Legal status in New Zealand

1P-LSD

Legal status: Controlled through the open analogue limb rather than by a schedule name. 1P-LSD, a lysergamide sold as a propionyl form of LSD, has no entry of its own in Schedules 1 to 3 on the text cited, and this finding does not rest on that absence: the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 defines a controlled drug analogue as any substance whose structure is substantially similar to that of a controlled drug, subject to the stated exclusions, and the stated parent structure places 1P-LSD in that limb unless a medicine exclusion or an express exclusion applies. The analogue route lands in Schedule 3 Part 7, so the class is C. LSD itself has its own row in this table and sits in Schedule 1 as Class A, so the parent is named while this molecule is reached only through the analogue limb, and the two therefore carry different ceilings. The dossier states the statutory route rather than claiming a laboratory determination, because a court-grade analogue conclusion can depend on expert structural evidence. The reading is against the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, whose latest commenced classification instrument is the Misuse of Drugs (Classification and Presumption of Supply) Order 2025, in force from 27 November 2025.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. New Zealand has no death penalty. A controlled drug analogue is treated as a Class C controlled drug, so the exposure on 1P-LSD is the section 6 dealing maximum of 8 years, with section 7 reaching possession. This row's own ceiling column states the section 7 limb without attaching a figure to it, and the Class C rows in this table put that possession maximum at 3 months. The 8 year figure is the whole of the exposure on this route. The route runs through similarity to a compound that carries a life ceiling, so the gap between this row and the LSD row is the most important number on it.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: 1P-LSD is not named in Schedules 1 to 3 and is reached, if at all, through the section 2 controlled-drug-analogue limb, which is treated as Class C. No dispensed form exists, so the question here is whether a blotter sheet is an analogue, not whether a prescription covers it. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026 and read section 2 together with Schedule 3 Part 7, because neither carries the finding for 1P-LSD on its own. Read the section 2 analogue definition beside the Schedule 1 LSD entry, because the whole finding for 1P-LSD turns on the relationship between the two. Carry the point that an absent name is not an answer in New Zealand: the list is closed for named substances while the analogue limb is open, so a search of the schedules that returns nothing has not finished the question. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

1P-LSD in New Zealand, full detail →

2-FDCK

Legal status: Controlled through the open analogue limb rather than by a schedule name. 2-FDCK, a fluorinated arylcyclohexylamine sold in place of ketamine, has no entry of its own in Schedules 1 to 3 on the text cited, and this finding does not rest on that absence: the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 defines a controlled drug analogue as any substance whose structure is substantially similar to that of a controlled drug, subject to the stated exclusions, and the stated parent structure places 2-FDCK in that limb unless a medicine exclusion or an express exclusion applies. The analogue route lands in Schedule 3 Part 7, so the class is C. Ketamine has its own row here and is named in Schedule 2 as Class B, so the substitute is reached at Class C through the analogue limb while the thing it substitutes for is Class B. The dossier states the statutory route rather than claiming a laboratory determination, because a court-grade analogue conclusion can depend on expert structural evidence. This was read against the consolidation current at 20 September 2026; the 2026 Classification and Presumption of Supply Order was made but no commencement instrument was located by that horizon, so nothing it proposes is treated as law here.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. New Zealand has no death penalty. A controlled drug analogue is treated as a Class C controlled drug, so the exposure on 2-FDCK is the section 6 dealing maximum of 8 years, with section 7 reaching possession. This row's own ceiling column states the section 7 limb without attaching a figure to it, and the Class C rows in this table put that possession maximum at 3 months. The 8 year figure is the whole of the exposure on this route. A person who believes they are handling a named anaesthetic is on the analogue route instead, and a 6 year difference in ceiling turns on one fluorine atom.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: 2-FDCK is not named in Schedules 1 to 3 and is reached, if at all, through the section 2 controlled-drug-analogue limb, which is treated as Class C. It is sold as a substitute for a clinical anaesthetic, which is precisely why no medicines answer can be assumed to apply to it. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026 and read section 2 together with Schedule 3 Part 7, because neither carries the finding for 2-FDCK on its own. Read the section 2 analogue definition against the Schedule 2 ketamine entry, since 2-FDCK is not named anywhere in Schedules 1 to 3. Carry the point that an absent name is not an answer in New Zealand: the list is closed for named substances while the analogue limb is open, so a search of the schedules that returns nothing has not finished the question. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

2-FDCK in New Zealand, full detail →

25I-NBOMe

Legal status: Controlled, and named rather than inferred. Schedule 1 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 names or describes 25I-NBOMe, an N-benzylmethoxy phenethylamine usually sold on blotter, as a Class A controlled drug, and the entry carries the derivatives and preparations limb attached to it. New Zealand's list is closed for named substances, so a named entry settles the class without recourse to the section 2 controlled-drug-analogue limb that carries sixteen other rows in this table. It is one of the few molecules of its type that is named outright rather than left to the analogue limb, and the 2C-series compounds in this table are not. The reading is against the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, whose latest commenced classification instrument is the Misuse of Drugs (Classification and Presumption of Supply) Order 2025, in force from 27 November 2025.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. New Zealand has no death penalty. The exposure that does exist is the section 6 maximum of life imprisonment for importing, manufacturing or supplying a Class A controlled drug, and 25I-NBOMe is Class A, so all three limbs carry it. Life is a ceiling and not a mandatory term. Possession is charged under section 7, where the maximum is 6 months. The Schedule 5 quantities create a presumption of supply, so crossing a quantity moves the charge toward section 6 rather than fixing the outcome. The usual form is blotter, and a sheet is a preparation, so a charge is built on the preparations limb rather than on a bulk weight.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: 25I-NBOMe is a Class A controlled drug under Schedule 1, with sections 6 and 7 supplying the offences. No dispensed form exists for anyone to be carrying, so what this row really meets at a border is section 6 import rather than a medicines question. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, which is the official New Zealand Legislation text rather than a secondary summary. Read the Schedule 1 entry for 25I-NBOMe with the derivatives and preparations limb attached to it, because blotter is a preparation. Carry the class and the ceiling as two separate readings, because Schedule 1 supplies the class for 25I-NBOMe while sections 6 and 7 supply the maximum. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

25I-NBOMe in New Zealand, full detail →

2C-B

Legal status: Controlled through the open analogue limb rather than by a schedule name. 2C-B, a substituted phenethylamine of the 2C series, has no entry of its own in Schedules 1 to 3 on the text cited, and this finding does not rest on that absence: the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 defines a controlled drug analogue as any substance whose structure is substantially similar to that of a controlled drug, subject to the stated exclusions, and the stated parent structure places 2C-B in that limb unless a medicine exclusion or an express exclusion applies. The analogue route lands in Schedule 3 Part 7, so the class is C. The dossier does not name it in Schedules 1 to 3, so its control runs through the analogue limb at Class C rather than through a named entry. The dossier states the statutory route rather than claiming a laboratory determination, because a court-grade analogue conclusion can depend on expert structural evidence. The consolidation read was the one current at 20 September 2026, with the Order of 2025 commenced on 27 November 2025 as the latest instrument actually in force.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. New Zealand has no death penalty. A controlled drug analogue is treated as a Class C controlled drug, so the exposure on 2C-B is the section 6 dealing maximum of 8 years, with section 7 reaching possession. This row's own ceiling column states the section 7 limb without attaching a figure to it, and the Class C rows in this table put that possession maximum at 3 months. The 8 year figure is the whole of the exposure on this route. Nothing on this route depends on a quantity threshold attached to a named entry, because there is no named entry, so the question is structural before it is quantitative.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: 2C-B is not named in Schedules 1 to 3 and is reached, if at all, through the section 2 controlled-drug-analogue limb, which is treated as Class C. No medicine form for this compound appears anywhere in the cited text, so the medicine exclusion in section 2 has nothing to attach to. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026 and read section 2 together with Schedule 3 Part 7, because neither carries the finding for 2C-B on its own. Read the section 2 exclusions in particular, because a medicine exclusion or an express exclusion is the only thing that would lift 2C-B out of the Class C limb. Carry the point that an absent name is not an answer in New Zealand: the list is closed for named substances while the analogue limb is open, so a search of the schedules that returns nothing has not finished the question. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

2C-B in New Zealand, full detail →

2C-E

Legal status: Controlled through the open analogue limb rather than by a schedule name. 2C-E, a 2C-series phenethylamine, has no entry of its own in Schedules 1 to 3 on the text cited, and this finding does not rest on that absence: the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 defines a controlled drug analogue as any substance whose structure is substantially similar to that of a controlled drug, subject to the stated exclusions, and the stated parent structure places 2C-E in that limb unless a medicine exclusion or an express exclusion applies. The analogue route lands in Schedule 3 Part 7, so the class is C. It shares the analogue route with the other 2C-series compounds in this table rather than having a schedule entry of its own. The dossier states the statutory route rather than claiming a laboratory determination, because a court-grade analogue conclusion can depend on expert structural evidence. The reading is against the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, whose latest commenced classification instrument is the Misuse of Drugs (Classification and Presumption of Supply) Order 2025, in force from 27 November 2025.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. New Zealand has no death penalty. A controlled drug analogue is treated as a Class C controlled drug, so the exposure on 2C-E is the section 6 dealing maximum of 8 years, with section 7 reaching possession. This row's own ceiling column states the section 7 limb without attaching a figure to it, and the Class C rows in this table put that possession maximum at 3 months. The 8 year figure is the whole of the exposure on this route. The exposure is the figure every analogue carries, so nothing about this compound's potency raises or lowers it.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: 2C-E is not named in Schedules 1 to 3 and is reached, if at all, through the section 2 controlled-drug-analogue limb, which is treated as Class C. Anyone carrying this is carrying a substance with no dispensed form, so the exclusion for approved medicines is unlikely to be available. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026 and read section 2 together with Schedule 3 Part 7, because neither carries the finding for 2C-E on its own. Read the analogue definition with the medicine exclusion in mind, since the exclusion is the limb most likely to move a 2C-series finding. Carry the point that an absent name is not an answer in New Zealand: the list is closed for named substances while the analogue limb is open, so a search of the schedules that returns nothing has not finished the question. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

2C-E in New Zealand, full detail →

2C-I

Legal status: Controlled through the open analogue limb rather than by a schedule name. 2C-I, an iodinated 2C-series phenethylamine, has no entry of its own in Schedules 1 to 3 on the text cited, and this finding does not rest on that absence: the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 defines a controlled drug analogue as any substance whose structure is substantially similar to that of a controlled drug, subject to the stated exclusions, and the stated parent structure places 2C-I in that limb unless a medicine exclusion or an express exclusion applies. The analogue route lands in Schedule 3 Part 7, so the class is C. 25I-NBOMe, which is derived from it, has its own row here and is named in Schedule 1 as Class A, so a derivative can sit two classes above the compound it derives from. The dossier states the statutory route rather than claiming a laboratory determination, because a court-grade analogue conclusion can depend on expert structural evidence. This was read against the consolidation current at 20 September 2026; the 2026 Classification and Presumption of Supply Order was made but no commencement instrument was located by that horizon, so nothing it proposes is treated as law here.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. New Zealand has no death penalty. A controlled drug analogue is treated as a Class C controlled drug, so the exposure on 2C-I is the section 6 dealing maximum of 8 years, with section 7 reaching possession. This row's own ceiling column states the section 7 limb without attaching a figure to it, and the Class C rows in this table put that possession maximum at 3 months. The 8 year figure is the whole of the exposure on this route. A compound derived from this one is named in Schedule 1 at a life ceiling while this one sits on the analogue route, which is as wide a gap as the Act contains.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: 2C-I is not named in Schedules 1 to 3 and is reached, if at all, through the section 2 controlled-drug-analogue limb, which is treated as Class C. The compound derived from this one is named outright in Schedule 1, and nobody can tell the two apart without analysis. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026 and read section 2 together with Schedule 3 Part 7, because neither carries the finding for 2C-I on its own. Read the analogue definition beside the Schedule 1 25I-NBOMe entry, because the class gap between the two is the point. Carry the point that an absent name is not an answer in New Zealand: the list is closed for named substances while the analogue limb is open, so a search of the schedules that returns nothing has not finished the question. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

2C-I in New Zealand, full detail →

2C-T-7

Legal status: Controlled through the open analogue limb rather than by a schedule name. 2C-T-7, a sulfur-substituted 2C-series phenethylamine, has no entry of its own in Schedules 1 to 3 on the text cited, and this finding does not rest on that absence: the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 defines a controlled drug analogue as any substance whose structure is substantially similar to that of a controlled drug, subject to the stated exclusions, and the stated parent structure places 2C-T-7 in that limb unless a medicine exclusion or an express exclusion applies. The analogue route lands in Schedule 3 Part 7, so the class is C. The sulfur substitution does not take it out of the analogue limb, which asks about substantial structural similarity rather than about any one atom. The dossier states the statutory route rather than claiming a laboratory determination, because a court-grade analogue conclusion can depend on expert structural evidence. The consolidation read was the one current at 20 September 2026, with the Order of 2025 commenced on 27 November 2025 as the latest instrument actually in force.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. New Zealand has no death penalty. A controlled drug analogue is treated as a Class C controlled drug, so the exposure on 2C-T-7 is the section 6 dealing maximum of 8 years, with section 7 reaching possession. This row's own ceiling column states the section 7 limb without attaching a figure to it, and the Class C rows in this table put that possession maximum at 3 months. The 8 year figure is the whole of the exposure on this route. The figure does not move with the sulfur substitution, because the limb asks a similarity question rather than an atom by atom one.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: 2C-T-7 is not named in Schedules 1 to 3 and is reached, if at all, through the section 2 controlled-drug-analogue limb, which is treated as Class C. No prescribed form is in view, and the placement depends on a structural comparison that only expert evidence settles. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026 and read section 2 together with Schedule 3 Part 7, because neither carries the finding for 2C-T-7 on its own. Read the words substantially similar in the section 2 definition, because that phrase and not a list is what reaches 2C-T-7. Carry the point that an absent name is not an answer in New Zealand: the list is closed for named substances while the analogue limb is open, so a search of the schedules that returns nothing has not finished the question. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

2C-T-7 in New Zealand, full detail →

3-MMC

Legal status: Controlled through the open analogue limb rather than by a schedule name. 3-MMC, a substituted cathinone, has no entry of its own in Schedules 1 to 3 on the text cited, and this finding does not rest on that absence: the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 defines a controlled drug analogue as any substance whose structure is substantially similar to that of a controlled drug, subject to the stated exclusions, and the stated parent structure places 3-MMC in that limb unless a medicine exclusion or an express exclusion applies. The analogue route lands in Schedule 3 Part 7, so the class is C. Cathinone and mephedrone both have their own rows here and are named in Schedule 2 as Class B, so this positional isomer falls to Class C by the analogue route while its near neighbours sit at Class B. The dossier states the statutory route rather than claiming a laboratory determination, because a court-grade analogue conclusion can depend on expert structural evidence. The reading is against the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, whose latest commenced classification instrument is the Misuse of Drugs (Classification and Presumption of Supply) Order 2025, in force from 27 November 2025.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. New Zealand has no death penalty. A controlled drug analogue is treated as a Class C controlled drug, so the exposure on 3-MMC is the section 6 dealing maximum of 8 years, with section 7 reaching possession. This row's own ceiling column states the section 7 limb without attaching a figure to it, and the Class C rows in this table put that possession maximum at 3 months. The 8 year figure is the whole of the exposure on this route. Two named cathinones in this table carry 14 years while this positional isomer carries 8, and no difference in effect produces that gap.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: 3-MMC is not named in Schedules 1 to 3 and is reached, if at all, through the section 2 controlled-drug-analogue limb, which is treated as Class C. It is frequently sold as, or mixed with, the named cathinones of this table, so the class actually being carried may not be the analogue one. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026 and read section 2 together with Schedule 3 Part 7, because neither carries the finding for 3-MMC on its own. Read the analogue definition against the Schedule 2 cathinone and mephedrone entries, since the 6 year gap in ceiling comes from that comparison. Carry the point that an absent name is not an answer in New Zealand: the list is closed for named substances while the analogue limb is open, so a search of the schedules that returns nothing has not finished the question. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

3-MMC in New Zealand, full detail →

4-AcO-DMT

Legal status: Controlled through the open analogue limb rather than by a schedule name. 4-AcO-DMT, an acetylated tryptamine, has no entry of its own in Schedules 1 to 3 on the text cited, and this finding does not rest on that absence: the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 defines a controlled drug analogue as any substance whose structure is substantially similar to that of a controlled drug, subject to the stated exclusions, and the stated parent structure places 4-AcO-DMT in that limb unless a medicine exclusion or an express exclusion applies. The analogue route lands in Schedule 3 Part 7, so the class is C. Psilocybin and DMT both have their own rows here and are named in Schedule 1 as Class A, so the parent tryptamines are named while this ester is reached only as an analogue. The dossier states the statutory route rather than claiming a laboratory determination, because a court-grade analogue conclusion can depend on expert structural evidence. This was read against the consolidation current at 20 September 2026; the 2026 Classification and Presumption of Supply Order was made but no commencement instrument was located by that horizon, so nothing it proposes is treated as law here.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. New Zealand has no death penalty. A controlled drug analogue is treated as a Class C controlled drug, so the exposure on 4-AcO-DMT is the section 6 dealing maximum of 8 years, with section 7 reaching possession. This row's own ceiling column states the section 7 limb without attaching a figure to it, and the Class C rows in this table put that possession maximum at 3 months. The 8 year figure is the whole of the exposure on this route. A person handling the ester faces the analogue figure while the compound it resembles carries life on its own Schedule 1 entry.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: 4-AcO-DMT is not named in Schedules 1 to 3 and is reached, if at all, through the section 2 controlled-drug-analogue limb, which is treated as Class C. It converts to a named Class A compound, which anyone relying on the absence of a schedule entry should understand first. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026 and read section 2 together with Schedule 3 Part 7, because neither carries the finding for 4-AcO-DMT on its own. Read the analogue definition beside the Schedule 1 psilocybin entry, because that is the structure the similarity question is asked about. Carry the point that an absent name is not an answer in New Zealand: the list is closed for named substances while the analogue limb is open, so a search of the schedules that returns nothing has not finished the question. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

4-AcO-DMT in New Zealand, full detail →

4-HO-MET

Legal status: Controlled through the open analogue limb rather than by a schedule name. 4-HO-MET, a hydroxylated tryptamine, has no entry of its own in Schedules 1 to 3 on the text cited, and this finding does not rest on that absence: the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 defines a controlled drug analogue as any substance whose structure is substantially similar to that of a controlled drug, subject to the stated exclusions, and the stated parent structure places 4-HO-MET in that limb unless a medicine exclusion or an express exclusion applies. The analogue route lands in Schedule 3 Part 7, so the class is C. It is the one tryptamine in this analogue group whose row offers no cross-reference to a named parent, so the similarity comparison has to be made against the Schedule 1 tryptamines generally. The dossier states the statutory route rather than claiming a laboratory determination, because a court-grade analogue conclusion can depend on expert structural evidence. The consolidation read was the one current at 20 September 2026, with the Order of 2025 commenced on 27 November 2025 as the latest instrument actually in force.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. New Zealand has no death penalty. A controlled drug analogue is treated as a Class C controlled drug, so the exposure on 4-HO-MET is the section 6 dealing maximum of 8 years, with section 7 reaching possession. This row's own ceiling column states the section 7 limb without attaching a figure to it, and the Class C rows in this table put that possession maximum at 3 months. The 8 year figure is the whole of the exposure on this route. The analogue figure is the only number this row produces, because no named entry attaches a different one to it.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: 4-HO-MET is not named in Schedules 1 to 3 and is reached, if at all, through the section 2 controlled-drug-analogue limb, which is treated as Class C. No medicine form is in view, and this row offers no cross-reference to a named parent, so the comparison runs against the Schedule 1 tryptamines generally. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026 and read section 2 together with Schedule 3 Part 7, because neither carries the finding for 4-HO-MET on its own. Read the analogue definition and note that the dossier states the statutory route rather than a laboratory determination for 4-HO-MET. Carry the point that an absent name is not an answer in New Zealand: the list is closed for named substances while the analogue limb is open, so a search of the schedules that returns nothing has not finished the question. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

4-HO-MET in New Zealand, full detail →

5-MeO-DMT (Bufo / Toad)

