Legality · MethyloneMethylone in Timor-Leste: not individually verified
Also known as: bk-MDMA
Not individually verified
We have not confirmed that Methylone specifically is scheduled in Timor-Leste, so this page gives no legal status. Publishing a guess here would be worse than publishing nothing. What we do know is the governing national drug law, below.
- What is on record
- Not confirmed. Lei n.º 2/2017 carries no closing statement that would let an absence read as a settled negative, so the finding below is reported as unconfirmed rather than closed. Methylone (bk-MDMA, M1) is not named by that name, or by any synonym, anywhere in Lei n.º 2/2017's tables. Methylone is a substituted cathinone, carrying the same methylenedioxy ring as MDMA and MDA with a ketone at the beta carbon, formula C11H13NO3. The nearest Table II-A entries are cathinone itself at item 8 ("Catinona", C9H11NO, the unsubstituted parent beta-ketone amphetamine, carrying a primary amine) and mephedrone at item 26 (4-methylmethcathinone, C11H15NO, a ring-methylated cathinone). Methylone shares neither formula: against cathinone it carries a methylenedioxy ring fused onto two ring positions in place of two ring hydrogens (one more carbon, two more oxygens) and an N-methyl group on the amine nitrogen that cathinone's own primary amine lacks (one more carbon, two more hydrogens), two more carbons, two more hydrogens and two more oxygens altogether; against mephedrone it carries that same methylenedioxy-and-N-methyl pairing in place of mephedrone's single ring-methyl group, again a different atom count. So methylone is not an isomer of either named cathinone-class entry, on the same chemical test (identical molecular formula required) applied on this site to 3-MMC and to 5-MeO-DMT, each on its own page. Table II-A's closing clause reaches isomers and salts of its own listed substances only; methylone, being a distinct compound from every substance Table II-A actually lists, is not reached by that clause either. This reading is as printed 25 January 2017, read on 7 October 2026; no later amending law has been found (see the search recorded below).
Confirm directly with Timor-Leste’s national drug authority or your own embassy before you rely on anything.
What Timor-Leste HAS confirmed for related substances
These are related compounds, not Methylone. Their status may or may not reflect Methylone’s. Confirm Methylone directly with Timor-Leste's national drug authority or your embassy.
Cathinone, the parent beta-ketone amphetamine, is named directly in Table II-A of Lei n.º 2/2017's Anexo II, item 8: "Catinona - (-)-(alfa)-aminopropiofenona" (cathinone, minus-alpha-aminopropiophenone). Cathine, cathinone's reduced relative, sits separately in Table II-B item 2 ("Catina"), and mephedrone, a ring-methylated cathinone derivative, sits separately in Table II-A item 26; the three are each named in their own right rather than through a class clause. Article 2, paragraph 1, subparagraph d, defines "droga" as any plant, substance or preparation covered by Tables I to IV; article 3 makes the tables integral to the law. This reading is as printed 25 January 2017, read on 7 October 2026.
