Is Nimetazepam legal in Austria?

Legal status

This is a designated psychotrope in Austria, which is the lighter of the country's two drug designations. In the Psychotropenverordnung, Annex 1 point 2 carries Nimetazepam. It is listed on the same footing as the therapeutic benzodiazepines even though it has no Austrian market, which shows the list is a control list rather than a formulary. Reading the entry yields the placement only. No article, condition or operative provision sits inside it, and the working law is SMG §5(1) together with the §30, §31 and §31a offences. Designation here is delegated in the same way as for narcotics. SMG §3(1) sets the convention and regulation test, the Psychotropenverordnung answers it, and the offences sit in SMG §§30, 31 and 31a rather than in §§27 to 28a. Annex 1 reaches the salts and preparations of the substances it names. There is no general derivative or isomer extension in this instrument, so an unlisted designer analogue is not brought in by resemblance.

Consequences if caught

Capital exposure: none. Ten years is the maximum, under SMG §§31(3) and 31a(3) for the specified criminal association preparation and trafficking conduct. The life ceiling in the narcotics instrument is not available against a psychotrope, and Austria is not a capital jurisdiction. Nimetazepam is a point 2 psychotrope, and its absence from Austrian pharmacies does not move it to a different tier. Section 31 covers preparation above the threshold with intent to put it into circulation at two years, rising to five years above fifteen times the threshold, and §31a covers trafficking at three years and then five. The fine and the custodial term in the basic offences are alternatives, and confiscation under SMG §34 is a separate consequence from both. Separately from that, and carried forward from this site's published Austria entry rather than re-derived from the Suchtmittelgesetz in this pass, the published penalties are these. Austrian practice is depenalised and not legalised, and the published entry says so in those terms. There is no legal minimum quantity, and possession of any amount for personal use is punishable under section 27, up to six months in prison or a fine. Under Therapie statt Strafe at section 35, small quantity personal use is typically provisionally suspended from prosecution on one to two years of probation where the person accepts counselling or treatment. Consumption itself is not criminalised, but the possession that precedes it is. Above the Grenzmenge, the threshold quantity, the offence becomes dealing or trafficking under sections 28 and 28a, up to one to three years, escalating to ten to fifteen years for commercial or organised cases. Every figure in this paragraph is a penalty range or a fine and none of them is a quantity threshold. They describe the offences that this row's placement in the Austrian Suchtgift and psychotrope lists brings into play.

If prescribed or medical

The rule that governs every traveller in Austria is SMG §5(1). It confines the acquisition, possession, production, processing, carriage, import, export, offering, transfer and procurement of a Suchtmittel to medical, dental, veterinary and scientific purposes, and the particular travel, licensing and dispensing provisions operate inside it rather than around it. Because this substance is a designated psychotrope, SMG §30(3) is available on its own terms. It removes punishment under §30(1) and §30(2) where a medicine containing a psychotropic substance, not exceeding the threshold, is acquired, possessed, carried, imported or exported for personal use or for the needs of an animal, or is offered, transferred or procured without the person drawing an advantage from it. It is not a blanket exception for psychotropic powder. The Psychotropenverordnung closes its Annexes 2 and 3 with travel certificate fields, which is where this system's documented route lives. Nothing read here establishes an authorised Austrian nimetazepam medicine, so a foreign supply is not shown to be a medicine within the SMG §30(3) exception, which turns on the item being one.

Documentation

Carry the original dispensing packaging and the prescription, and obtain the psychotrope travel certificate whose fields the Psychotropenverordnung sets out at the end of its Annexes 2 and 3. A nimetazepam supply obtained abroad does not become an Austrian medicine by crossing the border. The psychotrope list was read at its 18 September 2026 consolidation, whose last list amendment is BGBl II 394/2024 of 19 December 2024; the later BGBl II 10/2025 changed other provisions and not the list.

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