Is Methamphetamine legal in Sri Lanka?

Also known as: meth

Legal status

Dangerous drug under Sri Lanka's Poisons, Opium and Dangerous Drugs Ordinance (Chapter 218): Third Schedule, Part I, Group B, Section 2, item 60, 「Methamphetamine (Methylamphetamine) (+)-(S)-N,alpha-dimethylphenethylamine」, with the racemate separately at item 63. Methamphetamine is in the Part III five gramme band alongside morphine, cocaine and heroin. It is not in the section 54A(1)(a) manufacture list, which names only heroin, cocaine, morphine and opium. That asymmetry is real and it is the single most misstated fact about Sri Lankan drug law in the corpus this cell replaces. The model: the list is inside the Ordinance and the power to change it is delegated, with a parliamentary lock on the delegation. Section 48 provides that 「the drugs, substances, articles or preparations, specified for the time being in Groups A, B, C, D and E in Part I of the Third Schedule, shall be deemed to be dangerous drugs」. Section 2(1) then provides that 「regulation」 means a regulation made under this Ordinance and published in the Gazette, 「and includes the First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Schedules」, so the Third Schedule is itself a regulation. The empowering section is section 80. Section 80(2)(b) lets the Minister make regulations 「for adding any item to or deleting any item from, or altering, varying or amending in any other way, any of the lists or Groups of poisons and dangerous drugs set out in the First and Third Schedules」, and section 80(3) then provides that 「No regulation so made shall have effect unless it has been approved by Parliament and notification of such approval has been published in the Gazette」. So the delegation is real but it is locked to an affirmative vote, and in practice the 2022 changes were made by primary legislation rather than by regulation. The Act was last amended by the Poisons, Opium and Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act, No. 7 of 2026, certified 6 March 2026. The Third Schedule was last amended by section 6 of the Poisons, Opium and Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act, No. 41 of 2022, certified 23 November 2022 and published as a supplement to Part II of the Gazette of 25 November 2022, which substituted Group B of Part I and the whole of Part III. Act No. 7 of 2026 does not touch the Third Schedule.

Consequences if caught

Capital exposure: Part III of the Third Schedule, through section 54A(b). [Certain] Re-derived in this pass: section 54A(b) was read at nddcb.gov.lk on 21 September 2026 and reaches a person who «trafficks in any dangerous drug set out in Column II of Part III of the Third Schedule in excess of the amount set out in the said Column II», liable to «the penalty set out in the corresponding entry in Column III of that Part». [Likely] Carried from the published entry: Part III sets 「Morphine, Cocaine, Heroin and Methamphetamine」 at 「5 grammes or above」 against 「Death or life imprisonment」. That table is not reproduced in the consolidation read here, so the figure is carried and not re-derived. Section 54A(a), the manufacture limb, does not name methamphetamine. Section 54A(1) has four limbs and they do not carry the same exposure. Limb (a) punishes any person who 「manufactures any of the following dangerous drugs, namely heroin or cocaine or morphine or opium」 with 「a sentence of death or life imprisonment」, with no quantity stated. Limbs (b), (c) and (d) punish trafficking, importing or exporting, and possession, of 「any dangerous drug set out in Column II of Part III of the Third Schedule in excess of the amount set out in the said Column II」, with the penalty in Column III. Part III Column II is headed 「Pure Quantities」, and Column I is headed 「Traffics, possess, imports or exports」, so possession is inside the same ladder as trafficking. Section 54B extends the same punishment to abetting, attempting and acts preparatory to or in furtherance of a section 54A offence. Since Act No. 7 of 2026 a parallel section 54AA applies the same two structures on the high seas, aboard a ship registered in Sri Lanka or a stateless ship. Part III, as substituted in 2022, sets only two capital bands. Opium at 1 kilogramme or above is 「Death or life imprisonment」, and 「Morphine, Cocaine, Heroin and Methamphetamine」 at 5 grammes or above is 「Death or life imprisonment」. Cannabis has a ladder in Part III whose top band is 100 kilogrammes or above and carries ten to fifteen years, with no capital band at all. No other substance appears in Column II anywhere. So the conduct decides the exposure. Manufacturing methamphetamine is not within the manufacture limb at all and falls to be charged on the trafficking, import, export or possession limbs, which require the five gramme pure quantity. Manufacturing heroin is capital at any quantity. Both reach methamphetamine, but through one route only and not the other, and that asymmetry is the whole of the answer. Part III sets 「Morphine, Cocaine, Heroin and Methamphetamine」 at 「5 grammes or above」 at 「Death or life imprisonment」, reached through limb (b) trafficking, limb (c) import or export or limb (d) possession of section 54A(1). Column II is headed 「Pure Quantities」, so it is five grammes of methamphetamine and not five grammes of product. But methamphetamine is not in limb (a): that limb names 「heroin or cocaine or morphine or opium」 and stops. So manufacture of methamphetamine is not capital under limb (a) at any quantity, while manufacture of heroin is capital at any quantity, and a methamphetamine cook is exposed through what is possessed rather than through the act of manufacture. It is not mandatory. Section 54AA repeats the same split on the high seas since Act No. 7 of 2026, its subsection (1) naming the same four drugs for manufacture and its subsection (2) referring to Part III. Sri Lanka has carried out no judicial execution since 1976.

If prescribed or medical

Methamphetamine has no prescribing route in Sri Lanka.

Documentation

No traveller route. The five gramme figure is a pure quantity, so a cut sample is assessed on its methamphetamine content and not its total weight.

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