malaysia, and this cell states that rather than leaving a reader to infer it. Every prohibition in the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, and the definition of trafficking in section 2, is qualified by the words «otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act», so a lawful holding is one that sits inside an authority granted under the Act. The authority the Act contemplates is a licence or a regulation made under it, and here there is nothing for one to attach to. It is reached at Part III of the First Schedule: it is named in terms, with «Monoacetylmorphines» named separately in the same Part. Neither Act evidences a registered product containing it. The Poisons List carries «(DD) Heroin or diacetylmorphine» with the dangerous drug marker against all preparations. Diamorphine is a licensed medicine in a small number of other countries and it is not one here.
Documentation: There is no document to carry, because there is no lawful holding for a document to evidence. This cell says so plainly rather than leave a traveller looking for paperwork that does not exist for heroin. The entry that forecloses the question is «Heroin», reached at Part III of the First Schedule. Section 25 of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, the traveller provision, turns on a medicinal preparation supplied by or on the prescription of a medical practitioner residing outside Malaysia, so it has nothing to attach to here. It is also confined to Part V of the Act, the external trade Part, and would not answer a possession charge even if it did apply. Getting the paperwork wrong is not a paperwork penalty. Section 37(d) provides that «any person who is found to have had in his custody or under his control anything whatsoever containing any dangerous drug shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have been in possession of such drug and shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have known the nature of such drug», and section 37(da) can then presume trafficking from the weight of the material alone. A foreign prescription, a licence issued in another country, and religious or traditional use are none of them provided for anywhere in the Act. The entry the document has to answer to, in the First Schedule itself, is «Heroin» at Part III. If the document does not answer the entry, the charge is section 12(2) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, possession of a dangerous drug without authority, and section 12(3) sets «a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Section 12(4) adds whipping of not more than three strokes where the person convicted is a public officer employed at a prison, rehabilitation centre, police lock-up or place of detention.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 in all five Parts, the entry found at Part III of the First Schedule as «Heroin» · sections 2, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 11(1), 16, 25, 37(d), 37(da), 39A, 39B and 45A of that Act · the Poisons Act 1952 Poisons List and Third Schedule both read · the Poisons Act 1952 Third Schedule read in full · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

Heroin in Malaysia, full detail →

HHC

Legal status: Hexahydrocannabinol is named nowhere in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 and nowhere in the Poisons Act 1952. Part III names delta-8-THC, delta-9-THC, their hydroxy forms, Parahexyl and «Tetrahydrocannabinols» under a specific chemical designation, and HHC is not a tetrahydrocannabinol: it is the hydrogenated form, with no double bond in the ring. It is not an isomer of THC either, since hydrogenation changes the molecular formula, so the Part III generic clause does not reach it. This was checked against both amending orders since the consolidated text: neither the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024 nor the 2025 order mentions it. So on the text HHC is not a dangerous drug, as the schedule stood at 25 November 2025. Hexahydrocannabinol was added to Schedule II of the 1971 Convention with effect from December 2025, and section 45A exists precisely so the Minister can follow such a decision by order.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Hexahydrocannabinol is in neither list. Part III of the First Schedule names «delta-8-tetrahydrocannabinol», «delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol», their hydroxy forms, «Parahexyl» and «Tetrahydrocannabinols» under a fixed chemical designation, and hexahydrocannabinol is none of them: hydrogenation changes the molecular formula, so it is not an isomer either. The compound is what is absent, and the material is a separate question: a product made from resin-bearing cannabis plant material is cannabis within the section 2 definition, «any part of any plant of the genus Cannabis from which there is found to be present resin irrespective of its quantity», whatever molecule is being sold. This row is about the compound, and on the compound the answer is that it is not in the First Schedule. Section 39B is the only capital provision in Malaysian drug law, and section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», which section 2 defines as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule». A substance outside that Schedule cannot be trafficked within the meaning of section 39B however much of it there is, the section 37(da) presumption weights do not reach it, and neither do the section 39A enhanced penalties. It is not in the Third Schedule to the Poisons Act 1952 either, so the section 30 psychotropic offence does not reach it. Do not read that as permission. The Dangerous Drugs Act carries no analogue clause at all, measured across the whole Act, so a substance is in or out on the naming; but section 45A provides that where the Minister «considers it expedient to add a substance to, or remove a substance from, or vary the First Schedule, he may by order make the requisite modifications», and he has used it twice since the consolidated text, by P.U. (A) 97 gazetted 2 April 2024 and P.U. (A) 416 gazetted 25 November 2025. An order takes effect on gazetting and there is no notice period. Customs may also treat an unlisted substance as a prohibited import under a separate order that was not read for this cell.
If prescribed / medical: Neither drug statute reaches HHC, so neither supplies a prescription route for it and neither requires one. Part III names delta-8-THC, delta-9-THC, their hydroxy forms, «Parahexyl, 3-hexyl-1-hydroxy-7, 8, 9, 10-tetrahydro-6, 6, 9-trimethyl-6H-dibenzo» and a tetrahydrocannabinol entry under a specific chemical designation. Hexahydrocannabinol is the hydrogenated form with no double bond in the ring, so it is not a tetrahydrocannabinol, and hydrogenation changes the molecular formula so it is not an isomer of one either. It was added to Schedule II of the 1971 Convention with effect from December 2025, and section 45A exists so the Minister can follow such a decision by order. What this cell does not state is whether it is a registered product, an unregistered product or a prohibited import under the medicines and customs instruments, because none of those instruments was read for it.
Documentation: No documentation requirement arises under either drug statute, because neither reaches HHC. There is no entry for a document to answer to as the Schedule stood on 25 November 2025, and the December 2025 Convention listing is the reason that sentence carries a date. That is not the same as saying it may be brought in freely. Product registration with the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency and the customs prohibited imports orders are separate regimes, neither was read for this cell, and nothing is stated here about either. Carry any prescription and the original packaging as a matter of course, and expect the question at the border to be settled by those other regimes rather than by the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 or the Poisons Act 1952.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: both schedules in full, the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 First Schedule in all five Parts and the Poisons Act 1952 Poisons List and Third Schedule, with hexahydrocannabinol found in neither as a controlled entry · sections 2, 11(1) and 45A of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 and sections 30(1) and 32(2) of the Poisons Act 1952 · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

HHC in Malaysia, full detail →

Hydrocodone

Legal status: Hydrocodone is named in Part III of the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, between Heroin and Hydromorphinol, and Hydromorphone and Hydroxypethidine are named in the same Part. It is a dangerous drug. It has NO section 37(da) presumption weight, which affects how a case is proved and not whether the death penalty is available.
Consequences if caught: Part III of the First Schedule names «Hydrocodone», on the line immediately after «Heroin», with «Hydromorphinol», «Hydromorphone» and «Hydroxypethidine» following it. Section 39B(2) reaches it, with death or imprisonment for life. The chain is short and it passes through no weight at any point. Section 2 defines a «dangerous drug» as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule», section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», whether on your own behalf or on behalf of any other person, and section 39B(2) sets the penalty. And the word «trafficking» is itself defined in section 2, far wider than selling: it «includes the doing of any of the following acts, that is to say, manufacturing, importing, exporting, keeping, concealing, buying, selling, giving, receiving, storing, administering, transporting, carrying, sending, delivering, procuring, supplying or distributing any dangerous drug otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act». Keeping, carrying and storing are on that list, so nothing commercial has to be shown. It has no section 37(da) presumption weight, unlike its neighbour on the page. Heroin's 15 grammes at subparagraph (i) is the lowest figure in the Act and it belongs to heroin alone; nothing carries it to the next entry. So there is no presumption to rebut and no threshold to stay under, and section 39B(2) applies in the same terms as it would to a weighed substance. The other presumption is still there. Section 37(d) provides that any person found to have had in his custody or under his control anything whatsoever containing a dangerous drug «shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have been in possession of such drug and shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have known the nature of such drug». The words «until the contrary is proved» put the defendant to proof on both limbs, on the possession and on the knowledge. Death is available and it is no longer mandatory, and the change has a date. Section 39B(2) once read simply «on conviction with death». The Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017, Act A1558, in force 15 March 2018, opened a narrow gate out of that, a date carried forward from the earlier reading and not re-derived in this pass. The Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, came into operation on 4 July 2023, and section 54 of it is the whole of what it did to the Dangerous Drugs Act: it substituted «be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes» for fifteen strokes in subsection (2), and it deleted subsections (2A) and (2B), which were the mandatory death machinery. Section 39B(2) now reads, in full: «Any person who contravenes any of the provisions of subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence against this Act and shall be punished on conviction with death or imprisonment for life and shall, if he is not sentenced to death, be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes.» So the court chooses between death and imprisonment for life with no precondition, and at least twelve strokes follow any sentence that is not death. Act 846 is widely described as replacing life with a term of thirty to forty years. It did that in the Penal Code, the Firearms (Increased Penalties) Act 1971, the Arms Act 1960, the Kidnapping Act 1961, the Strategic Trade Act 2010 and the Criminal Procedure Code. It did not do it here: the words «imprisonment for life» in section 39B(2) are untouched and no definition of that phrase appears anywhere in the Dangerous Drugs Act, so no year figure is stated in this cell. Section 55 of Act 846 applies the amended section to anyone sentenced after it came into operation even where the offence was committed before. Below trafficking, the possession offence is section 12. Section 11(1) provides that «This Part applies to dangerous drugs listed in Parts III, IV and V of the First Schedule», which is what brings a Part III substance inside Part IV of the Act. Section 12(2) then prohibits having such a drug in your possession, custody or control «unless he is authorized to be in possession, custody or control of such drug or is deemed to be so authorized under this Act or the regulations made thereunder», and section 12(3) punishes a contravention with «a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Self-administration is section 15(1), at a fine not exceeding five thousand ringgit or imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, and section 38B(1) then requires supervision for not less than two and not more than three years after the sentence has been served. Three procedural consequences follow automatically. Section 41(1) removes a section 39B charge from the Sessions Court and the Magistrates' Court, so it is tried in the High Court, and section 41A(3) has it tried by a judge sitting alone. Section 41B(1) provides that bail «shall not be granted» where the offence is punishable with death, and also where it is punishable with imprisonment for more than five years. Section 38A, which lets a court deal with a drug dependant under eighteen under the Drug Dependants (Treatment and Rehabilitation) Act 1983 rather than punish him, is expressly unavailable for a section 39B offence. Section 39C separately escalates a repeat offender under the consumption and possession provisions to not less than five and not more than seven years with not more than three strokes. Combination products are the usual form, and the Act nowhere provides for separating a controlled component out of a preparation by assay. Part V's exemptions are confined by their own heading to preparations for the export of which export authorizations are not required, and they name diphenoxylate, difenoxin, dextropropoxyphene, cocaine, opium and morphine, not hydrocodone. The list can move under all of this. Section 45A is headed «Power of the Minister to vary First Schedule» and it operates either on a decision of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs or of the United Nations Organization altering the Schedules to the Single Convention, or simply where the Minister «considers it expedient to add a substance to, or remove a substance from, or vary the First Schedule, he may by order make the requisite modifications». An order takes effect on gazetting and there is no notice period. He has used it twice since the text read here, by P.U. (A) 97 gazetted 2 April 2024 and P.U. (A) 416 gazetted 25 November 2025, both carried forward from the earlier reading and neither re-read in this pass. The text read for this cell is the Attorney General's Chambers updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», and a later order is not ruled out.
If prescribed / medical: Hydrocodone is a dangerous drug and it is also a medicine, so both things are true of it at once. Every prohibition in the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, and the definition of trafficking in section 2, is qualified by the words «otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act», so the question for a medicine is never whether the substance is scheduled but whether the handling sits inside that authority. It is named in Part III of the First Schedule as «Hydrocodone». Section 11(1) provides that «This Part applies to dangerous drugs listed in Parts III, IV and V of the First Schedule», which is what brings it inside Part IV of the Act, where section 16(1) empowers the Minister to make regulations «controlling the manufacture, sale, possession, and distribution of such drugs». Hydrocodone is a medicine in other jurisdictions but it is absent from the list of substances in item 2 of the Poisons Act Third Schedule, which names the opioids whose registered products are separately controlled, and its Poisons List entry reads «All preparations». Neither Act evidences a registered Malaysian product containing it.
Documentation: Carry the prescription and the dispensing label with the medicine, in its original packaging, and declare it on arrival. The entry the label has to answer to is «Hydrocodone» at Part III of the First Schedule, and a dispensing label naming a different member of that Part is not the same thing. Section 25 of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 is the only personal traveller provision the Act contains, and its reach is narrower than it looks. It sits in Part V, which is the external trade Part, and it opens by providing that nothing in that Part applies to a quantity of a dangerous drug in the form of a medicinal preparation in the «possession of any person arriving in Malaysia by land, air or water from any place outside Malaysia as is reasonably required for the use of such person and which has been supplied to such person bona fide by or on the prescription of a medical practitioner residing outside Malaysia in accordance with the law of the country in which such drug was so supplied». Because the words are nothing in this Part, it answers the import control and it does not touch the possession and trafficking provisions that sit in Part IV of the Act. It is also conditional: the person «shall, as soon as possible on arrival, declare his possession of such dangerous drug to an officer having authority under this Act to search such person and shall submit to such medical examination as may be required of him». Getting the paperwork wrong is not a paperwork penalty. Section 37(d) provides that «any person who is found to have had in his custody or under his control anything whatsoever containing any dangerous drug shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have been in possession of such drug and shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have known the nature of such drug», and section 37(da) can then presume trafficking from the weight of the material alone. Neither Act fixes a number of days or a number of tablets for a dangerous drug, and this cell does not invent one. The entry the document has to answer to, in the First Schedule itself, is «Hydrocodone» at Part III. If the document does not answer the entry, the charge is section 12(2) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, possession of a dangerous drug without authority, and section 12(3) sets «a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Section 12(4) adds whipping of not more than three strokes where the person convicted is a public officer employed at a prison, rehabilitation centre, police lock-up or place of detention.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 in all five Parts, the entry found at Part III of the First Schedule as «Hydrocodone» · sections 2, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 11(1), 16, 25, 37(d), 37(da), 39A, 39B and 45A of that Act · the Poisons Act 1952 Poisons List, carrying «(DD) Hydrocodone» · the Poisons Act 1952 Third Schedule read in full · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

Hydrocodone in Malaysia, full detail →

Ketamine

Legal status: Ketamine is named in Part III of the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, between Isotonitazene and Ketobemidone. It is a dangerous drug. That is worth stating plainly because ketamine is also a Poisons Act 1952 substance, appearing in the Third Schedule at item 2 among the psychotropic substances in registered products and in the Poisons List with the dangerous drug marker against «All products registered», and because in most of the region it is a psychotropic only. In Malaysia it is both, and the Dangerous Drugs Act listing is the one that decides whether section 39B can apply. It carries no section 37(da) presumption weight.
Consequences if caught: Part III of the First Schedule names «Ketamine», between «Isotonitazene» and «Ketobemidone». That single word puts ketamine inside section 39B(2), death or imprisonment for life, and it is the most consequential listing in the Schedule for a visitor, because across most of the region ketamine is a psychotropic substance and nothing more. The chain is short and it passes through no weight at any point. Section 2 defines a «dangerous drug» as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule», section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», whether on your own behalf or on behalf of any other person, and section 39B(2) sets the penalty. And the word «trafficking» is itself defined in section 2, far wider than selling: it «includes the doing of any of the following acts, that is to say, manufacturing, importing, exporting, keeping, concealing, buying, selling, giving, receiving, storing, administering, transporting, carrying, sending, delivering, procuring, supplying or distributing any dangerous drug otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act». Keeping, carrying and storing are on that list, so nothing commercial has to be shown. It has no section 37(da) presumption weight. There is no figure for ketamine anywhere in the Act, so trafficking is proved through the section 2 definition rather than presumed from a quantity. So there is no presumption to rebut and no threshold to stay under, and section 39B(2) applies in the same terms as it would to a weighed substance. The other presumption is still there. Section 37(d) provides that any person found to have had in his custody or under his control anything whatsoever containing a dangerous drug «shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have been in possession of such drug and shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have known the nature of such drug». The words «until the contrary is proved» put the defendant to proof on both limbs, on the possession and on the knowledge. Death is available and it is no longer mandatory, and the change has a date. Section 39B(2) once read simply «on conviction with death». The Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017, Act A1558, in force 15 March 2018, opened a narrow gate out of that, a date carried forward from the earlier reading and not re-derived in this pass. The Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, came into operation on 4 July 2023, and section 54 of it is the whole of what it did to the Dangerous Drugs Act: it substituted «be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes» for fifteen strokes in subsection (2), and it deleted subsections (2A) and (2B), which were the mandatory death machinery. Section 39B(2) now reads, in full: «Any person who contravenes any of the provisions of subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence against this Act and shall be punished on conviction with death or imprisonment for life and shall, if he is not sentenced to death, be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes.» So the court chooses between death and imprisonment for life with no precondition, and at least twelve strokes follow any sentence that is not death. Act 846 is widely described as replacing life with a term of thirty to forty years. It did that in the Penal Code, the Firearms (Increased Penalties) Act 1971, the Arms Act 1960, the Kidnapping Act 1961, the Strategic Trade Act 2010 and the Criminal Procedure Code. It did not do it here: the words «imprisonment for life» in section 39B(2) are untouched and no definition of that phrase appears anywhere in the Dangerous Drugs Act, so no year figure is stated in this cell. Section 55 of Act 846 applies the amended section to anyone sentenced after it came into operation even where the offence was committed before. Below trafficking, the possession offence is section 12. Section 11(1) provides that «This Part applies to dangerous drugs listed in Parts III, IV and V of the First Schedule», which is what brings a Part III substance inside Part IV of the Act. Section 12(2) then prohibits having such a drug in your possession, custody or control «unless he is authorized to be in possession, custody or control of such drug or is deemed to be so authorized under this Act or the regulations made thereunder», and section 12(3) punishes a contravention with «a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Self-administration is section 15(1), at a fine not exceeding five thousand ringgit or imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, and section 38B(1) then requires supervision for not less than two and not more than three years after the sentence has been served. Three procedural consequences follow automatically. Section 41(1) removes a section 39B charge from the Sessions Court and the Magistrates' Court, so it is tried in the High Court, and section 41A(3) has it tried by a judge sitting alone. Section 41B(1) provides that bail «shall not be granted» where the offence is punishable with death, and also where it is punishable with imprisonment for more than five years. Section 38A, which lets a court deal with a drug dependant under eighteen under the Drug Dependants (Treatment and Rehabilitation) Act 1983 rather than punish him, is expressly unavailable for a section 39B offence. Section 39C separately escalates a repeat offender under the consumption and possession provisions to not less than five and not more than seven years with not more than three strokes. Malaysia is the jurisdiction where the regional assumption about ketamine fails. A traveller who treats a vial as a scheduled medicine of the lighter kind is reasoning from the wrong statute. The list can move under all of this. Section 45A is headed «Power of the Minister to vary First Schedule» and it operates either on a decision of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs or of the United Nations Organization altering the Schedules to the Single Convention, or simply where the Minister «considers it expedient to add a substance to, or remove a substance from, or vary the First Schedule, he may by order make the requisite modifications». An order takes effect on gazetting and there is no notice period. He has used it twice since the text read here, by P.U. (A) 97 gazetted 2 April 2024 and P.U. (A) 416 gazetted 25 November 2025, both carried forward from the earlier reading and neither re-read in this pass. The text read for this cell is the Attorney General's Chambers updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», and a later order is not ruled out.
If prescribed / medical: Ketamine is a dangerous drug and it is also a medicine, so both things are true of it at once. Every prohibition in the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, and the definition of trafficking in section 2, is qualified by the words «otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act», so the question for a medicine is never whether the substance is scheduled but whether the handling sits inside that authority. It is named in Part III of the First Schedule as «Ketamine». Section 11(1) provides that «This Part applies to dangerous drugs listed in Parts III, IV and V of the First Schedule», which is what brings it inside Part IV of the Act, where section 16(1) empowers the Minister to make regulations «controlling the manufacture, sale, possession, and distribution of such drugs». That registered Malaysian products containing it exist is on the face of the Poisons List, which carries «(DD) Ketamine» with the registered-products wording against it rather than the ordinary preparations wording. A registered Malaysian product containing it is additionally caught by the Poisons Act 1952, because item 2 of the Third Schedule covers any product registered under the Control of Drugs and Cosmetics Regulations 1984 containing «Ketamine», so section 30 and the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 run alongside the Dangerous Drugs Act for the product. Ketamine is the clearest case in this set of a substance caught by both statutes at once, and the two controls run in parallel rather than one displacing the other.
Documentation: Carry the prescription and the dispensing label with the medicine, in its original packaging, and declare it on arrival. The entry the label has to answer to is «Ketamine» at Part III of the First Schedule, and a dispensing label naming a different member of that Part is not the same thing. Section 25 of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 is the only personal traveller provision the Act contains, and its reach is narrower than it looks. It sits in Part V, which is the external trade Part, and it opens by providing that nothing in that Part applies to a quantity of a dangerous drug in the form of a medicinal preparation in the «possession of any person arriving in Malaysia by land, air or water from any place outside Malaysia as is reasonably required for the use of such person and which has been supplied to such person bona fide by or on the prescription of a medical practitioner residing outside Malaysia in accordance with the law of the country in which such drug was so supplied». Because the words are nothing in this Part, it answers the import control and it does not touch the possession and trafficking provisions that sit in Part IV of the Act. It is also conditional: the person «shall, as soon as possible on arrival, declare his possession of such dangerous drug to an officer having authority under this Act to search such person and shall submit to such medical examination as may be required of him». There is a second requirement for ketamine that the Dangerous Drugs Act does not mention. A registered product containing it is also a psychotropic substance under item 2 of the Poisons Act Third Schedule, so regulation 4(2)(a) of the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 is the traveller provision and it fixes a figure the Dangerous Drugs Act never does: a person arriving in or leaving Malaysia who carries, as part of personal luggage and solely for personal or family use, a prepared or packaged medicine containing a psychotropic substance is outside the import authorisation requirement, provided the quantity is «not exceeding such quantities as may be reasonably required for one month's use by one person» and it has been lawfully supplied by or on the prescription of a qualified medical practitioner. Getting the paperwork wrong is not a paperwork penalty. Section 37(d) provides that «any person who is found to have had in his custody or under his control anything whatsoever containing any dangerous drug shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have been in possession of such drug and shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have known the nature of such drug», and section 37(da) can then presume trafficking from the weight of the material alone. The one month figure comes from those Regulations and not from the Dangerous Drugs Act, which fixes no quantity at all. The entry the document has to answer to, in the First Schedule itself, is «Ketamine» at Part III. If the document does not answer the entry, the charge is section 12(2) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, possession of a dangerous drug without authority, and section 12(3) sets «a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Section 12(4) adds whipping of not more than three strokes where the person convicted is a public officer employed at a prison, rehabilitation centre, police lock-up or place of detention.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 in all five Parts, the entry found at Part III of the First Schedule as «Ketamine» · sections 2, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 11(1), 16, 25, 37(d), 37(da), 39A, 39B and 45A of that Act · the Poisons Act 1952 Poisons List, carrying «(DD) Ketamine» · the Poisons Act 1952 Third Schedule at item 2, which names «Ketamine» among the substances whose registered products it covers, with sections 30(1) to 30(5) and the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 incorporating P.U. (A) 405/2018 · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

Ketamine in Malaysia, full detail →

Khat

Legal status: Khat is not named as a plant in either Act, and Catha edulis appears nowhere. Its two alkaloids are named, in different statutes. «Cathinone» is in Part III of the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, so it is a dangerous drug. «Cathine» is in the Poisons Act 1952 Third Schedule and the Poisons List, without the dangerous drug marker. Fresh khat leaf carries cathinone, which is the more potent alkaloid and the one that decays as the leaf dries. The Dangerous Drugs Act names plants when it means them, in Parts I and II for cannabis and the opium poppy, and it does not name this one, so the analysis runs through the cathinone the leaf contains.
Consequences if caught: Section 39B(2) reaches khat through one of its two alkaloids and not through the leaf. Catha edulis is named in neither Act. «Cathinone» is named in Part III of the First Schedule, so fresh leaf carrying cathinone carries a dangerous drug, and trafficking in it is answered with death or imprisonment for life. The chain is short and it passes through no weight at any point. Section 2 defines a «dangerous drug» as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule», section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», whether on your own behalf or on behalf of any other person, and section 39B(2) sets the penalty. And the word «trafficking» is itself defined in section 2, far wider than selling: it «includes the doing of any of the following acts, that is to say, manufacturing, importing, exporting, keeping, concealing, buying, selling, giving, receiving, storing, administering, transporting, carrying, sending, delivering, procuring, supplying or distributing any dangerous drug otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act». Keeping, carrying and storing are on that list, so nothing commercial has to be shown. Cathinone has no section 37(da) presumption weight, so no quantity of leaf raises the presumption of trafficking. So there is no presumption to rebut and no threshold to stay under, and section 39B(2) applies in the same terms as it would to a weighed substance. The other presumption is still there. Section 37(d) provides that any person found to have had in his custody or under his control anything whatsoever containing a dangerous drug «shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have been in possession of such drug and shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have known the nature of such drug». The words «until the contrary is proved» put the defendant to proof on both limbs, on the possession and on the knowledge. Death is available and it is no longer mandatory, and the change has a date. Section 39B(2) once read simply «on conviction with death». The Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017, Act A1558, in force 15 March 2018, opened a narrow gate out of that, a date carried forward from the earlier reading and not re-derived in this pass. The Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, came into operation on 4 July 2023, and section 54 of it is the whole of what it did to the Dangerous Drugs Act: it substituted «be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes» for fifteen strokes in subsection (2), and it deleted subsections (2A) and (2B), which were the mandatory death machinery. Section 39B(2) now reads, in full: «Any person who contravenes any of the provisions of subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence against this Act and shall be punished on conviction with death or imprisonment for life and shall, if he is not sentenced to death, be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes.» So the court chooses between death and imprisonment for life with no precondition, and at least twelve strokes follow any sentence that is not death. Act 846 is widely described as replacing life with a term of thirty to forty years. It did that in the Penal Code, the Firearms (Increased Penalties) Act 1971, the Arms Act 1960, the Kidnapping Act 1961, the Strategic Trade Act 2010 and the Criminal Procedure Code. It did not do it here: the words «imprisonment for life» in section 39B(2) are untouched and no definition of that phrase appears anywhere in the Dangerous Drugs Act, so no year figure is stated in this cell. Section 55 of Act 846 applies the amended section to anyone sentenced after it came into operation even where the offence was committed before. Below trafficking, the possession offence is section 12. Section 11(1) provides that «This Part applies to dangerous drugs listed in Parts III, IV and V of the First Schedule», which is what brings a Part III substance inside Part IV of the Act. Section 12(2) then prohibits having such a drug in your possession, custody or control «unless he is authorized to be in possession, custody or control of such drug or is deemed to be so authorized under this Act or the regulations made thereunder», and section 12(3) punishes a contravention with «a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Self-administration is section 15(1), at a fine not exceeding five thousand ringgit or imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, and section 38B(1) then requires supervision for not less than two and not more than three years after the sentence has been served. Three procedural consequences follow automatically. Section 41(1) removes a section 39B charge from the Sessions Court and the Magistrates' Court, so it is tried in the High Court, and section 41A(3) has it tried by a judge sitting alone. Section 41B(1) provides that bail «shall not be granted» where the offence is punishable with death, and also where it is punishable with imprisonment for more than five years. Section 38A, which lets a court deal with a drug dependant under eighteen under the Drug Dependants (Treatment and Rehabilitation) Act 1983 rather than punish him, is expressly unavailable for a section 39B offence. Section 39C separately escalates a repeat offender under the consumption and possession provisions to not less than five and not more than seven years with not more than three strokes. The two alkaloids fall under different statutes, which is why a single answer for the plant is wrong. Cathinone, the more potent one, decays as the leaf dries. Cathine, the milder one, is not in the First Schedule at all and is a Poisons Act substance, which is a fact carried forward from the earlier reading of the Poisons List and Third Schedule and not re-derived here. The list can move under all of this. Section 45A is headed «Power of the Minister to vary First Schedule» and it operates either on a decision of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs or of the United Nations Organization altering the Schedules to the Single Convention, or simply where the Minister «considers it expedient to add a substance to, or remove a substance from, or vary the First Schedule, he may by order make the requisite modifications». An order takes effect on gazetting and there is no notice period. He has used it twice since the text read here, by P.U. (A) 97 gazetted 2 April 2024 and P.U. (A) 416 gazetted 25 November 2025, both carried forward from the earlier reading and neither re-read in this pass. The text read for this cell is the Attorney General's Chambers updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», and a later order is not ruled out.
If prescribed / medical: There is no prescription route for khat in Malaysia, and this cell states that rather than leaving a reader to infer it. Every prohibition in the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, and the definition of trafficking in section 2, is qualified by the words «otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act», so a lawful holding is one that sits inside an authority granted under the Act. The authority the Act contemplates is a licence or a regulation made under it, and here there is nothing for one to attach to. It is reached at Part III of the First Schedule, through the alkaloid rather than the leaf: Catha edulis is named nowhere in either Act, and what is named is the cathinone the fresh leaf carries. Neither Act evidences a registered product containing it. Because the control runs through a compound and not through a plant, there is no entry for a licence or a prescription to attach to, and the fresh leaf and the dried leaf are not distinguished anywhere in the Act even though the alkaloid decays as the leaf dries.
Documentation: There is no document to carry, because there is no lawful holding for a document to evidence. This cell says so plainly rather than leave a traveller looking for paperwork that does not exist for khat. The entry that forecloses the question is «Cathinone», reached at Part III of the First Schedule, through the alkaloid rather than the leaf. Section 25 of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, the traveller provision, turns on a medicinal preparation supplied by or on the prescription of a medical practitioner residing outside Malaysia, so it has nothing to attach to here. It is also confined to Part V of the Act, the external trade Part, and would not answer a possession charge even if it did apply. Getting the paperwork wrong is not a paperwork penalty. Section 37(d) provides that «any person who is found to have had in his custody or under his control anything whatsoever containing any dangerous drug shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have been in possession of such drug and shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have known the nature of such drug», and section 37(da) can then presume trafficking from the weight of the material alone. A foreign prescription, a licence issued in another country, and religious or traditional use are none of them provided for anywhere in the Act. The entry the document has to answer to, in the First Schedule itself, is «Cathinone» at Part III. If the document does not answer the entry, the charge is section 12(2) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, possession of a dangerous drug without authority, and section 12(3) sets «a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Section 12(4) adds whipping of not more than three strokes where the person convicted is a public officer employed at a prison, rehabilitation centre, police lock-up or place of detention.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 in all five Parts, the entry found at Part III of the First Schedule, through the alkaloid rather than the leaf as «Cathinone» · sections 2, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 11(1), 16, 25, 37(d), 37(da), 39A, 39B and 45A of that Act · the Poisons Act 1952 Poisons List and Third Schedule both read · the Poisons Act 1952 Third Schedule read in full · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

Khat in Malaysia, full detail →

Kratom

Legal status: Kratom is controlled in Malaysia through its alkaloid and under the Poisons Act 1952, not the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952. «Mitragynine» is a psychotropic substance in the Third Schedule to the Poisons Act, and the Poisons List carries both «Mitragynine» and «Mitragynine, alkoloids of». Neither Mitragyna speciosa nor mitragynine is in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952. That is the whole answer on the point that decides everything else: section 39B reaches only a dangerous drug, so no ketum offence can be a capital one.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Kratom is not in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, and neither Mitragyna speciosa nor mitragynine is named in any of its five Parts. The Act names the plants it controls, in Parts I and II, and this is not one of them. Section 39B is the only capital provision in Malaysian drug law, and section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», which section 2 defines as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule». A substance outside that Schedule cannot be trafficked within the meaning of section 39B however much of it there is, the section 37(da) presumption weights do not reach it, and neither do the section 39A enhanced penalties. What applies instead is section 30 of the Poisons Act 1952, which provides at subsection (3) that «no person shall import, export, manufacture, compound, mix, dispense, sell, supply, administer, possess or use any psychotropic substance otherwise than in accordance with any regulations applicable thereto», and at subsection (5) that a contravention is punishable «to a fine not exceeding ten thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding four years or both». Section 30(4) carries a possession presumption of its own: a person found with the substance in his custody or control «shall be deemed to have been in possession of the substance and to have known the nature of the substance, until he proves to the contrary». Four years and ten thousand ringgit against death. That is the single largest cliff in Malaysian drug law and it turns entirely on which of two schedules a substance sits in. And the ground can move under it: section 45A of the Dangerous Drugs Act lets the Minister add a substance to the First Schedule by order, and section 30(2) of the Poisons Act lets him amend the Third Schedule the same way.
If prescribed / medical: This is a prescription-supply question and not a trafficking one. Kratom is a psychotropic substance under the Poisons Act 1952, reached through its alkaloid, the leaf itself being named nowhere in either Act, appearing in the Third Schedule as «Mitragynine» and in the Poisons List as «Mitragynine, alkoloids of». Section 30(1) provides that «In this section, “psychotropic substance” means any of the substances specified in the Third Schedule», and section 30(3) then prohibits importing, exporting, manufacturing, compounding, mixing, dispensing, selling, supplying, administering, possessing or using such a substance «otherwise than in accordance with any regulations applicable thereto made under this Act». Those regulations are the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989, and regulation 3 is the one a patient stands on: possession is prohibited unless «he is authorised to be in possession of such psychotropic substance under these Regulations» and the substance is for a lawful purpose and obtained under them. Regulation 3(2)(l) places a person lawfully supplied «in accordance with a prescription lawfully given by a registered medical practitioner, registered dentist Division I of a veterinary surgeon» inside that authority, the wording of that paragraph being the publisher's. The Poisons List spelling of that entry is the publisher's and is reproduced as printed. Because the control runs through mitragynine rather than through Mitragyna speciosa, an authority to hold kratom as such does not exist; what exists is an authority to hold the psychotropic substance in it.
Documentation: Carry the prescription and the dispensing label with the medicine, in its original packaging. The entry the prescription has to answer to is «Mitragynine» in the Third Schedule, with «Mitragynine, alkoloids of» in the Poisons List beside it. Regulation 4(2)(a) of the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 is the traveller provision and it fixes a figure the Dangerous Drugs Act never does: a person arriving in or leaving Malaysia who carries, as part of personal luggage and solely for personal or family use, a prepared or packaged medicine containing a psychotropic substance is outside the import authorisation requirement, provided the quantity is «not exceeding such quantities as may be reasonably required for one month's use by one person» and it has been lawfully supplied by or on the prescription of a qualified medical practitioner. Section 30(4) presumes possession and knowledge from custody or control: a person found with the substance «shall be deemed to have been in possession of the substance and to have known the nature of the substance, until he proves to the contrary». The prescription is what rebuts it. The penalty under section 30(5) is «a fine not exceeding ten thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding four years or both». The control is the Poisons Act 1952 and its regulations rather than the Dangerous Drugs Act, so the trafficking regime and its presumptions are not in play for kratom.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: the Poisons Act 1952 Third Schedule, the entry found as «Mitragynine», reached through its alkaloid, the leaf itself being named nowhere in either Act · the Poisons List, carrying «Mitragynine, alkoloids of» · sections 30(1) to 30(5) and 32(2) of that Act · the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 incorporating P.U. (A) 405/2018, regulations 3, 4 and 9 and the Second Schedule to those Regulations, in which this substance is not named · and the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 read in all five Parts, and mitragynine, 7-hydroxymitragynine or Mitragyna speciosa not found in any of them · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

