Is Oxycodone legal in United Arab Emirates?

Legal status

Oxycodone is placed in Schedule 1 of Decision No. 158 of 2025 at the printed entry «أوكسيكودون». The dossier's finding is that its prescription status does not convert unauthorised possession or trafficking into an ordinary medicines offence: the substance is in the narcotics schedule proper, so the schedule based route governs whatever the tablet was originally dispensed for. The entry is a bare designation, so modified release and immediate release products, and combinations containing the opioid, are all inside it. The row runs through Articles 10, 41 and 57, with Schedule 10 carrying the quantity bands. The dossier states the content of Article 57 and does not state what Articles 10 and 41 provide. The placement was read on 20 September 2026.

Consequences if caught

Schedule 1 is one of the four schedule groups Article 57 names, and the «أوكسيكودون» entry is in Schedule 1. The dossier records Article 57 as stating mandatory death for its trafficking or promotion trigger and as stating no quantity for it, and records that the Schedule 10 bands do not gate that route. Supplying tablets to another person is the conduct most likely to be misjudged on this row, because it is commonplace with prescribed analgesics and it is the kind of act a promotion or trafficking trigger is written to reach, with no quantity threshold standing between it and the article. Article 41 carries the personal use route for this branch, with no tariff stated in the dossier.

If prescribed or medical

The dossier records at the modafinil row that a 268 entry ministry travellers list was checked and expressly not used as a schedule. Attached to this substance: oxycodone is in Schedule 1 and no strength, formulation or pack size falls outside the entry. The dossier records no prescribing route, no traveller allowance and no import permit procedure, so a patient's question about bringing a prescribed supply is deferred rather than answered, and it should not be inferred from the fact that the medicine is lawfully dispensed elsewhere.

Documentation

Carry the prescription and the original dispensing packaging naming the active ingredient, together with a physician's letter, and settle the permit question with the health ministry before travelling because no Emirati permit procedure is recorded here. Provenance: the Schedule 1 placement and the entry «أوكسيكودون» were read on 20 September 2026, with the capital analysis resting on Article 57 and not on the Schedule 10 bands. Do not give tablets to a travelling companion, since that is the act most likely to move the row from a possession question to a supply one.

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