Is Mitragynine legal in Croatia?

Legal status

Mitragynine is a psihotropna tvar, a psychotropic substance, in Croatia. The Popis droga, psihotropnih tvari i biljaka iz kojih se može dobiti droga te tvari koje se mogu uporabiti za izradu droga, NN 19/2023, carries it at Odjeljak 1. of the psychotropic list, the section for substances under Schedule 1 of the 1971 Convention, and the printed entry is »mitraginin«, with »mitragynine« in the column of English names and »metilni ester (E)-2-[(2S,3S)-3-etil-8-metoksi-1,2,3,4,6,7,12,12b-oktahidroindolo[3,2-h]kinolizin-2-il]-3-metoksiprop-2-enske kiseline« as its description or chemical name. It sits between »metoksetamin (MXE)« and »4-MTA«, and that placement was taken from the rows read on either side of it rather than from a substring match. Mitragynine has an entry of its own, separate from the Kratom plant entry twelve rows earlier, and the chemical column gives the full oktahidroindolo kinolizin structure rather than treating it as a tryptamine. This placement is read in the Popis as published at NN 19/2023 of 17 February 2023, in force 18 February 2023, together with its only amendment, NN 154/2024 of 30 December 2024, read at https://narodne-novine.nn.hr/clanci/sluzbeni/2023_02_19_331.html on 21 September 2026.

Consequences if caught

Capital exposure: none. Article 21 of the Ustav Republike Hrvatske reads »U Republici Hrvatskoj nema smrtne kazne«, there is no death penalty in the Republic of Croatia, and Article 41 of the Kazneni zakon lists the only punishments as a fine, imprisonment and long term imprisonment. A charge on this row is built from the printed entry »mitraginin« at the psychotropic list, Odjeljak 1. and it is that Croatian entry rather than an English common name that identifies the substance for Croatian purposes. Article 190 of the Kazneni zakon supplies the criminal bands, and its subject is »tvari koje su propisom proglašene drogom«, substances declared a drug by regulation, so a Popis entry is what brings a row within it. Article 190(1) sets six months to five years for unauthorised production or processing. Article 190(2) sets three to twelve years for producing, processing, transporting, exporting, importing, acquiring or possessing such substances intended for unauthorised sale, and for offering, selling or brokering them. Article 190(3) sets three to fifteen years where the sale is to a person with severe mental disturbance or to a child, or takes place at or near a school or another place serving the education, upbringing, sport or social activity of children, or in a penal institution, or where an official commits it in the course of duty. Article 190(4) sets not less than three years for organising a network of resellers or intermediaries, and Article 190(5) not less than five years where the act causes considerable damage to the health of a larger number of people or the death of the person sold to. Article 190(8) requires confiscation of the substances, the plants and fungi they come from, and the means of production, transport and consumption. Article 190(2) read one to twelve years until Article 10 of the Zakon o izmjenama i dopunama Kaznenog zakona, NN 136/2025, replaced the word »jedne« with »tri«, and it has read three to twelve years since that Act came into force on the eighth day after its publication on 5 November 2025. Article 44(1) of the Kazneni zakon caps a term of imprisonment at twenty years, which is what bounds the open ended minima in Article 190(4) and Article 190(5), and Article 46 puts long term imprisonment of twenty one to forty years outside the reach of Article 190. The alkaloid has its own row twelve places after the plant, so the two are not one control. The live cell recorded that since 1 January 2013 personal use possession of any drug has been reclassified from a kazneno djelo, a criminal offence, to a prekršaj, a misdemeanour, and that is carried forward here. It recorded the misdemeanour fine as roughly 660 to 2,650 euro. It recorded possible short misdemeanour detention of up to 90 days, confiscation, and no arrest for possession alone. On quantity it recorded that there is no statutory personal use quantity and that courts decide case by case, and that hedge is carried forward as it stood. It recorded cultivation or production without intent to sell as six months to five years. It recorded sale, import, export or possession for sale as three to twelve years. It recorded aggravated cases, near schools, to children or organised, as up to fifteen to twenty years. It recorded that medical cannabis has been legal since October 2015 on prescription, capped at 0,75 g of THC per month and limited to residents. It recorded that claims of a 2026 reform introducing a five gram cannabis threshold are not supported by any primary source and should be disregarded. Read against the control Act, the misdemeanour the live fine belongs to is Article 54(1) point 1 of the Zakon o suzbijanju zlouporabe droga read with Article 54(3), which makes possession contrary to Article 3(1) a misdemeanour for a natural person. The fine that provision prints is 5.000,00 to 20.000,00 kuna or imprisonment of up to 90 days, because the Act's consolidation still carries the pre euro figures, and at the fixed conversion rate that range is about 663 to 2,654 euro, which reconciles with the live figure rather than replacing it. Article 190 as read carries no possession for own use offence at all, which is consistent with the live cell's 2013 reclassification but is not proof of it. The words without intent to sell are the live cell's gloss and not the statute's: Article 190(1) is unauthorised production or processing, and Article 190(7) deems unauthorised growing of a plant or fungus from which a drug can be obtained to be production. The 0,75 g monthly cap appears in nothing read for this cell; Article 13(6) to (9) of the control Act permits cannabis cultivation and production for medical purposes on an approval from the health ministry, and the monthly figure is carried forward from the live cell and was not re-derived. Those bands, that fine and those quantity words are set out here because the live cell carried them, and they describe the offences that this row's placement brings into play.

If prescribed or medical

The country level rule in Croatia is that carriage of a medicine containing a listed drug is set by Articles 24 and 24.a of the Zakon o suzbijanju zlouporabe droga rather than by the schedule, so paperwork changes what a traveller may hold and not where a substance sits. At the state border a traveller may hold such a medicine only on medical documentation and only in the quantity needed for personal use for at most 5 days. A person on substitution therapy for addiction, or on symptomatic therapy in the terminal phase of a malignant disease, may hold up to 15 days on the same documentation. A resident of Croatia travelling to Schengen states, and a Schengen national travelling to Croatia, may hold up to 30 days on a certificate issued on the prescribed form by an authorised doctor, whose content and appearance the health minister sets by pravilnik. Attached to this row: No isolated alkaloid preparation is dispensed in Croatia, so this row has no prescribing route separate from the plant it comes from. The live cell recorded for this row: If a controlled medicine, carry the prescription and confirm with your embassy (see documentation).

Documentation

Under Article 24(3) the name and quantity of the medicine must be declared to customs on crossing the European Union border, with the medical documentation produced. Article 59 of the control Act makes each of those failures a misdemeanour for a natural person punishable by a fine of 1.000,00 to 10.000,00 kuna, which is roughly 133 to 1,327 euro at the fixed conversion rate, and the four failures it names are carrying without documentation or beyond the 5 day quantity, the substitution and terminal care case beyond 15 days, failing to declare to customs, and travelling within Schengen beyond 30 days or without the certificate. Medical cannabis has been legal in Croatia since October 2015 on prescription, capped at 0,75 g of THC per month and limited to residents, which is carried forward from the live cell. Claims of a 2026 reform introducing a five gram cannabis threshold are not supported by any primary source and should be disregarded, which is also carried forward. The entry is for the isolated alkaloid, so a document describing leaf material is describing the plant entry instead. For this row the provenance is the entry »mitraginin« at the psychotropic list, Odjeljak 1..

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