Is Mephedrone (4-MMC) legal in Jordan?
Also known as: meow meow
- Legal status
- Mephedrone is a psychotropic substance under Law No. 23 of 2016, the Jordanian narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances law, and that is a defined term rather than a description. Article 2 provides «المؤثرات العقلية: كل مادة طبيعية أو تركيبية من المواد المدرجة في الجداول ذوات الارقام (5) و(6) و(7) و(8) و(9) الملحقة بهذا القانون.», psychotropic substances being every natural or synthetic substance listed in Schedules 5 to 9 attached to this Law. Mephedrone is expressly listed at Schedule 6 as 4-MMC, printed «الجدول رقم (6): ميفيدرون». The position of the methyl group is the whole of the identification: 4-MMC is chemically distinct from 3-MMC, which Jordan lists separately in the same schedule, and reading one entry as covering the other would be an error even though both happen to be controlled here. Schedules are not frozen in the enacted text. Article 37 provides «لمجلس الوزراء بناء على تنسيب الوزير إجراء تعديل على أي من الجداول الملحقة بهذا القانون بحذف أي مادة منه أو إضافة أي مادة أخرى اليه أو تعديل النسب أو المواصفات أو الشروط الخاصة والمتعلقة بأي منها على ان يتم نشر ذلك في الجريدة الرسمية.», which is how further members of this family are added.
- Consequences if caught
- Mephedrone's Schedule 6 listing makes it a psychotropic substance for this Law, which puts it inside articles 19 and 20 and up to the death penalty article 20 states in the words «يعاقب بالإعدام». Three articles stack. Article 19(a) is the trafficking provision and its opening words are «يعاقب بالأشغال الشاقة المؤقتة مدة لا تقل عن خمس عشرة سنة وبغرامة لا تقل عن عشرة آلاف دينار ولا تزيد على عشرين ألف دينار كل من أقدم على أي فعل من الافعال التالية بقصد الاتجار», temporary hard labour of not less than fifteen years and a fine of ten thousand to twenty thousand Jordanian dinars for the listed dealing conduct committed with intent to traffic. Article 19(b) then provides «تكون العقوبة الأشغال الشاقة المؤبدة», and the indicative verb makes life imprisonment mandatory once a listed aggravator is proved: repeat offending, the status of a specified drug control or supervisory official, or committing the offence with or through a minor. Death under article 20 is mandatory in the same way, but only where an article 19 offence carries the specified international drug gang connection or the listed international criminal activity circumstances. Quantity is not the trigger anywhere in this structure. Mephedrone is used in relatively large individual doses and is redosed heavily over a session, so the amounts people carry are larger than for most compounds in this table, and no threshold exists for that to matter either way.
- If prescribed or medical
- There is no prescribing route for mephedrone in Jordan to describe. It is controlled as a psychotropic substance at Schedule 6 of Law No. 23 of 2016 and has no dispensed medical use there or anywhere. Its brief commercial life was as a plant food and bath salt product rather than as a medicine, and the successor compound that replaced it after control, 3-MMC, is separately scheduled here as well. The structural point is that the trafficking offence at article 19(a) is defined by the words «بقصد الاتجار», with intent to traffic, so that particular offence requires that intent to be proved. What Law No. 23 of 2016 fixes is the control status, and what it does not fix is the prescribing and dispensing conditions; Jordan's separate medicines and pharmacy regimes were not audited for this table, so a route there is treated as unread rather than as absent.
- Documentation
- There is no document that makes mephedrone lawful to carry, and none that a traveller could produce for it. No traveller permit scheme, declaration form or carriage allowance appears anywhere in the text of Law No. 23 of 2016 as read for this row, and an absence in what was read is not proof that no scheme exists; Jordan does furnish the International Narcotics Control Board a traveller regulation sheet, so the regulator settles a question about a licensed substance, in writing and before travel. The Schedule 6 placement as 4-MMC was read on 17 September 2026.
- Jordan, Law No. 23 of 2016, Schedule 6 entry for mephedrone «الجدول رقم (6): ميفيدرون», listed as 4-MMC and chemically distinct from the separately listed 3-MMC, with article 2 supplying the Schedules 5 to 9 psychotropic definition, article 3 the scope provision, articles 19 and 20 the trafficking, life and death provisions and article 37 the amendment power
- read at https://www.jfda.jo/ebv4.0/root_storage/ar/eb_list_page/%D9%82%D8%A7%D9%86%D9%88%D9%86_%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%AE%D8%AF%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%AA_%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%A4%D8%AB%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%AA_%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9%D9%82%D9%84%D9%8A%D8%A9_%D9%84%D8%B3%D9%86%D8%A9_2016_%D9%88%D8%AA%D8%B9%D8%AF%D9%8A%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%AA%D9%87.pdf, the Jordan Food and Drug Administration's own consolidation of the Law, with the official schedules at https://www.jfda.jo/ebv4.0/root_storage/ar/eb_list_page/%D8%AC%D8%AF%D8%A7%D9%88%D9%84_%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%AF_%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%AE%D8%AF%D8%B1%D8%A9_%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%A4%D8%AB%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%AA_%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9%D9%82%D9%84%D9%8A%D8%A9_%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B3%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%A6%D9%81_%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%83%D9%8A%D9%85%D9%8A%D8%A7%D8%A6%D9%8A%D8%A9_29-12-2025.pdf and the regulator's legislation index at https://jfda.jo/Ar/List/%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%82%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%86%D9%8A%D9%86
- Law No. 23 of 2016 was published in Official Gazette No. 5402 on 16 June 2016 and took effect on 15 August 2016, as amended by Law No. 24 of 2021, Gazette No. 5746 of 23 September 2021, in force 23 October 2021
- the amendment horizon is 16 September 2026 and the body of the 16 September 2026 schedules file could not be retrieved, so the last fully searchable official schedule text is the consolidation updated 29 December 2025
- the regulator's copyright page permits viewing and printing for personal and non-commercial use, permits linking, and permits short portions to be republished unchanged with attribution, which is the basis on which the Arabic above is quoted
- read as at 17 September 2026
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Court records
We have not yet assessed whether court records are publicly available for this jurisdiction.
Other substances confirmed in Jordan
Same substance, other countries
Drug laws and enforcement change and vary within a country. This is not legal advice. Always confirm with Jordan’s embassy or official drug authority before traveling; penalties can be severe, including imprisonment.
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