Is Mitragynine legal in United Arab Emirates?

Legal status

Mitragynine is placed in Schedule 5 of Decision No. 158 of 2025 at item 20, the printed entry being «ميتراجينين». The entry is the alkaloid's alone, and the dossier's searches on two neighbouring rows make the boundary of it explicit: neither the plant name nor the trade name was found in the schedules, and neither was the 7-hydroxy metabolite. So item 20 names one compound, and this is the row where the United Arab Emirates position on the kratom family actually sits. The consequence is that the plant question and the alkaloid question have different answers on this record, and the alkaloid's answer is a placement in the first psychotropic schedule. The row runs through Articles 10, 41 and 57, with Schedule 10 group 1 carrying the quantity band. The placement was read on 20 September 2026.

Consequences if caught

Schedule 5 item 20 sits in one of the four schedule groups Article 57 names, so the isolated alkaloid carries the capital route. The dossier records Article 57 as stating mandatory death for its trafficking or promotion trigger and as stating no quantity for it, and records that the Schedule 10 group 1 band does not gate that route. The practical consequence for a plant derived product is severe and easy to miss: an extract standardised to this alkaloid is placed by the alkaloid entry whatever the leaf material's own status is, because the schedule names the compound. Article 41 carries the personal use route for this branch, 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: mitragynine is at Schedule 5, item 20, with no medicinal product, supplement allowance or prescribing route recorded against it. Products sold abroad as herbal supplements are not placed outside the entry by being sold that way, and the dossier records no exemption, so the question of a lawful route is deferred.

Documentation

No documentation route is recorded for mitragynine, and a supplement label or an import declaration from another market is not an Emirati authorisation. Provenance: the entry «ميتراجينين» at Schedule 5, item 20 was read on 20 September 2026, with the capital analysis resting on Article 57 and not on the group 1 band. The point worth carrying is that the entry names the alkaloid, so a product's status here follows its assayed content rather than the plant or brand name on the packet.

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.