Is MDA legal in Austria?
- Legal status
- This is a Suchtgift in Austria, which is the heavier of the country's two drug designations. In the Suchtgiftverordnung, Annex V.1 prints the international non proprietary name Tenamfetamin alongside MDA. A search for MDA alone would find it, but a search only for the systematic methylenedioxyamphetamine name would not, which is why the annex prints both. That entry is a bare name. It establishes placement and nothing else, and the conduct rules live in SMG §5(1) and in the §27 offence rather than in the schedule line. The statute does not carry the list. SMG §2(1) sets a two part test of convention restriction plus ministerial designation, SMG §2(3) allows a national addition where a substance has a comparable danger potential by reason of its effect and spread, and the Suchtgiftverordnung annexes supply the designation. The annex's own closing words reach the salts and preparations it names, and SV §1(5) adds stereoisomers and pharmacologically comparable positional isomers on top. The general preparation exclusion requires exclusively diagnostic or analytical use, no application to humans or animals, and no more than 0.001 per cent of each controlled substance, so it is not a low dose allowance.
- Consequences if caught
- Capital exposure: none. Life imprisonment is the top of this scale, reached through SMG §28a(5) alone, which pairs ten to twenty years with life for leading a larger connection of persons in §28a(1) conduct, in a system that has no death penalty. MDA is an Annex V.1 narcotic, separately listed from the MDMA entry, so a mixture of the two is not one substance for threshold purposes. Below it, §28a(1) allows up to five years for production, import, export or supply above the threshold, §28a(2) one to ten years for the commercial repeat, association and more than fifteen times cases, and §28a(4) one to fifteen years for the association recidivism, larger group and more than twenty five times cases. SMG §35(1) lets the prosecution step back provisionally for a probation period of one to two years where the act was exclusively for personal use and brought the accused no advantage, which is conditional diversion and not permission. Separately from that, and carried forward from this site's published Austria entry rather than re-derived from the Suchtmittelgesetz in this pass, the published penalties are these. Austrian practice is depenalised and not legalised, and the published entry says so in those terms. There is no legal minimum quantity, and possession of any amount for personal use is punishable under section 27, up to six months in prison or a fine. Under Therapie statt Strafe at section 35, small quantity personal use is typically provisionally suspended from prosecution on one to two years of probation where the person accepts counselling or treatment. Consumption itself is not criminalised, but the possession that precedes it is. Above the Grenzmenge, the threshold quantity, the offence becomes dealing or trafficking under sections 28 and 28a, up to one to three years, escalating to ten to fifteen years for commercial or organised cases. Every figure in this paragraph is a penalty range or a fine and none of them is a quantity threshold. They describe the offences that this row's placement in the Austrian Suchtgift and psychotrope lists brings into play.
- If prescribed or medical
- There is one country level rule here and it is SMG §5(1): medical, dental, veterinary and scientific purposes are the only ones for which a Suchtmittel may be acquired, possessed, carried, imported or exported, and only on the Act's own terms. Travel exemptions, professional licensing and medical dispensing sit inside their own provisions, so no free standing traveller allowance exists above them. Because this substance is a Suchtgift, the psychotrope non punishment route in SMG §30(3) is not available to it: that provision reaches medicines containing a psychotropic substance, and a narcotic is not one. The travel certificate fields that close Annexes 2 and 3 of the Psychotropenverordnung belong to the psychotrope system in the same way. Nothing read here establishes an Austrian medicine under either Tenamfetamin or MDA, so the medical limb is not shown to be open to it.
- Documentation
- Carry the original dispensing packaging together with the prescription and a signed prescriber's statement of the patient, the substance, the daily dose and the length of treatment, since a narcotic designation puts the burden of showing an authorized purpose on the person holding it. The Austrian list calls it Tenamfetamin, a name most travellers will not recognise. The narcotics list was read at its 18 September 2026 consolidation, whose last listed amendment is BGBl II 180/2026 published 10 July 2026, which is a dated source horizon rather than a guarantee that no later instrument exists.
- Austria, Suchtgiftverordnung Annex V.1, the entry Tenamfetamin, MDA, read at https://www.ris.bka.gv.at/GeltendeFassung.wxe?Abfrage=Bundesnormen&Gesetzesnummer=10011053
- the designation power is Suchtmittelgesetz §2(1) and the offences are §§27, 28 and 28a with the life ceiling at §28a(5), read at https://www.ris.bka.gv.at/GeltendeFassung.wxe?Abfrage=Bundesnormen&Gesetzesnummer=10011040
- RIS is the official publisher
- its open data notice at https://www.ris.bka.gv.at/UI/Ogd.aspx places the reused material under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International and requires attribution, and its imprint at https://www.ris.bka.gv.at/UI/Impressum.aspx identifies the signed authentic gazette instruments as the binding text and disclaims accuracy, currency and completeness for the consolidated versions
- the list amendment applied is BGBl II 180/2026 at https://www.ris.bka.gv.at/eli/bgbl/II/2026/180/20260710
- at that placement the reading also covered this: the international non proprietary name and the abbreviation printed side by side were both read, a search on the systematic methylenedioxy name alone returning nothing
- read as at 18 September 2026.
- the section 27, 35, 28 and 28a penalties stated above are carried forward from this site's published Austria entry, which cites the Suchtmittelgesetz and the Suchtgift-Grenzmengenverordnung. They were not re-derived from either instrument in this pass, and that entry's own framing, depenalised and not legalised and no legal minimum quantity, is carried with them
Court records
We have not yet assessed whether court records are publicly available for this jurisdiction.
Other substances confirmed in Austria
Drug laws and enforcement change and vary within a country. This is not legal advice. Always confirm with Austria’s embassy or official drug authority before traveling; penalties can be severe, including imprisonment.
Before you travel
Verify current rules with the destination country’s official drug authority and your own country’s embassy before traveling. Find the destination’s U.S. embassy & official country guidance →
Non-U.S. travelers: check your own government’s travel advisory and embassy.
If you’re detained or arrested abroad
Contact your own country’s embassy or consulate in the destination immediately, not the destination’s authorities. U.S. citizens: contact the nearest U.S. embassy/consulate and the U.S. State Department at +1-202-501-4444 (from abroad). If a U.S. citizen is arrested or detained abroad →
