Legal status in Philippines

Per-substance legal status for Philippines, 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.

75 confirmed substances13 not individually verifiedLast updated October 8, 2026

Confirmed legal status

2-FDCK

Legal status: A dangerous drug under RA 9165. Board Regulation No. 4, Series of 2025, adopted 24 March 2025, adopts the Commission on Narcotic Drugs decision placing 2-fluorodeschloroketamine in Schedule II of the 1971 Convention and classifies it as a dangerous drug, and it is printed as "2fluorodeschloroketamine" on page 17 of the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025. Its control is its own entry, not an inference from ketamine. The Regulation states no effectivity clause; under Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2020 such an adoption takes penal effect "after registration thereof with the Office of the National Administrative Register and publication in two (2) newspapers of general circulation", neither date is recorded on the signed copy, and section 93(c) of RA 9165 separately runs fifteen days from the last publication of the notice of the Board's public hearing, which is not recorded for this adoption, so its commencement is not established here.
Consequences if caught: Possession is section 11, measured "regardless of the degree of purity thereof". It falls in the limb for "other dangerous drugs such as" MDMA, PMA, TMA, LSD and GHB and "those similarly designed or newly introduced drugs and their derivatives, without having any therapeutic value or if the quantity possessed is far beyond therapeutic requirements": 10 grams or more carries life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000; 5 grams or more but less than 10 carries 20 years and 1 day to life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 400,000 to PHP 500,000; less than 5 grams carries 12 years and 1 day to 20 years and a fine of PHP 300,000 to PHP 400,000. These are penalty bands and not an allowance: the lowest band has no lower limit, so any quantity is an offence. Section 13 imposes "the maximum penalties provided for in Section 11" on anyone found possessing a dangerous drug during a party, social gathering or meeting, or in the proximate company of at least two persons, "regardless of the quantity and purity", which is life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000. Importing or bringing a dangerous drug into the Philippines (section 4) and selling, giving away, delivering, distributing, transporting or brokering one (section 5) each carry life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000 "regardless of the quantity and purity involved", and manufacture (section 8) carries the same penalty. Each applies "unless authorized by law". Use is section 15: after a confirmatory test, a minimum of six months' rehabilitation in a government centre for a first offence, and 6 years and 1 day to 12 years with a fine of PHP 50,000 to PHP 200,000 for a second. RA 9165 prints "life imprisonment to death" in its penalty clauses, among them sections 4, 5, 8, 11 and 16. Republic Act No. 9346 of 24 June 2006 provides in section 1 that "The imposition of the penalty of death is hereby prohibited" and in section 2(b) substitutes life imprisonment where the law violated does not use the nomenclature of the Revised Penal Code, which RA 9165 does not. Section 98 of RA 9165 applies Revised Penal Code nomenclature to a minor offender, "reclusion perpetua to death", so for a minor RA 9346 section 2(a) substitutes reclusion perpetua. No drug offence carries death, and the fines set by RA 9165 are unchanged.
If prescribed / medical: Annex A to Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 maps the 1971 Schedule II to Philippine Schedule 2. Section 31(6) of that Regulation allows a PDEA licensed practitioner to prescribe only FDA registered dangerous drugs. Whether any product containing 2-FDCK is registered with the FDA was not checked for this cell, so no prescription route is asserted.
Documentation: There is no traveller or personal import route. Bringing any dangerous drug into the Philippines unless authorized by law is section 4 of RA 9165, life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000, regardless of the quantity and purity involved.

Republic Act No. 9165, the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, enrolled text as published by the Dangerous Drugs Board, sections 3(j), 4, 5, 8, 11, 13, 15, 16 and 93 and its annex · ddb.gov.ph · Dangerous Drugs Board, Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, page 17, read on 2 October 2026 · ddb.gov.ph · Republic Act No. 9346, sections 1 and 2, text read at lawphil.net on 2 October 2026 because the Official Gazette refused the request · lawphil.net · Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014, adopted 19 June 2014, sections 6(16), 31 and 35, and its Annex A · ddb.gov.ph · ddb.gov.ph · Board Regulation No. 4, Series of 2025, adopted 24 March 2025 · ddb.gov.ph · Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2020, adopted 18 June 2020 · ddb.gov.ph · The schedule placement stated in this cell is read from the section heading of the Board's list under which the entry is printed, which is not printed in the quoted entry itself. · Updated October 2, 2026

2-FDCK in Philippines, full detail →

25I-NBOMe

Legal status: A dangerous drug under RA 9165. 25I-NBOMe is printed as "25I-NBOMe" on page 13 of the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, in its 1971 Schedule I section. It is not among the substances enumerated in the annex to RA 9165, which section 3(j) makes part of the Act. Section 3(1)(a)(i) of Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014, as printed in the Dangerous Drugs Board's copy, requires the Board to issue an implementing Board Regulation for such an addition, and none naming it appears on the register read on 2 October 2026, which lists no Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2026, so its control rests on the Board's own published list, which is how the regulator states it. The entry is the N-(2-methoxybenzyl) derivative of 2C-I and does not itself list 2C-I.
Consequences if caught: Possession is section 11, measured "regardless of the degree of purity thereof". It falls in the limb for "other dangerous drugs such as" MDMA, PMA, TMA, LSD and GHB and "those similarly designed or newly introduced drugs and their derivatives, without having any therapeutic value or if the quantity possessed is far beyond therapeutic requirements": 10 grams or more carries life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000; 5 grams or more but less than 10 carries 20 years and 1 day to life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 400,000 to PHP 500,000; less than 5 grams carries 12 years and 1 day to 20 years and a fine of PHP 300,000 to PHP 400,000. These are penalty bands and not an allowance: the lowest band has no lower limit, so any quantity is an offence. Section 13 imposes "the maximum penalties provided for in Section 11" on anyone found possessing a dangerous drug during a party, social gathering or meeting, or in the proximate company of at least two persons, "regardless of the quantity and purity", which is life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000. Importing or bringing a dangerous drug into the Philippines (section 4) and selling, giving away, delivering, distributing, transporting or brokering one (section 5) each carry life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000 "regardless of the quantity and purity involved", and manufacture (section 8) carries the same penalty. Each applies "unless authorized by law". Use is section 15: after a confirmatory test, a minimum of six months' rehabilitation in a government centre for a first offence, and 6 years and 1 day to 12 years with a fine of PHP 50,000 to PHP 200,000 for a second. RA 9165 prints "life imprisonment to death" in its penalty clauses, among them sections 4, 5, 8, 11 and 16. Republic Act No. 9346 of 24 June 2006 provides in section 1 that "The imposition of the penalty of death is hereby prohibited" and in section 2(b) substitutes life imprisonment where the law violated does not use the nomenclature of the Revised Penal Code, which RA 9165 does not. Section 98 of RA 9165 applies Revised Penal Code nomenclature to a minor offender, "reclusion perpetua to death", so for a minor RA 9346 section 2(a) substitutes reclusion perpetua. No drug offence carries death, and the fines set by RA 9165 are unchanged.
If prescribed / medical: Annex A to Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 maps the 1971 Schedule I to Philippine Schedule 1, which it describes as having "no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the Philippines". Section 6(16) of that Regulation bars a licence holder from handling a dangerous drug in Philippine Schedule I "unless for the purpose of a research program approved by the Board in conjunction with the Department of Science and Technology, Department of Health, and Food and Drug Administration". There is no prescription route.
Documentation: There is no traveller or personal import route. Bringing any dangerous drug into the Philippines unless authorized by law is section 4 of RA 9165, life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000, regardless of the quantity and purity involved.

25I-NBOMe in Philippines, full detail →

2C-B

Legal status: A dangerous drug under RA 9165. 2C-B is printed as "2C-B" on page 16 of the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, in its 1971 Schedule II section. It is also listed in the annex to RA 9165, which section 3(j) makes "an integral part of this Act". It is the bromo phenethylamine; brolamfetamine (DOB), its alpha-methyl homologue, is a different drug.
Consequences if caught: Possession is section 11, measured "regardless of the degree of purity thereof". It falls in the limb for "other dangerous drugs such as" MDMA, PMA, TMA, LSD and GHB and "those similarly designed or newly introduced drugs and their derivatives, without having any therapeutic value or if the quantity possessed is far beyond therapeutic requirements": 10 grams or more carries life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000; 5 grams or more but less than 10 carries 20 years and 1 day to life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 400,000 to PHP 500,000; less than 5 grams carries 12 years and 1 day to 20 years and a fine of PHP 300,000 to PHP 400,000. These are penalty bands and not an allowance: the lowest band has no lower limit, so any quantity is an offence. Section 13 imposes "the maximum penalties provided for in Section 11" on anyone found possessing a dangerous drug during a party, social gathering or meeting, or in the proximate company of at least two persons, "regardless of the quantity and purity", which is life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000. Importing or bringing a dangerous drug into the Philippines (section 4) and selling, giving away, delivering, distributing, transporting or brokering one (section 5) each carry life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000 "regardless of the quantity and purity involved", and manufacture (section 8) carries the same penalty. Each applies "unless authorized by law". Use is section 15: after a confirmatory test, a minimum of six months' rehabilitation in a government centre for a first offence, and 6 years and 1 day to 12 years with a fine of PHP 50,000 to PHP 200,000 for a second. RA 9165 prints "life imprisonment to death" in its penalty clauses, among them sections 4, 5, 8, 11 and 16. Republic Act No. 9346 of 24 June 2006 provides in section 1 that "The imposition of the penalty of death is hereby prohibited" and in section 2(b) substitutes life imprisonment where the law violated does not use the nomenclature of the Revised Penal Code, which RA 9165 does not. Section 98 of RA 9165 applies Revised Penal Code nomenclature to a minor offender, "reclusion perpetua to death", so for a minor RA 9346 section 2(a) substitutes reclusion perpetua. No drug offence carries death, and the fines set by RA 9165 are unchanged.
If prescribed / medical: Annex A to Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 maps the 1971 Schedule II to Philippine Schedule 2. Section 31(6) of that Regulation allows a PDEA licensed practitioner to prescribe only FDA registered dangerous drugs. Whether any product containing 2C-B is registered with the FDA was not checked for this cell, so no prescription route is asserted.
Documentation: There is no traveller or personal import route. Bringing any dangerous drug into the Philippines unless authorized by law is section 4 of RA 9165, life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000, regardless of the quantity and purity involved.

2C-B in Philippines, full detail →

3-MMC

Legal status: A dangerous drug under RA 9165. 3-MMC is printed as "3-Methyl methcathinone" on page 19 of the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, in its 1971 Schedule II section. It is not among the substances enumerated in the annex to RA 9165, which section 3(j) makes part of the Act. Section 3(1)(a)(i) of Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014, as printed in the Dangerous Drugs Board's copy, requires the Board to issue an implementing Board Regulation for such an addition, and none naming it appears on the register read on 2 October 2026, which lists no Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2026, so its control rests on the Board's own published list, which is how the regulator states it. The meta-methyl isomer is printed apart from mephedrone, the para-methyl isomer.
Consequences if caught: Possession is section 11, measured "regardless of the degree of purity thereof". It falls in the limb for "other dangerous drugs such as" MDMA, PMA, TMA, LSD and GHB and "those similarly designed or newly introduced drugs and their derivatives, without having any therapeutic value or if the quantity possessed is far beyond therapeutic requirements": 10 grams or more carries life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000; 5 grams or more but less than 10 carries 20 years and 1 day to life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 400,000 to PHP 500,000; less than 5 grams carries 12 years and 1 day to 20 years and a fine of PHP 300,000 to PHP 400,000. These are penalty bands and not an allowance: the lowest band has no lower limit, so any quantity is an offence. Section 13 imposes "the maximum penalties provided for in Section 11" on anyone found possessing a dangerous drug during a party, social gathering or meeting, or in the proximate company of at least two persons, "regardless of the quantity and purity", which is life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000. Importing or bringing a dangerous drug into the Philippines (section 4) and selling, giving away, delivering, distributing, transporting or brokering one (section 5) each carry life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000 "regardless of the quantity and purity involved", and manufacture (section 8) carries the same penalty. Each applies "unless authorized by law". Use is section 15: after a confirmatory test, a minimum of six months' rehabilitation in a government centre for a first offence, and 6 years and 1 day to 12 years with a fine of PHP 50,000 to PHP 200,000 for a second. RA 9165 prints "life imprisonment to death" in its penalty clauses, among them sections 4, 5, 8, 11 and 16. Republic Act No. 9346 of 24 June 2006 provides in section 1 that "The imposition of the penalty of death is hereby prohibited" and in section 2(b) substitutes life imprisonment where the law violated does not use the nomenclature of the Revised Penal Code, which RA 9165 does not. Section 98 of RA 9165 applies Revised Penal Code nomenclature to a minor offender, "reclusion perpetua to death", so for a minor RA 9346 section 2(a) substitutes reclusion perpetua. No drug offence carries death, and the fines set by RA 9165 are unchanged.
If prescribed / medical: Annex A to Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 maps the 1971 Schedule II to Philippine Schedule 2. Section 31(6) of that Regulation allows a PDEA licensed practitioner to prescribe only FDA registered dangerous drugs. Whether any product containing 3-MMC is registered with the FDA was not checked for this cell, so no prescription route is asserted.
Documentation: There is no traveller or personal import route. Bringing any dangerous drug into the Philippines unless authorized by law is section 4 of RA 9165, life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000, regardless of the quantity and purity involved.

3-MMC in Philippines, full detail →

7-Hydroxymitragynine (7-OH)

Legal status: Not a dangerous drug on the text read: 7-hydroxymitragynine is not listed in the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, and no Board Regulation adding it appears on the Board's regulations register read on 2 October 2026. This is stated as at the Board's list of 06 July 2025 and the Board's regulations register read at https://ddb.gov.ph/board-regulations/ on 2 October 2026, whose newest entry is Board Regulation No. 5, Series of 2026 and which lists no Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2026, and it does not rule out a later amendment.
Consequences if caught: No RA 9165 penalty attaches while it is unlisted. Searched in all 24 pages of the list: "7-hydroxymitragynine" 0 hits; "mitragyn" 0 hits. No entry names any Mitragyna alkaloid, and its opioid activity does not make it morphine or any named opioid. Section 93 lets the Board add a drug after notice and hearing, and under section 93(c) no criminal liability arises for an added drug until fifteen days after the last publication of the notice of that hearing.
If prescribed / medical: It is not a dangerous drug, so the prescription rules of Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 do not govern it. Its status under FDA rules was not read for this cell.
Documentation: No dangerous drug document is needed.

7-Hydroxymitragynine (7-OH) in Philippines, full detail →

Adderall

Legal status: A dangerous drug under RA 9165, through its components. Adderall is a brand of mixed amphetamine salts and is not named as a brand. Amphetamine is printed as "Amfetamine" on page 15 and dexamphetamine as "DEXAMFETAMINE" on page 16 of the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, both in its 1971 Schedule II section.
Consequences if caught: Possession is section 11, measured "regardless of the degree of purity thereof". It falls in the limb for "other dangerous drugs such as" MDMA, PMA, TMA, LSD and GHB and "those similarly designed or newly introduced drugs and their derivatives, without having any therapeutic value or if the quantity possessed is far beyond therapeutic requirements": 10 grams or more carries life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000; 5 grams or more but less than 10 carries 20 years and 1 day to life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 400,000 to PHP 500,000; less than 5 grams carries 12 years and 1 day to 20 years and a fine of PHP 300,000 to PHP 400,000. These are penalty bands and not an allowance. For a medicine with therapeutic value the Act applies these bands where the drug is held without therapeutic value or in a quantity far beyond therapeutic requirements, as the Board determines; it states no separate band for an unauthorised quantity within therapeutic requirements, and none is asserted here. Section 13 imposes "the maximum penalties provided for in Section 11" on anyone found possessing a dangerous drug during a party, social gathering or meeting, or in the proximate company of at least two persons, "regardless of the quantity and purity", which is life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000. Importing or bringing a dangerous drug into the Philippines (section 4) and selling, giving away, delivering, distributing, transporting or brokering one (section 5) each carry life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000 "regardless of the quantity and purity involved", and manufacture (section 8) carries the same penalty. Each applies "unless authorized by law". Use is section 15: after a confirmatory test, a minimum of six months' rehabilitation in a government centre for a first offence, and 6 years and 1 day to 12 years with a fine of PHP 50,000 to PHP 200,000 for a second. RA 9165 prints "life imprisonment to death" in its penalty clauses, among them sections 4, 5, 8, 11 and 16. Republic Act No. 9346 of 24 June 2006 provides in section 1 that "The imposition of the penalty of death is hereby prohibited" and in section 2(b) substitutes life imprisonment where the law violated does not use the nomenclature of the Revised Penal Code, which RA 9165 does not. Section 98 of RA 9165 applies Revised Penal Code nomenclature to a minor offender, "reclusion perpetua to death", so for a minor RA 9346 section 2(a) substitutes reclusion perpetua. No drug offence carries death, and the fines set by RA 9165 are unchanged.
If prescribed / medical: Annex A to Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 maps the 1961 Schedules I and II and the 1971 Schedule II to Philippine Schedule 2. Section 31(6) of that Regulation allows a PDEA licensed practitioner to prescribe only FDA registered dangerous drugs, for up to 30 days' supply per prescription of a Schedule 2, 3 or 4 drug. Whether any product containing these amphetamine salts is registered with the FDA was not checked for this cell. Board Regulation No. 10, Series of 2025, adopted 26 June 2025, authorizes an S2 licensed practitioner to use "ordinary prescriptions in prescribing any dangerous drug preparations", in three copies, to "effectively address the diseases, illnesses, infections, and symptoms associated with the global health concern on mpox; the regional increase in COVID19; and the local surge in HIV cases"; its section 9 kept it in force "until June 30, 2026", and it takes effect fifteen days after publication and registration. Board Regulation No. 5, Series of 2026, adopted 23 June 2026, extends it "until June 30, 2027" to relieve the "transportation, logistics, and financial burdens of obtaining special prescription forms", but takes effect only "upon its publication in two (2) newspapers of general circulation and its registration", dates the signed copy does not record, so whether the ordinary prescription route is in force today is not established. Board Regulation No. 8, Series of 2019, adopted 17 December 2019, provides a "License to Acquire, Possess, and Use Unregistered Drug Products Containing Dangerous Drugs for Personal Use", for drug products "currently unregistered or in the process of being registered with the FDA but are already registered in FDA reference countries". The patient, or a "parent, spouse, guardian, or relative within the fourth degree of consanguinity or affinity", applies to PDEA, and only for "Diseases covered by RA 10747 or the 'Rare Disease Act of the Philippines'", "Life-threatening and debilitating diseases", "Cancer and other terminal diseases", "Rare forms of neurological conditions", or "Other diseases with limited therapeutic options identified by the Department of Health". It takes effect fifteen days after publication and registration, dates the signed copy does not record. The International Narcotics Control Board's assessment of the Philippines' annual requirement, as at 2 October 2026, is 2 grams each for amfetamine and dexamfetamine, nominal figures, so do not expect to fill an Adderall prescription locally.
Documentation: A patient holding a licence under Board Regulation No. 8, Series of 2019 may bring an unregistered product in by "courier/parcel service or personal transport by patient or authorized family members", as that licence specifies. Otherwise, section 35 of Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 lets a person under treatment who is entering, leaving or passing through the Philippines possess such quantities of a dangerous drug "as are reasonable for the purposes of such treatment", in the words of section 35(1) "wherever prescribed by a valid PDEA S2-licensed physician". The traveller carries a letter from the attending physician, the prescription with trade and generic names for up to 30 days' supply, and the medicine in its original labelled container. Above 30 days' supply the traveller needs certificates of authorization from the competent authority of the home country and from PDEA, requested from PDEA in writing 30 working days before arrival. Whether a prescription written abroad meets section 35(1) is not settled by its text, so confirm with PDEA before travelling. Without that authority the medicine is an imported dangerous drug under section 4 of RA 9165.

Republic Act No. 9165, the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, enrolled text as published by the Dangerous Drugs Board, sections 3(j), 4, 5, 8, 11, 13, 15, 16 and 93 and its annex · ddb.gov.ph · Dangerous Drugs Board, Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, pages 15 and 16, read on 2 October 2026 · ddb.gov.ph · Republic Act No. 9346, sections 1 and 2, text read at lawphil.net on 2 October 2026 because the Official Gazette refused the request · lawphil.net · Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014, adopted 19 June 2014, sections 6(16), 31 and 35, and its Annex A · ddb.gov.ph · ddb.gov.ph · International Narcotics Control Board, psychotropics assessments in grams as at 2 October 2026 · incb.org · Board Regulation No. 10, Series of 2025, adopted 26 June 2025 · ddb.gov.ph · Board Regulation No. 5, Series of 2026, adopted 23 June 2026 · ddb.gov.ph · Board Regulation No. 8, Series of 2019, adopted 17 December 2019 · ddb.gov.ph · The schedule placement stated in this cell is read from the section heading of the Board's list under which the entry is printed, which is not printed in the quoted entry itself. · Updated October 2, 2026

Adderall in Philippines, full detail →

Alcohol

Legal status: Not a dangerous drug on the text read: alcohol is not listed in the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, and no Board Regulation adding it appears on the Board's regulations register read on 2 October 2026. This is stated as at the Board's list of 06 July 2025 and the Board's regulations register read at https://ddb.gov.ph/board-regulations/ on 2 October 2026, whose newest entry is Board Regulation No. 5, Series of 2026 and which lists no Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2026, and it does not rule out a later amendment.
Consequences if caught: No RA 9165 penalty attaches while it is unlisted. Searched in all 24 pages of the list: "ethanol" 4 hits; "ethyl alcohol" 0 hits. Every hit for ethanol is part of a longer chemical name, benzenemethanol in the ephedrine, norephedrine and pseudoephedrine rows and piperazineethanol elsewhere; ethyl ether in the 1988 precursor tables is a different substance. Section 93 lets the Board add a drug after notice and hearing, and under section 93(c) no criminal liability arises for an added drug until fifteen days after the last publication of the notice of that hearing. Section 6 of Presidential Decree No. 1619 prohibits "The sale of, and offer to sell, to minors of liquors or beverages containing an alcoholic content of thirty per centum or above (60 proof or above)", punishable by six months and one day to four years and a fine of PHP 600 to PHP 4,000. The Decree also lists ethanol among the compounds whose vapours, inhaled to intoxicate, are an offence under its section 2.
If prescribed / medical: Not a medicine question for this site. Beverage licensing, age and sale rules other than section 6 of Presidential Decree No. 1619 sit outside RA 9165 and were not read for this cell.
Documentation: No dangerous drug document is needed. Customs allowances and local liquor rules were not read for this cell.