Legal status: Controlled through the open analogue limb rather than by a schedule name. 5-MeO-DMT, a methoxylated tryptamine, has no entry of its own in Schedules 1 to 3 on the text cited, and this finding does not rest on that absence: the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 defines a controlled drug analogue as any substance whose structure is substantially similar to that of a controlled drug, subject to the stated exclusions, and the stated parent structure places 5-MeO-DMT in that limb unless a medicine exclusion or an express exclusion applies. The analogue route lands in Schedule 3 Part 7, so the class is C. DMT has its own row here and is named in Schedule 1 as Class A, so the methoxylated compound is reached at Class C through the analogue limb while DMT itself carries a life ceiling. The dossier states the statutory route rather than claiming a laboratory determination, because a court-grade analogue conclusion can depend on expert structural evidence. The reading is against the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, whose latest commenced classification instrument is the Misuse of Drugs (Classification and Presumption of Supply) Order 2025, in force from 27 November 2025.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. New Zealand has no death penalty. A controlled drug analogue is treated as a Class C controlled drug, so the exposure on 5-MeO-DMT is the section 6 dealing maximum of 8 years, with section 7 reaching possession. This row's own ceiling column states the section 7 limb without attaching a figure to it, and the Class C rows in this table put that possession maximum at 3 months. The 8 year figure is the whole of the exposure on this route. The distance between this row and the DMT row is the distance between 8 years and life, and it rests entirely on whether a name appears in Schedule 1.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: 5-MeO-DMT is not named in Schedules 1 to 3 and is reached, if at all, through the section 2 controlled-drug-analogue limb, which is treated as Class C. It occurs in animal and plant material as well as in synthesised form, and the cited text does not distinguish the two. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026 and read section 2 together with Schedule 3 Part 7, because neither carries the finding for 5-MeO-DMT on its own. Read the analogue definition against the Schedule 1 DMT entry, because the difference between the two rows is a life ceiling and an 8 year one. Carry the point that an absent name is not an answer in New Zealand: the list is closed for named substances while the analogue limb is open, so a search of the schedules that returns nothing has not finished the question. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

5-MeO-DMT (Bufo / Toad) in New Zealand, full detail →

6-APB

Legal status: Controlled through the open analogue limb rather than by a schedule name. 6-APB, a benzofuran compound structurally related to the amphetamines, has no entry of its own in Schedules 1 to 3 on the text cited, and this finding does not rest on that absence: the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 defines a controlled drug analogue as any substance whose structure is substantially similar to that of a controlled drug, subject to the stated exclusions, and the stated parent structure places 6-APB in that limb unless a medicine exclusion or an express exclusion applies. The analogue route lands in Schedule 3 Part 7, so the class is C. Amphetamine and MDA both have their own rows here and are named in Schedule 2 as Class B, so the benzofuran sits at Class C through the analogue limb. The dossier states the statutory route rather than claiming a laboratory determination, because a court-grade analogue conclusion can depend on expert structural evidence. This was read against the consolidation current at 20 September 2026; the 2026 Classification and Presumption of Supply Order was made but no commencement instrument was located by that horizon, so nothing it proposes is treated as law here.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. New Zealand has no death penalty. A controlled drug analogue is treated as a Class C controlled drug, so the exposure on 6-APB is the section 6 dealing maximum of 8 years, with section 7 reaching possession. This row's own ceiling column states the section 7 limb without attaching a figure to it, and the Class C rows in this table put that possession maximum at 3 months. The 8 year figure is the whole of the exposure on this route. The benzofuran ring is what keeps this compound off the named list, and the practical effect of that ring is a ceiling 6 years below the amphetamines it resembles.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: 6-APB is not named in Schedules 1 to 3 and is reached, if at all, through the section 2 controlled-drug-analogue limb, which is treated as Class C. No dispensed form exists, and the compound is commonly sold as though it were one of the named amphetamines. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026 and read section 2 together with Schedule 3 Part 7, because neither carries the finding for 6-APB on its own. Read the analogue definition beside the Schedule 2 amphetamine entry, since the benzofuran ring is what keeps 6-APB off the named list. Carry the point that an absent name is not an answer in New Zealand: the list is closed for named substances while the analogue limb is open, so a search of the schedules that returns nothing has not finished the question. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

6-APB in New Zealand, full detail →

7-Hydroxymitragynine (7-OH)

Legal status: Not a controlled drug on the text cited, and the absence was tested rather than assumed. 7-hydroxymitragynine, a minor kratom alkaloid and the active metabolite of mitragynine, has no exact entry in Schedules 1 to 3 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, and the closed schedules were read together with the open section 2 analogue limb, whose definition excludes substances that are approved medicines or that lack substantial structural similarity to a controlled drug. That is why this is recorded as a positive closed-list absence and not as an unresolved question. Mitragynine and kratom both have their own rows in this table and carry the same negative finding, so the leaf, its principal alkaloid and this metabolite are answered separately but alike. One route stays open: sale of an unapproved psychoactive product can engage the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 even where no controlled drug classification attaches. The reading is against the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, whose latest commenced classification instrument is the Misuse of Drugs (Classification and Presumption of Supply) Order 2025, in force from 27 November 2025.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. New Zealand has no death penalty. No Misuse of Drugs Act ceiling attaches to 7-hydroxymitragynine either, because it is not established as a controlled drug on the cited text, so neither the section 6 dealing maximum nor the section 7 possession maximum has anything to fasten on. The exposure that does exist sits in the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013, on the route for unlawful sale of an unapproved psychoactive product, whose penalties are statutory and non-capital. That route reaches supply rather than a person carrying the substance. Concentrated products standardised on this alkaloid are what the product route was written for, and a standardised capsule is a very different item from the raw leaf answered by the kratom row.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: 7-hydroxymitragynine is not established as a controlled drug on the text cited, so the Misuse of Drugs Act placement is a negative one and neither section 6 nor section 7 attaches to it. No prescribed form exists, and the question anyone faces here is a product question rather than a medicines one. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026 and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 together, because the finding for 7-hydroxymitragynine needs both: the first for the negative and the second for the route that remains. Read the mitragynine and kratom rows in this table alongside this one, because a concentrated 7-hydroxymitragynine product is where the 2013 Act route becomes the live question. Carry the reasoning and not only the result, because a negative is worth no more than the limb it was tested against, and here that limb is the section 2 exclusion for approved medicines and for substances lacking substantial structural similarity. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

7-Hydroxymitragynine (7-OH) in New Zealand, full detail →

Adderall

Legal status: Controlled, but not under the name on the box. Adderall is a branded medicine consisting of mixed amphetamine salts, and no brand name appears in the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975; the finding comes from the Schedule 2 amphetamine entry, which reaches amphetamine together with its salts, isomers, esters, ethers and the salts of those derivatives, so a mixed amphetamine salts product is inside it. The class is therefore B. Amphetamine has its own row in this table and is the entry that actually carries this finding, so the brand name is not what is scheduled. This matters because a traveller or a reader searching the Act for the brand will find nothing and may conclude the medicine is unscheduled, which is the opposite of the position. The reading is against the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, whose latest commenced classification instrument is the Misuse of Drugs (Classification and Presumption of Supply) Order 2025, in force from 27 November 2025.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. New Zealand has no death penalty, and life under section 6 belongs to Class A alone, while the amphetamine entry that carries this product sits in Class B. The section 6 maximum for dealing in a Class B controlled drug is 14 years. Possession is charged under section 7, where the maximum is 3 months. Supplying the medicine on to another person is dealing whatever the prescription says about the person it was dispensed to.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: Adderall resolves through the Schedule 2 amphetamine entry as a Class B controlled drug, not as an unscheduled medicine and not as a Class A one. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026 and expect to find the answer under amphetamine rather than under Adderall. Read the Schedule 2 amphetamine entry and its salts, isomers, esters and ethers wording, because the brand name will not be found in the Act. Carry the salts wording in particular, because that wording and not a brand listing is what makes a mixed amphetamine salts medicine a Class B controlled drug. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Class B · legislation.govt.nz · The power that moves this list is section 4 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, under which the Governor General by Order in Council amends Schedules 1 to 3 subject to approval and commencement machinery. As those schedules stand after the Misuse of Drugs (Classification and Presumption of Supply) Order 2025, effective 27 November 2025, which this project's New Zealand substance dossier checked on 20 September 2026 records as the latest commenced classification instrument located, a 2026 Order was made and no commencement instrument for it was located. That does not rule out a later amendment made or commenced since. · Updated September 21, 2026

Adderall in New Zealand, full detail →

Alcohol

Legal status: Not a controlled drug on the text cited, and the absence was tested rather than assumed. Alcohol, ethanol, has no exact entry in Schedules 1 to 3 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, and the closed schedules were read together with the open section 2 analogue limb, whose definition excludes substances that are approved medicines or that lack substantial structural similarity to a controlled drug. That is why this is recorded as a positive closed-list absence and not as an unresolved question. It is regulated in New Zealand by a licensing regime rather than by the Misuse of Drugs Act, and this dossier reads only the Act and the 2013 Act. One route stays open: sale of an unapproved psychoactive product can engage the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 even where no controlled drug classification attaches. This was read against the consolidation current at 20 September 2026; the 2026 Classification and Presumption of Supply Order was made but no commencement instrument was located by that horizon, so nothing it proposes is treated as law here.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. New Zealand has no death penalty. No Misuse of Drugs Act ceiling attaches to alcohol either, because it is not established as a controlled drug on the cited text, so neither the section 6 dealing maximum nor the section 7 possession maximum has anything to fasten on. The exposure that does exist sits in the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013, on the route for unlawful sale of an unapproved psychoactive product, whose penalties are statutory and non-capital. That route reaches supply rather than a person carrying the substance. The exposure that actually attaches to alcohol in New Zealand comes from its own licensing, age and driving law, none of which this dossier read.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: alcohol is not established as a controlled drug on the text cited, so the Misuse of Drugs Act placement is a negative one and neither section 6 nor section 7 attaches to it. It is not carried as a prescription item, and the border rules that do apply to it are duty and quantity rules outside this dossier entirely. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026 and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 together, because the finding for alcohol needs both: the first for the negative and the second for the route that remains. Read this finding narrowly: it says alcohol is outside the controlled drug schedules, and it says nothing at all about the separate licensing, age and driving law that actually governs alcohol. Carry the reasoning and not only the result, because a negative is worth no more than the limb it was tested against, and here that limb is the section 2 exclusion for approved medicines and for substances lacking substantial structural similarity. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

who.int · The power that moves this list is section 4 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, under which the Governor General by Order in Council amends Schedules 1 to 3 subject to approval and commencement machinery. As those schedules stand after the Misuse of Drugs (Classification and Presumption of Supply) Order 2025, effective 27 November 2025, which this project's New Zealand substance dossier checked on 20 September 2026 records as the latest commenced classification instrument located, a 2026 Order was made and no commencement instrument for it was located. That does not rule out a later amendment made or commenced since. · Updated September 21, 2026

Alcohol in New Zealand, full detail →

Amanita muscaria

Legal status: Not a controlled drug on the text cited, and the absence was tested rather than assumed. Amanita muscaria, the fly agaric mushroom, active through ibotenic acid and muscimol rather than through a tryptamine, has no exact entry in Schedules 1 to 3 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, and the closed schedules were read together with the open section 2 analogue limb, whose definition excludes substances that are approved medicines or that lack substantial structural similarity to a controlled drug. That is why this is recorded as a positive closed-list absence and not as an unresolved question. Psilocybin has its own row in this table and is named in Schedule 1 as Class A, so the two mushrooms most often confused with one another land on opposite sides of this dossier's finding. One route stays open: sale of an unapproved psychoactive product can engage the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 even where no controlled drug classification attaches. The consolidation read was the one current at 20 September 2026, with the Order of 2025 commenced on 27 November 2025 as the latest instrument actually in force.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. New Zealand has no death penalty. No Misuse of Drugs Act ceiling attaches to Amanita muscaria either, because it is not established as a controlled drug on the cited text, so neither the section 6 dealing maximum nor the section 7 possession maximum has anything to fasten on. The exposure that does exist sits in the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013, on the route for unlawful sale of an unapproved psychoactive product, whose penalties are statutory and non-capital. That route reaches supply rather than a person carrying the substance. Dried caps offered for consumption raise the product route, while the same species growing in a paddock raises nothing under either Act.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: Amanita muscaria is not established as a controlled drug on the text cited, so the Misuse of Drugs Act placement is a negative one and neither section 6 nor section 7 attaches to it. It is not a dispensed medicine, and the psilocybin row shows that a negative on one fungus says nothing about another. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026 and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 together, because the finding for Amanita muscaria needs both: the first for the negative and the second for the route that remains. Read this row against the psilocybin row before treating any mushroom as answered, because the species and not the word mushroom decides it. Carry the reasoning and not only the result, because a negative is worth no more than the limb it was tested against, and here that limb is the section 2 exclusion for approved medicines and for substances lacking substantial structural similarity. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

Amanita muscaria in New Zealand, full detail →

Amphetamine

Legal status: Controlled, and named rather than inferred. Schedule 2 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 names or describes amphetamine, the parent substituted amphetamine stimulant, as a Class B controlled drug, and the entry reaches its named salt, preparation or mixture. New Zealand's list is closed for named substances, so a named entry settles the class without recourse to the section 2 controlled-drug-analogue limb that carries sixteen other rows in this table. Adderall has its own row here and resolves through this very entry rather than by brand name, and methamphetamine sits a class above it in Schedule 1. The reading is against the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, whose latest commenced classification instrument is the Misuse of Drugs (Classification and Presumption of Supply) Order 2025, in force from 27 November 2025.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. New Zealand has no death penalty, and no life term is available for a Class B controlled drug. The exposure on amphetamine is the section 6 maximum of 14 years for dealing. Possession is charged under section 7, where the maximum is 3 months. Both figures are maxima rather than mandatory sentences, and a Schedule 5 quantity raises a presumption of supply rather than a sentence of its own. The salts wording in the entry is what makes a dispensed tablet the same controlled drug as a street powder, so the figure does not distinguish the two by origin.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: amphetamine is a Class B controlled drug under Schedule 2, with sections 6 and 7 supplying the offences. This is a live question rather than a theoretical one, because the adderall row resolves through this very entry and a dispensed tablet is the same controlled drug. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, which is the official New Zealand Legislation text rather than a secondary summary. Read the Schedule 2 amphetamine entry with its salts and isomers wording, because that wording is what carries the adderall row. Carry the class and the ceiling as two separate readings, because Schedule 2 supplies the class for amphetamine while sections 6 and 7 supply the maximum. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

Amphetamine in New Zealand, full detail →

Amyl Nitrite

Legal status: Not a controlled drug on the text cited, and the absence was tested rather than assumed. Amyl nitrite, an alkyl nitrite inhalant, has no exact entry in Schedules 1 to 3 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, and the closed schedules were read together with the open section 2 analogue limb, whose definition excludes substances that are approved medicines or that lack substantial structural similarity to a controlled drug. That is why this is recorded as a positive closed-list absence and not as an unresolved question. The poppers row in this table points here, because poppers is a label for the alkyl nitrites rather than a substance of its own. One route stays open: sale of an unapproved psychoactive product can engage the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 even where no controlled drug classification attaches. The reading is against the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, whose latest commenced classification instrument is the Misuse of Drugs (Classification and Presumption of Supply) Order 2025, in force from 27 November 2025.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. New Zealand has no death penalty. No Misuse of Drugs Act ceiling attaches to amyl nitrite either, because it is not established as a controlled drug on the cited text, so neither the section 6 dealing maximum nor the section 7 possession maximum has anything to fasten on. The exposure that does exist sits in the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013, on the route for unlawful sale of an unapproved psychoactive product, whose penalties are statutory and non-capital. That route reaches supply rather than a person carrying the substance. A bottle offered for inhalation is a product, and any exposure sits there rather than in a possession offence.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: amyl nitrite is not established as a controlled drug on the text cited, so the Misuse of Drugs Act placement is a negative one and neither section 6 nor section 7 attaches to it. Clinical nitrite preparations exist for other indications, and this finding does not address them. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026 and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 together, because the finding for amyl nitrite needs both: the first for the negative and the second for the route that remains. Read this row whenever the poppers row sends you to a constituent, and read the 2013 Act route for anything sold for inhalation. Carry the reasoning and not only the result, because a negative is worth no more than the limb it was tested against, and here that limb is the section 2 exclusion for approved medicines and for substances lacking substantial structural similarity. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

Amyl Nitrite in New Zealand, full detail →

Ayahuasca

Legal status: Controlled as a preparation, not as a named brew. Ayahuasca is a brew traditionally prepared from DMT-containing and monoamine oxidase inhibiting plants, and the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 does not schedule it by that traditional name; Schedule 1 controls dimethyltryptamine and preparations containing it, so a brew containing DMT is a Class A preparation. DMT has its own row in this table and is named in Schedule 1, and it is the preparations limb attached to that entry, not any entry for the brew, that carries this finding. The consequence is that the finding follows the content of the liquid rather than its cultural description, and a brew that contains DMT is Class A however it was prepared or why. This was read against the consolidation current at 20 September 2026; the 2026 Classification and Presumption of Supply Order was made but no commencement instrument was located by that horizon, so nothing it proposes is treated as law here.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. New Zealand has no death penalty. The exposure that does exist is a life ceiling: section 6 sets life imprisonment as the maximum for dealing in a Class A controlled drug, and a DMT-containing brew is a Class A preparation, so importing or supplying ayahuasca carries that ceiling. It is a maximum and not a mandatory term. Possession falls under section 7 at a maximum of 6 months. Bringing a quantity into the country is an import under section 6 rather than a possession question, which is the distinction that most often surprises people about this substance.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: ayahuasca is not scheduled under its own name, and a brew containing DMT is a Class A preparation under Schedule 1. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026 and look for dimethyltryptamine, because searching the Act for ayahuasca returns nothing and that silence is not a finding. Read the Schedule 1 DMT entry and its preparations limb, because the traditional name does not appear in the Act. Carry the preparations limb in writing, since it is the limb that turns a plant brew into a Class A controlled drug. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

Ayahuasca in New Zealand, full detail →

Benzodiazepines

Legal status: Resolved member by member, and every member this table names lands in the same place. The Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 defines a controlled drug as any substance, preparation, mixture or article specified or described in Schedule 1, 2 or 3, so a class name is not itself an entry and the question has to be put to each molecule. Put to the six this table carries, the answer does not vary: diazepam, alprazolam, clonazepam, lorazepam, etizolam and nimetazepam are each named or described in Schedule 3 as Class C controlled drugs, reaching the relevant salts and preparations, and etizolam is a thienodiazepine rather than a true benzodiazepine yet sits in the same class. A benzodiazepine not named in Schedule 3 is reached, if at all, through the section 2 controlled-drug-analogue limb, which is also treated as Class C, so both routes converge. Zolpidem is often grouped with these drugs, is not one of them, and has its own row here.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. New Zealand has no death penalty. All six named members sit in Schedule 3, where section 6 caps dealing at 8 years, subject to the Act's adult-supply distinctions, and section 7 caps possession at 3 months. A benzodiazepine reached through the analogue limb instead is also Class C, so the 8 year figure is the ceiling on either route. Nothing in this class reaches the 14 year Class B ceiling or the Class A life ceiling. Passing tablets to another person is dealing under section 6 even when the tablets were lawfully dispensed.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement, and for every benzodiazepine this table names it is Class C under Schedule 3, the lowest of the Act's three classes, carrying an 8 year dealing ceiling and a 3 month possession ceiling. A prescribed benzodiazepine is not a Class A drug in New Zealand and carries no life exposure, and any page that says otherwise is wrong. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026 and read Schedule 3 for the individual molecule, because the word benzodiazepine will not be found there as an entry. Read the six member rows in this table, diazepam, alprazolam, clonazepam, lorazepam, etizolam and nimetazepam, since each was resolved separately and all six agree. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

