Is Mephedrone (4-MMC) legal in Netherlands?

Also known as: meow meow

Legal status

Controlled as a hard drug. Mephedrone is named in lijst I of the Opiumwet, the hard drug list, and the row prints «mefedron (4-MMC, 4-methylmethcathinon) | 4-methylmethcathinon». Lijst I placement decides the regime, because article 2 supplies the prohibitions and article 10 the ceilings.

Consequences if caught

The entry sits in lijst I, the hard drug list, and not in lijst II. It is printed under the Dutch spelling mefedron with the alternative names 4-MMC and 4-methylmethcathinon. Use is not itself made an offence by the Opiumwet, which is why the Dutch position is often misread: article 2 and article 3 reach import, export, cultivation, preparation, sale, supply, transport, manufacture and presence, and presence is what a traveller carrying the substance has. Article 1, second limb, equates the salts of a substance with the substance itself. Article 10 carries the penalties for lijst I. Intentionally having the substance present, the limb at article 2 under C, carries imprisonment of up to 6 years. Intentionally cultivating, preparing, processing, selling, delivering, supplying, transporting or manufacturing it, article 2 under B and D, carries up to 8 years. Intentionally bringing it into or out of Netherlands territory, article 2 under A, carries up to 12 years, so the trafficking and import limbs run from 8 to 12 years. Where the presence, or the bringing into or out of the territory, concerns a small quantity intended for own use, article 10, sixth limb, lowers the ceiling to 1 year or a fine of the third category; it does not reach the article 2 under B and D acts. The fine on the serious limbs is the fifth category, which the Criminal Code prints at 67.000 euro with an editorial note recording 110.000 euro from 1 January 2026. They describe the offences that this row's placement brings into play. The Aanwijzing Opiumwet of the Openbaar Ministerie is prosecution policy and not a statute. For lijst I it treats as a small quantity for own use one bolletje, one ampul, one wikkel or one pill or tablet, in any event a quantity of at most 0,5 gram, and for GHB one consumption unit of 5 ml, with no targeted investigation and prosecution only in support of care. A tolerated quantity is not a lawful one. The live cell recorded placement on lijst II implementing Council Decision 2010/759/EU across 2010 to 2011, with control only under medicines law before March 2010. The list read here places it in lijst I and not lijst II, and the decision and the dates are carried forward from it and not verified here.

If prescribed or medical

Article 2 of the Opiumwetbesluit forbids prescribing an Opiumwet substance unless one of the two bijlagen to that decree names it, and neither names this one. There is accordingly no lawful prescription route for it outside research under the Wet medisch-wetenschappelijk onderzoek met mensen. No article 75 Schengen certificate is available for it either, because that route presupposes a prescribed medicine.

Documentation

Mefedron is named in lijst I, the hard drug list, and not in lijst II. There is no lawful personal import route, because article 2 under A of the Opiumwet prohibits bringing a lijst I substance into or out of the territory and no traveller exemption covers it. There is no medical carry exemption, because bijlage 1 to the Opiumwetbesluit does not name it.

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