Is Methaqualone (Quaaludes) legal in Brunei?

Legal status

Class C controlled drug. It sits in the First Schedule to the Misuse of Drugs Act, Chapter 27 of the Laws of Brunei Darussalam, Revised Edition 2013 (B.L.R.O. 2/2013) at Part III, which is headed Class C Drugs, and is named in its own right, as "Methaqualone".

Consequences if caught

Methaqualone is a Class C drug, entered as "Methaqualone", so the Class C columns of the Second Schedule govern. Trafficking is defined very broadly by section 2 as "to sell, give, administer, transport, send, deliver or distribute", or to offer to do any of those, so passing a share to a friend is trafficking and not sharing. Trafficking under section 3 carries a maximum of 10 years and 5 strokes with a minimum of 2 years and 2 strokes. Possession for the purpose of trafficking under section 3A carries the same. Manufacture under section 4 carries a maximum of 20 years and 15 strokes with a minimum of 5 years and 5 strokes. Import or export under section 5 carries a maximum of 20 years and 15 strokes with a minimum of 3 years and 5 strokes. Simple possession under section 6(a) carries a maximum of 10 years, a fine of 20,000 Brunei dollars or both, rising to a minimum of 2 years on a second or subsequent conviction. Consumption under section 6(b) carries the same maximum with a minimum of 3 years on a second or subsequent conviction. Section 29(3) doubles the punishment for a second or subsequent offence under Part II other than section 6. Capital and life exposure. Death is not available for this substance. It appears in no row of the specified drug column of the Second Schedule, which names only opium, morphine, diamorphine, cocaine, cannabis, cannabis resin, methylamphetamine and MDMA, and the Class C column carries no death entry against any offence. Where death does appear it is mandatory. Section 29(2) provides that the columns "show respectively the punishments to be imposed on a person convicted of the offence", and each death row gives death alone with no maximum, no minimum and no alternative. No provision of the Act confers a sentencing discretion on a capital conviction. The Act creates no sentence of life imprisonment. The phrase appears nowhere in its text, and the longest determinate term it reaches is 30 years. One defect in the Act bears on this. Section 29(2) describes a seven column table where the Second Schedule prints eight, because the Class D column was inserted by S 28/1994 without redrafting the subsection. So 29(2)(b), which attaches the specified quantity punishments, names the sixth column when the specified column is now the seventh. The subsection describes the contents of each column unmistakably, so the numbering is read purposively, but the capital penalties sit in the column the defect touches.

If prescribed or medical

Methaqualone is scheduled for prescribing purposes as follows. It sits in paragraph 6 of the Second Schedule to the Misuse of Drugs Regulations, Chapter 27, Rg 1, which attracts the same requirements as paragraph 1: regulations 10 to 16 and 28, meaning documented supply, a regulation 11 prescription and a kept register. The Regulations print the entry as "Methaqualone". That places it under tighter control in the Regulations than its Class C position in the Act would suggest. Regulation 11 requires the prescription to be indelible, signed and dated, with the dose and the total quantity written in both words and figures in the prescriber's own hand, and the name and address of both patient and prescriber. What was not checked for this cell is Brunei's medicines and poisons regime, which is a separate body of law that was not fetched. Absence from the Misuse of Drugs Act is not a statement that a substance is freely available.

Documentation

Carry the prescription for methaqualone and keep the medicine in the container it was dispensed in, with the pharmacy label intact. The Regulations enter it as "Methaqualone". Regulation 11 requires the prescription to be indelible, signed and dated, with the dose and the total quantity in both words and figures in the prescriber's own handwriting, so a printed repeat slip is not on its face a compliant document. Import and export are their own offence under section 5 and carry heavier minimums than trafficking, so carrying a supply into Brunei is the graver charge, not the lesser one.

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