Is Opium legal in Sri Lanka?

Legal status

Dangerous drug under Sri Lanka's Poisons, Opium and Dangerous Drugs Ordinance (Chapter 218): Third Schedule, Part I, Group B, Section 1, and named in section 54A(1)(a) itself. Opium is the only substance in Part III with its own quantity ladder. Its bands run from below 10 grammes up to 1 kilogramme and above, and they are two hundred times larger than the bands for morphine, cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine. Group D separately lists three old pharmacopoeia opium preparations to which only the import and export provisions apply. The model: the list is inside the Ordinance and the power to change it is delegated, with a parliamentary lock on the delegation. Section 48 provides that 「the drugs, substances, articles or preparations, specified for the time being in Groups A, B, C, D and E in Part I of the Third Schedule, shall be deemed to be dangerous drugs」. Section 2(1) then provides that 「regulation」 means a regulation made under this Ordinance and published in the Gazette, 「and includes the First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Schedules」, so the Third Schedule is itself a regulation. The empowering section is section 80. Section 80(2)(b) lets the Minister make regulations 「for adding any item to or deleting any item from, or altering, varying or amending in any other way, any of the lists or Groups of poisons and dangerous drugs set out in the First and Third Schedules」, and section 80(3) then provides that 「No regulation so made shall have effect unless it has been approved by Parliament and notification of such approval has been published in the Gazette」. So the delegation is real but it is locked to an affirmative vote, and in practice the 2022 changes were made by primary legislation rather than by regulation. The Act was last amended by the Poisons, Opium and Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act, No. 7 of 2026, certified 6 March 2026. The Third Schedule was last amended by section 6 of the Poisons, Opium and Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act, No. 41 of 2022, certified 23 November 2022 and published as a supplement to Part II of the Gazette of 25 November 2022, which substituted Group B of Part I and the whole of Part III. Act No. 7 of 2026 does not touch the Third Schedule.

Consequences if caught

Section 54A(1) has four limbs and they do not carry the same exposure. Limb (a) punishes any person who 「manufactures any of the following dangerous drugs, namely heroin or cocaine or morphine or opium」 with 「a sentence of death or life imprisonment」, with no quantity stated. Limbs (b), (c) and (d) punish trafficking, importing or exporting, and possession, of 「any dangerous drug set out in Column II of Part III of the Third Schedule in excess of the amount set out in the said Column II」, with the penalty in Column III. Part III Column II is headed 「Pure Quantities」, and Column I is headed 「Traffics, possess, imports or exports」, so possession is inside the same ladder as trafficking. Section 54B extends the same punishment to abetting, attempting and acts preparatory to or in furtherance of a section 54A offence. Since Act No. 7 of 2026 a parallel section 54AA applies the same two structures on the high seas, aboard a ship registered in Sri Lanka or a stateless ship. Part III, as substituted in 2022, sets only two capital bands. Opium at 1 kilogramme or above is 「Death or life imprisonment」, and 「Morphine, Cocaine, Heroin and Methamphetamine」 at 5 grammes or above is 「Death or life imprisonment」. Cannabis has a ladder in Part III whose top band is 100 kilogrammes or above and carries ten to fifteen years, with no capital band at all. No other substance appears in Column II anywhere. The ladder in full: 1 kilogramme or above is death or life; 500 grammes to less than 1 kilogramme is life imprisonment with no death; 50 to less than 500 grammes is ten to fifteen years with a fine of two hundred thousand to five hundred thousand rupees; 10 to less than 50 grammes is five to ten years; below 10 grammes is two to five years. Capital and life exposure. Both reach opium and by two separate routes, and its quantity ladder is two hundred times looser than the one for the other four. Section 54A(1)(a) punishes manufacture of 「heroin or cocaine or morphine or opium」 with 「a sentence of death or life imprisonment」 at any quantity. Part III then sets the opium ladder: 「1 kilogramme or above」 is 「Death or life imprisonment」, 500 grammes to less than 1 kilogramme is life imprisonment with no death, and the bands below that are fixed terms. Column II is headed 「Pure Quantities」. It is not mandatory, the phrase being death or life. The route to the top band is limb (b), (c) or (d) of section 54A(1), so possession of a kilogramme reaches it as surely as trafficking does, and section 54AA applies the same structure on the high seas since Act No. 7 of 2026. Sri Lanka has carried out no judicial execution since 1976.

If prescribed or medical

Opium itself has no prescribing route. The Group D preparations are historical pharmacopoeia items.

Documentation

No traveller route for opium. Poppy pods and poppy straw sold as ornamentals are the practical risk and they carry the alkaloid.

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