Alcohol in Philippines, full detail →

Amphetamine

Legal status: A dangerous drug under RA 9165. Amphetamine is printed as "Amfetamine" on page 15 of the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, in its 1971 Schedule II section. It is also listed in the annex to RA 9165, which section 3(j) makes "an integral part of this Act". Dexamfetamine is printed separately on page 16.
Consequences if caught: Possession is section 11, measured "regardless of the degree of purity thereof". It falls in the limb for "other dangerous drugs such as" MDMA, PMA, TMA, LSD and GHB and "those similarly designed or newly introduced drugs and their derivatives, without having any therapeutic value or if the quantity possessed is far beyond therapeutic requirements": 10 grams or more carries life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000; 5 grams or more but less than 10 carries 20 years and 1 day to life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 400,000 to PHP 500,000; less than 5 grams carries 12 years and 1 day to 20 years and a fine of PHP 300,000 to PHP 400,000. These are penalty bands and not an allowance. For a medicine with therapeutic value the Act applies these bands where the drug is held without therapeutic value or in a quantity far beyond therapeutic requirements, as the Board determines; it states no separate band for an unauthorised quantity within therapeutic requirements, and none is asserted here. Section 13 imposes "the maximum penalties provided for in Section 11" on anyone found possessing a dangerous drug during a party, social gathering or meeting, or in the proximate company of at least two persons, "regardless of the quantity and purity", which is life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000. Importing or bringing a dangerous drug into the Philippines (section 4) and selling, giving away, delivering, distributing, transporting or brokering one (section 5) each carry life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000 "regardless of the quantity and purity involved", and manufacture (section 8) carries the same penalty. Each applies "unless authorized by law". Use is section 15: after a confirmatory test, a minimum of six months' rehabilitation in a government centre for a first offence, and 6 years and 1 day to 12 years with a fine of PHP 50,000 to PHP 200,000 for a second. RA 9165 prints "life imprisonment to death" in its penalty clauses, among them sections 4, 5, 8, 11 and 16. Republic Act No. 9346 of 24 June 2006 provides in section 1 that "The imposition of the penalty of death is hereby prohibited" and in section 2(b) substitutes life imprisonment where the law violated does not use the nomenclature of the Revised Penal Code, which RA 9165 does not. Section 98 of RA 9165 applies Revised Penal Code nomenclature to a minor offender, "reclusion perpetua to death", so for a minor RA 9346 section 2(a) substitutes reclusion perpetua. No drug offence carries death, and the fines set by RA 9165 are unchanged.
If prescribed / medical: Annex A to Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 maps the 1971 Schedule II to Philippine Schedule 2. Section 31(6) of that Regulation allows a PDEA licensed practitioner to prescribe only FDA registered dangerous drugs, for up to 30 days' supply per prescription of a Schedule 2, 3 or 4 drug. Whether any product containing amphetamine is registered with the FDA was not checked for this cell. Board Regulation No. 10, Series of 2025, adopted 26 June 2025, authorizes an S2 licensed practitioner to use "ordinary prescriptions in prescribing any dangerous drug preparations", in three copies, to "effectively address the diseases, illnesses, infections, and symptoms associated with the global health concern on mpox; the regional increase in COVID19; and the local surge in HIV cases"; its section 9 kept it in force "until June 30, 2026", and it takes effect fifteen days after publication and registration. Board Regulation No. 5, Series of 2026, adopted 23 June 2026, extends it "until June 30, 2027" to relieve the "transportation, logistics, and financial burdens of obtaining special prescription forms", but takes effect only "upon its publication in two (2) newspapers of general circulation and its registration", dates the signed copy does not record, so whether the ordinary prescription route is in force today is not established. Board Regulation No. 8, Series of 2019, adopted 17 December 2019, provides a "License to Acquire, Possess, and Use Unregistered Drug Products Containing Dangerous Drugs for Personal Use", for drug products "currently unregistered or in the process of being registered with the FDA but are already registered in FDA reference countries". The patient, or a "parent, spouse, guardian, or relative within the fourth degree of consanguinity or affinity", applies to PDEA, and only for "Diseases covered by RA 10747 or the 'Rare Disease Act of the Philippines'", "Life-threatening and debilitating diseases", "Cancer and other terminal diseases", "Rare forms of neurological conditions", or "Other diseases with limited therapeutic options identified by the Department of Health". It takes effect fifteen days after publication and registration, dates the signed copy does not record. The International Narcotics Control Board's assessment of the Philippines' annual requirement for amfetamine, as at 2 October 2026, is 2 grams, a nominal figure, so do not expect to fill a prescription for it locally.
Documentation: A patient holding a licence under Board Regulation No. 8, Series of 2019 may bring an unregistered product in by "courier/parcel service or personal transport by patient or authorized family members", as that licence specifies. Otherwise, section 35 of Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 lets a person under treatment who is entering, leaving or passing through the Philippines possess such quantities of a dangerous drug "as are reasonable for the purposes of such treatment", in the words of section 35(1) "wherever prescribed by a valid PDEA S2-licensed physician". The traveller carries a letter from the attending physician, the prescription with trade and generic names for up to 30 days' supply, and the medicine in its original labelled container. Above 30 days' supply the traveller needs certificates of authorization from the competent authority of the home country and from PDEA, requested from PDEA in writing 30 working days before arrival. Whether a prescription written abroad meets section 35(1) is not settled by its text, so confirm with PDEA before travelling. Without that authority the medicine is an imported dangerous drug under section 4 of RA 9165.

Republic Act No. 9165, the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, enrolled text as published by the Dangerous Drugs Board, sections 3(j), 4, 5, 8, 11, 13, 15, 16 and 93 and its annex · ddb.gov.ph · Dangerous Drugs Board, Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, page 15, read on 2 October 2026 · ddb.gov.ph · Republic Act No. 9346, sections 1 and 2, text read at lawphil.net on 2 October 2026 because the Official Gazette refused the request · lawphil.net · Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014, adopted 19 June 2014, sections 6(16), 31 and 35, and its Annex A · ddb.gov.ph · ddb.gov.ph · International Narcotics Control Board, psychotropics assessments in grams as at 2 October 2026 · incb.org · Board Regulation No. 10, Series of 2025, adopted 26 June 2025 · ddb.gov.ph · Board Regulation No. 5, Series of 2026, adopted 23 June 2026 · ddb.gov.ph · Board Regulation No. 8, Series of 2019, adopted 17 December 2019 · ddb.gov.ph · The schedule placement stated in this cell is read from the section heading of the Board's list under which the entry is printed, which is not printed in the quoted entry itself. · Updated October 2, 2026

Amphetamine in Philippines, full detail →

Amyl Nitrite

Legal status: Not a dangerous drug on the text read: amyl nitrite is not listed in the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, and no Board Regulation adding it appears on the Board's regulations register read on 2 October 2026. This is stated as at the Board's list of 06 July 2025 and the Board's regulations register read at https://ddb.gov.ph/board-regulations/ on 2 October 2026, whose newest entry is Board Regulation No. 5, Series of 2026 and which lists no Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2026, and it does not rule out a later amendment.
Consequences if caught: No RA 9165 penalty attaches while it is unlisted. Searched in all 24 pages of the list: "nitrite" 0 hits; "amyl" 0 hits. No alkyl nitrite is printed anywhere in the list. Section 93 lets the Board add a drug after notice and hearing, and under section 93(c) no criminal liability arises for an added drug until fifteen days after the last publication of the notice of that hearing. That is not the same as free of penalty. The Decree's list of compounds names "isoamyl nitrate", a different compound from amyl nitrite, and closes with "any other chemical substance which when sniffed, smelled, inhaled, or introduced into the physiological system of the body produces or induces a condition of intoxication"; alkyl nitrites inhaled to get high fall within those words on their face, though no ruling applying them was read, and applying section 3, which speaks of compounds "mentioned in Section one", to them is a further reading. Section 2 of Presidential Decree No. 1619 of 23 July 1979 punishes "The use or possession of volatile substances for the purpose of inhalation to induce or produce intoxication" with imprisonment of six months and one day to four years and a fine of PHP 600 to PHP 4,000, and section 3 punishes selling, giving away, distributing or transporting such a substance for that purpose with four years and one day to eight years and a fine of PHP 4,000 to PHP 8,000. The Dangerous Drugs Board and PDEA statement of 19 May 2023 names this Decree as one PDEA enforces.
If prescribed / medical: It is not a dangerous drug, so the prescription rules of Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 do not govern it. Its status under FDA rules was not read for this cell.
Documentation: No dangerous drug document is needed under RA 9165. Inhaling it to get high may fall within the catch-all words of Presidential Decree No. 1619; no ruling applying them was read.

Amyl Nitrite in Philippines, full detail →

Ayahuasca

Legal status: Controlled through its DMT content. Ayahuasca is not named in the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025; "DMT" is printed on page 12 in its 1971 Schedule I section. Section 1(ddd) of Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 defines a preparation as "a solution or mixture, in whatever physical state, containing: (i) A dangerous drug", so a brew containing DMT is a dangerous drug preparation, and the plants that supply it are reached by Board Regulation No. 3, Series of 2019 once a laboratory examination finds DMT. A brew whose composition is not shown to include DMT is not established as controlled by its name.
Consequences if caught: Possession is section 11, measured "regardless of the degree of purity thereof". It falls in the limb for "other dangerous drugs such as" MDMA, PMA, TMA, LSD and GHB and "those similarly designed or newly introduced drugs and their derivatives, without having any therapeutic value or if the quantity possessed is far beyond therapeutic requirements": 10 grams or more carries life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000; 5 grams or more but less than 10 carries 20 years and 1 day to life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 400,000 to PHP 500,000; less than 5 grams carries 12 years and 1 day to 20 years and a fine of PHP 300,000 to PHP 400,000. These are penalty bands and not an allowance: the lowest band has no lower limit, so any quantity is an offence. Section 13 imposes "the maximum penalties provided for in Section 11" on anyone found possessing a dangerous drug during a party, social gathering or meeting, or in the proximate company of at least two persons, "regardless of the quantity and purity", which is life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000. Importing or bringing a dangerous drug into the Philippines (section 4) and selling, giving away, delivering, distributing, transporting or brokering one (section 5) each carry life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000 "regardless of the quantity and purity involved", and manufacture (section 8) carries the same penalty. Each applies "unless authorized by law". Use is section 15: after a confirmatory test, a minimum of six months' rehabilitation in a government centre for a first offence, and 6 years and 1 day to 12 years with a fine of PHP 50,000 to PHP 200,000 for a second. RA 9165 prints "life imprisonment to death" in its penalty clauses, among them sections 4, 5, 8, 11 and 16. Republic Act No. 9346 of 24 June 2006 provides in section 1 that "The imposition of the penalty of death is hereby prohibited" and in section 2(b) substitutes life imprisonment where the law violated does not use the nomenclature of the Revised Penal Code, which RA 9165 does not. Section 98 of RA 9165 applies Revised Penal Code nomenclature to a minor offender, "reclusion perpetua to death", so for a minor RA 9346 section 2(a) substitutes reclusion perpetua. No drug offence carries death, and the fines set by RA 9165 are unchanged.
If prescribed / medical: Annex A to Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 maps the 1971 Schedule I, where DMT is printed, to Philippine Schedule 1, which it describes as having "no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the Philippines". Section 6(16) of that Regulation bars a licence holder from handling a dangerous drug in Philippine Schedule I "unless for the purpose of a research program approved by the Board in conjunction with the Department of Science and Technology, Department of Health, and Food and Drug Administration". There is no prescription route.
Documentation: There is no traveller or personal import route. Bringing any dangerous drug into the Philippines unless authorized by law is section 4 of RA 9165, life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000, regardless of the quantity and purity involved.

Ayahuasca in Philippines, full detail →

Barbiturates

Legal status: Controlled member by member, not as a class. The Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025 names twelve barbiturates: "SECOBARBITAL" on page 20 in its 1971 Schedule II section; amobarbital, butalbital, cyclobarbital and pentobarbital at entries 1, 2, 4 and 8 on page 20 in its 1971 Schedule III section; and allobarbital, barbital, butobarbital, methylphenobarbital, phenobarbital, secbutabarbital and vinylbital at entries 3, 5, 8, 44, 56, 64 and 68 on pages 21 and 22 in its 1971 Schedule IV section. A barbiturate not named there is not reached by the class label.
Consequences if caught: Possession is section 11, measured "regardless of the degree of purity thereof". It falls in the limb for "other dangerous drugs such as" MDMA, PMA, TMA, LSD and GHB and "those similarly designed or newly introduced drugs and their derivatives, without having any therapeutic value or if the quantity possessed is far beyond therapeutic requirements": 10 grams or more carries life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000; 5 grams or more but less than 10 carries 20 years and 1 day to life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 400,000 to PHP 500,000; less than 5 grams carries 12 years and 1 day to 20 years and a fine of PHP 300,000 to PHP 400,000. These are penalty bands and not an allowance. For a medicine with therapeutic value the Act applies these bands where the drug is held without therapeutic value or in a quantity far beyond therapeutic requirements, as the Board determines; it states no separate band for an unauthorised quantity within therapeutic requirements, and none is asserted here. Section 13 imposes "the maximum penalties provided for in Section 11" on anyone found possessing a dangerous drug during a party, social gathering or meeting, or in the proximate company of at least two persons, "regardless of the quantity and purity", which is life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000. Importing or bringing a dangerous drug into the Philippines (section 4) and selling, giving away, delivering, distributing, transporting or brokering one (section 5) each carry life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000 "regardless of the quantity and purity involved", and manufacture (section 8) carries the same penalty. Each applies "unless authorized by law". Use is section 15: after a confirmatory test, a minimum of six months' rehabilitation in a government centre for a first offence, and 6 years and 1 day to 12 years with a fine of PHP 50,000 to PHP 200,000 for a second. RA 9165 prints "life imprisonment to death" in its penalty clauses, among them sections 4, 5, 8, 11 and 16. Republic Act No. 9346 of 24 June 2006 provides in section 1 that "The imposition of the penalty of death is hereby prohibited" and in section 2(b) substitutes life imprisonment where the law violated does not use the nomenclature of the Revised Penal Code, which RA 9165 does not. Section 98 of RA 9165 applies Revised Penal Code nomenclature to a minor offender, "reclusion perpetua to death", so for a minor RA 9346 section 2(a) substitutes reclusion perpetua. No drug offence carries death, and the fines set by RA 9165 are unchanged.
If prescribed / medical: Annex A to Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 maps the 1971 Schedules II, III and IV to Philippine Schedules 2, 3 and 4, so these twelve do not share one schedule. Section 31(6) of that Regulation allows a PDEA licensed practitioner to prescribe only FDA registered dangerous drugs, for up to 30 days' supply per prescription. Whether a given product is registered with the FDA was not checked for this cell. Board Regulation No. 10, Series of 2025, adopted 26 June 2025, authorizes an S2 licensed practitioner to use "ordinary prescriptions in prescribing any dangerous drug preparations", in three copies, to "effectively address the diseases, illnesses, infections, and symptoms associated with the global health concern on mpox; the regional increase in COVID19; and the local surge in HIV cases"; its section 9 kept it in force "until June 30, 2026", and it takes effect fifteen days after publication and registration. Board Regulation No. 5, Series of 2026, adopted 23 June 2026, extends it "until June 30, 2027" to relieve the "transportation, logistics, and financial burdens of obtaining special prescription forms", but takes effect only "upon its publication in two (2) newspapers of general circulation and its registration", dates the signed copy does not record, so whether the ordinary prescription route is in force today is not established. Board Regulation No. 8, Series of 2019, adopted 17 December 2019, provides a "License to Acquire, Possess, and Use Unregistered Drug Products Containing Dangerous Drugs for Personal Use", for drug products "currently unregistered or in the process of being registered with the FDA but are already registered in FDA reference countries". The patient, or a "parent, spouse, guardian, or relative within the fourth degree of consanguinity or affinity", applies to PDEA, and only for "Diseases covered by RA 10747 or the 'Rare Disease Act of the Philippines'", "Life-threatening and debilitating diseases", "Cancer and other terminal diseases", "Rare forms of neurological conditions", or "Other diseases with limited therapeutic options identified by the Department of Health". It takes effect fifteen days after publication and registration, dates the signed copy does not record.
Documentation: A patient holding a licence under Board Regulation No. 8, Series of 2019 may bring an unregistered product in by "courier/parcel service or personal transport by patient or authorized family members", as that licence specifies. Otherwise, section 35 of Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 lets a person under treatment who is entering, leaving or passing through the Philippines possess such quantities of a dangerous drug "as are reasonable for the purposes of such treatment", in the words of section 35(1) "wherever prescribed by a valid PDEA S2-licensed physician". The traveller carries a letter from the attending physician, the prescription with trade and generic names for up to 30 days' supply, and the medicine in its original labelled container. Above 30 days' supply the traveller needs certificates of authorization from the competent authority of the home country and from PDEA, requested from PDEA in writing 30 working days before arrival. Whether a prescription written abroad meets section 35(1) is not settled by its text, so confirm with PDEA before travelling. Without that authority the medicine is an imported dangerous drug under section 4 of RA 9165.

Republic Act No. 9165, the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, enrolled text as published by the Dangerous Drugs Board, sections 3(j), 4, 5, 8, 11, 13, 15, 16 and 93 and its annex · ddb.gov.ph · Dangerous Drugs Board, Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, pages 20 to 22, read on 2 October 2026 · ddb.gov.ph · Republic Act No. 9346, sections 1 and 2, text read at lawphil.net on 2 October 2026 because the Official Gazette refused the request · lawphil.net · Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014, adopted 19 June 2014, sections 6(16), 31 and 35, and its Annex A · ddb.gov.ph · ddb.gov.ph · Board Regulation No. 10, Series of 2025, adopted 26 June 2025 · ddb.gov.ph · Board Regulation No. 5, Series of 2026, adopted 23 June 2026 · ddb.gov.ph · Board Regulation No. 8, Series of 2019, adopted 17 December 2019 · ddb.gov.ph · The schedule placement stated in this cell is read from the section heading of the Board's list under which the entry is printed, which is not printed in the quoted entry itself. · Updated October 2, 2026

Barbiturates in Philippines, full detail →

Benzodiazepines

Legal status: Controlled member by member, not as a class, and the list is long. The Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025 names flunitrazepam at entry 6 on page 20 in its 1971 Schedule III section, and 41 benzodiazepines and close relatives in its 1971 Schedule IV section on pages 21 and 22: alprazolam, bromazepam, bromazolam, brotizolam, camazepam, chlordiazepoxide, clobazam, clonazepam, clonazolam, clorazepate, clotiazepam, cloxazolam, delorazepam, diazepam, diclazepam, estazolam, ethyl loflazepate, etizolam, flualprazolam, flubromazolam, fludiazepam, flurazepam, halazepam, haloxazolam, ketazolam, loprazolam, lorazepam, lormetazepam, medazepam, midazolam, nimetazepam, nitrazepam, nordazepam, oxazepam, oxazolam, phenazepam, pinazepam, prazepam, temazepam, tetrazepam and triazolam. Bromazolam was added by Board Regulation No. 5, Series of 2025, adopted 24 March 2025. A benzodiazepine not named there is not reached by the class label, so each must be checked by name.
Consequences if caught: Possession is section 11, measured "regardless of the degree of purity thereof". It falls in the limb for "other dangerous drugs such as" MDMA, PMA, TMA, LSD and GHB and "those similarly designed or newly introduced drugs and their derivatives, without having any therapeutic value or if the quantity possessed is far beyond therapeutic requirements": 10 grams or more carries life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000; 5 grams or more but less than 10 carries 20 years and 1 day to life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 400,000 to PHP 500,000; less than 5 grams carries 12 years and 1 day to 20 years and a fine of PHP 300,000 to PHP 400,000. These are penalty bands and not an allowance. For a medicine with therapeutic value the Act applies these bands where the drug is held without therapeutic value or in a quantity far beyond therapeutic requirements, as the Board determines; it states no separate band for an unauthorised quantity within therapeutic requirements, and none is asserted here. Section 13 imposes "the maximum penalties provided for in Section 11" on anyone found possessing a dangerous drug during a party, social gathering or meeting, or in the proximate company of at least two persons, "regardless of the quantity and purity", which is life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000. Importing or bringing a dangerous drug into the Philippines (section 4) and selling, giving away, delivering, distributing, transporting or brokering one (section 5) each carry life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000 "regardless of the quantity and purity involved", and manufacture (section 8) carries the same penalty. Each applies "unless authorized by law". Use is section 15: after a confirmatory test, a minimum of six months' rehabilitation in a government centre for a first offence, and 6 years and 1 day to 12 years with a fine of PHP 50,000 to PHP 200,000 for a second. RA 9165 prints "life imprisonment to death" in its penalty clauses, among them sections 4, 5, 8, 11 and 16. Republic Act No. 9346 of 24 June 2006 provides in section 1 that "The imposition of the penalty of death is hereby prohibited" and in section 2(b) substitutes life imprisonment where the law violated does not use the nomenclature of the Revised Penal Code, which RA 9165 does not. Section 98 of RA 9165 applies Revised Penal Code nomenclature to a minor offender, "reclusion perpetua to death", so for a minor RA 9346 section 2(a) substitutes reclusion perpetua. No drug offence carries death, and the fines set by RA 9165 are unchanged.
If prescribed / medical: Annex A to Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 maps the 1971 Schedule III to Philippine Schedule 3, where flunitrazepam falls, and the 1971 Schedule IV to Philippine Schedule 4, where the others fall. Section 31(6) of that Regulation allows a PDEA licensed practitioner to prescribe only FDA registered dangerous drugs, for up to 30 days' supply per prescription, and up to 60 days of a Schedule 4 drug for epilepsy and dystonia. Whether a given product is registered with the FDA was not checked for this cell. Board Regulation No. 10, Series of 2025, adopted 26 June 2025, authorizes an S2 licensed practitioner to use "ordinary prescriptions in prescribing any dangerous drug preparations", in three copies, to "effectively address the diseases, illnesses, infections, and symptoms associated with the global health concern on mpox; the regional increase in COVID19; and the local surge in HIV cases"; its section 9 kept it in force "until June 30, 2026", and it takes effect fifteen days after publication and registration. Board Regulation No. 5, Series of 2026, adopted 23 June 2026, extends it "until June 30, 2027" to relieve the "transportation, logistics, and financial burdens of obtaining special prescription forms", but takes effect only "upon its publication in two (2) newspapers of general circulation and its registration", dates the signed copy does not record, so whether the ordinary prescription route is in force today is not established. Board Regulation No. 8, Series of 2019, adopted 17 December 2019, provides a "License to Acquire, Possess, and Use Unregistered Drug Products Containing Dangerous Drugs for Personal Use", for drug products "currently unregistered or in the process of being registered with the FDA but are already registered in FDA reference countries". The patient, or a "parent, spouse, guardian, or relative within the fourth degree of consanguinity or affinity", applies to PDEA, and only for "Diseases covered by RA 10747 or the 'Rare Disease Act of the Philippines'", "Life-threatening and debilitating diseases", "Cancer and other terminal diseases", "Rare forms of neurological conditions", or "Other diseases with limited therapeutic options identified by the Department of Health". It takes effect fifteen days after publication and registration, dates the signed copy does not record.
Documentation: A patient holding a licence under Board Regulation No. 8, Series of 2019 may bring an unregistered product in by "courier/parcel service or personal transport by patient or authorized family members", as that licence specifies. Otherwise, section 35 of Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 lets a person under treatment who is entering, leaving or passing through the Philippines possess such quantities of a dangerous drug "as are reasonable for the purposes of such treatment", in the words of section 35(1) "wherever prescribed by a valid PDEA S2-licensed physician". The traveller carries a letter from the attending physician, the prescription with trade and generic names for up to 30 days' supply, and the medicine in its original labelled container. Above 30 days' supply the traveller needs certificates of authorization from the competent authority of the home country and from PDEA, requested from PDEA in writing 30 working days before arrival. Whether a prescription written abroad meets section 35(1) is not settled by its text, so confirm with PDEA before travelling. Without that authority the medicine is an imported dangerous drug under section 4 of RA 9165.