Benzodiazepines in New Zealand, full detail →

Buprenorphine

Legal status: Controlled, and named rather than inferred. Schedule 2 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 names or describes buprenorphine, a partial opioid agonist used in opioid substitution treatment, as a Class B controlled drug, and the entry reaches its named salt, preparation or mixture. New Zealand's list is closed for named substances, so a named entry settles the class without recourse to the section 2 controlled-drug-analogue limb that carries sixteen other rows in this table. Methadone has its own row here and sits in the same Schedule 2 class, so the two substitution medicines answer alike under the Act whatever their clinical differences. This was read against the consolidation current at 20 September 2026; the 2026 Classification and Presumption of Supply Order was made but no commencement instrument was located by that horizon, so nothing it proposes is treated as law here.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. There is no capital sentence in New Zealand, and section 6 reserves life imprisonment for Class A. So for buprenorphine the section 6 dealing maximum is 14 years and the section 7 possession maximum is 3 months. Neither is mandatory, and the Schedule 5 quantity for this class shifts a case toward supply rather than fixing its outcome. Passing a dose to another person is dealing under section 6 whether or not money changes hands, which is the realistic exposure for a substitution medicine.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: buprenorphine is a Class B controlled drug under Schedule 2, with sections 6 and 7 supplying the offences. This is genuinely a dispensed medicine, and the placement is a reason to confirm the border rule before travelling rather than a reason to abandon a course of treatment. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, which is the official New Zealand Legislation text rather than a secondary summary. Read the Schedule 2 buprenorphine entry beside section 7, and note that the Act's class does not describe the prescribing regime. Carry the class and the ceiling as two separate readings, because Schedule 2 supplies the class for buprenorphine while sections 6 and 7 supply the maximum. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

Buprenorphine in New Zealand, full detail →

Caffeine

Legal status: Not a controlled drug on the text cited, and the absence was tested rather than assumed. Caffeine, a xanthine stimulant, has no exact entry in Schedules 1 to 3 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, and the closed schedules were read together with the open section 2 analogue limb, whose definition excludes substances that are approved medicines or that lack substantial structural similarity to a controlled drug. That is why this is recorded as a positive closed-list absence and not as an unresolved question. It appears in this table because it is reported as a bulking constituent of powders sold under other names, not because any schedule reaches it. One route stays open: sale of an unapproved psychoactive product can engage the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 even where no controlled drug classification attaches. This was read against the consolidation current at 20 September 2026; the 2026 Classification and Presumption of Supply Order was made but no commencement instrument was located by that horizon, so nothing it proposes is treated as law here.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. New Zealand has no death penalty. No Misuse of Drugs Act ceiling attaches to caffeine either, because it is not established as a controlled drug on the cited text, so neither the section 6 dealing maximum nor the section 7 possession maximum has anything to fasten on. The exposure that does exist sits in the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013, on the route for unlawful sale of an unapproved psychoactive product, whose penalties are statutory and non-capital. That route reaches supply rather than a person carrying the substance. High dose powders are sold as products, so a seller's exposure comes from product law rather than from any drug schedule.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: caffeine is not established as a controlled drug on the text cited, so the Misuse of Drugs Act placement is a negative one and neither section 6 nor section 7 attaches to it. No prescribing question arises, and the substance is present in ordinary food and drink anyway. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026 and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 together, because the finding for caffeine needs both: the first for the negative and the second for the route that remains. Read this row as a negative finding only, and do not let the presence of caffeine in a mixture say anything about the rest of that mixture. Carry the reasoning and not only the result, because a negative is worth no more than the limb it was tested against, and here that limb is the section 2 exclusion for approved medicines and for substances lacking substantial structural similarity. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

Caffeine in New Zealand, full detail →

Cannabinol

Legal status: Not a controlled drug on the text cited, and the absence was tested rather than assumed. Cannabinol, a cannabinoid formed as tetrahydrocannabinol degrades, has no exact entry in Schedules 1 to 3 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, and the closed schedules were read together with the open section 2 analogue limb, whose definition excludes substances that are approved medicines or that lack substantial structural similarity to a controlled drug. That is why this is recorded as a positive closed-list absence and not as an unresolved question. Cannabis has its own row in this table and splits across Schedules 2 and 3, so a cannabis preparation is controlled even where this dossier does not establish control of this isolated cannabinoid. One route stays open: sale of an unapproved psychoactive product can engage the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 even where no controlled drug classification attaches. The consolidation read was the one current at 20 September 2026, with the Order of 2025 commenced on 27 November 2025 as the latest instrument actually in force.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. New Zealand has no death penalty. No Misuse of Drugs Act ceiling attaches to cannabinol either, because it is not established as a controlled drug on the cited text, so neither the section 6 dealing maximum nor the section 7 possession maximum has anything to fasten on. The exposure that does exist sits in the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013, on the route for unlawful sale of an unapproved psychoactive product, whose penalties are statutory and non-capital. That route reaches supply rather than a person carrying the substance. This cannabinoid arises by degradation inside cannabis material rather than by separate manufacture, and that material has its own row in this table with its own class and figures, so it engages that row as well as this one. Whether degraded plant material is answered by that row or by this one is not settled by either of them, nor by the source read here.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: cannabinol is not established as a controlled drug on the text cited, so the Misuse of Drugs Act placement is a negative one and neither section 6 nor section 7 attaches to it. Anyone carrying a product derived from cannabis material should read the cannabis row of this table alongside this one, because the two rows record different findings and nothing in the source read here says which of them answers such a product. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026 and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 together, because the finding for cannabinol needs both: the first for the negative and the second for the route that remains. Read the cannabis row before relying on this one, because plant material or a preparation containing it is answered there and not here. Carry the reasoning and not only the result, because a negative is worth no more than the limb it was tested against, and here that limb is the section 2 exclusion for approved medicines and for substances lacking substantial structural similarity. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

Cannabinol in New Zealand, full detail →

Cannabis / THC

Legal status: Controlled, and split across two classes, which is the fact most English accounts of New Zealand get wrong. The Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 places cannabis preparations in Class B and the cannabis plant in Class C, so oil or resin and plant material are not the same question and do not carry the same ceiling. New Zealand did not legalise recreational cannabis. Limited medical and palliative exceptions exist and they do not create a general market. Sections 6, 7 and 7A are the operative provisions, and the section 7 prosecution discretion toward a health-centred response is discretion rather than decriminalisation. The reading is against the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, whose latest commenced classification instrument is the Misuse of Drugs (Classification and Presumption of Supply) Order 2025, in force from 27 November 2025.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. There is no death penalty in New Zealand, and life under section 6 is reserved for Class A, which cannabis is not in either of its forms. Section 6 caps dealing in a Class B cannabis preparation at 14 years and dealing in the Class C plant at 8 years. Possession carries lower maxima under section 7, and the prosecution discretion that section directs does not make possession lawful. The practical trap is that converting plant material into oil or resin moves the same person from the 8 year ceiling to the 14 year one.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: cannabis is split between Schedules 2 and 3, preparations at Class B and plant material at Class C, and the dossier records limited medical and palliative exceptions without stating any rule for bringing a supply into the country. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026 and expect it to give two answers rather than one, since the plant and the preparations made from it sit in different schedules. Read both the Schedule 2 and the Schedule 3 cannabis wording, and read section 7A as well, because a single class answer for cannabis is wrong in New Zealand. Carry section 7A alongside sections 6 and 7, since the dossier names all three for this row and only this row. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

Cannabis / THC in New Zealand, full detail →

Cathinone

Legal status: Controlled, and named rather than inferred. Schedule 2 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 names or describes cathinone, the principal stimulant alkaloid of the khat plant, as a Class B controlled drug, and the entry reaches its named salt, preparation or mixture. New Zealand's list is closed for named substances, so a named entry settles the class without recourse to the section 2 controlled-drug-analogue limb that carries sixteen other rows in this table. Khat has its own row here and is not established as a controlled drug on the text cited, so the plant and its alkaloid do not answer alike in this dossier. The consolidation read was the one current at 20 September 2026, with the Order of 2025 commenced on 27 November 2025 as the latest instrument actually in force.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. The death penalty does not exist in New Zealand law. Section 6 carries a maximum of 14 years for dealing in a Class B controlled drug, which is the class cathinone sits in, and section 7 carries 3 months for possession. The Act sets ceilings, and Schedule 5 sets a presumption of supply rather than a tariff. The figures above attach to the named alkaloid, while the khat row of this same table records the leaf it comes from as a closed-list absence. The two rows therefore point in opposite directions, and neither of them, nor the source read here, settles what a preparation or extract made from that leaf is charged on.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: cathinone is a Class B controlled drug under Schedule 2, with sections 6 and 7 supplying the offences. No dispensed form of the alkaloid arises, and a person carrying leaf meets the khat row of this table, which records a finding of its own rather than a route back to this one. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, which is the official New Zealand Legislation text rather than a secondary summary. Read the Schedule 2 cathinone entry and the khat row of this same table as two separate findings, and do not read either one as a chain into the other. Carry the class and the ceiling as two separate readings, because Schedule 2 supplies the class for cathinone while sections 6 and 7 supply the maximum. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

Cathinone in New Zealand, full detail →

CBD

Legal status: Not a controlled drug on the text cited, and the absence was tested rather than assumed. CBD, the non-intoxicating cannabinoid cannabidiol, has no exact entry in Schedules 1 to 3 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, and the closed schedules were read together with the open section 2 analogue limb, whose definition excludes substances that are approved medicines or that lack substantial structural similarity to a controlled drug. That is why this is recorded as a positive closed-list absence and not as an unresolved question. Cannabis and its preparations have their own row in this table, carrying their own class and their own section 6 and section 7 figures, so a product made from cannabis material engages that row as well as this one. One route stays open: sale of an unapproved psychoactive product can engage the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 even where no controlled drug classification attaches. The reading is against the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, whose latest commenced classification instrument is the Misuse of Drugs (Classification and Presumption of Supply) Order 2025, in force from 27 November 2025.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. New Zealand has no death penalty. No Misuse of Drugs Act ceiling attaches to CBD either, because it is not established as a controlled drug on the cited text, so neither the section 6 dealing maximum nor the section 7 possession maximum has anything to fasten on. The exposure that does exist sits in the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013, on the route for unlawful sale of an unapproved psychoactive product, whose penalties are statutory and non-capital. That route reaches supply rather than a person carrying the substance. Cannabidiol products are commonly made by extraction from cannabis material, and the cannabis row of this table carries its own class and its own section 6 and section 7 figures for that material and for preparations of it, so such a product engages that row as well as this one. Which of the two rows answers a given extract is not settled by either of them, nor by the source read here.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: CBD is not established as a controlled drug on the text cited, so the Misuse of Drugs Act placement is a negative one and neither section 6 nor section 7 attaches to it. Prescribed cannabidiol products exist in several countries, and the cited text establishes no rule at all for bringing one into New Zealand. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026 and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 together, because the finding for CBD needs both: the first for the negative and the second for the route that remains. Read the cannabis row alongside this one, and treat the source material of a CBD product as the live question rather than the name on the label. Carry the reasoning and not only the result, because a negative is worth no more than the limb it was tested against, and here that limb is the section 2 exclusion for approved medicines and for substances lacking substantial structural similarity. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

legislation.govt.nz · The power that moves this list is section 4 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, under which the Governor General by Order in Council amends Schedules 1 to 3 subject to approval and commencement machinery. As those schedules stand after the Misuse of Drugs (Classification and Presumption of Supply) Order 2025, effective 27 November 2025, which this project's New Zealand substance dossier checked on 20 September 2026 records as the latest commenced classification instrument located, a 2026 Order was made and no commencement instrument for it was located. That does not rule out a later amendment made or commenced since. · Updated September 21, 2026

CBD in New Zealand, full detail →

Clonazepam

Legal status: Controlled, and named rather than inferred. Schedule 3 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 names or describes clonazepam, a nitrobenzodiazepine used as an anticonvulsant, as a Class C controlled drug, and the entry reaches the relevant salts and preparations. New Zealand's list is closed for named substances, so a named entry settles the class without recourse to the section 2 controlled-drug-analogue limb that carries sixteen other rows in this table. Nimetazepam has its own row here and shares its class, and so do the other four benzodiazepines this table carries. This was read against the consolidation current at 20 September 2026; the 2026 Classification and Presumption of Supply Order was made but no commencement instrument was located by that horizon, so nothing it proposes is treated as law here.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. No capital sentence exists in New Zealand, and Class C is the lowest of the Act's three classes. For clonazepam the section 6 dealing maximum is 8 years, subject to the distinctions the Act draws around supply to adults, and the section 7 possession maximum is 3 months. English accounts that call the section 7 discretion decriminalisation are wrong, and the offence remains an offence. An anticonvulsant indication does not lower the section 6 position for a person who supplies tablets on to someone else.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: clonazepam is a Class C controlled drug under Schedule 3, with sections 6 and 7 supplying the offences. Epilepsy treatment is a strong reason to be carrying a supply, and the placement should be read alongside a border rule that this dossier does not supply. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, which is the official New Zealand Legislation text rather than a secondary summary. Read the Schedule 3 clonazepam entry beside section 7, and note that an anticonvulsant indication does not change the schedule. Carry the class and the ceiling as two separate readings, because Schedule 3 supplies the class for clonazepam while sections 6 and 7 supply the maximum. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

Clonazepam in New Zealand, full detail →

Cocaine

Legal status: Controlled, and named rather than inferred. Schedule 1 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 names or describes cocaine, a tropane alkaloid stimulant, as a Class A controlled drug, and the entry carries the derivatives and preparations limb attached to it. New Zealand's list is closed for named substances, so a named entry settles the class without recourse to the section 2 controlled-drug-analogue limb that carries sixteen other rows in this table. Crack cocaine has its own row here and resolves in the same Schedule 1 class, so the freebase form does not change the class. This was read against the consolidation current at 20 September 2026; the 2026 Classification and Presumption of Supply Order was made but no commencement instrument was located by that horizon, so nothing it proposes is treated as law here.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. The death penalty was abolished in New Zealand. What section 6 carries for cocaine, a Class A controlled drug, is a maximum of life imprisonment for import, manufacture or supply, and nothing about that term is mandatory. Section 7 sets the possession maximum at 6 months, the highest possession figure in the Act. A Schedule 5 quantity raises a presumption of supply and does not decide the sentence. Cutting agents do not dilute the class, because the preparations limb reaches a mixture as readily as the pure salt.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: cocaine is a Class A controlled drug under Schedule 1, with sections 6 and 7 supplying the offences. This is not a medicine a traveller carries, so the border question that arises on this row is import, not the declaration of a prescription. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, which is the official New Zealand Legislation text rather than a secondary summary. Read the Schedule 1 cocaine entry with its derivatives and preparations limb, which is what reaches a salt or a cut powder. Carry the class and the ceiling as two separate readings, because Schedule 1 supplies the class for cocaine while sections 6 and 7 supply the maximum. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

Cocaine in New Zealand, full detail →

Codeine

Legal status: Controlled, and named rather than inferred. Schedule 3 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 names or describes codeine, a weak opioid alkaloid of opium, as a Class C controlled drug, and the entry reaches the relevant salts and preparations. New Zealand's list is closed for named substances, so a named entry settles the class without recourse to the section 2 controlled-drug-analogue limb that carries sixteen other rows in this table. Morphine, into which it is metabolised, has its own row here and sits a class above in Schedule 2, so the two are separated by 6 years of ceiling. The consolidation read was the one current at 20 September 2026, with the Order of 2025 commenced on 27 November 2025 as the latest instrument actually in force.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. The death penalty was abolished and no life term reaches Class C. The section 6 dealing ceiling for codeine is 8 years and the section 7 possession ceiling is 3 months. The 8 year figure is subject to the Act's adult-supply distinctions. A health-centred prosecution response is directed for qualifying possession, and that is discretion rather than legality. Combination analgesics are preparations and are reached by the entry, so the presence of paracetamol does not take a packet outside the class.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: codeine is a Class C controlled drug under Schedule 3, with sections 6 and 7 supplying the offences. Prescribed and over the counter codeine products are among the most commonly carried medicines there are, and the placement is the lowest class. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, which is the official New Zealand Legislation text rather than a secondary summary. Read the Schedule 3 codeine entry with its preparations wording, because combination analgesics are preparations. Carry the class and the ceiling as two separate readings, because Schedule 3 supplies the class for codeine while sections 6 and 7 supply the maximum. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

Codeine in New Zealand, full detail →

Crack Cocaine

Legal status: Controlled, and named rather than inferred. Schedule 1 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 names or describes crack cocaine, the smokable freebase form of cocaine, as a Class A controlled drug, and the entry carries the derivatives and preparations limb attached to it. New Zealand's list is closed for named substances, so a named entry settles the class without recourse to the section 2 controlled-drug-analogue limb that carries sixteen other rows in this table. Cocaine has its own row here and sits in the same class, so the preparation and the salt answer alike and the form of the drug does not move the ceiling. The consolidation read was the one current at 20 September 2026, with the Order of 2025 commenced on 27 November 2025 as the latest instrument actually in force.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. No capital sentence exists anywhere in New Zealand law. The section 6 ceiling for dealing in a Class A controlled drug is life imprisonment, and that is the class crack cocaine sits in. Life is the ceiling and not the starting point. Possession falls under section 7 at a maximum of 6 months. Schedule 5 sets the quantity at which supply is presumed, which shifts which section is in play rather than what the sentence will be. Converting the salt to freebase does not lower the class, so a person who cooks it keeps the same ceiling and adds a manufacture limb to it.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: crack cocaine is a Class A controlled drug under Schedule 1, with sections 6 and 7 supplying the offences. Nothing here presents as a dispensed product, and the street name will not be found in the Act, so a border question resolves through the cocaine entry. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, which is the official New Zealand Legislation text rather than a secondary summary. Read the Schedule 1 entry together with the preparations limb, because crack is reached as a preparation rather than by that street name. Carry the class and the ceiling as two separate readings, because Schedule 1 supplies the class for crack cocaine while sections 6 and 7 supply the maximum. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

Crack Cocaine in New Zealand, full detail →

Delta-8-THC

Legal status: Controlled through the open analogue limb rather than by a schedule name. Delta-8-THC, a tetrahydrocannabinol isomer, has no entry of its own in Schedules 1 to 3 on the text cited, and this finding does not rest on that absence: the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 defines a controlled drug analogue as any substance whose structure is substantially similar to that of a controlled drug, subject to the stated exclusions, and the stated parent structure places Delta-8-THC in that limb unless a medicine exclusion or an express exclusion applies. The analogue route lands in Schedule 3 Part 7, so the class is C. Cannabis has its own row here and splits across Schedules 2 and 3, so the plant and its preparations are named while this isomer is reached through the analogue limb. The dossier states the statutory route rather than claiming a laboratory determination, because a court-grade analogue conclusion can depend on expert structural evidence. The consolidation read was the one current at 20 September 2026, with the Order of 2025 commenced on 27 November 2025 as the latest instrument actually in force.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. New Zealand has no death penalty. A controlled drug analogue is treated as a Class C controlled drug, so the exposure on Delta-8-THC is the section 6 dealing maximum of 8 years, with section 7 reaching possession. This row's own ceiling column states the section 7 limb without attaching a figure to it, and the Class C rows in this table put that possession maximum at 3 months. The 8 year figure is the whole of the exposure on this route. Cannabis preparations carry 14 years on their own entry while this isomer carries 8 on the analogue route, so the same plant can yield two different ceilings depending on what is isolated.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: Delta-8-THC is not named in Schedules 1 to 3 and is reached, if at all, through the section 2 controlled-drug-analogue limb, which is treated as Class C. Products carrying this isomer are sold openly in some countries, and that fact establishes nothing whatever about the New Zealand position. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026 and read section 2 together with Schedule 3 Part 7, because neither carries the finding for Delta-8-THC on its own. Read the analogue definition beside the cannabis entries in Schedules 2 and 3, because the isomer question and the plant question are answered in different places. Carry the point that an absent name is not an answer in New Zealand: the list is closed for named substances while the analogue limb is open, so a search of the schedules that returns nothing has not finished the question. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

