Is Methaqualone (Quaaludes) legal in Oman?

Legal status

Controlled, and outside the death penalty article. Methaqualone is listed at Group 2 table 2 serial 3, with mecloqualone at serial 2.

Consequences if caught

The table Methaqualone sits in is what keeps it outside article 43. Conduct distinction. Article 46 splits by purpose and the gap between the two halves is wide. Importing, holding, possessing, selling, buying, delivering or receiving with intent to traffic carries up to five years and up to three thousand rial. Simple possession for personal consumption carries السجن مدة لا تزيد على ستة أشهر وبغرامة لا تزيد على مائة ريال, imprisonment not exceeding six months and a fine not exceeding one hundred rial. That is the lightest band in the whole law for a scheduled substance. Capital and life exposure. None. Article 43, the article that carries the death penalty, reaches only Group 1 tables 1 to 4, the Group 1 table 5 plants, and Group 2 table 1. It does not reach the table this substance sits in. The governing provision is instead article 46, which reads يعاقب بالسجن المؤقت مدة لا تزيد على خمس سنوات وبغرامة لا تزيد على ثلاثة آلاف ريال, imprisonment not exceeding five years and a fine not exceeding three thousand rial, where the purpose was trafficking. Article 43's mandatory death paragraph operates only on article 43 offences and so cannot attach either. No quantity threshold appears in article 46 any more than in article 43.

If prescribed or medical

A doctor licensed to practise in Oman may prescribe Methaqualone only for treatment and only in accordance with accepted scientific practice. Article 22 confines the prescription to the maximum quantities stated in the tables themselves, and where a patient needs more the treating doctor must apply for a licence card issued by the Minister or his delegate. Article 2 prohibits dispensing or medically prescribing a scheduled substance outside the cases and conditions the law sets out.

Documentation

Carry the original prescription and the dispensing pharmacy's label with the medicine in its original container, and a signed letter from the prescribing doctor giving the diagnosis, the dose and the duration. The name on every document has to match the name in the passport, and it is worth confirming the position with an Omani mission before travelling, because the quantity a prescription may lawfully cover is fixed by the table itself. Where the rule comes from. The instrument is the Law on Combating Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, issued by Royal Decree 17/99 on 6 March 1999 and published in Official Gazette issue 643 of 15 March 1999. Seventy two articles, read here in the amended consolidation. The schedules are annexed to the law, but they do not stay there untouched. Article 4 provides يجوز بقرار من الوزير تعديل المجموعات الملحقة بهذا القانون بالحذف أو الإضافة أو تغيير النسب كلما اقتضت الظروف ذلك, the Minister may by decision amend the annexed groups by deletion, by addition or by changing the proportions whenever circumstances require, and article 1 defines that Minister as the Minister of Health. Two Royal Decrees have amended the law itself. Royal Decree 34/2015 of 5 October 2015, Gazette 1118, replaced articles 5, 6, 43, 47, 49, 56, 59 and 66. Royal Decree 24/2023 of 19 April 2023, Gazette 1490, replaced article 5, renamed the national committee and repealed article 6, and it touched no penalty and no schedule. The schedules themselves were last amended by Ministerial Decision 131 of 2020, made on 28 September 2020 and published in Gazette 1360 of 4 October 2020, which replaced Group 2 tables 1, 2 and 3. Placement for Methaqualone: Group 2 table 2 serial 3, with mecloqualone at serial 2.

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