Republic Act No. 9165, the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, enrolled text as published by the Dangerous Drugs Board, sections 3(j), 4, 5, 8, 11, 13, 15, 16 and 93 and its annex · ddb.gov.ph · Dangerous Drugs Board, Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, pages 20 to 22, read on 2 October 2026 · ddb.gov.ph · Republic Act No. 9346, sections 1 and 2, text read at lawphil.net on 2 October 2026 because the Official Gazette refused the request · lawphil.net · Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014, adopted 19 June 2014, sections 6(16), 31 and 35, and its Annex A · ddb.gov.ph · ddb.gov.ph · Board Regulation No. 5, Series of 2025, adopted 24 March 2025 · ddb.gov.ph · Board Regulation No. 10, Series of 2025, adopted 26 June 2025 · ddb.gov.ph · Board Regulation No. 5, Series of 2026, adopted 23 June 2026 · ddb.gov.ph · Board Regulation No. 8, Series of 2019, adopted 17 December 2019 · ddb.gov.ph · The schedule placement stated in this cell is read from the section heading of the Board's list under which the entry is printed, which is not printed in the quoted entry itself. · Updated October 2, 2026

Benzodiazepines in Philippines, full detail →

Buprenorphine

Legal status: A dangerous drug under RA 9165. Buprenorphine is printed as "3. BUPRENORPHINE" on page 20 of the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, in its 1971 Schedule III section. It is also listed in the annex to RA 9165, which section 3(j) makes "an integral part of this Act".
Consequences if caught: Possession is section 11, measured "regardless of the degree of purity thereof". It falls in the limb for "other dangerous drugs such as" MDMA, PMA, TMA, LSD and GHB and "those similarly designed or newly introduced drugs and their derivatives, without having any therapeutic value or if the quantity possessed is far beyond therapeutic requirements": 10 grams or more carries life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000; 5 grams or more but less than 10 carries 20 years and 1 day to life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 400,000 to PHP 500,000; less than 5 grams carries 12 years and 1 day to 20 years and a fine of PHP 300,000 to PHP 400,000. These are penalty bands and not an allowance. For a medicine with therapeutic value the Act applies these bands where the drug is held without therapeutic value or in a quantity far beyond therapeutic requirements, as the Board determines; it states no separate band for an unauthorised quantity within therapeutic requirements, and none is asserted here. Section 13 imposes "the maximum penalties provided for in Section 11" on anyone found possessing a dangerous drug during a party, social gathering or meeting, or in the proximate company of at least two persons, "regardless of the quantity and purity", which is life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000. Importing or bringing a dangerous drug into the Philippines (section 4) and selling, giving away, delivering, distributing, transporting or brokering one (section 5) each carry life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000 "regardless of the quantity and purity involved", and manufacture (section 8) carries the same penalty. Each applies "unless authorized by law". Use is section 15: after a confirmatory test, a minimum of six months' rehabilitation in a government centre for a first offence, and 6 years and 1 day to 12 years with a fine of PHP 50,000 to PHP 200,000 for a second. RA 9165 prints "life imprisonment to death" in its penalty clauses, among them sections 4, 5, 8, 11 and 16. Republic Act No. 9346 of 24 June 2006 provides in section 1 that "The imposition of the penalty of death is hereby prohibited" and in section 2(b) substitutes life imprisonment where the law violated does not use the nomenclature of the Revised Penal Code, which RA 9165 does not. Section 98 of RA 9165 applies Revised Penal Code nomenclature to a minor offender, "reclusion perpetua to death", so for a minor RA 9346 section 2(a) substitutes reclusion perpetua. No drug offence carries death, and the fines set by RA 9165 are unchanged.
If prescribed / medical: Annex A to Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 maps the 1971 Schedule III to Philippine Schedule 3. Section 31(6) of that Regulation allows a PDEA licensed practitioner to prescribe only FDA registered dangerous drugs, for up to 30 days' supply per prescription of a Schedule 2, 3 or 4 drug. Whether any product containing buprenorphine is registered with the FDA was not checked for this cell. Board Regulation No. 10, Series of 2025, adopted 26 June 2025, authorizes an S2 licensed practitioner to use "ordinary prescriptions in prescribing any dangerous drug preparations", in three copies, to "effectively address the diseases, illnesses, infections, and symptoms associated with the global health concern on mpox; the regional increase in COVID19; and the local surge in HIV cases"; its section 9 kept it in force "until June 30, 2026", and it takes effect fifteen days after publication and registration. Board Regulation No. 5, Series of 2026, adopted 23 June 2026, extends it "until June 30, 2027" to relieve the "transportation, logistics, and financial burdens of obtaining special prescription forms", but takes effect only "upon its publication in two (2) newspapers of general circulation and its registration", dates the signed copy does not record, so whether the ordinary prescription route is in force today is not established. Board Regulation No. 8, Series of 2019, adopted 17 December 2019, provides a "License to Acquire, Possess, and Use Unregistered Drug Products Containing Dangerous Drugs for Personal Use", for drug products "currently unregistered or in the process of being registered with the FDA but are already registered in FDA reference countries". The patient, or a "parent, spouse, guardian, or relative within the fourth degree of consanguinity or affinity", applies to PDEA, and only for "Diseases covered by RA 10747 or the 'Rare Disease Act of the Philippines'", "Life-threatening and debilitating diseases", "Cancer and other terminal diseases", "Rare forms of neurological conditions", or "Other diseases with limited therapeutic options identified by the Department of Health". It takes effect fifteen days after publication and registration, dates the signed copy does not record. The International Narcotics Control Board's assessment of the Philippines' annual requirement for buprenorphine, as at 2 October 2026, is 2 grams, a nominal figure, so do not expect to fill a prescription for it locally.
Documentation: A patient holding a licence under Board Regulation No. 8, Series of 2019 may bring an unregistered product in by "courier/parcel service or personal transport by patient or authorized family members", as that licence specifies. Otherwise, section 35 of Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 lets a person under treatment who is entering, leaving or passing through the Philippines possess such quantities of a dangerous drug "as are reasonable for the purposes of such treatment", in the words of section 35(1) "wherever prescribed by a valid PDEA S2-licensed physician". The traveller carries a letter from the attending physician, the prescription with trade and generic names for up to 30 days' supply, and the medicine in its original labelled container. Above 30 days' supply the traveller needs certificates of authorization from the competent authority of the home country and from PDEA, requested from PDEA in writing 30 working days before arrival. Whether a prescription written abroad meets section 35(1) is not settled by its text, so confirm with PDEA before travelling. Without that authority the medicine is an imported dangerous drug under section 4 of RA 9165.

Republic Act No. 9165, the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, enrolled text as published by the Dangerous Drugs Board, sections 3(j), 4, 5, 8, 11, 13, 15, 16 and 93 and its annex · ddb.gov.ph · Dangerous Drugs Board, Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, page 20, read on 2 October 2026 · ddb.gov.ph · Republic Act No. 9346, sections 1 and 2, text read at lawphil.net on 2 October 2026 because the Official Gazette refused the request · lawphil.net · Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014, adopted 19 June 2014, sections 6(16), 31 and 35, and its Annex A · ddb.gov.ph · ddb.gov.ph · International Narcotics Control Board, psychotropics assessments in grams as at 2 October 2026 · incb.org · Board Regulation No. 10, Series of 2025, adopted 26 June 2025 · ddb.gov.ph · Board Regulation No. 5, Series of 2026, adopted 23 June 2026 · ddb.gov.ph · Board Regulation No. 8, Series of 2019, adopted 17 December 2019 · ddb.gov.ph · The schedule placement stated in this cell is read from the section heading of the Board's list under which the entry is printed, which is not printed in the quoted entry itself. · Updated October 2, 2026

Buprenorphine in Philippines, full detail →

Caffeine

Legal status: Not a dangerous drug on the text read: caffeine is not listed in the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, and no Board Regulation adding it appears on the Board's regulations register read on 2 October 2026. This is stated as at the Board's list of 06 July 2025 and the Board's regulations register read at https://ddb.gov.ph/board-regulations/ on 2 October 2026, whose newest entry is Board Regulation No. 5, Series of 2026 and which lists no Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2026, and it does not rule out a later amendment.
Consequences if caught: No RA 9165 penalty attaches while it is unlisted. Searched in all 24 pages of the list: "caffeine" 0 hits; "1,3,7-trimethylxanthine" 0 hits. Fenetylline, which carries a theophylline group, is a different scheduled substance. Section 93 lets the Board add a drug after notice and hearing, and under section 93(c) no criminal liability arises for an added drug until fifteen days after the last publication of the notice of that hearing.
If prescribed / medical: It is not a dangerous drug, so the prescription rules of Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 do not govern it. Its status under FDA rules was not read for this cell.
Documentation: No dangerous drug document is needed.

Caffeine in Philippines, full detail →

Cannabis / THC

Legal status: A dangerous drug under RA 9165. Cannabis is printed as "28. CANNABIS" and, at entry 29, cannabis resin, extracts and tinctures, on page 6 of the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, in its 1961 Schedule I section. Board Resolution No. 6, Series of 2024, adopted 8 March 2024, records a petition to move cannabis and cannabis resin from Philippine Schedule 1 to Schedule 2 and adopts the recommendation "denying the Petition"; the international move of 2020 changed nothing in Philippine law.
Consequences if caught: Possession is section 11, measured "regardless of the degree of purity thereof". For marijuana: 500 grams or more carries life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000; 300 grams or more but less than 500 carries 20 years and 1 day to life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 400,000 to PHP 500,000; less than 300 grams carries 12 years and 1 day to 20 years and a fine of PHP 300,000 to PHP 400,000. For marijuana resin or resin oil the bands are 10 grams, 5 grams and less than 5 grams, as for the other named drugs. These are penalty bands and not an allowance: the lowest band has no lower limit, so any quantity is an offence. Cultivating marijuana is section 16: life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000, regardless of quantity. Section 13 imposes "the maximum penalties provided for in Section 11" on anyone found possessing a dangerous drug during a party, social gathering or meeting, or in the proximate company of at least two persons, "regardless of the quantity and purity", which is life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000. Importing or bringing a dangerous drug into the Philippines (section 4) and selling, giving away, delivering, distributing, transporting or brokering one (section 5) each carry life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000 "regardless of the quantity and purity involved", and manufacture (section 8) carries the same penalty. Each applies "unless authorized by law". Use is section 15: after a confirmatory test, a minimum of six months' rehabilitation in a government centre for a first offence, and 6 years and 1 day to 12 years with a fine of PHP 50,000 to PHP 200,000 for a second. RA 9165 prints "life imprisonment to death" in its penalty clauses, among them sections 4, 5, 8, 11 and 16. Republic Act No. 9346 of 24 June 2006 provides in section 1 that "The imposition of the penalty of death is hereby prohibited" and in section 2(b) substitutes life imprisonment where the law violated does not use the nomenclature of the Revised Penal Code, which RA 9165 does not. Section 98 of RA 9165 applies Revised Penal Code nomenclature to a minor offender, "reclusion perpetua to death", so for a minor RA 9346 section 2(a) substitutes reclusion perpetua. No drug offence carries death, and the fines set by RA 9165 are unchanged.
If prescribed / medical: Board Resolution No. 6, Series of 2024 treats cannabis and cannabis resin as Philippine Schedule 1 and records that "legal access thereto is limited to medical experiments and research purposes only". Section 6(16) of Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 bars a licence holder from handling a dangerous drug in Philippine Schedule I except for a research program approved by the Board with the Department of Science and Technology, the Department of Health and the FDA. There is no prescription route. Drug products containing cannabidiol with no more than 0.1 percent THC are a separate, narrow category under Board Regulation No. 3, Series of 2020.
Documentation: There is no traveller or personal import route. Bringing any dangerous drug into the Philippines unless authorized by law is section 4 of RA 9165, life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000, regardless of the quantity and purity involved.

Cannabis / THC in Philippines, full detail →

Cathinone

Legal status: A dangerous drug under RA 9165. Cathinone is printed as "CATHINONE" on page 12 of the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, in its 1971 Schedule I section. It is also listed in the annex to RA 9165, which section 3(j) makes "an integral part of this Act". This is cathinone itself; the khat plant is reached through it and cathine, not by a named plant entry.
Consequences if caught: Possession is section 11, measured "regardless of the degree of purity thereof". It falls in the limb for "other dangerous drugs such as" MDMA, PMA, TMA, LSD and GHB and "those similarly designed or newly introduced drugs and their derivatives, without having any therapeutic value or if the quantity possessed is far beyond therapeutic requirements": 10 grams or more carries life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000; 5 grams or more but less than 10 carries 20 years and 1 day to life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 400,000 to PHP 500,000; less than 5 grams carries 12 years and 1 day to 20 years and a fine of PHP 300,000 to PHP 400,000. These are penalty bands and not an allowance: the lowest band has no lower limit, so any quantity is an offence. Section 13 imposes "the maximum penalties provided for in Section 11" on anyone found possessing a dangerous drug during a party, social gathering or meeting, or in the proximate company of at least two persons, "regardless of the quantity and purity", which is life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000. Importing or bringing a dangerous drug into the Philippines (section 4) and selling, giving away, delivering, distributing, transporting or brokering one (section 5) each carry life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000 "regardless of the quantity and purity involved", and manufacture (section 8) carries the same penalty. Each applies "unless authorized by law". Use is section 15: after a confirmatory test, a minimum of six months' rehabilitation in a government centre for a first offence, and 6 years and 1 day to 12 years with a fine of PHP 50,000 to PHP 200,000 for a second. RA 9165 prints "life imprisonment to death" in its penalty clauses, among them sections 4, 5, 8, 11 and 16. Republic Act No. 9346 of 24 June 2006 provides in section 1 that "The imposition of the penalty of death is hereby prohibited" and in section 2(b) substitutes life imprisonment where the law violated does not use the nomenclature of the Revised Penal Code, which RA 9165 does not. Section 98 of RA 9165 applies Revised Penal Code nomenclature to a minor offender, "reclusion perpetua to death", so for a minor RA 9346 section 2(a) substitutes reclusion perpetua. No drug offence carries death, and the fines set by RA 9165 are unchanged.
If prescribed / medical: Annex A to Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 maps the 1971 Schedule I to Philippine Schedule 1, which it describes as having "no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the Philippines". Section 6(16) of that Regulation bars a licence holder from handling a dangerous drug in Philippine Schedule I "unless for the purpose of a research program approved by the Board in conjunction with the Department of Science and Technology, Department of Health, and Food and Drug Administration". There is no prescription route.
Documentation: There is no traveller or personal import route. Bringing any dangerous drug into the Philippines unless authorized by law is section 4 of RA 9165, life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000, regardless of the quantity and purity involved.

Cathinone in Philippines, full detail →

CBD

Legal status: Controlled as a cannabis extract, with one narrow medical exception. Entry 29, cannabis resin, extracts and tinctures, is on page 6 of the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025 in its 1961 Schedule I section. Board Regulation No. 3, Series of 2020 reclassifies "Drug products containing CBD with no more than 0.1 percent (0.1%) tetrahydrocannabinol" from Schedules 1 and 2 to Schedule 4 of the Philippine Schedule, which its own section 1(f) defines as "a category of dangerous drugs": such a product stays a dangerous drug. A drug product means one "in finished pharmaceutical dosage form", so CBD oils, gummies and other retail products are not reached by the reclassification, and the 0.1 percent figure is not a hemp allowance or a personal possession threshold. The signed copy records adoption on the 24th day of a month left blank in 2020, and its commencement, fifteen days after publication and registration, is not established.
Consequences if caught: Possession is section 11, measured "regardless of the degree of purity thereof". Section 11 sets bands for "marijuana resin or marijuana resin oil" (10 grams, 5 grams, and less than 5 grams) and for marijuana (500 grams, 300 grams, and less than 300 grams); which limb a court would apply to a CBD extract is not stated in the Act and was not established here, so no band is asserted. Section 13 imposes "the maximum penalties provided for in Section 11" on anyone found possessing a dangerous drug during a party, social gathering or meeting, or in the proximate company of at least two persons, "regardless of the quantity and purity", which is life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000. Importing or bringing a dangerous drug into the Philippines (section 4) and selling, giving away, delivering, distributing, transporting or brokering one (section 5) each carry life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000 "regardless of the quantity and purity involved", and manufacture (section 8) carries the same penalty. Each applies "unless authorized by law". Use is section 15: after a confirmatory test, a minimum of six months' rehabilitation in a government centre for a first offence, and 6 years and 1 day to 12 years with a fine of PHP 50,000 to PHP 200,000 for a second. RA 9165 prints "life imprisonment to death" in its penalty clauses, among them sections 4, 5, 8, 11 and 16. Republic Act No. 9346 of 24 June 2006 provides in section 1 that "The imposition of the penalty of death is hereby prohibited" and in section 2(b) substitutes life imprisonment where the law violated does not use the nomenclature of the Revised Penal Code, which RA 9165 does not. Section 98 of RA 9165 applies Revised Penal Code nomenclature to a minor offender, "reclusion perpetua to death", so for a minor RA 9346 section 2(a) substitutes reclusion perpetua. No drug offence carries death, and the fines set by RA 9165 are unchanged.
If prescribed / medical: Under Board Regulation No. 3, Series of 2020 only a physician with an S2 licence who belongs to a neurology specialty division or society may prescribe a qualifying CBD drug product, on the Department of Health special prescription form, which section 5(c) also requires for the Authorization application; whether Board Regulation No. 10, Series of 2025, as extended by Board Regulation No. 5, Series of 2026, displaces that form for CBD products is not established. The patient needs an Authorization from the Dangerous Drugs Board, with a PHP 500 fee, alongside a Compassionate Special Permit from the FDA.
Documentation: No document makes a retail CBD product lawful to carry in. A qualifying CBD drug product needs the Board's Authorization and the FDA permit described above; anything else is an imported dangerous drug under section 4 of RA 9165.

Republic Act No. 9165, the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, enrolled text as published by the Dangerous Drugs Board, sections 3(j), 4, 5, 8, 11, 13, 15, 16 and 93 and its annex · ddb.gov.ph · Dangerous Drugs Board, Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, page 6, read on 2 October 2026 · ddb.gov.ph · Republic Act No. 9346, sections 1 and 2, text read at lawphil.net on 2 October 2026 because the Official Gazette refused the request · lawphil.net · Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014, adopted 19 June 2014, sections 6(16), 31 and 35, and its Annex A · ddb.gov.ph · ddb.gov.ph · Board Regulation No. 3, Series of 2020 · ddb.gov.ph · Board Regulation No. 10, Series of 2025, adopted 26 June 2025 · ddb.gov.ph · Board Regulation No. 5, Series of 2026, adopted 23 June 2026 · ddb.gov.ph · The schedule placement stated in this cell is read from the section heading of the Board's list under which the entry is printed, which is not printed in the quoted entry itself. · Updated October 2, 2026

CBD in Philippines, full detail →

Clonazepam

Legal status: A dangerous drug under RA 9165. Clonazepam is printed as "15. CLONAZEPAM" on page 21 of the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, in its 1971 Schedule IV section. It is also listed in the annex to RA 9165, which section 3(j) makes "an integral part of this Act".
Consequences if caught: Possession is section 11, measured "regardless of the degree of purity thereof". It falls in the limb for "other dangerous drugs such as" MDMA, PMA, TMA, LSD and GHB and "those similarly designed or newly introduced drugs and their derivatives, without having any therapeutic value or if the quantity possessed is far beyond therapeutic requirements": 10 grams or more carries life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000; 5 grams or more but less than 10 carries 20 years and 1 day to life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 400,000 to PHP 500,000; less than 5 grams carries 12 years and 1 day to 20 years and a fine of PHP 300,000 to PHP 400,000. These are penalty bands and not an allowance. For a medicine with therapeutic value the Act applies these bands where the drug is held without therapeutic value or in a quantity far beyond therapeutic requirements, as the Board determines; it states no separate band for an unauthorised quantity within therapeutic requirements, and none is asserted here. Section 13 imposes "the maximum penalties provided for in Section 11" on anyone found possessing a dangerous drug during a party, social gathering or meeting, or in the proximate company of at least two persons, "regardless of the quantity and purity", which is life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000. Importing or bringing a dangerous drug into the Philippines (section 4) and selling, giving away, delivering, distributing, transporting or brokering one (section 5) each carry life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000 "regardless of the quantity and purity involved", and manufacture (section 8) carries the same penalty. Each applies "unless authorized by law". Use is section 15: after a confirmatory test, a minimum of six months' rehabilitation in a government centre for a first offence, and 6 years and 1 day to 12 years with a fine of PHP 50,000 to PHP 200,000 for a second. RA 9165 prints "life imprisonment to death" in its penalty clauses, among them sections 4, 5, 8, 11 and 16. Republic Act No. 9346 of 24 June 2006 provides in section 1 that "The imposition of the penalty of death is hereby prohibited" and in section 2(b) substitutes life imprisonment where the law violated does not use the nomenclature of the Revised Penal Code, which RA 9165 does not. Section 98 of RA 9165 applies Revised Penal Code nomenclature to a minor offender, "reclusion perpetua to death", so for a minor RA 9346 section 2(a) substitutes reclusion perpetua. No drug offence carries death, and the fines set by RA 9165 are unchanged.
If prescribed / medical: Annex A to Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 maps the 1971 Schedule IV to Philippine Schedule 4. Section 31(6) of that Regulation allows a PDEA licensed practitioner to prescribe only FDA registered dangerous drugs, for up to 30 days' supply per prescription of a Schedule 2, 3 or 4 drug, and up to 60 days of a Schedule 4 drug for epilepsy and dystonia. Whether any product containing clonazepam is registered with the FDA was not checked for this cell. Board Regulation No. 10, Series of 2025, adopted 26 June 2025, authorizes an S2 licensed practitioner to use "ordinary prescriptions in prescribing any dangerous drug preparations", in three copies, to "effectively address the diseases, illnesses, infections, and symptoms associated with the global health concern on mpox; the regional increase in COVID19; and the local surge in HIV cases"; its section 9 kept it in force "until June 30, 2026", and it takes effect fifteen days after publication and registration. Board Regulation No. 5, Series of 2026, adopted 23 June 2026, extends it "until June 30, 2027" to relieve the "transportation, logistics, and financial burdens of obtaining special prescription forms", but takes effect only "upon its publication in two (2) newspapers of general circulation and its registration", dates the signed copy does not record, so whether the ordinary prescription route is in force today is not established. Board Regulation No. 8, Series of 2019, adopted 17 December 2019, provides a "License to Acquire, Possess, and Use Unregistered Drug Products Containing Dangerous Drugs for Personal Use", for drug products "currently unregistered or in the process of being registered with the FDA but are already registered in FDA reference countries". The patient, or a "parent, spouse, guardian, or relative within the fourth degree of consanguinity or affinity", applies to PDEA, and only for "Diseases covered by RA 10747 or the 'Rare Disease Act of the Philippines'", "Life-threatening and debilitating diseases", "Cancer and other terminal diseases", "Rare forms of neurological conditions", or "Other diseases with limited therapeutic options identified by the Department of Health". It takes effect fifteen days after publication and registration, dates the signed copy does not record. The International Narcotics Control Board's assessment of the Philippines' annual requirement for clonazepam, as at 2 October 2026, is 32,000 grams.
Documentation: A patient holding a licence under Board Regulation No. 8, Series of 2019 may bring an unregistered product in by "courier/parcel service or personal transport by patient or authorized family members", as that licence specifies. Otherwise, section 35 of Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 lets a person under treatment who is entering, leaving or passing through the Philippines possess such quantities of a dangerous drug "as are reasonable for the purposes of such treatment", in the words of section 35(1) "wherever prescribed by a valid PDEA S2-licensed physician". The traveller carries a letter from the attending physician, the prescription with trade and generic names for up to 30 days' supply, and the medicine in its original labelled container. Above 30 days' supply the traveller needs certificates of authorization from the competent authority of the home country and from PDEA, requested from PDEA in writing 30 working days before arrival. Whether a prescription written abroad meets section 35(1) is not settled by its text, so confirm with PDEA before travelling. Without that authority the medicine is an imported dangerous drug under section 4 of RA 9165.

Republic Act No. 9165, the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, enrolled text as published by the Dangerous Drugs Board, sections 3(j), 4, 5, 8, 11, 13, 15, 16 and 93 and its annex · ddb.gov.ph · Dangerous Drugs Board, Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, page 21, read on 2 October 2026 · ddb.gov.ph · Republic Act No. 9346, sections 1 and 2, text read at lawphil.net on 2 October 2026 because the Official Gazette refused the request · lawphil.net · Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014, adopted 19 June 2014, sections 6(16), 31 and 35, and its Annex A · ddb.gov.ph · ddb.gov.ph · International Narcotics Control Board, psychotropics assessments in grams as at 2 October 2026 · incb.org · Board Regulation No. 10, Series of 2025, adopted 26 June 2025 · ddb.gov.ph · Board Regulation No. 5, Series of 2026, adopted 23 June 2026 · ddb.gov.ph · Board Regulation No. 8, Series of 2019, adopted 17 December 2019 · ddb.gov.ph · The schedule placement stated in this cell is read from the section heading of the Board's list under which the entry is printed, which is not printed in the quoted entry itself. · Updated October 2, 2026

Clonazepam in Philippines, full detail →

Cocaine

Legal status: A dangerous drug under RA 9165. Cocaine is printed as "33. COCAINE" on page 6 of the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, in its 1961 Schedule I section, and section 11(4) of RA 9165 names "cocaine or cocaine hydrochloride".
Consequences if caught: Possession is section 11, measured "regardless of the degree of purity thereof". Cocaine is named in item 4: 10 grams or more carries life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000; 5 grams or more but less than 10 carries 20 years and 1 day to life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 400,000 to PHP 500,000; less than 5 grams carries 12 years and 1 day to 20 years and a fine of PHP 300,000 to PHP 400,000. These are penalty bands and not an allowance: the lowest band has no lower limit, so any quantity is an offence. Section 13 imposes "the maximum penalties provided for in Section 11" on anyone found possessing a dangerous drug during a party, social gathering or meeting, or in the proximate company of at least two persons, "regardless of the quantity and purity", which is life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000. Importing or bringing a dangerous drug into the Philippines (section 4) and selling, giving away, delivering, distributing, transporting or brokering one (section 5) each carry life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000 "regardless of the quantity and purity involved", and manufacture (section 8) carries the same penalty. Each applies "unless authorized by law". Use is section 15: after a confirmatory test, a minimum of six months' rehabilitation in a government centre for a first offence, and 6 years and 1 day to 12 years with a fine of PHP 50,000 to PHP 200,000 for a second. RA 9165 prints "life imprisonment to death" in its penalty clauses, among them sections 4, 5, 8, 11 and 16. Republic Act No. 9346 of 24 June 2006 provides in section 1 that "The imposition of the penalty of death is hereby prohibited" and in section 2(b) substitutes life imprisonment where the law violated does not use the nomenclature of the Revised Penal Code, which RA 9165 does not. Section 98 of RA 9165 applies Revised Penal Code nomenclature to a minor offender, "reclusion perpetua to death", so for a minor RA 9346 section 2(a) substitutes reclusion perpetua. No drug offence carries death, and the fines set by RA 9165 are unchanged.
If prescribed / medical: Annex A to Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 maps the 1961 Schedules I and II and the 1971 Schedule II to Philippine Schedule 2. Section 31(6) of that Regulation allows a PDEA licensed practitioner to prescribe only FDA registered dangerous drugs, for up to 30 days' supply per prescription of a Schedule 2, 3 or 4 drug. Whether any product containing cocaine is registered with the FDA was not checked for this cell. Board Regulation No. 10, Series of 2025, adopted 26 June 2025, authorizes an S2 licensed practitioner to use "ordinary prescriptions in prescribing any dangerous drug preparations", in three copies, to "effectively address the diseases, illnesses, infections, and symptoms associated with the global health concern on mpox; the regional increase in COVID19; and the local surge in HIV cases"; its section 9 kept it in force "until June 30, 2026", and it takes effect fifteen days after publication and registration. Board Regulation No. 5, Series of 2026, adopted 23 June 2026, extends it "until June 30, 2027" to relieve the "transportation, logistics, and financial burdens of obtaining special prescription forms", but takes effect only "upon its publication in two (2) newspapers of general circulation and its registration", dates the signed copy does not record, so whether the ordinary prescription route is in force today is not established. Board Regulation No. 8, Series of 2019, adopted 17 December 2019, provides a "License to Acquire, Possess, and Use Unregistered Drug Products Containing Dangerous Drugs for Personal Use", for drug products "currently unregistered or in the process of being registered with the FDA but are already registered in FDA reference countries". The patient, or a "parent, spouse, guardian, or relative within the fourth degree of consanguinity or affinity", applies to PDEA, and only for "Diseases covered by RA 10747 or the 'Rare Disease Act of the Philippines'", "Life-threatening and debilitating diseases", "Cancer and other terminal diseases", "Rare forms of neurological conditions", or "Other diseases with limited therapeutic options identified by the Department of Health". It takes effect fifteen days after publication and registration, dates the signed copy does not record.
Documentation: There is no traveller or personal import route. Bringing any dangerous drug into the Philippines unless authorized by law is section 4 of RA 9165, life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000, regardless of the quantity and purity involved.