Delta-8-THC in New Zealand, full detail →

Diazepam

Legal status: Controlled, and named rather than inferred. Schedule 3 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 names or describes diazepam, a long acting benzodiazepine, as a Class C controlled drug, and the entry reaches the relevant salts and preparations. New Zealand's list is closed for named substances, so a named entry settles the class without recourse to the section 2 controlled-drug-analogue limb that carries sixteen other rows in this table. It is the substance most often carried by travellers on prescription among the six benzodiazepines this table names, and it sits in the lowest of the three classes. The reading is against the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, whose latest commenced classification instrument is the Misuse of Drugs (Classification and Presumption of Supply) Order 2025, in force from 27 November 2025.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. New Zealand has no death penalty. Section 6 caps dealing in a Class C controlled drug at 8 years, subject to the adult-supply distinctions the Act draws, and that is the ceiling on diazepam. Possession is charged under section 7, where the maximum is 3 months. Section 7 also directs prosecution discretion toward a health-centred response in qualifying possession cases, which is not decriminalisation and does not make possession lawful. A prescribed supply carried by the person it was dispensed to is not a dealing case, and nothing in this placement puts it anywhere near the Class A ceiling.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: diazepam is a Class C controlled drug under Schedule 3, with sections 6 and 7 supplying the offences. It is the benzodiazepine most often carried on prescription, and it belongs to the lowest of the three classes, with a dealing ceiling of 8 years and nothing resembling a life term anywhere near it. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, which is the official New Zealand Legislation text rather than a secondary summary. Read the Schedule 3 diazepam entry and section 7 together, and never read a Class A ceiling across to it. Carry the class and the ceiling as two separate readings, because Schedule 3 supplies the class for diazepam while sections 6 and 7 supply the maximum. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

Diazepam in New Zealand, full detail →

DMT

Legal status: Controlled, and named rather than inferred. Schedule 1 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 names or describes DMT, dimethyltryptamine, as a Class A controlled drug, and the entry carries the derivatives and preparations limb attached to it. New Zealand's list is closed for named substances, so a named entry settles the class without recourse to the section 2 controlled-drug-analogue limb that carries sixteen other rows in this table. Ayahuasca has its own row here and is answered through the Schedule 1 preparations limb attached to this very entry, so the brew and the pure compound share a class. The reading is against the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, whose latest commenced classification instrument is the Misuse of Drugs (Classification and Presumption of Supply) Order 2025, in force from 27 November 2025.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. New Zealand has no death penalty. The exposure that does exist is the section 6 maximum of life imprisonment for importing, manufacturing or supplying a Class A controlled drug, and DMT is Class A, so all three limbs carry it. Life is a ceiling and not a mandatory term. Possession is charged under section 7, where the maximum is 6 months. The Schedule 5 quantities create a presumption of supply, so crossing a quantity moves the charge toward section 6 rather than fixing the outcome. Because the entry reaches preparations, a liquid or a plant mixture carrying the compound attracts the same ceiling as the crystalline form.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: DMT is a Class A controlled drug under Schedule 1, with sections 6 and 7 supplying the offences. A person is far likelier to be carrying this as a plant preparation than as a dispensed product, and the preparations limb does not care which. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, which is the official New Zealand Legislation text rather than a secondary summary. Read the Schedule 1 DMT entry and its preparations limb, since that limb is what carries the ayahuasca row as well. Carry the class and the ceiling as two separate readings, because Schedule 1 supplies the class for DMT while sections 6 and 7 supply the maximum. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

DMT in New Zealand, full detail →

DOM

Legal status: Not a controlled drug on the text cited, and the absence was tested rather than assumed. DOM, a substituted amphetamine psychedelic also known as STP, has no exact entry in Schedules 1 to 3 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, and the closed schedules were read together with the open section 2 analogue limb, whose definition excludes substances that are approved medicines or that lack substantial structural similarity to a controlled drug. That is why this is recorded as a positive closed-list absence and not as an unresolved question. This dossier does not place it in Schedules 1 to 3 on the text cited, which is a narrower finding than the popular accounts of it, and the analogue limb was read before the negative was recorded. One route stays open: sale of an unapproved psychoactive product can engage the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 even where no controlled drug classification attaches. This was read against the consolidation current at 20 September 2026; the 2026 Classification and Presumption of Supply Order was made but no commencement instrument was located by that horizon, so nothing it proposes is treated as law here.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. New Zealand has no death penalty. No Misuse of Drugs Act ceiling attaches to DOM either, because it is not established as a controlled drug on the cited text, so neither the section 6 dealing maximum nor the section 7 possession maximum has anything to fasten on. The exposure that does exist sits in the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013, on the route for unlawful sale of an unapproved psychoactive product, whose penalties are statutory and non-capital. That route reaches supply rather than a person carrying the substance. The negative is narrower than it looks, because the open limb was checked before it was recorded and remains available to expert structural evidence.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: DOM is not established as a controlled drug on the text cited, so the Misuse of Drugs Act placement is a negative one and neither section 6 nor section 7 attaches to it. No dispensed form exists, and the negative was recorded only after the open limb was checked, so it is not a wide licence. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026 and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 together, because the finding for DOM needs both: the first for the negative and the second for the route that remains. Read the section 2 analogue exclusions for this row in particular, since the dossier records that the negative was reached only after the open limb was checked. Carry the reasoning and not only the result, because a negative is worth no more than the limb it was tested against, and here that limb is the section 2 exclusion for approved medicines and for substances lacking substantial structural similarity. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

DOM in New Zealand, full detail →

DXM

Legal status: Not a controlled drug on the text cited, and the absence was tested rather than assumed. DXM, the morphinan cough suppressant dextromethorphan, has no exact entry in Schedules 1 to 3 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, and the closed schedules were read together with the open section 2 analogue limb, whose definition excludes substances that are approved medicines or that lack substantial structural similarity to a controlled drug. That is why this is recorded as a positive closed-list absence and not as an unresolved question. PCP and ketamine both have their own rows in this table and are named as controlled drugs, so a dissociative effect profile does not by itself predict a schedule entry. One route stays open: sale of an unapproved psychoactive product can engage the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 even where no controlled drug classification attaches. The consolidation read was the one current at 20 September 2026, with the Order of 2025 commenced on 27 November 2025 as the latest instrument actually in force.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. New Zealand has no death penalty. No Misuse of Drugs Act ceiling attaches to DXM either, because it is not established as a controlled drug on the cited text, so neither the section 6 dealing maximum nor the section 7 possession maximum has anything to fasten on. The exposure that does exist sits in the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013, on the route for unlawful sale of an unapproved psychoactive product, whose penalties are statutory and non-capital. That route reaches supply rather than a person carrying the substance. Diversion of cough preparations is a medicines and product question, and no Misuse of Drugs Act ceiling attaches to it on this finding.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: DXM is not established as a controlled drug on the text cited, so the Misuse of Drugs Act placement is a negative one and neither section 6 nor section 7 attaches to it. It is sold over the counter in many countries, which is a reason someone may be carrying it without thinking of it as a medicine at all. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026 and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 together, because the finding for DXM needs both: the first for the negative and the second for the route that remains. Read this row with the medicines question in mind, because the dossier records that medicines status is a separate check it did not resolve into a border rule. Carry the reasoning and not only the result, because a negative is worth no more than the limb it was tested against, and here that limb is the section 2 exclusion for approved medicines and for substances lacking substantial structural similarity. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

health.govt.nz · The power that moves this list is section 4 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, under which the Governor General by Order in Council amends Schedules 1 to 3 subject to approval and commencement machinery. As those schedules stand after the Misuse of Drugs (Classification and Presumption of Supply) Order 2025, effective 27 November 2025, which this project's New Zealand substance dossier checked on 20 September 2026 records as the latest commenced classification instrument located, a 2026 Order was made and no commencement instrument for it was located. That does not rule out a later amendment made or commenced since. · Updated September 21, 2026

DXM in New Zealand, full detail →

Ephedrine

Legal status: Controlled, and named rather than inferred. Schedule 2 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 names or describes ephedrine, a phenethylamine stimulant, as a Class B controlled drug, and the entry reaches its named salt, preparation or mixture. New Zealand's list is closed for named substances, so a named entry settles the class without recourse to the section 2 controlled-drug-analogue limb that carries sixteen other rows in this table. Methamphetamine has its own row here at Class A, so a precursor sits at Class B while what it makes sits at Class A. The reading is against the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, whose latest commenced classification instrument is the Misuse of Drugs (Classification and Presumption of Supply) Order 2025, in force from 27 November 2025.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. New Zealand has no death penalty, and no life term is available for a Class B controlled drug. The exposure on ephedrine is the section 6 maximum of 14 years for dealing. Possession is charged under section 7, where the maximum is 3 months. Both figures are maxima rather than mandatory sentences, and a Schedule 5 quantity raises a presumption of supply rather than a sentence of its own. The ceiling is the same as the one the finished stimulants in this class carry, which is the point of controlling a precursor at all.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: ephedrine is a Class B controlled drug under Schedule 2, with sections 6 and 7 supplying the offences. Pseudoephedrine, which the dossier records as the subject of a 2024 amendment, is a different substance from this one, and anyone carrying a cold remedy should establish which of the two it contains. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, which is the official New Zealand Legislation text rather than a secondary summary. Read the Schedule 2 ephedrine entry and note the dossier records a 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment in the chain it checked. Carry the class and the ceiling as two separate readings, because Schedule 2 supplies the class for ephedrine while sections 6 and 7 supply the maximum. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

Ephedrine in New Zealand, full detail →

Etizolam

Legal status: Controlled, and named rather than inferred. Schedule 3 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 names or describes etizolam, a thienodiazepine closely related to the benzodiazepines but not one of them, as a Class C controlled drug, and the entry reaches the relevant salts and preparations. New Zealand's list is closed for named substances, so a named entry settles the class without recourse to the section 2 controlled-drug-analogue limb that carries sixteen other rows in this table. It is named in Schedule 3 outright, so unlike the substituted compounds elsewhere in this table it does not depend on the analogue limb. This was read against the consolidation current at 20 September 2026; the 2026 Classification and Presumption of Supply Order was made but no commencement instrument was located by that horizon, so nothing it proposes is treated as law here.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. No capital sentence exists in New Zealand, and Class C is the lowest of the Act's three classes. For etizolam the section 6 dealing maximum is 8 years, subject to the distinctions the Act draws around supply to adults, and the section 7 possession maximum is 3 months. English accounts that call the section 7 discretion decriminalisation are wrong, and the offence remains an offence. It is frequently sold as though it were a benzodiazepine, and the figure is the same either way because the schedule names it in its own right.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: etizolam is a Class C controlled drug under Schedule 3, with sections 6 and 7 supplying the offences. Unlike the other five in this group it is not a routine prescription item in most countries, so anyone meeting it is likelier meeting an unlabelled tablet. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, which is the official New Zealand Legislation text rather than a secondary summary. Read the Schedule 3 etizolam entry and note it is named, so section 2 does not have to be reached for it. Carry the class and the ceiling as two separate readings, because Schedule 3 supplies the class for etizolam while sections 6 and 7 supply the maximum. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

Etizolam in New Zealand, full detail →

Fentanyl

Legal status: Controlled, and named rather than inferred. Schedule 2 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 names or describes fentanyl, a synthetic anilidopiperidine opioid, as a Class B controlled drug, and the entry reaches its named salt, preparation or mixture. New Zealand's list is closed for named substances, so a named entry settles the class without recourse to the section 2 controlled-drug-analogue limb that carries sixteen other rows in this table. Morphine, oxycodone and methadone all have their own rows here and share its Schedule 2 class, so potency does not move the class in New Zealand. This was read against the consolidation current at 20 September 2026; the 2026 Classification and Presumption of Supply Order was made but no commencement instrument was located by that horizon, so nothing it proposes is treated as law here.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. There is no capital sentence in New Zealand, and section 6 reserves life imprisonment for Class A. So for fentanyl the section 6 dealing maximum is 14 years and the section 7 possession maximum is 3 months. Neither is mandatory, and the Schedule 5 quantity for this class shifts a case toward supply rather than fixing its outcome. Because the entry reaches preparations, a patch or a mixed powder is the same controlled drug as the pure substance, and potency does not raise the figure.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: fentanyl is a Class B controlled drug under Schedule 2, with sections 6 and 7 supplying the offences. Transdermal patches are a real item in a medicine case, so the placement matters more here than on most rows of this class. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, which is the official New Zealand Legislation text rather than a secondary summary. Read the Schedule 2 fentanyl entry with its preparations wording, since a patch or a mixed powder is a preparation. Carry the class and the ceiling as two separate readings, because Schedule 2 supplies the class for fentanyl while sections 6 and 7 supply the maximum. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

Fentanyl in New Zealand, full detail →

Gabapentin

Legal status: Not a controlled drug on the text cited, and the absence was tested rather than assumed. Gabapentin, a gabapentinoid anticonvulsant, has no exact entry in Schedules 1 to 3 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, and the closed schedules were read together with the open section 2 analogue limb, whose definition excludes substances that are approved medicines or that lack substantial structural similarity to a controlled drug. That is why this is recorded as a positive closed-list absence and not as an unresolved question. Pregabalin has its own row in this table and carries the same negative finding, so the two gabapentinoids answer alike here. One route stays open: sale of an unapproved psychoactive product can engage the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 even where no controlled drug classification attaches. The reading is against the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, whose latest commenced classification instrument is the Misuse of Drugs (Classification and Presumption of Supply) Order 2025, in force from 27 November 2025.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. New Zealand has no death penalty. No Misuse of Drugs Act ceiling attaches to gabapentin either, because it is not established as a controlled drug on the cited text, so neither the section 6 dealing maximum nor the section 7 possession maximum has anything to fasten on. The exposure that does exist sits in the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013, on the route for unlawful sale of an unapproved psychoactive product, whose penalties are statutory and non-capital. That route reaches supply rather than a person carrying the substance. Nothing in the Act attaches to it, so a seller's exposure would come from the medicines regime instead.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: gabapentin is not established as a controlled drug on the text cited, so the Misuse of Drugs Act placement is a negative one and neither section 6 nor section 7 attaches to it. It is a very commonly prescribed anticonvulsant, and this negative addresses only the controlled drug schedules and not the medicines regime. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026 and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 together, because the finding for gabapentin needs both: the first for the negative and the second for the route that remains. Read the pregabalin row beside this one, and note that neither finding says anything about prescription-only status under the medicines regime. Carry the reasoning and not only the result, because a negative is worth no more than the limb it was tested against, and here that limb is the section 2 exclusion for approved medicines and for substances lacking substantial structural similarity. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

medsafe.govt.nz · The power that moves this list is section 4 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, under which the Governor General by Order in Council amends Schedules 1 to 3 subject to approval and commencement machinery. As those schedules stand after the Misuse of Drugs (Classification and Presumption of Supply) Order 2025, effective 27 November 2025, which this project's New Zealand substance dossier checked on 20 September 2026 records as the latest commenced classification instrument located, a 2026 Order was made and no commencement instrument for it was located. That does not rule out a later amendment made or commenced since. · Updated September 21, 2026

Gabapentin in New Zealand, full detail →

GBL

Legal status: Controlled, and named rather than inferred. Schedule 2 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 names or describes GBL, the lactone that the body converts to GHB, as a Class B controlled drug, and the entry reaches its named salt, preparation or mixture. New Zealand's list is closed for named substances, so a named entry settles the class without recourse to the section 2 controlled-drug-analogue limb that carries sixteen other rows in this table. GHB has its own row here and sits in the same Schedule 2 class, so the precursor lactone and the acid answer alike. The consolidation read was the one current at 20 September 2026, with the Order of 2025 commenced on 27 November 2025 as the latest instrument actually in force.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. The death penalty does not exist in New Zealand law. Section 6 carries a maximum of 14 years for dealing in a Class B controlled drug, which is the class GBL sits in, and section 7 carries 3 months for possession. The Act sets ceilings, and Schedule 5 sets a presumption of supply rather than a tariff. The exposure attaches to the lactone itself, so a person supplying it is dealing without ever having made the acid it converts to.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: GBL is a Class B controlled drug under Schedule 2, with sections 6 and 7 supplying the offences. No dispensed form is in view, and an industrial or solvent use falls outside what the cited text addresses. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, which is the official New Zealand Legislation text rather than a secondary summary. Read the Schedule 2 GBL entry beside the GHB entry, because the pair is the reason an industrial solvent name appears in a drug schedule. Carry the class and the ceiling as two separate readings, because Schedule 2 supplies the class for GBL while sections 6 and 7 supply the maximum. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

GBL in New Zealand, full detail →

GHB

Legal status: Controlled, and named rather than inferred. Schedule 2 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 names or describes GHB, gamma-hydroxybutyrate, as a Class B controlled drug, and the entry reaches its named salt, preparation or mixture. New Zealand's list is closed for named substances, so a named entry settles the class without recourse to the section 2 controlled-drug-analogue limb that carries sixteen other rows in this table. GBL has its own row here and shares its Schedule 2 class, so a finding on one does not distinguish the other. The reading is against the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, whose latest commenced classification instrument is the Misuse of Drugs (Classification and Presumption of Supply) Order 2025, in force from 27 November 2025.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. New Zealand has no death penalty, and no life term is available for a Class B controlled drug. The exposure on GHB is the section 6 maximum of 14 years for dealing. Possession is charged under section 7, where the maximum is 3 months. Both figures are maxima rather than mandatory sentences, and a Schedule 5 quantity raises a presumption of supply rather than a sentence of its own. A dosed liquid is a preparation, so the entry reaches a bottle of solution as readily as the pure salt.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: GHB is a Class B controlled drug under Schedule 2, with sections 6 and 7 supplying the offences. A border question would turn on whether the liquid is the controlled substance at all, and the cited text supplies no rule either way. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, which is the official New Zealand Legislation text rather than a secondary summary. Read the Schedule 2 GHB entry and the Schedule 5 presumption of supply quantity, which for a liquid is measured differently from a powder. Carry the class and the ceiling as two separate readings, because Schedule 2 supplies the class for GHB while sections 6 and 7 supply the maximum. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

GHB in New Zealand, full detail →

Heroin

Legal status: Controlled, and named rather than inferred. Schedule 1 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 names or describes heroin, a semi-synthetic opioid also called diamorphine, as a Class A controlled drug, and the entry carries the derivatives and preparations limb attached to it. New Zealand's list is closed for named substances, so a named entry settles the class without recourse to the section 2 controlled-drug-analogue limb that carries sixteen other rows in this table. Morphine, from which it is made, has its own row here and sits a class lower in Schedule 2, so the derivative carries a life ceiling where the parent carries 14 years. This was read against the consolidation current at 20 September 2026; the 2026 Classification and Presumption of Supply Order was made but no commencement instrument was located by that horizon, so nothing it proposes is treated as law here.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. The death penalty was abolished in New Zealand. What section 6 carries for heroin, a Class A controlled drug, is a maximum of life imprisonment for import, manufacture or supply, and nothing about that term is mandatory. Section 7 sets the possession maximum at 6 months, the highest possession figure in the Act. A Schedule 5 quantity raises a presumption of supply and does not decide the sentence. Section 6 lists import separately from supply, which matters here because carrying a quantity across the border engages the ceiling without any sale being alleged.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: heroin is a Class A controlled drug under Schedule 1, with sections 6 and 7 supplying the offences. Opioid substitution in New Zealand runs through the methadone and buprenorphine rows of this table rather than this one, so no prescribing question arises on this entry. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, which is the official New Zealand Legislation text rather than a secondary summary. Read the Schedule 1 heroin entry beside the Schedule 2 morphine entry, because the class gap between the two is the practical point. Carry the class and the ceiling as two separate readings, because Schedule 1 supplies the class for heroin while sections 6 and 7 supply the maximum. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

Heroin in New Zealand, full detail →

HHC

Legal status: Controlled through the open analogue limb rather than by a schedule name. HHC, a hydrogenated cannabinoid, has no entry of its own in Schedules 1 to 3 on the text cited, and this finding does not rest on that absence: the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 defines a controlled drug analogue as any substance whose structure is substantially similar to that of a controlled drug, subject to the stated exclusions, and the stated parent structure places HHC in that limb unless a medicine exclusion or an express exclusion applies. The analogue route lands in Schedule 3 Part 7, so the class is C. Hydrogenation is exactly the kind of small structural change the analogue limb was written to catch, and the dossier places HHC on that route rather than on a named entry. The dossier states the statutory route rather than claiming a laboratory determination, because a court-grade analogue conclusion can depend on expert structural evidence. The reading is against the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, whose latest commenced classification instrument is the Misuse of Drugs (Classification and Presumption of Supply) Order 2025, in force from 27 November 2025.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. New Zealand has no death penalty. A controlled drug analogue is treated as a Class C controlled drug, so the exposure on HHC is the section 6 dealing maximum of 8 years, with section 7 reaching possession. This row's own ceiling column states the section 7 limb without attaching a figure to it, and the Class C rows in this table put that possession maximum at 3 months. The 8 year figure is the whole of the exposure on this route. The figure is reached without the molecule ever being named, which is the point of the limb and the reason a schedule search is not an answer.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: HHC is not named in Schedules 1 to 3 and is reached, if at all, through the section 2 controlled-drug-analogue limb, which is treated as Class C. It appears in vape and edible products marketed as lawful elsewhere, and foreign availability is not a New Zealand answer. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026 and read section 2 together with Schedule 3 Part 7, because neither carries the finding for HHC on its own. Read the section 2 exclusions for HHC, and do not treat a bare absence from the named schedules as an answer. Carry the point that an absent name is not an answer in New Zealand: the list is closed for named substances while the analogue limb is open, so a search of the schedules that returns nothing has not finished the question. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

