Is Methaqualone (Quaaludes) legal in United Arab Emirates?

Legal status

Methaqualone is scheduled in Schedule 6 of Decision No. 158 of 2025 at the printed entry «ميثاكوالون». The dossier records that the Schedule 6 group carries the Schedule 3, 6, 7 and 8 quantity bands, which is the structural fact behind this row: the quinazolinone sedative sits in the psychotropic branch rather than with the narcotics, and its penalty architecture follows that branch throughout. Methaqualone was withdrawn from medical use in most countries decades ago, so unlike the benzodiazepine rows in the same schedule there is no current prescribing practice behind this entry, and the placement is doing purely prohibitive work. The row runs through Articles 11, 43 and 58, with Schedule 10 carrying the quantity bands. The placement was read on 20 September 2026.

Consequences if caught

Article 58 reaches Schedules 3, 6, 7 and 8, and methaqualone is in Schedule 6, so the article applies to the row. The dossier records Article 58 as providing death or life imprisonment as alternatives for its stated trafficking or promotion trigger, so death is discretionary rather than mandatory, and it records that the article states no quantity. The Schedule 10 bands do not gate that route. Material circulating under this name is usually tablets of uncertain composition, and that is a forensic problem rather than a legal one here: the entry places the substance, so what matters is what an analysis finds rather than what a tablet was sold as. Article 43 carries the personal use route, with its tariff unstated in the dossier.

If prescribed or medical

The dossier records at the modafinil row that a 268 entry ministry travellers list was checked and expressly not used as a schedule. Attached to this substance: the Schedule 6 placement at «ميثاكوالون», with no current medicinal product recorded behind it in the dossier and no prescribing route or permit procedure given. The medical question is therefore not simply deferred for want of a procedure, there is also nothing in the dossier suggesting a lawful medical use to which a procedure would attach.

Documentation

No documentation route is recorded for methaqualone. Provenance: the Schedule 6 placement and the entry «ميثاكوالون» were read on 20 September 2026, with the capital analysis resting on Article 58 and its death or life alternative rather than on the Schedule 10 bands. The practical point is that tablets sold under the street names associated with this substance frequently contain something else, and the analysis rather than the name decides which entry, if any, applies.

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