Lei n.º 2/2017, de 25 de Janeiro, "Lei de Combate ao Tráfico Ilícito de Drogas", Anexo II, Tabela II-A item 8 · articles 2, 3, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11 and 26 · Jornal da República, Série I, N.º 4, 25 January 2017, pages 60 to 82. https://www.mj.gov.tl/jornal/public/docs/2017/serie_1/SERIE_I_NO_4.pdf (sha256 700f7867e6cff713f06a6fcb6da245ea1186582fe66309d193080ce0b7406cd6). Read on 7 October 2026. · Verified October 8, 2026
Khat, the plant Catha edulis, is not named by that name anywhere in Lei n.º 2/2017's tables, and a direct search for "khat", "catha edulis" and "qat" returned no match. Its two active alkaloids are named: cathinone at Table II-A item 8 ("Catinona") and cathine at Table II-B item 2 ("Catina"). The reasoning here reaches a different conclusion from ayahuasca's, and the difference is structural, turning on which table cathine sits in, rather than a single answer applied to every plant entry regardless of its own text. Article 2, paragraph 1, subparagraph g, defines "Preparado" (preparation) as "uma solução ou uma mistura, sólida ou líquida, que inclua um ou vários estupefacientes ou substâncias, bem como um ou vários estupefacientes ou substâncias em forma dosificada" (a solution or a mixture, solid or liquid, that includes one or several narcotics or substances, as well as one or several narcotics or substances in dosed form). That definition does not require a deliberate human act of compounding; it only requires that the material be a mixture, solid or liquid, that includes the substance. A chewed khat leaf is, as a matter of plant chemistry, a solid mixture of cellulose, water and numerous alkaloids including cathine, so it falls within article 2(g)'s own wording for "preparado". Table II-B's closing clause extends control to "todos os preparados em que estas substâncias estejam associadas a outros compostos, qualquer que seja a ação destes" (all preparations in which these substances are combined with other compounds, whatever their action), and cathine sits in Table II-B. Reading the two provisions together, khat leaf is a preparation in which cathine is associated with other compounds within the meaning of the Act's own defined terms, so it is reached through Table II-B, via cathine, even without a dedicated leaf entry. That is a different and more affirmative route than the constituent-only reasoning used for ayahuasca, because Table II-A, where cathinone and DMT both sit, carries no equivalent preparations clause; cathine's presence in Table II-B rather than II-A is what makes the difference. Against this, Table I-C shows the drafters do sometimes choose to name raw plant material directly, listing cannabis leaf as its own item distinct from resin and oil, which could suggest a leaf needs its own entry to be caught; but that naming choice does not displace Table II-B's own, textually separate preparations clause, which does not require a dedicated plant entry to operate. This reading is as printed 25 January 2017, read on 7 October 2026; it has not been tested against any Timor-Leste court or regulatory ruling, and it is a closer, more contestable call than the ayahuasca brew question.
Lei n.º 2/2017, de 25 de Janeiro, "Lei de Combate ao Tráfico Ilícito de Drogas", article 2, paragraph 1, subparagraph g · Anexo II, Tabela II-A item 8, Tabela II-B item 2 and closing clause, Tabela I-C item 1 · articles 3, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11 and 26 · Jornal da República, Série I, N.º 4, 25 January 2017, pages 60 to 82. https://www.mj.gov.tl/jornal/public/docs/2017/serie_1/SERIE_I_NO_4.pdf (sha256 700f7867e6cff713f06a6fcb6da245ea1186582fe66309d193080ce0b7406cd6). Read on 7 October 2026. · Verified October 8, 2026
Mephedrone is named directly in Table II-A of Lei n.º 2/2017's Anexo II, item 26, printed with no formula, only its two names: "4-metilmetcatinona (mefedrona)" (4-methylmethcathinone, mephedrone). Cathinone, mephedrone's parent beta-ketone amphetamine, is separately named at item 8. Mephedrone was added to the United Nations 1971 Convention's schedules by a Commission on Narcotic Drugs decision in 2015, before this Act's own 2017 enactment date, so its presence here is consistent with the schedule as originally drafted and is not, on its own, evidence of any later update to the printed list. Article 2, paragraph 1, subparagraph d, defines "droga" as any plant, substance or preparation covered by Tables I to IV; article 3 makes the tables integral to the law. This reading is as printed 25 January 2017, read on 7 October 2026.
Lei n.º 2/2017, de 25 de Janeiro, "Lei de Combate ao Tráfico Ilícito de Drogas", Anexo II, Tabela II-A item 26 · articles 2, 3, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11 and 26 · Jornal da República, Série I, N.º 4, 25 January 2017, pages 60 to 82. https://www.mj.gov.tl/jornal/public/docs/2017/serie_1/SERIE_I_NO_4.pdf (sha256 700f7867e6cff713f06a6fcb6da245ea1186582fe66309d193080ce0b7406cd6). Read on 7 October 2026. · Verified October 8, 2026
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