Kratom in Malaysia, full detail →

Lorazepam

Legal status: Lorazepam is not named in either Act by its own name. It is caught by class, in the Poisons List under the Poisons Act 1952 as one of the «substances structurally derived from 1, 4-benzodiazepine; their salts», and again in the Third Schedule of psychotropic substances. It is NOT in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952. Flunitrazepam and nimetazepam are, so the family cannot be answered in one line. The Poisons List formula in full, as printed, is «Diazepam and other substances structurally derived from 1, 4-benzodiazepine; their salts».
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Lorazepam is not in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952. The two benzodiazepines in it, «Flunitrazepam» and «Nimetazepam», are both in Part III, and lorazepam is neither of them. Section 39B is the only capital provision in Malaysian drug law, and section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», which section 2 defines as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule». A substance outside that Schedule cannot be trafficked within the meaning of section 39B however much of it there is, the section 37(da) presumption weights do not reach it, and neither do the section 39A enhanced penalties. What applies instead is section 30 of the Poisons Act 1952, which provides at subsection (3) that «no person shall import, export, manufacture, compound, mix, dispense, sell, supply, administer, possess or use any psychotropic substance otherwise than in accordance with any regulations applicable thereto», and at subsection (5) that a contravention is punishable «to a fine not exceeding ten thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding four years or both». Section 30(4) carries a possession presumption of its own: a person found with the substance in his custody or control «shall be deemed to have been in possession of the substance and to have known the nature of the substance, until he proves to the contrary». Four years and ten thousand ringgit against death. That is the single largest cliff in Malaysian drug law and it turns entirely on which of two schedules a substance sits in. And the ground can move under it: section 45A of the Dangerous Drugs Act lets the Minister add a substance to the First Schedule by order, and section 30(2) of the Poisons Act lets him amend the Third Schedule the same way.
If prescribed / medical: This is a prescription-supply question and not a trafficking one. Lorazepam is a psychotropic substance under the Poisons Act 1952, reached by class and not by name, appearing in the Third Schedule as «Diazepam and other subtances structurally derivated from 1,4-benzodiazepine except flumazenil and pirenzepine» and in the Poisons List as «Diazepam and other substances structurally derived from 1, 4-benzodiazepine; their salts». Section 30(1) provides that «In this section, “psychotropic substance” means any of the substances specified in the Third Schedule», and section 30(3) then prohibits importing, exporting, manufacturing, compounding, mixing, dispensing, selling, supplying, administering, possessing or using such a substance «otherwise than in accordance with any regulations applicable thereto made under this Act». Those regulations are the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989, and regulation 3 is the one a patient stands on: possession is prohibited unless «he is authorised to be in possession of such psychotropic substance under these Regulations» and the substance is for a lawful purpose and obtained under them. Regulation 3(2)(l) places a person lawfully supplied «in accordance with a prescription lawfully given by a registered medical practitioner, registered dentist Division I of a veterinary surgeon» inside that authority, the wording of that paragraph being the publisher's. Neither Act names lorazepam anywhere, so a search by its own name returns nothing in both and the class formula is the whole of the answer.
Documentation: Carry the prescription and the dispensing label with the medicine, in its original packaging. The entry the prescription has to answer to is «Diazepam and other subtances structurally derivated from 1,4-benzodiazepine except flumazenil and pirenzepine» in the Third Schedule, with «Diazepam and other substances structurally derived from 1, 4-benzodiazepine; their salts» in the Poisons List beside it. Regulation 4(2)(a) of the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 is the traveller provision and it fixes a figure the Dangerous Drugs Act never does: a person arriving in or leaving Malaysia who carries, as part of personal luggage and solely for personal or family use, a prepared or packaged medicine containing a psychotropic substance is outside the import authorisation requirement, provided the quantity is «not exceeding such quantities as may be reasonably required for one month's use by one person» and it has been lawfully supplied by or on the prescription of a qualified medical practitioner. Section 30(4) presumes possession and knowledge from custody or control: a person found with the substance «shall be deemed to have been in possession of the substance and to have known the nature of the substance, until he proves to the contrary». The prescription is what rebuts it. The penalty under section 30(5) is «a fine not exceeding ten thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding four years or both». The control is the Poisons Act 1952 and its regulations rather than the Dangerous Drugs Act, so the trafficking regime and its presumptions are not in play for lorazepam.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: the Poisons Act 1952 Third Schedule, the entry found as «Diazepam and other subtances structurally derivated from 1,4-benzodiazepine except flumazenil and pirenzepine», reached by class and not by name · the Poisons List, whose printed class formula anchored on diazepam is reproduced in full in this cell's status field · sections 30(1) to 30(5) and 32(2) of that Act · the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 incorporating P.U. (A) 405/2018, regulations 3, 4 and 9 and the Second Schedule to those Regulations, in which this substance is not named · and the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 read in all five Parts, and lorazepam under its own name not found in any of them · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

Lorazepam in Malaysia, full detail →

LSA (Morning Glory)

Legal status: Lysergic acid amide is not named under that name or as ergine in either Act, and the settled part of the answer is that it is not in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, so it is not a dangerous drug. Lysergide is in Part III of that Schedule, and ergine and lysergide are both amides of the same acid rather than isomers, esters, ethers or salts of one another, which are the only generic extensions Part III carries. The Poisons List separately carries «Lysergic acid; its salts» as a poison, and the LSD entry there extends to «its derivatives»; how far that reaches an amide of the parent acid is a question the Poisons List does not answer. What is settled is the absence from the dangerous drugs schedule.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Lysergic acid amide is not in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, under that name or as ergine. «(+)-Lysergide, (+)-N-N-diethyllysergamide (d-lysergic acid diethylamide)» is in Part III, and ergine and lysergide are two different amides of the same acid rather than isomers, esters, ethers or salts of one another. Section 39B is the only capital provision in Malaysian drug law, and section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», which section 2 defines as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule». A substance outside that Schedule cannot be trafficked within the meaning of section 39B however much of it there is, the section 37(da) presumption weights do not reach it, and neither do the section 39A enhanced penalties. What applies instead is section 30 of the Poisons Act 1952, which provides at subsection (3) that «no person shall import, export, manufacture, compound, mix, dispense, sell, supply, administer, possess or use any psychotropic substance otherwise than in accordance with any regulations applicable thereto», and at subsection (5) that a contravention is punishable «to a fine not exceeding ten thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding four years or both». Section 30(4) carries a possession presumption of its own: a person found with the substance in his custody or control «shall be deemed to have been in possession of the substance and to have known the nature of the substance, until he proves to the contrary». Four years and ten thousand ringgit against death. That is the single largest cliff in Malaysian drug law and it turns entirely on which of two schedules a substance sits in. And the ground can move under it: section 45A of the Dangerous Drugs Act lets the Minister add a substance to the First Schedule by order, and section 30(2) of the Poisons Act lets him amend the Third Schedule the same way.
If prescribed / medical: The prescription question for lysergic acid amide has no clean answer under either statute. Neither lysergic acid amide nor ergine is named in either Act. Lysergide is in Part III of the First Schedule, and ergine and lysergide are both amides of the same acid rather than isomers, esters, ethers or salts of one another, which are the only generic extensions Part III carries, so the settled part of the answer is that it is not a dangerous drug. The Poisons List separately carries «Lysergic acid; its salts» as a poison, and its LSD entry extends to derivatives; how far a derivatives limb reaches an amide of the parent acid is a question that list does not answer. It is not in the Third Schedule, so section 30 and the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 do not apply to it by name. What this cell does not state is whether it is a registered product, an unregistered product or a prohibited import under the medicines and customs instruments, because none of those instruments was read for it.
Documentation: No documentation requirement can be stated for lysergic acid amide, because the route through the two statutes is unsettled and the paperwork would depend on which route applies. The Poisons List entry «Lysergic acid; its salts» is the nearest thing to an entry for it, and an amide of the parent acid is not a salt of it, so nothing in that entry tells a traveller what to carry. Carry any prescription and the original packaging as a matter of course. Product registration with the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency and the customs prohibited imports orders are separate regimes and neither was read for this cell. If the Poisons Act route is the right one, the one month personal import allowance in regulation 4(2)(a) of the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 and the section 30(5) penalty would be the provisions in point. This cell does not assert that they apply.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: both schedules in full, the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 First Schedule in all five Parts and the Poisons Act 1952 Poisons List and Third Schedule, with lysergic acid amide or ergine found in neither as a controlled entry · sections 2, 11(1) and 45A of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 and sections 30(1) and 32(2) of the Poisons Act 1952 · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

LSA (Morning Glory) in Malaysia, full detail →

LSD

Legal status: LSD is named in Part III of the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 as «(+)-Lysergide, (+)-N-N-diethyllysergamide (d-lysergic acid diethylamide)». It is a dangerous drug and it has no section 37(da) presumption weight. The Poisons List carries the same substance as «LSD or LSD-25 or (+)-N,N-diethyllysergamide or d-lysergic acid diethylamide; its derivatives», with the dangerous drug marker.
Consequences if caught: Part III of the First Schedule names «(+)-Lysergide, (+)-N-N-diethyllysergamide (d-lysergic acid diethylamide)», punctuation as printed. That is LSD, it is a dangerous drug under section 2, and section 39B(2) answers trafficking in it with death or imprisonment for life. The chain is short and it passes through no weight at any point. Section 2 defines a «dangerous drug» as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule», section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», whether on your own behalf or on behalf of any other person, and section 39B(2) sets the penalty. And the word «trafficking» is itself defined in section 2, far wider than selling: it «includes the doing of any of the following acts, that is to say, manufacturing, importing, exporting, keeping, concealing, buying, selling, giving, receiving, storing, administering, transporting, carrying, sending, delivering, procuring, supplying or distributing any dangerous drug otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act». Keeping, carrying and storing are on that list, so nothing commercial has to be shown. It has no section 37(da) presumption weight. Nothing in the Act sets a figure for any lysergamide, so there is no quantity at which trafficking is presumed and no quantity below which the presumption is unavailable. So there is no presumption to rebut and no threshold to stay under, and section 39B(2) applies in the same terms as it would to a weighed substance. The other presumption is still there. Section 37(d) provides that any person found to have had in his custody or under his control anything whatsoever containing a dangerous drug «shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have been in possession of such drug and shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have known the nature of such drug». The words «until the contrary is proved» put the defendant to proof on both limbs, on the possession and on the knowledge. Death is available and it is no longer mandatory, and the change has a date. Section 39B(2) once read simply «on conviction with death». The Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017, Act A1558, in force 15 March 2018, opened a narrow gate out of that, a date carried forward from the earlier reading and not re-derived in this pass. The Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, came into operation on 4 July 2023, and section 54 of it is the whole of what it did to the Dangerous Drugs Act: it substituted «be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes» for fifteen strokes in subsection (2), and it deleted subsections (2A) and (2B), which were the mandatory death machinery. Section 39B(2) now reads, in full: «Any person who contravenes any of the provisions of subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence against this Act and shall be punished on conviction with death or imprisonment for life and shall, if he is not sentenced to death, be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes.» So the court chooses between death and imprisonment for life with no precondition, and at least twelve strokes follow any sentence that is not death. Act 846 is widely described as replacing life with a term of thirty to forty years. It did that in the Penal Code, the Firearms (Increased Penalties) Act 1971, the Arms Act 1960, the Kidnapping Act 1961, the Strategic Trade Act 2010 and the Criminal Procedure Code. It did not do it here: the words «imprisonment for life» in section 39B(2) are untouched and no definition of that phrase appears anywhere in the Dangerous Drugs Act, so no year figure is stated in this cell. Section 55 of Act 846 applies the amended section to anyone sentenced after it came into operation even where the offence was committed before. Below trafficking, the possession offence is section 12. Section 11(1) provides that «This Part applies to dangerous drugs listed in Parts III, IV and V of the First Schedule», which is what brings a Part III substance inside Part IV of the Act. Section 12(2) then prohibits having such a drug in your possession, custody or control «unless he is authorized to be in possession, custody or control of such drug or is deemed to be so authorized under this Act or the regulations made thereunder», and section 12(3) punishes a contravention with «a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Self-administration is section 15(1), at a fine not exceeding five thousand ringgit or imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, and section 38B(1) then requires supervision for not less than two and not more than three years after the sentence has been served. Three procedural consequences follow automatically. Section 41(1) removes a section 39B charge from the Sessions Court and the Magistrates' Court, so it is tried in the High Court, and section 41A(3) has it tried by a judge sitting alone. Section 41B(1) provides that bail «shall not be granted» where the offence is punishable with death, and also where it is punishable with imprisonment for more than five years. Section 38A, which lets a court deal with a drug dependant under eighteen under the Drug Dependants (Treatment and Rehabilitation) Act 1983 rather than punish him, is expressly unavailable for a section 39B offence. Section 39C separately escalates a repeat offender under the consumption and possession provisions to not less than five and not more than seven years with not more than three strokes. Weight is still the operative measure whenever a court reasons from quantity, and LSD is carried on blotter at microgramme doses, so the paper is the mass. A sheet weighing a few grammes can carry hundreds of doses, and nothing in the Act separates the two. The list can move under all of this. Section 45A is headed «Power of the Minister to vary First Schedule» and it operates either on a decision of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs or of the United Nations Organization altering the Schedules to the Single Convention, or simply where the Minister «considers it expedient to add a substance to, or remove a substance from, or vary the First Schedule, he may by order make the requisite modifications». An order takes effect on gazetting and there is no notice period. He has used it twice since the text read here, by P.U. (A) 97 gazetted 2 April 2024 and P.U. (A) 416 gazetted 25 November 2025, both carried forward from the earlier reading and neither re-read in this pass. The text read for this cell is the Attorney General's Chambers updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», and a later order is not ruled out.
If prescribed / medical: There is no prescription route for LSD in Malaysia, and this cell states that rather than leaving a reader to infer it. Every prohibition in the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, and the definition of trafficking in section 2, is qualified by the words «otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act», so a lawful holding is one that sits inside an authority granted under the Act. The authority the Act contemplates is a licence or a regulation made under it, and here there is nothing for one to attach to. It is reached at Part III of the First Schedule: it is named in terms. Neither Act evidences a registered product containing it. The Poisons List carries the same substance as «LSD or LSD-25 or (+)-N, N-diethyllysergamide or d-lysergic acid diethylamide (DD); its» derivatives, and the derivatives limb there is wider than anything in the First Schedule, which extends only to isomers, esters, ethers and salts.
Documentation: There is no document to carry, because there is no lawful holding for a document to evidence. This cell says so plainly rather than leave a traveller looking for paperwork that does not exist for LSD. The entry that forecloses the question is «(+)-Lysergide, (+)-N-N-diethyllysergamide (d-lysergic acid diethylamide)», reached at Part III of the First Schedule. Section 25 of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, the traveller provision, turns on a medicinal preparation supplied by or on the prescription of a medical practitioner residing outside Malaysia, so it has nothing to attach to here. It is also confined to Part V of the Act, the external trade Part, and would not answer a possession charge even if it did apply. Getting the paperwork wrong is not a paperwork penalty. Section 37(d) provides that «any person who is found to have had in his custody or under his control anything whatsoever containing any dangerous drug shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have been in possession of such drug and shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have known the nature of such drug», and section 37(da) can then presume trafficking from the weight of the material alone. A foreign prescription, a licence issued in another country, and religious or traditional use are none of them provided for anywhere in the Act. The entry the document has to answer to, in the First Schedule itself, is «(+)-Lysergide, (+)-N-N-diethyllysergamide (d-lysergic acid diethylamide)» at Part III. If the document does not answer the entry, the charge is section 12(2) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, possession of a dangerous drug without authority, and section 12(3) sets «a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Section 12(4) adds whipping of not more than three strokes where the person convicted is a public officer employed at a prison, rehabilitation centre, police lock-up or place of detention.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 in all five Parts, the entry found at Part III of the First Schedule as «(+)-Lysergide, (+)-N-N-diethyllysergamide (d-lysergic acid diethylamide)» · sections 2, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 11(1), 16, 25, 37(d), 37(da), 39A, 39B and 45A of that Act · the Poisons Act 1952 Poisons List and Third Schedule both read · the Poisons Act 1952 Third Schedule read in full · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

LSD in Malaysia, full detail →

MDA

Legal status: MDA is named in Part III of the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 as «Methylenedioxy-amphetamine (MDA)», and carries a trafficking presumption weight at section 37(da)(xviii). MMDA is a DIFFERENT substance, named separately as «5-Methoxy-3, 4-methylenedioxyamphetamine (MMDA)» with its own weight at section 37(da)(xvii), and a search that matches on the letters MDA finds MMDA first. In Malaysia both weights happen to be 50 grammes, so the confusion does not change the number here, but the substances are not the same and «N-ethyl MDA» and «N-hydroxy MDA» are two further separate entries with their own weights.
Consequences if caught: Part III of the First Schedule names «Methylenedioxy-amphetamine (MDA)», hyphenated as printed. Section 2 makes it a dangerous drug and section 39B(2) sets death or imprisonment for life for trafficking in it. The chain is short and it passes through no weight at any point. Section 2 defines a «dangerous drug» as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule», section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», whether on your own behalf or on behalf of any other person, and section 39B(2) sets the penalty. And the word «trafficking» is itself defined in section 2, far wider than selling: it «includes the doing of any of the following acts, that is to say, manufacturing, importing, exporting, keeping, concealing, buying, selling, giving, receiving, storing, administering, transporting, carrying, sending, delivering, procuring, supplying or distributing any dangerous drug otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act». Keeping, carrying and storing are on that list, so nothing commercial has to be shown. Section 37(da)(xviii) sets the presumption at «50 grammes or more in weight of Methylenedioxyamphetamine (MDA)», the same «50 grammes or more» the rest of that block carries. The neighbouring subparagraph (xvii) belongs to a different substance, «5-Methoxy-3, 4-Methylenedioxyamphetamine (MMDA)», and a search matching on the letters MDA finds MMDA first. Both figures happen to be 50 grammes, so the confusion does not change the number here, but the substances are not the same. Section 37(da) closes with the words «otherwise than in accordance with the authority of this Act or any other written law, shall be presumed, until the contrary is proved, to be trafficking in the said drug», so it is a rebuttable presumption about proof and not a definition of the offence, and the words «until the contrary is proved» are what put the defendant to proof. Section 39B(2) itself turns on quantity at no point. Below trafficking there are two further tiers, and they are a separate list from the presumption weights. Section 39A(1)(t) applies where the subject matter is 5 grammes or more but less than 30 grammes of MDA, and sets «imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than two years but shall not exceed five years» with «whipping of not less than three strokes but not more than nine strokes». Section 39A(2)(t) applies where the offence is «not punishable with death» and the subject matter is 30 grammes or more, and sets «imprisonment for life or for a term which shall not be less than five years» with «whipping of not less than ten strokes». Death is available and it is no longer mandatory, and the change has a date. Section 39B(2) once read simply «on conviction with death». The Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017, Act A1558, in force 15 March 2018, opened a narrow gate out of that, a date carried forward from the earlier reading and not re-derived in this pass. The Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, came into operation on 4 July 2023, and section 54 of it is the whole of what it did to the Dangerous Drugs Act: it substituted «be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes» for fifteen strokes in subsection (2), and it deleted subsections (2A) and (2B), which were the mandatory death machinery. Section 39B(2) now reads, in full: «Any person who contravenes any of the provisions of subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence against this Act and shall be punished on conviction with death or imprisonment for life and shall, if he is not sentenced to death, be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes.» So the court chooses between death and imprisonment for life with no precondition, and at least twelve strokes follow any sentence that is not death. Act 846 is widely described as replacing life with a term of thirty to forty years. It did that in the Penal Code, the Firearms (Increased Penalties) Act 1971, the Arms Act 1960, the Kidnapping Act 1961, the Strategic Trade Act 2010 and the Criminal Procedure Code. It did not do it here: the words «imprisonment for life» in section 39B(2) are untouched and no definition of that phrase appears anywhere in the Dangerous Drugs Act, so no year figure is stated in this cell. Section 55 of Act 846 applies the amended section to anyone sentenced after it came into operation even where the offence was committed before. Below trafficking, the possession offence is section 12. Section 11(1) provides that «This Part applies to dangerous drugs listed in Parts III, IV and V of the First Schedule», which is what brings a Part III substance inside Part IV of the Act. Section 12(2) then prohibits having such a drug in your possession, custody or control «unless he is authorized to be in possession, custody or control of such drug or is deemed to be so authorized under this Act or the regulations made thereunder», and section 12(3) punishes a contravention with «a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Self-administration is section 15(1), at a fine not exceeding five thousand ringgit or imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, and section 38B(1) then requires supervision for not less than two and not more than three years after the sentence has been served. Three procedural consequences follow automatically. Section 41(1) removes a section 39B charge from the Sessions Court and the Magistrates' Court, so it is tried in the High Court, and section 41A(3) has it tried by a judge sitting alone. Section 41B(1) provides that bail «shall not be granted» where the offence is punishable with death, and also where it is punishable with imprisonment for more than five years. Section 38A, which lets a court deal with a drug dependant under eighteen under the Drug Dependants (Treatment and Rehabilitation) Act 1983 rather than punish him, is expressly unavailable for a section 39B offence. Section 39C separately escalates a repeat offender under the consumption and possession provisions to not less than five and not more than seven years with not more than three strokes. Two further derivatives have their own entries and their own weights, «N-ethyl MDA» at subparagraph (xix) and «N-hydroxy MDA» at subparagraph (xx), and subparagraph (xxv) adds «a total of 50 grammes or more in weight of any combination of the dangerous drugs listed in subparagraphs (xi) to (xxiv)». The list can move under all of this. Section 45A is headed «Power of the Minister to vary First Schedule» and it operates either on a decision of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs or of the United Nations Organization altering the Schedules to the Single Convention, or simply where the Minister «considers it expedient to add a substance to, or remove a substance from, or vary the First Schedule, he may by order make the requisite modifications». An order takes effect on gazetting and there is no notice period. He has used it twice since the text read here, by P.U. (A) 97 gazetted 2 April 2024 and P.U. (A) 416 gazetted 25 November 2025, both carried forward from the earlier reading and neither re-read in this pass. The text read for this cell is the Attorney General's Chambers updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», and a later order is not ruled out.
If prescribed / medical: There is no prescription route for MDA in Malaysia, and this cell states that rather than leaving a reader to infer it. Every prohibition in the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, and the definition of trafficking in section 2, is qualified by the words «otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act», so a lawful holding is one that sits inside an authority granted under the Act. The authority the Act contemplates is a licence or a regulation made under it, and here there is nothing for one to attach to. It is reached at Part III of the First Schedule: it is named in terms. Neither Act evidences a registered product containing it. «5-Methoxy-3, 4-methylenedioxyamphetamine (MMDA)» is a different substance with its own entry and its own weight, and a name search on the letters MDA reaches it first.
Documentation: There is no document to carry, because there is no lawful holding for a document to evidence. This cell says so plainly rather than leave a traveller looking for paperwork that does not exist for MDA. The entry that forecloses the question is «Methylenedioxy-amphetamine (MDA)», reached at Part III of the First Schedule. Section 25 of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, the traveller provision, turns on a medicinal preparation supplied by or on the prescription of a medical practitioner residing outside Malaysia, so it has nothing to attach to here. It is also confined to Part V of the Act, the external trade Part, and would not answer a possession charge even if it did apply. Getting the paperwork wrong is not a paperwork penalty. Section 37(d) provides that «any person who is found to have had in his custody or under his control anything whatsoever containing any dangerous drug shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have been in possession of such drug and shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have known the nature of such drug», and section 37(da) can then presume trafficking from the weight of the material alone. A foreign prescription, a licence issued in another country, and religious or traditional use are none of them provided for anywhere in the Act. The entry the document has to answer to, in the First Schedule itself, is «Methylenedioxy-amphetamine (MDA)» at Part III. If the document does not answer the entry, the charge is section 12(2) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, possession of a dangerous drug without authority, and section 12(3) sets «a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Section 12(4) adds whipping of not more than three strokes where the person convicted is a public officer employed at a prison, rehabilitation centre, police lock-up or place of detention.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 in all five Parts, the entry found at Part III of the First Schedule as «Methylenedioxy-amphetamine (MDA)» · sections 2, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 11(1), 16, 25, 37(d), 37(da), 39A, 39B and 45A of that Act · the Poisons Act 1952 Poisons List and Third Schedule both read · the Poisons Act 1952 Third Schedule read in full · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

MDA in Malaysia, full detail →

MDMA

Legal status: MDMA is named in Part III of the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 as «3, 4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA)» and carries a trafficking presumption weight at section 37(da)(xxii). A pressed tablet is weighed as it is found, not assayed for its MDMA content, which is why a presumption weight expressed in grammes of the drug and a handful of tablets can be very different things.
Consequences if caught: Part III of the First Schedule names «3, 4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA)», which makes it a dangerous drug under section 2 and puts it inside section 39B(2), death or imprisonment for life on a trafficking conviction. The chain is short and it passes through no weight at any point. Section 2 defines a «dangerous drug» as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule», section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», whether on your own behalf or on behalf of any other person, and section 39B(2) sets the penalty. And the word «trafficking» is itself defined in section 2, far wider than selling: it «includes the doing of any of the following acts, that is to say, manufacturing, importing, exporting, keeping, concealing, buying, selling, giving, receiving, storing, administering, transporting, carrying, sending, delivering, procuring, supplying or distributing any dangerous drug otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act». Keeping, carrying and storing are on that list, so nothing commercial has to be shown. Section 37(da)(xxii) sets the presumption at «50 grammes or more in weight of 3, 4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA)», the «50 grammes or more» that every substance in that block carries. Subparagraph (xxv) then adds «a total of 50 grammes or more in weight of any combination of the dangerous drugs listed in subparagraphs (xi) to (xxiv)», so MDMA seized alongside amphetamine or methamphetamine is counted with it. Section 37(da) closes with the words «otherwise than in accordance with the authority of this Act or any other written law, shall be presumed, until the contrary is proved, to be trafficking in the said drug», so it is a rebuttable presumption about proof and not a definition of the offence, and the words «until the contrary is proved» are what put the defendant to proof. Section 39B(2) itself turns on quantity at no point. Below trafficking there are two further tiers, and they are a separate list from the presumption weights. Section 39A(1)(x) applies where the subject matter is 5 grammes or more but less than 30 grammes of MDMA, and sets «imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than two years but shall not exceed five years» with «whipping of not less than three strokes but not more than nine strokes». Section 39A(2)(x) applies where the offence is «not punishable with death» and the subject matter is 30 grammes or more, and sets «imprisonment for life or for a term which shall not be less than five years» with «whipping of not less than ten strokes». Death is available and it is no longer mandatory, and the change has a date. Section 39B(2) once read simply «on conviction with death». The Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017, Act A1558, in force 15 March 2018, opened a narrow gate out of that, a date carried forward from the earlier reading and not re-derived in this pass. The Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, came into operation on 4 July 2023, and section 54 of it is the whole of what it did to the Dangerous Drugs Act: it substituted «be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes» for fifteen strokes in subsection (2), and it deleted subsections (2A) and (2B), which were the mandatory death machinery. Section 39B(2) now reads, in full: «Any person who contravenes any of the provisions of subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence against this Act and shall be punished on conviction with death or imprisonment for life and shall, if he is not sentenced to death, be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes.» So the court chooses between death and imprisonment for life with no precondition, and at least twelve strokes follow any sentence that is not death. Act 846 is widely described as replacing life with a term of thirty to forty years. It did that in the Penal Code, the Firearms (Increased Penalties) Act 1971, the Arms Act 1960, the Kidnapping Act 1961, the Strategic Trade Act 2010 and the Criminal Procedure Code. It did not do it here: the words «imprisonment for life» in section 39B(2) are untouched and no definition of that phrase appears anywhere in the Dangerous Drugs Act, so no year figure is stated in this cell. Section 55 of Act 846 applies the amended section to anyone sentenced after it came into operation even where the offence was committed before. Below trafficking, the possession offence is section 12. Section 11(1) provides that «This Part applies to dangerous drugs listed in Parts III, IV and V of the First Schedule», which is what brings a Part III substance inside Part IV of the Act. Section 12(2) then prohibits having such a drug in your possession, custody or control «unless he is authorized to be in possession, custody or control of such drug or is deemed to be so authorized under this Act or the regulations made thereunder», and section 12(3) punishes a contravention with «a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Self-administration is section 15(1), at a fine not exceeding five thousand ringgit or imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, and section 38B(1) then requires supervision for not less than two and not more than three years after the sentence has been served. Three procedural consequences follow automatically. Section 41(1) removes a section 39B charge from the Sessions Court and the Magistrates' Court, so it is tried in the High Court, and section 41A(3) has it tried by a judge sitting alone. Section 41B(1) provides that bail «shall not be granted» where the offence is punishable with death, and also where it is punishable with imprisonment for more than five years. Section 38A, which lets a court deal with a drug dependant under eighteen under the Drug Dependants (Treatment and Rehabilitation) Act 1983 rather than punish him, is expressly unavailable for a section 39B offence. Section 39C separately escalates a repeat offender under the consumption and possession provisions to not less than five and not more than seven years with not more than three strokes. A pressed tablet is weighed as it is found and not assayed for its MDMA content, which is why a presumption expressed in grammes of the drug and a handful of tablets can be very different things. Part III separately names «N-ethyl MDA», «N-hydroxy MDA» and «N-methyl-1-(3, 4-methylenedioxyphenyl)-2-butanamine», each with its own 50 gramme figure. The list can move under all of this. Section 45A is headed «Power of the Minister to vary First Schedule» and it operates either on a decision of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs or of the United Nations Organization altering the Schedules to the Single Convention, or simply where the Minister «considers it expedient to add a substance to, or remove a substance from, or vary the First Schedule, he may by order make the requisite modifications». An order takes effect on gazetting and there is no notice period. He has used it twice since the text read here, by P.U. (A) 97 gazetted 2 April 2024 and P.U. (A) 416 gazetted 25 November 2025, both carried forward from the earlier reading and neither re-read in this pass. The text read for this cell is the Attorney General's Chambers updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», and a later order is not ruled out.
If prescribed / medical: There is no prescription route for MDMA in Malaysia, and this cell states that rather than leaving a reader to infer it. Every prohibition in the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, and the definition of trafficking in section 2, is qualified by the words «otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act», so a lawful holding is one that sits inside an authority granted under the Act. The authority the Act contemplates is a licence or a regulation made under it, and here there is nothing for one to attach to. It is reached at Part III of the First Schedule: it is named in terms. Neither Act evidences a registered product containing it. A pressed tablet is weighed as it is found rather than assayed, so the quantity that matters for the presumption is the quantity of material and not the quantity of MDMA in it.
Documentation: There is no document to carry, because there is no lawful holding for a document to evidence. This cell says so plainly rather than leave a traveller looking for paperwork that does not exist for MDMA. The entry that forecloses the question is «3, 4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA)», reached at Part III of the First Schedule. Section 25 of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, the traveller provision, turns on a medicinal preparation supplied by or on the prescription of a medical practitioner residing outside Malaysia, so it has nothing to attach to here. It is also confined to Part V of the Act, the external trade Part, and would not answer a possession charge even if it did apply. Getting the paperwork wrong is not a paperwork penalty. Section 37(d) provides that «any person who is found to have had in his custody or under his control anything whatsoever containing any dangerous drug shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have been in possession of such drug and shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have known the nature of such drug», and section 37(da) can then presume trafficking from the weight of the material alone. A foreign prescription, a licence issued in another country, and religious or traditional use are none of them provided for anywhere in the Act. The entry the document has to answer to, in the First Schedule itself, is «3, 4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA)» at Part III. If the document does not answer the entry, the charge is section 12(2) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, possession of a dangerous drug without authority, and section 12(3) sets «a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Section 12(4) adds whipping of not more than three strokes where the person convicted is a public officer employed at a prison, rehabilitation centre, police lock-up or place of detention.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 in all five Parts, the entry found at Part III of the First Schedule as «3, 4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA)» · sections 2, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 11(1), 16, 25, 37(d), 37(da), 39A, 39B and 45A of that Act · the Poisons Act 1952 Poisons List and Third Schedule both read · the Poisons Act 1952 Third Schedule read in full · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

