Is Opium legal in Honduras?

Legal status

Controlled. Opium is named in Lista I de la Convención Única de 1961, and Article 321 of the Código Penal (Decreto 130-2017) makes those schedules the definition of droga, estupefaciente o sustancia psicotrópica for Articles 311 to 313: «Por droga, estupefaciente o sustancia psicotrópica, se entiende cualquiera de las sustancias incluidas en las Listas I, II y IV de la Convención Única y sus Protocolos de Naciones Unidas sobre estupefacientes, hecha en Nueva York de 1961 y en las Listas I, II, III y IV del Convenio y sus Protocolos de Naciones Unidas sobre sustancias psicotrópicas, hecho en Viena, el 21 de febrero de 1971.» The entry read was NO 001, CAS 8008-60-4, OPIUM, the coagulated juice of the opium poppy.

Consequences if caught

Opium is inside Honduras's drug offence in its own right. What distinguishes this row is that the poppy plant is dealt with by a Honduran cultivation article of its own, separately from the juice. Art. 311 sets 4 to 7 years where the drug does not cause grave harm to health and 7 to 10 years in every other case, and Art. 321 confines the lighter band to the cannabis derivatives, so 7 to 10 years is this row's band. The fine under Art. 311 is 100 to 500 days. Art. 311's second paragraph allows 1 to 3 years or 2 to 5 years instead where the facts and the offender's own circumstances show lesser gravity, and that reduction is closed once an Art. 312 aggravator applies. Art. 312 replaces those terms with 10 to 15 years and a fine of 300 to 500 days on any of nine listed aggravators, and adds a further third where the organised group aggravator meets either the special quantity or the extraordinary transport one. Art. 313 cuts the Art. 311 first paragraph terms and the Art. 312 terms by a third on confession or on cooperation with the authorities. The special quantity that triggers that aggravator is set by Art. 321 and for this row is 60 grams of opium or of its derivatives. Art. 26 of Decreto 126/89, which set a first offence internment of up to 30 days in a rehabilitation centre with a fine, was repealed by Art. 632 of the Código Penal, which repeals Arts 16 to 30 and 41 of that law by name, so the 30 day figure is corrected here rather than restated. Nothing replaced it inside the Code's drug chapter, and Art. 311 reaches possession only where the substance is held for the purposes that article lists, so neither the Código Penal nor Decreto 126/89 as it now stands fixes a personal use quantity or a personal use measure. Those are the two instruments read for this cell, and other Honduran law was not searched for one. The Art. 311 bands of 4 to 7 and 7 to 10 years, the Art. 312 band of 10 to 15 years and the 30 day figure from Art. 26 are carried forward from the live cell and not re-derived here, and they describe the offences that this row's placement brings into play. The Art. 311 fine, the lesser gravity terms, Art. 313 and the Art. 321 quantities are read from the Gaceta text and are new to this cell.

If prescribed or medical

Raw opium is a manufacturing input rather than something dispensed to a patient. Article 12 of Decreto 126/89 governs medicines that contain a controlled substance, and this row is not one of them.

Documentation

The instrument read for this cell is the consolidated text of the Ley sobre el Uso Indebido y Tráfico Ilícito de Drogas y Sustancias Psicotrópicas, Decreto 126/89, published by the Tribunal Superior de Cuentas, which carries its own footnote to La Gaceta 25992 of 23 November 1989 and to the Decreto 86-93 reform in La Gaceta 27162 of 1 October 1993, together with the Código Penal, Decreto 130-2017, as printed in La Gaceta 34,940 of 10 May 2019. Articles 16 to 30 and 41 of Decreto 126/89 were repealed by Article 632 of that Code, so the 1989 law now supplies definitions and administrative prohibitions and the Code supplies every offence. The live cell dated the Code to 10 November 2019, which is the date Article 635 as enacted would have produced from a publication of 10 May 2019; commencement was postponed twice and the Code took effect on 25 June 2020. That last date is carried from the reported amendment of Article 635 published in La Gaceta 35,247 of 9 May 2020, which was not read at the gazette for this cell. The schedules Article 321 adopts were read in the International Narcotics Control Board Yellow List, 65th edition of July 2026, the Green List, 36th edition of 2025, and the Red List, 23rd edition of July 2025, on 21 September 2026. Opium was placed by reading the matched entry and not by counting a name hit. The entry read was NO 001, CAS 8008-60-4, OPIUM, the coagulated juice of the opium poppy, in Lista I de la Convención Única de 1961. Article 11 of Decreto 126/89 survives and still reads «Se prohíbe a toda persona mantener en su poder ya sea en sus ropas o valijas, en su domicilio, lugar de trabajo, automóvil o cualquier otro lugar bajo su orden y responsabilidad, sin autorización legal, cantidad alguna de estupefacientes y sustancias controladas», and Article 6 still routes the definitions through the conventions and the Reglamento de Control de Estupefacientes y otras Drogas Peligrosas, but the article that carried the penalty for breaching them is repealed, so that prohibition now stands without a sanction of its own. Carry any controlled medicine in its dispensing packaging with the prescription, and confirm the position with the Honduran consulate before you travel.

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