Is Opium legal in Belize?

Legal status

Raw opium is printed in Belize's Misuse of Drugs Regulations at Schedule I paragraph 1(a), in the Misuse of Drugs Act Chapter 103 volume of the Subsidiary Laws of Belize, Revised Edition 2020, which shows the subsidiary laws as at 31 December 2020. Raw opium is printed between Psilocin and Rolicyclidine, and Concentrate of poppy straw earlier in the same paragraph. That schedule's heading reads «CONTROLLED DRUGS SUBJECT TO THE REQUIREMENTS OF REGULATIONS 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 23, 25 AND 26.» The subsidiary law made under Chapter 103 therefore calls what it lists a controlled drug, and this substance is one of them. Opium is the one substance here with entries in three schedules at once. Raw opium and Concentrate of poppy straw are in Schedule I, Medicinal opium and Poppy Straw in Schedule II paragraph 1, and Schedule V paragraph 8 exempts a powder of ipecacuanha and opium of 10 per cent opium and 10 per cent ipecacuanha root well mixed with 80 per cent of a powder containing no controlled drug. The Act defines opium, raw opium, medicinal opium, prepared opium, opium poppy and poppy straw separately at section 2(1). The class is left open on purpose. The Act's own classification lives in its Second Schedule and the punishment table in its Third Schedule, and the volume read here is the subsidiary laws volume, whose contents page lists four instruments and none of them is the Act. The schedule placement in this cell is read off the instrument and is not printed in the quoted dossier extract, which names the Act's schedules only as a range.

Consequences if caught

Section 7(1) of the Act makes it unlawful to have a controlled drug in your possession, section 7(2) makes that an offence, and section 7(3) makes possession with intent to supply a separate offence. Section 7(4)(c) sets thirty grammes of opium as the presumption quantity, the largest of the five figures in that subsection apart from cannabis, and a person above it is deemed to hold it for the purpose of supply unless the contrary is proved. Section 17 of the 1990 Act text sets one penalty for drug trafficking and for possession for the purpose of trafficking, and it does not vary by class. On summary conviction it is a fine of not less than twenty five thousand dollars rising to one hundred thousand, or three times the street value of the drug if that is greater, or imprisonment of not less than five years rising to ten, or both. On conviction on indictment it is a fine of not less than one hundred thousand dollars rising to five hundred thousand, or three times the street value, or imprisonment of not less than seven years rising to fourteen, or both. The ordinary possession maximum is not given here. Section 27 takes it from the Act's Third Schedule, column by column, according to whether the drug is Class A, Class B or Class C, and neither that schedule nor the Second Schedule that assigns the class was among the four instruments in the volume read. One caution about section numbers. The Act text read here is the Misuse of Drugs Act 1990, Act 22 of 1990, as UNODC holds it, and the current Chapter 103 has been renumbered since. The Cannabis Violation Tickets Regulations cite section 12 for the smoking offence the 1990 text puts at section 11, and section 18 for the school premises presumption the 1990 text puts at section 17, so the current numbering runs one ahead from about section 11. Section 7 is the possession section in both, which the ticket schedule confirms independently. The same amendments that renumbered the Act may also have changed what these provisions say, so every figure quoted here from the 1990 text is the figure as enacted in 1990 and its currency is not established.

If prescribed or medical

Schedule I is the heaviest of the five. Regulation 5 means a licence of the Minister is what makes production, supply or possession lawful, and the Schedule I heading brings in regulations 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 23, 25 and 26, which are the documentation, prescription form, register, destruction and record keeping duties. Regulation 4 does not exempt Schedule I from anything: its exceptions run to Schedules IV and V and to poppy straw only. So there is no ordinary dispensed medicine route for a Schedule I drug in Belize and nothing a traveller carries makes one. Schedule V is the exempted preparations schedule. Regulation 4(1) disapplies the import and export prohibition in section 5(1) of the Act for it and regulation 4(2)(b) disapplies the possession prohibition in section 7(1) outright, not merely for a medicinal product form. Only regulations 24 and 25 then apply. A preparation qualifies only if it is inside the printed strength limit for its paragraph.

Documentation

Carry a prescribed medicine in the pharmacy's original labelled packaging with the prescription and a letter from the prescriber naming the patient, the active ingredient, the dose, the quantity and the treatment period. Those papers evidence a therapeutic purpose; they are not an import authorisation, and the Regulations put import and export authorisations on the Minister's forms in Schedules VII to XI, issued to licence holders rather than to travellers. For this row the fact to carry is the printed entry itself: Raw opium, at Schedule I paragraph 1(a). Opium returned ten occurrences in the subsidiary volume and twenty two in the 1990 Act text, with Raw opium, Medicinal opium and Poppy Straw each appearing as printed entries. The volume was read on 22 September 2026.

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