MDMA in Malaysia, full detail →

MDPV

Legal status: MDPV is a psychotropic substance under the Poisons Act 1952, named in the Third Schedule as «3,4-Methylenedioxypyrovalerone(MDPV)» and in the Poisons List. Pyrovalerone, its parent, is named in the same Third Schedule. Neither is in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952. So section 39B and the death penalty cannot reach MDPV, and a search that matches pyrovalerone and reports it as MDPV would be reading the parent compound, which is a distinct substance with its own entry.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. MDPV is not in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, and neither is pyrovalerone. Neither is named in any of the five Parts, and the cathinones that are named there are «Cathinone», «Methcathinone», «Eutylone» and «N-Ethylnorpentylone (Ephylone)». Section 39B is the only capital provision in Malaysian drug law, and section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», which section 2 defines as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule». A substance outside that Schedule cannot be trafficked within the meaning of section 39B however much of it there is, the section 37(da) presumption weights do not reach it, and neither do the section 39A enhanced penalties. What applies instead is section 30 of the Poisons Act 1952, which provides at subsection (3) that «no person shall import, export, manufacture, compound, mix, dispense, sell, supply, administer, possess or use any psychotropic substance otherwise than in accordance with any regulations applicable thereto», and at subsection (5) that a contravention is punishable «to a fine not exceeding ten thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding four years or both». Section 30(4) carries a possession presumption of its own: a person found with the substance in his custody or control «shall be deemed to have been in possession of the substance and to have known the nature of the substance, until he proves to the contrary». Four years and ten thousand ringgit against death. That is the single largest cliff in Malaysian drug law and it turns entirely on which of two schedules a substance sits in. And the ground can move under it: section 45A of the Dangerous Drugs Act lets the Minister add a substance to the First Schedule by order, and section 30(2) of the Poisons Act lets him amend the Third Schedule the same way.
If prescribed / medical: This is a prescription-supply question and not a trafficking one. MDPV is a psychotropic substance under the Poisons Act 1952, named in terms, appearing in the Third Schedule as «3,4-Methylenedioxypyrovalerone(MDPV)» and in the Poisons List as «3,4-Methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV)». Section 30(1) provides that «In this section, “psychotropic substance” means any of the substances specified in the Third Schedule», and section 30(3) then prohibits importing, exporting, manufacturing, compounding, mixing, dispensing, selling, supplying, administering, possessing or using such a substance «otherwise than in accordance with any regulations applicable thereto made under this Act». Those regulations are the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989, and regulation 3 is the one a patient stands on: possession is prohibited unless «he is authorised to be in possession of such psychotropic substance under these Regulations» and the substance is for a lawful purpose and obtained under them. Regulation 3(2)(l) places a person lawfully supplied «in accordance with a prescription lawfully given by a registered medical practitioner, registered dentist Division I of a veterinary surgeon» inside that authority, the wording of that paragraph being the publisher's. «Pyrovalerone» is named separately in the same Third Schedule and is a distinct substance, so a search that matches the parent and reports it as MDPV is reading the wrong entry.
Documentation: Carry the prescription and the dispensing label with the medicine, in its original packaging. The entry the prescription has to answer to is «3,4-Methylenedioxypyrovalerone(MDPV)» in the Third Schedule, with «3,4-Methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV)» in the Poisons List beside it. Regulation 4(2)(a) of the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 is the traveller provision and it fixes a figure the Dangerous Drugs Act never does: a person arriving in or leaving Malaysia who carries, as part of personal luggage and solely for personal or family use, a prepared or packaged medicine containing a psychotropic substance is outside the import authorisation requirement, provided the quantity is «not exceeding such quantities as may be reasonably required for one month's use by one person» and it has been lawfully supplied by or on the prescription of a qualified medical practitioner. Section 30(4) presumes possession and knowledge from custody or control: a person found with the substance «shall be deemed to have been in possession of the substance and to have known the nature of the substance, until he proves to the contrary». The prescription is what rebuts it. The penalty under section 30(5) is «a fine not exceeding ten thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding four years or both». The control is the Poisons Act 1952 and its regulations rather than the Dangerous Drugs Act, so the trafficking regime and its presumptions are not in play for MDPV.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: the Poisons Act 1952 Third Schedule, the entry found as «3,4-Methylenedioxypyrovalerone(MDPV)», named in terms · the Poisons List, carrying «3,4-Methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV)» · sections 30(1) to 30(5) and 32(2) of that Act · the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 incorporating P.U. (A) 405/2018, regulations 3, 4 and 9 and the Second Schedule to those Regulations, in which this substance is not named · and the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 read in all five Parts, and MDPV not found in any of them · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

MDPV in Malaysia, full detail →

Memantine

Legal status: Memantine is a prescription poison under the Poisons Act 1952, listed in the Poisons List by name with «All preparations» against it. It is NOT in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 and it is not a Third Schedule psychotropic substance, so section 39B and the death penalty cannot reach it.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Memantine is not in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 and is named in none of its five Parts. The comparison worth drawing is with ketamine, the other NMDA antagonist a traveller might carry, which is named in Part III in one word and is therefore a dangerous drug. Memantine is not, and the two are not interchangeable on this point. Section 39B is the only capital provision in Malaysian drug law, and section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», which section 2 defines as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule». A substance outside that Schedule cannot be trafficked within the meaning of section 39B however much of it there is, the section 37(da) presumption weights do not reach it, and neither do the section 39A enhanced penalties. What applies instead is section 30 of the Poisons Act 1952, which provides at subsection (3) that «no person shall import, export, manufacture, compound, mix, dispense, sell, supply, administer, possess or use any psychotropic substance otherwise than in accordance with any regulations applicable thereto», and at subsection (5) that a contravention is punishable «to a fine not exceeding ten thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding four years or both». Section 30(4) carries a possession presumption of its own: a person found with the substance in his custody or control «shall be deemed to have been in possession of the substance and to have known the nature of the substance, until he proves to the contrary». Four years and ten thousand ringgit against death. That is the single largest cliff in Malaysian drug law and it turns entirely on which of two schedules a substance sits in. And the ground can move under it: section 45A of the Dangerous Drugs Act lets the Minister add a substance to the First Schedule by order, and section 30(2) of the Poisons Act lets him amend the Third Schedule the same way.
If prescribed / medical: Memantine is a poison under the Poisons Act 1952 but it is not a psychotropic substance under it, and that distinction decides which sections apply. Section 30(1) provides that «In this section, “psychotropic substance” means any of the substances specified in the Third Schedule». Because memantine is absent from that Schedule, section 30 and the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 do not reach it at all. What reaches it is the Poisons List, where it appears as «Memantine», together with the supply provisions in sections 19 to 25. Section 19(1) carries the prescribing route: «a registered medical practitioner may sell, supply or administer such poison to his patient for the purposes of the medical treatment of such patient only», with equivalent provision for a registered dentist Division I and a veterinary officer, and the Group the poison is placed in governs who else may sell or supply it under sections 20 to 23. It is absent from the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, so nothing in that Act applies to it. It is named in the alphabetical run of the Poisons List appendix and nowhere else in either Act.
Documentation: Carry the prescription and the dispensing label with the medicine, in its original packaging. That is ordinary prudence rather than a requirement the Poisons Act places on a traveller, because the Act controls who may sell and supply a poison rather than who may hold one. The entry a border officer would be reading is «Memantine» in the Poisons List. There is no Third Schedule entry for memantine to be read instead, and that absence is the whole reason the lighter sections apply. The exposure is lighter than for a psychotropic substance and it arises from different sections. Holding an ordinary poison is not prohibited as such: the provision that does prohibit possessing, section 30(3), is confined by section 30(1) to Third Schedule substances. What does touch possession is section 9(1), which provides that no person, whether licensed under the Act or not, shall «knowingly sell, supply, keep or have in his possession or under his control or store any poison otherwise than in accordance with the regulations made under this Act and in force relating to the possession, containers, packaging, labelling or storing of such poison», and section 9(2) deems that to have been done knowingly once possession is proved. So the offence is possessing a poison otherwise than in accordance with those regulations, and not possessing it at all. The regulations section 9(1) refers to were not located in this session and nothing is stated here about what they require. Section 13 separately covers possessing a poison for sale. An offence against the Act for which no other penalty is provided is punishable under section 32(2) by «a fine not exceeding three thousand ringgit or by imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year or both», rising to five thousand ringgit or two years where the court finds wilful default or culpable negligence that endangered or was likely to endanger human life. The Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989, including the one month personal import allowance in regulation 4(2)(a), do not apply to memantine, because they apply to Third Schedule psychotropic substances and it is not one.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: the Poisons Act 1952 Poisons List, the entry found as «Memantine» · sections 9(1), 9(2), 13, 19 to 25, 30(1) and 32(2) of that Act · the Third Schedule read in full, and memantine not found in it, so section 30 and the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 do not apply · and the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 read in all five Parts, and memantine not found in any of them · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

Memantine in Malaysia, full detail →

Mephedrone (4-MMC)

Legal status: Mephedrone is a psychotropic substance under the Poisons Act 1952, named in the Third Schedule and in the Poisons List by its own name. It is NOT in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952. Cathinone and Methcathinone are in that Schedule, but Part III extends only to isomers, esters, ethers and salts, and mephedrone is 4-methylmethcathinone, a ring-methylated analogue rather than any of those four. The consequence is the whole answer: section 39B reaches only a dangerous drug, so no mephedrone offence can be a capital one.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Mephedrone is not in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952. «Cathinone» and «Methcathinone» are, in Part III, and mephedrone is 4-methylmethcathinone, a ring-methylated analogue rather than an isomer, ester, ether or salt of either. Section 39B is the only capital provision in Malaysian drug law, and section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», which section 2 defines as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule». A substance outside that Schedule cannot be trafficked within the meaning of section 39B however much of it there is, the section 37(da) presumption weights do not reach it, and neither do the section 39A enhanced penalties. What applies instead is section 30 of the Poisons Act 1952, which provides at subsection (3) that «no person shall import, export, manufacture, compound, mix, dispense, sell, supply, administer, possess or use any psychotropic substance otherwise than in accordance with any regulations applicable thereto», and at subsection (5) that a contravention is punishable «to a fine not exceeding ten thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding four years or both». Section 30(4) carries a possession presumption of its own: a person found with the substance in his custody or control «shall be deemed to have been in possession of the substance and to have known the nature of the substance, until he proves to the contrary». Four years and ten thousand ringgit against death. That is the single largest cliff in Malaysian drug law and it turns entirely on which of two schedules a substance sits in. And the ground can move under it: section 45A of the Dangerous Drugs Act lets the Minister add a substance to the First Schedule by order, and section 30(2) of the Poisons Act lets him amend the Third Schedule the same way.
If prescribed / medical: This is a prescription-supply question and not a trafficking one. Mephedrone is a psychotropic substance under the Poisons Act 1952, named in terms, appearing in the Third Schedule as «Mephedrone» and in the Poisons List as «Mephedrone». Section 30(1) provides that «In this section, “psychotropic substance” means any of the substances specified in the Third Schedule», and section 30(3) then prohibits importing, exporting, manufacturing, compounding, mixing, dispensing, selling, supplying, administering, possessing or using such a substance «otherwise than in accordance with any regulations applicable thereto made under this Act». Those regulations are the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989, and regulation 3 is the one a patient stands on: possession is prohibited unless «he is authorised to be in possession of such psychotropic substance under these Regulations» and the substance is for a lawful purpose and obtained under them. Regulation 3(2)(l) places a person lawfully supplied «in accordance with a prescription lawfully given by a registered medical practitioner, registered dentist Division I of a veterinary surgeon» inside that authority, the wording of that paragraph being the publisher's. Cathinone and methcathinone are dangerous drugs under the other Act, and mephedrone is 4-methylmethcathinone, a ring-methylated analogue of methcathinone rather than an isomer, ester, ether or salt of it.
Documentation: Carry the prescription and the dispensing label with the medicine, in its original packaging. The entry the prescription has to answer to is «Mephedrone» in the Third Schedule, with «Mephedrone» in the Poisons List beside it. Regulation 4(2)(a) of the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 is the traveller provision and it fixes a figure the Dangerous Drugs Act never does: a person arriving in or leaving Malaysia who carries, as part of personal luggage and solely for personal or family use, a prepared or packaged medicine containing a psychotropic substance is outside the import authorisation requirement, provided the quantity is «not exceeding such quantities as may be reasonably required for one month's use by one person» and it has been lawfully supplied by or on the prescription of a qualified medical practitioner. Section 30(4) presumes possession and knowledge from custody or control: a person found with the substance «shall be deemed to have been in possession of the substance and to have known the nature of the substance, until he proves to the contrary». The prescription is what rebuts it. The penalty under section 30(5) is «a fine not exceeding ten thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding four years or both». The control is the Poisons Act 1952 and its regulations rather than the Dangerous Drugs Act, so the trafficking regime and its presumptions are not in play for mephedrone.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: the Poisons Act 1952 Third Schedule, the entry found as «Mephedrone», named in terms · the Poisons List, carrying «Mephedrone» · sections 30(1) to 30(5) and 32(2) of that Act · the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 incorporating P.U. (A) 405/2018, regulations 3, 4 and 9 and the Second Schedule to those Regulations, in which this substance is not named · and the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 read in all five Parts, and mephedrone not found in any of them · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

Mephedrone (4-MMC) in Malaysia, full detail →

Mescaline

Legal status: Mescaline is named in Part III of the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 as «Mescaline, 3, 4, 5-trimethoxyphenethylamine». It is a dangerous drug and it has no section 37(da) presumption weight. The Poisons List carries it separately as «Mescaline or 3,4,5-» with «All preparations» against it.
Consequences if caught: Part III of the First Schedule names «Mescaline, 3, 4, 5-trimethoxyphenethylamine». Section 2 makes it a dangerous drug and section 39B(2) answers trafficking in it with death or imprisonment for life. The chain is short and it passes through no weight at any point. Section 2 defines a «dangerous drug» as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule», section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», whether on your own behalf or on behalf of any other person, and section 39B(2) sets the penalty. And the word «trafficking» is itself defined in section 2, far wider than selling: it «includes the doing of any of the following acts, that is to say, manufacturing, importing, exporting, keeping, concealing, buying, selling, giving, receiving, storing, administering, transporting, carrying, sending, delivering, procuring, supplying or distributing any dangerous drug otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act». Keeping, carrying and storing are on that list, so nothing commercial has to be shown. It has no section 37(da) presumption weight. The neighbouring entry «3, 4, 5-Trimethoxyamphetamine (3, 4, 5-TMA)» does have one, at 50 grammes under subparagraph (xxiv), and the two names are one word apart: mescaline is the phenethylamine, TMA the amphetamine. Reading the TMA figure onto mescaline would import a presumption the Act does not give it. So there is no presumption to rebut and no threshold to stay under, and section 39B(2) applies in the same terms as it would to a weighed substance. The other presumption is still there. Section 37(d) provides that any person found to have had in his custody or under his control anything whatsoever containing a dangerous drug «shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have been in possession of such drug and shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have known the nature of such drug». The words «until the contrary is proved» put the defendant to proof on both limbs, on the possession and on the knowledge. Death is available and it is no longer mandatory, and the change has a date. Section 39B(2) once read simply «on conviction with death». The Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017, Act A1558, in force 15 March 2018, opened a narrow gate out of that, a date carried forward from the earlier reading and not re-derived in this pass. The Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, came into operation on 4 July 2023, and section 54 of it is the whole of what it did to the Dangerous Drugs Act: it substituted «be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes» for fifteen strokes in subsection (2), and it deleted subsections (2A) and (2B), which were the mandatory death machinery. Section 39B(2) now reads, in full: «Any person who contravenes any of the provisions of subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence against this Act and shall be punished on conviction with death or imprisonment for life and shall, if he is not sentenced to death, be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes.» So the court chooses between death and imprisonment for life with no precondition, and at least twelve strokes follow any sentence that is not death. Act 846 is widely described as replacing life with a term of thirty to forty years. It did that in the Penal Code, the Firearms (Increased Penalties) Act 1971, the Arms Act 1960, the Kidnapping Act 1961, the Strategic Trade Act 2010 and the Criminal Procedure Code. It did not do it here: the words «imprisonment for life» in section 39B(2) are untouched and no definition of that phrase appears anywhere in the Dangerous Drugs Act, so no year figure is stated in this cell. Section 55 of Act 846 applies the amended section to anyone sentenced after it came into operation even where the offence was committed before. Below trafficking, the possession offence is section 12. Section 11(1) provides that «This Part applies to dangerous drugs listed in Parts III, IV and V of the First Schedule», which is what brings a Part III substance inside Part IV of the Act. Section 12(2) then prohibits having such a drug in your possession, custody or control «unless he is authorized to be in possession, custody or control of such drug or is deemed to be so authorized under this Act or the regulations made thereunder», and section 12(3) punishes a contravention with «a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Self-administration is section 15(1), at a fine not exceeding five thousand ringgit or imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, and section 38B(1) then requires supervision for not less than two and not more than three years after the sentence has been served. Three procedural consequences follow automatically. Section 41(1) removes a section 39B charge from the Sessions Court and the Magistrates' Court, so it is tried in the High Court, and section 41A(3) has it tried by a judge sitting alone. Section 41B(1) provides that bail «shall not be granted» where the offence is punishable with death, and also where it is punishable with imprisonment for more than five years. Section 38A, which lets a court deal with a drug dependant under eighteen under the Drug Dependants (Treatment and Rehabilitation) Act 1983 rather than punish him, is expressly unavailable for a section 39B offence. Section 39C separately escalates a repeat offender under the consumption and possession provisions to not less than five and not more than seven years with not more than three strokes. The absence of a figure is about proof and not about exposure. Section 39B(2) does not turn on quantity at any point, so a mescaline trafficking charge carries the same sentence as one for a substance with a named weight. The list can move under all of this. Section 45A is headed «Power of the Minister to vary First Schedule» and it operates either on a decision of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs or of the United Nations Organization altering the Schedules to the Single Convention, or simply where the Minister «considers it expedient to add a substance to, or remove a substance from, or vary the First Schedule, he may by order make the requisite modifications». An order takes effect on gazetting and there is no notice period. He has used it twice since the text read here, by P.U. (A) 97 gazetted 2 April 2024 and P.U. (A) 416 gazetted 25 November 2025, both carried forward from the earlier reading and neither re-read in this pass. The text read for this cell is the Attorney General's Chambers updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», and a later order is not ruled out.
If prescribed / medical: There is no prescription route for mescaline in Malaysia, and this cell states that rather than leaving a reader to infer it. Every prohibition in the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, and the definition of trafficking in section 2, is qualified by the words «otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act», so a lawful holding is one that sits inside an authority granted under the Act. The authority the Act contemplates is a licence or a regulation made under it, and here there is nothing for one to attach to. It is reached at Part III of the First Schedule: it is named in terms. Neither Act evidences a registered product containing it. The Poisons List entry «Mescaline or 3,4,5-» trimethoxyphenethylamine; its salts carries all preparations against it with living plants in the exempt column, so the Poisons Act exempts the living plant while the Dangerous Drugs Act names the compound and does not.
Documentation: There is no document to carry, because there is no lawful holding for a document to evidence. This cell says so plainly rather than leave a traveller looking for paperwork that does not exist for mescaline. The entry that forecloses the question is «Mescaline, 3, 4, 5-trimethoxyphenethylamine», reached at Part III of the First Schedule. Section 25 of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, the traveller provision, turns on a medicinal preparation supplied by or on the prescription of a medical practitioner residing outside Malaysia, so it has nothing to attach to here. It is also confined to Part V of the Act, the external trade Part, and would not answer a possession charge even if it did apply. Getting the paperwork wrong is not a paperwork penalty. Section 37(d) provides that «any person who is found to have had in his custody or under his control anything whatsoever containing any dangerous drug shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have been in possession of such drug and shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have known the nature of such drug», and section 37(da) can then presume trafficking from the weight of the material alone. A foreign prescription, a licence issued in another country, and religious or traditional use are none of them provided for anywhere in the Act. The entry the document has to answer to, in the First Schedule itself, is «Mescaline, 3, 4, 5-trimethoxyphenethylamine» at Part III. If the document does not answer the entry, the charge is section 12(2) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, possession of a dangerous drug without authority, and section 12(3) sets «a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Section 12(4) adds whipping of not more than three strokes where the person convicted is a public officer employed at a prison, rehabilitation centre, police lock-up or place of detention.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 in all five Parts, the entry found at Part III of the First Schedule as «Mescaline, 3, 4, 5-trimethoxyphenethylamine» · sections 2, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 11(1), 16, 25, 37(d), 37(da), 39A, 39B and 45A of that Act · the Poisons Act 1952 Poisons List and Third Schedule both read · the Poisons Act 1952 Third Schedule read in full · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

Mescaline in Malaysia, full detail →

Methadone

Legal status: Methadone is named in Part III of the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, with «Methadone-Intermediate», Isomethadone, Noracymethadol and Normethadone in the same Part, and the methadols above them. It is a dangerous drug. It is also in the Poisons Act Third Schedule at item 2, which covers registered products containing it. It has NO section 37(da) presumption weight, which is a point about proof and not about exposure.
Consequences if caught: Part III of the First Schedule names «Methadone» and «Methadone-Intermediate», with «Isomethadone», «Noracymethadol» and «Normethadone» in the same alphabetical run. Section 39B(2) therefore reaches methadone, with death or imprisonment for life on a trafficking conviction. The chain is short and it passes through no weight at any point. Section 2 defines a «dangerous drug» as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule», section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», whether on your own behalf or on behalf of any other person, and section 39B(2) sets the penalty. And the word «trafficking» is itself defined in section 2, far wider than selling: it «includes the doing of any of the following acts, that is to say, manufacturing, importing, exporting, keeping, concealing, buying, selling, giving, receiving, storing, administering, transporting, carrying, sending, delivering, procuring, supplying or distributing any dangerous drug otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act». Keeping, carrying and storing are on that list, so nothing commercial has to be shown. It has no section 37(da) presumption weight, so no quantity of methadone raises a presumption of trafficking. So there is no presumption to rebut and no threshold to stay under, and section 39B(2) applies in the same terms as it would to a weighed substance. The other presumption is still there. Section 37(d) provides that any person found to have had in his custody or under his control anything whatsoever containing a dangerous drug «shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have been in possession of such drug and shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have known the nature of such drug». The words «until the contrary is proved» put the defendant to proof on both limbs, on the possession and on the knowledge. Death is available and it is no longer mandatory, and the change has a date. Section 39B(2) once read simply «on conviction with death». The Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017, Act A1558, in force 15 March 2018, opened a narrow gate out of that, a date carried forward from the earlier reading and not re-derived in this pass. The Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, came into operation on 4 July 2023, and section 54 of it is the whole of what it did to the Dangerous Drugs Act: it substituted «be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes» for fifteen strokes in subsection (2), and it deleted subsections (2A) and (2B), which were the mandatory death machinery. Section 39B(2) now reads, in full: «Any person who contravenes any of the provisions of subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence against this Act and shall be punished on conviction with death or imprisonment for life and shall, if he is not sentenced to death, be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes.» So the court chooses between death and imprisonment for life with no precondition, and at least twelve strokes follow any sentence that is not death. Act 846 is widely described as replacing life with a term of thirty to forty years. It did that in the Penal Code, the Firearms (Increased Penalties) Act 1971, the Arms Act 1960, the Kidnapping Act 1961, the Strategic Trade Act 2010 and the Criminal Procedure Code. It did not do it here: the words «imprisonment for life» in section 39B(2) are untouched and no definition of that phrase appears anywhere in the Dangerous Drugs Act, so no year figure is stated in this cell. Section 55 of Act 846 applies the amended section to anyone sentenced after it came into operation even where the offence was committed before. Below trafficking, the possession offence is section 12. Section 11(1) provides that «This Part applies to dangerous drugs listed in Parts III, IV and V of the First Schedule», which is what brings a Part III substance inside Part IV of the Act. Section 12(2) then prohibits having such a drug in your possession, custody or control «unless he is authorized to be in possession, custody or control of such drug or is deemed to be so authorized under this Act or the regulations made thereunder», and section 12(3) punishes a contravention with «a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Self-administration is section 15(1), at a fine not exceeding five thousand ringgit or imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, and section 38B(1) then requires supervision for not less than two and not more than three years after the sentence has been served. Three procedural consequences follow automatically. Section 41(1) removes a section 39B charge from the Sessions Court and the Magistrates' Court, so it is tried in the High Court, and section 41A(3) has it tried by a judge sitting alone. Section 41B(1) provides that bail «shall not be granted» where the offence is punishable with death, and also where it is punishable with imprisonment for more than five years. Section 38A, which lets a court deal with a drug dependant under eighteen under the Drug Dependants (Treatment and Rehabilitation) Act 1983 rather than punish him, is expressly unavailable for a section 39B offence. Section 39C separately escalates a repeat offender under the consumption and possession provisions to not less than five and not more than seven years with not more than three strokes. Methadone is dispensed as a daily take-home liquid in substitution programmes, and the trafficking definition in section 2 includes «giving», «supplying» and «administering» without qualification as to motive. Handing a dose to another patient is on that list. Buprenorphine, the other substitution medicine, is not in the First Schedule at all, so the two sit under different statutes with different ceilings, a point carried forward from the earlier Poisons Act reading and not re-derived here. The list can move under all of this. Section 45A is headed «Power of the Minister to vary First Schedule» and it operates either on a decision of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs or of the United Nations Organization altering the Schedules to the Single Convention, or simply where the Minister «considers it expedient to add a substance to, or remove a substance from, or vary the First Schedule, he may by order make the requisite modifications». An order takes effect on gazetting and there is no notice period. He has used it twice since the text read here, by P.U. (A) 97 gazetted 2 April 2024 and P.U. (A) 416 gazetted 25 November 2025, both carried forward from the earlier reading and neither re-read in this pass. The text read for this cell is the Attorney General's Chambers updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», and a later order is not ruled out.
If prescribed / medical: Methadone is a dangerous drug and it is also a medicine, so both things are true of it at once. Every prohibition in the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, and the definition of trafficking in section 2, is qualified by the words «otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act», so the question for a medicine is never whether the substance is scheduled but whether the handling sits inside that authority. It is named in Part III of the First Schedule as «Methadone». Section 11(1) provides that «This Part applies to dangerous drugs listed in Parts III, IV and V of the First Schedule», which is what brings it inside Part IV of the Act, where section 16(1) empowers the Minister to make regulations «controlling the manufacture, sale, possession, and distribution of such drugs». That registered Malaysian products containing it exist is on the face of the Poisons List, which carries «(DD) Methadone» with the registered-products wording against it rather than the ordinary preparations wording. A registered Malaysian product containing it is additionally caught by the Poisons Act 1952, because item 2 of the Third Schedule covers any product registered under the Control of Drugs and Cosmetics Regulations 1984 containing «Methadone», so section 30 and the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 run alongside the Dangerous Drugs Act for the product. Regulation 12A of the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 deals expressly with the sale and supply of buprenorphine and methadone to a registered medical practitioner, which is the substitution-treatment route and is a supply control rather than a patient exemption.
Documentation: Carry the prescription and the dispensing label with the medicine, in its original packaging, and declare it on arrival. The entry the label has to answer to is «Methadone» at Part III of the First Schedule, and a dispensing label naming a different member of that Part is not the same thing. Section 25 of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 is the only personal traveller provision the Act contains, and its reach is narrower than it looks. It sits in Part V, which is the external trade Part, and it opens by providing that nothing in that Part applies to a quantity of a dangerous drug in the form of a medicinal preparation in the «possession of any person arriving in Malaysia by land, air or water from any place outside Malaysia as is reasonably required for the use of such person and which has been supplied to such person bona fide by or on the prescription of a medical practitioner residing outside Malaysia in accordance with the law of the country in which such drug was so supplied». Because the words are nothing in this Part, it answers the import control and it does not touch the possession and trafficking provisions that sit in Part IV of the Act. It is also conditional: the person «shall, as soon as possible on arrival, declare his possession of such dangerous drug to an officer having authority under this Act to search such person and shall submit to such medical examination as may be required of him». There is a second requirement for methadone that the Dangerous Drugs Act does not mention. A registered product containing it is also a psychotropic substance under item 2 of the Poisons Act Third Schedule, so regulation 4(2)(a) of the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 is the traveller provision and it fixes a figure the Dangerous Drugs Act never does: a person arriving in or leaving Malaysia who carries, as part of personal luggage and solely for personal or family use, a prepared or packaged medicine containing a psychotropic substance is outside the import authorisation requirement, provided the quantity is «not exceeding such quantities as may be reasonably required for one month's use by one person» and it has been lawfully supplied by or on the prescription of a qualified medical practitioner. Getting the paperwork wrong is not a paperwork penalty. Section 37(d) provides that «any person who is found to have had in his custody or under his control anything whatsoever containing any dangerous drug shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have been in possession of such drug and shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have known the nature of such drug», and section 37(da) can then presume trafficking from the weight of the material alone. The one month figure comes from those Regulations and not from the Dangerous Drugs Act, which fixes no quantity at all. The entry the document has to answer to, in the First Schedule itself, is «Methadone» at Part III. If the document does not answer the entry, the charge is section 12(2) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, possession of a dangerous drug without authority, and section 12(3) sets «a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Section 12(4) adds whipping of not more than three strokes where the person convicted is a public officer employed at a prison, rehabilitation centre, police lock-up or place of detention.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 in all five Parts, the entry found at Part III of the First Schedule as «Methadone» · sections 2, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 11(1), 16, 25, 37(d), 37(da), 39A, 39B and 45A of that Act · the Poisons Act 1952 Poisons List, carrying «(DD) Methadone» · the Poisons Act 1952 Third Schedule at item 2, which names «Methadone» among the substances whose registered products it covers, with sections 30(1) to 30(5) and the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 incorporating P.U. (A) 405/2018 · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

Methadone in Malaysia, full detail →

Methamphetamine

Legal status: Methamphetamine is named in Part III of the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 and carries a trafficking presumption weight at section 37(da)(xvi). Syabu and pil kuda are street names for methamphetamine preparations and have no separate entry; a tablet or a crystal is weighed as it is found.
Consequences if caught: Part III of the First Schedule names «Methamphetamine», section 2 makes it a dangerous drug, and section 39B(2) answers trafficking in it with death or imprisonment for life. It is the substance most Malaysian capital drug prosecutions now concern. The chain is short and it passes through no weight at any point. Section 2 defines a «dangerous drug» as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule», section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», whether on your own behalf or on behalf of any other person, and section 39B(2) sets the penalty. And the word «trafficking» is itself defined in section 2, far wider than selling: it «includes the doing of any of the following acts, that is to say, manufacturing, importing, exporting, keeping, concealing, buying, selling, giving, receiving, storing, administering, transporting, carrying, sending, delivering, procuring, supplying or distributing any dangerous drug otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act». Keeping, carrying and storing are on that list, so nothing commercial has to be shown. Section 37(da)(xvi) sets the presumption at «50 grammes or more in weight of Methamphetamine», which is the «50 grammes or more» each of the fourteen carries, and subparagraph (xxv) adds «a total of 50 grammes or more in weight of any combination of the dangerous drugs listed in subparagraphs (xi) to (xxiv)», so a mixed stimulant haul is counted as one. Section 37(da) closes with the words «otherwise than in accordance with the authority of this Act or any other written law, shall be presumed, until the contrary is proved, to be trafficking in the said drug», so it is a rebuttable presumption about proof and not a definition of the offence, and the words «until the contrary is proved» are what put the defendant to proof. Section 39B(2) itself turns on quantity at no point. Below trafficking there are two further tiers, and they are a separate list from the presumption weights. Section 39A(1)(r) applies where the subject matter is 5 grammes or more but less than 30 grammes of methamphetamine, and sets «imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than two years but shall not exceed five years» with «whipping of not less than three strokes but not more than nine strokes». Section 39A(2)(r) applies where the offence is «not punishable with death» and the subject matter is 30 grammes or more, and sets «imprisonment for life or for a term which shall not be less than five years» with «whipping of not less than ten strokes». Death is available and it is no longer mandatory, and the change has a date. Section 39B(2) once read simply «on conviction with death». The Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017, Act A1558, in force 15 March 2018, opened a narrow gate out of that, a date carried forward from the earlier reading and not re-derived in this pass. The Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, came into operation on 4 July 2023, and section 54 of it is the whole of what it did to the Dangerous Drugs Act: it substituted «be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes» for fifteen strokes in subsection (2), and it deleted subsections (2A) and (2B), which were the mandatory death machinery. Section 39B(2) now reads, in full: «Any person who contravenes any of the provisions of subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence against this Act and shall be punished on conviction with death or imprisonment for life and shall, if he is not sentenced to death, be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes.» So the court chooses between death and imprisonment for life with no precondition, and at least twelve strokes follow any sentence that is not death. Act 846 is widely described as replacing life with a term of thirty to forty years. It did that in the Penal Code, the Firearms (Increased Penalties) Act 1971, the Arms Act 1960, the Kidnapping Act 1961, the Strategic Trade Act 2010 and the Criminal Procedure Code. It did not do it here: the words «imprisonment for life» in section 39B(2) are untouched and no definition of that phrase appears anywhere in the Dangerous Drugs Act, so no year figure is stated in this cell. Section 55 of Act 846 applies the amended section to anyone sentenced after it came into operation even where the offence was committed before. Below trafficking, the possession offence is section 12. Section 11(1) provides that «This Part applies to dangerous drugs listed in Parts III, IV and V of the First Schedule», which is what brings a Part III substance inside Part IV of the Act. Section 12(2) then prohibits having such a drug in your possession, custody or control «unless he is authorized to be in possession, custody or control of such drug or is deemed to be so authorized under this Act or the regulations made thereunder», and section 12(3) punishes a contravention with «a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Self-administration is section 15(1), at a fine not exceeding five thousand ringgit or imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, and section 38B(1) then requires supervision for not less than two and not more than three years after the sentence has been served. Three procedural consequences follow automatically. Section 41(1) removes a section 39B charge from the Sessions Court and the Magistrates' Court, so it is tried in the High Court, and section 41A(3) has it tried by a judge sitting alone. Section 41B(1) provides that bail «shall not be granted» where the offence is punishable with death, and also where it is punishable with imprisonment for more than five years. Section 38A, which lets a court deal with a drug dependant under eighteen under the Drug Dependants (Treatment and Rehabilitation) Act 1983 rather than punish him, is expressly unavailable for a section 39B offence. Section 39C separately escalates a repeat offender under the consumption and possession provisions to not less than five and not more than seven years with not more than three strokes. Syabu and pil kuda are street names for methamphetamine preparations and neither appears in either Act. A crystal or a tablet is weighed as found, so a pressed tablet whose methamphetamine content is a fraction of its mass still counts at its full weight against the 50 grammes. The list can move under all of this. Section 45A is headed «Power of the Minister to vary First Schedule» and it operates either on a decision of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs or of the United Nations Organization altering the Schedules to the Single Convention, or simply where the Minister «considers it expedient to add a substance to, or remove a substance from, or vary the First Schedule, he may by order make the requisite modifications». An order takes effect on gazetting and there is no notice period. He has used it twice since the text read here, by P.U. (A) 97 gazetted 2 April 2024 and P.U. (A) 416 gazetted 25 November 2025, both carried forward from the earlier reading and neither re-read in this pass. The text read for this cell is the Attorney General's Chambers updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», and a later order is not ruled out.
If prescribed / medical: There is no prescription route for methamphetamine in Malaysia, and this cell states that rather than leaving a reader to infer it. Every prohibition in the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, and the definition of trafficking in section 2, is qualified by the words «otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act», so a lawful holding is one that sits inside an authority granted under the Act. The authority the Act contemplates is a licence or a regulation made under it, and here there is nothing for one to attach to. It is reached at Part III of the First Schedule: it is named in terms. Neither Act evidences a registered product containing it. Syabu and pil kuda are street names for preparations of it and have no separate entry, so a tablet is weighed as it is found.
Documentation: There is no document to carry, because there is no lawful holding for a document to evidence. This cell says so plainly rather than leave a traveller looking for paperwork that does not exist for methamphetamine. The entry that forecloses the question is «Methamphetamine», reached at Part III of the First Schedule. Section 25 of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, the traveller provision, turns on a medicinal preparation supplied by or on the prescription of a medical practitioner residing outside Malaysia, so it has nothing to attach to here. It is also confined to Part V of the Act, the external trade Part, and would not answer a possession charge even if it did apply. Getting the paperwork wrong is not a paperwork penalty. Section 37(d) provides that «any person who is found to have had in his custody or under his control anything whatsoever containing any dangerous drug shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have been in possession of such drug and shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have known the nature of such drug», and section 37(da) can then presume trafficking from the weight of the material alone. A foreign prescription, a licence issued in another country, and religious or traditional use are none of them provided for anywhere in the Act. The entry the document has to answer to, in the First Schedule itself, is «Methamphetamine» at Part III. If the document does not answer the entry, the charge is section 12(2) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, possession of a dangerous drug without authority, and section 12(3) sets «a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Section 12(4) adds whipping of not more than three strokes where the person convicted is a public officer employed at a prison, rehabilitation centre, police lock-up or place of detention.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 in all five Parts, the entry found at Part III of the First Schedule as «Methamphetamine» · sections 2, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 11(1), 16, 25, 37(d), 37(da), 39A, 39B and 45A of that Act · the Poisons Act 1952 Poisons List and Third Schedule both read · the Poisons Act 1952 Third Schedule read in full · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

