Is Methylphenidate legal in Egypt?

Legal status

Controlled as a narcotic substance in the second section of Egypt's Table 1. «الجدول رقم (١) - الجواهر المخدرة», Table 1, the narcotic substances, Section 2, «الجدول رقم (١) - القسم الثاني», whose heading covers the listed substances «ونظائرها وإستراتها وإيثراتها ومستحضراتها وأيسومراتها وستيريوأيسومراتها». Item 87 is «Methylphenidate», «methyl 2-phenyl-2-piperidin-2-ylacetate» (PDF page 17, gazette page 18). Named. The earlier citation of the Anti-Narcotics Law No. 182/1960 without a table is superseded, because Decision 44 replaced every table. This is the position under Ministry of Health and Population Decision 44 of 2026, which replaced every table annexed to Law 182/1960, published in Al-Waqa'i' al-Misriya issue 39 (continued, c) on 17 February 2026 and in force from publication, as amended by Decision 242 of 2026, in Al-Waqa'i' al-Misriya issue 179 of 17 August 2026 and in force the next day, replaced item 12 of Table 1 Section 1(b), the phenethylamine group, and added items 57 to 61 to Table 3 Section 3, four alkyl nitrites and «Cannabidiol (CBD)». Decision 44's preamble cites the Supreme Constitutional Court judgment of 16 February 2026 in case 33 of judicial year 47. The Egyptian Drug Authority laws index read on 3 October 2026 lists no amendment to the tables later than Decision 242, which does not rule out one made since.

Consequences if caught

Capital exposure: death. Article 1 of the Anti-Narcotics Law, Law 182/1960, makes Table 1 the narcotic substances and excepts the Table 2 preparations: «تعتبر جواهر مخدرة فى تطبيق أحكام هذا القانون المواد المبينة فى الجدول رقم (١) الملحق به، ويستثنى منها المستحضرات المبينة بالجدول رقم (٢)». Under Articles 33 to 45 as replaced by Law 122/1989: Article 33 punishes unlicensed import or export, and production or manufacture for trade, by death and a fine of 100,000 to 500,000 pounds. Article 34 punishes possession, purchase, sale, delivery or transport with intent to trade by death or life imprisonment and the same fine. Methylphenidate is in the second section, so the death only case of Article 34 that turns on the substance, cocaine, heroin and the first section, does not apply to it, though the paragraph's other cases still make the penalty death, among them using a person under 21 and offending near a school or place of worship. Article 38(1) punishes possession without intent to trade or to use by aggravated imprisonment and a fine of 50,000 to 200,000 pounds. Article 37 punishes possession for personal use by aggravated imprisonment and a fine of 10,000 to 50,000 pounds; for a person proven to be an addict the court may order treatment in a sanatorium instead, though not after an earlier sentence. Article 39 punishes knowing use in premises prepared for use by imprisonment of at least one year and a fine of 1,000 to 3,000 pounds. Each of these articles reaches anyone who commits the act and makes no exception for a foreign national, and none of Articles 33 to 39 states a minimum quantity. Law 19/2020 bars conditional release for a conviction under Law 182/1960 other than the Article 37 felony. The earlier note that synthetic cannabinoids were added to Schedule 1 by amendment, 'Voodoo' in 2014 and 'Strox' or AB-FUBINACA by Act 440/2018, is superseded: Decision 44 replaced every table, and «AB-Fubinaca» is now an example in group 3 of Table 1 Section 1(b). The earlier figure of three to ten years for Article 38(1) is not in the article, which as written reads only a term of hard labour, now aggravated imprisonment, three to fifteen years under Penal Code Article 14. Article 36, as an exception to Article 17 of the Penal Code, bars a court applying Articles 33 to 35 and 38 from «النزول عن العقوبة التالية مباشرة» to the prescribed penalty, so mitigation stops at the next lower penalty, and if that next penalty is aggravated imprisonment or imprisonment the term may not be less than six years. The UNODC English rendering, that the next penalty may not be conceded, reads as the opposite and is not followed. Law 95/2003, Article 2, abolished hard labour «أينما وردت», wherever it appears, in the Penal Code or any other law, putting «السجن المؤبد», life imprisonment, in place of life hard labour and «السجن المشدد», aggravated imprisonment, in place of hard labour for a term; Article 3 of the same Law replaced Penal Code Article 14, under which aggravated imprisonment runs from three to fifteen years unless the law provides otherwise. The penalties above are named as they stand after that Law, although Law 122/1989 wrote them as hard labour.

If prescribed or medical

Not a prescribed traveller medicine. Table 4, «الحد الأقصى لكميات الجواهر المخدرة الذي لا يجوز تجاوزه في وصفة طبية واحدة», sets a per prescription maximum of 5 ampoules and of 30 tablets of «Methylphenidate» (items 33 and 34, PDF page 32, gazette page 33), which is read as the law contemplating its prescription in Egypt; no route for a visitor to carry it was read.

Documentation

Schedule 1 and Schedule 3(a,b,d) medicines CANNOT be imported even with a foreign prescription, explicitly banned: amphetamine/dexamphetamine (Adderall), methylphenidate (Ritalin/Concerta) and methadone; tramadol is banned for recreational use and tightly controlled. Codeine, diazepam and some sleep aids may be carried WITH a doctor's letter, original packaging, a 2-3 month maximum supply, and a customs declaration. (Reference: a 2017 traveller received a 3-year sentence for carrying 290 tramadol tablets.)

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