Republic Act No. 9165, the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, enrolled text as published by the Dangerous Drugs Board, sections 3(j), 4, 5, 8, 11, 13, 15, 16 and 93 and its annex · ddb.gov.ph · Dangerous Drugs Board, Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, page 6, read on 2 October 2026 · ddb.gov.ph · Republic Act No. 9346, sections 1 and 2, text read at lawphil.net on 2 October 2026 because the Official Gazette refused the request · lawphil.net · Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014, adopted 19 June 2014, sections 6(16), 31 and 35, and its Annex A · ddb.gov.ph · ddb.gov.ph · Board Regulation No. 10, Series of 2025, adopted 26 June 2025 · ddb.gov.ph · Board Regulation No. 5, Series of 2026, adopted 23 June 2026 · ddb.gov.ph · Board Regulation No. 8, Series of 2019, adopted 17 December 2019 · ddb.gov.ph · The schedule placement stated in this cell is read from the section heading of the Board's list under which the entry is printed, which is not printed in the quoted entry itself. · Updated October 2, 2026

Cocaine in Philippines, full detail →

Codeine

Legal status: A dangerous drug under RA 9165. Codeine is printed as "2. CODEINE" on page 9 of the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, in its 1961 Schedule II section. Low strength preparations are listed separately in the 1961 Schedule III preparations section on page 10, which the list conditions on "when compounded with one or more other ingredients and containing not more than 100 milligrams of the drug per dosage unit and with a concentration of not more than 2.5 per cent in undivided preparations"; that is a formulation condition, not a permission to possess.
Consequences if caught: Possession is section 11, measured "regardless of the degree of purity thereof". It falls in the limb for "other dangerous drugs such as" MDMA, PMA, TMA, LSD and GHB and "those similarly designed or newly introduced drugs and their derivatives, without having any therapeutic value or if the quantity possessed is far beyond therapeutic requirements": 10 grams or more carries life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000; 5 grams or more but less than 10 carries 20 years and 1 day to life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 400,000 to PHP 500,000; less than 5 grams carries 12 years and 1 day to 20 years and a fine of PHP 300,000 to PHP 400,000. These are penalty bands and not an allowance. For a medicine with therapeutic value the Act applies these bands where the drug is held without therapeutic value or in a quantity far beyond therapeutic requirements, as the Board determines; it states no separate band for an unauthorised quantity within therapeutic requirements, and none is asserted here. Section 13 imposes "the maximum penalties provided for in Section 11" on anyone found possessing a dangerous drug during a party, social gathering or meeting, or in the proximate company of at least two persons, "regardless of the quantity and purity", which is life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000. Importing or bringing a dangerous drug into the Philippines (section 4) and selling, giving away, delivering, distributing, transporting or brokering one (section 5) each carry life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000 "regardless of the quantity and purity involved", and manufacture (section 8) carries the same penalty. Each applies "unless authorized by law". Use is section 15: after a confirmatory test, a minimum of six months' rehabilitation in a government centre for a first offence, and 6 years and 1 day to 12 years with a fine of PHP 50,000 to PHP 200,000 for a second. RA 9165 prints "life imprisonment to death" in its penalty clauses, among them sections 4, 5, 8, 11 and 16. Republic Act No. 9346 of 24 June 2006 provides in section 1 that "The imposition of the penalty of death is hereby prohibited" and in section 2(b) substitutes life imprisonment where the law violated does not use the nomenclature of the Revised Penal Code, which RA 9165 does not. Section 98 of RA 9165 applies Revised Penal Code nomenclature to a minor offender, "reclusion perpetua to death", so for a minor RA 9346 section 2(a) substitutes reclusion perpetua. No drug offence carries death, and the fines set by RA 9165 are unchanged.
If prescribed / medical: Annex A to Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 maps the 1961 Schedules I and II and the 1971 Schedule II to Philippine Schedule 2. Section 31(6) of that Regulation allows a PDEA licensed practitioner to prescribe only FDA registered dangerous drugs, for up to 30 days' supply per prescription of a Schedule 2, 3 or 4 drug. Whether any product containing codeine is registered with the FDA was not checked for this cell. Board Regulation No. 10, Series of 2025, adopted 26 June 2025, authorizes an S2 licensed practitioner to use "ordinary prescriptions in prescribing any dangerous drug preparations", in three copies, to "effectively address the diseases, illnesses, infections, and symptoms associated with the global health concern on mpox; the regional increase in COVID19; and the local surge in HIV cases"; its section 9 kept it in force "until June 30, 2026", and it takes effect fifteen days after publication and registration. Board Regulation No. 5, Series of 2026, adopted 23 June 2026, extends it "until June 30, 2027" to relieve the "transportation, logistics, and financial burdens of obtaining special prescription forms", but takes effect only "upon its publication in two (2) newspapers of general circulation and its registration", dates the signed copy does not record, so whether the ordinary prescription route is in force today is not established. Board Regulation No. 8, Series of 2019, adopted 17 December 2019, provides a "License to Acquire, Possess, and Use Unregistered Drug Products Containing Dangerous Drugs for Personal Use", for drug products "currently unregistered or in the process of being registered with the FDA but are already registered in FDA reference countries". The patient, or a "parent, spouse, guardian, or relative within the fourth degree of consanguinity or affinity", applies to PDEA, and only for "Diseases covered by RA 10747 or the 'Rare Disease Act of the Philippines'", "Life-threatening and debilitating diseases", "Cancer and other terminal diseases", "Rare forms of neurological conditions", or "Other diseases with limited therapeutic options identified by the Department of Health". It takes effect fifteen days after publication and registration, dates the signed copy does not record. Annex A maps the 1961 Schedule III, where the low strength preparations are listed, to Philippine Schedule 4. The International Narcotics Control Board's estimated requirement of the Philippines for codeine for 2026, April update, is 2 grams, a nominal figure, so do not expect to fill a prescription for it locally.
Documentation: A patient holding a licence under Board Regulation No. 8, Series of 2019 may bring an unregistered product in by "courier/parcel service or personal transport by patient or authorized family members", as that licence specifies. Otherwise, section 35 of Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 lets a person under treatment who is entering, leaving or passing through the Philippines possess such quantities of a dangerous drug "as are reasonable for the purposes of such treatment", in the words of section 35(1) "wherever prescribed by a valid PDEA S2-licensed physician". The traveller carries a letter from the attending physician, the prescription with trade and generic names for up to 30 days' supply, and the medicine in its original labelled container. Above 30 days' supply the traveller needs certificates of authorization from the competent authority of the home country and from PDEA, requested from PDEA in writing 30 working days before arrival. Whether a prescription written abroad meets section 35(1) is not settled by its text, so confirm with PDEA before travelling. Without that authority the medicine is an imported dangerous drug under section 4 of RA 9165.

Republic Act No. 9165, the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, enrolled text as published by the Dangerous Drugs Board, sections 3(j), 4, 5, 8, 11, 13, 15, 16 and 93 and its annex · ddb.gov.ph · Dangerous Drugs Board, Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, pages 9 and 10, read on 2 October 2026 · ddb.gov.ph · Republic Act No. 9346, sections 1 and 2, text read at lawphil.net on 2 October 2026 because the Official Gazette refused the request · lawphil.net · Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014, adopted 19 June 2014, sections 6(16), 31 and 35, and its Annex A · ddb.gov.ph · ddb.gov.ph · International Narcotics Control Board, estimated requirements of narcotic drugs for 2026, April update · incb.org · Board Regulation No. 10, Series of 2025, adopted 26 June 2025 · ddb.gov.ph · Board Regulation No. 5, Series of 2026, adopted 23 June 2026 · ddb.gov.ph · Board Regulation No. 8, Series of 2019, adopted 17 December 2019 · ddb.gov.ph · The schedule placement stated in this cell is read from the section heading of the Board's list under which the entry is printed, which is not printed in the quoted entry itself. · Updated October 2, 2026

Codeine in Philippines, full detail →

Crack Cocaine

Legal status: A dangerous drug under RA 9165, as cocaine. Crack is the base form of cocaine and carries no entry of its own; cocaine is printed as "33. COCAINE" on page 6 of the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, in its 1961 Schedule I section, and section 11(4) of RA 9165 names "cocaine or cocaine hydrochloride".
Consequences if caught: Possession is section 11, measured "regardless of the degree of purity thereof". Cocaine is named in item 4: 10 grams or more carries life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000; 5 grams or more but less than 10 carries 20 years and 1 day to life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 400,000 to PHP 500,000; less than 5 grams carries 12 years and 1 day to 20 years and a fine of PHP 300,000 to PHP 400,000. These are penalty bands and not an allowance: the lowest band has no lower limit, so any quantity is an offence. Section 13 imposes "the maximum penalties provided for in Section 11" on anyone found possessing a dangerous drug during a party, social gathering or meeting, or in the proximate company of at least two persons, "regardless of the quantity and purity", which is life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000. Importing or bringing a dangerous drug into the Philippines (section 4) and selling, giving away, delivering, distributing, transporting or brokering one (section 5) each carry life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000 "regardless of the quantity and purity involved", and manufacture (section 8) carries the same penalty. Each applies "unless authorized by law". Use is section 15: after a confirmatory test, a minimum of six months' rehabilitation in a government centre for a first offence, and 6 years and 1 day to 12 years with a fine of PHP 50,000 to PHP 200,000 for a second. RA 9165 prints "life imprisonment to death" in its penalty clauses, among them sections 4, 5, 8, 11 and 16. Republic Act No. 9346 of 24 June 2006 provides in section 1 that "The imposition of the penalty of death is hereby prohibited" and in section 2(b) substitutes life imprisonment where the law violated does not use the nomenclature of the Revised Penal Code, which RA 9165 does not. Section 98 of RA 9165 applies Revised Penal Code nomenclature to a minor offender, "reclusion perpetua to death", so for a minor RA 9346 section 2(a) substitutes reclusion perpetua. No drug offence carries death, and the fines set by RA 9165 are unchanged.
If prescribed / medical: Annex A maps the 1961 Schedule I to Philippine Schedule 2, but crack is a smoked base with no medicinal preparation, and no prescription route exists for it.
Documentation: There is no traveller or personal import route. Bringing any dangerous drug into the Philippines unless authorized by law is section 4 of RA 9165, life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000, regardless of the quantity and purity involved.

Crack Cocaine in Philippines, full detail →

Delta-8-THC

Legal status: A dangerous drug under RA 9165. Delta-8-THC is printed as "delta-8-THC" on page 14 of the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, in its 1971 Schedule I section. It is also listed in the annex to RA 9165, which section 3(j) makes "an integral part of this Act". It is printed under the list's "TETRAHYDROCANNABINOL" heading as one of the named isomers.
Consequences if caught: Possession is section 11, measured "regardless of the degree of purity thereof". It falls in the limb for "other dangerous drugs such as" MDMA, PMA, TMA, LSD and GHB and "those similarly designed or newly introduced drugs and their derivatives, without having any therapeutic value or if the quantity possessed is far beyond therapeutic requirements": 10 grams or more carries life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000; 5 grams or more but less than 10 carries 20 years and 1 day to life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 400,000 to PHP 500,000; less than 5 grams carries 12 years and 1 day to 20 years and a fine of PHP 300,000 to PHP 400,000. These are penalty bands and not an allowance: the lowest band has no lower limit, so any quantity is an offence. Section 13 imposes "the maximum penalties provided for in Section 11" on anyone found possessing a dangerous drug during a party, social gathering or meeting, or in the proximate company of at least two persons, "regardless of the quantity and purity", which is life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000. Importing or bringing a dangerous drug into the Philippines (section 4) and selling, giving away, delivering, distributing, transporting or brokering one (section 5) each carry life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000 "regardless of the quantity and purity involved", and manufacture (section 8) carries the same penalty. Each applies "unless authorized by law". Use is section 15: after a confirmatory test, a minimum of six months' rehabilitation in a government centre for a first offence, and 6 years and 1 day to 12 years with a fine of PHP 50,000 to PHP 200,000 for a second. RA 9165 prints "life imprisonment to death" in its penalty clauses, among them sections 4, 5, 8, 11 and 16. Republic Act No. 9346 of 24 June 2006 provides in section 1 that "The imposition of the penalty of death is hereby prohibited" and in section 2(b) substitutes life imprisonment where the law violated does not use the nomenclature of the Revised Penal Code, which RA 9165 does not. Section 98 of RA 9165 applies Revised Penal Code nomenclature to a minor offender, "reclusion perpetua to death", so for a minor RA 9346 section 2(a) substitutes reclusion perpetua. No drug offence carries death, and the fines set by RA 9165 are unchanged.
If prescribed / medical: Annex A to Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 maps the 1971 Schedule I to Philippine Schedule 1, which it describes as having "no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the Philippines". Section 6(16) of that Regulation bars a licence holder from handling a dangerous drug in Philippine Schedule I "unless for the purpose of a research program approved by the Board in conjunction with the Department of Science and Technology, Department of Health, and Food and Drug Administration". There is no prescription route.
Documentation: There is no traveller or personal import route. Bringing any dangerous drug into the Philippines unless authorized by law is section 4 of RA 9165, life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000, regardless of the quantity and purity involved.

Delta-8-THC in Philippines, full detail →

Diazepam

Legal status: A dangerous drug under RA 9165. Diazepam is printed as "21. DIAZEPAM" on page 21 of the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, in its 1971 Schedule IV section. It is also listed in the annex to RA 9165, which section 3(j) makes "an integral part of this Act".
Consequences if caught: Possession is section 11, measured "regardless of the degree of purity thereof". It falls in the limb for "other dangerous drugs such as" MDMA, PMA, TMA, LSD and GHB and "those similarly designed or newly introduced drugs and their derivatives, without having any therapeutic value or if the quantity possessed is far beyond therapeutic requirements": 10 grams or more carries life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000; 5 grams or more but less than 10 carries 20 years and 1 day to life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 400,000 to PHP 500,000; less than 5 grams carries 12 years and 1 day to 20 years and a fine of PHP 300,000 to PHP 400,000. These are penalty bands and not an allowance. For a medicine with therapeutic value the Act applies these bands where the drug is held without therapeutic value or in a quantity far beyond therapeutic requirements, as the Board determines; it states no separate band for an unauthorised quantity within therapeutic requirements, and none is asserted here. Section 13 imposes "the maximum penalties provided for in Section 11" on anyone found possessing a dangerous drug during a party, social gathering or meeting, or in the proximate company of at least two persons, "regardless of the quantity and purity", which is life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000. Importing or bringing a dangerous drug into the Philippines (section 4) and selling, giving away, delivering, distributing, transporting or brokering one (section 5) each carry life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000 "regardless of the quantity and purity involved", and manufacture (section 8) carries the same penalty. Each applies "unless authorized by law". Use is section 15: after a confirmatory test, a minimum of six months' rehabilitation in a government centre for a first offence, and 6 years and 1 day to 12 years with a fine of PHP 50,000 to PHP 200,000 for a second. RA 9165 prints "life imprisonment to death" in its penalty clauses, among them sections 4, 5, 8, 11 and 16. Republic Act No. 9346 of 24 June 2006 provides in section 1 that "The imposition of the penalty of death is hereby prohibited" and in section 2(b) substitutes life imprisonment where the law violated does not use the nomenclature of the Revised Penal Code, which RA 9165 does not. Section 98 of RA 9165 applies Revised Penal Code nomenclature to a minor offender, "reclusion perpetua to death", so for a minor RA 9346 section 2(a) substitutes reclusion perpetua. No drug offence carries death, and the fines set by RA 9165 are unchanged.
If prescribed / medical: Annex A to Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 maps the 1971 Schedule IV to Philippine Schedule 4. Section 31(6) of that Regulation allows a PDEA licensed practitioner to prescribe only FDA registered dangerous drugs, for up to 30 days' supply per prescription of a Schedule 2, 3 or 4 drug, and up to 60 days of a Schedule 4 drug for epilepsy and dystonia. Whether any product containing diazepam is registered with the FDA was not checked for this cell. Board Regulation No. 10, Series of 2025, adopted 26 June 2025, authorizes an S2 licensed practitioner to use "ordinary prescriptions in prescribing any dangerous drug preparations", in three copies, to "effectively address the diseases, illnesses, infections, and symptoms associated with the global health concern on mpox; the regional increase in COVID19; and the local surge in HIV cases"; its section 9 kept it in force "until June 30, 2026", and it takes effect fifteen days after publication and registration. Board Regulation No. 5, Series of 2026, adopted 23 June 2026, extends it "until June 30, 2027" to relieve the "transportation, logistics, and financial burdens of obtaining special prescription forms", but takes effect only "upon its publication in two (2) newspapers of general circulation and its registration", dates the signed copy does not record, so whether the ordinary prescription route is in force today is not established. Board Regulation No. 8, Series of 2019, adopted 17 December 2019, provides a "License to Acquire, Possess, and Use Unregistered Drug Products Containing Dangerous Drugs for Personal Use", for drug products "currently unregistered or in the process of being registered with the FDA but are already registered in FDA reference countries". The patient, or a "parent, spouse, guardian, or relative within the fourth degree of consanguinity or affinity", applies to PDEA, and only for "Diseases covered by RA 10747 or the 'Rare Disease Act of the Philippines'", "Life-threatening and debilitating diseases", "Cancer and other terminal diseases", "Rare forms of neurological conditions", or "Other diseases with limited therapeutic options identified by the Department of Health". It takes effect fifteen days after publication and registration, dates the signed copy does not record. The International Narcotics Control Board's assessment of the Philippines' annual requirement for diazepam, as at 2 October 2026, is 62,000 grams.
Documentation: A patient holding a licence under Board Regulation No. 8, Series of 2019 may bring an unregistered product in by "courier/parcel service or personal transport by patient or authorized family members", as that licence specifies. Otherwise, section 35 of Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 lets a person under treatment who is entering, leaving or passing through the Philippines possess such quantities of a dangerous drug "as are reasonable for the purposes of such treatment", in the words of section 35(1) "wherever prescribed by a valid PDEA S2-licensed physician". The traveller carries a letter from the attending physician, the prescription with trade and generic names for up to 30 days' supply, and the medicine in its original labelled container. Above 30 days' supply the traveller needs certificates of authorization from the competent authority of the home country and from PDEA, requested from PDEA in writing 30 working days before arrival. Whether a prescription written abroad meets section 35(1) is not settled by its text, so confirm with PDEA before travelling. Without that authority the medicine is an imported dangerous drug under section 4 of RA 9165.

Republic Act No. 9165, the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, enrolled text as published by the Dangerous Drugs Board, sections 3(j), 4, 5, 8, 11, 13, 15, 16 and 93 and its annex · ddb.gov.ph · Dangerous Drugs Board, Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, page 21, read on 2 October 2026 · ddb.gov.ph · Republic Act No. 9346, sections 1 and 2, text read at lawphil.net on 2 October 2026 because the Official Gazette refused the request · lawphil.net · Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014, adopted 19 June 2014, sections 6(16), 31 and 35, and its Annex A · ddb.gov.ph · ddb.gov.ph · International Narcotics Control Board, psychotropics assessments in grams as at 2 October 2026 · incb.org · Board Regulation No. 10, Series of 2025, adopted 26 June 2025 · ddb.gov.ph · Board Regulation No. 5, Series of 2026, adopted 23 June 2026 · ddb.gov.ph · Board Regulation No. 8, Series of 2019, adopted 17 December 2019 · ddb.gov.ph · The schedule placement stated in this cell is read from the section heading of the Board's list under which the entry is printed, which is not printed in the quoted entry itself. · Updated October 2, 2026

Diazepam in Philippines, full detail →

DMT

Legal status: A dangerous drug under RA 9165. DMT is printed as "DMT" on page 12 of the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, in its 1971 Schedule I section. It is also listed in the annex to RA 9165, which section 3(j) makes "an integral part of this Act". The entry is N,N-dimethyltryptamine and does not itself list 5-MeO-DMT or 4-AcO-DMT.
Consequences if caught: Possession is section 11, measured "regardless of the degree of purity thereof". It falls in the limb for "other dangerous drugs such as" MDMA, PMA, TMA, LSD and GHB and "those similarly designed or newly introduced drugs and their derivatives, without having any therapeutic value or if the quantity possessed is far beyond therapeutic requirements": 10 grams or more carries life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000; 5 grams or more but less than 10 carries 20 years and 1 day to life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 400,000 to PHP 500,000; less than 5 grams carries 12 years and 1 day to 20 years and a fine of PHP 300,000 to PHP 400,000. These are penalty bands and not an allowance: the lowest band has no lower limit, so any quantity is an offence. Section 13 imposes "the maximum penalties provided for in Section 11" on anyone found possessing a dangerous drug during a party, social gathering or meeting, or in the proximate company of at least two persons, "regardless of the quantity and purity", which is life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000. Importing or bringing a dangerous drug into the Philippines (section 4) and selling, giving away, delivering, distributing, transporting or brokering one (section 5) each carry life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000 "regardless of the quantity and purity involved", and manufacture (section 8) carries the same penalty. Each applies "unless authorized by law". Use is section 15: after a confirmatory test, a minimum of six months' rehabilitation in a government centre for a first offence, and 6 years and 1 day to 12 years with a fine of PHP 50,000 to PHP 200,000 for a second. RA 9165 prints "life imprisonment to death" in its penalty clauses, among them sections 4, 5, 8, 11 and 16. Republic Act No. 9346 of 24 June 2006 provides in section 1 that "The imposition of the penalty of death is hereby prohibited" and in section 2(b) substitutes life imprisonment where the law violated does not use the nomenclature of the Revised Penal Code, which RA 9165 does not. Section 98 of RA 9165 applies Revised Penal Code nomenclature to a minor offender, "reclusion perpetua to death", so for a minor RA 9346 section 2(a) substitutes reclusion perpetua. No drug offence carries death, and the fines set by RA 9165 are unchanged.
If prescribed / medical: Annex A to Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 maps the 1971 Schedule I to Philippine Schedule 1, which it describes as having "no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the Philippines". Section 6(16) of that Regulation bars a licence holder from handling a dangerous drug in Philippine Schedule I "unless for the purpose of a research program approved by the Board in conjunction with the Department of Science and Technology, Department of Health, and Food and Drug Administration". There is no prescription route.
Documentation: There is no traveller or personal import route. Bringing any dangerous drug into the Philippines unless authorized by law is section 4 of RA 9165, life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000, regardless of the quantity and purity involved.