Methamphetamine in Malaysia, full detail →

Methaqualone (Quaaludes)

Legal status: Methaqualone is a psychotropic substance under the Poisons Act 1952, named in the Third Schedule with «Mecloqualone» beside it, and in the Poisons List. It is NOT in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, so section 39B and the death penalty cannot reach it.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Methaqualone is not in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 and is named in none of its five Parts. The only two sedative-hypnotics that Schedule names are «Flunitrazepam» and «Nimetazepam», both in Part III, and methaqualone is a quinazolinone and neither of them. Section 39B is the only capital provision in Malaysian drug law, and section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», which section 2 defines as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule». A substance outside that Schedule cannot be trafficked within the meaning of section 39B however much of it there is, the section 37(da) presumption weights do not reach it, and neither do the section 39A enhanced penalties. What applies instead is section 30 of the Poisons Act 1952, which provides at subsection (3) that «no person shall import, export, manufacture, compound, mix, dispense, sell, supply, administer, possess or use any psychotropic substance otherwise than in accordance with any regulations applicable thereto», and at subsection (5) that a contravention is punishable «to a fine not exceeding ten thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding four years or both». Section 30(4) carries a possession presumption of its own: a person found with the substance in his custody or control «shall be deemed to have been in possession of the substance and to have known the nature of the substance, until he proves to the contrary». Four years and ten thousand ringgit against death. That is the single largest cliff in Malaysian drug law and it turns entirely on which of two schedules a substance sits in. And the ground can move under it: section 45A of the Dangerous Drugs Act lets the Minister add a substance to the First Schedule by order, and section 30(2) of the Poisons Act lets him amend the Third Schedule the same way.
If prescribed / medical: This is a prescription-supply question and not a trafficking one. Methaqualone is a psychotropic substance under the Poisons Act 1952, named in terms, appearing in the Third Schedule as «Methaqualone» and in the Poisons List as «Methaqualone». Section 30(1) provides that «In this section, “psychotropic substance” means any of the substances specified in the Third Schedule», and section 30(3) then prohibits importing, exporting, manufacturing, compounding, mixing, dispensing, selling, supplying, administering, possessing or using such a substance «otherwise than in accordance with any regulations applicable thereto made under this Act». Those regulations are the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989, and regulation 3 is the one a patient stands on: possession is prohibited unless «he is authorised to be in possession of such psychotropic substance under these Regulations» and the substance is for a lawful purpose and obtained under them. Regulation 3(2)(l) places a person lawfully supplied «in accordance with a prescription lawfully given by a registered medical practitioner, registered dentist Division I of a veterinary surgeon» inside that authority, the wording of that paragraph being the publisher's. «Mecloqualone» is named beside it in the same Third Schedule, and both are also in the Second Schedule to the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989.
Documentation: Carry the prescription and the dispensing label with the medicine, in its original packaging. The entry the prescription has to answer to is «Methaqualone» in the Third Schedule, with «Methaqualone» in the Poisons List beside it. Regulation 4(2)(a) of the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 is the traveller provision and it fixes a figure the Dangerous Drugs Act never does: a person arriving in or leaving Malaysia who carries, as part of personal luggage and solely for personal or family use, a prepared or packaged medicine containing a psychotropic substance is outside the import authorisation requirement, provided the quantity is «not exceeding such quantities as may be reasonably required for one month's use by one person» and it has been lawfully supplied by or on the prescription of a qualified medical practitioner. This substance carries an extra requirement that most do not. It is named in the Second Schedule to those Regulations, and regulation 9 provides that a psychotropic substance in that Schedule imported into Malaysia, or brought in transit from a country party to the 1971 Convention, «shall be accompanied by a valid and subsisting export authorisation duly issued by the competent authority of the country from which it is exported», to be produced on demand to a Drug Enforcement Officer, a police officer not below the rank of Inspector or a senior officer of Customs. Section 30(4) presumes possession and knowledge from custody or control: a person found with the substance «shall be deemed to have been in possession of the substance and to have known the nature of the substance, until he proves to the contrary». The prescription is what rebuts it. The penalty under section 30(5) is «a fine not exceeding ten thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding four years or both». The control is the Poisons Act 1952 and its regulations rather than the Dangerous Drugs Act, so the trafficking regime and its presumptions are not in play for methaqualone.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: the Poisons Act 1952 Third Schedule, the entry found as «Methaqualone», named in terms · the Poisons List, carrying «Methaqualone» · sections 30(1) to 30(5) and 32(2) of that Act · the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 incorporating P.U. (A) 405/2018, regulations 3, 4 and 9 and the Second Schedule to those Regulations, in which this substance is named · and the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 read in all five Parts, and methaqualone not found in any of them · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

Methaqualone (Quaaludes) in Malaysia, full detail →

Methylone

Legal status: Methylone is a psychotropic substance under the Poisons Act 1952, named in the Third Schedule and in the Poisons List by its own name, with «Ethylone (3,4-Methylenedioxy-N-ethylcathinone)» named beside it in the Third Schedule. It is NOT in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952. Cathinone and Methcathinone are, but Part III extends only to isomers, esters, ethers and salts, and methylone is the 3,4-methylenedioxy analogue of methcathinone, which is none of those. Two other cathinones, «Eutylone» and «N-Ethylnorpentylone (Ephylone)», ARE in the Dangerous Drugs Act schedule, so the synthetic cathinones are themselves split across the two Acts.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Methylone is not in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952. Four cathinones are, «Cathinone», «Methcathinone», «Eutylone» and «N-Ethylnorpentylone (Ephylone)», all in Part III, and methylone is the 3,4-methylenedioxy analogue of methcathinone, which is none of the four relationships Part III extends to. Section 39B is the only capital provision in Malaysian drug law, and section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», which section 2 defines as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule». A substance outside that Schedule cannot be trafficked within the meaning of section 39B however much of it there is, the section 37(da) presumption weights do not reach it, and neither do the section 39A enhanced penalties. What applies instead is section 30 of the Poisons Act 1952, which provides at subsection (3) that «no person shall import, export, manufacture, compound, mix, dispense, sell, supply, administer, possess or use any psychotropic substance otherwise than in accordance with any regulations applicable thereto», and at subsection (5) that a contravention is punishable «to a fine not exceeding ten thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding four years or both». Section 30(4) carries a possession presumption of its own: a person found with the substance in his custody or control «shall be deemed to have been in possession of the substance and to have known the nature of the substance, until he proves to the contrary». Four years and ten thousand ringgit against death. That is the single largest cliff in Malaysian drug law and it turns entirely on which of two schedules a substance sits in. And the ground can move under it: section 45A of the Dangerous Drugs Act lets the Minister add a substance to the First Schedule by order, and section 30(2) of the Poisons Act lets him amend the Third Schedule the same way.
If prescribed / medical: This is a prescription-supply question and not a trafficking one. Methylone is a psychotropic substance under the Poisons Act 1952, named in terms, appearing in the Third Schedule as «Methylone» and in the Poisons List as «Methylone». Section 30(1) provides that «In this section, “psychotropic substance” means any of the substances specified in the Third Schedule», and section 30(3) then prohibits importing, exporting, manufacturing, compounding, mixing, dispensing, selling, supplying, administering, possessing or using such a substance «otherwise than in accordance with any regulations applicable thereto made under this Act». Those regulations are the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989, and regulation 3 is the one a patient stands on: possession is prohibited unless «he is authorised to be in possession of such psychotropic substance under these Regulations» and the substance is for a lawful purpose and obtained under them. Regulation 3(2)(l) places a person lawfully supplied «in accordance with a prescription lawfully given by a registered medical practitioner, registered dentist Division I of a veterinary surgeon» inside that authority, the wording of that paragraph being the publisher's. «Ethylone (3,4-Methylenedioxy-N-ethylcathinone)» is named beside it. Two other synthetic cathinones, eutylone and N-ethylnorpentylone, are in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act instead, so this family is split between the two statutes.
Documentation: Carry the prescription and the dispensing label with the medicine, in its original packaging. The entry the prescription has to answer to is «Methylone» in the Third Schedule, with «Methylone» in the Poisons List beside it. Regulation 4(2)(a) of the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 is the traveller provision and it fixes a figure the Dangerous Drugs Act never does: a person arriving in or leaving Malaysia who carries, as part of personal luggage and solely for personal or family use, a prepared or packaged medicine containing a psychotropic substance is outside the import authorisation requirement, provided the quantity is «not exceeding such quantities as may be reasonably required for one month's use by one person» and it has been lawfully supplied by or on the prescription of a qualified medical practitioner. Section 30(4) presumes possession and knowledge from custody or control: a person found with the substance «shall be deemed to have been in possession of the substance and to have known the nature of the substance, until he proves to the contrary». The prescription is what rebuts it. The penalty under section 30(5) is «a fine not exceeding ten thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding four years or both». The control is the Poisons Act 1952 and its regulations rather than the Dangerous Drugs Act, so the trafficking regime and its presumptions are not in play for methylone.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: the Poisons Act 1952 Third Schedule, the entry found as «Methylone», named in terms · the Poisons List, carrying «Methylone» · sections 30(1) to 30(5) and 32(2) of that Act · the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 incorporating P.U. (A) 405/2018, regulations 3, 4 and 9 and the Second Schedule to those Regulations, in which this substance is not named · and the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 read in all five Parts, and methylone not found in any of them · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

Methylone in Malaysia, full detail →

Methylphenidate

Legal status: Methylphenidate is a psychotropic substance under the Poisons Act 1952, named in the Third Schedule and in the Poisons List as «Methylphenidate; its salts», with «Ethylphenidate» named in the Third Schedule beside it. It is NOT in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, so section 39B and the death penalty cannot reach it, and the amphetamine presumption weight in section 37(da) does not apply to it either. Amphetamine and methamphetamine are in that Schedule, so a stimulant prescription does not have one answer in Malaysia.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Methylphenidate is not in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952. «Amphetamine» and «Methamphetamine» are, in Part III, and both carry 50 gramme presumption weights at section 37(da)(xii) and (xvi), and none of that reaches methylphenidate, which is a different substance and not an isomer, ester, ether or salt of either. Section 39B is the only capital provision in Malaysian drug law, and section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», which section 2 defines as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule». A substance outside that Schedule cannot be trafficked within the meaning of section 39B however much of it there is, the section 37(da) presumption weights do not reach it, and neither do the section 39A enhanced penalties. What applies instead is section 30 of the Poisons Act 1952, which provides at subsection (3) that «no person shall import, export, manufacture, compound, mix, dispense, sell, supply, administer, possess or use any psychotropic substance otherwise than in accordance with any regulations applicable thereto», and at subsection (5) that a contravention is punishable «to a fine not exceeding ten thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding four years or both». Section 30(4) carries a possession presumption of its own: a person found with the substance in his custody or control «shall be deemed to have been in possession of the substance and to have known the nature of the substance, until he proves to the contrary». Four years and ten thousand ringgit against death. That is the single largest cliff in Malaysian drug law and it turns entirely on which of two schedules a substance sits in. And the ground can move under it: section 45A of the Dangerous Drugs Act lets the Minister add a substance to the First Schedule by order, and section 30(2) of the Poisons Act lets him amend the Third Schedule the same way.
If prescribed / medical: This is a prescription-supply question and not a trafficking one. Methylphenidate is a psychotropic substance under the Poisons Act 1952, named in terms, appearing in the Third Schedule as «Methylphenidate» and in the Poisons List as «Methylphenidate; its salts». Section 30(1) provides that «In this section, “psychotropic substance” means any of the substances specified in the Third Schedule», and section 30(3) then prohibits importing, exporting, manufacturing, compounding, mixing, dispensing, selling, supplying, administering, possessing or using such a substance «otherwise than in accordance with any regulations applicable thereto made under this Act». Those regulations are the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989, and regulation 3 is the one a patient stands on: possession is prohibited unless «he is authorised to be in possession of such psychotropic substance under these Regulations» and the substance is for a lawful purpose and obtained under them. Regulation 3(2)(l) places a person lawfully supplied «in accordance with a prescription lawfully given by a registered medical practitioner, registered dentist Division I of a veterinary surgeon» inside that authority, the wording of that paragraph being the publisher's. «Ethylphenidate» is named in the same Third Schedule beside it and is a different substance.
Documentation: Carry the prescription and the dispensing label with the medicine, in its original packaging. The entry the prescription has to answer to is «Methylphenidate» in the Third Schedule, with «Methylphenidate; its salts» in the Poisons List beside it. Regulation 4(2)(a) of the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 is the traveller provision and it fixes a figure the Dangerous Drugs Act never does: a person arriving in or leaving Malaysia who carries, as part of personal luggage and solely for personal or family use, a prepared or packaged medicine containing a psychotropic substance is outside the import authorisation requirement, provided the quantity is «not exceeding such quantities as may be reasonably required for one month's use by one person» and it has been lawfully supplied by or on the prescription of a qualified medical practitioner. This substance carries an extra requirement that most do not. It is named in the Second Schedule to those Regulations, and regulation 9 provides that a psychotropic substance in that Schedule imported into Malaysia, or brought in transit from a country party to the 1971 Convention, «shall be accompanied by a valid and subsisting export authorisation duly issued by the competent authority of the country from which it is exported», to be produced on demand to a Drug Enforcement Officer, a police officer not below the rank of Inspector or a senior officer of Customs. Section 30(4) presumes possession and knowledge from custody or control: a person found with the substance «shall be deemed to have been in possession of the substance and to have known the nature of the substance, until he proves to the contrary». The prescription is what rebuts it. The penalty under section 30(5) is «a fine not exceeding ten thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding four years or both». The control is the Poisons Act 1952 and its regulations rather than the Dangerous Drugs Act, so the trafficking regime and its presumptions are not in play for methylphenidate.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: the Poisons Act 1952 Third Schedule, the entry found as «Methylphenidate», named in terms · the Poisons List, whose printed name column for this substance is reproduced in full in this cell's status field · sections 30(1) to 30(5) and 32(2) of that Act · the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 incorporating P.U. (A) 405/2018, regulations 3, 4 and 9 and the Second Schedule to those Regulations, in which this substance is named · and the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 read in all five Parts, and methylphenidate not found in any of them · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

Methylphenidate in Malaysia, full detail →

Mitragynine

Legal status: Mitragynine is the named controlled entity for kratom in Malaysia, and it is controlled under the Poisons Act 1952 rather than the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952. It is a psychotropic substance in the Third Schedule, and the Poisons List carries both «Mitragynine» and «Mitragynine, alkoloids of». It is NOT in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, so no mitragynine or ketum offence can reach section 39B or the death penalty.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Mitragynine is not in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952. It is named in none of the five Parts, and neither is the leaf it comes from. Section 39B is the only capital provision in Malaysian drug law, and section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», which section 2 defines as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule». A substance outside that Schedule cannot be trafficked within the meaning of section 39B however much of it there is, the section 37(da) presumption weights do not reach it, and neither do the section 39A enhanced penalties. What applies instead is section 30 of the Poisons Act 1952, which provides at subsection (3) that «no person shall import, export, manufacture, compound, mix, dispense, sell, supply, administer, possess or use any psychotropic substance otherwise than in accordance with any regulations applicable thereto», and at subsection (5) that a contravention is punishable «to a fine not exceeding ten thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding four years or both». Section 30(4) carries a possession presumption of its own: a person found with the substance in his custody or control «shall be deemed to have been in possession of the substance and to have known the nature of the substance, until he proves to the contrary». Four years and ten thousand ringgit against death. That is the single largest cliff in Malaysian drug law and it turns entirely on which of two schedules a substance sits in. And the ground can move under it: section 45A of the Dangerous Drugs Act lets the Minister add a substance to the First Schedule by order, and section 30(2) of the Poisons Act lets him amend the Third Schedule the same way.
If prescribed / medical: This is a prescription-supply question and not a trafficking one. Mitragynine is a psychotropic substance under the Poisons Act 1952, named in terms, appearing in the Third Schedule as «Mitragynine» and in the Poisons List as «Mitragynine, alkoloids of». Section 30(1) provides that «In this section, “psychotropic substance” means any of the substances specified in the Third Schedule», and section 30(3) then prohibits importing, exporting, manufacturing, compounding, mixing, dispensing, selling, supplying, administering, possessing or using such a substance «otherwise than in accordance with any regulations applicable thereto made under this Act». Those regulations are the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989, and regulation 3 is the one a patient stands on: possession is prohibited unless «he is authorised to be in possession of such psychotropic substance under these Regulations» and the substance is for a lawful purpose and obtained under them. Regulation 3(2)(l) places a person lawfully supplied «in accordance with a prescription lawfully given by a registered medical practitioner, registered dentist Division I of a veterinary surgeon» inside that authority, the wording of that paragraph being the publisher's. The Poisons List carries both a plain entry and the alkaloids entry, whose spelling is the publisher's and is reproduced as printed. Mitragynine is not in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952.
Documentation: Carry the prescription and the dispensing label with the medicine, in its original packaging. The entry the prescription has to answer to is «Mitragynine» in the Third Schedule, with «Mitragynine, alkoloids of» in the Poisons List beside it. Regulation 4(2)(a) of the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 is the traveller provision and it fixes a figure the Dangerous Drugs Act never does: a person arriving in or leaving Malaysia who carries, as part of personal luggage and solely for personal or family use, a prepared or packaged medicine containing a psychotropic substance is outside the import authorisation requirement, provided the quantity is «not exceeding such quantities as may be reasonably required for one month's use by one person» and it has been lawfully supplied by or on the prescription of a qualified medical practitioner. Section 30(4) presumes possession and knowledge from custody or control: a person found with the substance «shall be deemed to have been in possession of the substance and to have known the nature of the substance, until he proves to the contrary». The prescription is what rebuts it. The penalty under section 30(5) is «a fine not exceeding ten thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding four years or both». The control is the Poisons Act 1952 and its regulations rather than the Dangerous Drugs Act, so the trafficking regime and its presumptions are not in play for mitragynine.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: the Poisons Act 1952 Third Schedule, the entry found as «Mitragynine», named in terms · the Poisons List, carrying «Mitragynine, alkoloids of» · sections 30(1) to 30(5) and 32(2) of that Act · the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 incorporating P.U. (A) 405/2018, regulations 3, 4 and 9 and the Second Schedule to those Regulations, in which this substance is not named · and the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 read in all five Parts, and mitragynine not found in any of them · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

Mitragynine in Malaysia, full detail →

Modafinil

Legal status: Modafinil is a psychotropic substance under the Poisons Act 1952, named in the Third Schedule and in the Poisons List by its own name. It is NOT in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, so section 39B and the death penalty cannot reach it. Searched across both Acts, no entry begins with the letters modaf other than this one, so the stem traps that catch this substance elsewhere do not arise.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Modafinil is not in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952. No entry in any of its five Parts begins with the letters modaf, so the stem traps that catch this substance in some other schedules do not arise here. Section 39B is the only capital provision in Malaysian drug law, and section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», which section 2 defines as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule». A substance outside that Schedule cannot be trafficked within the meaning of section 39B however much of it there is, the section 37(da) presumption weights do not reach it, and neither do the section 39A enhanced penalties. What applies instead is section 30 of the Poisons Act 1952, which provides at subsection (3) that «no person shall import, export, manufacture, compound, mix, dispense, sell, supply, administer, possess or use any psychotropic substance otherwise than in accordance with any regulations applicable thereto», and at subsection (5) that a contravention is punishable «to a fine not exceeding ten thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding four years or both». Section 30(4) carries a possession presumption of its own: a person found with the substance in his custody or control «shall be deemed to have been in possession of the substance and to have known the nature of the substance, until he proves to the contrary». Four years and ten thousand ringgit against death. That is the single largest cliff in Malaysian drug law and it turns entirely on which of two schedules a substance sits in. And the ground can move under it: section 45A of the Dangerous Drugs Act lets the Minister add a substance to the First Schedule by order, and section 30(2) of the Poisons Act lets him amend the Third Schedule the same way.
If prescribed / medical: This is a prescription-supply question and not a trafficking one. Modafinil is a psychotropic substance under the Poisons Act 1952, named in terms, appearing in the Third Schedule as «Modafinil» and in the Poisons List as «Modafinil». Section 30(1) provides that «In this section, “psychotropic substance” means any of the substances specified in the Third Schedule», and section 30(3) then prohibits importing, exporting, manufacturing, compounding, mixing, dispensing, selling, supplying, administering, possessing or using such a substance «otherwise than in accordance with any regulations applicable thereto made under this Act». Those regulations are the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989, and regulation 3 is the one a patient stands on: possession is prohibited unless «he is authorised to be in possession of such psychotropic substance under these Regulations» and the substance is for a lawful purpose and obtained under them. Regulation 3(2)(l) places a person lawfully supplied «in accordance with a prescription lawfully given by a registered medical practitioner, registered dentist Division I of a veterinary surgeon» inside that authority, the wording of that paragraph being the publisher's. No other entry in either Act begins with the same stem, so the usual name-matching traps do not arise for it.
Documentation: Carry the prescription and the dispensing label with the medicine, in its original packaging. The entry the prescription has to answer to is «Modafinil» in the Third Schedule, with «Modafinil» in the Poisons List beside it. Regulation 4(2)(a) of the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 is the traveller provision and it fixes a figure the Dangerous Drugs Act never does: a person arriving in or leaving Malaysia who carries, as part of personal luggage and solely for personal or family use, a prepared or packaged medicine containing a psychotropic substance is outside the import authorisation requirement, provided the quantity is «not exceeding such quantities as may be reasonably required for one month's use by one person» and it has been lawfully supplied by or on the prescription of a qualified medical practitioner. Section 30(4) presumes possession and knowledge from custody or control: a person found with the substance «shall be deemed to have been in possession of the substance and to have known the nature of the substance, until he proves to the contrary». The prescription is what rebuts it. The penalty under section 30(5) is «a fine not exceeding ten thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding four years or both». The control is the Poisons Act 1952 and its regulations rather than the Dangerous Drugs Act, so the trafficking regime and its presumptions are not in play for modafinil.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: the Poisons Act 1952 Third Schedule, the entry found as «Modafinil», named in terms · the Poisons List, carrying «Modafinil» · sections 30(1) to 30(5) and 32(2) of that Act · the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 incorporating P.U. (A) 405/2018, regulations 3, 4 and 9 and the Second Schedule to those Regulations, in which this substance is not named · and the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 read in all five Parts, and modafinil not found in any of them · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

Modafinil in Malaysia, full detail →

Morphine

Legal status: Morphine is named in Part III of the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, with Normorphine, Nicomorphine, Benzylmorphine, Dihydromorphine, Hydromorphone, Morphine-N-oxide and «Morphine Methobromide and other pentavalent nitrogen morphine derivatives» in the same Part, and Ethylmorphine one Part down in Part IV. It is also in the Poisons Act Third Schedule at item 2, which covers registered products containing it. It carries the lowest trafficking presumption weight in the Act, shared with heroin.
Consequences if caught: Morphine sits at the top of Malaysia's opiate regime: Part III of the First Schedule names «Morphine», and with it «Morphine Methobromide and other pentavalent nitrogen morphine derivatives, including in particular the morphine-N-oxide derivatives, one of which is Codeine-N-oxide». Section 39B(2) therefore reaches it, with death or imprisonment for life as the sentence. The chain is short and it passes through no weight at any point. Section 2 defines a «dangerous drug» as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule», section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», whether on your own behalf or on behalf of any other person, and section 39B(2) sets the penalty. And the word «trafficking» is itself defined in section 2, far wider than selling: it «includes the doing of any of the following acts, that is to say, manufacturing, importing, exporting, keeping, concealing, buying, selling, giving, receiving, storing, administering, transporting, carrying, sending, delivering, procuring, supplying or distributing any dangerous drug otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act». Keeping, carrying and storing are on that list, so nothing commercial has to be shown. Section 37(da)(ii) sets the presumption at «15 grammes or more in weight of morphine», the lowest figure in the Act and the one it shares with heroin at subparagraph (i), «15 grammes or more in weight of heroin», and subparagraph (iiia) aggregates morphine with heroin and monoacetylmorphines to the same 15 grammes. Section 37(da) closes with the words «otherwise than in accordance with the authority of this Act or any other written law, shall be presumed, until the contrary is proved, to be trafficking in the said drug», so it is a rebuttable presumption about proof and not a definition of the offence, and the words «until the contrary is proved» are what put the defendant to proof. Section 39B(2) itself turns on quantity at no point. Below trafficking there are two further tiers, and they are a separate list from the presumption weights. Section 39A(1)(b) applies where the subject matter is 2 grammes or more but less than 5 grammes of morphine, and sets «imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than two years but shall not exceed five years» with «whipping of not less than three strokes but not more than nine strokes». Section 39A(2)(b) applies where the offence is «not punishable with death» and the subject matter is 5 grammes or more, and sets «imprisonment for life or for a term which shall not be less than five years» with «whipping of not less than ten strokes». Death is available and it is no longer mandatory, and the change has a date. Section 39B(2) once read simply «on conviction with death». The Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017, Act A1558, in force 15 March 2018, opened a narrow gate out of that, a date carried forward from the earlier reading and not re-derived in this pass. The Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, came into operation on 4 July 2023, and section 54 of it is the whole of what it did to the Dangerous Drugs Act: it substituted «be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes» for fifteen strokes in subsection (2), and it deleted subsections (2A) and (2B), which were the mandatory death machinery. Section 39B(2) now reads, in full: «Any person who contravenes any of the provisions of subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence against this Act and shall be punished on conviction with death or imprisonment for life and shall, if he is not sentenced to death, be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes.» So the court chooses between death and imprisonment for life with no precondition, and at least twelve strokes follow any sentence that is not death. Act 846 is widely described as replacing life with a term of thirty to forty years. It did that in the Penal Code, the Firearms (Increased Penalties) Act 1971, the Arms Act 1960, the Kidnapping Act 1961, the Strategic Trade Act 2010 and the Criminal Procedure Code. It did not do it here: the words «imprisonment for life» in section 39B(2) are untouched and no definition of that phrase appears anywhere in the Dangerous Drugs Act, so no year figure is stated in this cell. Section 55 of Act 846 applies the amended section to anyone sentenced after it came into operation even where the offence was committed before. Below trafficking, the possession offence is section 12. Section 11(1) provides that «This Part applies to dangerous drugs listed in Parts III, IV and V of the First Schedule», which is what brings a Part III substance inside Part IV of the Act. Section 12(2) then prohibits having such a drug in your possession, custody or control «unless he is authorized to be in possession, custody or control of such drug or is deemed to be so authorized under this Act or the regulations made thereunder», and section 12(3) punishes a contravention with «a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Self-administration is section 15(1), at a fine not exceeding five thousand ringgit or imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, and section 38B(1) then requires supervision for not less than two and not more than three years after the sentence has been served. Three procedural consequences follow automatically. Section 41(1) removes a section 39B charge from the Sessions Court and the Magistrates' Court, so it is tried in the High Court, and section 41A(3) has it tried by a judge sitting alone. Section 41B(1) provides that bail «shall not be granted» where the offence is punishable with death, and also where it is punishable with imprisonment for more than five years. Section 38A, which lets a court deal with a drug dependant under eighteen under the Drug Dependants (Treatment and Rehabilitation) Act 1983 rather than punish him, is expressly unavailable for a section 39B offence. Section 39C separately escalates a repeat offender under the consumption and possession provisions to not less than five and not more than seven years with not more than three strokes. A hospital ampoule is measured in milligrammes, so the pharmacy quantities and the trafficking quantities are three orders of magnitude apart. The Act makes no allowance for that difference itself: the authority under section 12 does. The list can move under all of this. Section 45A is headed «Power of the Minister to vary First Schedule» and it operates either on a decision of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs or of the United Nations Organization altering the Schedules to the Single Convention, or simply where the Minister «considers it expedient to add a substance to, or remove a substance from, or vary the First Schedule, he may by order make the requisite modifications». An order takes effect on gazetting and there is no notice period. He has used it twice since the text read here, by P.U. (A) 97 gazetted 2 April 2024 and P.U. (A) 416 gazetted 25 November 2025, both carried forward from the earlier reading and neither re-read in this pass. The text read for this cell is the Attorney General's Chambers updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», and a later order is not ruled out.
If prescribed / medical: Morphine is a dangerous drug and it is also a medicine, so both things are true of it at once. Every prohibition in the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, and the definition of trafficking in section 2, is qualified by the words «otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act», so the question for a medicine is never whether the substance is scheduled but whether the handling sits inside that authority. It is named in Part III of the First Schedule as «Morphine». Section 11(1) provides that «This Part applies to dangerous drugs listed in Parts III, IV and V of the First Schedule», which is what brings it inside Part IV of the Act, where section 16(1) empowers the Minister to make regulations «controlling the manufacture, sale, possession, and distribution of such drugs». That registered Malaysian products containing it exist is on the face of the Poisons List, which carries «(DD) Morphine» with the registered-products wording against it rather than the ordinary preparations wording. A registered Malaysian product containing it is additionally caught by the Poisons Act 1952, because item 2 of the Third Schedule covers any product registered under the Control of Drugs and Cosmetics Regulations 1984 containing «Morphine», so section 30 and the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 run alongside the Dangerous Drugs Act for the product. Part V exempts preparations of opium or morphine containing not more than 0.2 per cent of morphine, but the heading of that Part confines it to preparations for the export of which export authorizations are not required, so it is an export-paperwork exemption and not a possession one. «Ethylmorphine» sits in Part IV separately.
Documentation: Carry the prescription and the dispensing label with the medicine, in its original packaging, and declare it on arrival. The entry the label has to answer to is «Morphine» at Part III of the First Schedule, and a dispensing label naming a different member of that Part is not the same thing. Section 25 of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 is the only personal traveller provision the Act contains, and its reach is narrower than it looks. It sits in Part V, which is the external trade Part, and it opens by providing that nothing in that Part applies to a quantity of a dangerous drug in the form of a medicinal preparation in the «possession of any person arriving in Malaysia by land, air or water from any place outside Malaysia as is reasonably required for the use of such person and which has been supplied to such person bona fide by or on the prescription of a medical practitioner residing outside Malaysia in accordance with the law of the country in which such drug was so supplied». Because the words are nothing in this Part, it answers the import control and it does not touch the possession and trafficking provisions that sit in Part IV of the Act. It is also conditional: the person «shall, as soon as possible on arrival, declare his possession of such dangerous drug to an officer having authority under this Act to search such person and shall submit to such medical examination as may be required of him». There is a second requirement for morphine that the Dangerous Drugs Act does not mention. A registered product containing it is also a psychotropic substance under item 2 of the Poisons Act Third Schedule, so regulation 4(2)(a) of the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 is the traveller provision and it fixes a figure the Dangerous Drugs Act never does: a person arriving in or leaving Malaysia who carries, as part of personal luggage and solely for personal or family use, a prepared or packaged medicine containing a psychotropic substance is outside the import authorisation requirement, provided the quantity is «not exceeding such quantities as may be reasonably required for one month's use by one person» and it has been lawfully supplied by or on the prescription of a qualified medical practitioner. Getting the paperwork wrong is not a paperwork penalty. Section 37(d) provides that «any person who is found to have had in his custody or under his control anything whatsoever containing any dangerous drug shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have been in possession of such drug and shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have known the nature of such drug», and section 37(da) can then presume trafficking from the weight of the material alone. The one month figure comes from those Regulations and not from the Dangerous Drugs Act, which fixes no quantity at all. The entry the document has to answer to, in the First Schedule itself, is «Morphine» at Part III. If the document does not answer the entry, the charge is section 12(2) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, possession of a dangerous drug without authority, and section 12(3) sets «a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Section 12(4) adds whipping of not more than three strokes where the person convicted is a public officer employed at a prison, rehabilitation centre, police lock-up or place of detention.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 in all five Parts, the entry found at Part III of the First Schedule as «Morphine» · sections 2, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 11(1), 16, 25, 37(d), 37(da), 39A, 39B and 45A of that Act · the Poisons Act 1952 Poisons List, carrying «(DD) Morphine» · the Poisons Act 1952 Third Schedule at item 2, which names «Morphine» among the substances whose registered products it covers, with sections 30(1) to 30(5) and the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 incorporating P.U. (A) 405/2018 · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

