Legal status in Pakistan

Per-substance legal status for Pakistan, from sourced statutes where available. Legal information, not legal advice; drug laws change, so confirm with the destination’s embassy or drug authority before you travel.

44 confirmed substances44 not individually verifiedLast updated October 8, 2026

Confirmed legal status

Adderall

Legal status: Adderall is a psychotropic substance under the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997. Section 2(za) defines the term as 'the substances, specified in the Schedule-I to this Act' plus anything the Federal Government declares by gazette notification, and Schedule-I carries it: serials 1 and 22 of Schedule-I, 'AMFETAMINE' and 'DEXAMPHETAMINE'. Adderall is mixed amphetamine salts and has no separate entry. Column 3 gives the chemical name as '(+/-)-a-methylpenethylamine at serial 1 and (+)-a-methylphenethylamine at serial 22'.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. The entry being applied is serials 1 and 22 of Schedule-I, 'AMFETAMINE' and 'DEXAMPHETAMINE'. Adderall is mixed amphetamine salts and has no separate entry. Section 9(2) sets nine quantity bands for a psychotropic substance, from 'Up to 20 grams' at one year with a floor of two months, through 'More than 500-grams and up to one kilo grams' at seven years, to 'Exceeding four kilo grams', which reads 'imprisonment which shall not be less than life imprisonment along-with fine which shall not be less than two million rupees'. This substance is punished through the section 9(2) bands and not through the section 9(1) narcotic table, which names only seven narcotics and does not name it. 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 / medical: Where a prescription for Adderall 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'. 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: Schedule-I identifies Adderall in column 3 as '(+/-)-a-methylpenethylamine at serial 1 and (+)-a-methylphenethylamine at serial 22', and column 3 is what a Government Analyst's certificate under rule 6 of the Control of Narcotic Substances (Government Analysts) Rules, 2001 is matched against. Three provisos qualify section 9(2). An offence 'inside or near a school, college, university, educational setting or any other educational institution' draws the maximum for the band. A second conviction draws the maximum where the quantity does not exceed two kilograms, and not less than life where it exceeds two kilograms. Schedule-I has not been amended for substance content since the Act was passed in 1997: the only change recorded against it is that section 26 of Act No. XX of 2022 substituted its heading, which in the 1997 Act read only as the Schedule, and added a new Schedule-II. Section 74A, inserted by the same Act, lets the Federal Government amend the Schedules by notification in the official Gazette, and no such notification is present in what I could reach. The Prohibition (Enforcement of Hadd) Order, 1979 does not reach it either: the Schedule to that Order lists only hemp, charas, mixtures of the two, opium and opium derivatives, coca leaf and coca derivatives, and hashish.

pakistancode.gov.pk · Updated September 21, 2026

Adderall in Pakistan, full detail →

Alcohol

Legal status: Alcohol is not a narcotic drug, a psychotropic substance or a controlled substance under the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997, and ethanol appears in neither of that Act's schedules. It is governed by a separate instrument, the Prohibition (Enforcement of Hadd) Order, 1979, President's Order No. 4 of 1979, made on 9 February 1979, which section 78 of the 1997 Act does not repeal. Under article 2(h) of the Prohibition (Enforcement of Hadd) Order, 1979: "'intoxicating liquor' includes toddy, spirits of wine, beer and all liquids consisting of or containing alcohol normally used for purposes of intoxication, but does not include a solid intoxicant even if liquefied".
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Alcohol is the one substance on this page whose penalties are not in the Act at all. 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 4 punishes owning, possessing or keeping any intoxicant with up to two years, or whipping not exceeding thirty stripes, and fine. Article 8 makes an adult Muslim who takes intoxicating liquor by mouth guilty of drinking liable to hadd, 'punished with whipping numbering eighty stripes'. The first proviso to article 4 exempts 'a non-Muslim foreigner or... a non-Muslim citizen of Pakistan who keeps in his custody at or about the time of ceremony prescribed by his religion a reasonable quantity of intoxicating liquor for the purpose of using it as a part of such ceremony'. Death is not available under the Hadd Order. The word death appears twice in it and neither is a punishment: once in the definition of iztirar and once in a procedural clause applying the confirmation rules for a death sentence by analogy. Life imprisonment is available under the Order, but not for liquor: article 3(2) reserves it for trafficking in opium or coca leaf or their derivatives, and the second proviso to article 4 for heroin or cocaine above ten grams or opium or coca leaf above one kilogram. For intoxicating liquor the ceiling is five years under article 3(1) and two years under article 4, with whipping and fine.
If prescribed / medical: There is no prescription route for intoxicating liquor under the Rules 2001, because those Rules are made under the narcotics Act and liquor is not a drug of abuse within them. Article 5 of the Hadd Order takes articles 3 and 4 out of play for 'any act done under, and in accordance with, the provision of this Order, or the terms of any rule, notification, order or permit issued thereunder'. Medicinal and industrial alcohol move through provincial excise permits rather than through the Rules 2001, which are made under the narcotics Act and do not govern liquor. A traveller should not read the article 4 proviso as a personal allowance: it is about a ceremony prescribed by the traveller's religion, not about private consumption.
Documentation: The delegated power over intoxicants, and it is provincial. Article 2(g) is a delegated power and it sits with the provinces, not the centre: "'intoxicant' means an article specified in the Schedule and include intoxicating liquor and other article or any substance which the Provincial Government may by notification in the official Gazette, declare to be an intoxicant for the purposes of this Order". So the list of intoxicants can differ province by province, and no provincial notification under that power is present in what I could reach. Articles 3(1), 3(2) and the second proviso to article 4 were all inserted by the Prohibition (Enforcement of Hadd) (Amendment) Order, 1983, President's Order No. 12 of 1983.

kpexcise.gov.pk · Updated September 21, 2026

Alcohol in Pakistan, full detail →

Amphetamine

Legal status: Amphetamine is a psychotropic substance under the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997. Section 2(za) defines the term as 'the substances, specified in the Schedule-I to this Act' plus anything the Federal Government declares by gazette notification, and Schedule-I carries it: serial 1 of Schedule-I, 'AMFETAMINE', with 'Amphetamine' in the trivial-names column. Column 3 gives the chemical name as '(+/-)-a-methylpenethylamine'.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. The entry being applied is serial 1 of Schedule-I, 'AMFETAMINE', with 'Amphetamine' in the trivial-names column. Section 9(2) sets nine quantity bands for a psychotropic substance, from 'Up to 20 grams' at one year with a floor of two months, through 'More than 500-grams and up to one kilo grams' at seven years, to 'Exceeding four kilo grams', which reads 'imprisonment which shall not be less than life imprisonment along-with fine which shall not be less than two million rupees'. This substance is punished through the section 9(2) bands and not through the section 9(1) narcotic table, which names only seven narcotics and does not name it. 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 / medical: Where a prescription for amphetamine 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'. 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: Schedule-I identifies amphetamine in column 3 as '(+/-)-a-methylpenethylamine', and column 3 is what a Government Analyst's certificate under rule 6 of the Control of Narcotic Substances (Government Analysts) Rules, 2001 is matched against. Three provisos qualify section 9(2). An offence 'inside or near a school, college, university, educational setting or any other educational institution' draws the maximum for the band. A second conviction draws the maximum where the quantity does not exceed two kilograms, and not less than life where it exceeds two kilograms. Schedule-I has not been amended for substance content since the Act was passed in 1997: the only change recorded against it is that section 26 of Act No. XX of 2022 substituted its heading, which in the 1997 Act read only as the Schedule, and added a new Schedule-II. Section 74A, inserted by the same Act, lets the Federal Government amend the Schedules by notification in the official Gazette, and no such notification is present in what I could reach. The Prohibition (Enforcement of Hadd) Order, 1979 does not reach it either: the Schedule to that Order lists only hemp, charas, mixtures of the two, opium and opium derivatives, coca leaf and coca derivatives, and hashish.

pakistancode.gov.pk · Updated September 21, 2026

Amphetamine in Pakistan, full detail →

Ayahuasca

Legal status: Split answer, and the split is in the schedules rather than in my reading. The alkaloid that ayahuasca is taken for is scheduled and ayahuasca itself is not. The scheduled alkaloid is DMT, carried as an unnumbered row of Schedule-I under serial 13, printed '[DMT', '3-[2-diethylamino)ethyl] indole'. Neither of the two plants it is brewed from, Banisteriopsis caapi and Psychotria viridis, is named anywhere, and the harmala alkaloids that make the brew orally active are not scheduled either.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. The bands are measured on the alkaloid, so what is weighed for ayahuasca is a question of fact about the material seized. Section 9(2) sets nine quantity bands for a psychotropic substance, from 'Up to 20 grams' at one year with a floor of two months, through 'More than 500-grams and up to one kilo grams' at seven years, to 'Exceeding four kilo grams', which reads 'imprisonment which shall not be less than life imprisonment along-with fine which shall not be less than two million rupees'. Those bands are measured on the quantity of the psychotropic substance, and the Act gives no conversion from plant material to alkaloid content, unlike the cannabis and opium rows of section 9(1), which are measured on the plant product itself. The band that the alkaloid tops out at is life, at more than four kilograms. 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 / medical: Where a prescription for ayahuasca 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'. The plant itself is not a drug of abuse under the Rules, so nothing licenses it and nothing forbids it there either. 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: The split on ayahuasca, set out so the confirmed half and the deferred half do not blur. Objective, and confirmed: the alkaloid is named in Schedule-I with its own chemical name in column 3, and the plant is named in no schedule of the Act, no schedule of the Rules 2001 and no entry of the Schedule to the Hadd Order. Judgment, and deferred: whether possession of the plant is possession of the scheduled alkaloid within it. The Act contains no preparation clause of its own. Rule 4(1) of the Rules 2001 has one, 'Preparations shall be subject to the same measures of control, under these rules, as the drugs of abuse or controlled chemicals they contain', but it governs the Rules and not section 9. The Prohibition (Enforcement of Hadd) Order, 1979 does not reach it either: the Schedule to that Order lists only hemp, charas, mixtures of the two, opium and opium derivatives, coca leaf and coca derivatives, and hashish.

pakistancode.gov.pk · Updated September 21, 2026

Ayahuasca in Pakistan, full detail →

Barbiturates

Legal status: Barbiturates is a psychotropic substance under the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997. Section 2(za) defines the term as 'the substances, specified in the Schedule-I to this Act' plus anything the Federal Government declares by gazette notification, and Schedule-I carries it: twelve entries of Schedule-I are barbiturates: AMOBARBITAL at 2, ALLOBARBITAL at 3, BUTALBITAL at 8, BARBITAL at 9, CYCLOBARBITAL at 14, METHYLPHENOBARBITAL at 52, PENTOBARBITAL at 66, PHENOBARBITAL at 67, SECOBARBITAL at 77, SECBUTABARBITAL at 78, VINYBITAL at 84, and butobarbital as an unnumbered row under serial 11. Column 3 gives the chemical name as 'for example phenobarbital at serial 67 as 5-ethyl-5-phenyl barbituric acid'. As with the benzodiazepines, the schedule lists compounds and not a class.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. The entry being applied is twelve entries of Schedule-I are barbiturates: AMOBARBITAL at 2, ALLOBARBITAL at 3, BUTALBITAL at 8, BARBITAL at 9, CYCLOBARBITAL at 14, METHYLPHENOBARBITAL at 52, PENTOBARBITAL at 66, PHENOBARBITAL at 67, SECOBARBITAL at 77, SECBUTABARBITAL at 78, VINYBITAL at 84, and butobarbital as an unnumbered row under serial 11. Section 9(2) sets nine quantity bands for a psychotropic substance, from 'Up to 20 grams' at one year with a floor of two months, through 'More than 500-grams and up to one kilo grams' at seven years, to 'Exceeding four kilo grams', which reads 'imprisonment which shall not be less than life imprisonment along-with fine which shall not be less than two million rupees'. This substance is punished through the section 9(2) bands and not through the section 9(1) narcotic table, which names only seven narcotics and does not name it. 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 / medical: Where a prescription for barbiturates 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'. 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: Schedule-I identifies barbiturates in column 3 as 'for example phenobarbital at serial 67 as 5-ethyl-5-phenyl barbituric acid', and column 3 is what a Government Analyst's certificate under rule 6 of the Control of Narcotic Substances (Government Analysts) Rules, 2001 is matched against. Three provisos qualify section 9(2). An offence 'inside or near a school, college, university, educational setting or any other educational institution' draws the maximum for the band. A second conviction draws the maximum where the quantity does not exceed two kilograms, and not less than life where it exceeds two kilograms. Schedule-I has not been amended for substance content since the Act was passed in 1997: the only change recorded against it is that section 26 of Act No. XX of 2022 substituted its heading, which in the 1997 Act read only as the Schedule, and added a new Schedule-II. Section 74A, inserted by the same Act, lets the Federal Government amend the Schedules by notification in the official Gazette, and no such notification is present in what I could reach. The Prohibition (Enforcement of Hadd) Order, 1979 does not reach it either: the Schedule to that Order lists only hemp, charas, mixtures of the two, opium and opium derivatives, coca leaf and coca derivatives, and hashish.