DMT in Philippines, full detail →

DOM

Legal status: A dangerous drug under RA 9165. DOM is printed as "STP, DOM" on page 14 of the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, in its 1971 Schedule I section. It is also listed in the annex to RA 9165, which section 3(j) makes "an integral part of this Act". DOM is printed with its STP synonym.
Consequences if caught: Possession is section 11, measured "regardless of the degree of purity thereof". It falls in the limb for "other dangerous drugs such as" MDMA, PMA, TMA, LSD and GHB and "those similarly designed or newly introduced drugs and their derivatives, without having any therapeutic value or if the quantity possessed is far beyond therapeutic requirements": 10 grams or more carries life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000; 5 grams or more but less than 10 carries 20 years and 1 day to life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 400,000 to PHP 500,000; less than 5 grams carries 12 years and 1 day to 20 years and a fine of PHP 300,000 to PHP 400,000. These are penalty bands and not an allowance: the lowest band has no lower limit, so any quantity is an offence. Section 13 imposes "the maximum penalties provided for in Section 11" on anyone found possessing a dangerous drug during a party, social gathering or meeting, or in the proximate company of at least two persons, "regardless of the quantity and purity", which is life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000. Importing or bringing a dangerous drug into the Philippines (section 4) and selling, giving away, delivering, distributing, transporting or brokering one (section 5) each carry life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000 "regardless of the quantity and purity involved", and manufacture (section 8) carries the same penalty. Each applies "unless authorized by law". Use is section 15: after a confirmatory test, a minimum of six months' rehabilitation in a government centre for a first offence, and 6 years and 1 day to 12 years with a fine of PHP 50,000 to PHP 200,000 for a second. RA 9165 prints "life imprisonment to death" in its penalty clauses, among them sections 4, 5, 8, 11 and 16. Republic Act No. 9346 of 24 June 2006 provides in section 1 that "The imposition of the penalty of death is hereby prohibited" and in section 2(b) substitutes life imprisonment where the law violated does not use the nomenclature of the Revised Penal Code, which RA 9165 does not. Section 98 of RA 9165 applies Revised Penal Code nomenclature to a minor offender, "reclusion perpetua to death", so for a minor RA 9346 section 2(a) substitutes reclusion perpetua. No drug offence carries death, and the fines set by RA 9165 are unchanged.
If prescribed / medical: Annex A to Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 maps the 1971 Schedule I to Philippine Schedule 1, which it describes as having "no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the Philippines". Section 6(16) of that Regulation bars a licence holder from handling a dangerous drug in Philippine Schedule I "unless for the purpose of a research program approved by the Board in conjunction with the Department of Science and Technology, Department of Health, and Food and Drug Administration". There is no prescription route.
Documentation: There is no traveller or personal import route. Bringing any dangerous drug into the Philippines unless authorized by law is section 4 of RA 9165, life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000, regardless of the quantity and purity involved.

DOM in Philippines, full detail →

DXM

Legal status: Not a dangerous drug on the text read: dextromethorphan (DXM) is not listed in the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, and no Board Regulation adding it appears on the Board's regulations register read on 2 October 2026. This is stated as at the Board's list of 06 July 2025 and the Board's regulations register read at https://ddb.gov.ph/board-regulations/ on 2 October 2026, whose newest entry is Board Regulation No. 5, Series of 2026 and which lists no Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2026, and it does not rule out a later amendment.
Consequences if caught: No RA 9165 penalty attaches while it is unlisted. Searched in all 24 pages of the list: "dextromethorphan" 1 hit; "dextrorphan" 1 hit. Both hits are one sentence on page 9, in the 1961 Schedule I section: "Dextromethorphan and dextrorphan are not under international control." Section 93 lets the Board add a drug after notice and hearing, and under section 93(c) no criminal liability arises for an added drug until fifteen days after the last publication of the notice of that hearing.
If prescribed / medical: It is not a dangerous drug, so the prescription rules of Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 do not govern it. Its status under FDA rules was not read for this cell. Carry any prescription you hold.
Documentation: No dangerous drug document is needed under RA 9165.

DXM in Philippines, full detail →

Ephedrine

Legal status: A dangerous drug under RA 9165, not merely a precursor. Board Regulation No. 4, Series of 2005, adopted 19 July 2005, reclassified "All raw materials of Ephedrine and Pseudoephedrine" and their salts and preparations as dangerous drugs, and Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2018, adopted 24 January 2018, rewrote that section to reach "their isomers and salts of isomers, and their halogenated and alkylated forms". Ephedrine also appears in the 1988 Table I precursor section of the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, and Annex A to Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 names it in Philippine Schedule 5. Section 2 of the 2005 Regulation exempts a preparation that meets five conditions, among them negligible risk of abuse and that the ephedrine cannot be readily extracted.
Consequences if caught: Possession is section 11, measured "regardless of the degree of purity thereof". It falls in the limb for "other dangerous drugs such as" MDMA, PMA, TMA, LSD and GHB and "those similarly designed or newly introduced drugs and their derivatives, without having any therapeutic value or if the quantity possessed is far beyond therapeutic requirements": 10 grams or more carries life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000; 5 grams or more but less than 10 carries 20 years and 1 day to life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 400,000 to PHP 500,000; less than 5 grams carries 12 years and 1 day to 20 years and a fine of PHP 300,000 to PHP 400,000. These are penalty bands and not an allowance. For a medicine with therapeutic value the Act applies these bands where the drug is held without therapeutic value or in a quantity far beyond therapeutic requirements, as the Board determines; it states no separate band for an unauthorised quantity within therapeutic requirements, and none is asserted here. Section 13 imposes "the maximum penalties provided for in Section 11" on anyone found possessing a dangerous drug during a party, social gathering or meeting, or in the proximate company of at least two persons, "regardless of the quantity and purity", which is life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000. Importing or bringing a dangerous drug into the Philippines (section 4) and selling, giving away, delivering, distributing, transporting or brokering one (section 5) each carry life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000 "regardless of the quantity and purity involved", and manufacture (section 8) carries the same penalty. Each applies "unless authorized by law". Use is section 15: after a confirmatory test, a minimum of six months' rehabilitation in a government centre for a first offence, and 6 years and 1 day to 12 years with a fine of PHP 50,000 to PHP 200,000 for a second. RA 9165 prints "life imprisonment to death" in its penalty clauses, among them sections 4, 5, 8, 11 and 16. Republic Act No. 9346 of 24 June 2006 provides in section 1 that "The imposition of the penalty of death is hereby prohibited" and in section 2(b) substitutes life imprisonment where the law violated does not use the nomenclature of the Revised Penal Code, which RA 9165 does not. Section 98 of RA 9165 applies Revised Penal Code nomenclature to a minor offender, "reclusion perpetua to death", so for a minor RA 9346 section 2(a) substitutes reclusion perpetua. No drug offence carries death, and the fines set by RA 9165 are unchanged. Treated as a precursor it would carry only 12 years and 1 day to 20 years for import, supply or manufacture; the Board's reclassification puts it in the dangerous drug branch.
If prescribed / medical: Section 4 of Board Regulation No. 4, Series of 2005 forbids selling any preparation containing ephedrine or pseudoephedrine "as over-the-counter items without a prescription of a licensed practitioner". Lianhua Qingwen capsules, which contain ephedra, were provisionally removed from the list for one year by Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2021, adopted 4 February 2021, the year running from publication and registration, and the removal was extended by Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2022, adopted 24 January 2022, by Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2023, adopted 9 February 2023 according to the recital of the 2024 Regulation, whose own text could not be read, and by Board Regulation No. 2, Series of 2024, adopted 8 March 2024, for another year. Each removal is for that one product, is temporary and lapses at the end of its period; no extension after the 2024 Regulation appears on the register read on 2 October 2026, so whether the capsules are outside the list today is not established, and ephedrine itself was never removed. Board Regulation No. 10, Series of 2025, adopted 26 June 2025, authorizes an S2 licensed practitioner to use "ordinary prescriptions in prescribing any dangerous drug preparations", in three copies, to "effectively address the diseases, illnesses, infections, and symptoms associated with the global health concern on mpox; the regional increase in COVID19; and the local surge in HIV cases"; its section 9 kept it in force "until June 30, 2026", and it takes effect fifteen days after publication and registration. Board Regulation No. 5, Series of 2026, adopted 23 June 2026, extends it "until June 30, 2027" to relieve the "transportation, logistics, and financial burdens of obtaining special prescription forms", but takes effect only "upon its publication in two (2) newspapers of general circulation and its registration", dates the signed copy does not record, so whether the ordinary prescription route is in force today is not established. Board Regulation No. 8, Series of 2019, adopted 17 December 2019, provides a "License to Acquire, Possess, and Use Unregistered Drug Products Containing Dangerous Drugs for Personal Use", for drug products "currently unregistered or in the process of being registered with the FDA but are already registered in FDA reference countries". The patient, or a "parent, spouse, guardian, or relative within the fourth degree of consanguinity or affinity", applies to PDEA, and only for "Diseases covered by RA 10747 or the 'Rare Disease Act of the Philippines'", "Life-threatening and debilitating diseases", "Cancer and other terminal diseases", "Rare forms of neurological conditions", or "Other diseases with limited therapeutic options identified by the Department of Health". It takes effect fifteen days after publication and registration, dates the signed copy does not record.
Documentation: A patient holding a licence under Board Regulation No. 8, Series of 2019 may bring an unregistered product in by "courier/parcel service or personal transport by patient or authorized family members", as that licence specifies. Otherwise, section 35 of Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 lets a person under treatment who is entering, leaving or passing through the Philippines possess such quantities of a dangerous drug "as are reasonable for the purposes of such treatment", in the words of section 35(1) "wherever prescribed by a valid PDEA S2-licensed physician". The traveller carries a letter from the attending physician, the prescription with trade and generic names for up to 30 days' supply, and the medicine in its original labelled container. Above 30 days' supply the traveller needs certificates of authorization from the competent authority of the home country and from PDEA, requested from PDEA in writing 30 working days before arrival. Whether a prescription written abroad meets section 35(1) is not settled by its text, so confirm with PDEA before travelling. Without that authority the medicine is an imported dangerous drug under section 4 of RA 9165. A preparation meeting the five conditions of section 2 of the 2005 Regulation is exempt from section 1 and is not a dangerous drug but remains a controlled precursor, and section 4 still requires a prescription for its sale; whether a given product qualifies was not checked for this cell.

Republic Act No. 9165, the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, enrolled text as published by the Dangerous Drugs Board, sections 3(j), 4, 5, 8, 11, 13, 15, 16 and 93 and its annex · ddb.gov.ph · Dangerous Drugs Board, Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, pages 1 and 24, read on 2 October 2026 · ddb.gov.ph · Republic Act No. 9346, sections 1 and 2, text read at lawphil.net on 2 October 2026 because the Official Gazette refused the request · lawphil.net · Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014, adopted 19 June 2014, sections 6(16), 31 and 35, and its Annex A · ddb.gov.ph · ddb.gov.ph · Board Regulation No. 4, Series of 2005, adopted 19 July 2005 · ddb.gov.ph · Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2018, adopted 24 January 2018 · ddb.gov.ph · Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2021 · ddb.gov.ph · Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2022 · ddb.gov.ph · Board Regulation No. 2, Series of 2024 · ddb.gov.ph · Board Regulation No. 10, Series of 2025, adopted 26 June 2025 · ddb.gov.ph · Board Regulation No. 5, Series of 2026, adopted 23 June 2026 · ddb.gov.ph · Board Regulation No. 8, Series of 2019, adopted 17 December 2019 · ddb.gov.ph · The schedule placement stated in this cell is read from the section heading of the Board's list under which the entry is printed, which is not printed in the quoted entry itself. · Updated October 2, 2026

Ephedrine in Philippines, full detail →

Etizolam

Legal status: A dangerous drug under RA 9165. Etizolam is printed as "28. ETIZOLAM (03 November 2020)" on page 21 of the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, in its 1971 Schedule IV section. It is not among the substances enumerated in the annex to RA 9165, which section 3(j) makes part of the Act. Section 3(1)(a)(i) of Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014, as printed in the Dangerous Drugs Board's copy, requires the Board to issue an implementing Board Regulation for such an addition, and none naming it appears on the register read on 2 October 2026, which lists no Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2026, so its control rests on the Board's own published list, which is how the regulator states it. It is a thienodiazepine and is listed by name, not through the benzodiazepine label.
Consequences if caught: Possession is section 11, measured "regardless of the degree of purity thereof". It falls in the limb for "other dangerous drugs such as" MDMA, PMA, TMA, LSD and GHB and "those similarly designed or newly introduced drugs and their derivatives, without having any therapeutic value or if the quantity possessed is far beyond therapeutic requirements": 10 grams or more carries life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000; 5 grams or more but less than 10 carries 20 years and 1 day to life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 400,000 to PHP 500,000; less than 5 grams carries 12 years and 1 day to 20 years and a fine of PHP 300,000 to PHP 400,000. These are penalty bands and not an allowance. For a medicine with therapeutic value the Act applies these bands where the drug is held without therapeutic value or in a quantity far beyond therapeutic requirements, as the Board determines; it states no separate band for an unauthorised quantity within therapeutic requirements, and none is asserted here. Section 13 imposes "the maximum penalties provided for in Section 11" on anyone found possessing a dangerous drug during a party, social gathering or meeting, or in the proximate company of at least two persons, "regardless of the quantity and purity", which is life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000. Importing or bringing a dangerous drug into the Philippines (section 4) and selling, giving away, delivering, distributing, transporting or brokering one (section 5) each carry life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000 "regardless of the quantity and purity involved", and manufacture (section 8) carries the same penalty. Each applies "unless authorized by law". Use is section 15: after a confirmatory test, a minimum of six months' rehabilitation in a government centre for a first offence, and 6 years and 1 day to 12 years with a fine of PHP 50,000 to PHP 200,000 for a second. RA 9165 prints "life imprisonment to death" in its penalty clauses, among them sections 4, 5, 8, 11 and 16. Republic Act No. 9346 of 24 June 2006 provides in section 1 that "The imposition of the penalty of death is hereby prohibited" and in section 2(b) substitutes life imprisonment where the law violated does not use the nomenclature of the Revised Penal Code, which RA 9165 does not. Section 98 of RA 9165 applies Revised Penal Code nomenclature to a minor offender, "reclusion perpetua to death", so for a minor RA 9346 section 2(a) substitutes reclusion perpetua. No drug offence carries death, and the fines set by RA 9165 are unchanged.
If prescribed / medical: Annex A to Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 maps the 1971 Schedule IV to Philippine Schedule 4. Section 31(6) of that Regulation allows a PDEA licensed practitioner to prescribe only FDA registered dangerous drugs, for up to 30 days' supply per prescription of a Schedule 2, 3 or 4 drug, and up to 60 days of a Schedule 4 drug for epilepsy and dystonia. Whether any product containing etizolam is registered with the FDA was not checked for this cell. Board Regulation No. 10, Series of 2025, adopted 26 June 2025, authorizes an S2 licensed practitioner to use "ordinary prescriptions in prescribing any dangerous drug preparations", in three copies, to "effectively address the diseases, illnesses, infections, and symptoms associated with the global health concern on mpox; the regional increase in COVID19; and the local surge in HIV cases"; its section 9 kept it in force "until June 30, 2026", and it takes effect fifteen days after publication and registration. Board Regulation No. 5, Series of 2026, adopted 23 June 2026, extends it "until June 30, 2027" to relieve the "transportation, logistics, and financial burdens of obtaining special prescription forms", but takes effect only "upon its publication in two (2) newspapers of general circulation and its registration", dates the signed copy does not record, so whether the ordinary prescription route is in force today is not established. Board Regulation No. 8, Series of 2019, adopted 17 December 2019, provides a "License to Acquire, Possess, and Use Unregistered Drug Products Containing Dangerous Drugs for Personal Use", for drug products "currently unregistered or in the process of being registered with the FDA but are already registered in FDA reference countries". The patient, or a "parent, spouse, guardian, or relative within the fourth degree of consanguinity or affinity", applies to PDEA, and only for "Diseases covered by RA 10747 or the 'Rare Disease Act of the Philippines'", "Life-threatening and debilitating diseases", "Cancer and other terminal diseases", "Rare forms of neurological conditions", or "Other diseases with limited therapeutic options identified by the Department of Health". It takes effect fifteen days after publication and registration, dates the signed copy does not record.
Documentation: A patient holding a licence under Board Regulation No. 8, Series of 2019 may bring an unregistered product in by "courier/parcel service or personal transport by patient or authorized family members", as that licence specifies. Otherwise, section 35 of Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 lets a person under treatment who is entering, leaving or passing through the Philippines possess such quantities of a dangerous drug "as are reasonable for the purposes of such treatment", in the words of section 35(1) "wherever prescribed by a valid PDEA S2-licensed physician". The traveller carries a letter from the attending physician, the prescription with trade and generic names for up to 30 days' supply, and the medicine in its original labelled container. Above 30 days' supply the traveller needs certificates of authorization from the competent authority of the home country and from PDEA, requested from PDEA in writing 30 working days before arrival. Whether a prescription written abroad meets section 35(1) is not settled by its text, so confirm with PDEA before travelling. Without that authority the medicine is an imported dangerous drug under section 4 of RA 9165.

Republic Act No. 9165, the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, enrolled text as published by the Dangerous Drugs Board, sections 3(j), 4, 5, 8, 11, 13, 15, 16 and 93 and its annex · ddb.gov.ph · Dangerous Drugs Board, Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, page 21, read on 2 October 2026 · ddb.gov.ph · Republic Act No. 9346, sections 1 and 2, text read at lawphil.net on 2 October 2026 because the Official Gazette refused the request · lawphil.net · Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014, adopted 19 June 2014, sections 6(16), 31 and 35, and its Annex A · ddb.gov.ph · ddb.gov.ph · Board Regulation No. 10, Series of 2025, adopted 26 June 2025 · ddb.gov.ph · Board Regulation No. 5, Series of 2026, adopted 23 June 2026 · ddb.gov.ph · Board Regulation No. 8, Series of 2019, adopted 17 December 2019 · ddb.gov.ph · The schedule placement stated in this cell is read from the section heading of the Board's list under which the entry is printed, which is not printed in the quoted entry itself. · Updated October 2, 2026

Etizolam in Philippines, full detail →

Fentanyl

Legal status: A dangerous drug under RA 9165. Fentanyl is printed as "60. FENTANYL" on page 7 of the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, in its 1961 Schedule I section. It is also listed in the annex to RA 9165, which section 3(j) makes "an integral part of this Act". Fentanyl analogues and precursors carry their own separate entries.
Consequences if caught: Possession is section 11, measured "regardless of the degree of purity thereof". It falls in the limb for "other dangerous drugs such as" MDMA, PMA, TMA, LSD and GHB and "those similarly designed or newly introduced drugs and their derivatives, without having any therapeutic value or if the quantity possessed is far beyond therapeutic requirements": 10 grams or more carries life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000; 5 grams or more but less than 10 carries 20 years and 1 day to life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 400,000 to PHP 500,000; less than 5 grams carries 12 years and 1 day to 20 years and a fine of PHP 300,000 to PHP 400,000. These are penalty bands and not an allowance. For a medicine with therapeutic value the Act applies these bands where the drug is held without therapeutic value or in a quantity far beyond therapeutic requirements, as the Board determines; it states no separate band for an unauthorised quantity within therapeutic requirements, and none is asserted here. Section 13 imposes "the maximum penalties provided for in Section 11" on anyone found possessing a dangerous drug during a party, social gathering or meeting, or in the proximate company of at least two persons, "regardless of the quantity and purity", which is life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000. Importing or bringing a dangerous drug into the Philippines (section 4) and selling, giving away, delivering, distributing, transporting or brokering one (section 5) each carry life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000 "regardless of the quantity and purity involved", and manufacture (section 8) carries the same penalty. Each applies "unless authorized by law". Use is section 15: after a confirmatory test, a minimum of six months' rehabilitation in a government centre for a first offence, and 6 years and 1 day to 12 years with a fine of PHP 50,000 to PHP 200,000 for a second. RA 9165 prints "life imprisonment to death" in its penalty clauses, among them sections 4, 5, 8, 11 and 16. Republic Act No. 9346 of 24 June 2006 provides in section 1 that "The imposition of the penalty of death is hereby prohibited" and in section 2(b) substitutes life imprisonment where the law violated does not use the nomenclature of the Revised Penal Code, which RA 9165 does not. Section 98 of RA 9165 applies Revised Penal Code nomenclature to a minor offender, "reclusion perpetua to death", so for a minor RA 9346 section 2(a) substitutes reclusion perpetua. No drug offence carries death, and the fines set by RA 9165 are unchanged.
If prescribed / medical: Annex A to Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 maps the 1961 Schedule I to Philippine Schedule 2. Section 31(6) of that Regulation allows a PDEA licensed practitioner to prescribe only FDA registered dangerous drugs, for up to 30 days' supply per prescription of a Schedule 2, 3 or 4 drug. Whether any product containing fentanyl is registered with the FDA was not checked for this cell. Board Regulation No. 10, Series of 2025, adopted 26 June 2025, authorizes an S2 licensed practitioner to use "ordinary prescriptions in prescribing any dangerous drug preparations", in three copies, to "effectively address the diseases, illnesses, infections, and symptoms associated with the global health concern on mpox; the regional increase in COVID19; and the local surge in HIV cases"; its section 9 kept it in force "until June 30, 2026", and it takes effect fifteen days after publication and registration. Board Regulation No. 5, Series of 2026, adopted 23 June 2026, extends it "until June 30, 2027" to relieve the "transportation, logistics, and financial burdens of obtaining special prescription forms", but takes effect only "upon its publication in two (2) newspapers of general circulation and its registration", dates the signed copy does not record, so whether the ordinary prescription route is in force today is not established. Board Regulation No. 8, Series of 2019, adopted 17 December 2019, provides a "License to Acquire, Possess, and Use Unregistered Drug Products Containing Dangerous Drugs for Personal Use", for drug products "currently unregistered or in the process of being registered with the FDA but are already registered in FDA reference countries". The patient, or a "parent, spouse, guardian, or relative within the fourth degree of consanguinity or affinity", applies to PDEA, and only for "Diseases covered by RA 10747 or the 'Rare Disease Act of the Philippines'", "Life-threatening and debilitating diseases", "Cancer and other terminal diseases", "Rare forms of neurological conditions", or "Other diseases with limited therapeutic options identified by the Department of Health". It takes effect fifteen days after publication and registration, dates the signed copy does not record. The International Narcotics Control Board's estimated requirement of the Philippines for fentanyl for 2026, April update, is 6,000 grams.
Documentation: A patient holding a licence under Board Regulation No. 8, Series of 2019 may bring an unregistered product in by "courier/parcel service or personal transport by patient or authorized family members", as that licence specifies. Otherwise, section 35 of Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 lets a person under treatment who is entering, leaving or passing through the Philippines possess such quantities of a dangerous drug "as are reasonable for the purposes of such treatment", in the words of section 35(1) "wherever prescribed by a valid PDEA S2-licensed physician". The traveller carries a letter from the attending physician, the prescription with trade and generic names for up to 30 days' supply, and the medicine in its original labelled container. Above 30 days' supply the traveller needs certificates of authorization from the competent authority of the home country and from PDEA, requested from PDEA in writing 30 working days before arrival. Whether a prescription written abroad meets section 35(1) is not settled by its text, so confirm with PDEA before travelling. Without that authority the medicine is an imported dangerous drug under section 4 of RA 9165.

Republic Act No. 9165, the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, enrolled text as published by the Dangerous Drugs Board, sections 3(j), 4, 5, 8, 11, 13, 15, 16 and 93 and its annex · ddb.gov.ph · Dangerous Drugs Board, Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, page 7, read on 2 October 2026 · ddb.gov.ph · Republic Act No. 9346, sections 1 and 2, text read at lawphil.net on 2 October 2026 because the Official Gazette refused the request · lawphil.net · Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014, adopted 19 June 2014, sections 6(16), 31 and 35, and its Annex A · ddb.gov.ph · ddb.gov.ph · International Narcotics Control Board, estimated requirements of narcotic drugs for 2026, April update · incb.org · Board Regulation No. 10, Series of 2025, adopted 26 June 2025 · ddb.gov.ph · Board Regulation No. 5, Series of 2026, adopted 23 June 2026 · ddb.gov.ph · Board Regulation No. 8, Series of 2019, adopted 17 December 2019 · ddb.gov.ph · The schedule placement stated in this cell is read from the section heading of the Board's list under which the entry is printed, which is not printed in the quoted entry itself. · Updated October 2, 2026

Fentanyl in Philippines, full detail →

Gabapentin

Legal status: Not a dangerous drug on the text read: gabapentin is not listed in the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, and no Board Regulation adding it appears on the Board's regulations register read on 2 October 2026. This is stated as at the Board's list of 06 July 2025 and the Board's regulations register read at https://ddb.gov.ph/board-regulations/ on 2 October 2026, whose newest entry is Board Regulation No. 5, Series of 2026 and which lists no Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2026, and it does not rule out a later amendment.
Consequences if caught: No RA 9165 penalty attaches while it is unlisted. Searched in all 24 pages of the list: "gabapentin" 0 hits; "Neurontin" 0 hits. Pregabalin, a different ingredient, is not listed either. Section 93 lets the Board add a drug after notice and hearing, and under section 93(c) no criminal liability arises for an added drug until fifteen days after the last publication of the notice of that hearing.
If prescribed / medical: It is not a dangerous drug, so the prescription rules of Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 do not govern it. Its status under FDA rules was not read for this cell. Carry any prescription you hold.
Documentation: No dangerous drug document is needed under RA 9165.