Morphine in Malaysia, full detail →

MXE

Legal status: Methoxetamine is a psychotropic substance under the Poisons Act 1952, named in the Third Schedule as «Methoxetamine (MXE)» and in the Poisons List. It is NOT in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, even though ketamine is. Part III of that Schedule extends only to isomers, esters, ethers and salts, and MXE is the N-ethyl 3-methoxy analogue of ketamine, which is none of those. So the parent is a dangerous drug and the analogue is not, and only the parent can reach section 39B.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Methoxetamine is not in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952. «Ketamine» is, in Part III, and MXE is its N-ethyl 3-methoxy analogue, which is not an isomer, an ester, an ether or a salt of it. So the parent is a dangerous drug and the analogue is not. Section 39B is the only capital provision in Malaysian drug law, and section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», which section 2 defines as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule». A substance outside that Schedule cannot be trafficked within the meaning of section 39B however much of it there is, the section 37(da) presumption weights do not reach it, and neither do the section 39A enhanced penalties. What applies instead is section 30 of the Poisons Act 1952, which provides at subsection (3) that «no person shall import, export, manufacture, compound, mix, dispense, sell, supply, administer, possess or use any psychotropic substance otherwise than in accordance with any regulations applicable thereto», and at subsection (5) that a contravention is punishable «to a fine not exceeding ten thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding four years or both». Section 30(4) carries a possession presumption of its own: a person found with the substance in his custody or control «shall be deemed to have been in possession of the substance and to have known the nature of the substance, until he proves to the contrary». Four years and ten thousand ringgit against death. That is the single largest cliff in Malaysian drug law and it turns entirely on which of two schedules a substance sits in. And the ground can move under it: section 45A of the Dangerous Drugs Act lets the Minister add a substance to the First Schedule by order, and section 30(2) of the Poisons Act lets him amend the Third Schedule the same way.
If prescribed / medical: This is a prescription-supply question and not a trafficking one. Methoxetamine is a psychotropic substance under the Poisons Act 1952, named in terms, appearing in the Third Schedule as «Methoxetamine (MXE)» and in the Poisons List as «Methoxetamine (MXE)». Section 30(1) provides that «In this section, “psychotropic substance” means any of the substances specified in the Third Schedule», and section 30(3) then prohibits importing, exporting, manufacturing, compounding, mixing, dispensing, selling, supplying, administering, possessing or using such a substance «otherwise than in accordance with any regulations applicable thereto made under this Act». Those regulations are the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989, and regulation 3 is the one a patient stands on: possession is prohibited unless «he is authorised to be in possession of such psychotropic substance under these Regulations» and the substance is for a lawful purpose and obtained under them. Regulation 3(2)(l) places a person lawfully supplied «in accordance with a prescription lawfully given by a registered medical practitioner, registered dentist Division I of a veterinary surgeon» inside that authority, the wording of that paragraph being the publisher's. Ketamine, its parent, is a dangerous drug under the other Act. Part III of the First Schedule extends only to isomers, esters, ethers and salts, and methoxetamine is none of those, so the parent and the analogue are authorised under different statutes.
Documentation: Carry the prescription and the dispensing label with the medicine, in its original packaging. The entry the prescription has to answer to is «Methoxetamine (MXE)» in the Third Schedule, with «Methoxetamine (MXE)» in the Poisons List beside it. Regulation 4(2)(a) of the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 is the traveller provision and it fixes a figure the Dangerous Drugs Act never does: a person arriving in or leaving Malaysia who carries, as part of personal luggage and solely for personal or family use, a prepared or packaged medicine containing a psychotropic substance is outside the import authorisation requirement, provided the quantity is «not exceeding such quantities as may be reasonably required for one month's use by one person» and it has been lawfully supplied by or on the prescription of a qualified medical practitioner. Section 30(4) presumes possession and knowledge from custody or control: a person found with the substance «shall be deemed to have been in possession of the substance and to have known the nature of the substance, until he proves to the contrary». The prescription is what rebuts it. The penalty under section 30(5) is «a fine not exceeding ten thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding four years or both». The control is the Poisons Act 1952 and its regulations rather than the Dangerous Drugs Act, so the trafficking regime and its presumptions are not in play for methoxetamine.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: the Poisons Act 1952 Third Schedule, the entry found as «Methoxetamine (MXE)», named in terms · the Poisons List, carrying «Methoxetamine (MXE)» · sections 30(1) to 30(5) and 32(2) of that Act · the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 incorporating P.U. (A) 405/2018, regulations 3, 4 and 9 and the Second Schedule to those Regulations, in which this substance is not named · and the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 read in all five Parts, and methoxetamine not found in any of them · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

MXE in Malaysia, full detail →

Nicotine

Legal status: Nicotine is a poison under the Poisons Act 1952, listed in the Poisons List by name with «All preparations» against it subject to an exemption. It is NOT in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 and it is not a Third Schedule psychotropic substance, so section 39B and the death penalty cannot reach it. Tobacco products and vape liquids are governed by a separate tobacco control statute which was not read for this cell, so nothing is stated here about retail age, flavour bans or vape rules.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Nicotine is not in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 and is named in none of its five Parts. Nor is the leaf it comes from. That Schedule names exactly two plant materials, cannabis in Parts I and II and the opium poppy through «Raw Opium» and «Poppy-Straw» in Part I, and tobacco is neither. Section 39B is the only capital provision in Malaysian drug law, and section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», which section 2 defines as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule». A substance outside that Schedule cannot be trafficked within the meaning of section 39B however much of it there is, the section 37(da) presumption weights do not reach it, and neither do the section 39A enhanced penalties. What applies instead is section 30 of the Poisons Act 1952, which provides at subsection (3) that «no person shall import, export, manufacture, compound, mix, dispense, sell, supply, administer, possess or use any psychotropic substance otherwise than in accordance with any regulations applicable thereto», and at subsection (5) that a contravention is punishable «to a fine not exceeding ten thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding four years or both». Section 30(4) carries a possession presumption of its own: a person found with the substance in his custody or control «shall be deemed to have been in possession of the substance and to have known the nature of the substance, until he proves to the contrary». Four years and ten thousand ringgit against death. That is the single largest cliff in Malaysian drug law and it turns entirely on which of two schedules a substance sits in. And the ground can move under it: section 45A of the Dangerous Drugs Act lets the Minister add a substance to the First Schedule by order, and section 30(2) of the Poisons Act lets him amend the Third Schedule the same way.
If prescribed / medical: Nicotine is a poison under the Poisons Act 1952 but it is not a psychotropic substance under it, and that distinction decides which sections apply. Section 30(1) provides that «In this section, “psychotropic substance” means any of the substances specified in the Third Schedule». Because nicotine is absent from that Schedule, section 30 and the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 do not reach it at all. What reaches it is the Poisons List, where it appears as «Nicotine», together with the supply provisions in sections 19 to 25. Section 19(1) carries the prescribing route: «a registered medical practitioner may sell, supply or administer such poison to his patient for the purposes of the medical treatment of such patient only», with equivalent provision for a registered dentist Division I and a veterinary officer, and the Group the poison is placed in governs who else may sell or supply it under sections 20 to 23. It is absent from the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, so nothing in that Act applies to it. The Poisons List row for nicotine carries tobacco in its exempt column, so the list reaches nicotine and expressly stands back from tobacco. Vape liquids and tobacco products are governed by a separate tobacco control statute which was not read for this cell.
Documentation: Carry the prescription and the dispensing label with the medicine, in its original packaging. That is ordinary prudence rather than a requirement the Poisons Act places on a traveller, because the Act controls who may sell and supply a poison rather than who may hold one. The entry a border officer would be reading is «Nicotine» in the Poisons List. There is no Third Schedule entry for nicotine to be read instead, and that absence is the whole reason the lighter sections apply. The exposure is lighter than for a psychotropic substance and it arises from different sections. Holding an ordinary poison is not prohibited as such: the provision that does prohibit possessing, section 30(3), is confined by section 30(1) to Third Schedule substances. What does touch possession is section 9(1), which provides that no person, whether licensed under the Act or not, shall «knowingly sell, supply, keep or have in his possession or under his control or store any poison otherwise than in accordance with the regulations made under this Act and in force relating to the possession, containers, packaging, labelling or storing of such poison», and section 9(2) deems that to have been done knowingly once possession is proved. So the offence is possessing a poison otherwise than in accordance with those regulations, and not possessing it at all. The regulations section 9(1) refers to were not located in this session and nothing is stated here about what they require. Section 13 separately covers possessing a poison for sale. An offence against the Act for which no other penalty is provided is punishable under section 32(2) by «a fine not exceeding three thousand ringgit or by imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year or both», rising to five thousand ringgit or two years where the court finds wilful default or culpable negligence that endangered or was likely to endanger human life. The Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989, including the one month personal import allowance in regulation 4(2)(a), do not apply to nicotine, because they apply to Third Schedule psychotropic substances and it is not one.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: the Poisons Act 1952 Poisons List, the entry found as «Nicotine» · sections 9(1), 9(2), 13, 19 to 25, 30(1) and 32(2) of that Act · the Third Schedule read in full, and nicotine not found in it, so section 30 and the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 do not apply · and the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 read in all five Parts, and nicotine not found in any of them · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

Nicotine in Malaysia, full detail →

Nimetazepam

Legal status: Nimetazepam is named in Part III of the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, so it is a dangerous drug and not merely a psychotropic. The Poisons List confirms it, carrying «Nimetazepam» with the «(DD)» marker. It is one of only two benzodiazepines in that Schedule; the other is Flunitrazepam. Every other benzodiazepine is caught only by the Poisons Act class formula for substances structurally derived from 1,4-benzodiazepine. Erimin is the trade name most often used for it in the region and has no separate entry.
Consequences if caught: Part III of the First Schedule names «Nimetazepam». It is one of only two benzodiazepines in that Schedule, the other being «Flunitrazepam», and the listing is what puts it inside section 39B(2), death or imprisonment for life, where every other benzodiazepine is outside it. The chain is short and it passes through no weight at any point. Section 2 defines a «dangerous drug» as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule», section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», whether on your own behalf or on behalf of any other person, and section 39B(2) sets the penalty. And the word «trafficking» is itself defined in section 2, far wider than selling: it «includes the doing of any of the following acts, that is to say, manufacturing, importing, exporting, keeping, concealing, buying, selling, giving, receiving, storing, administering, transporting, carrying, sending, delivering, procuring, supplying or distributing any dangerous drug otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act». Keeping, carrying and storing are on that list, so nothing commercial has to be shown. It has no section 37(da) presumption weight, so no quantity of it raises the presumption. So there is no presumption to rebut and no threshold to stay under, and section 39B(2) applies in the same terms as it would to a weighed substance. The other presumption is still there. Section 37(d) provides that any person found to have had in his custody or under his control anything whatsoever containing a dangerous drug «shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have been in possession of such drug and shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have known the nature of such drug». The words «until the contrary is proved» put the defendant to proof on both limbs, on the possession and on the knowledge. Death is available and it is no longer mandatory, and the change has a date. Section 39B(2) once read simply «on conviction with death». The Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017, Act A1558, in force 15 March 2018, opened a narrow gate out of that, a date carried forward from the earlier reading and not re-derived in this pass. The Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, came into operation on 4 July 2023, and section 54 of it is the whole of what it did to the Dangerous Drugs Act: it substituted «be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes» for fifteen strokes in subsection (2), and it deleted subsections (2A) and (2B), which were the mandatory death machinery. Section 39B(2) now reads, in full: «Any person who contravenes any of the provisions of subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence against this Act and shall be punished on conviction with death or imprisonment for life and shall, if he is not sentenced to death, be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes.» So the court chooses between death and imprisonment for life with no precondition, and at least twelve strokes follow any sentence that is not death. Act 846 is widely described as replacing life with a term of thirty to forty years. It did that in the Penal Code, the Firearms (Increased Penalties) Act 1971, the Arms Act 1960, the Kidnapping Act 1961, the Strategic Trade Act 2010 and the Criminal Procedure Code. It did not do it here: the words «imprisonment for life» in section 39B(2) are untouched and no definition of that phrase appears anywhere in the Dangerous Drugs Act, so no year figure is stated in this cell. Section 55 of Act 846 applies the amended section to anyone sentenced after it came into operation even where the offence was committed before. Below trafficking, the possession offence is section 12. Section 11(1) provides that «This Part applies to dangerous drugs listed in Parts III, IV and V of the First Schedule», which is what brings a Part III substance inside Part IV of the Act. Section 12(2) then prohibits having such a drug in your possession, custody or control «unless he is authorized to be in possession, custody or control of such drug or is deemed to be so authorized under this Act or the regulations made thereunder», and section 12(3) punishes a contravention with «a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Self-administration is section 15(1), at a fine not exceeding five thousand ringgit or imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, and section 38B(1) then requires supervision for not less than two and not more than three years after the sentence has been served. Three procedural consequences follow automatically. Section 41(1) removes a section 39B charge from the Sessions Court and the Magistrates' Court, so it is tried in the High Court, and section 41A(3) has it tried by a judge sitting alone. Section 41B(1) provides that bail «shall not be granted» where the offence is punishable with death, and also where it is punishable with imprisonment for more than five years. Section 38A, which lets a court deal with a drug dependant under eighteen under the Drug Dependants (Treatment and Rehabilitation) Act 1983 rather than punish him, is expressly unavailable for a section 39B offence. Section 39C separately escalates a repeat offender under the consumption and possession provisions to not less than five and not more than seven years with not more than three strokes. Erimin is the trade name most often used for it in the region and appears in neither Act. The gap between this substance and an ordinary benzodiazepine is the largest single cliff in Malaysian drug law, and it is invisible from the pharmacology: the two are prescribed for the same indications. The list can move under all of this. Section 45A is headed «Power of the Minister to vary First Schedule» and it operates either on a decision of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs or of the United Nations Organization altering the Schedules to the Single Convention, or simply where the Minister «considers it expedient to add a substance to, or remove a substance from, or vary the First Schedule, he may by order make the requisite modifications». An order takes effect on gazetting and there is no notice period. He has used it twice since the text read here, by P.U. (A) 97 gazetted 2 April 2024 and P.U. (A) 416 gazetted 25 November 2025, both carried forward from the earlier reading and neither re-read in this pass. The text read for this cell is the Attorney General's Chambers updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», and a later order is not ruled out.
If prescribed / medical: Nimetazepam is a dangerous drug and it was a medicine, and the Act treats it as both. Every prohibition in the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, and the definition of trafficking in section 2, is qualified by the words «otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act», so the question for a medicine is never whether the substance is scheduled but whether the handling sits inside that authority. It is named in Part III of the First Schedule as «Nimetazepam». Section 11(1) provides that «This Part applies to dangerous drugs listed in Parts III, IV and V of the First Schedule», which is what brings it inside Part IV of the Act, where section 16(1) empowers the Minister to make regulations «controlling the manufacture, sale, possession, and distribution of such drugs». Nimetazepam was a hypnotic medicine and is one of only two benzodiazepines in the First Schedule, the other being «Flunitrazepam». Its Poisons List row carries the dangerous drug marker with no preparation named against it in any Group column, which is the list recording that nothing containing it is available through the ordinary supply route.
Documentation: Carry the prescription and the dispensing label with the medicine, in its original packaging, and declare it on arrival. The entry the label has to answer to is «Nimetazepam» at Part III of the First Schedule, and a dispensing label naming a different member of that Part is not the same thing. Section 25 of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 is the only personal traveller provision the Act contains, and its reach is narrower than it looks. It sits in Part V, which is the external trade Part, and it opens by providing that nothing in that Part applies to a quantity of a dangerous drug in the form of a medicinal preparation in the «possession of any person arriving in Malaysia by land, air or water from any place outside Malaysia as is reasonably required for the use of such person and which has been supplied to such person bona fide by or on the prescription of a medical practitioner residing outside Malaysia in accordance with the law of the country in which such drug was so supplied». Because the words are nothing in this Part, it answers the import control and it does not touch the possession and trafficking provisions that sit in Part IV of the Act. It is also conditional: the person «shall, as soon as possible on arrival, declare his possession of such dangerous drug to an officer having authority under this Act to search such person and shall submit to such medical examination as may be required of him». Getting the paperwork wrong is not a paperwork penalty. Section 37(d) provides that «any person who is found to have had in his custody or under his control anything whatsoever containing any dangerous drug shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have been in possession of such drug and shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have known the nature of such drug», and section 37(da) can then presume trafficking from the weight of the material alone. Neither Act fixes a number of days or a number of tablets for a dangerous drug, and this cell does not invent one. The entry the document has to answer to, in the First Schedule itself, is «Nimetazepam» at Part III. If the document does not answer the entry, the charge is section 12(2) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, possession of a dangerous drug without authority, and section 12(3) sets «a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Section 12(4) adds whipping of not more than three strokes where the person convicted is a public officer employed at a prison, rehabilitation centre, police lock-up or place of detention.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 in all five Parts, the entry found at Part III of the First Schedule as «Nimetazepam» · sections 2, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 11(1), 16, 25, 37(d), 37(da), 39A, 39B and 45A of that Act · the Poisons Act 1952 Poisons List, carrying «Nimetazepam (DD)» · the Poisons Act 1952 Third Schedule read in full · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

Nimetazepam in Malaysia, full detail →

Nitrous Oxide

Legal status: Nitrous oxide is named nowhere in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 and it is not a Third Schedule psychotropic substance under the Poisons Act 1952. Searched by name across both Acts, it returns nothing, and no inhalant or anaesthetic gas is scheduled as a dangerous drug: the Poisons List carries anaesthetics such as Halothane and Isoflurane as poisons rather than as dangerous drugs. So section 39B and the death penalty cannot reach it. Whether a medical gases or an inhalant misuse instrument applies was not established, because no such instrument was read.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Nitrous oxide is in neither list. It is named in none of the five Parts of the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, and no inhalant or anaesthetic gas of any kind is scheduled as a dangerous drug. Section 39B is the only capital provision in Malaysian drug law, and section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», which section 2 defines as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule». A substance outside that Schedule cannot be trafficked within the meaning of section 39B however much of it there is, the section 37(da) presumption weights do not reach it, and neither do the section 39A enhanced penalties. It is not in the Third Schedule to the Poisons Act 1952 either, so the section 30 psychotropic offence does not reach it. Do not read that as permission. The Dangerous Drugs Act carries no analogue clause at all, measured across the whole Act, so a substance is in or out on the naming; but section 45A provides that where the Minister «considers it expedient to add a substance to, or remove a substance from, or vary the First Schedule, he may by order make the requisite modifications», and he has used it twice since the consolidated text, by P.U. (A) 97 gazetted 2 April 2024 and P.U. (A) 416 gazetted 25 November 2025. An order takes effect on gazetting and there is no notice period. Customs may also treat an unlisted substance as a prohibited import under a separate order that was not read for this cell.
If prescribed / medical: Neither drug statute reaches nitrous oxide, so neither supplies a prescription route for it and neither requires one. No inhalant or anaesthetic gas is scheduled as a dangerous drug, and the Poisons List carries anaesthetics such as halothane and isoflurane as poisons rather than as dangerous drugs. Whether a medical gases or an inhalant misuse instrument applies was not established, because no such instrument was read for this cell. What this cell does not state is whether it is a registered product, an unregistered product or a prohibited import under the medicines and customs instruments, because none of those instruments was read for it.
Documentation: No documentation requirement arises under either drug statute, because neither reaches nitrous oxide. There is no entry for a document to answer to. The Poisons List does carry anaesthetics, halothane and isoflurane among them, but as poisons rather than as dangerous drugs, and nitrous oxide is not among them either. That is not the same as saying it may be brought in freely. Product registration with the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency and the customs prohibited imports orders are separate regimes, neither was read for this cell, and nothing is stated here about either. Carry any prescription and the original packaging as a matter of course, and expect the question at the border to be settled by those other regimes rather than by the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 or the Poisons Act 1952.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: both schedules in full, the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 First Schedule in all five Parts and the Poisons Act 1952 Poisons List and Third Schedule, with nitrous oxide found in neither as a controlled entry · sections 2, 11(1) and 45A of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 and sections 30(1) and 32(2) of the Poisons Act 1952 · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

Nitrous Oxide in Malaysia, full detail →

Opium

Legal status: Opium is named four times in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952: «Raw Opium» and «Poppy-Straw» in Part I, «Prepared Opium» in Part II, and «Extract or tincture of opium» and «Concentrate of poppy-straw» in Part III. Raw opium and prepared opium carry separate presumption weights and a combined one. Part V exempts preparations of opium or morphine containing not more than 0.2 per cent of morphine, but that Part is an export-authorisation exemption and not a possession one.
Consequences if caught: Opium is the only substance the First Schedule names in three different Parts, and each naming carries a different set of offences. Part I has «Raw Opium» and «Poppy-Straw», Part II has «Prepared Opium», and Part III has «Extract or tincture of opium» and «Concentrate of poppy-straw». All three are dangerous drugs within section 2, so section 39B(2), death or imprisonment for life, reaches every one of them. The chain is short and it passes through no weight at any point. Section 2 defines a «dangerous drug» as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule», section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», whether on your own behalf or on behalf of any other person, and section 39B(2) sets the penalty. And the word «trafficking» is itself defined in section 2, far wider than selling: it «includes the doing of any of the following acts, that is to say, manufacturing, importing, exporting, keeping, concealing, buying, selling, giving, receiving, storing, administering, transporting, carrying, sending, delivering, procuring, supplying or distributing any dangerous drug otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act». Keeping, carrying and storing are on that list, so nothing commercial has to be shown. Section 37(da) gives raw and prepared opium the highest presumption weights in the Act: subparagraph (iv) is «1,000 grammes or more in weight of prepared opium», subparagraph (v) is «1,000 grammes or more in weight of raw opium», and subparagraph (va) «a total of 1,000 grammes or more in weight of prepared opium and raw opium». Section 37(da) closes with the words «otherwise than in accordance with the authority of this Act or any other written law, shall be presumed, until the contrary is proved, to be trafficking in the said drug», so it is a rebuttable presumption about proof and not a definition of the offence, and the words «until the contrary is proved» are what put the defendant to proof. Section 39B(2) itself turns on quantity at no point. Below trafficking there are two further tiers, and they are a separate list from the presumption weights. Section 39A(1)(i) and (j) applies where the subject matter is 100 grammes or more but less than 250 grammes of raw or prepared opium, and sets «imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than two years but shall not exceed five years» with «whipping of not less than three strokes but not more than nine strokes». Section 39A(2)(i) and (j) applies where the offence is «not punishable with death» and the subject matter is 250 grammes or more, and sets «imprisonment for life or for a term which shall not be less than five years» with «whipping of not less than ten strokes». Death is available and it is no longer mandatory, and the change has a date. Section 39B(2) once read simply «on conviction with death». The Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017, Act A1558, in force 15 March 2018, opened a narrow gate out of that, a date carried forward from the earlier reading and not re-derived in this pass. The Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, came into operation on 4 July 2023, and section 54 of it is the whole of what it did to the Dangerous Drugs Act: it substituted «be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes» for fifteen strokes in subsection (2), and it deleted subsections (2A) and (2B), which were the mandatory death machinery. Section 39B(2) now reads, in full: «Any person who contravenes any of the provisions of subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence against this Act and shall be punished on conviction with death or imprisonment for life and shall, if he is not sentenced to death, be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes.» So the court chooses between death and imprisonment for life with no precondition, and at least twelve strokes follow any sentence that is not death. Act 846 is widely described as replacing life with a term of thirty to forty years. It did that in the Penal Code, the Firearms (Increased Penalties) Act 1971, the Arms Act 1960, the Kidnapping Act 1961, the Strategic Trade Act 2010 and the Criminal Procedure Code. It did not do it here: the words «imprisonment for life» in section 39B(2) are untouched and no definition of that phrase appears anywhere in the Dangerous Drugs Act, so no year figure is stated in this cell. Section 55 of Act 846 applies the amended section to anyone sentenced after it came into operation even where the offence was committed before. Below trafficking the possession offences are split across three sections, one for each Part the drug is named in, and section 12 is not among them for the first two. Section 11(1) confines Part IV of the Act to «dangerous drugs listed in Parts III, IV and V of the First Schedule». Raw opium and poppy-straw are in Part I and are reached by section 6, «a fine not exceeding twenty thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Prepared opium is in Part II and is reached by section 9(1), which prohibits importing, exporting, keeping, possessing, manufacturing, selling or otherwise dealing in it, on the same penalty under section 9(2). Smoking it, or holding a pipe or other utensil for smoking it, is section 10(2), a fine not exceeding five thousand ringgit or imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or both, and keeping premises for the purpose is section 10(1), ten thousand ringgit or three years. Only the Part III entries, the extract or tincture and the concentrate of poppy-straw, fall under section 12(3) and its one hundred thousand ringgit. Three procedural consequences follow automatically. Section 41(1) removes a section 39B charge from the Sessions Court and the Magistrates' Court, so it is tried in the High Court, and section 41A(3) has it tried by a judge sitting alone. Section 41B(1) provides that bail «shall not be granted» where the offence is punishable with death, and also where it is punishable with imprisonment for more than five years. Section 38A, which lets a court deal with a drug dependant under eighteen under the Drug Dependants (Treatment and Rehabilitation) Act 1983 rather than punish him, is expressly unavailable for a section 39B offence. Section 39C separately escalates a repeat offender under the consumption and possession provisions to not less than five and not more than seven years with not more than three strokes. Section 2 defines «raw opium» as «the coagulated juice obtained from any plant from which morphine may be produced, whatever its content of morphine and in whatever form the coagulated juice is, but does not include medicinal opium», and «prepared opium» as «the substance commonly called candu», including «dross and any other residues remaining after such opium has been smoked». Residue in a pipe is therefore prepared opium in its own right. The list can move under all of this. Section 45A is headed «Power of the Minister to vary First Schedule» and it operates either on a decision of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs or of the United Nations Organization altering the Schedules to the Single Convention, or simply where the Minister «considers it expedient to add a substance to, or remove a substance from, or vary the First Schedule, he may by order make the requisite modifications». An order takes effect on gazetting and there is no notice period. He has used it twice since the text read here, by P.U. (A) 97 gazetted 2 April 2024 and P.U. (A) 416 gazetted 25 November 2025, both carried forward from the earlier reading and neither re-read in this pass. The text read for this cell is the Attorney General's Chambers updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», and a later order is not ruled out.
If prescribed / medical: There is no prescription route for opium in Malaysia, and this cell states that rather than leaving a reader to infer it. Every prohibition in the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, and the definition of trafficking in section 2, is qualified by the words «otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act», so a lawful holding is one that sits inside an authority granted under the Act. The authority the Act contemplates is a licence or a regulation made under it, and here there is nothing for one to attach to. It is reached at Parts I, II and III of the First Schedule: it is named four times over, as «Raw Opium» and «Poppy-Straw» in Part I, as «Prepared Opium» in Part II, and as «Extract or tincture of opium» in Part III. Neither Act evidences a registered product containing it. The Parts decide which machinery applies. Section 11(1) provides that «This Part applies to dangerous drugs listed in Parts III, IV and V of the First Schedule», so the Part I and Part II opium entries sit outside Part IV of the Act entirely. Raw opium is reached by section 6, and prepared opium by section 9, which prohibits import, possession, manufacture and sale of it without naming any authorisation at all.
Documentation: There is no document to carry, because there is no lawful holding for a document to evidence. This cell says so plainly rather than leave a traveller looking for paperwork that does not exist for opium. The entry that forecloses the question is «Raw Opium», reached at Parts I, II and III of the First Schedule. Section 25 of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, the traveller provision, turns on a medicinal preparation supplied by or on the prescription of a medical practitioner residing outside Malaysia, so it has nothing to attach to here. It is also confined to Part V of the Act, the external trade Part, and would not answer a possession charge even if it did apply. Getting the paperwork wrong is not a paperwork penalty. Section 37(d) provides that «any person who is found to have had in his custody or under his control anything whatsoever containing any dangerous drug shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have been in possession of such drug and shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have known the nature of such drug», and section 37(da) can then presume trafficking from the weight of the material alone. A foreign prescription, a licence issued in another country, and religious or traditional use are none of them provided for anywhere in the Act. The entry the document has to answer to, in the First Schedule itself, is «Raw Opium» at Part I, «Poppy-Straw» at Part I, «Prepared Opium» at Part II, «Extract or tincture of opium» at Part III. If the document does not answer the entry, which section is charged depends on which Part the entry sits in. A Part III entry is section 12(2), punishable under section 12(3) by «a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». A Part I or Part II entry is outside that section by section 11(1) and is charged under section 6 or section 9(1) instead, at twenty thousand ringgit or five years.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 in all five Parts, the entry found at Parts I, II and III of the First Schedule as «Raw Opium» · sections 2, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 11(1), 16, 25, 37(d), 37(da), 39A, 39B and 45A of that Act · the Poisons Act 1952 Poisons List and Third Schedule both read · the Poisons Act 1952 Third Schedule read in full · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

