Is Mephedrone (4-MMC) legal in Malta?

Legal status

Mephedrone is governed by the Medical and Kindred Professions Ordinance, Chapter 31, and not by the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance. Malta runs two drug ordinances and a cell that answers from one when the substance sits in the other is wrong. Chapter 31 is the one that carries the scheduled psychotropics. Mephedrone sits in Part A of the Third Schedule, which the Ordinance itself heads as its list of psychotropic drugs, capitalised in the original. Article 40A is the control provision and article 120A carries the penalties. The schedule entry reads "mephedrone (4-methylmethcathinone)". Mephedrone is expressly listed in Part A of Chapter 31's Third Schedule. The power to change that list is article 40A(3): ‘The Minister responsible for public health may, after consulting the Council of Health, by regulation amend, add to, revoke or substitute the list of psychotropic drugs contained in the Third Schedule to this Ordinance.’

Consequences if caught

Capital and life exposure. Malta has no death penalty and no Maltese drug offence can bring one. The ceiling is life, and it is the Part A ceiling. Chapter 31 article 120A(2)(a)(i) permits life imprisonment for dealing or for possession that is not for the exclusive use of the possessor. Mephedrone is in Part A of the Third Schedule, which is the tier that carries it; Part B of the same schedule carries ten years instead, under article 120A(2)(a)(ii). The Court of Magistrates ceilings are lower than the Criminal Court ceilings, and the Attorney General's forum direction decides which court hears the case, so the life figure is the statutory maximum exposure rather than the expected sentence. The Chapter 537 route applies. The Drug Dependence (Treatment not Imprisonment) Act, Chapter 537, sends personal possession of ‘less than two grams or of two pills of the drug ecstacy or of two other prohibited pills’ to the Commissioner for Justice under article 4, and the penalty there is ‘penalty of between seventy-five euro (€75) and one hundred and twenty-five euro (€125)’. A second or later offence within two years stays before the Commissioner, with the rehabilitation board referral rules in article 5.

If prescribed or medical

The ordinance that controls mephedrone is the Medical and Kindred Professions Ordinance, Chapter 31, and the name of that ordinance is not incidental: the list this substance sits on is a list inside a medical statute, administered by the Minister responsible for public health after consulting the Council of Health. The penalty article does not attach its ceiling to possession as such. Chapter 31 article 120A reaches dealing and possession that is not for the exclusive use of the possessor, so a supply lawfully dispensed to you and held for your own use is not the conduct the ceiling is written for. That is a statement about the offence definition and not a permission. What this source does not establish is the prescribing and dispensing conditions themselves. The dossier read the two controlled drug ordinances and Chapter 537 and says in terms that it ‘did not attempt to decide separate medicines, pharmacy, veterinary, poisons, tobacco, alcohol, food, product-safety, or driving laws’. Treat the prescribing route as unread here rather than as absent. No Maltese personal import permit, traveller certificate or advance declaration route for a controlled medicine was found in the texts that were read, and none of Chapter 31, Chapter 101 or Chapter 537 carries a travellers provision. That is an absence in what was read rather than proof that no scheme exists, so confirm with a Maltese mission before you travel. One further point bears on any prescribed supply: the schedule entry prints the name Mephedrone itself, so there is no argument that the control reaches this substance only by inference, and a product labelled with that name is the listed thing. The entry is transcribed in full in the legal status for this cell.

Documentation

Carry the prescription and the dispensing label if mephedrone was dispensed to you, and understand that nothing you can carry makes an undispensed supply lawful in Malta. That is the whole of the carriage answer, because no Maltese personal import permit, traveller certificate or advance declaration route for a controlled substance appears in any of the texts read for this row, and none of them carries a travellers provision at all. An absence in what was read is not proof that no scheme exists, so a Maltese mission is the place to settle it before you fly rather than the airport on arrival. Keep the medicine in the packaging it was dispensed in, keep the quantity to what the prescription covers, and keep the prescriber's details legible. The provenance is the consolidated English text of the Medical and Kindred Professions Ordinance, Chapter 31 on Legislation Malta, read on 18 September 2026 at https://legislation.mt/eli/cap/31/eng. The amendment horizon is 18 September 2026, and on that date the consolidated texts stood at Chapter 31 through Legal Notice 46 of 2026, Chapter 101 through Legal Notice 97 of 2025, Chapter 537 through Acts VII and XII of 2025, and Chapter 628 through Act XII of 2025. Legislation Malta prints the footer ‘© Dritt tal-awtur: L-Uffiċċju tal-Avukat tal-Istat’ on each page, no open reuse licence was located, and only the words needed to identify the provision are quoted here.

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