Is Methylphenidate legal in Myanmar?

Legal status

Illegal in Myanmar. Methylphenidate is listed at Notification 25/2025, List 2, and that listing is the whole of what controls it: section 2(b) of the Law defines a psychotropic substance as one the Ministry of Health has declared by notification, and Methylphenidate has been so declared. The list entry reads "METHYLPHENIDATE".

Consequences if caught

Conduct is what sets the band, and the Law grades it in three steps. Section 16(c) reaches possession, transportation, transmission and transfer of a narcotic drug or psychotropic substance, and carries a minimum of 5 years to a maximum of 10 years, with a fine also possible. Section 19 reaches those same acts done for the purpose of sale, and offering for sale or agreeing to sell, and carries a minimum of 10 years to a maximum of an unlimited period. Section 20 reaches production, distribution and sale, and importing and exporting, and it is the one article that can end in death. Section 21 puts an attempt, a conspiracy, organising, administering, financing or abetting on the same footing as the completed offence. Quantity works differently here, because section 26 does not name Methylphenidate. Its limbs run (a) to (i) and they name heroin, morphine, the combined total of those two, crude or processed opium, cannabis or essence of cannabis, coca leaf, cocaine, amphetamine type stimulants, methamphetamine hydrochloride, and ephedrine or pseudoephedrine. Limb (i) leaves the weight, volume or quantity for any other narcotic drug or psychotropic substance to be prescribed by Ministry of Health notification, and no prescribed figure for Methylphenidate was established on this record. So there is no automatic deemed sale threshold for it: a section 19 charge has to be proved on the purpose of sale rather than read off a scale. Capital and life exposure. Section 20 is the only article in this Law that reaches death. It punishes production, distribution and sale of a narcotic drug or psychotropic substance, and importing and exporting one, with imprisonment from a minimum of 15 years to a maximum of an unlimited period or with death. Death is not mandatory on the section's own wording, because the section holds out imprisonment as the alternative and joins the two with the words or with death. Section 20 states no weight floor of any kind, and because section 26 does not name Methylphenidate, no deemed quantity bears on it at any level. Life exposure arrives one step earlier, at section 19, which carries 10 years to an unlimited period for possessing, transporting, transmitting or transferring for the purpose of sale. Sections 22 and 23 then take an offender to the maximum punishment provided for the offence, section 22 where it was committed as part of a local or foreign criminal organisation or group, with arms or explosives, using a child who has not completed the age of 16, or through the influence or power of a public servant, and section 23 where there is a prior conviction for any offence prescribed in sections 16 to 21. What this cell states is the statute as written. It is not a description of enforcement. Policing of these provisions since February 2021 is not what the text describes, and substantial areas of the country sit outside central government control, so the law on the page and the treatment a person actually meets are two different questions.

If prescribed or medical

There is a lawful medical route, and section 28 is where it sits. Section 28(c) takes out of the Law the use, possession and transportation of a narcotic drug or psychotropic substance permitted by the Ministry of Health under the direction of a registered medical practitioner, in accordance with the stipulations, and section 28(b) does the same for use in the manner prescribed for medical treatment with the consent of the relevant Ministry. Two things follow for Methylphenidate. The exemption turns on Myanmar's own permission, not on a foreign one, so a prescription written abroad is evidence of why you hold Methylphenidate and not, by itself, the permission section 28(c) asks for. And section 16(d) makes it a 5 to 10 year offence for a person who holds Methylphenidate with permission to pass it to a person who does not, so sharing a lawful supply is itself an offence.

Documentation

Carry the prescription, keep Methylphenidate in the pharmacy container with the dispensing label and your name on it, and carry a letter from the prescriber naming the drug, the dose and the condition it treats. Then be clear about what that paperwork does. It evidences why you hold Methylphenidate; it is not the permission section 28(c) asks for, which is a Ministry of Health permission granted in Myanmar under the direction of a registered medical practitioner. Write to the Myanmar embassy before travelling, ask specifically about Methylphenidate, and carry the reply with the prescription. Where the rule comes from. The instrument is the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Law, State Law and Order Restoration Council Law 1/93, as amended by Pyidaungsu Hluttaw Law 6/2018. The substance lists are not in the Law itself. Section 2(a) makes a narcotic drug one the Ministry of Health has declared by notification, section 2(b) does the same for a psychotropic substance, and section 30(b), as substituted in 2018, is the power: the Central Body and the Ministries concerned may issue notifications, orders, directives, and procedures. The live lists are Notification 24/2025 for narcotic drugs and Notification 25/2025 for psychotropic substances. Checked 17 September 2026. Placement for Methylphenidate: Notification 25/2025, List 2. Methylphenidate is expressly named in List 2, giving a current notification entry for the stimulant. One limit on this cell is worth stating plainly. A further amending law, NDSC Law 17/2025, is reported to exist, and its text could not be obtained from any of the three routes tried. Nothing here is cited to it, and every section number and every quantity above is quoted from the 1993 Law as amended in 2018.

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