Opium in Malaysia, full detail →

Oxycodone

Legal status: Oxycodone is named in Part III of the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, between Orthofluorofentanyl and Oxymorphone. It is a dangerous drug. It is also in the Poisons Act Third Schedule at item 2, which covers registered products containing it. It has NO section 37(da) presumption weight, which is a point about how a trafficking case is proved and not about whether section 39B is available.
Consequences if caught: Part III of the First Schedule names «Oxycodone», between «Orthofluorofentanyl» and «Oxymorphone». Section 2 makes it a dangerous drug and section 39B(2) answers trafficking in it with death or imprisonment for life. The chain is short and it passes through no weight at any point. Section 2 defines a «dangerous drug» as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule», section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», whether on your own behalf or on behalf of any other person, and section 39B(2) sets the penalty. And the word «trafficking» is itself defined in section 2, far wider than selling: it «includes the doing of any of the following acts, that is to say, manufacturing, importing, exporting, keeping, concealing, buying, selling, giving, receiving, storing, administering, transporting, carrying, sending, delivering, procuring, supplying or distributing any dangerous drug otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act». Keeping, carrying and storing are on that list, so nothing commercial has to be shown. It has no section 37(da) presumption weight. The only opiates the Act weighs are heroin, morphine, monoacetylmorphines and the two opiums, and the semi-synthetics are not among them. So there is no presumption to rebut and no threshold to stay under, and section 39B(2) applies in the same terms as it would to a weighed substance. The other presumption is still there. Section 37(d) provides that any person found to have had in his custody or under his control anything whatsoever containing a dangerous drug «shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have been in possession of such drug and shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have known the nature of such drug». The words «until the contrary is proved» put the defendant to proof on both limbs, on the possession and on the knowledge. Death is available and it is no longer mandatory, and the change has a date. Section 39B(2) once read simply «on conviction with death». The Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017, Act A1558, in force 15 March 2018, opened a narrow gate out of that, a date carried forward from the earlier reading and not re-derived in this pass. The Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, came into operation on 4 July 2023, and section 54 of it is the whole of what it did to the Dangerous Drugs Act: it substituted «be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes» for fifteen strokes in subsection (2), and it deleted subsections (2A) and (2B), which were the mandatory death machinery. Section 39B(2) now reads, in full: «Any person who contravenes any of the provisions of subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence against this Act and shall be punished on conviction with death or imprisonment for life and shall, if he is not sentenced to death, be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes.» So the court chooses between death and imprisonment for life with no precondition, and at least twelve strokes follow any sentence that is not death. Act 846 is widely described as replacing life with a term of thirty to forty years. It did that in the Penal Code, the Firearms (Increased Penalties) Act 1971, the Arms Act 1960, the Kidnapping Act 1961, the Strategic Trade Act 2010 and the Criminal Procedure Code. It did not do it here: the words «imprisonment for life» in section 39B(2) are untouched and no definition of that phrase appears anywhere in the Dangerous Drugs Act, so no year figure is stated in this cell. Section 55 of Act 846 applies the amended section to anyone sentenced after it came into operation even where the offence was committed before. Below trafficking, the possession offence is section 12. Section 11(1) provides that «This Part applies to dangerous drugs listed in Parts III, IV and V of the First Schedule», which is what brings a Part III substance inside Part IV of the Act. Section 12(2) then prohibits having such a drug in your possession, custody or control «unless he is authorized to be in possession, custody or control of such drug or is deemed to be so authorized under this Act or the regulations made thereunder», and section 12(3) punishes a contravention with «a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Self-administration is section 15(1), at a fine not exceeding five thousand ringgit or imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, and section 38B(1) then requires supervision for not less than two and not more than three years after the sentence has been served. Three procedural consequences follow automatically. Section 41(1) removes a section 39B charge from the Sessions Court and the Magistrates' Court, so it is tried in the High Court, and section 41A(3) has it tried by a judge sitting alone. Section 41B(1) provides that bail «shall not be granted» where the offence is punishable with death, and also where it is punishable with imprisonment for more than five years. Section 38A, which lets a court deal with a drug dependant under eighteen under the Drug Dependants (Treatment and Rehabilitation) Act 1983 rather than punish him, is expressly unavailable for a section 39B offence. Section 39C separately escalates a repeat offender under the consumption and possession provisions to not less than five and not more than seven years with not more than three strokes. Oxycodone is a registered medicine in many countries and a Part III dangerous drug here, and those two facts are not in tension: the Act's prohibitions are all qualified by the words «otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act», so what is at issue is the authority and never the listing. The list can move under all of this. Section 45A is headed «Power of the Minister to vary First Schedule» and it operates either on a decision of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs or of the United Nations Organization altering the Schedules to the Single Convention, or simply where the Minister «considers it expedient to add a substance to, or remove a substance from, or vary the First Schedule, he may by order make the requisite modifications». An order takes effect on gazetting and there is no notice period. He has used it twice since the text read here, by P.U. (A) 97 gazetted 2 April 2024 and P.U. (A) 416 gazetted 25 November 2025, both carried forward from the earlier reading and neither re-read in this pass. The text read for this cell is the Attorney General's Chambers updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», and a later order is not ruled out.
If prescribed / medical: Oxycodone is a dangerous drug and it is also a medicine, so both things are true of it at once. Every prohibition in the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, and the definition of trafficking in section 2, is qualified by the words «otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act», so the question for a medicine is never whether the substance is scheduled but whether the handling sits inside that authority. It is named in Part III of the First Schedule as «Oxycodone». Section 11(1) provides that «This Part applies to dangerous drugs listed in Parts III, IV and V of the First Schedule», which is what brings it inside Part IV of the Act, where section 16(1) empowers the Minister to make regulations «controlling the manufacture, sale, possession, and distribution of such drugs». That registered Malaysian products containing it exist is on the face of the Poisons List, which carries «(DD) Oxycodone» with the registered-products wording against it rather than the ordinary preparations wording. A registered Malaysian product containing it is additionally caught by the Poisons Act 1952, because item 2 of the Third Schedule covers any product registered under the Control of Drugs and Cosmetics Regulations 1984 containing «Oxycodone», so section 30 and the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 run alongside the Dangerous Drugs Act for the product. It is named between «Orthofluorofentanyl» and «Oxymorphone», and each of those is a separate entry with its own status.
Documentation: Carry the prescription and the dispensing label with the medicine, in its original packaging, and declare it on arrival. The entry the label has to answer to is «Oxycodone» at Part III of the First Schedule, and a dispensing label naming a different member of that Part is not the same thing. Section 25 of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 is the only personal traveller provision the Act contains, and its reach is narrower than it looks. It sits in Part V, which is the external trade Part, and it opens by providing that nothing in that Part applies to a quantity of a dangerous drug in the form of a medicinal preparation in the «possession of any person arriving in Malaysia by land, air or water from any place outside Malaysia as is reasonably required for the use of such person and which has been supplied to such person bona fide by or on the prescription of a medical practitioner residing outside Malaysia in accordance with the law of the country in which such drug was so supplied». Because the words are nothing in this Part, it answers the import control and it does not touch the possession and trafficking provisions that sit in Part IV of the Act. It is also conditional: the person «shall, as soon as possible on arrival, declare his possession of such dangerous drug to an officer having authority under this Act to search such person and shall submit to such medical examination as may be required of him». There is a second requirement for oxycodone that the Dangerous Drugs Act does not mention. A registered product containing it is also a psychotropic substance under item 2 of the Poisons Act Third Schedule, so regulation 4(2)(a) of the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 is the traveller provision and it fixes a figure the Dangerous Drugs Act never does: a person arriving in or leaving Malaysia who carries, as part of personal luggage and solely for personal or family use, a prepared or packaged medicine containing a psychotropic substance is outside the import authorisation requirement, provided the quantity is «not exceeding such quantities as may be reasonably required for one month's use by one person» and it has been lawfully supplied by or on the prescription of a qualified medical practitioner. Getting the paperwork wrong is not a paperwork penalty. Section 37(d) provides that «any person who is found to have had in his custody or under his control anything whatsoever containing any dangerous drug shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have been in possession of such drug and shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have known the nature of such drug», and section 37(da) can then presume trafficking from the weight of the material alone. The one month figure comes from those Regulations and not from the Dangerous Drugs Act, which fixes no quantity at all. The entry the document has to answer to, in the First Schedule itself, is «Oxycodone» at Part III. If the document does not answer the entry, the charge is section 12(2) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, possession of a dangerous drug without authority, and section 12(3) sets «a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Section 12(4) adds whipping of not more than three strokes where the person convicted is a public officer employed at a prison, rehabilitation centre, police lock-up or place of detention.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 in all five Parts, the entry found at Part III of the First Schedule as «Oxycodone» · sections 2, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 11(1), 16, 25, 37(d), 37(da), 39A, 39B and 45A of that Act · the Poisons Act 1952 Poisons List, carrying «(DD) Oxycodone» · the Poisons Act 1952 Third Schedule at item 2, which names «Oxycodone» among the substances whose registered products it covers, with sections 30(1) to 30(5) and the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 incorporating P.U. (A) 405/2018 · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

Oxycodone in Malaysia, full detail →

PCP

Legal status: PCP is a psychotropic substance under the Poisons Act 1952, named in the Third Schedule as «Phencyclidine» and in the Poisons List as «Phencyclidine; its salts» WITHOUT the dangerous drug marker. It is NOT in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, although three of its close relatives are. Part III of that Schedule names «Eticyclidine, N-ethyl-l-phenylcyclohexyl-amine», «Rolicyclidine, I-(1-phenylcyclohexyl) pyrrolidine» and «Tenocyclidine, 1-[1-(2-thienyl) cyclohexyl] piperidine», and the Poisons List marks PCE «(DD)» while leaving phencyclidine unmarked. So the parent compound sits under the lighter Act and three analogues sit under the heavier one.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Phencyclidine is not in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, although three of its close relatives are. Part III names «Eticyclidine, N-ethyl-l-phenylcyclohexyl-amine», «Rolicyclidine, I-(1-phenylcyclohexyl) pyrrolidine» and «Tenocyclidine, 1-[1-(2-thienyl) cyclohexyl] piperidine», and the parent compound is on none of the five Parts. So the analogues sit under the heavier Act and the parent does not. Section 39B is the only capital provision in Malaysian drug law, and section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», which section 2 defines as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule». A substance outside that Schedule cannot be trafficked within the meaning of section 39B however much of it there is, the section 37(da) presumption weights do not reach it, and neither do the section 39A enhanced penalties. What applies instead is section 30 of the Poisons Act 1952, which provides at subsection (3) that «no person shall import, export, manufacture, compound, mix, dispense, sell, supply, administer, possess or use any psychotropic substance otherwise than in accordance with any regulations applicable thereto», and at subsection (5) that a contravention is punishable «to a fine not exceeding ten thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding four years or both». Section 30(4) carries a possession presumption of its own: a person found with the substance in his custody or control «shall be deemed to have been in possession of the substance and to have known the nature of the substance, until he proves to the contrary». Four years and ten thousand ringgit against death. That is the single largest cliff in Malaysian drug law and it turns entirely on which of two schedules a substance sits in. And the ground can move under it: section 45A of the Dangerous Drugs Act lets the Minister add a substance to the First Schedule by order, and section 30(2) of the Poisons Act lets him amend the Third Schedule the same way.
If prescribed / medical: This is a prescription-supply question and not a trafficking one. PCP is a psychotropic substance under the Poisons Act 1952, named in terms, appearing in the Third Schedule as «Phencyclidine» and in the Poisons List as «Phencyclidine; its salts». Section 30(1) provides that «In this section, “psychotropic substance” means any of the substances specified in the Third Schedule», and section 30(3) then prohibits importing, exporting, manufacturing, compounding, mixing, dispensing, selling, supplying, administering, possessing or using such a substance «otherwise than in accordance with any regulations applicable thereto made under this Act». Those regulations are the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989, and regulation 3 is the one a patient stands on: possession is prohibited unless «he is authorised to be in possession of such psychotropic substance under these Regulations» and the substance is for a lawful purpose and obtained under them. Regulation 3(2)(l) places a person lawfully supplied «in accordance with a prescription lawfully given by a registered medical practitioner, registered dentist Division I of a veterinary surgeon» inside that authority, the wording of that paragraph being the publisher's. Three of its close relatives are dangerous drugs instead, among them «Eticyclidine, N-ethyl-l-phenylcyclohexyl-amine», so the parent compound sits under the lighter Act while analogues of it sit under the heavier one.
Documentation: Carry the prescription and the dispensing label with the medicine, in its original packaging. The entry the prescription has to answer to is «Phencyclidine» in the Third Schedule, with «Phencyclidine; its salts» in the Poisons List beside it. Regulation 4(2)(a) of the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 is the traveller provision and it fixes a figure the Dangerous Drugs Act never does: a person arriving in or leaving Malaysia who carries, as part of personal luggage and solely for personal or family use, a prepared or packaged medicine containing a psychotropic substance is outside the import authorisation requirement, provided the quantity is «not exceeding such quantities as may be reasonably required for one month's use by one person» and it has been lawfully supplied by or on the prescription of a qualified medical practitioner. This substance carries an extra requirement that most do not. It is named in the Second Schedule to those Regulations, and regulation 9 provides that a psychotropic substance in that Schedule imported into Malaysia, or brought in transit from a country party to the 1971 Convention, «shall be accompanied by a valid and subsisting export authorisation duly issued by the competent authority of the country from which it is exported», to be produced on demand to a Drug Enforcement Officer, a police officer not below the rank of Inspector or a senior officer of Customs. Section 30(4) presumes possession and knowledge from custody or control: a person found with the substance «shall be deemed to have been in possession of the substance and to have known the nature of the substance, until he proves to the contrary». The prescription is what rebuts it. The penalty under section 30(5) is «a fine not exceeding ten thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding four years or both». The control is the Poisons Act 1952 and its regulations rather than the Dangerous Drugs Act, so the trafficking regime and its presumptions are not in play for PCP.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: the Poisons Act 1952 Third Schedule, the entry found as «Phencyclidine», named in terms · the Poisons List, whose printed name column for this substance is reproduced in full in this cell's status field · sections 30(1) to 30(5) and 32(2) of that Act · the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 incorporating P.U. (A) 405/2018, regulations 3, 4 and 9 and the Second Schedule to those Regulations, in which this substance is named · and the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 read in all five Parts, and phencyclidine not found in any of them · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

PCP in Malaysia, full detail →

Peyote

Legal status: Peyote is not named in either Act, and neither is Lophophora williamsii. «Mescaline, 3, 4, 5-trimethoxyphenethylamine» is named in Part III of the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, so a preparation containing mescaline contains a dangerous drug. The distinction the Act itself draws matters here: it names plants when it means them, in Parts I and II for cannabis and the opium poppy, and it names «Extract or tincture of cannabis», «Extract or tincture of coca leaves» and «Extract or tincture of opium» in Part III. There is no equivalent entry for a mescaline-bearing cactus, so an extract carrying mescaline is squarely caught while the status of the intact plant rests on the mescaline in it rather than on any entry of its own.
Consequences if caught: Section 39B(2) reaches peyote through its alkaloid. Neither peyote nor Lophophora williamsii is named in either Act, but «Mescaline, 3, 4, 5-trimethoxyphenethylamine» is named in Part III of the First Schedule, so a cactus preparation containing mescaline contains a dangerous drug and trafficking in it carries death or imprisonment for life. The chain is short and it passes through no weight at any point. Section 2 defines a «dangerous drug» as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule», section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», whether on your own behalf or on behalf of any other person, and section 39B(2) sets the penalty. And the word «trafficking» is itself defined in section 2, far wider than selling: it «includes the doing of any of the following acts, that is to say, manufacturing, importing, exporting, keeping, concealing, buying, selling, giving, receiving, storing, administering, transporting, carrying, sending, delivering, procuring, supplying or distributing any dangerous drug otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act». Keeping, carrying and storing are on that list, so nothing commercial has to be shown. There is no section 37(da) presumption weight for mescaline and none for a mescaline-bearing preparation, so no quantity of plant material raises the presumption. So there is no presumption to rebut and no threshold to stay under, and section 39B(2) applies in the same terms as it would to a weighed substance. The other presumption is still there. Section 37(d) provides that any person found to have had in his custody or under his control anything whatsoever containing a dangerous drug «shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have been in possession of such drug and shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have known the nature of such drug». The words «until the contrary is proved» put the defendant to proof on both limbs, on the possession and on the knowledge. Death is available and it is no longer mandatory, and the change has a date. Section 39B(2) once read simply «on conviction with death». The Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017, Act A1558, in force 15 March 2018, opened a narrow gate out of that, a date carried forward from the earlier reading and not re-derived in this pass. The Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, came into operation on 4 July 2023, and section 54 of it is the whole of what it did to the Dangerous Drugs Act: it substituted «be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes» for fifteen strokes in subsection (2), and it deleted subsections (2A) and (2B), which were the mandatory death machinery. Section 39B(2) now reads, in full: «Any person who contravenes any of the provisions of subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence against this Act and shall be punished on conviction with death or imprisonment for life and shall, if he is not sentenced to death, be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes.» So the court chooses between death and imprisonment for life with no precondition, and at least twelve strokes follow any sentence that is not death. Act 846 is widely described as replacing life with a term of thirty to forty years. It did that in the Penal Code, the Firearms (Increased Penalties) Act 1971, the Arms Act 1960, the Kidnapping Act 1961, the Strategic Trade Act 2010 and the Criminal Procedure Code. It did not do it here: the words «imprisonment for life» in section 39B(2) are untouched and no definition of that phrase appears anywhere in the Dangerous Drugs Act, so no year figure is stated in this cell. Section 55 of Act 846 applies the amended section to anyone sentenced after it came into operation even where the offence was committed before. Below trafficking, the possession offence is section 12. Section 11(1) provides that «This Part applies to dangerous drugs listed in Parts III, IV and V of the First Schedule», which is what brings a Part III substance inside Part IV of the Act. Section 12(2) then prohibits having such a drug in your possession, custody or control «unless he is authorized to be in possession, custody or control of such drug or is deemed to be so authorized under this Act or the regulations made thereunder», and section 12(3) punishes a contravention with «a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Self-administration is section 15(1), at a fine not exceeding five thousand ringgit or imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, and section 38B(1) then requires supervision for not less than two and not more than three years after the sentence has been served. Three procedural consequences follow automatically. Section 41(1) removes a section 39B charge from the Sessions Court and the Magistrates' Court, so it is tried in the High Court, and section 41A(3) has it tried by a judge sitting alone. Section 41B(1) provides that bail «shall not be granted» where the offence is punishable with death, and also where it is punishable with imprisonment for more than five years. Section 38A, which lets a court deal with a drug dependant under eighteen under the Drug Dependants (Treatment and Rehabilitation) Act 1983 rather than punish him, is expressly unavailable for a section 39B offence. Section 39C separately escalates a repeat offender under the consumption and possession provisions to not less than five and not more than seven years with not more than three strokes. The Act draws the plant distinction itself, and it matters here. It names plants where it means them, in Parts I and II for cannabis and the opium poppy, and it names three extracts and tinctures in Part III. There is no equivalent entry for a mescaline-bearing cactus, so an extract carrying mescaline is squarely within Part III's reach while the intact plant is reached only through the mescaline in it. The list can move under all of this. Section 45A is headed «Power of the Minister to vary First Schedule» and it operates either on a decision of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs or of the United Nations Organization altering the Schedules to the Single Convention, or simply where the Minister «considers it expedient to add a substance to, or remove a substance from, or vary the First Schedule, he may by order make the requisite modifications». An order takes effect on gazetting and there is no notice period. He has used it twice since the text read here, by P.U. (A) 97 gazetted 2 April 2024 and P.U. (A) 416 gazetted 25 November 2025, both carried forward from the earlier reading and neither re-read in this pass. The text read for this cell is the Attorney General's Chambers updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», and a later order is not ruled out.
If prescribed / medical: There is no prescription route for peyote in Malaysia, and this cell states that rather than leaving a reader to infer it. Every prohibition in the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, and the definition of trafficking in section 2, is qualified by the words «otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act», so a lawful holding is one that sits inside an authority granted under the Act. The authority the Act contemplates is a licence or a regulation made under it, and here there is nothing for one to attach to. It is reached at Part III of the First Schedule, through the alkaloid rather than the cactus: Lophophora williamsii is named nowhere in either Act and what is named is the mescaline it carries. Neither Act evidences a registered product containing it. The Poisons List entry for mescaline puts living plants in its exempt column, so under the Poisons Act the living cactus is exempted while the compound is listed. That exemption is an exemption from the Poisons List entry and it does not touch the First Schedule, which names mescaline without qualification.
Documentation: There is no document to carry, because there is no lawful holding for a document to evidence. This cell says so plainly rather than leave a traveller looking for paperwork that does not exist for peyote. The entry that forecloses the question is «Mescaline, 3, 4, 5-trimethoxyphenethylamine», reached at Part III of the First Schedule, through the alkaloid rather than the cactus. Section 25 of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, the traveller provision, turns on a medicinal preparation supplied by or on the prescription of a medical practitioner residing outside Malaysia, so it has nothing to attach to here. It is also confined to Part V of the Act, the external trade Part, and would not answer a possession charge even if it did apply. Getting the paperwork wrong is not a paperwork penalty. Section 37(d) provides that «any person who is found to have had in his custody or under his control anything whatsoever containing any dangerous drug shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have been in possession of such drug and shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have known the nature of such drug», and section 37(da) can then presume trafficking from the weight of the material alone. A foreign prescription, a licence issued in another country, and religious or traditional use are none of them provided for anywhere in the Act. The entry the document has to answer to, in the First Schedule itself, is «Mescaline, 3, 4, 5-trimethoxyphenethylamine» at Part III. If the document does not answer the entry, the charge is section 12(2) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, possession of a dangerous drug without authority, and section 12(3) sets «a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Section 12(4) adds whipping of not more than three strokes where the person convicted is a public officer employed at a prison, rehabilitation centre, police lock-up or place of detention.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 in all five Parts, the entry found at Part III of the First Schedule, through the alkaloid rather than the cactus as «Mescaline, 3, 4, 5-trimethoxyphenethylamine» · sections 2, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 11(1), 16, 25, 37(d), 37(da), 39A, 39B and 45A of that Act · the Poisons Act 1952 Poisons List and Third Schedule both read · the Poisons Act 1952 Third Schedule read in full · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

Peyote in Malaysia, full detail →

Phenibut

Legal status: Phenibut is named nowhere in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 and nowhere in the Poisons Act 1952. Searched by name across both Acts and both amending orders since the consolidated text, it returns nothing. So on the text it is not a dangerous drug and section 39B does not reach it, as the schedule stood at 25 November 2025. Whether it may lawfully be imported as a supplement is a product registration question for the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency, and no such instrument was read for this cell.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Phenibut is in neither list. It is named in none of the five Parts of the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, and nothing in that Schedule reaches it by class, since its only generic clauses attach to substances already named. Section 39B is the only capital provision in Malaysian drug law, and section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», which section 2 defines as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule». A substance outside that Schedule cannot be trafficked within the meaning of section 39B however much of it there is, the section 37(da) presumption weights do not reach it, and neither do the section 39A enhanced penalties. It is not in the Third Schedule to the Poisons Act 1952 either, so the section 30 psychotropic offence does not reach it. Do not read that as permission. The Dangerous Drugs Act carries no analogue clause at all, measured across the whole Act, so a substance is in or out on the naming; but section 45A provides that where the Minister «considers it expedient to add a substance to, or remove a substance from, or vary the First Schedule, he may by order make the requisite modifications», and he has used it twice since the consolidated text, by P.U. (A) 97 gazetted 2 April 2024 and P.U. (A) 416 gazetted 25 November 2025. An order takes effect on gazetting and there is no notice period. Customs may also treat an unlisted substance as a prohibited import under a separate order that was not read for this cell.
If prescribed / medical: Neither drug statute reaches phenibut, so neither supplies a prescription route for it and neither requires one. A search by name across both Acts and both amending orders returns nothing. Whether it may lawfully be imported as a supplement is a product registration question for the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency, and no such instrument was read for this cell. What this cell does not state is whether it is a registered product, an unregistered product or a prohibited import under the medicines and customs instruments, because none of those instruments was read for it.
Documentation: No documentation requirement arises under either drug statute, because neither reaches phenibut. There is no entry for a document to answer to, in either Act or in either amending order, so a supplement label is a matter for the product registration regime and not for these two statutes. That is not the same as saying it may be brought in freely. Product registration with the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency and the customs prohibited imports orders are separate regimes, neither was read for this cell, and nothing is stated here about either. Carry any prescription and the original packaging as a matter of course, and expect the question at the border to be settled by those other regimes rather than by the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 or the Poisons Act 1952.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: both schedules in full, the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 First Schedule in all five Parts and the Poisons Act 1952 Poisons List and Third Schedule, with phenibut found in neither as a controlled entry · sections 2, 11(1) and 45A of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 and sections 30(1) and 32(2) of the Poisons Act 1952 · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

Phenibut in Malaysia, full detail →

Pink Cocaine / Tusi

Legal status: Pink cocaine is not scheduled as such and the name has no legal meaning in Malaysia. What decides the answer is what is in the powder, and the usual constituents are both in Part III of the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952. Ketamine is a dangerous drug in Malaysia, and so is MDMA. That is worth saying because in most of the region ketamine is a psychotropic only, and a reader who carries that assumption across the border will get this exactly wrong. Cocaine and methamphetamine, the other things found in these powders, are in the same Part. MDMA and methamphetamine carry presumption weights of 50 grammes; ketamine and cocaine are treated differently, cocaine having a 40 gramme weight and ketamine none at all.
Consequences if caught: Pink cocaine is not scheduled as such and the name has no legal meaning in Malaysia, so section 39B(2) reaches it through whatever is actually in the powder. The usual constituents are all named in Part III of the First Schedule: «Ketamine», «3, 4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA)», «Methamphetamine» and «Cocaine». Any one of them makes the powder a dangerous drug and the sentence on a trafficking conviction death or imprisonment for life. The chain is short and it passes through no weight at any point. Section 2 defines a «dangerous drug» as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule», section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», whether on your own behalf or on behalf of any other person, and section 39B(2) sets the penalty. And the word «trafficking» is itself defined in section 2, far wider than selling: it «includes the doing of any of the following acts, that is to say, manufacturing, importing, exporting, keeping, concealing, buying, selling, giving, receiving, storing, administering, transporting, carrying, sending, delivering, procuring, supplying or distributing any dangerous drug otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act». Keeping, carrying and storing are on that list, so nothing commercial has to be shown. The presumption weights differ by constituent and they do not all exist. MDMA is «50 grammes or more» at section 37(da)(xxii) and methamphetamine the same at subparagraph (xvi), cocaine 40 grammes at subparagraph (ix), and ketamine none at all. Subparagraph (xxv) aggregates MDMA and methamphetamine with the rest of the fourteen-substance block to a combined 50 grammes, and it does not reach cocaine or ketamine, which are on separate subparagraphs outside the block. Section 37(da) closes with the words «otherwise than in accordance with the authority of this Act or any other written law, shall be presumed, until the contrary is proved, to be trafficking in the said drug», so it is a rebuttable presumption about proof and not a definition of the offence, and the words «until the contrary is proved» are what put the defendant to proof. Section 39B(2) itself turns on quantity at no point. Below trafficking there are two further tiers, and they are a separate list from the presumption weights. Section 39A(1)(x) and (r) applies where the subject matter is 5 grammes or more but less than 30 grammes of MDMA or methamphetamine, and sets «imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than two years but shall not exceed five years» with «whipping of not less than three strokes but not more than nine strokes». Section 39A(2)(x) and (r) applies where the offence is «not punishable with death» and the subject matter is 30 grammes or more, and sets «imprisonment for life or for a term which shall not be less than five years» with «whipping of not less than ten strokes». Cocaine has its own tiers at section 39A(1)(e) and section 39A(2)(e), 5 to 15 grammes and 15 grammes or more, and ketamine has none at any level. Death is available and it is no longer mandatory, and the change has a date. Section 39B(2) once read simply «on conviction with death». The Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017, Act A1558, in force 15 March 2018, opened a narrow gate out of that, a date carried forward from the earlier reading and not re-derived in this pass. The Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, came into operation on 4 July 2023, and section 54 of it is the whole of what it did to the Dangerous Drugs Act: it substituted «be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes» for fifteen strokes in subsection (2), and it deleted subsections (2A) and (2B), which were the mandatory death machinery. Section 39B(2) now reads, in full: «Any person who contravenes any of the provisions of subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence against this Act and shall be punished on conviction with death or imprisonment for life and shall, if he is not sentenced to death, be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes.» So the court chooses between death and imprisonment for life with no precondition, and at least twelve strokes follow any sentence that is not death. Act 846 is widely described as replacing life with a term of thirty to forty years. It did that in the Penal Code, the Firearms (Increased Penalties) Act 1971, the Arms Act 1960, the Kidnapping Act 1961, the Strategic Trade Act 2010 and the Criminal Procedure Code. It did not do it here: the words «imprisonment for life» in section 39B(2) are untouched and no definition of that phrase appears anywhere in the Dangerous Drugs Act, so no year figure is stated in this cell. Section 55 of Act 846 applies the amended section to anyone sentenced after it came into operation even where the offence was committed before. Below trafficking, the possession offence is section 12. Section 11(1) provides that «This Part applies to dangerous drugs listed in Parts III, IV and V of the First Schedule», which is what brings a Part III substance inside Part IV of the Act. Section 12(2) then prohibits having such a drug in your possession, custody or control «unless he is authorized to be in possession, custody or control of such drug or is deemed to be so authorized under this Act or the regulations made thereunder», and section 12(3) punishes a contravention with «a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Self-administration is section 15(1), at a fine not exceeding five thousand ringgit or imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, and section 38B(1) then requires supervision for not less than two and not more than three years after the sentence has been served. Three procedural consequences follow automatically. Section 41(1) removes a section 39B charge from the Sessions Court and the Magistrates' Court, so it is tried in the High Court, and section 41A(3) has it tried by a judge sitting alone. Section 41B(1) provides that bail «shall not be granted» where the offence is punishable with death, and also where it is punishable with imprisonment for more than five years. Section 38A, which lets a court deal with a drug dependant under eighteen under the Drug Dependants (Treatment and Rehabilitation) Act 1983 rather than punish him, is expressly unavailable for a section 39B offence. Section 39C separately escalates a repeat offender under the consumption and possession provisions to not less than five and not more than seven years with not more than three strokes. The ketamine listing is the trap. In most of the region ketamine is a psychotropic substance only, and a powder analysed as ketamine would carry a light sentence there. In Malaysia it is a Part III dangerous drug and section 39B applies to it in full. The list can move under all of this. Section 45A is headed «Power of the Minister to vary First Schedule» and it operates either on a decision of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs or of the United Nations Organization altering the Schedules to the Single Convention, or simply where the Minister «considers it expedient to add a substance to, or remove a substance from, or vary the First Schedule, he may by order make the requisite modifications». An order takes effect on gazetting and there is no notice period. He has used it twice since the text read here, by P.U. (A) 97 gazetted 2 April 2024 and P.U. (A) 416 gazetted 25 November 2025, both carried forward from the earlier reading and neither re-read in this pass. The text read for this cell is the Attorney General's Chambers updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», and a later order is not ruled out.
If prescribed / medical: There is no prescription route for pink cocaine in Malaysia, and this cell states that rather than leaving a reader to infer it. Every prohibition in the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, and the definition of trafficking in section 2, is qualified by the words «otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act», so a lawful holding is one that sits inside an authority granted under the Act. The authority the Act contemplates is a licence or a regulation made under it, and here there is nothing for one to attach to. It is reached at Part III of the First Schedule, through whichever of its constituents is present: the name has no legal meaning in Malaysia and the powder is usually ketamine with MDMA, sometimes with cocaine or methamphetamine, each of which is named in Part III. Neither Act evidences a registered product containing it. Nothing can be authorised for a mixture that has no entry. Whatever authority might exist would have to exist for each named constituent separately, and a seller's description of the powder is not evidence of what is in it.
Documentation: There is no document to carry, because there is no lawful holding for a document to evidence. This cell says so plainly rather than leave a traveller looking for paperwork that does not exist for pink cocaine. The entry that forecloses the question is «Ketamine», reached at Part III of the First Schedule, through whichever of its constituents is present. Section 25 of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, the traveller provision, turns on a medicinal preparation supplied by or on the prescription of a medical practitioner residing outside Malaysia, so it has nothing to attach to here. It is also confined to Part V of the Act, the external trade Part, and would not answer a possession charge even if it did apply. Getting the paperwork wrong is not a paperwork penalty. Section 37(d) provides that «any person who is found to have had in his custody or under his control anything whatsoever containing any dangerous drug shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have been in possession of such drug and shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have known the nature of such drug», and section 37(da) can then presume trafficking from the weight of the material alone. A foreign prescription, a licence issued in another country, and religious or traditional use are none of them provided for anywhere in the Act. The entry the document has to answer to, in the First Schedule itself, is «Ketamine» at Part III, «3, 4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA)» at Part III. If the document does not answer the entry, the charge is section 12(2) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, possession of a dangerous drug without authority, and section 12(3) sets «a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Section 12(4) adds whipping of not more than three strokes where the person convicted is a public officer employed at a prison, rehabilitation centre, police lock-up or place of detention.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 in all five Parts, the entry found at Part III of the First Schedule, through whichever of its constituents is present as «Ketamine» · sections 2, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 11(1), 16, 25, 37(d), 37(da), 39A, 39B and 45A of that Act · the Poisons Act 1952 Poisons List and Third Schedule both read · the Poisons Act 1952 Third Schedule read in full · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

Pink Cocaine / Tusi in Malaysia, full detail →

Poppers

Legal status: Poppers are alkyl nitrites, and the one that is scheduled is amyl nitrite, listed in the Poisons List under the Poisons Act 1952 by name and among the vasodilators with «All preparations» against it. No alkyl nitrite is in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, so section 39B and the death penalty cannot reach any of them. Butyl, isobutyl and isopropyl nitrite are named in neither Act.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. No alkyl nitrite is in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952. Amyl, butyl, isobutyl and isopropyl nitrite are named in none of its five Parts. Section 39B is the only capital provision in Malaysian drug law, and section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», which section 2 defines as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule». A substance outside that Schedule cannot be trafficked within the meaning of section 39B however much of it there is, the section 37(da) presumption weights do not reach it, and neither do the section 39A enhanced penalties. What applies instead is section 30 of the Poisons Act 1952, which provides at subsection (3) that «no person shall import, export, manufacture, compound, mix, dispense, sell, supply, administer, possess or use any psychotropic substance otherwise than in accordance with any regulations applicable thereto», and at subsection (5) that a contravention is punishable «to a fine not exceeding ten thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding four years or both». Section 30(4) carries a possession presumption of its own: a person found with the substance in his custody or control «shall be deemed to have been in possession of the substance and to have known the nature of the substance, until he proves to the contrary». Four years and ten thousand ringgit against death. That is the single largest cliff in Malaysian drug law and it turns entirely on which of two schedules a substance sits in. And the ground can move under it: section 45A of the Dangerous Drugs Act lets the Minister add a substance to the First Schedule by order, and section 30(2) of the Poisons Act lets him amend the Third Schedule the same way.
If prescribed / medical: Poppers is a poison under the Poisons Act 1952 but it is not a psychotropic substance under it, and that distinction decides which sections apply. Section 30(1) provides that «In this section, “psychotropic substance” means any of the substances specified in the Third Schedule». Because poppers is absent from that Schedule, section 30 and the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 do not reach it at all. What reaches it is the Poisons List, where it appears as «Amyl nitrite», together with the supply provisions in sections 19 to 25. Section 19(1) carries the prescribing route: «a registered medical practitioner may sell, supply or administer such poison to his patient for the purposes of the medical treatment of such patient only», with equivalent provision for a registered dentist Division I and a veterinary officer, and the Group the poison is placed in governs who else may sell or supply it under sections 20 to 23. It is absent from the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, so nothing in that Act applies to it. Poppers is a trade description and not a substance. The alkyl nitrite that is listed is amyl nitrite; butyl, isobutyl and isopropyl nitrite are named in neither Act, so what is in the bottle decides whether anything is listed at all.
Documentation: Carry the prescription and the dispensing label with the medicine, in its original packaging. That is ordinary prudence rather than a requirement the Poisons Act places on a traveller, because the Act controls who may sell and supply a poison rather than who may hold one. The entry a border officer would be reading is «Amyl nitrite» in the Poisons List. There is no Third Schedule entry for poppers to be read instead, and that absence is the whole reason the lighter sections apply. The exposure is lighter than for a psychotropic substance and it arises from different sections. Holding an ordinary poison is not prohibited as such: the provision that does prohibit possessing, section 30(3), is confined by section 30(1) to Third Schedule substances. What does touch possession is section 9(1), which provides that no person, whether licensed under the Act or not, shall «knowingly sell, supply, keep or have in his possession or under his control or store any poison otherwise than in accordance with the regulations made under this Act and in force relating to the possession, containers, packaging, labelling or storing of such poison», and section 9(2) deems that to have been done knowingly once possession is proved. So the offence is possessing a poison otherwise than in accordance with those regulations, and not possessing it at all. The regulations section 9(1) refers to were not located in this session and nothing is stated here about what they require. Section 13 separately covers possessing a poison for sale. An offence against the Act for which no other penalty is provided is punishable under section 32(2) by «a fine not exceeding three thousand ringgit or by imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year or both», rising to five thousand ringgit or two years where the court finds wilful default or culpable negligence that endangered or was likely to endanger human life. The Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989, including the one month personal import allowance in regulation 4(2)(a), do not apply to poppers, because they apply to Third Schedule psychotropic substances and it is not one.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: the Poisons Act 1952 Poisons List, the entry found as «Amyl nitrite» · sections 9(1), 9(2), 13, 19 to 25, 30(1) and 32(2) of that Act · the Third Schedule read in full, and amyl nitrite or any other alkyl nitrite not found in it, so section 30 and the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 do not apply · and the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 read in all five Parts, and amyl nitrite or any other alkyl nitrite not found in any of them · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