pakistancode.gov.pk · Updated September 21, 2026

Barbiturates in Pakistan, full detail →

Benzodiazepines

Legal status: Benzodiazepines is a psychotropic substance under the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997. Section 2(za) defines the term as 'the substances, specified in the Schedule-I to this Act' plus anything the Federal Government declares by gazette notification, and Schedule-I carries it: thirty-four serials of Schedule-I are benzodiazepines, among them ALPRAZOLAM at 4, BROMAZEPAM at 11, CHLORDIAZEPOXIDE at 16, CLONAZEPAM at 18, DIAZEPAM at 24, FLUNITRAZEPAM at 35, MIDAZOLAM at 57, NITRAZEPAM at 59, OXAZEPAM at 61, TEMAZEPAM at 79 and TRIAZOLAM at 81. Column 3 gives the chemical name as 'each is given its own systematic name in column 3, for example diazepam at serial 24 as 7-chloro-1,3-dihydro-1-methyl-5-phenyl-2H-1,4-benzodiazpine-2-one'. The schedule names individual compounds. It carries no class entry for benzodiazepines, so a benzodiazepine absent from the list is outside it.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. The entry being applied is thirty-four serials of Schedule-I are benzodiazepines, among them ALPRAZOLAM at 4, BROMAZEPAM at 11, CHLORDIAZEPOXIDE at 16, CLONAZEPAM at 18, DIAZEPAM at 24, FLUNITRAZEPAM at 35, MIDAZOLAM at 57, NITRAZEPAM at 59, OXAZEPAM at 61, TEMAZEPAM at 79 and TRIAZOLAM at 81. Section 9(2) sets nine quantity bands for a psychotropic substance, from 'Up to 20 grams' at one year with a floor of two months, through 'More than 500-grams and up to one kilo grams' at seven years, to 'Exceeding four kilo grams', which reads 'imprisonment which shall not be less than life imprisonment along-with fine which shall not be less than two million rupees'. This substance is punished through the section 9(2) bands and not through the section 9(1) narcotic table, which names only seven narcotics and does not name it. 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 / medical: Where a prescription for benzodiazepines 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'. 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: Schedule-I identifies benzodiazepines in column 3 as 'each is given its own systematic name in column 3, for example diazepam at serial 24 as 7-chloro-1,3-dihydro-1-methyl-5-phenyl-2H-1,4-benzodiazpine-2-one', and column 3 is what a Government Analyst's certificate under rule 6 of the Control of Narcotic Substances (Government Analysts) Rules, 2001 is matched against. Three provisos qualify section 9(2). An offence 'inside or near a school, college, university, educational setting or any other educational institution' draws the maximum for the band. A second conviction draws the maximum where the quantity does not exceed two kilograms, and not less than life where it exceeds two kilograms. Schedule-I has not been amended for substance content since the Act was passed in 1997: the only change recorded against it is that section 26 of Act No. XX of 2022 substituted its heading, which in the 1997 Act read only as the Schedule, and added a new Schedule-II. Section 74A, inserted by the same Act, lets the Federal Government amend the Schedules by notification in the official Gazette, and no such notification is present in what I could reach. The Prohibition (Enforcement of Hadd) Order, 1979 does not reach it either: the Schedule to that Order lists only hemp, charas, mixtures of the two, opium and opium derivatives, coca leaf and coca derivatives, and hashish.

pakistancode.gov.pk · Updated September 21, 2026

Benzodiazepines in Pakistan, full detail →

Buprenorphine

Legal status: Buprenorphine is a psychotropic substance under the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997. Section 2(za) defines the term as 'the substances, specified in the Schedule-I to this Act' plus anything the Federal Government declares by gazette notification, and Schedule-I carries it: serial 7 of Schedule-I, 'BUPRENORPHINE'. It is scheduled as a psychotropic substance and not as an opium derivative, so section 9(2) governs it and not the section 9(1) table. Column 3 gives the chemical name as '21-cyclopropyl-7-a-[(s)-1-hydroxy-1, 2,2-trimethylporpyl]-6, 14-endo-ethano-6, 7,8,14-tetrahydrooripavine'.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. The entry being applied is serial 7 of Schedule-I, 'BUPRENORPHINE'. It is scheduled as a psychotropic substance and not as an opium derivative, so section 9(2) governs it and not the section 9(1) table. Section 9(2) sets nine quantity bands for a psychotropic substance, from 'Up to 20 grams' at one year with a floor of two months, through 'More than 500-grams and up to one kilo grams' at seven years, to 'Exceeding four kilo grams', which reads 'imprisonment which shall not be less than life imprisonment along-with fine which shall not be less than two million rupees'. This substance is punished through the section 9(2) bands and not through the section 9(1) narcotic table, which names only seven narcotics and does not name it. 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 / medical: Where a prescription for buprenorphine 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'. 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: Schedule-I identifies buprenorphine in column 3 as '21-cyclopropyl-7-a-[(s)-1-hydroxy-1, 2,2-trimethylporpyl]-6, 14-endo-ethano-6, 7,8,14-tetrahydrooripavine', and column 3 is what a Government Analyst's certificate under rule 6 of the Control of Narcotic Substances (Government Analysts) Rules, 2001 is matched against. Three provisos qualify section 9(2). An offence 'inside or near a school, college, university, educational setting or any other educational institution' draws the maximum for the band. A second conviction draws the maximum where the quantity does not exceed two kilograms, and not less than life where it exceeds two kilograms. Schedule-I has not been amended for substance content since the Act was passed in 1997: the only change recorded against it is that section 26 of Act No. XX of 2022 substituted its heading, which in the 1997 Act read only as the Schedule, and added a new Schedule-II. Section 74A, inserted by the same Act, lets the Federal Government amend the Schedules by notification in the official Gazette, and no such notification is present in what I could reach. The Prohibition (Enforcement of Hadd) Order, 1979 does not reach it either: the Schedule to that Order lists only hemp, charas, mixtures of the two, opium and opium derivatives, coca leaf and coca derivatives, and hashish.

pakistancode.gov.pk · Updated September 21, 2026

Buprenorphine in Pakistan, full detail →

Caffeine

Legal status: Not a controlled substance in Pakistan's narcotics law. Caffeine is not a narcotic drug, a psychotropic substance or a controlled substance as sections 2(s), 2(za) and 2(k) define those terms, and it is named in neither schedule of the Act, in none of the six schedules of the Rules 2001, and in no entry of the Schedule to the Hadd Order. It is a food ingredient, and no Pakistani narcotics instrument read here reaches it.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. There is no quantity band for caffeine because there is no offence. None of sections 6, 7 or 8 of the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997 is engaged. Those sections bite on 'any narcotic drug, psychotropic substance or controlled substance', and this is none of the three. Death is not available in Pakistani narcotics law at all since 5 August 2023, and it was never available for anything outside the three statutory categories. 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 / medical: Caffeine needs no licence, permit or authorisation under the Rules 2001. No licence, permit or authorisation under the Rules 2001 is required, because rule 2(1)(xiii) confines a drug of abuse to 'a prohibited drug, a high-risk drug, or a risk drug', each defined by reference to a Schedule to those Rules, and this appears in none of them. 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: Scope of this answer for caffeine. This cell answers the narcotics question only. Pakistan regulates food, medicines and tobacco through separate regimes with their own schedules and their own penalties, and none of those was read in this pass. Saying the narcotics Act does not reach a substance is not the same as saying nothing does. The Prohibition (Enforcement of Hadd) Order, 1979 does not reach it either: the Schedule to that Order lists only hemp, charas, mixtures of the two, opium and opium derivatives, coca leaf and coca derivatives, and hashish.

pakistancode.gov.pk · Updated September 21, 2026

Caffeine in Pakistan, full detail →

Cannabis / THC

Legal status: Cannabis is a narcotic drug under the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997 and has its own row in the section 9(1) punishment table: rows 1, 3 and 4 of the section 9(1) table, 'Bhang', 'Charas' and 'Hashish oil and liquid Hashish'. Section 2(d) defines cannabis (hemp) as cannabis resin (charas), the flowering or fruiting tops, and 'all forms known as bhang, siddhi'.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. The row is measured on the weight of the narcotic itself and not on any alkaloid content, and the row is rows 1, 3 and 4 of the section 9(1) table, 'Bhang', 'Charas' and 'Hashish oil and liquid Hashish'. Section 9(1) punishes a contravention of sections 6, 7 or 8 'regarding narcotic drugs' by the table alone, one row per named narcotic. Bhang runs from 'Up to 999 grams' at three years to '20000 grams or more' at life. Charas runs from 'Up to 499 grams' at five years to '10000 grams or more' at life. Hashish oil tops at '5000 grams or more' at life. 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 / medical: Where a prescription for Cannabis 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 Cannabis, 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.

pakistancode.gov.pk · Updated September 21, 2026

Cannabis / THC in Pakistan, full detail →

Cathinone

Legal status: Cathinone is a psychotropic substance under the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997. Section 2(za) defines the term as 'the substances, specified in the Schedule-I to this Act' plus anything the Federal Government declares by gazette notification, and Schedule-I carries it: serial 12 of Schedule-I, 'CATHINONE', with cathine at serial 13 as '(+)-norpseudo ephedrine'. Column 3 gives the chemical name as '(-)-(S)-2 aminopropiophenone'.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. The entry being applied is serial 12 of Schedule-I, 'CATHINONE', with cathine at serial 13 as '(+)-norpseudo ephedrine'. Section 9(2) sets nine quantity bands for a psychotropic substance, from 'Up to 20 grams' at one year with a floor of two months, through 'More than 500-grams and up to one kilo grams' at seven years, to 'Exceeding four kilo grams', which reads 'imprisonment which shall not be less than life imprisonment along-with fine which shall not be less than two million rupees'. This substance is punished through the section 9(2) bands and not through the section 9(1) narcotic table, which names only seven narcotics and does not name it. 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 / medical: Where a prescription for cathinone 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'. 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: Schedule-I identifies cathinone in column 3 as '(-)-(S)-2 aminopropiophenone', and column 3 is what a Government Analyst's certificate under rule 6 of the Control of Narcotic Substances (Government Analysts) Rules, 2001 is matched against. Three provisos qualify section 9(2). An offence 'inside or near a school, college, university, educational setting or any other educational institution' draws the maximum for the band. A second conviction draws the maximum where the quantity does not exceed two kilograms, and not less than life where it exceeds two kilograms. Schedule-I has not been amended for substance content since the Act was passed in 1997: the only change recorded against it is that section 26 of Act No. XX of 2022 substituted its heading, which in the 1997 Act read only as the Schedule, and added a new Schedule-II. Section 74A, inserted by the same Act, lets the Federal Government amend the Schedules by notification in the official Gazette, and no such notification is present in what I could reach. The Prohibition (Enforcement of Hadd) Order, 1979 does not reach it either: the Schedule to that Order lists only hemp, charas, mixtures of the two, opium and opium derivatives, coca leaf and coca derivatives, and hashish.