Gabapentin in Philippines, full detail →

GBL

Legal status: A dangerous drug under RA 9165, by a national listing, with a conflict in the Board's own list. Board Regulation No. 4, Series of 2019, adopted 27 June 2019, includes "Gamma-Butyrolactone (GBL), and all compounds, mixtures, or preparations containing any quantity thereof, by whatever official name, common name or usual name, chemical name or designated brand name in the list of dangerous drugs". The Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025 prints GBL twice: on page 5 under a "PHILIPPINE SCHEDULE" heading among the controlled chemicals, beside thionyl chloride, and on page 23 under "DANGEROUS DRUGS" citing that Regulation. No signed instrument reclassifying GBL as a chemical was found, so the signed Regulation is followed here and the conflict is left visible. The Regulation takes effect fifteen days after publication in newspapers of general circulation and registration with the Office of the National Administrative Register; the signed copy read does not record either date, so its commencement is not established here. Separately, section 93(c) of RA 9165 creates no criminal liability for an added drug until fifteen days after the last publication of the notice of the Board's public hearing.
Consequences if caught: Possession is section 11, measured "regardless of the degree of purity thereof". It falls in the limb for "other dangerous drugs such as" MDMA, PMA, TMA, LSD and GHB and "those similarly designed or newly introduced drugs and their derivatives, without having any therapeutic value or if the quantity possessed is far beyond therapeutic requirements": 10 grams or more carries life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000; 5 grams or more but less than 10 carries 20 years and 1 day to life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 400,000 to PHP 500,000; less than 5 grams carries 12 years and 1 day to 20 years and a fine of PHP 300,000 to PHP 400,000. These are penalty bands and not an allowance: the lowest band has no lower limit, so any quantity is an offence. Section 13 imposes "the maximum penalties provided for in Section 11" on anyone found possessing a dangerous drug during a party, social gathering or meeting, or in the proximate company of at least two persons, "regardless of the quantity and purity", which is life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000. Importing or bringing a dangerous drug into the Philippines (section 4) and selling, giving away, delivering, distributing, transporting or brokering one (section 5) each carry life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000 "regardless of the quantity and purity involved", and manufacture (section 8) carries the same penalty. Each applies "unless authorized by law". Use is section 15: after a confirmatory test, a minimum of six months' rehabilitation in a government centre for a first offence, and 6 years and 1 day to 12 years with a fine of PHP 50,000 to PHP 200,000 for a second. RA 9165 prints "life imprisonment to death" in its penalty clauses, among them sections 4, 5, 8, 11 and 16. Republic Act No. 9346 of 24 June 2006 provides in section 1 that "The imposition of the penalty of death is hereby prohibited" and in section 2(b) substitutes life imprisonment where the law violated does not use the nomenclature of the Revised Penal Code, which RA 9165 does not. Section 98 of RA 9165 applies Revised Penal Code nomenclature to a minor offender, "reclusion perpetua to death", so for a minor RA 9346 section 2(a) substitutes reclusion perpetua. No drug offence carries death, and the fines set by RA 9165 are unchanged. If GBL were treated as a controlled chemical instead, sections 4, 5 and 8 would carry 12 years and 1 day to 20 years and a fine of PHP 100,000 to PHP 500,000; that reading is not supported by the signed Regulation.
If prescribed / medical: Section 2(2) of Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 places the Board's own national additions in Philippine Schedule 5. GBL is an industrial solvent with no medicinal product found, and no prescription route is asserted. Licensed industrial handlers remain subject to Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014.
Documentation: There is no traveller or personal import route. Bringing any dangerous drug into the Philippines unless authorized by law is section 4 of RA 9165, life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000, regardless of the quantity and purity involved.

GBL in Philippines, full detail →

GHB

Legal status: A dangerous drug under RA 9165. GHB is printed as "gamma-HYDROXYBUTIRIC ACID" on page 17 of the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, in its 1971 Schedule II section. It is also listed in the annex to RA 9165, which section 3(j) makes "an integral part of this Act". The list prints the abbreviation GHB beside it, and section 11(8) of RA 9165 names gamma hydroxybutyrate.
Consequences if caught: Possession is section 11, measured "regardless of the degree of purity thereof". GHB ("gamma hydroxybutyrate (GHB)") is named in item 8: 10 grams or more carries life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000; 5 grams or more but less than 10 carries 20 years and 1 day to life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 400,000 to PHP 500,000; less than 5 grams carries 12 years and 1 day to 20 years and a fine of PHP 300,000 to PHP 400,000. These are penalty bands and not an allowance: the lowest band has no lower limit, so any quantity is an offence. Section 13 imposes "the maximum penalties provided for in Section 11" on anyone found possessing a dangerous drug during a party, social gathering or meeting, or in the proximate company of at least two persons, "regardless of the quantity and purity", which is life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000. Importing or bringing a dangerous drug into the Philippines (section 4) and selling, giving away, delivering, distributing, transporting or brokering one (section 5) each carry life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000 "regardless of the quantity and purity involved", and manufacture (section 8) carries the same penalty. Each applies "unless authorized by law". Use is section 15: after a confirmatory test, a minimum of six months' rehabilitation in a government centre for a first offence, and 6 years and 1 day to 12 years with a fine of PHP 50,000 to PHP 200,000 for a second. RA 9165 prints "life imprisonment to death" in its penalty clauses, among them sections 4, 5, 8, 11 and 16. Republic Act No. 9346 of 24 June 2006 provides in section 1 that "The imposition of the penalty of death is hereby prohibited" and in section 2(b) substitutes life imprisonment where the law violated does not use the nomenclature of the Revised Penal Code, which RA 9165 does not. Section 98 of RA 9165 applies Revised Penal Code nomenclature to a minor offender, "reclusion perpetua to death", so for a minor RA 9346 section 2(a) substitutes reclusion perpetua. No drug offence carries death, and the fines set by RA 9165 are unchanged.
If prescribed / medical: Annex A to Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 maps the 1971 Schedule II to Philippine Schedule 2. Section 31(6) of that Regulation allows a PDEA licensed practitioner to prescribe only FDA registered dangerous drugs. Whether any product containing GHB is registered with the FDA was not checked for this cell, so no prescription route is asserted.
Documentation: There is no traveller or personal import route. Bringing any dangerous drug into the Philippines unless authorized by law is section 4 of RA 9165, life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000, regardless of the quantity and purity involved.

GHB in Philippines, full detail →

Heroin

Legal status: A dangerous drug under RA 9165. Heroin is printed as "64. HEROIN" on page 7 of the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, in its 1961 Schedule I section, and again as "11. HEROIN" on page 12, in its 1961 Schedule IV section. It is also named in section 11(3) of RA 9165.
Consequences if caught: Possession is section 11, measured "regardless of the degree of purity thereof". Heroin is named in item 3: 10 grams or more carries life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000; 5 grams or more but less than 10 carries 20 years and 1 day to life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 400,000 to PHP 500,000; less than 5 grams carries 12 years and 1 day to 20 years and a fine of PHP 300,000 to PHP 400,000. These are penalty bands and not an allowance: the lowest band has no lower limit, so any quantity is an offence. Section 13 imposes "the maximum penalties provided for in Section 11" on anyone found possessing a dangerous drug during a party, social gathering or meeting, or in the proximate company of at least two persons, "regardless of the quantity and purity", which is life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000. Importing or bringing a dangerous drug into the Philippines (section 4) and selling, giving away, delivering, distributing, transporting or brokering one (section 5) each carry life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000 "regardless of the quantity and purity involved", and manufacture (section 8) carries the same penalty. Each applies "unless authorized by law". Use is section 15: after a confirmatory test, a minimum of six months' rehabilitation in a government centre for a first offence, and 6 years and 1 day to 12 years with a fine of PHP 50,000 to PHP 200,000 for a second. RA 9165 prints "life imprisonment to death" in its penalty clauses, among them sections 4, 5, 8, 11 and 16. Republic Act No. 9346 of 24 June 2006 provides in section 1 that "The imposition of the penalty of death is hereby prohibited" and in section 2(b) substitutes life imprisonment where the law violated does not use the nomenclature of the Revised Penal Code, which RA 9165 does not. Section 98 of RA 9165 applies Revised Penal Code nomenclature to a minor offender, "reclusion perpetua to death", so for a minor RA 9346 section 2(a) substitutes reclusion perpetua. No drug offence carries death, and the fines set by RA 9165 are unchanged.
If prescribed / medical: Annex A to Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 maps the 1961 Schedule IV, where heroin is also printed, to Philippine Schedule 1, which it describes as having "no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the Philippines". Section 6(16) of that Regulation bars a licence holder from handling a dangerous drug in Philippine Schedule I "unless for the purpose of a research program approved by the Board in conjunction with the Department of Science and Technology, Department of Health, and Food and Drug Administration". There is no prescription route.
Documentation: There is no traveller or personal import route. Bringing any dangerous drug into the Philippines unless authorized by law is section 4 of RA 9165, life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000, regardless of the quantity and purity involved.

Heroin in Philippines, full detail →

Hydrocodone

Legal status: A dangerous drug under RA 9165. Hydrocodone is printed as "65. HYDROCODONE" on page 7 of the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, in its 1961 Schedule I section. It is also listed in the annex to RA 9165, which section 3(j) makes "an integral part of this Act".
Consequences if caught: Possession is section 11, measured "regardless of the degree of purity thereof". It falls in the limb for "other dangerous drugs such as" MDMA, PMA, TMA, LSD and GHB and "those similarly designed or newly introduced drugs and their derivatives, without having any therapeutic value or if the quantity possessed is far beyond therapeutic requirements": 10 grams or more carries life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000; 5 grams or more but less than 10 carries 20 years and 1 day to life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 400,000 to PHP 500,000; less than 5 grams carries 12 years and 1 day to 20 years and a fine of PHP 300,000 to PHP 400,000. These are penalty bands and not an allowance. For a medicine with therapeutic value the Act applies these bands where the drug is held without therapeutic value or in a quantity far beyond therapeutic requirements, as the Board determines; it states no separate band for an unauthorised quantity within therapeutic requirements, and none is asserted here. Section 13 imposes "the maximum penalties provided for in Section 11" on anyone found possessing a dangerous drug during a party, social gathering or meeting, or in the proximate company of at least two persons, "regardless of the quantity and purity", which is life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000. Importing or bringing a dangerous drug into the Philippines (section 4) and selling, giving away, delivering, distributing, transporting or brokering one (section 5) each carry life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000 "regardless of the quantity and purity involved", and manufacture (section 8) carries the same penalty. Each applies "unless authorized by law". Use is section 15: after a confirmatory test, a minimum of six months' rehabilitation in a government centre for a first offence, and 6 years and 1 day to 12 years with a fine of PHP 50,000 to PHP 200,000 for a second. RA 9165 prints "life imprisonment to death" in its penalty clauses, among them sections 4, 5, 8, 11 and 16. Republic Act No. 9346 of 24 June 2006 provides in section 1 that "The imposition of the penalty of death is hereby prohibited" and in section 2(b) substitutes life imprisonment where the law violated does not use the nomenclature of the Revised Penal Code, which RA 9165 does not. Section 98 of RA 9165 applies Revised Penal Code nomenclature to a minor offender, "reclusion perpetua to death", so for a minor RA 9346 section 2(a) substitutes reclusion perpetua. No drug offence carries death, and the fines set by RA 9165 are unchanged.
If prescribed / medical: Annex A to Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 maps the 1961 Schedule I to Philippine Schedule 2. Section 31(6) of that Regulation allows a PDEA licensed practitioner to prescribe only FDA registered dangerous drugs, for up to 30 days' supply per prescription of a Schedule 2, 3 or 4 drug. Whether any product containing hydrocodone is registered with the FDA was not checked for this cell. Board Regulation No. 10, Series of 2025, adopted 26 June 2025, authorizes an S2 licensed practitioner to use "ordinary prescriptions in prescribing any dangerous drug preparations", in three copies, to "effectively address the diseases, illnesses, infections, and symptoms associated with the global health concern on mpox; the regional increase in COVID19; and the local surge in HIV cases"; its section 9 kept it in force "until June 30, 2026", and it takes effect fifteen days after publication and registration. Board Regulation No. 5, Series of 2026, adopted 23 June 2026, extends it "until June 30, 2027" to relieve the "transportation, logistics, and financial burdens of obtaining special prescription forms", but takes effect only "upon its publication in two (2) newspapers of general circulation and its registration", dates the signed copy does not record, so whether the ordinary prescription route is in force today is not established. Board Regulation No. 8, Series of 2019, adopted 17 December 2019, provides a "License to Acquire, Possess, and Use Unregistered Drug Products Containing Dangerous Drugs for Personal Use", for drug products "currently unregistered or in the process of being registered with the FDA but are already registered in FDA reference countries". The patient, or a "parent, spouse, guardian, or relative within the fourth degree of consanguinity or affinity", applies to PDEA, and only for "Diseases covered by RA 10747 or the 'Rare Disease Act of the Philippines'", "Life-threatening and debilitating diseases", "Cancer and other terminal diseases", "Rare forms of neurological conditions", or "Other diseases with limited therapeutic options identified by the Department of Health". It takes effect fifteen days after publication and registration, dates the signed copy does not record. The International Narcotics Control Board's estimated requirement of the Philippines for hydrocodone for 2026, April update, is 2 grams, a nominal figure, so do not expect to fill a prescription for it locally.
Documentation: A patient holding a licence under Board Regulation No. 8, Series of 2019 may bring an unregistered product in by "courier/parcel service or personal transport by patient or authorized family members", as that licence specifies. Otherwise, section 35 of Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 lets a person under treatment who is entering, leaving or passing through the Philippines possess such quantities of a dangerous drug "as are reasonable for the purposes of such treatment", in the words of section 35(1) "wherever prescribed by a valid PDEA S2-licensed physician". The traveller carries a letter from the attending physician, the prescription with trade and generic names for up to 30 days' supply, and the medicine in its original labelled container. Above 30 days' supply the traveller needs certificates of authorization from the competent authority of the home country and from PDEA, requested from PDEA in writing 30 working days before arrival. Whether a prescription written abroad meets section 35(1) is not settled by its text, so confirm with PDEA before travelling. Without that authority the medicine is an imported dangerous drug under section 4 of RA 9165.

Republic Act No. 9165, the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, enrolled text as published by the Dangerous Drugs Board, sections 3(j), 4, 5, 8, 11, 13, 15, 16 and 93 and its annex · ddb.gov.ph · Dangerous Drugs Board, Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, page 7, read on 2 October 2026 · ddb.gov.ph · Republic Act No. 9346, sections 1 and 2, text read at lawphil.net on 2 October 2026 because the Official Gazette refused the request · lawphil.net · Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014, adopted 19 June 2014, sections 6(16), 31 and 35, and its Annex A · ddb.gov.ph · ddb.gov.ph · International Narcotics Control Board, estimated requirements of narcotic drugs for 2026, April update · incb.org · Board Regulation No. 10, Series of 2025, adopted 26 June 2025 · ddb.gov.ph · Board Regulation No. 5, Series of 2026, adopted 23 June 2026 · ddb.gov.ph · Board Regulation No. 8, Series of 2019, adopted 17 December 2019 · ddb.gov.ph · The schedule placement stated in this cell is read from the section heading of the Board's list under which the entry is printed, which is not printed in the quoted entry itself. · Updated October 2, 2026

Hydrocodone in Philippines, full detail →

Ketamine

Legal status: A dangerous drug under RA 9165, by a national listing. Board Regulation No. 3, Series of 2005, adopted 19 July 2005, classifies as a dangerous drug "any material, compound, mixture or preparation which contains any quantity of KETAMINE, including its salts, isomers, and salts of isomers". Ketamine appears on page 24 of the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025 among the Board's national additions, and Annex A to Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 names it in Philippine Schedule 5, dangerous drugs "in the Philippines only".
Consequences if caught: Possession is section 11, measured "regardless of the degree of purity thereof". It falls in the limb for "other dangerous drugs such as" MDMA, PMA, TMA, LSD and GHB and "those similarly designed or newly introduced drugs and their derivatives, without having any therapeutic value or if the quantity possessed is far beyond therapeutic requirements": 10 grams or more carries life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000; 5 grams or more but less than 10 carries 20 years and 1 day to life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 400,000 to PHP 500,000; less than 5 grams carries 12 years and 1 day to 20 years and a fine of PHP 300,000 to PHP 400,000. These are penalty bands and not an allowance. For a medicine with therapeutic value the Act applies these bands where the drug is held without therapeutic value or in a quantity far beyond therapeutic requirements, as the Board determines; it states no separate band for an unauthorised quantity within therapeutic requirements, and none is asserted here. Section 13 imposes "the maximum penalties provided for in Section 11" on anyone found possessing a dangerous drug during a party, social gathering or meeting, or in the proximate company of at least two persons, "regardless of the quantity and purity", which is life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000. Importing or bringing a dangerous drug into the Philippines (section 4) and selling, giving away, delivering, distributing, transporting or brokering one (section 5) each carry life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000 "regardless of the quantity and purity involved", and manufacture (section 8) carries the same penalty. Each applies "unless authorized by law". Use is section 15: after a confirmatory test, a minimum of six months' rehabilitation in a government centre for a first offence, and 6 years and 1 day to 12 years with a fine of PHP 50,000 to PHP 200,000 for a second. RA 9165 prints "life imprisonment to death" in its penalty clauses, among them sections 4, 5, 8, 11 and 16. Republic Act No. 9346 of 24 June 2006 provides in section 1 that "The imposition of the penalty of death is hereby prohibited" and in section 2(b) substitutes life imprisonment where the law violated does not use the nomenclature of the Revised Penal Code, which RA 9165 does not. Section 98 of RA 9165 applies Revised Penal Code nomenclature to a minor offender, "reclusion perpetua to death", so for a minor RA 9346 section 2(a) substitutes reclusion perpetua. No drug offence carries death, and the fines set by RA 9165 are unchanged.
If prescribed / medical: Section 2 of Board Regulation No. 3, Series of 2005 exempts a ketamine preparation prescribed by a licensed practitioner where each vial holds no more than 50 mg/ml by 10 ml and a single prescription is for no more than 1.5 grams a day, three vials, for no more than 30 days. Board Regulation No. 5, Series of 2021, adopted 29 July 2021, allows an ordinary prescription in triplicate for the esketamine single use nasal spray for treatment resistant depression. Neither exempts ketamine outside those products. Board Regulation No. 10, Series of 2025, adopted 26 June 2025, authorizes an S2 licensed practitioner to use "ordinary prescriptions in prescribing any dangerous drug preparations", in three copies, to "effectively address the diseases, illnesses, infections, and symptoms associated with the global health concern on mpox; the regional increase in COVID19; and the local surge in HIV cases"; its section 9 kept it in force "until June 30, 2026", and it takes effect fifteen days after publication and registration. Board Regulation No. 5, Series of 2026, adopted 23 June 2026, extends it "until June 30, 2027" to relieve the "transportation, logistics, and financial burdens of obtaining special prescription forms", but takes effect only "upon its publication in two (2) newspapers of general circulation and its registration", dates the signed copy does not record, so whether the ordinary prescription route is in force today is not established. Board Regulation No. 8, Series of 2019, adopted 17 December 2019, provides a "License to Acquire, Possess, and Use Unregistered Drug Products Containing Dangerous Drugs for Personal Use", for drug products "currently unregistered or in the process of being registered with the FDA but are already registered in FDA reference countries". The patient, or a "parent, spouse, guardian, or relative within the fourth degree of consanguinity or affinity", applies to PDEA, and only for "Diseases covered by RA 10747 or the 'Rare Disease Act of the Philippines'", "Life-threatening and debilitating diseases", "Cancer and other terminal diseases", "Rare forms of neurological conditions", or "Other diseases with limited therapeutic options identified by the Department of Health". It takes effect fifteen days after publication and registration, dates the signed copy does not record.
Documentation: A patient holding a licence under Board Regulation No. 8, Series of 2019 may bring an unregistered product in by "courier/parcel service or personal transport by patient or authorized family members", as that licence specifies. Otherwise, section 35 of Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 lets a person under treatment who is entering, leaving or passing through the Philippines possess such quantities of a dangerous drug "as are reasonable for the purposes of such treatment", in the words of section 35(1) "wherever prescribed by a valid PDEA S2-licensed physician". The traveller carries a letter from the attending physician, the prescription with trade and generic names for up to 30 days' supply, and the medicine in its original labelled container. Above 30 days' supply the traveller needs certificates of authorization from the competent authority of the home country and from PDEA, requested from PDEA in writing 30 working days before arrival. Whether a prescription written abroad meets section 35(1) is not settled by its text, so confirm with PDEA before travelling. Without that authority the medicine is an imported dangerous drug under section 4 of RA 9165.

Republic Act No. 9165, the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, enrolled text as published by the Dangerous Drugs Board, sections 3(j), 4, 5, 8, 11, 13, 15, 16 and 93 and its annex · ddb.gov.ph · Dangerous Drugs Board, Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, page 24, read on 2 October 2026 · ddb.gov.ph · Republic Act No. 9346, sections 1 and 2, text read at lawphil.net on 2 October 2026 because the Official Gazette refused the request · lawphil.net · Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014, adopted 19 June 2014, sections 6(16), 31 and 35, and its Annex A · ddb.gov.ph · ddb.gov.ph · Board Regulation No. 3, Series of 2005, adopted 19 July 2005 · ddb.gov.ph · Board Regulation No. 5, Series of 2021, adopted 29 July 2021 · ddb.gov.ph · Board Regulation No. 10, Series of 2025, adopted 26 June 2025 · ddb.gov.ph · Board Regulation No. 5, Series of 2026, adopted 23 June 2026 · ddb.gov.ph · Board Regulation No. 8, Series of 2019, adopted 17 December 2019 · ddb.gov.ph · The schedule placement stated in this cell is read from the section heading of the Board's list under which the entry is printed, which is not printed in the quoted entry itself. · Updated October 2, 2026

Ketamine in Philippines, full detail →

Khat

Legal status: Controlled through its constituents. Khat is not named as a plant in the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, but its alkaloids are: "CATHINONE" on page 12 in its 1971 Schedule I section and "5. CATHINE" on page 20 in its 1971 Schedule III section. Board Regulation No. 3, Series of 2019, adopted 27 June 2019, classifies as dangerous drugs "all plants found containing substances listed in the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, the 1971 Single Convention on Psychotropic Substances and those classified by the Board as dangerous drugs, or are found to be sources thereof, after the conduct of an examination in a laboratory of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, Philippine National Police, or the National Bureau of Investigation, which shall specify the presence of such substance/s". Khat is caught once a laboratory examination finds either alkaloid.
Consequences if caught: Possession is section 11, measured "regardless of the degree of purity thereof". It falls in the limb for "other dangerous drugs such as" MDMA, PMA, TMA, LSD and GHB and "those similarly designed or newly introduced drugs and their derivatives, without having any therapeutic value or if the quantity possessed is far beyond therapeutic requirements": 10 grams or more carries life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000; 5 grams or more but less than 10 carries 20 years and 1 day to life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 400,000 to PHP 500,000; less than 5 grams carries 12 years and 1 day to 20 years and a fine of PHP 300,000 to PHP 400,000. These are penalty bands and not an allowance: the lowest band has no lower limit, so any quantity is an offence. Section 13 imposes "the maximum penalties provided for in Section 11" on anyone found possessing a dangerous drug during a party, social gathering or meeting, or in the proximate company of at least two persons, "regardless of the quantity and purity", which is life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000. Importing or bringing a dangerous drug into the Philippines (section 4) and selling, giving away, delivering, distributing, transporting or brokering one (section 5) each carry life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000 "regardless of the quantity and purity involved", and manufacture (section 8) carries the same penalty. Each applies "unless authorized by law". Use is section 15: after a confirmatory test, a minimum of six months' rehabilitation in a government centre for a first offence, and 6 years and 1 day to 12 years with a fine of PHP 50,000 to PHP 200,000 for a second. RA 9165 prints "life imprisonment to death" in its penalty clauses, among them sections 4, 5, 8, 11 and 16. Republic Act No. 9346 of 24 June 2006 provides in section 1 that "The imposition of the penalty of death is hereby prohibited" and in section 2(b) substitutes life imprisonment where the law violated does not use the nomenclature of the Revised Penal Code, which RA 9165 does not. Section 98 of RA 9165 applies Revised Penal Code nomenclature to a minor offender, "reclusion perpetua to death", so for a minor RA 9346 section 2(a) substitutes reclusion perpetua. No drug offence carries death, and the fines set by RA 9165 are unchanged. Cultivating a plant classified as a dangerous drug is section 16: life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000, regardless of quantity.
If prescribed / medical: Annex A to Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 maps the 1971 Schedule I, where cathinone is printed, to Philippine Schedule 1, which it describes as having "no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the Philippines". Section 6(16) of that Regulation bars a licence holder from handling a dangerous drug in Philippine Schedule I "unless for the purpose of a research program approved by the Board in conjunction with the Department of Science and Technology, Department of Health, and Food and Drug Administration". There is no prescription route. Cathine falls in Philippine Schedule 3, but no medicine is made from the leaf.
Documentation: There is no traveller or personal import route. Bringing any dangerous drug into the Philippines unless authorized by law is section 4 of RA 9165, life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000, regardless of the quantity and purity involved.