HHC in New Zealand, full detail →

Hydrocodone

Legal status: Controlled, and named rather than inferred. Schedule 2 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 names or describes hydrocodone, a semi-synthetic opioid, as a Class B controlled drug, and the entry reaches its named salt, preparation or mixture. New Zealand's list is closed for named substances, so a named entry settles the class without recourse to the section 2 controlled-drug-analogue limb that carries sixteen other rows in this table. Codeine has its own row here and sits a class lower in Schedule 3, so two closely related opioids are separated by 6 years of ceiling. This was read against the consolidation current at 20 September 2026; the 2026 Classification and Presumption of Supply Order was made but no commencement instrument was located by that horizon, so nothing it proposes is treated as law here.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. There is no capital sentence in New Zealand, and section 6 reserves life imprisonment for Class A. So for hydrocodone the section 6 dealing maximum is 14 years and the section 7 possession maximum is 3 months. Neither is mandatory, and the Schedule 5 quantity for this class shifts a case toward supply rather than fixing its outcome. The figure is 6 years higher than the one on the codeine row in this table, which is the practical reason the two opioids must not be treated as interchangeable.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: hydrocodone is a Class B controlled drug under Schedule 2, with sections 6 and 7 supplying the offences. Combination cough and pain products are the realistic form to be carrying, and the opioid in them sits in this class rather than the lower one. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, which is the official New Zealand Legislation text rather than a secondary summary. Read the Schedule 2 hydrocodone entry beside the Schedule 3 codeine entry, since the class difference between them is easy to assume away. Carry the class and the ceiling as two separate readings, because Schedule 2 supplies the class for hydrocodone while sections 6 and 7 supply the maximum. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

Hydrocodone in New Zealand, full detail →

Ketamine

Legal status: Controlled, and named rather than inferred. Schedule 2 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 names or describes ketamine, an arylcyclohexylamine anaesthetic, as a Class B controlled drug, and the entry reaches its named salt, preparation or mixture. New Zealand's list is closed for named substances, so a named entry settles the class without recourse to the section 2 controlled-drug-analogue limb that carries sixteen other rows in this table. 2-FDCK and MXE both have their own rows here and are reached only as analogues at Class C, so the named anaesthetic sits a class above its substitutes. The consolidation read was the one current at 20 September 2026, with the Order of 2025 commenced on 27 November 2025 as the latest instrument actually in force.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. The death penalty does not exist in New Zealand law. Section 6 carries a maximum of 14 years for dealing in a Class B controlled drug, which is the class ketamine sits in, and section 7 carries 3 months for possession. The Act sets ceilings, and Schedule 5 sets a presumption of supply rather than a tariff. Diverted clinical and veterinary vials are dealt with on this entry, and the cited text does not address lawful supply within those settings.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: ketamine is a Class B controlled drug under Schedule 2, with sections 6 and 7 supplying the offences. It is dispensed in clinical settings while its two substitutes in this table are not, and that is a distinction nobody can make by eye. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, which is the official New Zealand Legislation text rather than a secondary summary. Read the Schedule 2 ketamine entry, and read section 2 as well if the question is about a fluorinated or methoxylated substitute. Carry the class and the ceiling as two separate readings, because Schedule 2 supplies the class for ketamine while sections 6 and 7 supply the maximum. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

Ketamine in New Zealand, full detail →

Khat

Legal status: Not a controlled drug on the text cited, and the absence was tested rather than assumed. Khat, the fresh-chewed leaf of Catha edulis, has no exact entry in Schedules 1 to 3 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, and the closed schedules were read together with the open section 2 analogue limb, whose definition excludes substances that are approved medicines or that lack substantial structural similarity to a controlled drug. That is why this is recorded as a positive closed-list absence and not as an unresolved question. Cathinone, its principal alkaloid, has its own row in this table and is named in Schedule 2 as Class B, so the leaf and its alkaloid do not answer alike in this dossier. One route stays open: sale of an unapproved psychoactive product can engage the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 even where no controlled drug classification attaches. This was read against the consolidation current at 20 September 2026; the 2026 Classification and Presumption of Supply Order was made but no commencement instrument was located by that horizon, so nothing it proposes is treated as law here.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. New Zealand has no death penalty. No Misuse of Drugs Act ceiling attaches to khat either, because it is not established as a controlled drug on the cited text, so neither the section 6 dealing maximum nor the section 7 possession maximum has anything to fasten on. The exposure that does exist sits in the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013, on the route for unlawful sale of an unapproved psychoactive product, whose penalties are statutory and non-capital. That route reaches supply rather than a person carrying the substance. Fresh leaf is the form this row addresses, and the cathinone row of this same table names that leaf's principal alkaloid as a Class B controlled drug with its own section 6 and section 7 figures. The two rows therefore point in opposite directions, and neither of them, nor the source read here, settles what a preparation or extract made from this leaf is charged on.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: khat is not established as a controlled drug on the text cited, so the Misuse of Drugs Act placement is a negative one and neither section 6 nor section 7 attaches to it. Fresh leaf perishes quickly and is not a prescription item, and the question of the isolated alkaloid belongs to the cathinone row rather than to this one. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026 and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 together, because the finding for khat needs both: the first for the negative and the second for the route that remains. Read the cathinone row beside this one rather than in place of it, because the two rows record opposite findings and this dossier does not join them up. Carry the reasoning and not only the result, because a negative is worth no more than the limb it was tested against, and here that limb is the section 2 exclusion for approved medicines and for substances lacking substantial structural similarity. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

Khat in New Zealand, full detail →

Kratom

Legal status: Not a controlled drug on the text cited, and the absence was tested rather than assumed. Kratom, the leaf of Mitragyna speciosa, has no exact entry in Schedules 1 to 3 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, and the closed schedules were read together with the open section 2 analogue limb, whose definition excludes substances that are approved medicines or that lack substantial structural similarity to a controlled drug. That is why this is recorded as a positive closed-list absence and not as an unresolved question. Mitragynine and 7-hydroxymitragynine both have their own rows in this table and carry the same negative finding, so leaf and alkaloid agree here in a way that khat and cathinone do not. One route stays open: sale of an unapproved psychoactive product can engage the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 even where no controlled drug classification attaches. The consolidation read was the one current at 20 September 2026, with the Order of 2025 commenced on 27 November 2025 as the latest instrument actually in force.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. New Zealand has no death penalty. No Misuse of Drugs Act ceiling attaches to kratom either, because it is not established as a controlled drug on the cited text, so neither the section 6 dealing maximum nor the section 7 possession maximum has anything to fasten on. The exposure that does exist sits in the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013, on the route for unlawful sale of an unapproved psychoactive product, whose penalties are statutory and non-capital. That route reaches supply rather than a person carrying the substance. Leaf and powder offered for consumption raise the product route, which carries its own non-capital penalties for the seller.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: kratom is not established as a controlled drug on the text cited, so the Misuse of Drugs Act placement is a negative one and neither section 6 nor section 7 attaches to it. It is sold as a supplement rather than dispensed, so there is no prescription to declare in the first place. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026 and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 together, because the finding for kratom needs both: the first for the negative and the second for the route that remains. Read all three kratom rows in this table together, and treat a concentrated extract sold for consumption as a 2013 Act question. Carry the reasoning and not only the result, because a negative is worth no more than the limb it was tested against, and here that limb is the section 2 exclusion for approved medicines and for substances lacking substantial structural similarity. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

Kratom in New Zealand, full detail →

Lorazepam

Legal status: Controlled, and named rather than inferred. Schedule 3 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 names or describes lorazepam, a short acting benzodiazepine, as a Class C controlled drug, and the entry reaches the relevant salts and preparations. New Zealand's list is closed for named substances, so a named entry settles the class without recourse to the section 2 controlled-drug-analogue limb that carries sixteen other rows in this table. Alprazolam has its own row here and shares its class, as do the other four benzodiazepines this table names. The consolidation read was the one current at 20 September 2026, with the Order of 2025 commenced on 27 November 2025 as the latest instrument actually in force.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. The death penalty was abolished and no life term reaches Class C. The section 6 dealing ceiling for lorazepam is 8 years and the section 7 possession ceiling is 3 months. The 8 year figure is subject to the Act's adult-supply distinctions. A health-centred prosecution response is directed for qualifying possession, and that is discretion rather than legality. A short duration of action changes nothing about the section 6 position for a person who supplies tablets on.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: lorazepam is a Class C controlled drug under Schedule 3, with sections 6 and 7 supplying the offences. This is a prescribed anxiolytic and pre-operative medicine, and its placement is the lowest class rather than a higher one. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, which is the official New Zealand Legislation text rather than a secondary summary. Read the Schedule 3 lorazepam entry and the salts and preparations wording attached to it. Carry the class and the ceiling as two separate readings, because Schedule 3 supplies the class for lorazepam while sections 6 and 7 supply the maximum. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

Lorazepam in New Zealand, full detail →

LSA (Morning Glory)

Legal status: Controlled through the open analogue limb rather than by a schedule name. LSA, the lysergamide found in morning glory and Hawaiian baby woodrose seeds, has no entry of its own in Schedules 1 to 3 on the text cited, and this finding does not rest on that absence: the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 defines a controlled drug analogue as any substance whose structure is substantially similar to that of a controlled drug, subject to the stated exclusions, and the stated parent structure places LSA in that limb unless a medicine exclusion or an express exclusion applies. The analogue route lands in Schedule 3 Part 7, so the class is C. LSD has its own row here and is named in Schedule 1 as Class A, so the seed alkaloid is reached at Class C through the analogue limb while LSD carries a life ceiling. The dossier states the statutory route rather than claiming a laboratory determination, because a court-grade analogue conclusion can depend on expert structural evidence. This was read against the consolidation current at 20 September 2026; the 2026 Classification and Presumption of Supply Order was made but no commencement instrument was located by that horizon, so nothing it proposes is treated as law here.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. New Zealand has no death penalty. A controlled drug analogue is treated as a Class C controlled drug, so the exposure on LSA is the section 6 dealing maximum of 8 years, with section 7 reaching possession. This row's own ceiling column states the section 7 limb without attaching a figure to it, and the Class C rows in this table put that possession maximum at 3 months. The 8 year figure is the whole of the exposure on this route. Seeds carrying this alkaloid are not separately addressed in the cited text, so the exposure has to be read off the analogue route.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: LSA is not named in Schedules 1 to 3 and is reached, if at all, through the section 2 controlled-drug-analogue limb, which is treated as Class C. Seeds are sold as garden items in many places, which is exactly the situation in which someone assumes wrongly that no question arises. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026 and read section 2 together with Schedule 3 Part 7, because neither carries the finding for LSA on its own. Read the analogue definition beside the Schedule 1 LSD entry, and note that a seed is not separately addressed in the text cited for LSA. Carry the point that an absent name is not an answer in New Zealand: the list is closed for named substances while the analogue limb is open, so a search of the schedules that returns nothing has not finished the question. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

legislation.govt.nz · The power that moves this list is section 4 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, under which the Governor General by Order in Council amends Schedules 1 to 3 subject to approval and commencement machinery. As those schedules stand after the Misuse of Drugs (Classification and Presumption of Supply) Order 2025, effective 27 November 2025, which this project's New Zealand substance dossier checked on 20 September 2026 records as the latest commenced classification instrument located, a 2026 Order was made and no commencement instrument for it was located. That does not rule out a later amendment made or commenced since. · Updated September 21, 2026

LSA (Morning Glory) in New Zealand, full detail →

LSD

Legal status: Controlled, and named rather than inferred. Schedule 1 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 names or describes LSD, lysergic acid diethylamide, as a Class A controlled drug, and the entry carries the derivatives and preparations limb attached to it. New Zealand's list is closed for named substances, so a named entry settles the class without recourse to the section 2 controlled-drug-analogue limb that carries sixteen other rows in this table. 1P-LSD and LSA both have their own rows here and are reached only through the analogue limb at Class C, so the named parent sits at Class A while its relatives sit at Class C. The consolidation read was the one current at 20 September 2026, with the Order of 2025 commenced on 27 November 2025 as the latest instrument actually in force.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. No capital sentence exists anywhere in New Zealand law. The section 6 ceiling for dealing in a Class A controlled drug is life imprisonment, and that is the class LSD sits in. Life is the ceiling and not the starting point. Possession falls under section 7 at a maximum of 6 months. Schedule 5 sets the quantity at which supply is presumed, which shifts which section is in play rather than what the sentence will be. Blotter, liquid and gel are all preparations, so the form the compound is carried in does not move it off the entry.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: LSD is a Class A controlled drug under Schedule 1, with sections 6 and 7 supplying the offences. There is no dispensed form to declare, so this row is read as an import and supply question throughout. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, which is the official New Zealand Legislation text rather than a secondary summary. Read the Schedule 1 LSD entry with the preparations limb, because blotter and liquid are preparations rather than separate substances. Carry the class and the ceiling as two separate readings, because Schedule 1 supplies the class for LSD while sections 6 and 7 supply the maximum. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

LSD in New Zealand, full detail →

MDA

Legal status: Controlled, and named rather than inferred. Schedule 2 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 names or describes MDA, 3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine, as a Class B controlled drug, and the entry reaches its named salt, preparation or mixture. New Zealand's list is closed for named substances, so a named entry settles the class without recourse to the section 2 controlled-drug-analogue limb that carries sixteen other rows in this table. MDMA has its own row here and shares its Schedule 2 class, so the demethylated compound and MDMA answer alike. The reading is against the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, whose latest commenced classification instrument is the Misuse of Drugs (Classification and Presumption of Supply) Order 2025, in force from 27 November 2025.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. New Zealand has no death penalty, and no life term is available for a Class B controlled drug. The exposure on MDA is the section 6 maximum of 14 years for dealing. Possession is charged under section 7, where the maximum is 3 months. Both figures are maxima rather than mandatory sentences, and a Schedule 5 quantity raises a presumption of supply rather than a sentence of its own. Tablets and powders are both reached, so presentation does not separate this entry from the MDMA one for penalty purposes.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: MDA is a Class B controlled drug under Schedule 2, with sections 6 and 7 supplying the offences. No dispensed form exists, so this row is read as a possession and supply question from end to end. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, which is the official New Zealand Legislation text rather than a secondary summary. Read the Schedule 2 MDA entry and keep it separate from the MDMA entry, because the two are distinct listings with the same class. Carry the class and the ceiling as two separate readings, because Schedule 2 supplies the class for MDA while sections 6 and 7 supply the maximum. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

MDA in New Zealand, full detail →

MDMA

Legal status: Controlled, and named rather than inferred. Schedule 2 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 names or describes MDMA, 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine, as a Class B controlled drug, and the entry reaches its named salt, preparation or mixture. New Zealand's list is closed for named substances, so a named entry settles the class without recourse to the section 2 controlled-drug-analogue limb that carries sixteen other rows in this table. MDA and methylone both have their own rows here and share its Schedule 2 class, so the methylenedioxy family sits together at Class B. This was read against the consolidation current at 20 September 2026; the 2026 Classification and Presumption of Supply Order was made but no commencement instrument was located by that horizon, so nothing it proposes is treated as law here.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. There is no capital sentence in New Zealand, and section 6 reserves life imprisonment for Class A. So for MDMA the section 6 dealing maximum is 14 years and the section 7 possession maximum is 3 months. Neither is mandatory, and the Schedule 5 quantity for this class shifts a case toward supply rather than fixing its outcome. Tablet counts are the usual way the Schedule 5 presumption is argued for this substance, and the presumption shifts which section applies rather than the sentence.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: MDMA is a Class B controlled drug under Schedule 2, with sections 6 and 7 supplying the offences. Supervised clinical use of this compound is not addressed anywhere in the cited text, so nothing here establishes a route for carrying it. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, which is the official New Zealand Legislation text rather than a secondary summary. Read the Schedule 2 MDMA entry with the Schedule 5 presumption of supply quantity, because tablet counts are where that presumption commonly bites. Carry the class and the ceiling as two separate readings, because Schedule 2 supplies the class for MDMA while sections 6 and 7 supply the maximum. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

MDMA in New Zealand, full detail →

MDPV

Legal status: Controlled, and named rather than inferred. Schedule 2 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 names or describes MDPV, the pyrrolidinyl cathinone methylenedioxypyrovalerone, as a Class B controlled drug, and the entry reaches its named salt, preparation or mixture. New Zealand's list is closed for named substances, so a named entry settles the class without recourse to the section 2 controlled-drug-analogue limb that carries sixteen other rows in this table. Cathinone and mephedrone both have their own rows here at the same Class B, while 3-MMC is reached only as an analogue, so the cathinone family is split across two routes. The consolidation read was the one current at 20 September 2026, with the Order of 2025 commenced on 27 November 2025 as the latest instrument actually in force.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. The death penalty does not exist in New Zealand law. Section 6 carries a maximum of 14 years for dealing in a Class B controlled drug, which is the class MDPV sits in, and section 7 carries 3 months for possession. The Act sets ceilings, and Schedule 5 sets a presumption of supply rather than a tariff. The figure applies although the compound arrived as a research chemical, because it is named in the schedule rather than reasoned into it.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: MDPV is a Class B controlled drug under Schedule 2, with sections 6 and 7 supplying the offences. No medicine form exists, and a powder sold under a different name may still be this substance, which the pink cocaine row of this table explains. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, which is the official New Zealand Legislation text rather than a secondary summary. Read the Schedule 2 MDPV entry, and use section 2 rather than this entry for any cathinone that is not named. Carry the class and the ceiling as two separate readings, because Schedule 2 supplies the class for MDPV while sections 6 and 7 supply the maximum. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

MDPV in New Zealand, full detail →

Memantine

Legal status: Not a controlled drug on the text cited, and the absence was tested rather than assumed. Memantine, an NMDA receptor antagonist used in dementia, has no exact entry in Schedules 1 to 3 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, and the closed schedules were read together with the open section 2 analogue limb, whose definition excludes substances that are approved medicines or that lack substantial structural similarity to a controlled drug. That is why this is recorded as a positive closed-list absence and not as an unresolved question. Ketamine and PCP, also NMDA antagonists, both have their own rows here and are named as controlled drugs, so the receptor does not decide the schedule. One route stays open: sale of an unapproved psychoactive product can engage the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 even where no controlled drug classification attaches. The reading is against the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, whose latest commenced classification instrument is the Misuse of Drugs (Classification and Presumption of Supply) Order 2025, in force from 27 November 2025.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. New Zealand has no death penalty. No Misuse of Drugs Act ceiling attaches to memantine either, because it is not established as a controlled drug on the cited text, so neither the section 6 dealing maximum nor the section 7 possession maximum has anything to fasten on. The exposure that does exist sits in the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013, on the route for unlawful sale of an unapproved psychoactive product, whose penalties are statutory and non-capital. That route reaches supply rather than a person carrying the substance. Supply outside the medicines regime is a medicines offence rather than a drug offence on this finding.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: memantine is not established as a controlled drug on the text cited, so the Misuse of Drugs Act placement is a negative one and neither section 6 nor section 7 attaches to it. It is prescribed for dementia and is a realistic item in a medicine case, and this negative speaks only to the drug schedules. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026 and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 together, because the finding for memantine needs both: the first for the negative and the second for the route that remains. Read this row without carrying the ketamine or PCP class across to it, because the shared pharmacology is not a shared listing. Carry the reasoning and not only the result, because a negative is worth no more than the limb it was tested against, and here that limb is the section 2 exclusion for approved medicines and for substances lacking substantial structural similarity. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

Memantine in New Zealand, full detail →

Mephedrone (4-MMC)