pakistancode.gov.pk · Updated September 21, 2026

Cathinone in Pakistan, full detail →

CBD

Legal status: A cannabidiol extract is a narcotic drug under the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997, even though cannabidiol is named in no schedule. CBD is caught, by a chain of definitions rather than by a schedule entry. Section 2(r) defines medicinal hemp as 'any extract or tincture of hemp'. Section 2(q)(i) makes medicinal hemp a manufactured drug. Section 2(s) makes every manufactured drug a narcotic drug. A cannabidiol extract is an extract of hemp.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. CBD reaches a band only through what it is made from. Where the material is plant cannabis the section 9(1) table applies directly, at row 1 for Bhang, row 3 for Charas and row 4 for Hashish oil and liquid Hashish. Where it is an isolate, Schedule-I does not name cannabidiol and the section 9(1) table has no row for medicinal hemp, only for Bhang, Post or poppy straw, Charas, Hashish oil and liquid Hashish, Opium, Heroin and morphine, and Cocaine, so the residual applies and section 16 gives three years and fine. Neither route reaches a capital band and neither reaches life for an isolate. 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 / medical: Where a prescription for CBD 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'. 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: On cannabidiol the second instrument is the wider of the two. Entry 1 of the Schedule to the Hadd Order reaches 'The leaves, small stalks and flowering or fruiting tops of the Indian hemp plant', which is wider than section 2(d) of the Act, since section 2(d) excludes 'the seed and leaves when not accompanied by the tops'. Article 4 of the Hadd Order punishes owning or possessing any intoxicant with up to two years, or whipping not exceeding thirty stripes, and fine. Judgment, and deferred: whether a purified cannabidiol isolate is still 'an extract or tincture of hemp' once the cannabinoid that makes hemp an intoxicant has been removed. The Act does not say, and no threshold appears anywhere in it for cannabis, in contrast to the 0.2 per cent morphine floor in section 2(t) and the 0.1 per cent cocaine floor in section 2(h).

pakistancode.gov.pk · Updated October 8, 2026

CBD in Pakistan, full detail →

Clonazepam

Legal status: Clonazepam is a psychotropic substance under the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997. Section 2(za) defines the term as 'the substances, specified in the Schedule-I to this Act' plus anything the Federal Government declares by gazette notification, and Schedule-I carries it: serial 18 of Schedule-I, 'CLONAZEPAM'. Column 3 gives the chemical name as '5-(0-chlorophgenyl)-1,3-dihydro-7-nitro-2H-1,4-benzodiazpine-2-one'.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. The entry being applied is serial 18 of Schedule-I, 'CLONAZEPAM'. Section 9(2) sets nine quantity bands for a psychotropic substance, from 'Up to 20 grams' at one year with a floor of two months, through 'More than 500-grams and up to one kilo grams' at seven years, to 'Exceeding four kilo grams', which reads 'imprisonment which shall not be less than life imprisonment along-with fine which shall not be less than two million rupees'. This substance is punished through the section 9(2) bands and not through the section 9(1) narcotic table, which names only seven narcotics and does not name it. 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 / medical: Where a prescription for clonazepam 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'. 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: Schedule-I identifies clonazepam in column 3 as '5-(0-chlorophgenyl)-1,3-dihydro-7-nitro-2H-1,4-benzodiazpine-2-one', and column 3 is what a Government Analyst's certificate under rule 6 of the Control of Narcotic Substances (Government Analysts) Rules, 2001 is matched against. Three provisos qualify section 9(2). An offence 'inside or near a school, college, university, educational setting or any other educational institution' draws the maximum for the band. A second conviction draws the maximum where the quantity does not exceed two kilograms, and not less than life where it exceeds two kilograms. Schedule-I has not been amended for substance content since the Act was passed in 1997: the only change recorded against it is that section 26 of Act No. XX of 2022 substituted its heading, which in the 1997 Act read only as the Schedule, and added a new Schedule-II. Section 74A, inserted by the same Act, lets the Federal Government amend the Schedules by notification in the official Gazette, and no such notification is present in what I could reach. The Prohibition (Enforcement of Hadd) Order, 1979 does not reach it either: the Schedule to that Order lists only hemp, charas, mixtures of the two, opium and opium derivatives, coca leaf and coca derivatives, and hashish.

pakistancode.gov.pk · Updated September 21, 2026

Clonazepam in Pakistan, full detail →

Cocaine

Legal status: Cocaine 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 7 of the section 9(1) table, 'Cocaine'. Section 2(g)(iii) defines a coca derivative to include 'cocaine, that is, methyl-benzoyl-leave-ecgonine having the chemical formula C17H21NO4 and its salts'.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. The row is measured on the weight of the narcotic itself and not on any alkaloid content, and the row is row 7 of the section 9(1) table, 'Cocaine'. Section 9(1) punishes a contravention of sections 6, 7 or 8 'regarding narcotic drugs' by the table alone, one row per named narcotic. Four rows, from 'Up to 99 grams' at seven years to '5000 grams or more' at imprisonment for life with a floor of twenty years. 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 / medical: Where a prescription for cocaine 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 cocaine, 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.

pakistancode.gov.pk · Updated September 21, 2026

Cocaine in Pakistan, full detail →

Codeine

Legal status: Codeine is not in Schedule-I to the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997 and has no row in the section 9(1) narcotic table. What controls it is the Control of Narcotic Substances (Regulation of Drugs of Abuse, Controlled Chemicals, Equipment and Materials) Rules, 2001, made under section 77 of the Act, where it is a high-risk drug of abuse, rule 2(1)(xvi). It is named in Schedule II of the Rules 2001, in the block headed '(From Schedule II of the Convention on Narcotic Drugs, 1961)', alongside dihydrocodeine, ethylmorphine, nicocodine, norcodeine and pholcodine.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Codeine has no band anywhere in section 9, because section 9 divides into narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and controlled substances and it is none of the three as the Act defines them. The Rules are a licensing regime and carry no penalties of their own, so a contravention falls to section 16 of the Act: 'Whoever contravenes any provision of this Act or any rule or order made, or any licence, permit or authorisation issued hereunder, for which no punishment is separately provided in this Chapter, shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years and fine.' Section 16 has no life band and no capital band. The section 9 tables, where both would live, do not reach this substance. 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 / medical: Where a prescription for codeine 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'. Its classification under the Rules, not under the Act, is what sets the strictness of the licence conditions. Rule 3(2) applies the strictest measures to Schedule I of the Rules, less strict to Schedule II and the least strict to Schedule III. 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: One question is left open on codeine, and it is left open rather than answered. The question is whether codeine is also an 'opium derivative' within section 2(u) of the Act, and so a manufactured drug and a narcotic drug. Section 2(u) opens with 'includes' and names five things, none of them codeine. Section 2(q) and section 2(u) are both inclusive definitions, each opening with 'includes', so neither list is closed on its own wording, and the Act gives no test for what else falls inside them. If the answer were yes the substance would be a narcotic drug under section 2(s), and section 9(1) would still give it no row. The Prohibition (Enforcement of Hadd) Order, 1979 does not reach it either: the Schedule to that Order lists only hemp, charas, mixtures of the two, opium and opium derivatives, coca leaf and coca derivatives, and hashish.

pakistancode.gov.pk · Updated September 21, 2026

Codeine in Pakistan, full detail →

Crack Cocaine

Legal status: Crack cocaine 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 7 of the section 9(1) table, 'Cocaine'. Crack is cocaine base. Section 2(g) reaches it twice over: at (i) 'crude cocaine, that is, any extract of coca leaf which can be used, directly or indirectly for the manufacture or production of cocaine' and at (iii) cocaine itself.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. The row is measured on the weight of the narcotic itself and not on any alkaloid content, and the row is row 7 of the section 9(1) table, 'Cocaine'. Section 9(1) punishes a contravention of sections 6, 7 or 8 'regarding narcotic drugs' by the table alone, one row per named narcotic. The table gives cocaine no separate row for the base form, so the same four quantity rows apply, topping at '5000 grams or more'. 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 / medical: Where a prescription for crack cocaine 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 crack cocaine, 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.

pakistancode.gov.pk · Updated September 21, 2026

Crack Cocaine in Pakistan, full detail →

Delta-8-THC

Legal status: Delta-8-THC is a psychotropic substance under the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997. Section 2(za) defines the term as 'the substances, specified in the Schedule-I to this Act' plus anything the Federal Government declares by gazette notification, and Schedule-I carries it: the tetrahydrocannabinol isomer block of Schedule-I, printed under serial 83 as 'tetrahydrocannabinol the following isomers and their stereochemical variants' followed by seven chemical names. Column 3 gives the chemical name as '(6aR, 9R, l0aR) 6a,7, 10, 10a-tetrahydro-6,6,9-trimethyl-3-pentyl-6H-dibenzo [b,d] pyran-1-01'. The ring positions 6a, 7, 10 and 10a are delta-8-tetrahydrocannabinol's and distinguish it from the delta-9 row, which is printed separately under serial 77 as 6a, 7, 8, 10a.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. The entry being applied is the tetrahydrocannabinol isomer block of Schedule-I, printed under serial 83 as 'tetrahydrocannabinol the following isomers and their stereochemical variants' followed by seven chemical names. Section 9(2) sets nine quantity bands for a psychotropic substance, from 'Up to 20 grams' at one year with a floor of two months, through 'More than 500-grams and up to one kilo grams' at seven years, to 'Exceeding four kilo grams', which reads 'imprisonment which shall not be less than life imprisonment along-with fine which shall not be less than two million rupees'. This substance is punished through the section 9(2) bands and not through the section 9(1) narcotic table, which names only seven narcotics and does not name it. 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 / medical: Where a prescription for Delta-8-THC 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'. 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: Schedule-I identifies Delta-8-THC in column 3 as '(6aR, 9R, l0aR) 6a,7, 10, 10a-tetrahydro-6,6,9-trimethyl-3-pentyl-6H-dibenzo [b,d] pyran-1-01', and column 3 is what a Government Analyst's certificate under rule 6 of the Control of Narcotic Substances (Government Analysts) Rules, 2001 is matched against. Three provisos qualify section 9(2). An offence 'inside or near a school, college, university, educational setting or any other educational institution' draws the maximum for the band. A second conviction draws the maximum where the quantity does not exceed two kilograms, and not less than life where it exceeds two kilograms. Schedule-I has not been amended for substance content since the Act was passed in 1997: the only change recorded against it is that section 26 of Act No. XX of 2022 substituted its heading, which in the 1997 Act read only as the Schedule, and added a new Schedule-II. Section 74A, inserted by the same Act, lets the Federal Government amend the Schedules by notification in the official Gazette, and no such notification is present in what I could reach. The Prohibition (Enforcement of Hadd) Order, 1979 does not reach it either: the Schedule to that Order lists only hemp, charas, mixtures of the two, opium and opium derivatives, coca leaf and coca derivatives, and hashish.

pakistancode.gov.pk · Updated September 21, 2026

Delta-8-THC in Pakistan, full detail →

Diazepam

Legal status: Diazepam is a psychotropic substance under the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997. Section 2(za) defines the term as 'the substances, specified in the Schedule-I to this Act' plus anything the Federal Government declares by gazette notification, and Schedule-I carries it: serial 24 of Schedule-I, 'DIAZEPAM'. Column 3 gives the chemical name as '7-chloro-1,3-dihydro-1-methyl-5-phenyl-2H-1,4-benzodiazpine-2-one'.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. The entry being applied is serial 24 of Schedule-I, 'DIAZEPAM'. Section 9(2) sets nine quantity bands for a psychotropic substance, from 'Up to 20 grams' at one year with a floor of two months, through 'More than 500-grams and up to one kilo grams' at seven years, to 'Exceeding four kilo grams', which reads 'imprisonment which shall not be less than life imprisonment along-with fine which shall not be less than two million rupees'. This substance is punished through the section 9(2) bands and not through the section 9(1) narcotic table, which names only seven narcotics and does not name it. 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 / medical: Where a prescription for diazepam 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'. 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: Schedule-I identifies diazepam in column 3 as '7-chloro-1,3-dihydro-1-methyl-5-phenyl-2H-1,4-benzodiazpine-2-one', and column 3 is what a Government Analyst's certificate under rule 6 of the Control of Narcotic Substances (Government Analysts) Rules, 2001 is matched against. Three provisos qualify section 9(2). An offence 'inside or near a school, college, university, educational setting or any other educational institution' draws the maximum for the band. A second conviction draws the maximum where the quantity does not exceed two kilograms, and not less than life where it exceeds two kilograms. Schedule-I has not been amended for substance content since the Act was passed in 1997: the only change recorded against it is that section 26 of Act No. XX of 2022 substituted its heading, which in the 1997 Act read only as the Schedule, and added a new Schedule-II. Section 74A, inserted by the same Act, lets the Federal Government amend the Schedules by notification in the official Gazette, and no such notification is present in what I could reach. The Prohibition (Enforcement of Hadd) Order, 1979 does not reach it either: the Schedule to that Order lists only hemp, charas, mixtures of the two, opium and opium derivatives, coca leaf and coca derivatives, and hashish.