Khat in Philippines, full detail →

Kratom

Legal status: Not a dangerous drug on the text read: kratom (Mitragyna speciosa) is not listed in the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, and no Board Regulation adding it appears on the Board's regulations register read on 2 October 2026. This is stated as at the Board's list of 06 July 2025 and the Board's regulations register read at https://ddb.gov.ph/board-regulations/ on 2 October 2026, whose newest entry is Board Regulation No. 5, Series of 2026 and which lists no Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2026, and it does not rule out a later amendment.
Consequences if caught: No RA 9165 penalty attaches while it is unlisted. Searched in all 24 pages of the list: "kratom" 0 hits; "Mitragyna" 0 hits; "mitragynine" 0 hits. Board Regulation No. 3, Series of 2019 reaches a plant only once a laboratory finds a listed substance in it, and neither of kratom's principal alkaloids is listed. Section 93 lets the Board add a drug after notice and hearing, and under section 93(c) no criminal liability arises for an added drug until fifteen days after the last publication of the notice of that hearing.
If prescribed / medical: It is not a dangerous drug, so the prescription rules of Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 do not govern it. Its status under FDA rules was not read for this cell.
Documentation: No dangerous drug document is needed. Import rules for plant material under other laws were not read for this cell.

Kratom in Philippines, full detail →

Lorazepam

Legal status: A dangerous drug under RA 9165. Lorazepam is printed as "40. LORAZEPAM" on page 22 of the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, in its 1971 Schedule IV section. It is also listed in the annex to RA 9165, which section 3(j) makes "an integral part of this Act".
Consequences if caught: Possession is section 11, measured "regardless of the degree of purity thereof". It falls in the limb for "other dangerous drugs such as" MDMA, PMA, TMA, LSD and GHB and "those similarly designed or newly introduced drugs and their derivatives, without having any therapeutic value or if the quantity possessed is far beyond therapeutic requirements": 10 grams or more carries life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000; 5 grams or more but less than 10 carries 20 years and 1 day to life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 400,000 to PHP 500,000; less than 5 grams carries 12 years and 1 day to 20 years and a fine of PHP 300,000 to PHP 400,000. These are penalty bands and not an allowance. For a medicine with therapeutic value the Act applies these bands where the drug is held without therapeutic value or in a quantity far beyond therapeutic requirements, as the Board determines; it states no separate band for an unauthorised quantity within therapeutic requirements, and none is asserted here. Section 13 imposes "the maximum penalties provided for in Section 11" on anyone found possessing a dangerous drug during a party, social gathering or meeting, or in the proximate company of at least two persons, "regardless of the quantity and purity", which is life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000. Importing or bringing a dangerous drug into the Philippines (section 4) and selling, giving away, delivering, distributing, transporting or brokering one (section 5) each carry life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000 "regardless of the quantity and purity involved", and manufacture (section 8) carries the same penalty. Each applies "unless authorized by law". Use is section 15: after a confirmatory test, a minimum of six months' rehabilitation in a government centre for a first offence, and 6 years and 1 day to 12 years with a fine of PHP 50,000 to PHP 200,000 for a second. RA 9165 prints "life imprisonment to death" in its penalty clauses, among them sections 4, 5, 8, 11 and 16. Republic Act No. 9346 of 24 June 2006 provides in section 1 that "The imposition of the penalty of death is hereby prohibited" and in section 2(b) substitutes life imprisonment where the law violated does not use the nomenclature of the Revised Penal Code, which RA 9165 does not. Section 98 of RA 9165 applies Revised Penal Code nomenclature to a minor offender, "reclusion perpetua to death", so for a minor RA 9346 section 2(a) substitutes reclusion perpetua. No drug offence carries death, and the fines set by RA 9165 are unchanged.
If prescribed / medical: Annex A to Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 maps the 1971 Schedule IV to Philippine Schedule 4. Section 31(6) of that Regulation allows a PDEA licensed practitioner to prescribe only FDA registered dangerous drugs, for up to 30 days' supply per prescription of a Schedule 2, 3 or 4 drug, and up to 60 days of a Schedule 4 drug for epilepsy and dystonia. Whether any product containing lorazepam is registered with the FDA was not checked for this cell. Board Regulation No. 10, Series of 2025, adopted 26 June 2025, authorizes an S2 licensed practitioner to use "ordinary prescriptions in prescribing any dangerous drug preparations", in three copies, to "effectively address the diseases, illnesses, infections, and symptoms associated with the global health concern on mpox; the regional increase in COVID19; and the local surge in HIV cases"; its section 9 kept it in force "until June 30, 2026", and it takes effect fifteen days after publication and registration. Board Regulation No. 5, Series of 2026, adopted 23 June 2026, extends it "until June 30, 2027" to relieve the "transportation, logistics, and financial burdens of obtaining special prescription forms", but takes effect only "upon its publication in two (2) newspapers of general circulation and its registration", dates the signed copy does not record, so whether the ordinary prescription route is in force today is not established. Board Regulation No. 8, Series of 2019, adopted 17 December 2019, provides a "License to Acquire, Possess, and Use Unregistered Drug Products Containing Dangerous Drugs for Personal Use", for drug products "currently unregistered or in the process of being registered with the FDA but are already registered in FDA reference countries". The patient, or a "parent, spouse, guardian, or relative within the fourth degree of consanguinity or affinity", applies to PDEA, and only for "Diseases covered by RA 10747 or the 'Rare Disease Act of the Philippines'", "Life-threatening and debilitating diseases", "Cancer and other terminal diseases", "Rare forms of neurological conditions", or "Other diseases with limited therapeutic options identified by the Department of Health". It takes effect fifteen days after publication and registration, dates the signed copy does not record. The International Narcotics Control Board's assessment of the Philippines' annual requirement for lorazepam, as at 2 October 2026, is 2 grams, a nominal figure, so do not expect to fill a prescription for it locally.
Documentation: A patient holding a licence under Board Regulation No. 8, Series of 2019 may bring an unregistered product in by "courier/parcel service or personal transport by patient or authorized family members", as that licence specifies. Otherwise, section 35 of Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 lets a person under treatment who is entering, leaving or passing through the Philippines possess such quantities of a dangerous drug "as are reasonable for the purposes of such treatment", in the words of section 35(1) "wherever prescribed by a valid PDEA S2-licensed physician". The traveller carries a letter from the attending physician, the prescription with trade and generic names for up to 30 days' supply, and the medicine in its original labelled container. Above 30 days' supply the traveller needs certificates of authorization from the competent authority of the home country and from PDEA, requested from PDEA in writing 30 working days before arrival. Whether a prescription written abroad meets section 35(1) is not settled by its text, so confirm with PDEA before travelling. Without that authority the medicine is an imported dangerous drug under section 4 of RA 9165.

Republic Act No. 9165, the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, enrolled text as published by the Dangerous Drugs Board, sections 3(j), 4, 5, 8, 11, 13, 15, 16 and 93 and its annex · ddb.gov.ph · Dangerous Drugs Board, Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, page 22, read on 2 October 2026 · ddb.gov.ph · Republic Act No. 9346, sections 1 and 2, text read at lawphil.net on 2 October 2026 because the Official Gazette refused the request · lawphil.net · Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014, adopted 19 June 2014, sections 6(16), 31 and 35, and its Annex A · ddb.gov.ph · ddb.gov.ph · International Narcotics Control Board, psychotropics assessments in grams as at 2 October 2026 · incb.org · Board Regulation No. 10, Series of 2025, adopted 26 June 2025 · ddb.gov.ph · Board Regulation No. 5, Series of 2026, adopted 23 June 2026 · ddb.gov.ph · Board Regulation No. 8, Series of 2019, adopted 17 December 2019 · ddb.gov.ph · The schedule placement stated in this cell is read from the section heading of the Board's list under which the entry is printed, which is not printed in the quoted entry itself. · Updated October 2, 2026

Lorazepam in Philippines, full detail →

LSD

Legal status: A dangerous drug under RA 9165. LSD is printed as "(+)-LYSERGIDE" on page 13 of the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, in its 1971 Schedule I section. It is also listed in the annex to RA 9165, which section 3(j) makes "an integral part of this Act". The entry prints the synonyms LSD and LSD-25. It does not name 1P-LSD.
Consequences if caught: Possession is section 11, measured "regardless of the degree of purity thereof". LSD ("lysergic acid diethylamine (LSD)") is named in item 8: 10 grams or more carries life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000; 5 grams or more but less than 10 carries 20 years and 1 day to life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 400,000 to PHP 500,000; less than 5 grams carries 12 years and 1 day to 20 years and a fine of PHP 300,000 to PHP 400,000. These are penalty bands and not an allowance: the lowest band has no lower limit, so any quantity is an offence. Section 13 imposes "the maximum penalties provided for in Section 11" on anyone found possessing a dangerous drug during a party, social gathering or meeting, or in the proximate company of at least two persons, "regardless of the quantity and purity", which is life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000. Importing or bringing a dangerous drug into the Philippines (section 4) and selling, giving away, delivering, distributing, transporting or brokering one (section 5) each carry life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000 "regardless of the quantity and purity involved", and manufacture (section 8) carries the same penalty. Each applies "unless authorized by law". Use is section 15: after a confirmatory test, a minimum of six months' rehabilitation in a government centre for a first offence, and 6 years and 1 day to 12 years with a fine of PHP 50,000 to PHP 200,000 for a second. RA 9165 prints "life imprisonment to death" in its penalty clauses, among them sections 4, 5, 8, 11 and 16. Republic Act No. 9346 of 24 June 2006 provides in section 1 that "The imposition of the penalty of death is hereby prohibited" and in section 2(b) substitutes life imprisonment where the law violated does not use the nomenclature of the Revised Penal Code, which RA 9165 does not. Section 98 of RA 9165 applies Revised Penal Code nomenclature to a minor offender, "reclusion perpetua to death", so for a minor RA 9346 section 2(a) substitutes reclusion perpetua. No drug offence carries death, and the fines set by RA 9165 are unchanged.
If prescribed / medical: Annex A to Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 maps the 1971 Schedule I to Philippine Schedule 1, which it describes as having "no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the Philippines". Section 6(16) of that Regulation bars a licence holder from handling a dangerous drug in Philippine Schedule I "unless for the purpose of a research program approved by the Board in conjunction with the Department of Science and Technology, Department of Health, and Food and Drug Administration". There is no prescription route.
Documentation: There is no traveller or personal import route. Bringing any dangerous drug into the Philippines unless authorized by law is section 4 of RA 9165, life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000, regardless of the quantity and purity involved.

LSD in Philippines, full detail →

MDA

Legal status: A dangerous drug under RA 9165. MDA is printed as "TENAMFETAMINE" on page 13 of the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, in its 1971 Schedule I section. It is also listed in the annex to RA 9165, which section 3(j) makes "an integral part of this Act". Tenamfetamine is printed with the abbreviation MDA, a separate entry from MDMA.
Consequences if caught: Possession is section 11, measured "regardless of the degree of purity thereof". It falls in the limb for "other dangerous drugs such as" MDMA, PMA, TMA, LSD and GHB and "those similarly designed or newly introduced drugs and their derivatives, without having any therapeutic value or if the quantity possessed is far beyond therapeutic requirements": 10 grams or more carries life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000; 5 grams or more but less than 10 carries 20 years and 1 day to life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 400,000 to PHP 500,000; less than 5 grams carries 12 years and 1 day to 20 years and a fine of PHP 300,000 to PHP 400,000. These are penalty bands and not an allowance: the lowest band has no lower limit, so any quantity is an offence. Section 13 imposes "the maximum penalties provided for in Section 11" on anyone found possessing a dangerous drug during a party, social gathering or meeting, or in the proximate company of at least two persons, "regardless of the quantity and purity", which is life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000. Importing or bringing a dangerous drug into the Philippines (section 4) and selling, giving away, delivering, distributing, transporting or brokering one (section 5) each carry life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000 "regardless of the quantity and purity involved", and manufacture (section 8) carries the same penalty. Each applies "unless authorized by law". Use is section 15: after a confirmatory test, a minimum of six months' rehabilitation in a government centre for a first offence, and 6 years and 1 day to 12 years with a fine of PHP 50,000 to PHP 200,000 for a second. RA 9165 prints "life imprisonment to death" in its penalty clauses, among them sections 4, 5, 8, 11 and 16. Republic Act No. 9346 of 24 June 2006 provides in section 1 that "The imposition of the penalty of death is hereby prohibited" and in section 2(b) substitutes life imprisonment where the law violated does not use the nomenclature of the Revised Penal Code, which RA 9165 does not. Section 98 of RA 9165 applies Revised Penal Code nomenclature to a minor offender, "reclusion perpetua to death", so for a minor RA 9346 section 2(a) substitutes reclusion perpetua. No drug offence carries death, and the fines set by RA 9165 are unchanged.
If prescribed / medical: Annex A to Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 maps the 1971 Schedule I to Philippine Schedule 1, which it describes as having "no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the Philippines". Section 6(16) of that Regulation bars a licence holder from handling a dangerous drug in Philippine Schedule I "unless for the purpose of a research program approved by the Board in conjunction with the Department of Science and Technology, Department of Health, and Food and Drug Administration". There is no prescription route.
Documentation: There is no traveller or personal import route. Bringing any dangerous drug into the Philippines unless authorized by law is section 4 of RA 9165, life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000, regardless of the quantity and purity involved.

MDA in Philippines, full detail →

MDMA

Legal status: A dangerous drug under RA 9165. MDMA is printed as "MDMA" on page 13 of the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, in its 1971 Schedule I section. It is also listed in the annex to RA 9165, which section 3(j) makes "an integral part of this Act". MDMA is also named in section 11(8) of RA 9165.
Consequences if caught: Possession is section 11, measured "regardless of the degree of purity thereof". MDMA ("methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) or 'ecstasy'") is named in item 8: 10 grams or more carries life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000; 5 grams or more but less than 10 carries 20 years and 1 day to life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 400,000 to PHP 500,000; less than 5 grams carries 12 years and 1 day to 20 years and a fine of PHP 300,000 to PHP 400,000. These are penalty bands and not an allowance: the lowest band has no lower limit, so any quantity is an offence. Section 13 imposes "the maximum penalties provided for in Section 11" on anyone found possessing a dangerous drug during a party, social gathering or meeting, or in the proximate company of at least two persons, "regardless of the quantity and purity", which is life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000. Importing or bringing a dangerous drug into the Philippines (section 4) and selling, giving away, delivering, distributing, transporting or brokering one (section 5) each carry life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000 "regardless of the quantity and purity involved", and manufacture (section 8) carries the same penalty. Each applies "unless authorized by law". Use is section 15: after a confirmatory test, a minimum of six months' rehabilitation in a government centre for a first offence, and 6 years and 1 day to 12 years with a fine of PHP 50,000 to PHP 200,000 for a second. RA 9165 prints "life imprisonment to death" in its penalty clauses, among them sections 4, 5, 8, 11 and 16. Republic Act No. 9346 of 24 June 2006 provides in section 1 that "The imposition of the penalty of death is hereby prohibited" and in section 2(b) substitutes life imprisonment where the law violated does not use the nomenclature of the Revised Penal Code, which RA 9165 does not. Section 98 of RA 9165 applies Revised Penal Code nomenclature to a minor offender, "reclusion perpetua to death", so for a minor RA 9346 section 2(a) substitutes reclusion perpetua. No drug offence carries death, and the fines set by RA 9165 are unchanged.
If prescribed / medical: Annex A to Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 maps the 1971 Schedule I to Philippine Schedule 1, which it describes as having "no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the Philippines". Section 6(16) of that Regulation bars a licence holder from handling a dangerous drug in Philippine Schedule I "unless for the purpose of a research program approved by the Board in conjunction with the Department of Science and Technology, Department of Health, and Food and Drug Administration". There is no prescription route.
Documentation: There is no traveller or personal import route. Bringing any dangerous drug into the Philippines unless authorized by law is section 4 of RA 9165, life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000, regardless of the quantity and purity involved.

MDMA in Philippines, full detail →

MDPV

Legal status: A dangerous drug under RA 9165. MDPV is printed as "MDPV" on page 18 of the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, in its 1971 Schedule II section. It is not among the substances enumerated in the annex to RA 9165, which section 3(j) makes part of the Act. Section 3(1)(a)(i) of Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014, as printed in the Dangerous Drugs Board's copy, requires the Board to issue an implementing Board Regulation for such an addition, and none naming it appears on the register read on 2 October 2026, which lists no Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2026, so its control rests on the Board's own published list, which is how the regulator states it. It is its own entry, not the separate pyrovalerone entry in Schedule IV.
Consequences if caught: Possession is section 11, measured "regardless of the degree of purity thereof". It falls in the limb for "other dangerous drugs such as" MDMA, PMA, TMA, LSD and GHB and "those similarly designed or newly introduced drugs and their derivatives, without having any therapeutic value or if the quantity possessed is far beyond therapeutic requirements": 10 grams or more carries life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000; 5 grams or more but less than 10 carries 20 years and 1 day to life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 400,000 to PHP 500,000; less than 5 grams carries 12 years and 1 day to 20 years and a fine of PHP 300,000 to PHP 400,000. These are penalty bands and not an allowance: the lowest band has no lower limit, so any quantity is an offence. Section 13 imposes "the maximum penalties provided for in Section 11" on anyone found possessing a dangerous drug during a party, social gathering or meeting, or in the proximate company of at least two persons, "regardless of the quantity and purity", which is life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000. Importing or bringing a dangerous drug into the Philippines (section 4) and selling, giving away, delivering, distributing, transporting or brokering one (section 5) each carry life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000 "regardless of the quantity and purity involved", and manufacture (section 8) carries the same penalty. Each applies "unless authorized by law". Use is section 15: after a confirmatory test, a minimum of six months' rehabilitation in a government centre for a first offence, and 6 years and 1 day to 12 years with a fine of PHP 50,000 to PHP 200,000 for a second. RA 9165 prints "life imprisonment to death" in its penalty clauses, among them sections 4, 5, 8, 11 and 16. Republic Act No. 9346 of 24 June 2006 provides in section 1 that "The imposition of the penalty of death is hereby prohibited" and in section 2(b) substitutes life imprisonment where the law violated does not use the nomenclature of the Revised Penal Code, which RA 9165 does not. Section 98 of RA 9165 applies Revised Penal Code nomenclature to a minor offender, "reclusion perpetua to death", so for a minor RA 9346 section 2(a) substitutes reclusion perpetua. No drug offence carries death, and the fines set by RA 9165 are unchanged.
If prescribed / medical: Annex A to Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 maps the 1971 Schedule II to Philippine Schedule 2. Section 31(6) of that Regulation allows a PDEA licensed practitioner to prescribe only FDA registered dangerous drugs. Whether any product containing MDPV is registered with the FDA was not checked for this cell, so no prescription route is asserted.
Documentation: There is no traveller or personal import route. Bringing any dangerous drug into the Philippines unless authorized by law is section 4 of RA 9165, life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000, regardless of the quantity and purity involved.

MDPV in Philippines, full detail →

Memantine

Legal status: Not a dangerous drug on the text read: memantine is not listed in the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, and no Board Regulation adding it appears on the Board's regulations register read on 2 October 2026. This is stated as at the Board's list of 06 July 2025 and the Board's regulations register read at https://ddb.gov.ph/board-regulations/ on 2 October 2026, whose newest entry is Board Regulation No. 5, Series of 2026 and which lists no Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2026, and it does not rule out a later amendment.
Consequences if caught: No RA 9165 penalty attaches while it is unlisted. Searched in all 24 pages of the list: "memantine" 0 hits. Its adamantane structure differs from ketamine and the other listed arylcyclohexylamines. Section 93 lets the Board add a drug after notice and hearing, and under section 93(c) no criminal liability arises for an added drug until fifteen days after the last publication of the notice of that hearing.
If prescribed / medical: It is not a dangerous drug, so the prescription rules of Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 do not govern it. Its status under FDA rules was not read for this cell. Carry any prescription you hold.
Documentation: No dangerous drug document is needed under RA 9165.

Memantine in Philippines, full detail →

Mephedrone (4-MMC)

Legal status: A dangerous drug under RA 9165. Mephedrone is printed as "mephedrone" on page 18 of the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, in its 1971 Schedule II section. It is not among the substances enumerated in the annex to RA 9165, which section 3(j) makes part of the Act. Section 3(1)(a)(i) of Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014, as printed in the Dangerous Drugs Board's copy, requires the Board to issue an implementing Board Regulation for such an addition, and none naming it appears on the register read on 2 October 2026, which lists no Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2026, so its control rests on the Board's own published list, which is how the regulator states it. It is the para-methyl isomer, printed apart from 3-MMC.
Consequences if caught: Possession is section 11, measured "regardless of the degree of purity thereof". It falls in the limb for "other dangerous drugs such as" MDMA, PMA, TMA, LSD and GHB and "those similarly designed or newly introduced drugs and their derivatives, without having any therapeutic value or if the quantity possessed is far beyond therapeutic requirements": 10 grams or more carries life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000; 5 grams or more but less than 10 carries 20 years and 1 day to life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 400,000 to PHP 500,000; less than 5 grams carries 12 years and 1 day to 20 years and a fine of PHP 300,000 to PHP 400,000. These are penalty bands and not an allowance: the lowest band has no lower limit, so any quantity is an offence. Section 13 imposes "the maximum penalties provided for in Section 11" on anyone found possessing a dangerous drug during a party, social gathering or meeting, or in the proximate company of at least two persons, "regardless of the quantity and purity", which is life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000. Importing or bringing a dangerous drug into the Philippines (section 4) and selling, giving away, delivering, distributing, transporting or brokering one (section 5) each carry life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000 "regardless of the quantity and purity involved", and manufacture (section 8) carries the same penalty. Each applies "unless authorized by law". Use is section 15: after a confirmatory test, a minimum of six months' rehabilitation in a government centre for a first offence, and 6 years and 1 day to 12 years with a fine of PHP 50,000 to PHP 200,000 for a second. RA 9165 prints "life imprisonment to death" in its penalty clauses, among them sections 4, 5, 8, 11 and 16. Republic Act No. 9346 of 24 June 2006 provides in section 1 that "The imposition of the penalty of death is hereby prohibited" and in section 2(b) substitutes life imprisonment where the law violated does not use the nomenclature of the Revised Penal Code, which RA 9165 does not. Section 98 of RA 9165 applies Revised Penal Code nomenclature to a minor offender, "reclusion perpetua to death", so for a minor RA 9346 section 2(a) substitutes reclusion perpetua. No drug offence carries death, and the fines set by RA 9165 are unchanged.
If prescribed / medical: Annex A to Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 maps the 1971 Schedule II to Philippine Schedule 2. Section 31(6) of that Regulation allows a PDEA licensed practitioner to prescribe only FDA registered dangerous drugs. Whether any product containing Mephedrone is registered with the FDA was not checked for this cell, so no prescription route is asserted.
Documentation: There is no traveller or personal import route. Bringing any dangerous drug into the Philippines unless authorized by law is section 4 of RA 9165, life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000, regardless of the quantity and purity involved.

Mephedrone (4-MMC) in Philippines, full detail →

Mescaline

Legal status: A dangerous drug under RA 9165. Mescaline is printed as "mescaline" on page 13 of the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, in its 1971 Schedule I section. It is also listed in the annex to RA 9165, which section 3(j) makes "an integral part of this Act".
Consequences if caught: Possession is section 11, measured "regardless of the degree of purity thereof". It falls in the limb for "other dangerous drugs such as" MDMA, PMA, TMA, LSD and GHB and "those similarly designed or newly introduced drugs and their derivatives, without having any therapeutic value or if the quantity possessed is far beyond therapeutic requirements": 10 grams or more carries life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000; 5 grams or more but less than 10 carries 20 years and 1 day to life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 400,000 to PHP 500,000; less than 5 grams carries 12 years and 1 day to 20 years and a fine of PHP 300,000 to PHP 400,000. These are penalty bands and not an allowance: the lowest band has no lower limit, so any quantity is an offence. Section 13 imposes "the maximum penalties provided for in Section 11" on anyone found possessing a dangerous drug during a party, social gathering or meeting, or in the proximate company of at least two persons, "regardless of the quantity and purity", which is life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000. Importing or bringing a dangerous drug into the Philippines (section 4) and selling, giving away, delivering, distributing, transporting or brokering one (section 5) each carry life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000 "regardless of the quantity and purity involved", and manufacture (section 8) carries the same penalty. Each applies "unless authorized by law". Use is section 15: after a confirmatory test, a minimum of six months' rehabilitation in a government centre for a first offence, and 6 years and 1 day to 12 years with a fine of PHP 50,000 to PHP 200,000 for a second. RA 9165 prints "life imprisonment to death" in its penalty clauses, among them sections 4, 5, 8, 11 and 16. Republic Act No. 9346 of 24 June 2006 provides in section 1 that "The imposition of the penalty of death is hereby prohibited" and in section 2(b) substitutes life imprisonment where the law violated does not use the nomenclature of the Revised Penal Code, which RA 9165 does not. Section 98 of RA 9165 applies Revised Penal Code nomenclature to a minor offender, "reclusion perpetua to death", so for a minor RA 9346 section 2(a) substitutes reclusion perpetua. No drug offence carries death, and the fines set by RA 9165 are unchanged.
If prescribed / medical: Annex A to Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 maps the 1971 Schedule I to Philippine Schedule 1, which it describes as having "no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the Philippines". Section 6(16) of that Regulation bars a licence holder from handling a dangerous drug in Philippine Schedule I "unless for the purpose of a research program approved by the Board in conjunction with the Department of Science and Technology, Department of Health, and Food and Drug Administration". There is no prescription route.
Documentation: There is no traveller or personal import route. Bringing any dangerous drug into the Philippines unless authorized by law is section 4 of RA 9165, life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000, regardless of the quantity and purity involved.