Poppers in Malaysia, full detail →

Pregabalin

Legal status: Pregabalin is a prescription poison under the Poisons Act 1952, listed in the Poisons List by name and next to the entry «Phenytoin and other substances structurally derived from hydantoin; their salts». It is NOT in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 and it is not a Third Schedule psychotropic substance, so section 39B and the death penalty cannot reach it. Gabapentin is listed in the same way.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Pregabalin is not in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, and neither is gabapentin. Neither is named in any of the five Parts. It is the one of the pair that is more often diverted, and that makes no difference here: the Dangerous Drugs Act keys on the naming and on nothing else. Section 39B is the only capital provision in Malaysian drug law, and section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», which section 2 defines as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule». A substance outside that Schedule cannot be trafficked within the meaning of section 39B however much of it there is, the section 37(da) presumption weights do not reach it, and neither do the section 39A enhanced penalties. What applies instead is section 30 of the Poisons Act 1952, which provides at subsection (3) that «no person shall import, export, manufacture, compound, mix, dispense, sell, supply, administer, possess or use any psychotropic substance otherwise than in accordance with any regulations applicable thereto», and at subsection (5) that a contravention is punishable «to a fine not exceeding ten thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding four years or both». Section 30(4) carries a possession presumption of its own: a person found with the substance in his custody or control «shall be deemed to have been in possession of the substance and to have known the nature of the substance, until he proves to the contrary». Four years and ten thousand ringgit against death. That is the single largest cliff in Malaysian drug law and it turns entirely on which of two schedules a substance sits in. And the ground can move under it: section 45A of the Dangerous Drugs Act lets the Minister add a substance to the First Schedule by order, and section 30(2) of the Poisons Act lets him amend the Third Schedule the same way.
If prescribed / medical: Pregabalin is a poison under the Poisons Act 1952 but it is not a psychotropic substance under it, and that distinction decides which sections apply. Section 30(1) provides that «In this section, “psychotropic substance” means any of the substances specified in the Third Schedule». Because pregabalin is absent from that Schedule, section 30 and the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 do not reach it at all. What reaches it is the Poisons List, where it appears as «Pregabalin», together with the supply provisions in sections 19 to 25. Section 19(1) carries the prescribing route: «a registered medical practitioner may sell, supply or administer such poison to his patient for the purposes of the medical treatment of such patient only», with equivalent provision for a registered dentist Division I and a veterinary officer, and the Group the poison is placed in governs who else may sell or supply it under sections 20 to 23. It is absent from the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, so nothing in that Act applies to it. It sits in the list beside «Phenytoin and other substances structurally derived from hydantoin; their salts», and gabapentin is listed in the same way.
Documentation: Carry the prescription and the dispensing label with the medicine, in its original packaging. That is ordinary prudence rather than a requirement the Poisons Act places on a traveller, because the Act controls who may sell and supply a poison rather than who may hold one. The entry a border officer would be reading is «Pregabalin» in the Poisons List. There is no Third Schedule entry for pregabalin to be read instead, and that absence is the whole reason the lighter sections apply. The exposure is lighter than for a psychotropic substance and it arises from different sections. Holding an ordinary poison is not prohibited as such: the provision that does prohibit possessing, section 30(3), is confined by section 30(1) to Third Schedule substances. What does touch possession is section 9(1), which provides that no person, whether licensed under the Act or not, shall «knowingly sell, supply, keep or have in his possession or under his control or store any poison otherwise than in accordance with the regulations made under this Act and in force relating to the possession, containers, packaging, labelling or storing of such poison», and section 9(2) deems that to have been done knowingly once possession is proved. So the offence is possessing a poison otherwise than in accordance with those regulations, and not possessing it at all. The regulations section 9(1) refers to were not located in this session and nothing is stated here about what they require. Section 13 separately covers possessing a poison for sale. An offence against the Act for which no other penalty is provided is punishable under section 32(2) by «a fine not exceeding three thousand ringgit or by imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year or both», rising to five thousand ringgit or two years where the court finds wilful default or culpable negligence that endangered or was likely to endanger human life. The Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989, including the one month personal import allowance in regulation 4(2)(a), do not apply to pregabalin, because they apply to Third Schedule psychotropic substances and it is not one.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: the Poisons Act 1952 Poisons List, the entry found as «Pregabalin» · sections 9(1), 9(2), 13, 19 to 25, 30(1) and 32(2) of that Act · the Third Schedule read in full, and pregabalin not found in it, so section 30 and the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 do not apply · and the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 read in all five Parts, and pregabalin not found in any of them · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

Pregabalin in Malaysia, full detail →

Psilocybin

Legal status: Psilocybin is named in Part III of the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 as «Psilocybine, 3-(2-dimethylaminoethyl)-indol-4-yl dihydrogen phosphate», and psilocin is named immediately above it as «Psilocine, Psilotsin, 3-(2-dimethylaminoethyl)-4-hydroxyindole». Both are dangerous drugs and neither carries a section 37(da) presumption weight. The mushroom itself is not named, but the Act names plants when it means them, so the analysis runs through the psilocybin and psilocin the fruiting body contains. The Poisons List carries both compounds with the dangerous drug marker.
Consequences if caught: Part III of the First Schedule names both compounds, as «Psilocybine, 3-(2-dimethylaminoethyl)-indol-4-yl dihydrogen phosphate» and, on the line above it, «Psilocine, Psilotsin, 3-(2-dimethylaminoethyl)-4-hydroxyindole». Each is a dangerous drug under section 2 and section 39B(2) answers trafficking in either with death or imprisonment for life. The chain is short and it passes through no weight at any point. Section 2 defines a «dangerous drug» as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule», section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», whether on your own behalf or on behalf of any other person, and section 39B(2) sets the penalty. And the word «trafficking» is itself defined in section 2, far wider than selling: it «includes the doing of any of the following acts, that is to say, manufacturing, importing, exporting, keeping, concealing, buying, selling, giving, receiving, storing, administering, transporting, carrying, sending, delivering, procuring, supplying or distributing any dangerous drug otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act». Keeping, carrying and storing are on that list, so nothing commercial has to be shown. Neither carries a section 37(da) presumption weight. The fourteen weighted substances in that subparagraph are all amphetamine-type compounds, and no tryptamine is among them. So there is no presumption to rebut and no threshold to stay under, and section 39B(2) applies in the same terms as it would to a weighed substance. The other presumption is still there. Section 37(d) provides that any person found to have had in his custody or under his control anything whatsoever containing a dangerous drug «shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have been in possession of such drug and shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have known the nature of such drug». The words «until the contrary is proved» put the defendant to proof on both limbs, on the possession and on the knowledge. Death is available and it is no longer mandatory, and the change has a date. Section 39B(2) once read simply «on conviction with death». The Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017, Act A1558, in force 15 March 2018, opened a narrow gate out of that, a date carried forward from the earlier reading and not re-derived in this pass. The Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, came into operation on 4 July 2023, and section 54 of it is the whole of what it did to the Dangerous Drugs Act: it substituted «be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes» for fifteen strokes in subsection (2), and it deleted subsections (2A) and (2B), which were the mandatory death machinery. Section 39B(2) now reads, in full: «Any person who contravenes any of the provisions of subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence against this Act and shall be punished on conviction with death or imprisonment for life and shall, if he is not sentenced to death, be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes.» So the court chooses between death and imprisonment for life with no precondition, and at least twelve strokes follow any sentence that is not death. Act 846 is widely described as replacing life with a term of thirty to forty years. It did that in the Penal Code, the Firearms (Increased Penalties) Act 1971, the Arms Act 1960, the Kidnapping Act 1961, the Strategic Trade Act 2010 and the Criminal Procedure Code. It did not do it here: the words «imprisonment for life» in section 39B(2) are untouched and no definition of that phrase appears anywhere in the Dangerous Drugs Act, so no year figure is stated in this cell. Section 55 of Act 846 applies the amended section to anyone sentenced after it came into operation even where the offence was committed before. Below trafficking, the possession offence is section 12. Section 11(1) provides that «This Part applies to dangerous drugs listed in Parts III, IV and V of the First Schedule», which is what brings a Part III substance inside Part IV of the Act. Section 12(2) then prohibits having such a drug in your possession, custody or control «unless he is authorized to be in possession, custody or control of such drug or is deemed to be so authorized under this Act or the regulations made thereunder», and section 12(3) punishes a contravention with «a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Self-administration is section 15(1), at a fine not exceeding five thousand ringgit or imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, and section 38B(1) then requires supervision for not less than two and not more than three years after the sentence has been served. Three procedural consequences follow automatically. Section 41(1) removes a section 39B charge from the Sessions Court and the Magistrates' Court, so it is tried in the High Court, and section 41A(3) has it tried by a judge sitting alone. Section 41B(1) provides that bail «shall not be granted» where the offence is punishable with death, and also where it is punishable with imprisonment for more than five years. Section 38A, which lets a court deal with a drug dependant under eighteen under the Drug Dependants (Treatment and Rehabilitation) Act 1983 rather than punish him, is expressly unavailable for a section 39B offence. Section 39C separately escalates a repeat offender under the consumption and possession provisions to not less than five and not more than seven years with not more than three strokes. The fruiting body is not named, and the Act names plants when it means them. So the analysis runs through the psilocybin and psilocin the mushroom contains, and fresh material, which is mostly water, is weighed as it is found. The list can move under all of this. Section 45A is headed «Power of the Minister to vary First Schedule» and it operates either on a decision of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs or of the United Nations Organization altering the Schedules to the Single Convention, or simply where the Minister «considers it expedient to add a substance to, or remove a substance from, or vary the First Schedule, he may by order make the requisite modifications». An order takes effect on gazetting and there is no notice period. He has used it twice since the text read here, by P.U. (A) 97 gazetted 2 April 2024 and P.U. (A) 416 gazetted 25 November 2025, both carried forward from the earlier reading and neither re-read in this pass. The text read for this cell is the Attorney General's Chambers updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», and a later order is not ruled out.
If prescribed / medical: There is no prescription route for psilocybin in Malaysia, and this cell states that rather than leaving a reader to infer it. Every prohibition in the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, and the definition of trafficking in section 2, is qualified by the words «otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act», so a lawful holding is one that sits inside an authority granted under the Act. The authority the Act contemplates is a licence or a regulation made under it, and here there is nothing for one to attach to. It is reached at Part III of the First Schedule: it is named in terms, with «Psilocine, Psilotsin, 3-(2-dimethylaminoethyl)-4-hydroxyindole» named immediately above it. Neither Act evidences a registered product containing it. The mushroom itself is not named. The Act names plants when it means them, so the control runs through the two compounds the fruiting body contains rather than through the fungus, and there is no entry a cultivation or research authority could attach to without naming those compounds.
Documentation: There is no document to carry, because there is no lawful holding for a document to evidence. This cell says so plainly rather than leave a traveller looking for paperwork that does not exist for psilocybin. The entry that forecloses the question is «Psilocybine, 3-(2-dimethylaminoethyl)-indol-4-yl dihydrogen phosphate», reached at Part III of the First Schedule. Section 25 of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, the traveller provision, turns on a medicinal preparation supplied by or on the prescription of a medical practitioner residing outside Malaysia, so it has nothing to attach to here. It is also confined to Part V of the Act, the external trade Part, and would not answer a possession charge even if it did apply. Getting the paperwork wrong is not a paperwork penalty. Section 37(d) provides that «any person who is found to have had in his custody or under his control anything whatsoever containing any dangerous drug shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have been in possession of such drug and shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have known the nature of such drug», and section 37(da) can then presume trafficking from the weight of the material alone. A foreign prescription, a licence issued in another country, and religious or traditional use are none of them provided for anywhere in the Act. The entry the document has to answer to, in the First Schedule itself, is «Psilocybine, 3-(2-dimethylaminoethyl)-indol-4-yl dihydrogen phosphate» at Part III, «Psilocine, Psilotsin, 3-(2-dimethylaminoethyl)-4-hydroxyindole» at Part III. If the document does not answer the entry, the charge is section 12(2) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, possession of a dangerous drug without authority, and section 12(3) sets «a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Section 12(4) adds whipping of not more than three strokes where the person convicted is a public officer employed at a prison, rehabilitation centre, police lock-up or place of detention.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 in all five Parts, the entry found at Part III of the First Schedule as «Psilocybine, 3-(2-dimethylaminoethyl)-indol-4-yl dihydrogen phosphate» · sections 2, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 11(1), 16, 25, 37(d), 37(da), 39A, 39B and 45A of that Act · the Poisons Act 1952 Poisons List and Third Schedule both read · the Poisons Act 1952 Third Schedule read in full · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

Psilocybin in Malaysia, full detail →

Quetiapine

Legal status: Quetiapine is a prescription poison under the Poisons Act 1952, listed in the Poisons List as «Quetiapine; its salts» with «All preparation» against it. It is NOT in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 and it is not a Third Schedule psychotropic substance, so section 39B and the death penalty cannot reach it, and no controlled drug penalty applies to it at all. Unauthorised supply is a Poisons Act matter.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Quetiapine is not in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 and is named in none of its five Parts. No antipsychotic of any kind appears in that Schedule. Section 39B is the only capital provision in Malaysian drug law, and section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», which section 2 defines as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule». A substance outside that Schedule cannot be trafficked within the meaning of section 39B however much of it there is, the section 37(da) presumption weights do not reach it, and neither do the section 39A enhanced penalties. What applies instead is the Poisons Act 1952, but not the section of it that is usually reached for. Section 30 does not apply to quetiapine. Section 30(1) provides that «In this section, “psychotropic substance” means any of the substances specified in the Third Schedule», and quetiapine is not in the Third Schedule; it is in the Poisons List, as «Quetiapine; its salts». So the section 30(3) prohibition on possessing and using, the section 30(4) presumption and the section 30(5) penalty of ten thousand ringgit and four years are the wrong provisions for it, and quoting them here would overstate the exposure more than threefold on the fine and fourfold on the term. The provisions that do apply are lighter. Sections 19 to 25 control who may sell and supply a poison. Possession is reached only through the regulations: section 9(1) provides that no person, whether licensed under the Act or not, shall «knowingly sell, supply, keep or have in his possession or under his control or store any poison otherwise than in accordance with the regulations made under this Act and in force relating to the possession, containers, packaging, labelling or storing of such poison», those regulations being the Poisons Regulations 1952, L.N. 440/1952, made under section 35 of the Act, in operation since 1 September 1952 and amended most recently by P.U. (A) 155/2025, whose regulation 5 provides that «No person shall store any poison except in a container impervious to the poison and sufficiently stout to prevent leakage from the container arising from the ordinary risks of handling» and whose regulations 6 to 14 carry the storage, packing and labelling rules. So what is prohibited is holding a poison outside those rules rather than holding it at all, and section 9(2) deems the holding to have been knowing once possession is proved. Section 13 separately covers possessing a poison for sale. Where no other penalty is provided, section 32(2) supplies «a fine not exceeding three thousand ringgit or by imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year or both», rising to five thousand ringgit and two years where the court finds wilful default or culpable negligence that endangered or was likely to endanger human life. No controlled drug penalty of any kind applies to it, and unauthorised supply is the only question the Poisons Act raises about it. Three thousand ringgit and a year against death is still the largest cliff in Malaysian drug law, and it turns entirely on which of two schedules a substance sits in. The ground can move under it: section 45A of the Dangerous Drugs Act lets the Minister add a substance to the First Schedule by order with no notice period, and section 30(2) of the Poisons Act lets him amend the Third Schedule the same way.
If prescribed / medical: Quetiapine is a poison under the Poisons Act 1952 but it is not a psychotropic substance under it, and that distinction decides which sections apply. Section 30(1) provides that «In this section, “psychotropic substance” means any of the substances specified in the Third Schedule». Because quetiapine is absent from that Schedule, section 30 and the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 do not reach it at all. What reaches it is the Poisons List, where it appears as «Quetiapine; its salts», together with the supply provisions in sections 19 to 25. Section 19(1) carries the prescribing route: «a registered medical practitioner may sell, supply or administer such poison to his patient for the purposes of the medical treatment of such patient only», with equivalent provision for a registered dentist Division I and a veterinary officer, and the Group the poison is placed in governs who else may sell or supply it under sections 20 to 23. It is absent from the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, so nothing in that Act applies to it. It is named in the alphabetical run of the Poisons List appendix, and no controlled drug penalty of any kind applies to it.
Documentation: Carry the prescription and the dispensing label with the medicine, in its original packaging. That is ordinary prudence rather than a requirement the Poisons Act places on a traveller, because the Act controls who may sell and supply a poison rather than who may hold one. The entry a border officer would be reading is «Quetiapine; its salts» in the Poisons List. There is no Third Schedule entry for quetiapine to be read instead, and that absence is the whole reason the lighter sections apply. The exposure is lighter than for a psychotropic substance and it arises from different sections. Holding an ordinary poison is not prohibited as such: the provision that does prohibit possessing, section 30(3), is confined by section 30(1) to Third Schedule substances. What does touch possession is section 9(1), which provides that no person, whether licensed under the Act or not, shall «knowingly sell, supply, keep or have in his possession or under his control or store any poison otherwise than in accordance with the regulations made under this Act and in force relating to the possession, containers, packaging, labelling or storing of such poison», and section 9(2) deems that to have been done knowingly once possession is proved. So the offence is possessing a poison otherwise than in accordance with those regulations, and not possessing it at all. The regulations section 9(1) refers to were not located in this session and nothing is stated here about what they require. Section 13 separately covers possessing a poison for sale. An offence against the Act for which no other penalty is provided is punishable under section 32(2) by «a fine not exceeding three thousand ringgit or by imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year or both», rising to five thousand ringgit or two years where the court finds wilful default or culpable negligence that endangered or was likely to endanger human life. The Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989, including the one month personal import allowance in regulation 4(2)(a), do not apply to quetiapine, because they apply to Third Schedule psychotropic substances and it is not one.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: the Poisons Act 1952 Poisons List, the entry whose printed name column is reproduced in full in this cell's status field · sections 9(1), 9(2), 13, 19 to 25, 30(1) and 32(2) of that Act · the Third Schedule read in full, and quetiapine not found in it, so section 30 and the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 do not apply · and the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 read in all five Parts, and quetiapine not found in any of them · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

Quetiapine in Malaysia, full detail →

Salvia divinorum

Legal status: Salvia divinorum is named nowhere in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 and nowhere in the Poisons Act 1952, and neither is salvinorin A. Searched by both names across both Acts and both amending orders since the consolidated text, they return nothing. So on the text this is not a dangerous drug and section 39B does not reach it, as the schedule stood at 25 November 2025. Section 45A lets the Minister add it by order at any time and no advance notice is required.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Salvia divinorum is in neither list, and neither is salvinorin A. Neither is named in any of the five Parts of the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, which names two plant materials and no other. Section 39B is the only capital provision in Malaysian drug law, and section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», which section 2 defines as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule». A substance outside that Schedule cannot be trafficked within the meaning of section 39B however much of it there is, the section 37(da) presumption weights do not reach it, and neither do the section 39A enhanced penalties. It is not in the Third Schedule to the Poisons Act 1952 either, so the section 30 psychotropic offence does not reach it. Do not read that as permission. The Dangerous Drugs Act carries no analogue clause at all, measured across the whole Act, so a substance is in or out on the naming; but section 45A provides that where the Minister «considers it expedient to add a substance to, or remove a substance from, or vary the First Schedule, he may by order make the requisite modifications», and he has used it twice since the consolidated text, by P.U. (A) 97 gazetted 2 April 2024 and P.U. (A) 416 gazetted 25 November 2025. An order takes effect on gazetting and there is no notice period. Customs may also treat an unlisted substance as a prohibited import under a separate order that was not read for this cell.
If prescribed / medical: Neither drug statute reaches Salvia divinorum, so neither supplies a prescription route for it and neither requires one. Neither the plant nor salvinorin A appears in either Act. Section 45A lets the Minister add a substance to the First Schedule by order at any time and no advance notice is required, so the absence is a statement about the schedule as it stood on 25 November 2025. What this cell does not state is whether it is a registered product, an unregistered product or a prohibited import under the medicines and customs instruments, because none of those instruments was read for it.
Documentation: No documentation requirement arises under either drug statute, because neither reaches Salvia divinorum. There is no entry for a document to answer to, for the plant or for salvinorin A, and section 45A means that can change by order without notice. That is not the same as saying it may be brought in freely. Product registration with the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency and the customs prohibited imports orders are separate regimes, neither was read for this cell, and nothing is stated here about either. Carry any prescription and the original packaging as a matter of course, and expect the question at the border to be settled by those other regimes rather than by the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 or the Poisons Act 1952.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: both schedules in full, the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 First Schedule in all five Parts and the Poisons Act 1952 Poisons List and Third Schedule, with Salvia divinorum or salvinorin A found in neither as a controlled entry · sections 2, 11(1) and 45A of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 and sections 30(1) and 32(2) of the Poisons Act 1952 · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

Salvia divinorum in Malaysia, full detail →

Scopolamine (Devil's Breath)

Legal status: Scopolamine is a poison under the Poisons Act 1952, listed in the Poisons List under its other name as «Hyoscine», with «All preparations» against it subject to an exemption, and grouped with Homatropine and the other antimuscarinics. A search on «Scopolamine» returns nothing in either Act, which is the trap here. It is NOT in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, so section 39B and the death penalty cannot reach it.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Scopolamine is not in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, under that name or as hyoscine. Neither appears in any of the five Parts. Section 39B is the only capital provision in Malaysian drug law, and section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», which section 2 defines as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule». A substance outside that Schedule cannot be trafficked within the meaning of section 39B however much of it there is, the section 37(da) presumption weights do not reach it, and neither do the section 39A enhanced penalties. What applies instead is the Poisons Act 1952, but not the section of it that is usually reached for. Section 30 does not apply to scopolamine. Section 30(1) provides that «In this section, “psychotropic substance” means any of the substances specified in the Third Schedule», and scopolamine is not in the Third Schedule; it is in the Poisons List, as «Hyoscine». So the section 30(3) prohibition on possessing and using, the section 30(4) presumption and the section 30(5) penalty of ten thousand ringgit and four years are the wrong provisions for it, and quoting them here would overstate the exposure more than threefold on the fine and fourfold on the term. The provisions that do apply are lighter. Sections 19 to 25 control who may sell and supply a poison. Possession is reached only through the regulations: section 9(1) provides that no person, whether licensed under the Act or not, shall «knowingly sell, supply, keep or have in his possession or under his control or store any poison otherwise than in accordance with the regulations made under this Act and in force relating to the possession, containers, packaging, labelling or storing of such poison», those regulations being the Poisons Regulations 1952, L.N. 440/1952, made under section 35 of the Act, in operation since 1 September 1952 and amended most recently by P.U. (A) 155/2025, whose regulation 5 provides that «No person shall store any poison except in a container impervious to the poison and sufficiently stout to prevent leakage from the container arising from the ordinary risks of handling» and whose regulations 6 to 14 carry the storage, packing and labelling rules. So what is prohibited is holding a poison outside those rules rather than holding it at all, and section 9(2) deems the holding to have been knowing once possession is proved. Section 13 separately covers possessing a poison for sale. Where no other penalty is provided, section 32(2) supplies «a fine not exceeding three thousand ringgit or by imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year or both», rising to five thousand ringgit and two years where the court finds wilful default or culpable negligence that endangered or was likely to endanger human life. A search on the name scopolamine returns nothing in either Act, because the Poisons List names it as hyoscine, and a cell built on that zero would report the wrong answer. Three thousand ringgit and a year against death is still the largest cliff in Malaysian drug law, and it turns entirely on which of two schedules a substance sits in. The ground can move under it: section 45A of the Dangerous Drugs Act lets the Minister add a substance to the First Schedule by order with no notice period, and section 30(2) of the Poisons Act lets him amend the Third Schedule the same way.
If prescribed / medical: Scopolamine is a poison under the Poisons Act 1952 but it is not a psychotropic substance under it, and that distinction decides which sections apply. Section 30(1) provides that «In this section, “psychotropic substance” means any of the substances specified in the Third Schedule». Because scopolamine is absent from that Schedule, section 30 and the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 do not reach it at all. What reaches it is the Poisons List, where it appears as «Hyoscine», together with the supply provisions in sections 19 to 25. Section 19(1) carries the prescribing route: «a registered medical practitioner may sell, supply or administer such poison to his patient for the purposes of the medical treatment of such patient only», with equivalent provision for a registered dentist Division I and a veterinary officer, and the Group the poison is placed in governs who else may sell or supply it under sections 20 to 23. It is absent from the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, so nothing in that Act applies to it. A search on the name scopolamine returns nothing in either Act, which is the trap here: the Poisons List names it as hyoscine and groups it with the other antimuscarinics.
Documentation: Carry the prescription and the dispensing label with the medicine, in its original packaging. That is ordinary prudence rather than a requirement the Poisons Act places on a traveller, because the Act controls who may sell and supply a poison rather than who may hold one. The entry a border officer would be reading is «Hyoscine» in the Poisons List. There is no Third Schedule entry for scopolamine to be read instead, and that absence is the whole reason the lighter sections apply. The exposure is lighter than for a psychotropic substance and it arises from different sections. Holding an ordinary poison is not prohibited as such: the provision that does prohibit possessing, section 30(3), is confined by section 30(1) to Third Schedule substances. What does touch possession is section 9(1), which provides that no person, whether licensed under the Act or not, shall «knowingly sell, supply, keep or have in his possession or under his control or store any poison otherwise than in accordance with the regulations made under this Act and in force relating to the possession, containers, packaging, labelling or storing of such poison», and section 9(2) deems that to have been done knowingly once possession is proved. So the offence is possessing a poison otherwise than in accordance with those regulations, and not possessing it at all. The regulations section 9(1) refers to were not located in this session and nothing is stated here about what they require. Section 13 separately covers possessing a poison for sale. An offence against the Act for which no other penalty is provided is punishable under section 32(2) by «a fine not exceeding three thousand ringgit or by imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year or both», rising to five thousand ringgit or two years where the court finds wilful default or culpable negligence that endangered or was likely to endanger human life. The Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989, including the one month personal import allowance in regulation 4(2)(a), do not apply to scopolamine, because they apply to Third Schedule psychotropic substances and it is not one.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: the Poisons Act 1952 Poisons List, the entry found as «Hyoscine» · sections 9(1), 9(2), 13, 19 to 25, 30(1) and 32(2) of that Act · the Third Schedule read in full, and scopolamine or hyoscine not found in it, so section 30 and the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 do not apply · and the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 read in all five Parts, and scopolamine or hyoscine not found in any of them · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

Scopolamine (Devil's Breath) in Malaysia, full detail →

Synthetic Cannabinoids (K2 / Spice)

Legal status: Controlled only where a compound is named in the lists of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 or the Poisons Act 1952. The synthetic cannabinoids are named compound by compound and they are split across both Acts, because Malaysia has no generic synthetic cannabinoid clause: the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 contains no analogue provision at all. Part III of its First Schedule names about a dozen of them, among them the indazole carboxamides sold as ADB-CHMINACA, as ADB-FUBINACA, as AB-CHMINACA and as AB-PINACA, together with CUMYL-4CN-BINACA, with MDMB-4en-PINACA, with 5F-ADB, with FUB-AMB, with UR-144, with CUMYL-PEGACLONE and with 5F-PB-22. The Poisons Act 1952 Third Schedule names a different set, among them JWH-018, and AM-2201, and XLR-11, and MDMB-CHMICA, and 5F-APINACA, and 5F-AMB. So whether a given synthetic cannabinoid is capital-eligible depends on which one it is, and a new one that is in neither list is, on the text, in neither regime until the Minister adds it.
Consequences if caught: Section 39B(2) reaches the synthetic cannabinoids that Part III names, and only those. There is no class entry and the Dangerous Drugs Act contains no analogue provision at all, measured across the whole Act, so this cell cannot answer for a compound by family. Part III names about a dozen of them individually, among them the indazole carboxamide printed as «N-[(2S)-1-Amino-3,3-dimethyl-1-oxobutan-2-yl]-1-(cyclohexylmethyl)-1H-indazole-3-carboxamide (ADB-CHMINACA, MAB-CHMINACA)», and the compounds sold as ADB-FUBINACA, as AB-CHMINACA, as AB-PINACA, as CUMYL-4CN-BINACA, as MDMB-4en-PINACA, as 5F-ADB, as FUB-AMB, as the «(1-Pentyl-1H-indol-3-yl)(2,2,3,3 tetramethylcyclopropyl) methanone (UR-144)» of that Part, as CUMYL-PEGACLONE and as 5F-PB-22. For any of those, the sentence is death or imprisonment for life. The chain is short and it passes through no weight at any point. Section 2 defines a «dangerous drug» as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule», section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», whether on your own behalf or on behalf of any other person, and section 39B(2) sets the penalty. And the word «trafficking» is itself defined in section 2, far wider than selling: it «includes the doing of any of the following acts, that is to say, manufacturing, importing, exporting, keeping, concealing, buying, selling, giving, receiving, storing, administering, transporting, carrying, sending, delivering, procuring, supplying or distributing any dangerous drug otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act». Keeping, carrying and storing are on that list, so nothing commercial has to be shown. None of them carries a section 37(da) presumption weight, and none is in the fourteen-substance amphetamine block that subparagraph (xxv) aggregates. So there is no presumption to rebut and no threshold to stay under, and section 39B(2) applies in the same terms as it would to a weighed substance. The other presumption is still there. Section 37(d) provides that any person found to have had in his custody or under his control anything whatsoever containing a dangerous drug «shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have been in possession of such drug and shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have known the nature of such drug». The words «until the contrary is proved» put the defendant to proof on both limbs, on the possession and on the knowledge. Death is available and it is no longer mandatory, and the change has a date. Section 39B(2) once read simply «on conviction with death». The Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017, Act A1558, in force 15 March 2018, opened a narrow gate out of that, a date carried forward from the earlier reading and not re-derived in this pass. The Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, came into operation on 4 July 2023, and section 54 of it is the whole of what it did to the Dangerous Drugs Act: it substituted «be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes» for fifteen strokes in subsection (2), and it deleted subsections (2A) and (2B), which were the mandatory death machinery. Section 39B(2) now reads, in full: «Any person who contravenes any of the provisions of subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence against this Act and shall be punished on conviction with death or imprisonment for life and shall, if he is not sentenced to death, be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes.» So the court chooses between death and imprisonment for life with no precondition, and at least twelve strokes follow any sentence that is not death. Act 846 is widely described as replacing life with a term of thirty to forty years. It did that in the Penal Code, the Firearms (Increased Penalties) Act 1971, the Arms Act 1960, the Kidnapping Act 1961, the Strategic Trade Act 2010 and the Criminal Procedure Code. It did not do it here: the words «imprisonment for life» in section 39B(2) are untouched and no definition of that phrase appears anywhere in the Dangerous Drugs Act, so no year figure is stated in this cell. Section 55 of Act 846 applies the amended section to anyone sentenced after it came into operation even where the offence was committed before. Below trafficking, the possession offence is section 12. Section 11(1) provides that «This Part applies to dangerous drugs listed in Parts III, IV and V of the First Schedule», which is what brings a Part III substance inside Part IV of the Act. Section 12(2) then prohibits having such a drug in your possession, custody or control «unless he is authorized to be in possession, custody or control of such drug or is deemed to be so authorized under this Act or the regulations made thereunder», and section 12(3) punishes a contravention with «a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Self-administration is section 15(1), at a fine not exceeding five thousand ringgit or imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, and section 38B(1) then requires supervision for not less than two and not more than three years after the sentence has been served. Three procedural consequences follow automatically. Section 41(1) removes a section 39B charge from the Sessions Court and the Magistrates' Court, so it is tried in the High Court, and section 41A(3) has it tried by a judge sitting alone. Section 41B(1) provides that bail «shall not be granted» where the offence is punishable with death, and also where it is punishable with imprisonment for more than five years. Section 38A, which lets a court deal with a drug dependant under eighteen under the Drug Dependants (Treatment and Rehabilitation) Act 1983 rather than punish him, is expressly unavailable for a section 39B offence. Section 39C separately escalates a repeat offender under the consumption and possession provisions to not less than five and not more than seven years with not more than three strokes. For a compound that Part III does not name, this cell asserts nothing. A different set of synthetic cannabinoids sits in the Poisons Act 1952 Third Schedule, among them the ones sold as JWH-018, as AM-2201, as XLR-11, as MDMB-CHMICA, as 5F-APINACA and as 5F-AMB, a fact carried forward from the earlier reading of that Act and not re-derived here; those are psychotropic substances and not dangerous drugs, and section 39B does not reach them. A compound in neither list is, on the text, in neither regime until the Minister acts under section 45A. The list can move under all of this. Section 45A is headed «Power of the Minister to vary First Schedule» and it operates either on a decision of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs or of the United Nations Organization altering the Schedules to the Single Convention, or simply where the Minister «considers it expedient to add a substance to, or remove a substance from, or vary the First Schedule, he may by order make the requisite modifications». An order takes effect on gazetting and there is no notice period. He has used it twice since the text read here, by P.U. (A) 97 gazetted 2 April 2024 and P.U. (A) 416 gazetted 25 November 2025, both carried forward from the earlier reading and neither re-read in this pass. The text read for this cell is the Attorney General's Chambers updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», and a later order is not ruled out.
If prescribed / medical: There is no prescription route for the synthetic cannabinoids in Malaysia, and this cell states that rather than leaving a reader to infer it. Every prohibition in the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, and the definition of trafficking in section 2, is qualified by the words «otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act», so a lawful holding is one that sits inside an authority granted under the Act. The authority the Act contemplates is a licence or a regulation made under it, and here there is nothing for one to attach to. It is reached at Part III of the First Schedule for some of them and the Poisons Act Third Schedule for others: Malaysia has no generic synthetic cannabinoid clause and no analogue clause anywhere in the Dangerous Drugs Act, so each compound is named or it is not. Neither Act evidences a registered product containing it. The quoted entry is a Third Schedule one, not a First Schedule one, which is the point: JWH-018 is a Poisons Act psychotropic substance while ADB-FUBINACA and 5F-ADB are dangerous drugs. Whether any authority could exist depends on which compound is in the material, and a product sold under a brand name identifies none of them.
Documentation: There is no document to carry, because there is no lawful holding for a document to evidence. This cell says so plainly rather than leave a traveller looking for paperwork that does not exist for the synthetic cannabinoids. The entry that forecloses the question is «Naphtalen-1-yl-(1-pentyl-1H-indol-3-yl)methanone (JWH-018)», reached at Part III of the First Schedule for some of them and the Poisons Act Third Schedule for others. Section 25 of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, the traveller provision, turns on a medicinal preparation supplied by or on the prescription of a medical practitioner residing outside Malaysia, so it has nothing to attach to here. It is also confined to Part V of the Act, the external trade Part, and would not answer a possession charge even if it did apply. Getting the paperwork wrong is not a paperwork penalty. Section 37(d) provides that «any person who is found to have had in his custody or under his control anything whatsoever containing any dangerous drug shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have been in possession of such drug and shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have known the nature of such drug», and section 37(da) can then presume trafficking from the weight of the material alone. A foreign prescription, a licence issued in another country, and religious or traditional use are none of them provided for anywhere in the Act. The entry the document has to answer to, in the First Schedule itself, is «N-[(2S)-1-Amino-3,3-dimethyl-1-oxobutan-2-yl]-1-(cyclohexylmethyl)-1H-indazole-3-carboxamide (ADB-CHMINACA, MAB-CHMINACA)» at Part III. If the document does not answer the entry, the charge is section 12(2) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, possession of a dangerous drug without authority, and section 12(3) sets «a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Section 12(4) adds whipping of not more than three strokes where the person convicted is a public officer employed at a prison, rehabilitation centre, police lock-up or place of detention.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 in all five Parts, the entry found at Part III of the First Schedule for some of them and the Poisons Act Third Schedule for others as «Naphtalen-1-yl-(1-pentyl-1H-indol-3-yl)methanone (JWH-018)» · sections 2, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 11(1), 16, 25, 37(d), 37(da), 39A, 39B and 45A of that Act · the Poisons Act 1952 Poisons List and Third Schedule both read · the Poisons Act 1952 Third Schedule read in full · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated October 8, 2026