pakistancode.gov.pk · Updated September 21, 2026

Diazepam in Pakistan, full detail →

DMT

Legal status: DMT is a psychotropic substance under the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997. Section 2(za) defines the term as 'the substances, specified in the Schedule-I to this Act' plus anything the Federal Government declares by gazette notification, and Schedule-I carries it: an unnumbered row of Schedule-I under serial 13, printed '[DMT'. Column 3 gives the chemical name as '3-[2-diethylamino)ethyl] indole'.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. The entry being applied is an unnumbered row of Schedule-I under serial 13, printed '[DMT'. Section 9(2) sets nine quantity bands for a psychotropic substance, from 'Up to 20 grams' at one year with a floor of two months, through 'More than 500-grams and up to one kilo grams' at seven years, to 'Exceeding four kilo grams', which reads 'imprisonment which shall not be less than life imprisonment along-with fine which shall not be less than two million rupees'. This substance is punished through the section 9(2) bands and not through the section 9(1) narcotic table, which names only seven narcotics and does not name it. 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 / medical: Where a prescription for DMT 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'. 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: Schedule-I identifies DMT in column 3 as '3-[2-diethylamino)ethyl] indole', and column 3 is what a Government Analyst's certificate under rule 6 of the Control of Narcotic Substances (Government Analysts) Rules, 2001 is matched against. Three provisos qualify section 9(2). An offence 'inside or near a school, college, university, educational setting or any other educational institution' draws the maximum for the band. A second conviction draws the maximum where the quantity does not exceed two kilograms, and not less than life where it exceeds two kilograms. Schedule-I has not been amended for substance content since the Act was passed in 1997: the only change recorded against it is that section 26 of Act No. XX of 2022 substituted its heading, which in the 1997 Act read only as the Schedule, and added a new Schedule-II. Section 74A, inserted by the same Act, lets the Federal Government amend the Schedules by notification in the official Gazette, and no such notification is present in what I could reach. The Prohibition (Enforcement of Hadd) Order, 1979 does not reach it either: the Schedule to that Order lists only hemp, charas, mixtures of the two, opium and opium derivatives, coca leaf and coca derivatives, and hashish.

pakistancode.gov.pk · Updated September 21, 2026

DMT in Pakistan, full detail →

DOM

Legal status: DOM is a psychotropic substance under the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997. Section 2(za) defines the term as 'the substances, specified in the Schedule-I to this Act' plus anything the Federal Government declares by gazette notification, and Schedule-I carries it: the trivial-names column of serial 76 of Schedule-I, which prints 'PHP, PCPY' and 'STP, DOM' against ROLICYCLIDINE and gives two chemical names in column 3. Column 3 gives the chemical name as '2, 5-dimethoxy-a,4-dimethylphenethylamine'.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. The entry being applied is the trivial-names column of serial 76 of Schedule-I, which prints 'PHP, PCPY' and 'STP, DOM' against ROLICYCLIDINE and gives two chemical names in column 3. Section 9(2) sets nine quantity bands for a psychotropic substance, from 'Up to 20 grams' at one year with a floor of two months, through 'More than 500-grams and up to one kilo grams' at seven years, to 'Exceeding four kilo grams', which reads 'imprisonment which shall not be less than life imprisonment along-with fine which shall not be less than two million rupees'. This substance is punished through the section 9(2) bands and not through the section 9(1) narcotic table, which names only seven narcotics and does not name it. 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 / medical: Where a prescription for DOM 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'. 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: Schedule-I identifies DOM in column 3 as '2, 5-dimethoxy-a,4-dimethylphenethylamine', and column 3 is what a Government Analyst's certificate under rule 6 of the Control of Narcotic Substances (Government Analysts) Rules, 2001 is matched against. Three provisos qualify section 9(2). An offence 'inside or near a school, college, university, educational setting or any other educational institution' draws the maximum for the band. A second conviction draws the maximum where the quantity does not exceed two kilograms, and not less than life where it exceeds two kilograms. Schedule-I has not been amended for substance content since the Act was passed in 1997: the only change recorded against it is that section 26 of Act No. XX of 2022 substituted its heading, which in the 1997 Act read only as the Schedule, and added a new Schedule-II. Section 74A, inserted by the same Act, lets the Federal Government amend the Schedules by notification in the official Gazette, and no such notification is present in what I could reach. The Prohibition (Enforcement of Hadd) Order, 1979 does not reach it either: the Schedule to that Order lists only hemp, charas, mixtures of the two, opium and opium derivatives, coca leaf and coca derivatives, and hashish.

pakistancode.gov.pk · Updated September 21, 2026

DOM in Pakistan, full detail →

Ephedrine

Legal status: Ephedrine is a controlled substance under the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997, not a psychotropic substance and not a narcotic drug. Section 2(k) defines a controlled substance as any substance usable for producing narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances, or declared such and given in Schedule-II. It appears in Division-I of Schedule-II, the Table I list of the 1988 Convention, which names 'Ephdrine' first.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Ephedrine is reached as a precursor and not as a drug of abuse, through Division-I of Schedule-II, the Table I list of the 1988 Convention, which names 'Ephdrine' first. Section 9(3) punishes a contravention 'regarding controlled substances specified in Table-I and Table-II of the Schedule-II' by two separate tables. Table-I runs from 'Up to 100 grams' at six months to 'Exceeding ten kilo grams', which reads 'imprisonment shall not be less than life imprisonment along-with fine which may be up to one million rupees'. Table-II starts at 'Up to one kilo grams'. Section 9(3) has no death band and never had one, so the 2023 amendment did not touch it. 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 / medical: Where a prescription for ephedrine 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'. Schedule-II substances are traded lawfully at scale, so the licence rather than the prescription is usually the document in play. Schedule-II is the precursor schedule and the trade in it is licensed rather than forbidden. Rule 2(1)(v) of the Rules 2001 defines a controlled chemical as a substance listed in Schedule V of those Rules, and rules 5, 6 and 16 govern registration and open individual authorizations for exports. 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: Which of the two 1988 Convention tables ephedrine comes from, and when Schedule-II arrived. Division-I of Schedule-II reproduces Table I of the 1988 Convention and Division-II reproduces Table II. Schedule-II was added to the Act by section 26 of Act No. XX of 2022, published in the Gazette of Pakistan, Extraordinary, on 6 September 2022, so this is the newest of the Act's two schedules. The Prohibition (Enforcement of Hadd) Order, 1979 does not reach it either: the Schedule to that Order lists only hemp, charas, mixtures of the two, opium and opium derivatives, coca leaf and coca derivatives, and hashish.

pakistancode.gov.pk · Updated September 21, 2026

Ephedrine in Pakistan, full detail →

Fentanyl

Legal status: Fentanyl is not in Schedule-I to the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997 and has no row in the section 9(1) narcotic table. What controls it is the Control of Narcotic Substances (Regulation of Drugs of Abuse, Controlled Chemicals, Equipment and Materials) Rules, 2001, made under section 77 of the Act, where it is a high-risk drug of abuse, rule 2(1)(xvi), with its analogues as prohibited drugs under rule 2(1)(xxxi). It is named in Schedule II of the Rules 2001, which lists it beside alfentanil and sufentanil. Schedule I, the prohibited schedule, separately names eight fentanyl analogues, among them alpha-methylfentanyl, beta-hydroxyfentanyl, para-fluorofentanyl and thiofentanyl.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Fentanyl has no band anywhere in section 9, because section 9 divides into narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and controlled substances and it is none of the three as the Act defines them. The Rules are a licensing regime and carry no penalties of their own, so a contravention falls to section 16 of the Act: 'Whoever contravenes any provision of this Act or any rule or order made, or any licence, permit or authorisation issued hereunder, for which no punishment is separately provided in this Chapter, shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years and fine.' Section 16 has no life band and no capital band. The section 9 tables, where both would live, do not reach this substance. 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 / medical: Where a prescription for fentanyl 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'. Its classification under the Rules, not under the Act, is what sets the strictness of the licence conditions. Rule 3(2) applies the strictest measures to Schedule I of the Rules, less strict to Schedule II and the least strict to Schedule III. 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: Why fentanyl has no open question under the Act, unlike the opiates beside it. There is no open question here, and that is worth saying plainly because there is one for the opiates on this page. Fentanyl is a synthetic anilidopiperidine, not an opium derivative, so there is no second route into the Act for it and the Rules are the whole of its regime. Section 2(q) and section 2(u) are inclusive definitions, each opening with 'includes', so they could in principle stretch, but there is nothing for them to stretch to here. The Prohibition (Enforcement of Hadd) Order, 1979 does not reach it either: the Schedule to that Order lists only hemp, charas, mixtures of the two, opium and opium derivatives, coca leaf and coca derivatives, and hashish.

pakistancode.gov.pk · Updated September 21, 2026

Fentanyl in Pakistan, full detail →

Heroin

Legal status: Heroin 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 6 of the section 9(1) table, 'Heroin and morphine'. Section 2(u)(iv) names 'diacetylmorphine, that is, the semisynthetic substance, also known as diamorphine or heroin, having the chemical formula C21H23NO5 and its salts' as an opium derivative, which section 2(q)(i) makes a manufactured drug and section 2(s) a narcotic drug.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. The row is measured on the weight of the narcotic itself and not on any alkaloid content, and the row is row 6 of the section 9(1) table, 'Heroin and morphine'. 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 99 grams' at seven years to '6000 grams or more'. 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 / medical: Where a prescription for heroin 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 heroin, 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.

pakistancode.gov.pk · Updated September 21, 2026

Heroin in Pakistan, full detail →

HHC

Legal status: HHC is a psychotropic substance under the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997. Section 2(za) defines the term as 'the substances, specified in the Schedule-I to this Act' plus anything the Federal Government declares by gazette notification, and Schedule-I carries it: the seventh chemical name in the tetrahydrocannabinol isomer block under serial 83 of Schedule-I. Column 3 gives the chemical name as '(6a R, I0aR)-6a,7, 8,9, 10, 10a-hexahiydro-6, 6,9- trimethyl-3-pentyl-6H-dibenzo [b,d] pyran 1-01'. Hexahydrocannabinol's systematic name is 6a,7,8,9,10,10a-hexahydro-6,6,9-trimethyl-3-pentyl-6H-dibenzo[b,d]pyran-1-ol. The printed row matches it position for position, the hexahydro included, although the block is headed as a list of tetrahydrocannabinol isomers.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. The entry being applied is the seventh chemical name in the tetrahydrocannabinol isomer block under serial 83 of Schedule-I. Section 9(2) sets nine quantity bands for a psychotropic substance, from 'Up to 20 grams' at one year with a floor of two months, through 'More than 500-grams and up to one kilo grams' at seven years, to 'Exceeding four kilo grams', which reads 'imprisonment which shall not be less than life imprisonment along-with fine which shall not be less than two million rupees'. This substance is punished through the section 9(2) bands and not through the section 9(1) narcotic table, which names only seven narcotics and does not name it. 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 / medical: Where a prescription for HHC 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'. 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: Schedule-I identifies HHC in column 3 as '(6a R, I0aR)-6a,7, 8,9, 10, 10a-hexahiydro-6, 6,9- trimethyl-3-pentyl-6H-dibenzo [b,d] pyran 1-01', and column 3 is what a Government Analyst's certificate under rule 6 of the Control of Narcotic Substances (Government Analysts) Rules, 2001 is matched against. Three provisos qualify section 9(2). An offence 'inside or near a school, college, university, educational setting or any other educational institution' draws the maximum for the band. A second conviction draws the maximum where the quantity does not exceed two kilograms, and not less than life where it exceeds two kilograms. Schedule-I has not been amended for substance content since the Act was passed in 1997: the only change recorded against it is that section 26 of Act No. XX of 2022 substituted its heading, which in the 1997 Act read only as the Schedule, and added a new Schedule-II. Section 74A, inserted by the same Act, lets the Federal Government amend the Schedules by notification in the official Gazette, and no such notification is present in what I could reach. The Prohibition (Enforcement of Hadd) Order, 1979 does not reach it either: the Schedule to that Order lists only hemp, charas, mixtures of the two, opium and opium derivatives, coca leaf and coca derivatives, and hashish.

