Is Nimetazepam legal in France?

Legal status

Nimetazepam is on the French psychotropics list rather than the narcotics list. The consolidated order of 22 February 1990 fixing the list of psychotropic substances carries the entry « nimétazépam », and the dossier keeps the two 1990 orders apart because the consequences they open are not the same. The entry is a single designation, nimétazépam, with nothing bracketed and no alternative spelling offered beside it. The list prints the accented French form nimétazépam where the English name is nimetazepam, and the French spelling is the string the list was searched under. This row is also one of the members the benzodiazepines class label in the same table resolves onto, which is why that label does not need to be left unanswered. The express clauses for salts, stereoisomers and preparations follow the psychotropics order's own wording, and no narcotics clause is borrowed to widen it. France's lists are closed, so the position for nimetazepam is settled by the psychotropics entry existing and not by any resemblance argument.

Consequences if caught

Capital exposure: none. France abolished the death penalty and no French drug provision carries one. What this row does not establish is the narcotics specific life route: Penal Code article 222-34 carries life imprisonment for directing or organising a group formed for illicit narcotics activity, and the dossier records that a place on the psychotropics order of 22 February 1990 does not by itself prove it. The psychotropics entry is « nimétazépam ». The entry is a single designation with nothing bracketed beside it, and the order prints the accented French form nimétazépam where the English name is nimetazepam, so the French spelling is the string the placement was found under. This row is also one of the six members the benzodiazepines label in this table resolves onto, and all six were settled on the psychotropics order rather than the narcotics one. Article L. 3421-1 of the Code de la santé publique addresses illicit use and stands apart from organised trafficking. The dossier prints no tariff for the psychotropics route, so no figure is stated here.

If prescribed or medical

France's country level rule, taken from the dossier rather than from any prescribing summary, is that a Schengen traveller certificate or a medicines carriage list is evidential and administrative and is not the criminal schedule. Attached to this substance: nimetazepam sits on the psychotropics order of 22 February 1990 at the entry « nimétazépam », so a certificate can evidence lawful carriage of a prescribed psychotropic while the listing itself is untouched by it. No per substance prescribing route for nimetazepam appears in the dossier and none is supplied here.

Documentation

Carry the Schengen traveller certificate and the prescribing document for nimetazepam with the medicine in its original dispensing packaging, and expect the certificate to be read as evidence rather than as an authorisation that changes the list. Provenance: the placement relied on is the entry « nimétazépam » in the Arrêté du 22 février 1990 fixant la liste des substances psychotropes, reached through the Légifrance consolidated search at https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/search/all?query=arr%C3%AAt%C3%A9+22+f%C3%A9vrier+1990+psychotropes and checked on 18 September 2026. The psychotropics order was followed through its terminal list material and its amendment links alongside the narcotics order.

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