Legal status: Controlled, and named rather than inferred. Schedule 2 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 names or describes mephedrone, 4-methylmethcathinone, as a Class B controlled drug, and the entry reaches its named salt, preparation or mixture. New Zealand's list is closed for named substances, so a named entry settles the class without recourse to the section 2 controlled-drug-analogue limb that carries sixteen other rows in this table. 3-MMC has its own row here and differs only in the position of one methyl group, yet is reached at Class C as an analogue while mephedrone is named at Class B. The reading is against the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, whose latest commenced classification instrument is the Misuse of Drugs (Classification and Presumption of Supply) Order 2025, in force from 27 November 2025.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. New Zealand has no death penalty, and no life term is available for a Class B controlled drug. The exposure on mephedrone is the section 6 maximum of 14 years for dealing. Possession is charged under section 7, where the maximum is 3 months. Both figures are maxima rather than mandatory sentences, and a Schedule 5 quantity raises a presumption of supply rather than a sentence of its own. The figure here is 6 years above the 3-MMC row in this table, and the two substances differ by the position of a single methyl group.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: mephedrone is a Class B controlled drug under Schedule 2, with sections 6 and 7 supplying the offences. No dispensed route is available, and nobody can distinguish this from its positional isomer without analysis. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, which is the official New Zealand Legislation text rather than a secondary summary. Read the Schedule 2 mephedrone entry against the section 2 analogue definition, because a ring position is the whole difference between two routes. Carry the class and the ceiling as two separate readings, because Schedule 2 supplies the class for mephedrone while sections 6 and 7 supply the maximum. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

Mephedrone (4-MMC) in New Zealand, full detail →

Mescaline

Legal status: Controlled, and named rather than inferred. Schedule 1 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 names or describes mescaline, a phenethylamine alkaloid of several cacti, as a Class A controlled drug, and the entry carries the derivatives and preparations limb attached to it. New Zealand's list is closed for named substances, so a named entry settles the class without recourse to the section 2 controlled-drug-analogue limb that carries sixteen other rows in this table. Peyote has its own row here and is answered through the preparations limb attached to this same entry, so the cactus preparation and the isolated alkaloid share a class. The reading is against the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, whose latest commenced classification instrument is the Misuse of Drugs (Classification and Presumption of Supply) Order 2025, in force from 27 November 2025.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. New Zealand has no death penalty. The exposure that does exist is the section 6 maximum of life imprisonment for importing, manufacturing or supplying a Class A controlled drug, and mescaline is Class A, so all three limbs carry it. Life is a ceiling and not a mandatory term. Possession is charged under section 7, where the maximum is 6 months. The Schedule 5 quantities create a presumption of supply, so crossing a quantity moves the charge toward section 6 rather than fixing the outcome. The ceiling attaches to the isolated alkaloid and to any preparation containing it, which is why the peyote row in this table lands in the same class.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: mescaline is a Class A controlled drug under Schedule 1, with sections 6 and 7 supplying the offences. Someone carrying cactus material is carrying a potential preparation of the alkaloid, and nothing in the cited text offers a medicines answer for it. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, which is the official New Zealand Legislation text rather than a secondary summary. Read the Schedule 1 mescaline entry and its preparations limb, which is the limb the peyote row depends on. Carry the class and the ceiling as two separate readings, because Schedule 1 supplies the class for mescaline while sections 6 and 7 supply the maximum. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

Mescaline in New Zealand, full detail →

Methadone

Legal status: Controlled, and named rather than inferred. Schedule 2 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 names or describes methadone, a synthetic opioid used in substitution treatment, as a Class B controlled drug, and the entry reaches its named salt, preparation or mixture. New Zealand's list is closed for named substances, so a named entry settles the class without recourse to the section 2 controlled-drug-analogue limb that carries sixteen other rows in this table. Buprenorphine has its own row here in the same Schedule 2 class, and heroin, which substitution treatment is usually aimed at, sits a class above in Schedule 1. This was read against the consolidation current at 20 September 2026; the 2026 Classification and Presumption of Supply Order was made but no commencement instrument was located by that horizon, so nothing it proposes is treated as law here.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. There is no capital sentence in New Zealand, and section 6 reserves life imprisonment for Class A. So for methadone the section 6 dealing maximum is 14 years and the section 7 possession maximum is 3 months. Neither is mandatory, and the Schedule 5 quantity for this class shifts a case toward supply rather than fixing its outcome. A take-home dose passed to another person is dealing under section 6, which is the most common way this entry is reached outside the illicit market.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: methadone is a Class B controlled drug under Schedule 2, with sections 6 and 7 supplying the offences. This is dispensed on a supervised programme, and a rule for carrying a course of it across a border is exactly what the cited text does not supply. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, which is the official New Zealand Legislation text rather than a secondary summary. Read the Schedule 2 methadone entry with section 7, and treat the clinical programme as a separate question the Act does not answer. Carry the class and the ceiling as two separate readings, because Schedule 2 supplies the class for methadone while sections 6 and 7 supply the maximum. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

Methadone in New Zealand, full detail →

Methamphetamine

Legal status: Controlled, and named rather than inferred. Schedule 1 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 names or describes methamphetamine, an N-methylated amphetamine, as a Class A controlled drug, and the entry carries the derivatives and preparations limb attached to it. New Zealand's list is closed for named substances, so a named entry settles the class without recourse to the section 2 controlled-drug-analogue limb that carries sixteen other rows in this table. Amphetamine and ephedrine both have their own rows here and sit in Schedule 2 at Class B, so the N-methylated compound is a class above both the parent stimulant and the precursor. This was read against the consolidation current at 20 September 2026; the 2026 Classification and Presumption of Supply Order was made but no commencement instrument was located by that horizon, so nothing it proposes is treated as law here.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. The death penalty was abolished in New Zealand. What section 6 carries for methamphetamine, a Class A controlled drug, is a maximum of life imprisonment for import, manufacture or supply, and nothing about that term is mandatory. Section 7 sets the possession maximum at 6 months, the highest possession figure in the Act. A Schedule 5 quantity raises a presumption of supply and does not decide the sentence. Manufacture is a separate limb of section 6 from supply, and it is the limb that most often carries the top figure for this substance.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: methamphetamine is a Class A controlled drug under Schedule 1, with sections 6 and 7 supplying the offences. A prescribed stimulant is a different question, answered by the adderall and amphetamine rows of this table, both of which sit a class lower. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, which is the official New Zealand Legislation text rather than a secondary summary. Read the Schedule 1 methamphetamine entry with the derivatives and preparations limb, and read Schedule 5 for the presumption of supply quantity. Carry the class and the ceiling as two separate readings, because Schedule 1 supplies the class for methamphetamine while sections 6 and 7 supply the maximum. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

Methamphetamine in New Zealand, full detail →

Methaqualone (Quaaludes)

Legal status: Controlled, and named rather than inferred. Schedule 2 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 names or describes methaqualone, a quinazolinone sedative and hypnotic, as a Class B controlled drug, and the entry reaches its named salt, preparation or mixture. New Zealand's list is closed for named substances, so a named entry settles the class without recourse to the section 2 controlled-drug-analogue limb that carries sixteen other rows in this table. It is a sedative that sits at Class B in Schedule 2, a class above the sedatives that this table carries in Schedule 3, so sedative is not a class in itself. The consolidation read was the one current at 20 September 2026, with the Order of 2025 commenced on 27 November 2025 as the latest instrument actually in force.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. The death penalty does not exist in New Zealand law. Section 6 carries a maximum of 14 years for dealing in a Class B controlled drug, which is the class methaqualone sits in, and section 7 carries 3 months for possession. The Act sets ceilings, and Schedule 5 sets a presumption of supply rather than a tariff. The figure is the Class B one although the substance is a sedative, putting it 6 years above where the sedatives in Schedule 3 sit.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: methaqualone is a Class B controlled drug under Schedule 2, with sections 6 and 7 supplying the offences. No current dispensed form is in view, and the Schedule 3 sedative rows of this table are not a guide to this one. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, which is the official New Zealand Legislation text rather than a secondary summary. Read the Schedule 2 methaqualone entry and do not carry the Schedule 3 sedative ceilings across to it. Carry the class and the ceiling as two separate readings, because Schedule 2 supplies the class for methaqualone while sections 6 and 7 supply the maximum. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

Methaqualone (Quaaludes) in New Zealand, full detail →

Methylone

Legal status: Controlled, and named rather than inferred. Schedule 2 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 names or describes methylone, beta-keto MDMA, as a Class B controlled drug, and the entry reaches its named salt, preparation or mixture. New Zealand's list is closed for named substances, so a named entry settles the class without recourse to the section 2 controlled-drug-analogue limb that carries sixteen other rows in this table. MDMA has its own row here and shares its Schedule 2 class, so adding the ketone does not move the class. The reading is against the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, whose latest commenced classification instrument is the Misuse of Drugs (Classification and Presumption of Supply) Order 2025, in force from 27 November 2025.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. New Zealand has no death penalty, and no life term is available for a Class B controlled drug. The exposure on methylone is the section 6 maximum of 14 years for dealing. Possession is charged under section 7, where the maximum is 3 months. Both figures are maxima rather than mandatory sentences, and a Schedule 5 quantity raises a presumption of supply rather than a sentence of its own. The entry reaches the compound directly, so a mixture sold under another name is charged on whatever it actually contains.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: methylone is a Class B controlled drug under Schedule 2, with sections 6 and 7 supplying the offences. No medicine form exists, and anyone meeting this substance is meeting it as an unlabelled powder. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, which is the official New Zealand Legislation text rather than a secondary summary. Read the Schedule 2 methylone entry, and note that other keto compounds in this table run through the analogue limb instead. Carry the class and the ceiling as two separate readings, because Schedule 2 supplies the class for methylone while sections 6 and 7 supply the maximum. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

Methylone in New Zealand, full detail →

Methylphenidate

Legal status: Controlled, and named rather than inferred. Schedule 2 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 names or describes methylphenidate, a piperidine stimulant used for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, as a Class B controlled drug, and the entry reaches its named salt, preparation or mixture. New Zealand's list is closed for named substances, so a named entry settles the class without recourse to the section 2 controlled-drug-analogue limb that carries sixteen other rows in this table. Adderall has its own row here and resolves through the amphetamine entry at the same Class B, so the two common stimulant medicines for that condition share a class. This was read against the consolidation current at 20 September 2026; the 2026 Classification and Presumption of Supply Order was made but no commencement instrument was located by that horizon, so nothing it proposes is treated as law here.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. There is no capital sentence in New Zealand, and section 6 reserves life imprisonment for Class A. So for methylphenidate the section 6 dealing maximum is 14 years and the section 7 possession maximum is 3 months. Neither is mandatory, and the Schedule 5 quantity for this class shifts a case toward supply rather than fixing its outcome. Passing tablets to a classmate or a colleague is supply under section 6 and carries the same figure as any other dealing in this class.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: methylphenidate is a Class B controlled drug under Schedule 2, with sections 6 and 7 supplying the offences. This is among the most commonly carried prescribed medicines in the whole table, so the absence of a stated border rule matters more here than almost anywhere else. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, which is the official New Zealand Legislation text rather than a secondary summary. Read the Schedule 2 methylphenidate entry beside section 7, and keep the prescribing question separate from the class question. Carry the class and the ceiling as two separate readings, because Schedule 2 supplies the class for methylphenidate while sections 6 and 7 supply the maximum. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

Methylphenidate in New Zealand, full detail →

Mitragynine

Legal status: Not a controlled drug on the text cited, and the absence was tested rather than assumed. Mitragynine, the principal alkaloid of kratom, has no exact entry in Schedules 1 to 3 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, and the closed schedules were read together with the open section 2 analogue limb, whose definition excludes substances that are approved medicines or that lack substantial structural similarity to a controlled drug. That is why this is recorded as a positive closed-list absence and not as an unresolved question. Kratom and 7-hydroxymitragynine both have their own rows in this table and carry the same negative finding. One route stays open: sale of an unapproved psychoactive product can engage the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 even where no controlled drug classification attaches. This was read against the consolidation current at 20 September 2026; the 2026 Classification and Presumption of Supply Order was made but no commencement instrument was located by that horizon, so nothing it proposes is treated as law here.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. New Zealand has no death penalty. No Misuse of Drugs Act ceiling attaches to mitragynine either, because it is not established as a controlled drug on the cited text, so neither the section 6 dealing maximum nor the section 7 possession maximum has anything to fasten on. The exposure that does exist sits in the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013, on the route for unlawful sale of an unapproved psychoactive product, whose penalties are statutory and non-capital. That route reaches supply rather than a person carrying the substance. An extract concentrated on this alkaloid is a product even where the leaf it came from is not, so the two can be answered differently under the 2013 Act.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: mitragynine is not established as a controlled drug on the text cited, so the Misuse of Drugs Act placement is a negative one and neither section 6 nor section 7 attaches to it. No prescribed form exists, and the leaf and metabolite rows of this table carry the same finding. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026 and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 together, because the finding for mitragynine needs both: the first for the negative and the second for the route that remains. Read this row with the analogue limb in view, since an indole alkaloid is exactly the kind of structure the similarity question is asked about. Carry the reasoning and not only the result, because a negative is worth no more than the limb it was tested against, and here that limb is the section 2 exclusion for approved medicines and for substances lacking substantial structural similarity. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

Mitragynine in New Zealand, full detail →

Modafinil

Legal status: Not a controlled drug on the text cited, and the absence was tested rather than assumed. Modafinil, a wakefulness promoting agent, has no exact entry in Schedules 1 to 3 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, and the closed schedules were read together with the open section 2 analogue limb, whose definition excludes substances that are approved medicines or that lack substantial structural similarity to a controlled drug. That is why this is recorded as a positive closed-list absence and not as an unresolved question. Amphetamine and methylphenidate both have their own rows here and are named in Schedule 2 as Class B, so a stimulant indication does not predict a schedule entry. One route stays open: sale of an unapproved psychoactive product can engage the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 even where no controlled drug classification attaches. The consolidation read was the one current at 20 September 2026, with the Order of 2025 commenced on 27 November 2025 as the latest instrument actually in force.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. New Zealand has no death penalty. No Misuse of Drugs Act ceiling attaches to modafinil either, because it is not established as a controlled drug on the cited text, so neither the section 6 dealing maximum nor the section 7 possession maximum has anything to fasten on. The exposure that does exist sits in the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013, on the route for unlawful sale of an unapproved psychoactive product, whose penalties are statutory and non-capital. That route reaches supply rather than a person carrying the substance. Online sale into New Zealand is a medicines and import question on this finding, not a controlled drug one.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: modafinil is not established as a controlled drug on the text cited, so the Misuse of Drugs Act placement is a negative one and neither section 6 nor section 7 attaches to it. It is prescribed for sleep disorders in many countries and frequently carried, and this negative does not reach the separate medicines rules. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026 and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 together, because the finding for modafinil needs both: the first for the negative and the second for the route that remains. Read this row as a controlled drug finding only, because the dossier does not reach the separate question of prescription-only medicine status. Carry the reasoning and not only the result, because a negative is worth no more than the limb it was tested against, and here that limb is the section 2 exclusion for approved medicines and for substances lacking substantial structural similarity. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Prescription medicine (not a controlled drug) · medsafe.govt.nz · The power that moves this list is section 4 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, under which the Governor General by Order in Council amends Schedules 1 to 3 subject to approval and commencement machinery. As those schedules stand after the Misuse of Drugs (Classification and Presumption of Supply) Order 2025, effective 27 November 2025, which this project's New Zealand substance dossier checked on 20 September 2026 records as the latest commenced classification instrument located, a 2026 Order was made and no commencement instrument for it was located. That does not rule out a later amendment made or commenced since. · Updated September 21, 2026

Modafinil in New Zealand, full detail →

Morphine

Legal status: Controlled, and named rather than inferred. Schedule 2 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 names or describes morphine, the principal opioid alkaloid of opium, as a Class B controlled drug, and the entry reaches its named salt, preparation or mixture. New Zealand's list is closed for named substances, so a named entry settles the class without recourse to the section 2 controlled-drug-analogue limb that carries sixteen other rows in this table. Opium has its own row here in the same Schedule 2 class, while heroin, which is made from morphine, sits a class above in Schedule 1. The consolidation read was the one current at 20 September 2026, with the Order of 2025 commenced on 27 November 2025 as the latest instrument actually in force.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. The death penalty does not exist in New Zealand law. Section 6 carries a maximum of 14 years for dealing in a Class B controlled drug, which is the class morphine sits in, and section 7 carries 3 months for possession. The Act sets ceilings, and Schedule 5 sets a presumption of supply rather than a tariff. Clinical preparations are reached by the entry's preparations wording, so an ampoule and a street quantity answer to the same section.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: morphine is a Class B controlled drug under Schedule 2, with sections 6 and 7 supplying the offences. Palliative and post-operative supplies are a real case, and the placement is not a reason to abandon a prescribed course without first checking the rule. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, which is the official New Zealand Legislation text rather than a secondary summary. Read the Schedule 2 morphine entry with its preparations wording, because most clinical forms are preparations rather than the base. Carry the class and the ceiling as two separate readings, because Schedule 2 supplies the class for morphine while sections 6 and 7 supply the maximum. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

Morphine in New Zealand, full detail →

MXE

Legal status: Controlled through the open analogue limb rather than by a schedule name. MXE, the arylcyclohexylamine methoxetamine, has no entry of its own in Schedules 1 to 3 on the text cited, and this finding does not rest on that absence: the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 defines a controlled drug analogue as any substance whose structure is substantially similar to that of a controlled drug, subject to the stated exclusions, and the stated parent structure places MXE in that limb unless a medicine exclusion or an express exclusion applies. The analogue route lands in Schedule 3 Part 7, so the class is C. Ketamine and PCP both have their own rows here and are named, ketamine at Class B and PCP at Class A, so this arylcyclohexylamine is reached at Class C while its two structural neighbours sit higher. The dossier states the statutory route rather than claiming a laboratory determination, because a court-grade analogue conclusion can depend on expert structural evidence. The consolidation read was the one current at 20 September 2026, with the Order of 2025 commenced on 27 November 2025 as the latest instrument actually in force.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. New Zealand has no death penalty. A controlled drug analogue is treated as a Class C controlled drug, so the exposure on MXE is the section 6 dealing maximum of 8 years, with section 7 reaching possession. This row's own ceiling column states the section 7 limb without attaching a figure to it, and the Class C rows in this table put that possession maximum at 3 months. The 8 year figure is the whole of the exposure on this route. This compound sits structurally between a named Class B drug and a named Class A drug, and the analogue route places it below both.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: MXE is not named in Schedules 1 to 3 and is reached, if at all, through the section 2 controlled-drug-analogue limb, which is treated as Class C. It is sold as a ketamine substitute, and the substance it substitutes for is a named Class B controlled drug. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026 and read section 2 together with Schedule 3 Part 7, because neither carries the finding for MXE on its own. Read the analogue definition against the Schedule 2 ketamine entry and the Schedule 1 PCP entry, because MXE sits between two named compounds of different classes. Carry the point that an absent name is not an answer in New Zealand: the list is closed for named substances while the analogue limb is open, so a search of the schedules that returns nothing has not finished the question. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

MXE in New Zealand, full detail →

Nicotine

Legal status: Not a controlled drug on the text cited, and the absence was tested rather than assumed. Nicotine, the principal alkaloid of tobacco, has no exact entry in Schedules 1 to 3 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, and the closed schedules were read together with the open section 2 analogue limb, whose definition excludes substances that are approved medicines or that lack substantial structural similarity to a controlled drug. That is why this is recorded as a positive closed-list absence and not as an unresolved question. Tobacco has its own row in this table and carries the same negative finding, so the leaf and its alkaloid agree here. One route stays open: sale of an unapproved psychoactive product can engage the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 even where no controlled drug classification attaches. The reading is against the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, whose latest commenced classification instrument is the Misuse of Drugs (Classification and Presumption of Supply) Order 2025, in force from 27 November 2025.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. New Zealand has no death penalty. No Misuse of Drugs Act ceiling attaches to nicotine either, because it is not established as a controlled drug on the cited text, so neither the section 6 dealing maximum nor the section 7 possession maximum has anything to fasten on. The exposure that does exist sits in the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013, on the route for unlawful sale of an unapproved psychoactive product, whose penalties are statutory and non-capital. That route reaches supply rather than a person carrying the substance. Vaping and smoking products carry an entire regime of their own, and none of it sits in either Act this dossier read.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: nicotine is not established as a controlled drug on the text cited, so the Misuse of Drugs Act placement is a negative one and neither section 6 nor section 7 attaches to it. Replacement therapy products are carried routinely, and the regime governing them is not in either Act read here. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026 and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 together, because the finding for nicotine needs both: the first for the negative and the second for the route that remains. Read this row narrowly: it places nicotine outside the controlled drug schedules and says nothing about the separate smoking and vaping regime. Carry the reasoning and not only the result, because a negative is worth no more than the limb it was tested against, and here that limb is the section 2 exclusion for approved medicines and for substances lacking substantial structural similarity. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