pakistancode.gov.pk · Updated September 21, 2026

HHC in Pakistan, full detail →

Hydrocodone

Legal status: Hydrocodone is not in Schedule-I to the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997 and has no row in the section 9(1) narcotic table. What controls it is the Control of Narcotic Substances (Regulation of Drugs of Abuse, Controlled Chemicals, Equipment and Materials) Rules, 2001, made under section 77 of the Act, where it is a high-risk drug of abuse, rule 2(1)(xvi). It is named in Schedule II of the Rules 2001, in the 1961 Convention Schedule I block, printed beside hydromorphone and hydromorphinol.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Hydrocodone has no band anywhere in section 9, because section 9 divides into narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and controlled substances and it is none of the three as the Act defines them. The Rules are a licensing regime and carry no penalties of their own, so a contravention falls to section 16 of the Act: 'Whoever contravenes any provision of this Act or any rule or order made, or any licence, permit or authorisation issued hereunder, for which no punishment is separately provided in this Chapter, shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years and fine.' Section 16 has no life band and no capital band. The section 9 tables, where both would live, do not reach this substance. 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 / medical: Where a prescription for hydrocodone 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'. Its classification under the Rules, not under the Act, is what sets the strictness of the licence conditions. Rule 3(2) applies the strictest measures to Schedule I of the Rules, less strict to Schedule II and the least strict to Schedule III. 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: One question is left open on hydrocodone, and it is left open rather than answered. The question is the same section 2(u) question as codeine, since hydrocodone is made from codeine or thebaine. Section 2(q) and section 2(u) are both inclusive definitions, each opening with 'includes', so neither list is closed on its own wording, and the Act gives no test for what else falls inside them. If the answer were yes the substance would be a narcotic drug under section 2(s), and section 9(1) would still give it no row. The Prohibition (Enforcement of Hadd) Order, 1979 does not reach it either: the Schedule to that Order lists only hemp, charas, mixtures of the two, opium and opium derivatives, coca leaf and coca derivatives, and hashish.

pakistancode.gov.pk · Updated September 21, 2026

Hydrocodone in Pakistan, full detail →

Khat

Legal status: Split answer, and the split is in the schedules rather than in my reading. The alkaloid that khat is taken for is scheduled and khat itself is not. The scheduled alkaloid is cathinone at serial 12 of Schedule-I, '(-)-(S)-2 aminopropiophenone', and cathine at serial 13, '(+)-norpseudo ephedrine'. The shrub itself, Catha edulis, is named in no schedule of the Act, in no schedule of the Rules 2001, and in no entry of the Schedule to the Hadd Order.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. The bands are measured on the alkaloid, so what is weighed for khat is a question of fact about the material seized. Section 9(2) sets nine quantity bands for a psychotropic substance, from 'Up to 20 grams' at one year with a floor of two months, through 'More than 500-grams and up to one kilo grams' at seven years, to 'Exceeding four kilo grams', which reads 'imprisonment which shall not be less than life imprisonment along-with fine which shall not be less than two million rupees'. Those bands are measured on the quantity of the psychotropic substance, and the Act gives no conversion from plant material to alkaloid content, unlike the cannabis and opium rows of section 9(1), which are measured on the plant product itself. The band that the alkaloid tops out at is life, at more than four kilograms. 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 / medical: Where a prescription for khat 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'. The plant itself is not a drug of abuse under the Rules, so nothing licenses it and nothing forbids it there either. 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: The split on khat, set out so the confirmed half and the deferred half do not blur. Objective, and confirmed: the alkaloid is named in Schedule-I with its own chemical name in column 3, and the plant is named in no schedule of the Act, no schedule of the Rules 2001 and no entry of the Schedule to the Hadd Order. Judgment, and deferred: whether possession of the plant is possession of the scheduled alkaloid within it. The Act contains no preparation clause of its own. Rule 4(1) of the Rules 2001 has one, 'Preparations shall be subject to the same measures of control, under these rules, as the drugs of abuse or controlled chemicals they contain', but it governs the Rules and not section 9. The Prohibition (Enforcement of Hadd) Order, 1979 does not reach it either: the Schedule to that Order lists only hemp, charas, mixtures of the two, opium and opium derivatives, coca leaf and coca derivatives, and hashish.

pakistancode.gov.pk · Updated September 21, 2026

Khat in Pakistan, full detail →

Lorazepam

Legal status: Lorazepam is a psychotropic substance under the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997. Section 2(za) defines the term as 'the substances, specified in the Schedule-I to this Act' plus anything the Federal Government declares by gazette notification, and Schedule-I carries it: serial 44 of Schedule-I. The Pakistan Code prints the name as 'LOPRAZEPAM', but the chemical name in column 3 is lorazepam's and not loprazolam's, and loprazolam already has serial 43. Column 3 gives the chemical name as '7-chloro-5-(0-chlorophenyl)-l,3-dihydro-3-hydroxy-2H-1,4-benzodiazepin-2-one'. The identification rests on column 3. Serial 45, LORMETAZEPAM, prints the same skeleton with the 1-methyl added, which is the structural difference between the two.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. The entry being applied is serial 44 of Schedule-I. The Pakistan Code prints the name as 'LOPRAZEPAM', but the chemical name in column 3 is lorazepam's and not loprazolam's, and loprazolam already has serial 43. Section 9(2) sets nine quantity bands for a psychotropic substance, from 'Up to 20 grams' at one year with a floor of two months, through 'More than 500-grams and up to one kilo grams' at seven years, to 'Exceeding four kilo grams', which reads 'imprisonment which shall not be less than life imprisonment along-with fine which shall not be less than two million rupees'. This substance is punished through the section 9(2) bands and not through the section 9(1) narcotic table, which names only seven narcotics and does not name it. 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 / medical: Where a prescription for lorazepam 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'. 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: Schedule-I identifies lorazepam in column 3 as '7-chloro-5-(0-chlorophenyl)-l,3-dihydro-3-hydroxy-2H-1,4-benzodiazepin-2-one', and column 3 is what a Government Analyst's certificate under rule 6 of the Control of Narcotic Substances (Government Analysts) Rules, 2001 is matched against. Three provisos qualify section 9(2). An offence 'inside or near a school, college, university, educational setting or any other educational institution' draws the maximum for the band. A second conviction draws the maximum where the quantity does not exceed two kilograms, and not less than life where it exceeds two kilograms. Schedule-I has not been amended for substance content since the Act was passed in 1997: the only change recorded against it is that section 26 of Act No. XX of 2022 substituted its heading, which in the 1997 Act read only as the Schedule, and added a new Schedule-II. Section 74A, inserted by the same Act, lets the Federal Government amend the Schedules by notification in the official Gazette, and no such notification is present in what I could reach. The Prohibition (Enforcement of Hadd) Order, 1979 does not reach it either: the Schedule to that Order lists only hemp, charas, mixtures of the two, opium and opium derivatives, coca leaf and coca derivatives, and hashish.

pakistancode.gov.pk · Updated September 21, 2026

Lorazepam in Pakistan, full detail →

LSD

Legal status: LSD is a psychotropic substance under the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997. Section 2(za) defines the term as 'the substances, specified in the Schedule-I to this Act' plus anything the Federal Government declares by gazette notification, and Schedule-I carries it: serial 41 of Schedule-I, '(+)-LYSERGIDE', carrying 'LSD, LSD-25' in the trivial-names column. Column 3 gives the chemical name as '9, 10-didehydro-N, diethyl-6 methylergoline-8B-Carboxamide'.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. The entry being applied is serial 41 of Schedule-I, '(+)-LYSERGIDE', carrying 'LSD, LSD-25' in the trivial-names column. Section 9(2) sets nine quantity bands for a psychotropic substance, from 'Up to 20 grams' at one year with a floor of two months, through 'More than 500-grams and up to one kilo grams' at seven years, to 'Exceeding four kilo grams', which reads 'imprisonment which shall not be less than life imprisonment along-with fine which shall not be less than two million rupees'. This substance is punished through the section 9(2) bands and not through the section 9(1) narcotic table, which names only seven narcotics and does not name it. 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 / medical: Where a prescription for LSD 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'. 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: Schedule-I identifies LSD in column 3 as '9, 10-didehydro-N, diethyl-6 methylergoline-8B-Carboxamide', and column 3 is what a Government Analyst's certificate under rule 6 of the Control of Narcotic Substances (Government Analysts) Rules, 2001 is matched against. Three provisos qualify section 9(2). An offence 'inside or near a school, college, university, educational setting or any other educational institution' draws the maximum for the band. A second conviction draws the maximum where the quantity does not exceed two kilograms, and not less than life where it exceeds two kilograms. Schedule-I has not been amended for substance content since the Act was passed in 1997: the only change recorded against it is that section 26 of Act No. XX of 2022 substituted its heading, which in the 1997 Act read only as the Schedule, and added a new Schedule-II. Section 74A, inserted by the same Act, lets the Federal Government amend the Schedules by notification in the official Gazette, and no such notification is present in what I could reach. The Prohibition (Enforcement of Hadd) Order, 1979 does not reach it either: the Schedule to that Order lists only hemp, charas, mixtures of the two, opium and opium derivatives, coca leaf and coca derivatives, and hashish.

pakistancode.gov.pk · Updated September 21, 2026

LSD in Pakistan, full detail →

MDA

Legal status: MDA is a psychotropic substance under the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997. Section 2(za) defines the term as 'the substances, specified in the Schedule-I to this Act' plus anything the Federal Government declares by gazette notification, and Schedule-I carries it: serial 82 of Schedule-I, 'TENAMFETAMINE', with 'MDA' in the trivial-names column. Column 3 gives the chemical name as 'a-methyl-3,4-(methylenedioxy), phenethylamine'.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. The entry being applied is serial 82 of Schedule-I, 'TENAMFETAMINE', with 'MDA' in the trivial-names column. Section 9(2) sets nine quantity bands for a psychotropic substance, from 'Up to 20 grams' at one year with a floor of two months, through 'More than 500-grams and up to one kilo grams' at seven years, to 'Exceeding four kilo grams', which reads 'imprisonment which shall not be less than life imprisonment along-with fine which shall not be less than two million rupees'. This substance is punished through the section 9(2) bands and not through the section 9(1) narcotic table, which names only seven narcotics and does not name it. 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 / medical: Where a prescription for MDA 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'. 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: Schedule-I identifies MDA in column 3 as 'a-methyl-3,4-(methylenedioxy), phenethylamine', and column 3 is what a Government Analyst's certificate under rule 6 of the Control of Narcotic Substances (Government Analysts) Rules, 2001 is matched against. Three provisos qualify section 9(2). An offence 'inside or near a school, college, university, educational setting or any other educational institution' draws the maximum for the band. A second conviction draws the maximum where the quantity does not exceed two kilograms, and not less than life where it exceeds two kilograms. Schedule-I has not been amended for substance content since the Act was passed in 1997: the only change recorded against it is that section 26 of Act No. XX of 2022 substituted its heading, which in the 1997 Act read only as the Schedule, and added a new Schedule-II. Section 74A, inserted by the same Act, lets the Federal Government amend the Schedules by notification in the official Gazette, and no such notification is present in what I could reach. The Prohibition (Enforcement of Hadd) Order, 1979 does not reach it either: the Schedule to that Order lists only hemp, charas, mixtures of the two, opium and opium derivatives, coca leaf and coca derivatives, and hashish.