Synthetic Cannabinoids (K2 / Spice) in Malaysia, full detail →

THC-P

Legal status: THC-P is named nowhere in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 and nowhere in the Poisons Act 1952, and the reason is in the wording of the entry that looks closest. Part III names «Tetrahydrocannabinols» but not at large: the entry reads «Tetrahydrocannabinols, 1-hydroxy-3-pentyl-6a,7,10, 10a-tetrahydro-6, 6, 9 trimethyl-6-H-dibenzo [b, d] pyran», which fixes a PENTYL side chain. THC-P is tetrahydrocannabiphorol, with a heptyl chain, so it falls outside that specific chemical designation, and the Part III isomer clause is expressly limited to isomers «within the specific chemical designation». A homologue with two extra carbons is not an isomer. delta-8-THC and delta-9-THC are named separately and unqualified, and THC-P is neither. So on the text THC-P is not a dangerous drug, as the schedule stood at 25 November 2025. This reading rests on the chain length in the entry and no Malaysian decision testing it was found.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. THC-P is in neither list, and the reason is in the wording of the entry that looks closest. Part III of the First Schedule names «Tetrahydrocannabinols» but not at large: the entry reads «Tetrahydrocannabinols, 1-hydroxy-3-pentyl-6a,7,10, 10a-tetrahydro-6, 6, 9 trimethyl-6-H-dibenzo [b, d] pyran», which fixes a pentyl side chain, and the Part III isomer clause is expressly limited to isomers «within the specific chemical designation». Tetrahydrocannabiphorol has a heptyl chain, two carbons longer, so it is a homologue and not an isomer. The compound is what is absent, and the material is a separate question: a product made from resin-bearing cannabis plant material is cannabis within the section 2 definition, «any part of any plant of the genus Cannabis from which there is found to be present resin irrespective of its quantity», whatever molecule is being sold. This row is about the compound, and on the compound the answer is that it is not in the First Schedule. Section 39B is the only capital provision in Malaysian drug law, and section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», which section 2 defines as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule». A substance outside that Schedule cannot be trafficked within the meaning of section 39B however much of it there is, the section 37(da) presumption weights do not reach it, and neither do the section 39A enhanced penalties. It is not in the Third Schedule to the Poisons Act 1952 either, so the section 30 psychotropic offence does not reach it. Do not read that as permission. The Dangerous Drugs Act carries no analogue clause at all, measured across the whole Act, so a substance is in or out on the naming; but section 45A provides that where the Minister «considers it expedient to add a substance to, or remove a substance from, or vary the First Schedule, he may by order make the requisite modifications», and he has used it twice since the consolidated text, by P.U. (A) 97 gazetted 2 April 2024 and P.U. (A) 416 gazetted 25 November 2025. An order takes effect on gazetting and there is no notice period. Customs may also treat an unlisted substance as a prohibited import under a separate order that was not read for this cell.
If prescribed / medical: Neither drug statute reaches THC-P, so neither supplies a prescription route for it and neither requires one. The entry that looks closest reads «Tetrahydrocannabinols, 1-hydroxy-3-pentyl-6a,7,10, 10a-tetrahydro-6, 6, 9» trimethyl-6-H-dibenzo, which fixes a pentyl side chain. THC-P is tetrahydrocannabiphorol, with a heptyl chain, so it falls outside that specific chemical designation, and the Part III isomer clause is expressly limited to isomers within it. A homologue with two extra carbons is not an isomer. No Malaysian decision testing the point was found. What this cell does not state is whether it is a registered product, an unregistered product or a prohibited import under the medicines and customs instruments, because none of those instruments was read for it.
Documentation: No documentation requirement arises under either drug statute, because neither reaches THC-P. There is no entry for a document to answer to. The nearest, «Tetrahydrocannabinols, 1-hydroxy-3-pentyl-6a,7,10, 10a-tetrahydro-6, 6, 9» trimethyl-6-H-dibenzo, fixes a pentyl chain, and a heptyl one falls outside it. That is not the same as saying it may be brought in freely. Product registration with the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency and the customs prohibited imports orders are separate regimes, neither was read for this cell, and nothing is stated here about either. Carry any prescription and the original packaging as a matter of course, and expect the question at the border to be settled by those other regimes rather than by the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 or the Poisons Act 1952.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: both schedules in full, the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 First Schedule in all five Parts and the Poisons Act 1952 Poisons List and Third Schedule, with tetrahydrocannabiphorol found in neither as a controlled entry · sections 2, 11(1) and 45A of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 and sections 30(1) and 32(2) of the Poisons Act 1952 · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

THC-P in Malaysia, full detail →

Tobacco

Legal status: Tobacco is not a drug question in Malaysia and neither of the two drug statutes reaches it. It is named nowhere in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, so it is not a dangerous drug and section 39B cannot apply to it, and it is not a Third Schedule psychotropic substance under the Poisons Act 1952. Nicotine on its own is a Poisons List poison. Tobacco products, smoking areas and vape are governed by a separate tobacco control statute, and this cell does not name it or state its rules because none of it was read.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Tobacco is in neither list. It is named in none of the five Parts of the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, and neither is nicotine. Section 39B is the only capital provision in Malaysian drug law, and section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», which section 2 defines as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule». A substance outside that Schedule cannot be trafficked within the meaning of section 39B however much of it there is, the section 37(da) presumption weights do not reach it, and neither do the section 39A enhanced penalties. It is not in the Third Schedule to the Poisons Act 1952 either, so the section 30 psychotropic offence does not reach it. Do not read that as permission. The Dangerous Drugs Act carries no analogue clause at all, measured across the whole Act, so a substance is in or out on the naming; but section 45A provides that where the Minister «considers it expedient to add a substance to, or remove a substance from, or vary the First Schedule, he may by order make the requisite modifications», and he has used it twice since the consolidated text, by P.U. (A) 97 gazetted 2 April 2024 and P.U. (A) 416 gazetted 25 November 2025. An order takes effect on gazetting and there is no notice period. Customs may also treat an unlisted substance as a prohibited import under a separate order that was not read for this cell.
If prescribed / medical: Neither drug statute reaches tobacco, so neither supplies a prescription route for it and neither requires one. Tobacco is named in neither Act as a controlled substance. Where it does appear is in the exempt column of the Poisons List row for «Nicotine», so the Poisons List reaches the alkaloid and expressly stands back from the leaf. Tobacco products, smoking areas and vape are governed by a separate tobacco control statute, and this cell does not name it or state its rules because none of it was read. What this cell does not state is whether it is a registered product, an unregistered product or a prohibited import under the medicines and customs instruments, because none of those instruments was read for it.
Documentation: No documentation requirement arises under either drug statute, because neither reaches tobacco. There is no entry for a document to answer to. The only place tobacco appears in either Act is the exempt column of the «Nicotine» row in the Poisons List, which is the list standing back from it rather than reaching it. That is not the same as saying it may be brought in freely. Product registration with the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency and the customs prohibited imports orders are separate regimes, neither was read for this cell, and nothing is stated here about either. Carry any prescription and the original packaging as a matter of course, and expect the question at the border to be settled by those other regimes rather than by the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 or the Poisons Act 1952.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: both schedules in full, the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 First Schedule in all five Parts and the Poisons Act 1952 Poisons List and Third Schedule, with tobacco found in neither as a controlled entry · sections 2, 11(1) and 45A of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 and sections 30(1) and 32(2) of the Poisons Act 1952 · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

Tobacco in Malaysia, full detail →

Tramadol

Legal status: Tramadol is a poison under the Poisons Act 1952, listed in the Poisons List as «Tramadol; its salts» with «All preparations» against it and grouped with the analgesics. It is NOT in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 and, checked directly, it is NOT in the Third Schedule list of psychotropic substances either, so it is a prescription poison rather than a psychotropic. The consequence is the same on the point that matters: section 39B reaches only a dangerous drug, so no tramadol offence can be a capital one. Codeine, by contrast, IS in the Dangerous Drugs Act schedule, at Part IV, so the two weak opioids are not in the same place.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Tramadol is not in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952. «Codeine» is, at Part IV, so the two weak opioids are not in the same place and only one of them can reach section 39B. Section 39B is the only capital provision in Malaysian drug law, and section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», which section 2 defines as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule». A substance outside that Schedule cannot be trafficked within the meaning of section 39B however much of it there is, the section 37(da) presumption weights do not reach it, and neither do the section 39A enhanced penalties. What applies instead is the Poisons Act 1952, but not the section of it that is usually reached for. Section 30 does not apply to tramadol. Section 30(1) provides that «In this section, “psychotropic substance” means any of the substances specified in the Third Schedule», and tramadol is not in the Third Schedule; it is in the Poisons List, as «Tramadol; its salts». So the section 30(3) prohibition on possessing and using, the section 30(4) presumption and the section 30(5) penalty of ten thousand ringgit and four years are the wrong provisions for it, and quoting them here would overstate the exposure more than threefold on the fine and fourfold on the term. The provisions that do apply are lighter. Sections 19 to 25 control who may sell and supply a poison. Possession is reached only through the regulations: section 9(1) provides that no person, whether licensed under the Act or not, shall «knowingly sell, supply, keep or have in his possession or under his control or store any poison otherwise than in accordance with the regulations made under this Act and in force relating to the possession, containers, packaging, labelling or storing of such poison», those regulations being the Poisons Regulations 1952, L.N. 440/1952, made under section 35 of the Act, in operation since 1 September 1952 and amended most recently by P.U. (A) 155/2025, whose regulation 5 provides that «No person shall store any poison except in a container impervious to the poison and sufficiently stout to prevent leakage from the container arising from the ordinary risks of handling» and whose regulations 6 to 14 carry the storage, packing and labelling rules. So what is prohibited is holding a poison outside those rules rather than holding it at all, and section 9(2) deems the holding to have been knowing once possession is proved. Section 13 separately covers possessing a poison for sale. Where no other penalty is provided, section 32(2) supplies «a fine not exceeding three thousand ringgit or by imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year or both», rising to five thousand ringgit and two years where the court finds wilful default or culpable negligence that endangered or was likely to endanger human life. Codeine, the other weak opioid a traveller is likely to be carrying, is in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act at Part IV and does carry capital exposure, so the two are not interchangeable. Three thousand ringgit and a year against death is still the largest cliff in Malaysian drug law, and it turns entirely on which of two schedules a substance sits in. The ground can move under it: section 45A of the Dangerous Drugs Act lets the Minister add a substance to the First Schedule by order with no notice period, and section 30(2) of the Poisons Act lets him amend the Third Schedule the same way.
If prescribed / medical: Tramadol is a poison under the Poisons Act 1952 but it is not a psychotropic substance under it, and that distinction decides which sections apply. Section 30(1) provides that «In this section, “psychotropic substance” means any of the substances specified in the Third Schedule». Because tramadol is absent from that Schedule, section 30 and the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 do not reach it at all. What reaches it is the Poisons List, where it appears as «Tramadol; its salts», together with the supply provisions in sections 19 to 25. Section 19(1) carries the prescribing route: «a registered medical practitioner may sell, supply or administer such poison to his patient for the purposes of the medical treatment of such patient only», with equivalent provision for a registered dentist Division I and a veterinary officer, and the Group the poison is placed in governs who else may sell or supply it under sections 20 to 23. It is absent from the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, so nothing in that Act applies to it. Codeine, the other weak opioid a traveller is likely to be carrying, is in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act at Part IV, so the two are not in the same place and not under the same statute.
Documentation: Carry the prescription and the dispensing label with the medicine, in its original packaging. That is ordinary prudence rather than a requirement the Poisons Act places on a traveller, because the Act controls who may sell and supply a poison rather than who may hold one. The entry a border officer would be reading is «Tramadol; its salts» in the Poisons List. There is no Third Schedule entry for tramadol to be read instead, and that absence is the whole reason the lighter sections apply. The exposure is lighter than for a psychotropic substance and it arises from different sections. Holding an ordinary poison is not prohibited as such: the provision that does prohibit possessing, section 30(3), is confined by section 30(1) to Third Schedule substances. What does touch possession is section 9(1), which provides that no person, whether licensed under the Act or not, shall «knowingly sell, supply, keep or have in his possession or under his control or store any poison otherwise than in accordance with the regulations made under this Act and in force relating to the possession, containers, packaging, labelling or storing of such poison», and section 9(2) deems that to have been done knowingly once possession is proved. So the offence is possessing a poison otherwise than in accordance with those regulations, and not possessing it at all. The regulations section 9(1) refers to were not located in this session and nothing is stated here about what they require. Section 13 separately covers possessing a poison for sale. An offence against the Act for which no other penalty is provided is punishable under section 32(2) by «a fine not exceeding three thousand ringgit or by imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year or both», rising to five thousand ringgit or two years where the court finds wilful default or culpable negligence that endangered or was likely to endanger human life. The Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989, including the one month personal import allowance in regulation 4(2)(a), do not apply to tramadol, because they apply to Third Schedule psychotropic substances and it is not one.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: the Poisons Act 1952 Poisons List, the entry whose printed name column is reproduced in full in this cell's status field · sections 9(1), 9(2), 13, 19 to 25, 30(1) and 32(2) of that Act · the Third Schedule read in full, and tramadol not found in it, so section 30 and the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 do not apply · and the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 read in all five Parts, and tramadol not found in any of them · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

Tramadol in Malaysia, full detail →

Xanax (Alprazolam)

Legal status: Alprazolam is not named in either Act by its own name. It is caught by class, in the Poisons List under the Poisons Act 1952: «Diazepam and other substances structurally derived from 1, 4-benzodiazepine; their salts, unless specified elsewhere», and again in the Third Schedule as «Diazepam and other subtances structurally derivated from 1,4-benzodiazepine except flumazenil and pirenzepine». Alprazolam is a triazolobenzodiazepine and is structurally derived from 1,4-benzodiazepine, which is a fact of chemistry rather than a resemblance judgment. It is NOT in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952. Two benzodiazepines are, which is why a single answer for the whole family would be wrong: see the benzodiazepines entry.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Alprazolam is not in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952. Two benzodiazepines are, «Flunitrazepam» and «Nimetazepam», both in Part III, and alprazolam is neither of them nor an isomer, ester, ether or salt of either. Section 39B is the only capital provision in Malaysian drug law, and section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», which section 2 defines as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule». A substance outside that Schedule cannot be trafficked within the meaning of section 39B however much of it there is, the section 37(da) presumption weights do not reach it, and neither do the section 39A enhanced penalties. What applies instead is section 30 of the Poisons Act 1952, which provides at subsection (3) that «no person shall import, export, manufacture, compound, mix, dispense, sell, supply, administer, possess or use any psychotropic substance otherwise than in accordance with any regulations applicable thereto», and at subsection (5) that a contravention is punishable «to a fine not exceeding ten thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding four years or both». Section 30(4) carries a possession presumption of its own: a person found with the substance in his custody or control «shall be deemed to have been in possession of the substance and to have known the nature of the substance, until he proves to the contrary». Four years and ten thousand ringgit against death. That is the single largest cliff in Malaysian drug law and it turns entirely on which of two schedules a substance sits in. And the ground can move under it: section 45A of the Dangerous Drugs Act lets the Minister add a substance to the First Schedule by order, and section 30(2) of the Poisons Act lets him amend the Third Schedule the same way.
If prescribed / medical: This is a prescription-supply question and not a trafficking one. Alprazolam is a psychotropic substance under the Poisons Act 1952, reached by class and not by name, alprazolam being a triazolobenzodiazepine structurally derived from 1,4-benzodiazepine, appearing in the Third Schedule as «Diazepam and other subtances structurally derivated from 1,4-benzodiazepine except flumazenil and pirenzepine» and in the Poisons List as «Diazepam and other substances structurally derived from 1, 4-benzodiazepine; their salts, unless specified elsewhere». Section 30(1) provides that «In this section, “psychotropic substance” means any of the substances specified in the Third Schedule», and section 30(3) then prohibits importing, exporting, manufacturing, compounding, mixing, dispensing, selling, supplying, administering, possessing or using such a substance «otherwise than in accordance with any regulations applicable thereto made under this Act». Those regulations are the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989, and regulation 3 is the one a patient stands on: possession is prohibited unless «he is authorised to be in possession of such psychotropic substance under these Regulations» and the substance is for a lawful purpose and obtained under them. Regulation 3(2)(l) places a person lawfully supplied «in accordance with a prescription lawfully given by a registered medical practitioner, registered dentist Division I of a veterinary surgeon» inside that authority, the wording of that paragraph being the publisher's. The two spellings in that Third Schedule entry are the publisher's and are reproduced as printed. Because the substance is caught by a class formula rather than an entry, the authority to hold it attaches to the class.
Documentation: Carry the prescription and the dispensing label with the medicine, in its original packaging. The entry the prescription has to answer to is «Diazepam and other subtances structurally derivated from 1,4-benzodiazepine except flumazenil and pirenzepine» in the Third Schedule, with «Diazepam and other substances structurally derived from 1, 4-benzodiazepine; their salts, unless specified elsewhere» in the Poisons List beside it. Regulation 4(2)(a) of the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 is the traveller provision and it fixes a figure the Dangerous Drugs Act never does: a person arriving in or leaving Malaysia who carries, as part of personal luggage and solely for personal or family use, a prepared or packaged medicine containing a psychotropic substance is outside the import authorisation requirement, provided the quantity is «not exceeding such quantities as may be reasonably required for one month's use by one person» and it has been lawfully supplied by or on the prescription of a qualified medical practitioner. Section 30(4) presumes possession and knowledge from custody or control: a person found with the substance «shall be deemed to have been in possession of the substance and to have known the nature of the substance, until he proves to the contrary». The prescription is what rebuts it. The penalty under section 30(5) is «a fine not exceeding ten thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding four years or both». The control is the Poisons Act 1952 and its regulations rather than the Dangerous Drugs Act, so the trafficking regime and its presumptions are not in play for alprazolam.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: the Poisons Act 1952 Third Schedule, the entry found as «Diazepam and other subtances structurally derivated from 1,4-benzodiazepine except flumazenil and pirenzepine», reached by class and not by name, alprazolam being a triazolobenzodiazepine structurally derived from 1,4-benzodiazepine · the Poisons List, whose printed class formula anchored on diazepam is reproduced in full in this cell's status field · sections 30(1) to 30(5) and 32(2) of that Act · the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 incorporating P.U. (A) 405/2018, regulations 3, 4 and 9 and the Second Schedule to those Regulations, in which this substance is not named · and the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 read in all five Parts, and alprazolam under its own name not found in any of them · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

Xanax (Alprazolam) in Malaysia, full detail →

Xylazine

Legal status: Xylazine is a poison under the Poisons Act 1952, listed in the Poisons List by name with «All preparations» against it and grouped with the veterinary and analgesic entries. It is NOT in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 and it is not a Third Schedule psychotropic substance, so section 39B and the death penalty cannot reach it. Where xylazine is found cut into heroin or fentanyl, the drug it is cut into is the dangerous drug and the mixture is weighed as it is found.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Xylazine is not in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 and is named in none of its five Parts. Where it is found cut into heroin or into a fentanyl, the drug it is cut into is the dangerous drug and the mixture is weighed as it is found, so the xylazine adds to the weight that counts against heroin's 15 grammes at section 37(da)(i). Section 39B is the only capital provision in Malaysian drug law, and section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», which section 2 defines as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule». A substance outside that Schedule cannot be trafficked within the meaning of section 39B however much of it there is, the section 37(da) presumption weights do not reach it, and neither do the section 39A enhanced penalties. What applies instead is the Poisons Act 1952, but not the section of it that is usually reached for. Section 30 does not apply to xylazine. Section 30(1) provides that «In this section, “psychotropic substance” means any of the substances specified in the Third Schedule», and xylazine is not in the Third Schedule; it is in the Poisons List, as «Xylazine». So the section 30(3) prohibition on possessing and using, the section 30(4) presumption and the section 30(5) penalty of ten thousand ringgit and four years are the wrong provisions for it, and quoting them here would overstate the exposure more than threefold on the fine and fourfold on the term. The provisions that do apply are lighter. Sections 19 to 25 control who may sell and supply a poison. Possession is reached only through the regulations: section 9(1) provides that no person, whether licensed under the Act or not, shall «knowingly sell, supply, keep or have in his possession or under his control or store any poison otherwise than in accordance with the regulations made under this Act and in force relating to the possession, containers, packaging, labelling or storing of such poison», those regulations being the Poisons Regulations 1952, L.N. 440/1952, made under section 35 of the Act, in operation since 1 September 1952 and amended most recently by P.U. (A) 155/2025, whose regulation 5 provides that «No person shall store any poison except in a container impervious to the poison and sufficiently stout to prevent leakage from the container arising from the ordinary risks of handling» and whose regulations 6 to 14 carry the storage, packing and labelling rules. So what is prohibited is holding a poison outside those rules rather than holding it at all, and section 9(2) deems the holding to have been knowing once possession is proved. Section 13 separately covers possessing a poison for sale. Where no other penalty is provided, section 32(2) supplies «a fine not exceeding three thousand ringgit or by imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year or both», rising to five thousand ringgit and two years where the court finds wilful default or culpable negligence that endangered or was likely to endanger human life. Where xylazine is found cut into heroin or fentanyl, the dangerous drug it is cut into governs the exposure and the mixture is weighed as it is found, so the light treatment of xylazine itself can be beside the point. Three thousand ringgit and a year against death is still the largest cliff in Malaysian drug law, and it turns entirely on which of two schedules a substance sits in. The ground can move under it: section 45A of the Dangerous Drugs Act lets the Minister add a substance to the First Schedule by order with no notice period, and section 30(2) of the Poisons Act lets him amend the Third Schedule the same way.
If prescribed / medical: Xylazine is a poison under the Poisons Act 1952 but it is not a psychotropic substance under it, and that distinction decides which sections apply. Section 30(1) provides that «In this section, “psychotropic substance” means any of the substances specified in the Third Schedule». Because xylazine is absent from that Schedule, section 30 and the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 do not reach it at all. What reaches it is the Poisons List, where it appears as «Xylazine», together with the supply provisions in sections 19 to 25. Section 19(1) carries the prescribing route: «a registered medical practitioner may sell, supply or administer such poison to his patient for the purposes of the medical treatment of such patient only», with equivalent provision for a registered dentist Division I and a veterinary officer, and the Group the poison is placed in governs who else may sell or supply it under sections 20 to 23. It is absent from the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, so nothing in that Act applies to it. Where xylazine is found cut into heroin or fentanyl, the dangerous drug it is cut into governs the exposure and the mixture is weighed as it is found.
Documentation: Carry the prescription and the dispensing label with the medicine, in its original packaging. That is ordinary prudence rather than a requirement the Poisons Act places on a traveller, because the Act controls who may sell and supply a poison rather than who may hold one. The entry a border officer would be reading is «Xylazine» in the Poisons List. There is no Third Schedule entry for xylazine to be read instead, and that absence is the whole reason the lighter sections apply. The exposure is lighter than for a psychotropic substance and it arises from different sections. Holding an ordinary poison is not prohibited as such: the provision that does prohibit possessing, section 30(3), is confined by section 30(1) to Third Schedule substances. What does touch possession is section 9(1), which provides that no person, whether licensed under the Act or not, shall «knowingly sell, supply, keep or have in his possession or under his control or store any poison otherwise than in accordance with the regulations made under this Act and in force relating to the possession, containers, packaging, labelling or storing of such poison», and section 9(2) deems that to have been done knowingly once possession is proved. So the offence is possessing a poison otherwise than in accordance with those regulations, and not possessing it at all. The regulations section 9(1) refers to were not located in this session and nothing is stated here about what they require. Section 13 separately covers possessing a poison for sale. An offence against the Act for which no other penalty is provided is punishable under section 32(2) by «a fine not exceeding three thousand ringgit or by imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year or both», rising to five thousand ringgit or two years where the court finds wilful default or culpable negligence that endangered or was likely to endanger human life. The Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989, including the one month personal import allowance in regulation 4(2)(a), do not apply to xylazine, because they apply to Third Schedule psychotropic substances and it is not one.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: the Poisons Act 1952 Poisons List, the entry found as «Xylazine» · sections 9(1), 9(2), 13, 19 to 25, 30(1) and 32(2) of that Act · the Third Schedule read in full, and xylazine not found in it, so section 30 and the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 do not apply · and the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 read in all five Parts, and xylazine not found in any of them · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

Xylazine in Malaysia, full detail →

Zolpidem

Legal status: Zolpidem is a psychotropic substance under the Poisons Act 1952, named in the Third Schedule with «Zopiclone» and «Zolazepam» beside it, and in the Poisons List as «Zolpidem; its salt». It is NOT in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, so section 39B and the death penalty cannot reach it. Flunitrazepam and nimetazepam, the two hypnotics that ARE dangerous drugs, are a different matter entirely.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Zolpidem is not in the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952. The two hypnotics that are, «Flunitrazepam» and «Nimetazepam», are both in Part III, and zolpidem is an imidazopyridine and neither of them. Section 39B is the only capital provision in Malaysian drug law, and section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», which section 2 defines as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule». A substance outside that Schedule cannot be trafficked within the meaning of section 39B however much of it there is, the section 37(da) presumption weights do not reach it, and neither do the section 39A enhanced penalties. What applies instead is section 30 of the Poisons Act 1952, which provides at subsection (3) that «no person shall import, export, manufacture, compound, mix, dispense, sell, supply, administer, possess or use any psychotropic substance otherwise than in accordance with any regulations applicable thereto», and at subsection (5) that a contravention is punishable «to a fine not exceeding ten thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding four years or both». Section 30(4) carries a possession presumption of its own: a person found with the substance in his custody or control «shall be deemed to have been in possession of the substance and to have known the nature of the substance, until he proves to the contrary». Four years and ten thousand ringgit against death. That is the single largest cliff in Malaysian drug law and it turns entirely on which of two schedules a substance sits in. And the ground can move under it: section 45A of the Dangerous Drugs Act lets the Minister add a substance to the First Schedule by order, and section 30(2) of the Poisons Act lets him amend the Third Schedule the same way.
If prescribed / medical: This is a prescription-supply question and not a trafficking one. Zolpidem is a psychotropic substance under the Poisons Act 1952, named in terms, appearing in the Third Schedule as «Zolpidem» and in the Poisons List as «Zolpidem; its salt». Section 30(1) provides that «In this section, “psychotropic substance” means any of the substances specified in the Third Schedule», and section 30(3) then prohibits importing, exporting, manufacturing, compounding, mixing, dispensing, selling, supplying, administering, possessing or using such a substance «otherwise than in accordance with any regulations applicable thereto made under this Act». Those regulations are the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989, and regulation 3 is the one a patient stands on: possession is prohibited unless «he is authorised to be in possession of such psychotropic substance under these Regulations» and the substance is for a lawful purpose and obtained under them. Regulation 3(2)(l) places a person lawfully supplied «in accordance with a prescription lawfully given by a registered medical practitioner, registered dentist Division I of a veterinary surgeon» inside that authority, the wording of that paragraph being the publisher's. «Zopiclone» and «Zolazepam» are named beside it in the same Third Schedule.
Documentation: Carry the prescription and the dispensing label with the medicine, in its original packaging. The entry the prescription has to answer to is «Zolpidem» in the Third Schedule, with «Zolpidem; its salt» in the Poisons List beside it. Regulation 4(2)(a) of the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 is the traveller provision and it fixes a figure the Dangerous Drugs Act never does: a person arriving in or leaving Malaysia who carries, as part of personal luggage and solely for personal or family use, a prepared or packaged medicine containing a psychotropic substance is outside the import authorisation requirement, provided the quantity is «not exceeding such quantities as may be reasonably required for one month's use by one person» and it has been lawfully supplied by or on the prescription of a qualified medical practitioner. Section 30(4) presumes possession and knowledge from custody or control: a person found with the substance «shall be deemed to have been in possession of the substance and to have known the nature of the substance, until he proves to the contrary». The prescription is what rebuts it. The penalty under section 30(5) is «a fine not exceeding ten thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding four years or both». The control is the Poisons Act 1952 and its regulations rather than the Dangerous Drugs Act, so the trafficking regime and its presumptions are not in play for zolpidem.

Malaysia, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Act 234, first enacted as Ordinance No. 30 of 1952 and revised in 1980 with effect from 17 July 1980 · read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», latest Act amendment being the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, in force 4 July 2023 · Poisons Act 1952, Act 366, revised 1989, read from the Attorney General's Chambers online updated text as at 1 January 2022, latest amendment P.U. (A) 412/2021 in force 3 November 2021 · read for this substance: the Poisons Act 1952 Third Schedule, the entry found as «Zolpidem», named in terms · the Poisons List, whose printed name column for this substance, with salt in the singular as printed, is reproduced in full in this cell's status field · sections 30(1) to 30(5) and 32(2) of that Act · the Poisons (Psychotropic Substances) Regulations 1989 incorporating P.U. (A) 405/2018, regulations 3, 4 and 9 and the Second Schedule to those Regulations, in which this substance is not named · and the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 read in all five Parts, and zolpidem not found in any of them · the First Schedule has since been amended twice under section 45A, by the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2024, P.U. (A) 97, gazetted 2 April 2024, which inserts Etazene, Etonitazepyne, 2-Methyl-AP-237 and Protonitazene into Part III and substitutes Proheptazine for Propheptazine, and by the Order 2025, P.U. (A) 416, gazetted 25 November 2025, which inserts Butonitazene into Part III · both orders were read in full and neither touches this substance · the publisher's own disclaimer is carried forward: this is only an updated text and not an authentic text until it is reprinted under subsection 14(1) of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 · read as at 2026-09-17 from https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1840725_BI/22.11.2023%20-%20Act%20234.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1714451_BI/ACT%20366_MUKTAMAD_1%20JANUARY%202022.pdf and https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1826840_BI/Akta%20846%20BI.pdf · re-derived in this pass, from the on-disk Attorney General's Chambers online updated text of Act 234 whose own header reads «As at 4 July 2023»: sections 2, 5, 6, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 30, 37, 38A, 38B, 39, 39A, 39B, 39C, 41, 41A, 41B, 45A and 46, and the First Schedule read line by line in all five Parts · and from the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, sections 1(2), 2, 54 and 55 · the First Schedule has five Parts and not three: Part I and Part II are the plant and prepared-opium lists, Part III the long alphabetical chemical list, Part IV a shorter codeine group carrying its own isomer clause and its own salt clause, with Part III's ester and ether clause running across the whole Schedule and not only that Part because it reads «of the drugs in this Schedule» where the other two read «this Part», and Part V is headed «PREPARATION FOR THE EXPORT OF WHICH EXPORT AUTHORIZATIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED» and is an exemption list rather than a control list · section 39B carries no quantity table of its own, the weights being in section 37(da), which is a rebuttable presumption of trafficking, and in section 39A, which applies only where the offence is not punishable with death · the file the Act 234 text is served from is dated 22 November 2023 in its name while the text's own header reads «As at 4 July 2023», and the header is the version stated here · all Poisons Act 1952 material in this cell, including every Poisons List and Third Schedule entry and every figure drawn from that Act, is carried forward from the earlier reading recorded above and was not re-derived in this pass · so is every other fact in this cell that is not derivable from the two texts named above, which includes the two section 45A orders of 2024 and 2025, the commencement of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017 on 15 March 2018, and any statement here about the Single Convention or the 1971 Convention and their schedules · Updated September 21, 2026

Zolpidem in Malaysia, full detail →

Not individually verified

2 substances are not individually verified for Malaysia

For these the governing national drug law is cited, but we have not verified that the substance specifically is scheduled under it. Treat them as unanswered, not as legal. Confirm with Malaysia’s drug authority or your embassy.

Substance	What we found
1P-LSD	Not confirmed for Malaysia, and the reason is stated rather than left open. 1P-LSD is named nowhere in the First...
DXM	Not confirmed for Malaysia, and the reason is stated rather than left open. Dextromethorphan is a poison under the...

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