Nicotine in New Zealand, full detail →

Nimetazepam

Legal status: Controlled, and named rather than inferred. Schedule 3 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 names or describes nimetazepam, a nitrobenzodiazepine, as a Class C controlled drug, and the entry reaches the relevant salts and preparations. New Zealand's list is closed for named substances, so a named entry settles the class without recourse to the section 2 controlled-drug-analogue limb that carries sixteen other rows in this table. It is treated in several other jurisdictions as a higher risk benzodiazepine, but this dossier places it in the same Schedule 3 class as the other five this table names. The reading is against the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, whose latest commenced classification instrument is the Misuse of Drugs (Classification and Presumption of Supply) Order 2025, in force from 27 November 2025.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. New Zealand has no death penalty. Section 6 caps dealing in a Class C controlled drug at 8 years, subject to the adult-supply distinctions the Act draws, and that is the ceiling on nimetazepam. Possession is charged under section 7, where the maximum is 3 months. Section 7 also directs prosecution discretion toward a health-centred response in qualifying possession cases, which is not decriminalisation and does not make possession lawful. Several jurisdictions place this substance far higher than New Zealand does, and the figure here comes from Schedule 3 rather than from any international grading.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: nimetazepam is a Class C controlled drug under Schedule 3, with sections 6 and 7 supplying the offences. Anyone who has read a harsher foreign classification should not carry that reading into New Zealand, where the placement is the lowest of the three classes. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, which is the official New Zealand Legislation text rather than a secondary summary. Read the Schedule 3 nimetazepam entry, and do not import another country's harsher placement into the New Zealand reading. Carry the class and the ceiling as two separate readings, because Schedule 3 supplies the class for nimetazepam while sections 6 and 7 supply the maximum. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

Nimetazepam in New Zealand, full detail →

Nitrous Oxide

Legal status: Not a controlled drug on the text cited, and the absence was tested rather than assumed. Nitrous oxide, an inhaled gas used as an anaesthetic and a propellant, has no exact entry in Schedules 1 to 3 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, and the closed schedules were read together with the open section 2 analogue limb, whose definition excludes substances that are approved medicines or that lack substantial structural similarity to a controlled drug. That is why this is recorded as a positive closed-list absence and not as an unresolved question. Amyl nitrite has its own row in this table and carries the same negative finding, so the two inhalants this table names agree. One route stays open: sale of an unapproved psychoactive product can engage the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 even where no controlled drug classification attaches. This was read against the consolidation current at 20 September 2026; the 2026 Classification and Presumption of Supply Order was made but no commencement instrument was located by that horizon, so nothing it proposes is treated as law here.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. New Zealand has no death penalty. No Misuse of Drugs Act ceiling attaches to nitrous oxide either, because it is not established as a controlled drug on the cited text, so neither the section 6 dealing maximum nor the section 7 possession maximum has anything to fasten on. The exposure that does exist sits in the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013, on the route for unlawful sale of an unapproved psychoactive product, whose penalties are statutory and non-capital. That route reaches supply rather than a person carrying the substance. Canisters offered for inhalation rather than for catering are the live case, and the exposure falls on the seller.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: nitrous oxide is not established as a controlled drug on the text cited, so the Misuse of Drugs Act placement is a negative one and neither section 6 nor section 7 attaches to it. Clinical gas is not something anyone carries, and canisters are a product question rather than a prescribing one. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026 and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 together, because the finding for nitrous oxide needs both: the first for the negative and the second for the route that remains. Read the 2013 Act limb of this row rather than the schedule limb, because supply and not possession is where the exposure sits for a gas. Carry the reasoning and not only the result, because a negative is worth no more than the limb it was tested against, and here that limb is the section 2 exclusion for approved medicines and for substances lacking substantial structural similarity. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

Nitrous Oxide in New Zealand, full detail →

Opium

Legal status: Controlled, and named rather than inferred. Schedule 2 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 names or describes opium, the dried latex of the opium poppy, as a Class B controlled drug, and the entry reaches its named salt, preparation or mixture. New Zealand's list is closed for named substances, so a named entry settles the class without recourse to the section 2 controlled-drug-analogue limb that carries sixteen other rows in this table. Morphine and codeine both have their own rows here, morphine at the same Class B and codeine a class lower, so the latex and its alkaloids do not all answer alike. The reading is against the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, whose latest commenced classification instrument is the Misuse of Drugs (Classification and Presumption of Supply) Order 2025, in force from 27 November 2025.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. New Zealand has no death penalty, and no life term is available for a Class B controlled drug. The exposure on opium is the section 6 maximum of 14 years for dealing. Possession is charged under section 7, where the maximum is 3 months. Both figures are maxima rather than mandatory sentences, and a Schedule 5 quantity raises a presumption of supply rather than a sentence of its own. The latex is charged on this entry while its refined alkaloids are charged on theirs, so one seizure can raise more than one row of this table.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: opium is a Class B controlled drug under Schedule 2, with sections 6 and 7 supplying the offences. No dispensed form of the raw latex is in view, and a person is likelier to meet the morphine or codeine rows of this table. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, which is the official New Zealand Legislation text rather than a secondary summary. Read the Schedule 2 opium entry and treat the alkaloid rows in this table as separate findings rather than consequences of it. Carry the class and the ceiling as two separate readings, because Schedule 2 supplies the class for opium while sections 6 and 7 supply the maximum. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

Opium in New Zealand, full detail →

Oxycodone

Legal status: Controlled, and named rather than inferred. Schedule 2 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 names or describes oxycodone, a semi-synthetic opioid, as a Class B controlled drug, and the entry reaches its named salt, preparation or mixture. New Zealand's list is closed for named substances, so a named entry settles the class without recourse to the section 2 controlled-drug-analogue limb that carries sixteen other rows in this table. Hydrocodone has its own row here in the same Schedule 2 class, while codeine, also semi-synthetic in its common forms, sits a class lower. This was read against the consolidation current at 20 September 2026; the 2026 Classification and Presumption of Supply Order was made but no commencement instrument was located by that horizon, so nothing it proposes is treated as law here.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. There is no capital sentence in New Zealand, and section 6 reserves life imprisonment for Class A. So for oxycodone the section 6 dealing maximum is 14 years and the section 7 possession maximum is 3 months. Neither is mandatory, and the Schedule 5 quantity for this class shifts a case toward supply rather than fixing its outcome. Controlled release tablets are preparations, so crushing or dividing them does not take a person outside the entry.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: oxycodone is a Class B controlled drug under Schedule 2, with sections 6 and 7 supplying the offences. This is a heavily prescribed analgesic, and it sits a class above the codeine and tramadol rows of this table. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, which is the official New Zealand Legislation text rather than a secondary summary. Read the Schedule 2 oxycodone entry and check the preparations wording, since controlled release tablets are preparations. Carry the class and the ceiling as two separate readings, because Schedule 2 supplies the class for oxycodone while sections 6 and 7 supply the maximum. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

Oxycodone in New Zealand, full detail →

PCP

Legal status: Controlled, and named rather than inferred. Schedule 1 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 names or describes PCP, the arylcyclohexylamine phencyclidine, as a Class A controlled drug, and the entry carries the derivatives and preparations limb attached to it. New Zealand's list is closed for named substances, so a named entry settles the class without recourse to the section 2 controlled-drug-analogue limb that carries sixteen other rows in this table. Ketamine has its own row here at Class B and MXE is reached only as an analogue at Class C, so the three arylcyclohexylamines in this table occupy three different classes. The consolidation read was the one current at 20 September 2026, with the Order of 2025 commenced on 27 November 2025 as the latest instrument actually in force.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. No capital sentence exists anywhere in New Zealand law. The section 6 ceiling for dealing in a Class A controlled drug is life imprisonment, and that is the class PCP sits in. Life is the ceiling and not the starting point. Possession falls under section 7 at a maximum of 6 months. Schedule 5 sets the quantity at which supply is presumed, which shifts which section is in play rather than what the sentence will be. The figure here sits a full class above the other two arylcyclohexylamines in this table, so it cannot be reasoned across from ketamine.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: PCP is a Class A controlled drug under Schedule 1, with sections 6 and 7 supplying the offences. No clinical form is in the picture, and it is the ketamine row rather than this one that carries the anaesthetic question. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, which is the official New Zealand Legislation text rather than a secondary summary. Read the Schedule 1 PCP entry, and do not carry its class across to the other arylcyclohexylamines in this table. Carry the class and the ceiling as two separate readings, because Schedule 1 supplies the class for PCP while sections 6 and 7 supply the maximum. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

PCP in New Zealand, full detail →

Peyote

Legal status: Controlled through the mescaline entry rather than as a plant. Peyote is a cactus containing mescaline, and Schedule 1 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 names mescaline and preparations containing it; the dossier's finding is that peyote is not treated as an automatically free plant product when it is prepared or possessed as a mescaline-containing controlled-drug preparation. Mescaline has its own row in this table and is named in Schedule 1, and it is the preparations limb attached to that entry that carries this finding rather than any entry for the cactus. The class that follows is A. The consolidation read was the one current at 20 September 2026, with the Order of 2025 commenced on 27 November 2025 as the latest instrument actually in force.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. There is no death penalty in New Zealand. The exposure is a life ceiling that is a maximum rather than a mandatory term: section 6 allows life imprisonment for dealing in a Class A mescaline preparation. Possession is charged under section 7 at a maximum of 6 months. The exposure attaches to the preparation, so drying, grinding or brewing the cactus is what brings the Class A ceiling into play rather than the plant sitting in a pot. Schedule 5 quantities raise a presumption of supply and do not set a sentence.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: peyote is not separately named, and it is reached as a mescaline-containing Class A preparation under Schedule 1. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026 and search it for mescaline, not for peyote. Read the Schedule 1 mescaline entry and its preparations wording, and note that the cactus is not separately named in the text cited. Carry the distinction between a living plant and a preparation, because the dossier's finding is pitched at the prepared or possessed preparation and not at horticulture. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

Peyote in New Zealand, full detail →

Phenibut

Legal status: Not a controlled drug on the text cited, and the absence was tested rather than assumed. Phenibut, a beta-phenyl derivative of gamma-aminobutyric acid, has no exact entry in Schedules 1 to 3 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, and the closed schedules were read together with the open section 2 analogue limb, whose definition excludes substances that are approved medicines or that lack substantial structural similarity to a controlled drug. That is why this is recorded as a positive closed-list absence and not as an unresolved question. GHB and GBL both have their own rows here and are named in Schedule 2 as Class B, so a GABA-related structure does not by itself produce a listing. One route stays open: sale of an unapproved psychoactive product can engage the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 even where no controlled drug classification attaches. The consolidation read was the one current at 20 September 2026, with the Order of 2025 commenced on 27 November 2025 as the latest instrument actually in force.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. New Zealand has no death penalty. No Misuse of Drugs Act ceiling attaches to phenibut either, because it is not established as a controlled drug on the cited text, so neither the section 6 dealing maximum nor the section 7 possession maximum has anything to fasten on. The exposure that does exist sits in the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013, on the route for unlawful sale of an unapproved psychoactive product, whose penalties are statutory and non-capital. That route reaches supply rather than a person carrying the substance. It is sold as a supplement in some markets, and a sale into New Zealand is where the product route becomes live.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: phenibut is not established as a controlled drug on the text cited, so the Misuse of Drugs Act placement is a negative one and neither section 6 nor section 7 attaches to it. It is prescribed in a small number of countries and sold as a supplement elsewhere, a combination that catches travellers out. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026 and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 together, because the finding for phenibut needs both: the first for the negative and the second for the route that remains. Read the analogue exclusions for this row, because the dossier records that the schedules were read together with the open limb before the negative was entered. Carry the reasoning and not only the result, because a negative is worth no more than the limb it was tested against, and here that limb is the section 2 exclusion for approved medicines and for substances lacking substantial structural similarity. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

Phenibut in New Zealand, full detail →

Pink Cocaine / Tusi

Legal status: Not applicable as a single status, and not because the Act is silent. Pink cocaine is a street label rather than a substance: the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 defines a controlled drug as any substance, preparation, mixture or article specified or described in Schedule 1, 2 or 3, and a label that names no molecule and fixes no mixture cannot be specified or described anywhere. New Zealand's list is closed for named substances and works entry by entry, with the section 2 analogue limb open behind it, so a powder sold under this name is whatever it analyses as, and the same name can produce a different class from one sample to the next. Whatever a sample turns out to contain is answered by that substance's own row in this table, and those rows, not this one, carry the schedule placements. No single terminal status can honestly be stated for the label itself.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. New Zealand has no death penalty, and life under section 6 attaches only to a Class A controlled drug. No single ceiling attaches to the label: the constituent class controls, which is life for Class A, 14 years for Class B and 8 years for Class C under section 6, and 6 months for Class A possession or 3 months for Classes B and C under section 7. A sample that analyses as a Class A drug carries the life ceiling while one that analyses as nothing scheduled carries neither figure. The rows for the individual substances, not this row, supply the numbers.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. There is also nothing to attach a placement to here, because pink cocaine is a label rather than a substance and has no schedule placement of its own. Nothing here should be read as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026 and the section 2 definition of a controlled drug, because that definition is what makes a street label unanswerable as a class. Read the analysis of the actual sample, not the name it was sold under, and then read the row in this table for whatever the analysis names. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

legislation.govt.nz · The power that moves this list is section 4 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, under which the Governor General by Order in Council amends Schedules 1 to 3 subject to approval and commencement machinery. As those schedules stand after the Misuse of Drugs (Classification and Presumption of Supply) Order 2025, effective 27 November 2025, which this project's New Zealand substance dossier checked on 20 September 2026 records as the latest commenced classification instrument located, a 2026 Order was made and no commencement instrument for it was located. That does not rule out a later amendment made or commenced since. · Updated September 21, 2026

Pink Cocaine / Tusi in New Zealand, full detail →

Poppers

Legal status: Not applicable as a single status, and the Act's own definition is the reason. Poppers is a market name for the alkyl nitrites rather than a substance: a controlled drug in New Zealand is any substance, preparation, mixture or article specified or described in Schedule 1, 2 or 3, and a name covering a family of volatile esters specifies nothing. Which nitrite is in the bottle decides the answer, and the bottle rarely says. This table carries amyl nitrite as a row of its own, and that row, not this one, holds the finding for that constituent. The Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route for sale of an unapproved psychoactive product can also apply to a product sold for inhalation, which is a product question rather than a classification of the label.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. New Zealand has no death penalty at all, and the life ceiling in section 6 belongs to Class A, which no nitrite in this table is placed in. No single ceiling attaches to poppers, because the constituent class is what drives the section 6 or section 7 maximum. Where the constituent is not established as a controlled drug, as the amyl nitrite row in this table records, the Misuse of Drugs Act ceilings do not engage and the remaining exposure is the non-capital penalty for unlawful sale of an unapproved psychoactive product. Read the constituent row for the figure.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. No placement can be attached here either, because poppers is a label for a family of alkyl nitrites and has no schedule entry of its own; the amyl nitrite row in this table carries the placement for that constituent. Nothing here should be read as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026 together with the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013, because a product sold for inhalation raises the second Act even when the first does not reach it. Read the amyl nitrite row in this table for the constituent this label most often denotes. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

Poppers in New Zealand, full detail →

Pregabalin

Legal status: Not a controlled drug on the text cited, and the absence was tested rather than assumed. Pregabalin, a gabapentinoid used for neuropathic pain, has no exact entry in Schedules 1 to 3 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, and the closed schedules were read together with the open section 2 analogue limb, whose definition excludes substances that are approved medicines or that lack substantial structural similarity to a controlled drug. That is why this is recorded as a positive closed-list absence and not as an unresolved question. Gabapentin has its own row in this table and carries the same negative finding. One route stays open: sale of an unapproved psychoactive product can engage the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 even where no controlled drug classification attaches. The reading is against the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, whose latest commenced classification instrument is the Misuse of Drugs (Classification and Presumption of Supply) Order 2025, in force from 27 November 2025.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. New Zealand has no death penalty. No Misuse of Drugs Act ceiling attaches to pregabalin either, because it is not established as a controlled drug on the cited text, so neither the section 6 dealing maximum nor the section 7 possession maximum has anything to fasten on. The exposure that does exist sits in the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013, on the route for unlawful sale of an unapproved psychoactive product, whose penalties are statutory and non-capital. That route reaches supply rather than a person carrying the substance. It is a prescription medicine rather than a controlled drug on this finding, so diversion is a medicines matter.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: pregabalin is not established as a controlled drug on the text cited, so the Misuse of Drugs Act placement is a negative one and neither section 6 nor section 7 attaches to it. It is prescribed for neuropathic pain and anxiety and is very commonly carried, and this negative does not address the medicines rules that apply to it. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026 and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 together, because the finding for pregabalin needs both: the first for the negative and the second for the route that remains. Read the gabapentin row beside this one, and treat any prescription question as unanswered by this cell. Carry the reasoning and not only the result, because a negative is worth no more than the limb it was tested against, and here that limb is the section 2 exclusion for approved medicines and for substances lacking substantial structural similarity. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

medsafe.govt.nz · The power that moves this list is section 4 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, under which the Governor General by Order in Council amends Schedules 1 to 3 subject to approval and commencement machinery. As those schedules stand after the Misuse of Drugs (Classification and Presumption of Supply) Order 2025, effective 27 November 2025, which this project's New Zealand substance dossier checked on 20 September 2026 records as the latest commenced classification instrument located, a 2026 Order was made and no commencement instrument for it was located. That does not rule out a later amendment made or commenced since. · Updated September 21, 2026

Pregabalin in New Zealand, full detail →

Psilocybin

Legal status: Controlled, and named rather than inferred. Schedule 1 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 names or describes psilocybin, the tryptamine of the psilocybe mushrooms, as a Class A controlled drug, and the entry carries the derivatives and preparations limb attached to it. New Zealand's list is closed for named substances, so a named entry settles the class without recourse to the section 2 controlled-drug-analogue limb that carries sixteen other rows in this table. 4-AcO-DMT has its own row here and is reached only through the analogue limb at Class C, so the mushroom alkaloid is named while its ester is not. The reading is against the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, whose latest commenced classification instrument is the Misuse of Drugs (Classification and Presumption of Supply) Order 2025, in force from 27 November 2025.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. New Zealand has no death penalty. The exposure that does exist is the section 6 maximum of life imprisonment for importing, manufacturing or supplying a Class A controlled drug, and psilocybin is Class A, so all three limbs carry it. Life is a ceiling and not a mandatory term. Possession is charged under section 7, where the maximum is 6 months. The Schedule 5 quantities create a presumption of supply, so crossing a quantity moves the charge toward section 6 rather than fixing the outcome. Dried mushroom material is a preparation containing the alkaloid, so picking and drying does not keep a person outside the entry.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: psilocybin is a Class A controlled drug under Schedule 1, with sections 6 and 7 supplying the offences. There is no dispensed form to declare, and the amanita muscaria row shows that a finding on one fungus settles nothing about another. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, which is the official New Zealand Legislation text rather than a secondary summary. Read the Schedule 1 psilocybin entry with its preparations limb, because dried material is reached as a preparation. Carry the class and the ceiling as two separate readings, because Schedule 1 supplies the class for psilocybin while sections 6 and 7 supply the maximum. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