pakistancode.gov.pk · Updated September 21, 2026

MDA in Pakistan, full detail →

MDMA

Legal status: MDMA is a psychotropic substance under the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997. Section 2(za) defines the term as 'the substances, specified in the Schedule-I to this Act' plus anything the Federal Government declares by gazette notification, and Schedule-I carries it: an unnumbered row of Schedule-I under serial 41, 'MDMA', carried in the trivial-names column because MDMA has no international non-proprietary name. Column 3 gives the chemical name as '(+/-) N, a-demethyl-3, 4-(methylinendioxy) phenethylamine'.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. The entry being applied is an unnumbered row of Schedule-I under serial 41, 'MDMA', carried in the trivial-names column because MDMA has no international non-proprietary name. Section 9(2) sets nine quantity bands for a psychotropic substance, from 'Up to 20 grams' at one year with a floor of two months, through 'More than 500-grams and up to one kilo grams' at seven years, to 'Exceeding four kilo grams', which reads 'imprisonment which shall not be less than life imprisonment along-with fine which shall not be less than two million rupees'. This substance is punished through the section 9(2) bands and not through the section 9(1) narcotic table, which names only seven narcotics and does not name it. 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 / medical: Where a prescription for MDMA 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'. 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: Schedule-I identifies MDMA in column 3 as '(+/-) N, a-demethyl-3, 4-(methylinendioxy) phenethylamine', and column 3 is what a Government Analyst's certificate under rule 6 of the Control of Narcotic Substances (Government Analysts) Rules, 2001 is matched against. Three provisos qualify section 9(2). An offence 'inside or near a school, college, university, educational setting or any other educational institution' draws the maximum for the band. A second conviction draws the maximum where the quantity does not exceed two kilograms, and not less than life where it exceeds two kilograms. Schedule-I has not been amended for substance content since the Act was passed in 1997: the only change recorded against it is that section 26 of Act No. XX of 2022 substituted its heading, which in the 1997 Act read only as the Schedule, and added a new Schedule-II. Section 74A, inserted by the same Act, lets the Federal Government amend the Schedules by notification in the official Gazette, and no such notification is present in what I could reach. The Prohibition (Enforcement of Hadd) Order, 1979 does not reach it either: the Schedule to that Order lists only hemp, charas, mixtures of the two, opium and opium derivatives, coca leaf and coca derivatives, and hashish.

pakistancode.gov.pk · Updated September 21, 2026

MDMA in Pakistan, full detail →

Mescaline

Legal status: Mescaline is a psychotropic substance under the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997. Section 2(za) defines the term as 'the substances, specified in the Schedule-I to this Act' plus anything the Federal Government declares by gazette notification, and Schedule-I carries it: an unnumbered row of Schedule-I under serial 41, 'Mescaline'. Column 3 gives the chemical name as '3,4,5-trimethoxyphenethylamine'.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. The entry being applied is an unnumbered row of Schedule-I under serial 41, 'Mescaline'. Section 9(2) sets nine quantity bands for a psychotropic substance, from 'Up to 20 grams' at one year with a floor of two months, through 'More than 500-grams and up to one kilo grams' at seven years, to 'Exceeding four kilo grams', which reads 'imprisonment which shall not be less than life imprisonment along-with fine which shall not be less than two million rupees'. This substance is punished through the section 9(2) bands and not through the section 9(1) narcotic table, which names only seven narcotics and does not name it. 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 / medical: Where a prescription for mescaline 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'. 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: Schedule-I identifies mescaline in column 3 as '3,4,5-trimethoxyphenethylamine', and column 3 is what a Government Analyst's certificate under rule 6 of the Control of Narcotic Substances (Government Analysts) Rules, 2001 is matched against. Three provisos qualify section 9(2). An offence 'inside or near a school, college, university, educational setting or any other educational institution' draws the maximum for the band. A second conviction draws the maximum where the quantity does not exceed two kilograms, and not less than life where it exceeds two kilograms. Schedule-I has not been amended for substance content since the Act was passed in 1997: the only change recorded against it is that section 26 of Act No. XX of 2022 substituted its heading, which in the 1997 Act read only as the Schedule, and added a new Schedule-II. Section 74A, inserted by the same Act, lets the Federal Government amend the Schedules by notification in the official Gazette, and no such notification is present in what I could reach. The Prohibition (Enforcement of Hadd) Order, 1979 does not reach it either: the Schedule to that Order lists only hemp, charas, mixtures of the two, opium and opium derivatives, coca leaf and coca derivatives, and hashish.

pakistancode.gov.pk · Updated September 21, 2026

Mescaline in Pakistan, full detail →

Methadone

Legal status: Methadone is not in Schedule-I to the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997 and has no row in the section 9(1) narcotic table. What controls it is the Control of Narcotic Substances (Regulation of Drugs of Abuse, Controlled Chemicals, Equipment and Materials) Rules, 2001, made under section 77 of the Act, where it is a high-risk drug of abuse, rule 2(1)(xvi). It is named in Schedule II of the Rules 2001, in the block headed '(From Schedule I of the Convention on Narcotic Drugs 1961)', with methadone intermediate listed separately.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Methadone has no band anywhere in section 9, because section 9 divides into narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and controlled substances and it is none of the three as the Act defines them. The Rules are a licensing regime and carry no penalties of their own, so a contravention falls to section 16 of the Act: 'Whoever contravenes any provision of this Act or any rule or order made, or any licence, permit or authorisation issued hereunder, for which no punishment is separately provided in this Chapter, shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years and fine.' Section 16 has no life band and no capital band. The section 9 tables, where both would live, do not reach this substance. 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 / medical: Where a prescription for methadone 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'. Its classification under the Rules, not under the Act, is what sets the strictness of the licence conditions. Rule 3(2) applies the strictest measures to Schedule I of the Rules, less strict to Schedule II and the least strict to Schedule III. 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: Why methadone has no open question under the Act, unlike the opiates beside it. There is no open question here, and that is worth saying plainly because there is one for the opiates on this page. Methadone is wholly synthetic and is not an opium derivative on any reading of section 2(u), so there is no second route into the Act for it and the Rules are the whole of its regime. Section 2(q) and section 2(u) are inclusive definitions, each opening with 'includes', so they could in principle stretch, but there is nothing for them to stretch to here. The Prohibition (Enforcement of Hadd) Order, 1979 does not reach it either: the Schedule to that Order lists only hemp, charas, mixtures of the two, opium and opium derivatives, coca leaf and coca derivatives, and hashish.

pakistancode.gov.pk · Updated September 21, 2026

Methadone in Pakistan, full detail →

Methamphetamine

Legal status: Methamphetamine is a psychotropic substance under the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997. Section 2(za) defines the term as 'the substances, specified in the Schedule-I to this Act' plus anything the Federal Government declares by gazette notification, and Schedule-I carries it: serial 47 of Schedule-I, 'METAFETAMINE', with 'methamphetamine' in the trivial-names column. Column 3 gives the chemical name as '(+)-(S)-N, a-dimethylphethylamine'.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: not established. The entry published before this batch says methamphetamine kept a death proviso of its own after 2023. That was not settled in this pass and the sources reached disagree. A 2022 bill in the National Assembly's own papers amends section 9 by omitting the words «death or» at its beginning, while the 2022 Amendment Act as assented is reported to provide death or life for 4 kg or more of methamphetamine, and a 2023 amendment is reported to have removed «punishment for death or» from the table under sub-section (1). The Punjab Judicial Academy consolidation could not be fetched, its certificate covering punjab.gov.pk rather than pja.gov.pk. So no capital provision is asserted for this row and none is ruled out. The penalties recited below are the published entry's and were not re-derived. The entry being applied is serial 47 of Schedule-I, 'METAFETAMINE', with 'methamphetamine' in the trivial-names column. Section 9(2) sets nine quantity bands for a psychotropic substance, from 'Up to 20 grams' at one year with a floor of two months, through 'More than 500-grams and up to one kilo grams' at seven years, to 'Exceeding four kilo grams', which reads 'imprisonment which shall not be less than life imprisonment along-with fine which shall not be less than two million rupees'. Until 2023 this was the only substance the Act singled out for death in a proviso of its own, and the proviso survives with those words gone. The fourth proviso to section 9(2) singles out 'methamphetamine (ICE) given at serial number 47 of the Schedule-I to this Act' above four kilograms, and it now reads 'punishment shall be life imprisonment and fine which may not be less than two and half million'. 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 / medical: Where a prescription for methamphetamine 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'. 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: Schedule-I identifies methamphetamine in column 3 as '(+)-(S)-N, a-dimethylphethylamine', and column 3 is what a Government Analyst's certificate under rule 6 of the Control of Narcotic Substances (Government Analysts) Rules, 2001 is matched against. Three provisos qualify section 9(2). An offence 'inside or near a school, college, university, educational setting or any other educational institution' draws the maximum for the band. A second conviction draws the maximum where the quantity does not exceed two kilograms, and not less than life where it exceeds two kilograms. Schedule-I has not been amended for substance content since the Act was passed in 1997: the only change recorded against it is that section 26 of Act No. XX of 2022 substituted its heading, which in the 1997 Act read only as the Schedule, and added a new Schedule-II. Section 74A, inserted by the same Act, lets the Federal Government amend the Schedules by notification in the official Gazette, and no such notification is present in what I could reach. The Prohibition (Enforcement of Hadd) Order, 1979 does not reach it either: the Schedule to that Order lists only hemp, charas, mixtures of the two, opium and opium derivatives, coca leaf and coca derivatives, and hashish.

pakistancode.gov.pk · Updated September 21, 2026

Methamphetamine in Pakistan, full detail →

Methaqualone (Quaaludes)

Legal status: Methaqualone is a psychotropic substance under the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997. Section 2(za) defines the term as 'the substances, specified in the Schedule-I to this Act' plus anything the Federal Government declares by gazette notification, and Schedule-I carries it: serial 51 of Schedule-I, 'METHAQUALONE', with the close analogue mecloqualone separately at serial 85. Column 3 gives the chemical name as '2-methyl-3-0-tolyl-4(3H)-quinazolinone'.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. The entry being applied is serial 51 of Schedule-I, 'METHAQUALONE', with the close analogue mecloqualone separately at serial 85. Section 9(2) sets nine quantity bands for a psychotropic substance, from 'Up to 20 grams' at one year with a floor of two months, through 'More than 500-grams and up to one kilo grams' at seven years, to 'Exceeding four kilo grams', which reads 'imprisonment which shall not be less than life imprisonment along-with fine which shall not be less than two million rupees'. This substance is punished through the section 9(2) bands and not through the section 9(1) narcotic table, which names only seven narcotics and does not name it. 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 / medical: Where a prescription for methaqualone 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'. 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: Schedule-I identifies methaqualone in column 3 as '2-methyl-3-0-tolyl-4(3H)-quinazolinone', and column 3 is what a Government Analyst's certificate under rule 6 of the Control of Narcotic Substances (Government Analysts) Rules, 2001 is matched against. Three provisos qualify section 9(2). An offence 'inside or near a school, college, university, educational setting or any other educational institution' draws the maximum for the band. A second conviction draws the maximum where the quantity does not exceed two kilograms, and not less than life where it exceeds two kilograms. Schedule-I has not been amended for substance content since the Act was passed in 1997: the only change recorded against it is that section 26 of Act No. XX of 2022 substituted its heading, which in the 1997 Act read only as the Schedule, and added a new Schedule-II. Section 74A, inserted by the same Act, lets the Federal Government amend the Schedules by notification in the official Gazette, and no such notification is present in what I could reach. The Prohibition (Enforcement of Hadd) Order, 1979 does not reach it either: the Schedule to that Order lists only hemp, charas, mixtures of the two, opium and opium derivatives, coca leaf and coca derivatives, and hashish.

