Is Opium legal in Pakistan?

Legal status

Opium is a narcotic drug under the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997 and has its own row in the section 9(1) punishment table: row 5 of the section 9(1) table, 'Opium'. Section 2(t) defines opium as poppy straw, the coagulated juice of poppy capsules, and mixtures of either, 'but does not include any preparation containing not more than 0.2 per cent of morphine'.

Consequences if caught

The row is measured on the weight of the narcotic itself and not on any alkaloid content, and the row is row 5 of the section 9(1) table, 'Opium'. Section 9(1) punishes a contravention of sections 6, 7 or 8 'regarding narcotic drugs' by the table alone, one row per named narcotic. Six rows, from 'Up to 499 grams' at six years to '8000 grams or more' at life with a floor of twenty years. Capital and life exposure. The table's top band for this entry is imprisonment for life. Death is not available. Act No. XXXVIII of 2023, section 2, assented on 2 August 2023 and published in the Gazette of Pakistan, Extraordinary, on 5 August 2023, removed every death reference from section 9. The words at the heroin and morphine band of 6000 grams or more and at the cocaine band of 5000 grams or more were omitted, and the Pakistan Code now prints a bracketed omission mark where they stood. In the fourth proviso to section 9(2) the words 'may be death or' were replaced by 'shall be'. The word death survives twice in the whole fifty page Act and both are procedural. Because death is unavailable, the question whether it is mandatory does not arise. The ceiling is life, and section 9A(3) says what that means: 'Notwithstanding anything contained in any other law for time being in force, imprisonment for life under this Act means imprisonment in jail for the period of twenty-five years.' Section 9A(2) bars probation and parole, and section 9A(1) bars remission except for a juvenile or a female convict.

If prescribed or medical

Where a prescription for opium exists at all, rule 2(1)(xxix) says what it has to be: 'a written direction by a practitioner that a stated amount of a drug of abuse be dispensed for the person named therein'. It is one of only seven narcotics section 9(1) names, so the section 6 medical, scientific and industrial exception is the only lawful route to it. Section 6 prohibits possession and the rest 'except for medical, scientific or industrial purposes in the manner and subject to such conditions as may be specified by or under this Act or any other law for the time being in force'. The conditions are the Control of Narcotic Substances (Regulation of Drugs of Abuse, Controlled Chemicals, Equipment and Materials) Rules, 2001, which run a registration, licence and permit system under rules 5 to 18. Rule 14 provides for permits in relation to first-aid kits and rule 15 for programmes for medical and scientific purposes, and rule 11 governs import, export and transit permits. A traveller carrying a prescribed medicine should hold the prescription and the dispensing label, in the prescriber's name, and should expect the quantity to be measured against the section 9 bands if the substance is scheduled.

Documentation

There is a second instrument in play for opium, and it is not the Act. The Prohibition (Enforcement of Hadd) Order, 1979, President's Order No. 4 of 1979, runs alongside the Act and section 78 of the Act does not repeal it. Article 3(1) punishes importing, exporting, transporting, manufacturing, processing, bottling, selling or serving any intoxicant with up to five years, whipping not exceeding thirty stripes, and fine. Article 3(2) punishes trafficking in opium or coca leaf or their derivatives with 'imprisonment for life or with imprisonment, which is not less than two years and with whipping not exceeding thirty stripes'. Article 4 punishes owning or possessing any intoxicant with up to two years, or thirty stripes, and fine, and its second proviso raises that to life where heroin or cocaine exceeds ten grams or opium or coca leaf exceeds one kilogram. The Hadd Order carries no death penalty either. One knot worth knowing: entries 4 and 5 of its Schedule define opium and coca by reference to the Dangerous Drugs Act, 1930, which section 78(1) of this Act repealed in 1997.

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