Psilocybin in New Zealand, full detail →

Quetiapine

Legal status: Not a controlled drug on the text cited, and the absence was tested rather than assumed. Quetiapine, an atypical antipsychotic, has no exact entry in Schedules 1 to 3 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, and the closed schedules were read together with the open section 2 analogue limb, whose definition excludes substances that are approved medicines or that lack substantial structural similarity to a controlled drug. That is why this is recorded as a positive closed-list absence and not as an unresolved question. It appears in this table as a sedating medicine that is diverted rather than as a candidate for a schedule entry, and the dossier finds no entry for it. One route stays open: sale of an unapproved psychoactive product can engage the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 even where no controlled drug classification attaches. This was read against the consolidation current at 20 September 2026; the 2026 Classification and Presumption of Supply Order was made but no commencement instrument was located by that horizon, so nothing it proposes is treated as law here.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. New Zealand has no death penalty. No Misuse of Drugs Act ceiling attaches to quetiapine either, because it is not established as a controlled drug on the cited text, so neither the section 6 dealing maximum nor the section 7 possession maximum has anything to fasten on. The exposure that does exist sits in the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013, on the route for unlawful sale of an unapproved psychoactive product, whose penalties are statutory and non-capital. That route reaches supply rather than a person carrying the substance. Diverted tablets raise a medicines question rather than a section 6 one on this finding.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: quetiapine is not established as a controlled drug on the text cited, so the Misuse of Drugs Act placement is a negative one and neither section 6 nor section 7 attaches to it. It is a prescribed antipsychotic and a realistic item in a medicine case, and this negative reaches only the controlled drug schedules. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026 and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 together, because the finding for quetiapine needs both: the first for the negative and the second for the route that remains. Read this row as a controlled drug finding, and do not read it as a statement that the medicine is freely available. Carry the reasoning and not only the result, because a negative is worth no more than the limb it was tested against, and here that limb is the section 2 exclusion for approved medicines and for substances lacking substantial structural similarity. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

medsafe.govt.nz · The power that moves this list is section 4 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, under which the Governor General by Order in Council amends Schedules 1 to 3 subject to approval and commencement machinery. As those schedules stand after the Misuse of Drugs (Classification and Presumption of Supply) Order 2025, effective 27 November 2025, which this project's New Zealand substance dossier checked on 20 September 2026 records as the latest commenced classification instrument located, a 2026 Order was made and no commencement instrument for it was located. That does not rule out a later amendment made or commenced since. · Updated September 21, 2026

Quetiapine in New Zealand, full detail →

Salvia divinorum

Legal status: Not a controlled drug on the text cited, and the absence was tested rather than assumed. Salvia divinorum, a mint whose activity comes from the non-alkaloid diterpene salvinorin A, has no exact entry in Schedules 1 to 3 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, and the closed schedules were read together with the open section 2 analogue limb, whose definition excludes substances that are approved medicines or that lack substantial structural similarity to a controlled drug. That is why this is recorded as a positive closed-list absence and not as an unresolved question. Its active principle is not a nitrogen containing compound at all, which is part of why the analogue comparison to the listed drugs does not carry it. One route stays open: sale of an unapproved psychoactive product can engage the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 even where no controlled drug classification attaches. The consolidation read was the one current at 20 September 2026, with the Order of 2025 commenced on 27 November 2025 as the latest instrument actually in force.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. New Zealand has no death penalty. No Misuse of Drugs Act ceiling attaches to Salvia divinorum either, because it is not established as a controlled drug on the cited text, so neither the section 6 dealing maximum nor the section 7 possession maximum has anything to fasten on. The exposure that does exist sits in the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013, on the route for unlawful sale of an unapproved psychoactive product, whose penalties are statutory and non-capital. That route reaches supply rather than a person carrying the substance. Dried leaf offered for consumption is a product, and that is the only route on which any exposure arises here.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: Salvia divinorum is not established as a controlled drug on the text cited, so the Misuse of Drugs Act placement is a negative one and neither section 6 nor section 7 attaches to it. No prescribed form exists, and the plant is sold openly in some places, which establishes nothing about New Zealand. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026 and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 together, because the finding for Salvia divinorum needs both: the first for the negative and the second for the route that remains. Read the analogue definition for this row, since the structural comparison rather than the effect is what the section 2 limb asks about. Carry the reasoning and not only the result, because a negative is worth no more than the limb it was tested against, and here that limb is the section 2 exclusion for approved medicines and for substances lacking substantial structural similarity. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

Salvia divinorum in New Zealand, full detail →

Scopolamine (Devil's Breath)

Legal status: Not a controlled drug on the text cited, and the absence was tested rather than assumed. Scopolamine, a tropane alkaloid, has no exact entry in Schedules 1 to 3 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, and the closed schedules were read together with the open section 2 analogue limb, whose definition excludes substances that are approved medicines or that lack substantial structural similarity to a controlled drug. That is why this is recorded as a positive closed-list absence and not as an unresolved question. Cocaine, also a tropane alkaloid, has its own row here and is named in Schedule 1 as Class A, so a shared alkaloid family does not produce a shared class. One route stays open: sale of an unapproved psychoactive product can engage the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 even where no controlled drug classification attaches. The reading is against the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, whose latest commenced classification instrument is the Misuse of Drugs (Classification and Presumption of Supply) Order 2025, in force from 27 November 2025.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. New Zealand has no death penalty. No Misuse of Drugs Act ceiling attaches to scopolamine either, because it is not established as a controlled drug on the cited text, so neither the section 6 dealing maximum nor the section 7 possession maximum has anything to fasten on. The exposure that does exist sits in the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013, on the route for unlawful sale of an unapproved psychoactive product, whose penalties are statutory and non-capital. That route reaches supply rather than a person carrying the substance. It appears in clinical preparations, and diversion of those is a medicines question on this finding.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: scopolamine is not established as a controlled drug on the text cited, so the Misuse of Drugs Act placement is a negative one and neither section 6 nor section 7 attaches to it. It is prescribed in patch form for motion sickness, which makes it a genuine traveller medicine despite the reputation attached to the name. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026 and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 together, because the finding for scopolamine needs both: the first for the negative and the second for the route that remains. Read this row without carrying the cocaine class across to it, because the tropane skeleton is common to both and decides neither. Carry the reasoning and not only the result, because a negative is worth no more than the limb it was tested against, and here that limb is the section 2 exclusion for approved medicines and for substances lacking substantial structural similarity. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

medsafe.govt.nz · The power that moves this list is section 4 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, under which the Governor General by Order in Council amends Schedules 1 to 3 subject to approval and commencement machinery. As those schedules stand after the Misuse of Drugs (Classification and Presumption of Supply) Order 2025, effective 27 November 2025, which this project's New Zealand substance dossier checked on 20 September 2026 records as the latest commenced classification instrument located, a 2026 Order was made and no commencement instrument for it was located. That does not rule out a later amendment made or commenced since. · Updated September 21, 2026

Scopolamine (Devil's Breath) in New Zealand, full detail →

Synthetic Cannabinoids (K2 / Spice)

Legal status: Not applicable as a class status, and in New Zealand the reason cuts both ways. A controlled drug is any substance, preparation, mixture or article specified or described in Schedule 1, 2 or 3, so the phrase synthetic cannabinoids is not itself an entry and cannot be classified as one. The absence of a name from the schedules is not an answer here either: the section 2 controlled-drug-analogue definition can place a new molecule in Class C even when its spelling never appears in a schedule, and Schedule 3 Part 7 is where that route lands. A product sold as a synthetic cannabinoid can also engage the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 as an unapproved psychoactive product. The class of any given molecule is therefore read from its own structure and its own entry, and this row cannot supply it.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. New Zealand has no death penalty, and the section 6 life ceiling is confined to Class A, so the label itself carries no life figure either. No single ceiling attaches to it at all: the constituent class controls the section 6 or section 7 maximum, and a molecule reached through the analogue limb is treated as Class C with an 8 year dealing ceiling. A molecule named in a schedule carries whatever that schedule gives it. Sale of an unapproved psychoactive product carries its own non-capital statutory penalty under the 2013 Act, which is a separate exposure again.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. No placement attaches to this label, because synthetic cannabinoids names a design space rather than a substance and each molecule takes its class from its own entry or from the analogue limb. Nothing here should be read as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, and carry section 2 and Schedule 3 Part 7 with it, because this is the row where a search of the named schedules is most likely to return nothing and mislead. Read the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 as well for anything sold as a product. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

Synthetic Cannabinoids (K2 / Spice) in New Zealand, full detail →

THC-P

Legal status: Controlled through the open analogue limb rather than by a schedule name. THC-P, a tetrahydrocannabinol homologue with a lengthened side chain, has no entry of its own in Schedules 1 to 3 on the text cited, and this finding does not rest on that absence: the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 defines a controlled drug analogue as any substance whose structure is substantially similar to that of a controlled drug, subject to the stated exclusions, and the stated parent structure places THC-P in that limb unless a medicine exclusion or an express exclusion applies. The analogue route lands in Schedule 3 Part 7, so the class is C. The side chain is the only structural difference from the cannabinoids the cannabis entries reach, and a chain length is not what the analogue limb asks about. The dossier states the statutory route rather than claiming a laboratory determination, because a court-grade analogue conclusion can depend on expert structural evidence. The reading is against the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, whose latest commenced classification instrument is the Misuse of Drugs (Classification and Presumption of Supply) Order 2025, in force from 27 November 2025.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. New Zealand has no death penalty. A controlled drug analogue is treated as a Class C controlled drug, so the exposure on THC-P is the section 6 dealing maximum of 8 years, with section 7 reaching possession. This row's own ceiling column states the section 7 limb without attaching a figure to it, and the Class C rows in this table put that possession maximum at 3 months. The 8 year figure is the whole of the exposure on this route. A lengthened side chain is the only difference from the cannabinoids the cannabis entries reach, and it is the difference between the analogue figure and the 14 year preparations one.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: THC-P is not named in Schedules 1 to 3 and is reached, if at all, through the section 2 controlled-drug-analogue limb, which is treated as Class C. It appears in cannabinoid products alongside compounds this table answers elsewhere, so one product can raise several rows at once. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026 and read section 2 together with Schedule 3 Part 7, because neither carries the finding for THC-P on its own. Read the analogue definition for THC-P with the phrase substantially similar in front of you, because a homologue is the hardest case that phrase has to decide. Carry the point that an absent name is not an answer in New Zealand: the list is closed for named substances while the analogue limb is open, so a search of the schedules that returns nothing has not finished the question. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

THC-P in New Zealand, full detail →

Tobacco

Legal status: Not a controlled drug on the text cited, and the absence was tested rather than assumed. Tobacco, the cured leaf of Nicotiana, has no exact entry in Schedules 1 to 3 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, and the closed schedules were read together with the open section 2 analogue limb, whose definition excludes substances that are approved medicines or that lack substantial structural similarity to a controlled drug. That is why this is recorded as a positive closed-list absence and not as an unresolved question. Nicotine has its own row in this table and carries the same negative finding, so leaf and alkaloid agree. One route stays open: sale of an unapproved psychoactive product can engage the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 even where no controlled drug classification attaches. This was read against the consolidation current at 20 September 2026; the 2026 Classification and Presumption of Supply Order was made but no commencement instrument was located by that horizon, so nothing it proposes is treated as law here.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. New Zealand has no death penalty. No Misuse of Drugs Act ceiling attaches to tobacco either, because it is not established as a controlled drug on the cited text, so neither the section 6 dealing maximum nor the section 7 possession maximum has anything to fasten on. The exposure that does exist sits in the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013, on the route for unlawful sale of an unapproved psychoactive product, whose penalties are statutory and non-capital. That route reaches supply rather than a person carrying the substance. Its entire regulatory weight sits in law that neither Act carries, so a negative here says very little about what a seller may lawfully do.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: tobacco is not established as a controlled drug on the text cited, so the Misuse of Drugs Act placement is a negative one and neither section 6 nor section 7 attaches to it. It is not a prescription item, and the border rules that apply to it are duty and quantity rules outside this dossier. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026 and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 together, because the finding for tobacco needs both: the first for the negative and the second for the route that remains. Read this row narrowly, because the separate tobacco control regime is outside both Acts this dossier read. Carry the reasoning and not only the result, because a negative is worth no more than the limb it was tested against, and here that limb is the section 2 exclusion for approved medicines and for substances lacking substantial structural similarity. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

Tobacco in New Zealand, full detail →

Tramadol

Legal status: Controlled, and named rather than inferred. Schedule 3 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 names or describes tramadol, a synthetic opioid with monoamine reuptake activity, as a Class C controlled drug, and the entry reaches the relevant salts and preparations. New Zealand's list is closed for named substances, so a named entry settles the class without recourse to the section 2 controlled-drug-analogue limb that carries sixteen other rows in this table. Codeine has its own row here and shares its Schedule 3 class, while the stronger opioids in this table sit a class above in Schedule 2. This was read against the consolidation current at 20 September 2026; the 2026 Classification and Presumption of Supply Order was made but no commencement instrument was located by that horizon, so nothing it proposes is treated as law here.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. No capital sentence exists in New Zealand, and Class C is the lowest of the Act's three classes. For tramadol the section 6 dealing maximum is 8 years, subject to the distinctions the Act draws around supply to adults, and the section 7 possession maximum is 3 months. English accounts that call the section 7 discretion decriminalisation are wrong, and the offence remains an offence. The figure sits 6 years below the Schedule 2 opioids in this table, so the opioid family is split across that boundary.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: tramadol is a Class C controlled drug under Schedule 3, with sections 6 and 7 supplying the offences. This is a very widely prescribed analgesic, and it sits a class below the stronger opioids of this table. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, which is the official New Zealand Legislation text rather than a secondary summary. Read the Schedule 3 tramadol entry beside the Schedule 2 opioid entries, since the class boundary runs between them. Carry the class and the ceiling as two separate readings, because Schedule 3 supplies the class for tramadol while sections 6 and 7 supply the maximum. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

Tramadol in New Zealand, full detail →

Xanax (Alprazolam)

Legal status: Controlled, and named rather than inferred. Schedule 3 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 names or describes alprazolam, a triazolobenzodiazepine, as a Class C controlled drug, and the entry reaches the relevant salts and preparations. New Zealand's list is closed for named substances, so a named entry settles the class without recourse to the section 2 controlled-drug-analogue limb that carries sixteen other rows in this table. Diazepam, clonazepam, lorazepam, etizolam and nimetazepam all have their own rows here and sit in the same Schedule 3 class, so the whole benzodiazepine group this table carries answers alike. The reading is against the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, whose latest commenced classification instrument is the Misuse of Drugs (Classification and Presumption of Supply) Order 2025, in force from 27 November 2025.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. New Zealand has no death penalty. Section 6 caps dealing in a Class C controlled drug at 8 years, subject to the adult-supply distinctions the Act draws, and that is the ceiling on alprazolam. Possession is charged under section 7, where the maximum is 3 months. Section 7 also directs prosecution discretion toward a health-centred response in qualifying possession cases, which is not decriminalisation and does not make possession lawful. Counterfeit tablets sold under this name are common, and a tablet that is not what it claims is charged on whatever it actually contains.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: alprazolam is a Class C controlled drug under Schedule 3, with sections 6 and 7 supplying the offences. This is a prescribed anxiolytic, and its placement is the lowest of the three classes rather than anything approaching the top one. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, which is the official New Zealand Legislation text rather than a secondary summary. Read the Schedule 3 alprazolam entry, and use the benzodiazepines row in this table for the class question rather than this one. Carry the class and the ceiling as two separate readings, because Schedule 3 supplies the class for alprazolam while sections 6 and 7 supply the maximum. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

Xanax (Alprazolam) in New Zealand, full detail →

Xylazine

Legal status: Not a controlled drug on the text cited, and the absence was tested rather than assumed. Xylazine, a veterinary alpha-2 adrenergic sedative, has no exact entry in Schedules 1 to 3 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, and the closed schedules were read together with the open section 2 analogue limb, whose definition excludes substances that are approved medicines or that lack substantial structural similarity to a controlled drug. That is why this is recorded as a positive closed-list absence and not as an unresolved question. It is reported as an adulterant of opioid powders whose named opioids, such as fentanyl and heroin, have their own rows here and are controlled, so a mixture can be controlled through a constituent this row does not reach. One route stays open: sale of an unapproved psychoactive product can engage the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 even where no controlled drug classification attaches. The consolidation read was the one current at 20 September 2026, with the Order of 2025 commenced on 27 November 2025 as the latest instrument actually in force.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. New Zealand has no death penalty. No Misuse of Drugs Act ceiling attaches to xylazine either, because it is not established as a controlled drug on the cited text, so neither the section 6 dealing maximum nor the section 7 possession maximum has anything to fasten on. The exposure that does exist sits in the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013, on the route for unlawful sale of an unapproved psychoactive product, whose penalties are statutory and non-capital. That route reaches supply rather than a person carrying the substance. A powder containing it will usually also contain a named opioid, and the opioid rows carry the ceiling a seizure actually attracts.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: xylazine is not established as a controlled drug on the text cited, so the Misuse of Drugs Act placement is a negative one and neither section 6 nor section 7 attaches to it. It is a veterinary product rather than a human medicine, so no human prescribing route is in view at all. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026 and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 together, because the finding for xylazine needs both: the first for the negative and the second for the route that remains. Read the opioid rows in this table for any mixture containing xylazine, because this row answers only the xylazine constituent. Carry the reasoning and not only the result, because a negative is worth no more than the limb it was tested against, and here that limb is the section 2 exclusion for approved medicines and for substances lacking substantial structural similarity. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

mpi.govt.nz · The power that moves this list is section 4 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, under which the Governor General by Order in Council amends Schedules 1 to 3 subject to approval and commencement machinery. As those schedules stand after the Misuse of Drugs (Classification and Presumption of Supply) Order 2025, effective 27 November 2025, which this project's New Zealand substance dossier checked on 20 September 2026 records as the latest commenced classification instrument located, a 2026 Order was made and no commencement instrument for it was located. That does not rule out a later amendment made or commenced since. · Updated September 21, 2026

Xylazine in New Zealand, full detail →

Zolpidem

Legal status: Controlled, and named rather than inferred. Schedule 3 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 names or describes zolpidem, an imidazopyridine hypnotic of the Z-drug group, as a Class C controlled drug, and the entry reaches the relevant salts and preparations. New Zealand's list is closed for named substances, so a named entry settles the class without recourse to the section 2 controlled-drug-analogue limb that carries sixteen other rows in this table. It is not a benzodiazepine, yet it sits in the same Schedule 3 class as the six benzodiazepines this table names. The consolidation read was the one current at 20 September 2026, with the Order of 2025 commenced on 27 November 2025 as the latest instrument actually in force.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. The death penalty was abolished and no life term reaches Class C. The section 6 dealing ceiling for zolpidem is 8 years and the section 7 possession ceiling is 3 months. The 8 year figure is subject to the Act's adult-supply distinctions. A health-centred prosecution response is directed for qualifying possession, and that is discretion rather than legality. A hypnotic handed to a friend before a flight is a supply under section 6, and the figure above is the ceiling for it.
If prescribed / medical: Not established for a traveller. This dossier carries no country-level rule for entering New Zealand with a prescribed medicine: it records that medicines status has to be checked alongside the analogue exclusions and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 route, and that a court-grade conclusion can turn on the medicine exclusions, but it states no declaration requirement, no permit, no quantity allowance and no carry limit at the border, and none was researched for this cell. What is established is the placement a traveller would be read against: zolpidem is a Class C controlled drug under Schedule 3, with sections 6 and 7 supplying the offences. Sleep medication is among the most commonly carried items across any border, and the placement is the lowest class. Do not read that placement as a ruling on a lawfully prescribed and lawfully carried supply, which is a different question this cell does not answer. Settle the border question with the Ministry of Health, whose classification order implementation page this dossier cites, and with the New Zealand border authority, before travelling.
Documentation: Carry the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 consolidation current at 20 September 2026, which is the official New Zealand Legislation text rather than a secondary summary. Read the Schedule 3 zolpidem entry, and do not treat the benzodiazepines row in this table as covering it. Carry the class and the ceiling as two separate readings, because Schedule 3 supplies the class for zolpidem while sections 6 and 7 supply the maximum. Carry the classification chain this finding was read against as well: the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment, and the 2026 Order, which was made but is not treated as law in this dossier because its own section 2 leaves commencement to the Governor-General and no commencement instrument was located by the horizon. Carry the date as well, 20 September 2026, because in New Zealand a classification order can move a substance between classes without a word of the Act changing.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, Schedules 1 to 5, at https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/116/en/latest/, read as at 20 September 2026. The power that moves the list is section 4, which authorises the Governor General by Order in Council to amend Schedules 1 to 5 subject to statutory approval and commencement machinery, so the schedules are not fixed by the Act's own date. The chain the source records as checked is the current consolidation, the 2022 and 2025 Classification and Presumption of Supply Orders with their commencement orders, and the 2024 pseudoephedrine amendment. A 2026 Order exists and the source records it as uncommenced at that date, so this reading does not rule out a later amendment that had commenced or been made after it. The published URL resolves to the latest consolidation rather than to a fixed version, so the read date above is what identifies the text, not the link. · Updated September 21, 2026

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