pakistancode.gov.pk · Updated September 21, 2026

Methaqualone (Quaaludes) in Pakistan, full detail →

Methylphenidate

Legal status: Methylphenidate is a psychotropic substance under the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997. Section 2(za) defines the term as 'the substances, specified in the Schedule-I to this Act' plus anything the Federal Government declares by gazette notification, and Schedule-I carries it: serial 49 of Schedule-I, 'METHYLPHENIDATE'. Column 3 gives the chemical name as 'Methyl a-phenyl-2-piperidinoacetate'.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. The entry being applied is serial 49 of Schedule-I, 'METHYLPHENIDATE'. Section 9(2) sets nine quantity bands for a psychotropic substance, from 'Up to 20 grams' at one year with a floor of two months, through 'More than 500-grams and up to one kilo grams' at seven years, to 'Exceeding four kilo grams', which reads 'imprisonment which shall not be less than life imprisonment along-with fine which shall not be less than two million rupees'. This substance is punished through the section 9(2) bands and not through the section 9(1) narcotic table, which names only seven narcotics and does not name it. 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 / medical: Where a prescription for methylphenidate 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'. 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: Schedule-I identifies methylphenidate in column 3 as 'Methyl a-phenyl-2-piperidinoacetate', and column 3 is what a Government Analyst's certificate under rule 6 of the Control of Narcotic Substances (Government Analysts) Rules, 2001 is matched against. Three provisos qualify section 9(2). An offence 'inside or near a school, college, university, educational setting or any other educational institution' draws the maximum for the band. A second conviction draws the maximum where the quantity does not exceed two kilograms, and not less than life where it exceeds two kilograms. Schedule-I has not been amended for substance content since the Act was passed in 1997: the only change recorded against it is that section 26 of Act No. XX of 2022 substituted its heading, which in the 1997 Act read only as the Schedule, and added a new Schedule-II. Section 74A, inserted by the same Act, lets the Federal Government amend the Schedules by notification in the official Gazette, and no such notification is present in what I could reach. The Prohibition (Enforcement of Hadd) Order, 1979 does not reach it either: the Schedule to that Order lists only hemp, charas, mixtures of the two, opium and opium derivatives, coca leaf and coca derivatives, and hashish.

pakistancode.gov.pk · Updated September 21, 2026

Methylphenidate in Pakistan, full detail →

Morphine

Legal status: Morphine 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 6 of the section 9(1) table, 'Heroin and morphine'. Section 2(u)(iii) names 'morphine, that is, the principal alkaloid of opium having the chemical formula C17H19NO3 and its salts'.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. The row is measured on the weight of the narcotic itself and not on any alkaloid content, and the row is row 6 of the section 9(1) table, 'Heroin and morphine'. Section 9(1) punishes a contravention of sections 6, 7 or 8 'regarding narcotic drugs' by the table alone, one row per named narcotic. Morphine shares heroin's six rows. The top row, '6000 grams or more', is where the death penalty stood until 2023. 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 / medical: Where a prescription for morphine 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 morphine, 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.

pakistancode.gov.pk · Updated September 21, 2026

Morphine in Pakistan, full detail →

Nicotine

Legal status: Not a controlled substance in Pakistan's narcotics law. Nicotine is named nowhere in the Act, the Rules 2001 or the Hadd Order, and it answers to none of the three statutory definitions. Tobacco control in Pakistan runs through its own health legislation, which is a different regime from the one this page is about.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. There is no quantity band for nicotine because there is no offence. None of sections 6, 7 or 8 of the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997 is engaged. Those sections bite on 'any narcotic drug, psychotropic substance or controlled substance', and this is none of the three. Death is not available in Pakistani narcotics law at all since 5 August 2023, and it was never available for anything outside the three statutory categories. 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 / medical: Nicotine needs no licence, permit or authorisation under the Rules 2001. No licence, permit or authorisation under the Rules 2001 is required, because rule 2(1)(xiii) confines a drug of abuse to 'a prohibited drug, a high-risk drug, or a risk drug', each defined by reference to a Schedule to those Rules, and this appears in none of them. 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: Scope of this answer for nicotine. This cell answers the narcotics question only. Pakistan regulates food, medicines and tobacco through separate regimes with their own schedules and their own penalties, and none of those was read in this pass. Saying the narcotics Act does not reach a substance is not the same as saying nothing does. The Prohibition (Enforcement of Hadd) Order, 1979 does not reach it either: the Schedule to that Order lists only hemp, charas, mixtures of the two, opium and opium derivatives, coca leaf and coca derivatives, and hashish.

pakistancode.gov.pk · Updated September 21, 2026

Nicotine in Pakistan, full detail →

Nimetazepam

Legal status: Nimetazepam is a psychotropic substance under the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997. Section 2(za) defines the term as 'the substances, specified in the Schedule-I to this Act' plus anything the Federal Government declares by gazette notification, and Schedule-I carries it: serial 58 of Schedule-I, 'NIMETAZEPAM'. Column 3 gives the chemical name as '1, 3-dihydro-l-methyl-7-nitro-5-phenyl-2H-1,4-benzodiazepin-2-one'.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. The entry being applied is serial 58 of Schedule-I, 'NIMETAZEPAM'. Section 9(2) sets nine quantity bands for a psychotropic substance, from 'Up to 20 grams' at one year with a floor of two months, through 'More than 500-grams and up to one kilo grams' at seven years, to 'Exceeding four kilo grams', which reads 'imprisonment which shall not be less than life imprisonment along-with fine which shall not be less than two million rupees'. This substance is punished through the section 9(2) bands and not through the section 9(1) narcotic table, which names only seven narcotics and does not name it. 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 / medical: Where a prescription for nimetazepam 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'. 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: Schedule-I identifies nimetazepam in column 3 as '1, 3-dihydro-l-methyl-7-nitro-5-phenyl-2H-1,4-benzodiazepin-2-one', and column 3 is what a Government Analyst's certificate under rule 6 of the Control of Narcotic Substances (Government Analysts) Rules, 2001 is matched against. Three provisos qualify section 9(2). An offence 'inside or near a school, college, university, educational setting or any other educational institution' draws the maximum for the band. A second conviction draws the maximum where the quantity does not exceed two kilograms, and not less than life where it exceeds two kilograms. Schedule-I has not been amended for substance content since the Act was passed in 1997: the only change recorded against it is that section 26 of Act No. XX of 2022 substituted its heading, which in the 1997 Act read only as the Schedule, and added a new Schedule-II. Section 74A, inserted by the same Act, lets the Federal Government amend the Schedules by notification in the official Gazette, and no such notification is present in what I could reach. The Prohibition (Enforcement of Hadd) Order, 1979 does not reach it either: the Schedule to that Order lists only hemp, charas, mixtures of the two, opium and opium derivatives, coca leaf and coca derivatives, and hashish.

pakistancode.gov.pk · Updated September 21, 2026

Nimetazepam in Pakistan, full detail →

Opium

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: Capital exposure: none. 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. 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 / 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.

pakistancode.gov.pk · Updated September 21, 2026

Opium in Pakistan, full detail →

Oxycodone

Legal status: Oxycodone is not in Schedule-I to the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997 and has no row in the section 9(1) narcotic table. What controls it is the Control of Narcotic Substances (Regulation of Drugs of Abuse, Controlled Chemicals, Equipment and Materials) Rules, 2001, made under section 77 of the Act, where it is a high-risk drug of abuse, rule 2(1)(xvi). It is named in Schedule II of the Rules 2001, in the 1961 Convention Schedule I block, between oxymorphone and normorphone in the printed column.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. Oxycodone has no band anywhere in section 9, because section 9 divides into narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and controlled substances and it is none of the three as the Act defines them. The Rules are a licensing regime and carry no penalties of their own, so a contravention falls to section 16 of the Act: 'Whoever contravenes any provision of this Act or any rule or order made, or any licence, permit or authorisation issued hereunder, for which no punishment is separately provided in this Chapter, shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years and fine.' Section 16 has no life band and no capital band. The section 9 tables, where both would live, do not reach this substance. 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 / medical: Where a prescription for oxycodone 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'. Its classification under the Rules, not under the Act, is what sets the strictness of the licence conditions. Rule 3(2) applies the strictest measures to Schedule I of the Rules, less strict to Schedule II and the least strict to Schedule III. 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: One question is left open on oxycodone, and it is left open rather than answered. The question is whether a thebaine derivative is an 'opium derivative' within section 2(u). Thebaine itself is listed in the same Rules schedule and is not in the Act. Section 2(q) and section 2(u) are both inclusive definitions, each opening with 'includes', so neither list is closed on its own wording, and the Act gives no test for what else falls inside them. If the answer were yes the substance would be a narcotic drug under section 2(s), and section 9(1) would still give it no row. The Prohibition (Enforcement of Hadd) Order, 1979 does not reach it either: the Schedule to that Order lists only hemp, charas, mixtures of the two, opium and opium derivatives, coca leaf and coca derivatives, and hashish.

pakistancode.gov.pk · Updated September 21, 2026

Oxycodone in Pakistan, full detail →

PCP

Legal status: PCP is a psychotropic substance under the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997. Section 2(za) defines the term as 'the substances, specified in the Schedule-I to this Act' plus anything the Federal Government declares by gazette notification, and Schedule-I carries it: serial 63 of Schedule-I, 'PHENCYCLIDINE', with 'PCP' in the trivial-names column. Two related arylcyclohexylamines sit at serials 30 and 83. Column 3 gives the chemical name as '1-(1-phencylcychlohenxyl) piperidine'.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. The entry being applied is serial 63 of Schedule-I, 'PHENCYCLIDINE', with 'PCP' in the trivial-names column. Two related arylcyclohexylamines sit at serials 30 and 83. Section 9(2) sets nine quantity bands for a psychotropic substance, from 'Up to 20 grams' at one year with a floor of two months, through 'More than 500-grams and up to one kilo grams' at seven years, to 'Exceeding four kilo grams', which reads 'imprisonment which shall not be less than life imprisonment along-with fine which shall not be less than two million rupees'. This substance is punished through the section 9(2) bands and not through the section 9(1) narcotic table, which names only seven narcotics and does not name it. 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 / medical: Where a prescription for PCP 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'. 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: Schedule-I identifies PCP in column 3 as '1-(1-phencylcychlohenxyl) piperidine', and column 3 is what a Government Analyst's certificate under rule 6 of the Control of Narcotic Substances (Government Analysts) Rules, 2001 is matched against. Three provisos qualify section 9(2). An offence 'inside or near a school, college, university, educational setting or any other educational institution' draws the maximum for the band. A second conviction draws the maximum where the quantity does not exceed two kilograms, and not less than life where it exceeds two kilograms. Schedule-I has not been amended for substance content since the Act was passed in 1997: the only change recorded against it is that section 26 of Act No. XX of 2022 substituted its heading, which in the 1997 Act read only as the Schedule, and added a new Schedule-II. Section 74A, inserted by the same Act, lets the Federal Government amend the Schedules by notification in the official Gazette, and no such notification is present in what I could reach. The Prohibition (Enforcement of Hadd) Order, 1979 does not reach it either: the Schedule to that Order lists only hemp, charas, mixtures of the two, opium and opium derivatives, coca leaf and coca derivatives, and hashish.

pakistancode.gov.pk · Updated September 21, 2026

PCP in Pakistan, full detail →

Peyote

Legal status: Split answer, and the split is in the schedules rather than in my reading. The alkaloid that peyote is taken for is scheduled and peyote itself is not. The scheduled alkaloid is mescaline, carried as an unnumbered row of Schedule-I under serial 41, '3,4,5-trimethoxyphenethylamine'. The cactus itself, Lophophora williamsii, is named in no schedule of either instrument, and neither is any other mescaline bearing plant.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. The bands are measured on the alkaloid, so what is weighed for peyote is a question of fact about the material seized. Section 9(2) sets nine quantity bands for a psychotropic substance, from 'Up to 20 grams' at one year with a floor of two months, through 'More than 500-grams and up to one kilo grams' at seven years, to 'Exceeding four kilo grams', which reads 'imprisonment which shall not be less than life imprisonment along-with fine which shall not be less than two million rupees'. Those bands are measured on the quantity of the psychotropic substance, and the Act gives no conversion from plant material to alkaloid content, unlike the cannabis and opium rows of section 9(1), which are measured on the plant product itself. The band that the alkaloid tops out at is life, at more than four kilograms. 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 / medical: Where a prescription for peyote 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'. The plant itself is not a drug of abuse under the Rules, so nothing licenses it and nothing forbids it there either. 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: The split on peyote, set out so the confirmed half and the deferred half do not blur. Objective, and confirmed: the alkaloid is named in Schedule-I with its own chemical name in column 3, and the plant is named in no schedule of the Act, no schedule of the Rules 2001 and no entry of the Schedule to the Hadd Order. Judgment, and deferred: whether possession of the plant is possession of the scheduled alkaloid within it. The Act contains no preparation clause of its own. Rule 4(1) of the Rules 2001 has one, 'Preparations shall be subject to the same measures of control, under these rules, as the drugs of abuse or controlled chemicals they contain', but it governs the Rules and not section 9. The Prohibition (Enforcement of Hadd) Order, 1979 does not reach it either: the Schedule to that Order lists only hemp, charas, mixtures of the two, opium and opium derivatives, coca leaf and coca derivatives, and hashish.

