Is Mephedrone (4-MMC) legal in Myanmar?

Also known as: meow meow

Legal status

Illegal in Myanmar. Mephedrone is listed at Notification 25/2025, List 2, and that listing is the whole of what controls it: section 2(b) of the Law defines a psychotropic substance as one the Ministry of Health has declared by notification, and Mephedrone has been so declared. The list entry reads "mephedrone, 4-methyl methcathinone".

Consequences if caught

Capital exposure: section 20. The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Law 1993 was read in the copy at myanmartradeportal.gov.mm/legal/344, fetched 18 September 2026, and the amendments in Law 17/2025 were read from the Global New Light of Myanmar, 7 January 2026, pages 3 and 5, on 3 October 2026. Section 20 takes «a narcotic drug or psychotropic substance» as its object, and section 2 defines both by delegation: a narcotic drug is the poppy, coca or cannabis plant, or a plant the Ministry has declared, and what is derived or extracted from it, or «drugs which the Ministry of Health has, by notification declared to be a narcotic drug», and a psychotropic substance is «drugs which the Ministry of Health has, by notification declared» to be one. This substance is not one of the three named plants or an extract of one, so whether section 20 reaches it turns on a Ministry of Health notification, and the status of this row records the notification that declares it, so section 20 reaches it. Conduct is what sets the band, and the Law grades it in three steps. Section 16(c) reaches possession, transportation, transmission and transfer of a narcotic drug or psychotropic substance, and carries a minimum of 5 years to a maximum of 10 years, with a fine also possible. Section 19 reaches those same acts done for the purpose of sale, and offering for sale or agreeing to sell, and carries a minimum of 10 years to a maximum of life imprisonment. Law 17/2025 replaced «life imprisonment without limit» in the introduction of sections 19 and 20 with «life imprisonment», and its new section 2(i) defines that as «a prison sentence imposed on a convicted person requiring them to remain incarcerated until death». Section 20 reaches production, distribution and sale, and importing and exporting, and it is the one article that can end in death. Section 21 puts an attempt, a conspiracy, organising, administering, financing or abetting on the same footing as the completed offence. Quantity: Law 17/2025 replaced section 26. It now names heroin, morphine and methamphetamine at three grammes each, with a combined three grammes for any two or three of them under subsection (d), raw or refined opium at one hundred grammes, dried and fresh kratom leaves at 1.5 and six kilogrammes, marijuana or marijuana extract and coca leaves at one hundred grammes each, and cocaine at three grammes, and then sets two general limbs, which read in the English text published in the Global New Light of Myanmar (j) «three grammes for narcotic drugs or psychotropicsubstances [sic] except for the drugs mentioned in subsections (a), (b), (c), (d), (e), (f), (g) (h) and (i) and specific weight, volume or quantities for narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances under the notification issued by the Ministry of Health not for sale» and (k) «One hundred millilitres for the remaining narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances, except for specifying the weight, quantity, or number of narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances issued by the Ministry of Health for the purpose of sale». Mephedrone is not named in subsections (a) to (i), so on those words possessing or moving more than three grammes of it is deemed to be for the purpose of sale, which leads to section 19, unless a Ministry of Health notification sets another quantity for it. Notification 24/2025, paragraph 4, sets per dose limits for some exempt narcotic preparations, and neither notification, as searched here in its scanned pages, sets a quantity for mephedrone. The English text does not say how limbs (j) and (k) divide the field between weights and volumes. Section 20 is the only article in this Law that reaches death. It punishes production, distribution and sale of a narcotic drug or psychotropic substance, and importing and exporting one, with imprisonment from a minimum of 15 years to a maximum of life imprisonment or with death. Death is not mandatory on the section's own wording, because the section holds out imprisonment as the alternative and joins the two with the words or with death. Section 20 states no weight floor of any kind, so the section 26 quantity is a route into section 19 and never into section 20. Life exposure arrives one step earlier, at section 19, which carries 10 years to life imprisonment for possessing, transporting, transmitting or transferring for the purpose of sale. Sections 22 and 23 then take an offender to the maximum punishment provided for the offence, section 22 where it was committed as part of a local or foreign criminal organisation or group, with arms or explosives, using a child who has not completed the age of 18, which Law 17/2025 substituted for 16 in section 22(c), or through the influence or power of a public servant, and section 23 where there is a prior conviction for any offence prescribed in sections 16 to 21. What this cell states is the statute as written. It is not a description of enforcement. Policing of these provisions since February 2021 is not what the text describes, and substantial areas of the country sit outside central government control, so the law on the page and the treatment a person actually meets are two different questions.

If prescribed or medical

There is no therapeutic route for Mephedrone in Myanmar to speak of. Section 28 does provide exemptions, and they are real, but they are narrow: section 28(a) covers production and research carried on with the consent of the relevant Ministry, section 28(b) covers use in the manner prescribed for production, research or medical treatment with that consent, and section 28(c) covers use, possession and transportation permitted by the Ministry of Health under the direction of a registered medical practitioner. Each is a permission Myanmar grants, and none of them is engaged by a prescription or a licence issued in another country. No medical supply of Mephedrone is established here, so there is nothing for a traveller to bring the paperwork for.

Documentation

There is no document that makes carrying Mephedrone lawful in Myanmar, and that is the whole of the documentation answer for it. Section 28 works through permissions Myanmar itself grants, so nothing issued in another country operates on it and nothing you could present at a border would change the position. Where the rule comes from. The instrument is the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Law, State Law and Order Restoration Council Law 1/93, as amended by Pyidaungsu Hluttaw Law 6/2018. The substance lists are not in the Law itself. Section 2(a)(i) makes the poppy, coca and cannabis plants, or a plant the Ministry has declared, and substances and drugs derived or extracted from them, narcotic drugs on the Law's own words, and section 2(a)(ii) adds what the Ministry of Health declares by notification, section 2(b) does the same for a psychotropic substance, and section 30(b), as substituted in 2018, is the power: the Central Body and the Ministries concerned may issue notifications, orders, directives, and procedures. The live lists are Notification 24/2025 for narcotic drugs and Notification 25/2025 for psychotropic substances. Checked 17 September 2026. Placement for Mephedrone: Notification 25/2025, List 2. Mephedrone is expressly listed as 4-methyl methcathinone in List 2, separating it from 3-MMC and other cathinones. The Law was further amended by the Second Amendment to the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Law, National Defence and Security Council Law 17/2025, enacted on 31 December 2025, whose English text was published in the Global New Light of Myanmar on 7 January 2026, pages 3 and 5. That text carries no separate commencement clause. Among other changes, it replaced section 26, the deemed sale quantities, restored the expression «the Ministry of Health», replaced «Coca tree» with «Coca» in sections 2(a)(i) and 16(a), replaced the expression «life imprisonment without limit» in sections 19 and 20 with «life imprisonment», which its new section 2(i) defines, leaving the death alternative in section 20 in place, and raised the age in section 22(c) from 16 to 18; the other fields of this cell apply the Law as amended by it. The English text read is a newspaper publication of the law, not the official Burmese text.

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