pakistancode.gov.pk · Updated September 21, 2026

Peyote in Pakistan, full detail →

Psilocybin

Legal status: Psilocybin is a psychotropic substance under the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997. Section 2(za) defines the term as 'the substances, specified in the Schedule-I to this Act' plus anything the Federal Government declares by gazette notification, and Schedule-I carries it: serial 69 of Schedule-I, 'PSILOCYBINE', with the metabolite psilocin carried as an unnumbered row under serial 41 as 'psilcine, psilotsin'. Column 3 gives the chemical name as '3-(2 dimethylamino) ethyl)-indol-4-yl-dihydrogen phosphate'.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. The entry being applied is serial 69 of Schedule-I, 'PSILOCYBINE', with the metabolite psilocin carried as an unnumbered row under serial 41 as 'psilcine, psilotsin'. Section 9(2) sets nine quantity bands for a psychotropic substance, from 'Up to 20 grams' at one year with a floor of two months, through 'More than 500-grams and up to one kilo grams' at seven years, to 'Exceeding four kilo grams', which reads 'imprisonment which shall not be less than life imprisonment along-with fine which shall not be less than two million rupees'. This substance is punished through the section 9(2) bands and not through the section 9(1) narcotic table, which names only seven narcotics and does not name it. 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 / medical: Where a prescription for psilocybin 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'. 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: Schedule-I identifies psilocybin in column 3 as '3-(2 dimethylamino) ethyl)-indol-4-yl-dihydrogen phosphate', and column 3 is what a Government Analyst's certificate under rule 6 of the Control of Narcotic Substances (Government Analysts) Rules, 2001 is matched against. Three provisos qualify section 9(2). An offence 'inside or near a school, college, university, educational setting or any other educational institution' draws the maximum for the band. A second conviction draws the maximum where the quantity does not exceed two kilograms, and not less than life where it exceeds two kilograms. Schedule-I has not been amended for substance content since the Act was passed in 1997: the only change recorded against it is that section 26 of Act No. XX of 2022 substituted its heading, which in the 1997 Act read only as the Schedule, and added a new Schedule-II. Section 74A, inserted by the same Act, lets the Federal Government amend the Schedules by notification in the official Gazette, and no such notification is present in what I could reach. The Prohibition (Enforcement of Hadd) Order, 1979 does not reach it either: the Schedule to that Order lists only hemp, charas, mixtures of the two, opium and opium derivatives, coca leaf and coca derivatives, and hashish.

pakistancode.gov.pk · Updated September 21, 2026

Psilocybin in Pakistan, full detail →

Tobacco

Legal status: Not a controlled substance in Pakistan's narcotics law. Tobacco is not an article specified in the Schedule to the Hadd Order, which lists hemp, charas, their mixtures, opium and opium derivatives, coca leaf and coca derivatives, and hashish. It is not in either schedule of the Act or any schedule of the Rules 2001 either. The narcotics regime does not reach it.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. There is no quantity band for tobacco because there is no offence. None of sections 6, 7 or 8 of the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997 is engaged. Those sections bite on 'any narcotic drug, psychotropic substance or controlled substance', and this is none of the three. Death is not available in Pakistani narcotics law at all since 5 August 2023, and it was never available for anything outside the three statutory categories. 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 / medical: Tobacco needs no licence, permit or authorisation under the Rules 2001. No licence, permit or authorisation under the Rules 2001 is required, because rule 2(1)(xiii) confines a drug of abuse to 'a prohibited drug, a high-risk drug, or a risk drug', each defined by reference to a Schedule to those Rules, and this appears in none of them. 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: Scope of this answer for tobacco. This cell answers the narcotics question only. Pakistan regulates food, medicines and tobacco through separate regimes with their own schedules and their own penalties, and none of those was read in this pass. Saying the narcotics Act does not reach a substance is not the same as saying nothing does. The Prohibition (Enforcement of Hadd) Order, 1979 does not reach it either: the Schedule to that Order lists only hemp, charas, mixtures of the two, opium and opium derivatives, coca leaf and coca derivatives, and hashish.

pakistancode.gov.pk · Updated September 21, 2026

Tobacco in Pakistan, full detail →

Xanax (Alprazolam)

Legal status: Alprazolam is a psychotropic substance under the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997. Section 2(za) defines the term as 'the substances, specified in the Schedule-I to this Act' plus anything the Federal Government declares by gazette notification, and Schedule-I carries it: serial 4 of Schedule-I, 'ALPRAZOLAM'. Column 3 gives the chemical name as '8-chloro-l-methyl-6-phenyl-4H-s-triazoIo [4, 3-a] [1,4] bensodiadazepine'.
Consequences if caught: Capital exposure: none. The entry being applied is serial 4 of Schedule-I, 'ALPRAZOLAM'. Section 9(2) sets nine quantity bands for a psychotropic substance, from 'Up to 20 grams' at one year with a floor of two months, through 'More than 500-grams and up to one kilo grams' at seven years, to 'Exceeding four kilo grams', which reads 'imprisonment which shall not be less than life imprisonment along-with fine which shall not be less than two million rupees'. This substance is punished through the section 9(2) bands and not through the section 9(1) narcotic table, which names only seven narcotics and does not name it. 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 / medical: Where a prescription for alprazolam 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'. 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: Schedule-I identifies alprazolam in column 3 as '8-chloro-l-methyl-6-phenyl-4H-s-triazoIo [4, 3-a] [1,4] bensodiadazepine', and column 3 is what a Government Analyst's certificate under rule 6 of the Control of Narcotic Substances (Government Analysts) Rules, 2001 is matched against. Three provisos qualify section 9(2). An offence 'inside or near a school, college, university, educational setting or any other educational institution' draws the maximum for the band. A second conviction draws the maximum where the quantity does not exceed two kilograms, and not less than life where it exceeds two kilograms. Schedule-I has not been amended for substance content since the Act was passed in 1997: the only change recorded against it is that section 26 of Act No. XX of 2022 substituted its heading, which in the 1997 Act read only as the Schedule, and added a new Schedule-II. Section 74A, inserted by the same Act, lets the Federal Government amend the Schedules by notification in the official Gazette, and no such notification is present in what I could reach. The Prohibition (Enforcement of Hadd) Order, 1979 does not reach it either: the Schedule to that Order lists only hemp, charas, mixtures of the two, opium and opium derivatives, coca leaf and coca derivatives, and hashish.

pakistancode.gov.pk · Updated September 21, 2026

Xanax (Alprazolam) in Pakistan, full detail →

Not individually verified

44 substances are not individually verified for Pakistan

For these the governing national drug law is cited, but we have not verified that the substance specifically is scheduled under it. Treat them as unanswered, not as legal. Confirm with Pakistan’s drug authority or your embassy.

Substance	What we found
1P-LSD	Not confirmed for Pakistan. 1P-LSD is named in no schedule of the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997. Serial...
2-FDCK	Not confirmed for Pakistan. 2-FDCK is named in no schedule of the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997....
25I-NBOMe	Not confirmed for Pakistan. 25I-NBOMe is named in no schedule of the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997....
2C-B	Not confirmed for Pakistan. 2C-B is named in no schedule of the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997. Serial 6...
2C-E	Not confirmed for Pakistan. 2C-E is named in no schedule of the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997. Searched...
2C-I	Not confirmed for Pakistan. 2C-I is named in no schedule of the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997. Searched...
2C-T-7	Not confirmed for Pakistan. 2C-T-7 is named in no schedule of the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997. Searched...
3-MMC	Not confirmed for Pakistan. 3-MMC is named in no schedule of the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997....
4-AcO-DMT	Not confirmed for Pakistan. 4-AcO-DMT is named in no schedule of the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997....
4-HO-MET	Not confirmed for Pakistan. 4-HO-MET is named in no schedule of the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997....
5-MeO-DMT (Bufo / Toad)	Not confirmed for Pakistan. 5-MeO-DMT is named in no schedule of the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997. The...
6-APB	Not confirmed for Pakistan. 6-APB is named in no schedule of the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997....
7-Hydroxymitragynine (7-OH)	Not confirmed for Pakistan. 7-hydroxymitragynine is named in no schedule of the Control of Narcotic Substances Act...
Amanita muscaria	Not confirmed for Pakistan. Amanita muscaria is named in no schedule of the Control of Narcotic Substances Act...
Amyl Nitrite	Not confirmed for Pakistan. Amyl nitrite is named in no schedule of the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997....
Cannabinol	Not confirmed for Pakistan. Cannabinol is named in no schedule of the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997....
DXM	Not confirmed for Pakistan. DXM is named in no schedule of the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997....
Etizolam	Not confirmed for Pakistan. Etizolam is named in no schedule of the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997....
Gabapentin	Not confirmed for Pakistan. Gabapentin is named in no schedule of the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997....
GBL	Not confirmed for Pakistan. GBL is named in no schedule of the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997....
GHB	Not confirmed for Pakistan. GHB is named in no schedule of the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997....
Ketamine	Not confirmed for Pakistan. Ketamine is named in no schedule of the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997....
Kratom	Not confirmed for Pakistan. Kratom is named in no schedule of the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997....
LSA (Morning Glory)	Not confirmed for Pakistan. LSA is named in no schedule of the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997. Lysergic...
MDPV	Not confirmed for Pakistan. MDPV is named in no schedule of the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997....
Memantine	Not confirmed for Pakistan. Memantine is named in no schedule of the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997....
Mephedrone (4-MMC)	Not confirmed for Pakistan. Mephedrone is named in no schedule of the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997....
Methylone	Not confirmed for Pakistan. Methylone is named in no schedule of the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997....
Mitragynine	Not confirmed for Pakistan. Mitragynine is named in no schedule of the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997....
Modafinil	Not confirmed for Pakistan. Modafinil is named in no schedule of the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997....
MXE	Not confirmed for Pakistan. Methoxetamine is named in no schedule of the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997....
Nitrous Oxide	Not confirmed for Pakistan. Nitrous oxide is named in no schedule of the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997....
Phenibut	Not confirmed for Pakistan. Phenibut is named in no schedule of the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997....
Pink Cocaine / Tusi	Not confirmed for Pakistan. Pink cocaine is named in no schedule of the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997....
Poppers	Not confirmed for Pakistan. Poppers is named in no schedule of the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997. Poppers...
Pregabalin	Not confirmed for Pakistan. Pregabalin is named in no schedule of the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997....
Quetiapine	Not confirmed for Pakistan. Quetiapine is named in no schedule of the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997....
Salvia divinorum	Not confirmed for Pakistan. Salvia divinorum is named in no schedule of the Control of Narcotic Substances Act...
Scopolamine (Devil's Breath)	Not confirmed for Pakistan. Scopolamine is named in no schedule of the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997....
Synthetic Cannabinoids (K2 / Spice)	Not confirmed for Pakistan. Synthetic cannabinoids is named in no schedule of the Control of Narcotic Substances...
THC-P	Not confirmed for Pakistan. THC-P is named in no schedule of the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997....
Tramadol	Not confirmed for Pakistan. Tramadol is named in no schedule of the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997....
Xylazine	Not confirmed for Pakistan. Xylazine is named in no schedule of the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997....
Zolpidem	Not confirmed for Pakistan. Zolpidem is named in no schedule of the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997....

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

Before you travel

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If you’re detained or arrested abroad

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