Mescaline in Philippines, full detail →

Methadone

Legal status: A dangerous drug under RA 9165. Methadone is printed as "77. METHADONE" on page 7 of the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, in its 1961 Schedule I section. It is also listed in the annex to RA 9165, which section 3(j) makes "an integral part of this Act". It is printed apart from methadone intermediate at entry 78.
Consequences if caught: Possession is section 11, measured "regardless of the degree of purity thereof". It falls in the limb for "other dangerous drugs such as" MDMA, PMA, TMA, LSD and GHB and "those similarly designed or newly introduced drugs and their derivatives, without having any therapeutic value or if the quantity possessed is far beyond therapeutic requirements": 10 grams or more carries life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000; 5 grams or more but less than 10 carries 20 years and 1 day to life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 400,000 to PHP 500,000; less than 5 grams carries 12 years and 1 day to 20 years and a fine of PHP 300,000 to PHP 400,000. These are penalty bands and not an allowance. For a medicine with therapeutic value the Act applies these bands where the drug is held without therapeutic value or in a quantity far beyond therapeutic requirements, as the Board determines; it states no separate band for an unauthorised quantity within therapeutic requirements, and none is asserted here. Section 13 imposes "the maximum penalties provided for in Section 11" on anyone found possessing a dangerous drug during a party, social gathering or meeting, or in the proximate company of at least two persons, "regardless of the quantity and purity", which is life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000. Importing or bringing a dangerous drug into the Philippines (section 4) and selling, giving away, delivering, distributing, transporting or brokering one (section 5) each carry life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000 "regardless of the quantity and purity involved", and manufacture (section 8) carries the same penalty. Each applies "unless authorized by law". Use is section 15: after a confirmatory test, a minimum of six months' rehabilitation in a government centre for a first offence, and 6 years and 1 day to 12 years with a fine of PHP 50,000 to PHP 200,000 for a second. RA 9165 prints "life imprisonment to death" in its penalty clauses, among them sections 4, 5, 8, 11 and 16. Republic Act No. 9346 of 24 June 2006 provides in section 1 that "The imposition of the penalty of death is hereby prohibited" and in section 2(b) substitutes life imprisonment where the law violated does not use the nomenclature of the Revised Penal Code, which RA 9165 does not. Section 98 of RA 9165 applies Revised Penal Code nomenclature to a minor offender, "reclusion perpetua to death", so for a minor RA 9346 section 2(a) substitutes reclusion perpetua. No drug offence carries death, and the fines set by RA 9165 are unchanged.
If prescribed / medical: Annex A to Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 maps the 1961 Schedule I to Philippine Schedule 2. Section 31(6) of that Regulation allows a PDEA licensed practitioner to prescribe only FDA registered dangerous drugs, for up to 30 days' supply per prescription of a Schedule 2, 3 or 4 drug. Whether any product containing methadone is registered with the FDA was not checked for this cell. Board Regulation No. 10, Series of 2025, adopted 26 June 2025, authorizes an S2 licensed practitioner to use "ordinary prescriptions in prescribing any dangerous drug preparations", in three copies, to "effectively address the diseases, illnesses, infections, and symptoms associated with the global health concern on mpox; the regional increase in COVID19; and the local surge in HIV cases"; its section 9 kept it in force "until June 30, 2026", and it takes effect fifteen days after publication and registration. Board Regulation No. 5, Series of 2026, adopted 23 June 2026, extends it "until June 30, 2027" to relieve the "transportation, logistics, and financial burdens of obtaining special prescription forms", but takes effect only "upon its publication in two (2) newspapers of general circulation and its registration", dates the signed copy does not record, so whether the ordinary prescription route is in force today is not established. Board Regulation No. 8, Series of 2019, adopted 17 December 2019, provides a "License to Acquire, Possess, and Use Unregistered Drug Products Containing Dangerous Drugs for Personal Use", for drug products "currently unregistered or in the process of being registered with the FDA but are already registered in FDA reference countries". The patient, or a "parent, spouse, guardian, or relative within the fourth degree of consanguinity or affinity", applies to PDEA, and only for "Diseases covered by RA 10747 or the 'Rare Disease Act of the Philippines'", "Life-threatening and debilitating diseases", "Cancer and other terminal diseases", "Rare forms of neurological conditions", or "Other diseases with limited therapeutic options identified by the Department of Health". It takes effect fifteen days after publication and registration, dates the signed copy does not record. The International Narcotics Control Board's estimated requirement of the Philippines for methadone for 2026, April update, is 2 grams, a nominal figure, so do not expect to fill a prescription for it locally.
Documentation: A patient holding a licence under Board Regulation No. 8, Series of 2019 may bring an unregistered product in by "courier/parcel service or personal transport by patient or authorized family members", as that licence specifies. Otherwise, section 35 of Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 lets a person under treatment who is entering, leaving or passing through the Philippines possess such quantities of a dangerous drug "as are reasonable for the purposes of such treatment", in the words of section 35(1) "wherever prescribed by a valid PDEA S2-licensed physician". The traveller carries a letter from the attending physician, the prescription with trade and generic names for up to 30 days' supply, and the medicine in its original labelled container. Above 30 days' supply the traveller needs certificates of authorization from the competent authority of the home country and from PDEA, requested from PDEA in writing 30 working days before arrival. Whether a prescription written abroad meets section 35(1) is not settled by its text, so confirm with PDEA before travelling. Without that authority the medicine is an imported dangerous drug under section 4 of RA 9165.

Republic Act No. 9165, the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, enrolled text as published by the Dangerous Drugs Board, sections 3(j), 4, 5, 8, 11, 13, 15, 16 and 93 and its annex · ddb.gov.ph · Dangerous Drugs Board, Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, page 7, read on 2 October 2026 · ddb.gov.ph · Republic Act No. 9346, sections 1 and 2, text read at lawphil.net on 2 October 2026 because the Official Gazette refused the request · lawphil.net · Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014, adopted 19 June 2014, sections 6(16), 31 and 35, and its Annex A · ddb.gov.ph · ddb.gov.ph · International Narcotics Control Board, estimated requirements of narcotic drugs for 2026, April update · incb.org · Board Regulation No. 10, Series of 2025, adopted 26 June 2025 · ddb.gov.ph · Board Regulation No. 5, Series of 2026, adopted 23 June 2026 · ddb.gov.ph · Board Regulation No. 8, Series of 2019, adopted 17 December 2019 · ddb.gov.ph · The schedule placement stated in this cell is read from the section heading of the Board's list under which the entry is printed, which is not printed in the quoted entry itself. · Updated October 2, 2026

Methadone in Philippines, full detail →

Methamphetamine

Legal status: A dangerous drug under RA 9165. Methamphetamine is printed as "METAMFETAMINE" on page 18 of the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, in its 1971 Schedule II section, with its racemate and levomethamphetamine as separate entries. Section 11(5) of RA 9165 names "methamphetamine hydrochloride or 'shabu'", and section 3(x) defines that drug as "the drug having such chemical composition, including any of its isomers or derivatives in any form".
Consequences if caught: Possession is section 11, measured "regardless of the degree of purity thereof". For methamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu: 50 grams or more carries life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000; 10 grams or more but less than 50 carries life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 400,000 to PHP 500,000; 5 grams or more but less than 10 carries 20 years and 1 day to life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 400,000 to PHP 500,000; less than 5 grams carries 12 years and 1 day to 20 years and a fine of PHP 300,000 to PHP 400,000. Section 3(x) extends the hydrochloride to "any of its isomers or derivatives in any form"; whether the free base takes these bands or the other dangerous drugs limb is not settled by the text read, and it matters, because for 10 grams or more but less than 50 the other limb's fine is PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000 where this one's is PHP 400,000 to PHP 500,000. These are penalty bands and not an allowance: the lowest band has no lower limit, so any quantity is an offence. Section 13 imposes "the maximum penalties provided for in Section 11" on anyone found possessing a dangerous drug during a party, social gathering or meeting, or in the proximate company of at least two persons, "regardless of the quantity and purity", which is life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000. Importing or bringing a dangerous drug into the Philippines (section 4) and selling, giving away, delivering, distributing, transporting or brokering one (section 5) each carry life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000 "regardless of the quantity and purity involved", and manufacture (section 8) carries the same penalty. Each applies "unless authorized by law". Use is section 15: after a confirmatory test, a minimum of six months' rehabilitation in a government centre for a first offence, and 6 years and 1 day to 12 years with a fine of PHP 50,000 to PHP 200,000 for a second. RA 9165 prints "life imprisonment to death" in its penalty clauses, among them sections 4, 5, 8, 11 and 16. Republic Act No. 9346 of 24 June 2006 provides in section 1 that "The imposition of the penalty of death is hereby prohibited" and in section 2(b) substitutes life imprisonment where the law violated does not use the nomenclature of the Revised Penal Code, which RA 9165 does not. Section 98 of RA 9165 applies Revised Penal Code nomenclature to a minor offender, "reclusion perpetua to death", so for a minor RA 9346 section 2(a) substitutes reclusion perpetua. No drug offence carries death, and the fines set by RA 9165 are unchanged.
If prescribed / medical: Annex A to Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 maps the 1971 Schedule II to Philippine Schedule 2. Section 31(6) of that Regulation allows a PDEA licensed practitioner to prescribe only FDA registered dangerous drugs. Whether any product containing methamphetamine is registered with the FDA was not checked for this cell, so no prescription route is asserted.
Documentation: There is no traveller or personal import route. Bringing any dangerous drug into the Philippines unless authorized by law is section 4 of RA 9165, life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000, regardless of the quantity and purity involved.

Methamphetamine in Philippines, full detail →

Methaqualone (Quaaludes)

Legal status: A dangerous drug under RA 9165. Methaqualone is printed as "METHAQUAL ONE" on page 18 of the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, in its 1971 Schedule II section. It is also listed in the annex to RA 9165, which section 3(j) makes "an integral part of this Act". The list prints the name with a stray space, "METHAQUAL ONE"; the chemical description beside it identifies methaqualone.
Consequences if caught: Possession is section 11, measured "regardless of the degree of purity thereof". It falls in the limb for "other dangerous drugs such as" MDMA, PMA, TMA, LSD and GHB and "those similarly designed or newly introduced drugs and their derivatives, without having any therapeutic value or if the quantity possessed is far beyond therapeutic requirements": 10 grams or more carries life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000; 5 grams or more but less than 10 carries 20 years and 1 day to life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 400,000 to PHP 500,000; less than 5 grams carries 12 years and 1 day to 20 years and a fine of PHP 300,000 to PHP 400,000. These are penalty bands and not an allowance: the lowest band has no lower limit, so any quantity is an offence. Section 13 imposes "the maximum penalties provided for in Section 11" on anyone found possessing a dangerous drug during a party, social gathering or meeting, or in the proximate company of at least two persons, "regardless of the quantity and purity", which is life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000. Importing or bringing a dangerous drug into the Philippines (section 4) and selling, giving away, delivering, distributing, transporting or brokering one (section 5) each carry life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000 "regardless of the quantity and purity involved", and manufacture (section 8) carries the same penalty. Each applies "unless authorized by law". Use is section 15: after a confirmatory test, a minimum of six months' rehabilitation in a government centre for a first offence, and 6 years and 1 day to 12 years with a fine of PHP 50,000 to PHP 200,000 for a second. RA 9165 prints "life imprisonment to death" in its penalty clauses, among them sections 4, 5, 8, 11 and 16. Republic Act No. 9346 of 24 June 2006 provides in section 1 that "The imposition of the penalty of death is hereby prohibited" and in section 2(b) substitutes life imprisonment where the law violated does not use the nomenclature of the Revised Penal Code, which RA 9165 does not. Section 98 of RA 9165 applies Revised Penal Code nomenclature to a minor offender, "reclusion perpetua to death", so for a minor RA 9346 section 2(a) substitutes reclusion perpetua. No drug offence carries death, and the fines set by RA 9165 are unchanged.
If prescribed / medical: Annex A to Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 maps the 1971 Schedule II to Philippine Schedule 2. Section 31(6) of that Regulation allows a PDEA licensed practitioner to prescribe only FDA registered dangerous drugs. Whether any product containing Methaqualone is registered with the FDA was not checked for this cell, so no prescription route is asserted.
Documentation: There is no traveller or personal import route. Bringing any dangerous drug into the Philippines unless authorized by law is section 4 of RA 9165, life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000, regardless of the quantity and purity involved.

Methaqualone (Quaaludes) in Philippines, full detail →

Methylone

Legal status: A dangerous drug under RA 9165. Methylone is printed as "methylone" on page 18 of the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, in its 1971 Schedule II section. It is not among the substances enumerated in the annex to RA 9165, which section 3(j) makes part of the Act. Section 3(1)(a)(i) of Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014, as printed in the Dangerous Drugs Board's copy, requires the Board to issue an implementing Board Regulation for such an addition, and none naming it appears on the register read on 2 October 2026, which lists no Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2026, so its control rests on the Board's own published list, which is how the regulator states it.
Consequences if caught: Possession is section 11, measured "regardless of the degree of purity thereof". It falls in the limb for "other dangerous drugs such as" MDMA, PMA, TMA, LSD and GHB and "those similarly designed or newly introduced drugs and their derivatives, without having any therapeutic value or if the quantity possessed is far beyond therapeutic requirements": 10 grams or more carries life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000; 5 grams or more but less than 10 carries 20 years and 1 day to life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 400,000 to PHP 500,000; less than 5 grams carries 12 years and 1 day to 20 years and a fine of PHP 300,000 to PHP 400,000. These are penalty bands and not an allowance: the lowest band has no lower limit, so any quantity is an offence. Section 13 imposes "the maximum penalties provided for in Section 11" on anyone found possessing a dangerous drug during a party, social gathering or meeting, or in the proximate company of at least two persons, "regardless of the quantity and purity", which is life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000. Importing or bringing a dangerous drug into the Philippines (section 4) and selling, giving away, delivering, distributing, transporting or brokering one (section 5) each carry life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000 "regardless of the quantity and purity involved", and manufacture (section 8) carries the same penalty. Each applies "unless authorized by law". Use is section 15: after a confirmatory test, a minimum of six months' rehabilitation in a government centre for a first offence, and 6 years and 1 day to 12 years with a fine of PHP 50,000 to PHP 200,000 for a second. RA 9165 prints "life imprisonment to death" in its penalty clauses, among them sections 4, 5, 8, 11 and 16. Republic Act No. 9346 of 24 June 2006 provides in section 1 that "The imposition of the penalty of death is hereby prohibited" and in section 2(b) substitutes life imprisonment where the law violated does not use the nomenclature of the Revised Penal Code, which RA 9165 does not. Section 98 of RA 9165 applies Revised Penal Code nomenclature to a minor offender, "reclusion perpetua to death", so for a minor RA 9346 section 2(a) substitutes reclusion perpetua. No drug offence carries death, and the fines set by RA 9165 are unchanged.
If prescribed / medical: Annex A to Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 maps the 1971 Schedule II to Philippine Schedule 2. Section 31(6) of that Regulation allows a PDEA licensed practitioner to prescribe only FDA registered dangerous drugs. Whether any product containing Methylone is registered with the FDA was not checked for this cell, so no prescription route is asserted.
Documentation: There is no traveller or personal import route. Bringing any dangerous drug into the Philippines unless authorized by law is section 4 of RA 9165, life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000, regardless of the quantity and purity involved.

Methylone in Philippines, full detail →

Methylphenidate

Legal status: A dangerous drug under RA 9165. Methylphenidate is printed as "METHYLPHENIDATE" on page 18 of the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, in its 1971 Schedule II section. It is also listed in the annex to RA 9165, which section 3(j) makes "an integral part of this Act".
Consequences if caught: Possession is section 11, measured "regardless of the degree of purity thereof". It falls in the limb for "other dangerous drugs such as" MDMA, PMA, TMA, LSD and GHB and "those similarly designed or newly introduced drugs and their derivatives, without having any therapeutic value or if the quantity possessed is far beyond therapeutic requirements": 10 grams or more carries life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000; 5 grams or more but less than 10 carries 20 years and 1 day to life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 400,000 to PHP 500,000; less than 5 grams carries 12 years and 1 day to 20 years and a fine of PHP 300,000 to PHP 400,000. These are penalty bands and not an allowance. For a medicine with therapeutic value the Act applies these bands where the drug is held without therapeutic value or in a quantity far beyond therapeutic requirements, as the Board determines; it states no separate band for an unauthorised quantity within therapeutic requirements, and none is asserted here. Section 13 imposes "the maximum penalties provided for in Section 11" on anyone found possessing a dangerous drug during a party, social gathering or meeting, or in the proximate company of at least two persons, "regardless of the quantity and purity", which is life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000. Importing or bringing a dangerous drug into the Philippines (section 4) and selling, giving away, delivering, distributing, transporting or brokering one (section 5) each carry life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000 "regardless of the quantity and purity involved", and manufacture (section 8) carries the same penalty. Each applies "unless authorized by law". Use is section 15: after a confirmatory test, a minimum of six months' rehabilitation in a government centre for a first offence, and 6 years and 1 day to 12 years with a fine of PHP 50,000 to PHP 200,000 for a second. RA 9165 prints "life imprisonment to death" in its penalty clauses, among them sections 4, 5, 8, 11 and 16. Republic Act No. 9346 of 24 June 2006 provides in section 1 that "The imposition of the penalty of death is hereby prohibited" and in section 2(b) substitutes life imprisonment where the law violated does not use the nomenclature of the Revised Penal Code, which RA 9165 does not. Section 98 of RA 9165 applies Revised Penal Code nomenclature to a minor offender, "reclusion perpetua to death", so for a minor RA 9346 section 2(a) substitutes reclusion perpetua. No drug offence carries death, and the fines set by RA 9165 are unchanged.
If prescribed / medical: Annex A to Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 maps the 1971 Schedule II to Philippine Schedule 2. Section 31(6) of that Regulation allows a PDEA licensed practitioner to prescribe only FDA registered dangerous drugs, for up to 30 days' supply per prescription of a Schedule 2, 3 or 4 drug. Whether any product containing methylphenidate is registered with the FDA was not checked for this cell. Board Regulation No. 10, Series of 2025, adopted 26 June 2025, authorizes an S2 licensed practitioner to use "ordinary prescriptions in prescribing any dangerous drug preparations", in three copies, to "effectively address the diseases, illnesses, infections, and symptoms associated with the global health concern on mpox; the regional increase in COVID19; and the local surge in HIV cases"; its section 9 kept it in force "until June 30, 2026", and it takes effect fifteen days after publication and registration. Board Regulation No. 5, Series of 2026, adopted 23 June 2026, extends it "until June 30, 2027" to relieve the "transportation, logistics, and financial burdens of obtaining special prescription forms", but takes effect only "upon its publication in two (2) newspapers of general circulation and its registration", dates the signed copy does not record, so whether the ordinary prescription route is in force today is not established. Board Regulation No. 8, Series of 2019, adopted 17 December 2019, provides a "License to Acquire, Possess, and Use Unregistered Drug Products Containing Dangerous Drugs for Personal Use", for drug products "currently unregistered or in the process of being registered with the FDA but are already registered in FDA reference countries". The patient, or a "parent, spouse, guardian, or relative within the fourth degree of consanguinity or affinity", applies to PDEA, and only for "Diseases covered by RA 10747 or the 'Rare Disease Act of the Philippines'", "Life-threatening and debilitating diseases", "Cancer and other terminal diseases", "Rare forms of neurological conditions", or "Other diseases with limited therapeutic options identified by the Department of Health". It takes effect fifteen days after publication and registration, dates the signed copy does not record. The International Narcotics Control Board's assessment of the Philippines' annual requirement for methylphenidate, as at 2 October 2026, is 35,000 grams.
Documentation: A patient holding a licence under Board Regulation No. 8, Series of 2019 may bring an unregistered product in by "courier/parcel service or personal transport by patient or authorized family members", as that licence specifies. Otherwise, section 35 of Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 lets a person under treatment who is entering, leaving or passing through the Philippines possess such quantities of a dangerous drug "as are reasonable for the purposes of such treatment", in the words of section 35(1) "wherever prescribed by a valid PDEA S2-licensed physician". The traveller carries a letter from the attending physician, the prescription with trade and generic names for up to 30 days' supply, and the medicine in its original labelled container. Above 30 days' supply the traveller needs certificates of authorization from the competent authority of the home country and from PDEA, requested from PDEA in writing 30 working days before arrival. Whether a prescription written abroad meets section 35(1) is not settled by its text, so confirm with PDEA before travelling. Without that authority the medicine is an imported dangerous drug under section 4 of RA 9165.

Republic Act No. 9165, the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, enrolled text as published by the Dangerous Drugs Board, sections 3(j), 4, 5, 8, 11, 13, 15, 16 and 93 and its annex · ddb.gov.ph · Dangerous Drugs Board, Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, page 18, read on 2 October 2026 · ddb.gov.ph · Republic Act No. 9346, sections 1 and 2, text read at lawphil.net on 2 October 2026 because the Official Gazette refused the request · lawphil.net · Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014, adopted 19 June 2014, sections 6(16), 31 and 35, and its Annex A · ddb.gov.ph · ddb.gov.ph · International Narcotics Control Board, psychotropics assessments in grams as at 2 October 2026 · incb.org · Board Regulation No. 10, Series of 2025, adopted 26 June 2025 · ddb.gov.ph · Board Regulation No. 5, Series of 2026, adopted 23 June 2026 · ddb.gov.ph · Board Regulation No. 8, Series of 2019, adopted 17 December 2019 · ddb.gov.ph · The schedule placement stated in this cell is read from the section heading of the Board's list under which the entry is printed, which is not printed in the quoted entry itself. · Updated October 2, 2026

Methylphenidate in Philippines, full detail →

Mitragynine

Legal status: Not a dangerous drug on the text read: mitragynine is not listed in the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, and no Board Regulation adding it appears on the Board's regulations register read on 2 October 2026. This is stated as at the Board's list of 06 July 2025 and the Board's regulations register read at https://ddb.gov.ph/board-regulations/ on 2 October 2026, whose newest entry is Board Regulation No. 5, Series of 2026 and which lists no Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2026, and it does not rule out a later amendment.
Consequences if caught: No RA 9165 penalty attaches while it is unlisted. Searched in all 24 pages of the list: "mitragynine" 0 hits; "Mitragyna" 0 hits. No entry names any Mitragyna alkaloid. Section 93 lets the Board add a drug after notice and hearing, and under section 93(c) no criminal liability arises for an added drug until fifteen days after the last publication of the notice of that hearing.
If prescribed / medical: It is not a dangerous drug, so the prescription rules of Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 do not govern it. Its status under FDA rules was not read for this cell.
Documentation: No dangerous drug document is needed.

Mitragynine in Philippines, full detail →

Modafinil

Legal status: Not a dangerous drug on the text read: modafinil is not listed in the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, and no Board Regulation adding it appears on the Board's regulations register read on 2 October 2026. This is stated as at the Board's list of 06 July 2025 and the Board's regulations register read at https://ddb.gov.ph/board-regulations/ on 2 October 2026, whose newest entry is Board Regulation No. 5, Series of 2026 and which lists no Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2026, and it does not rule out a later amendment.
Consequences if caught: No RA 9165 penalty attaches while it is unlisted. Searched in all 24 pages of the list: "modafinil" 0 hits. Methylphenidate, the nearest stimulant medicine listed, is a different structure. Section 93 lets the Board add a drug after notice and hearing, and under section 93(c) no criminal liability arises for an added drug until fifteen days after the last publication of the notice of that hearing.
If prescribed / medical: It is not a dangerous drug, so the prescription rules of Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 do not govern it. Its status under FDA rules was not read for this cell. Carry any prescription you hold.
Documentation: No dangerous drug document is needed under RA 9165.

Modafinil in Philippines, full detail →

Morphine

Legal status: A dangerous drug under RA 9165. Morphine is printed as "89. MORPHINE" on page 8 of the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, in its 1961 Schedule I section, and is named in section 11(2) of RA 9165 without the therapeutic value proviso that qualifies the other drugs limb.
Consequences if caught: Possession is section 11, measured "regardless of the degree of purity thereof". Morphine is named in item 2: 10 grams or more carries life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000; 5 grams or more but less than 10 carries 20 years and 1 day to life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 400,000 to PHP 500,000; less than 5 grams carries 12 years and 1 day to 20 years and a fine of PHP 300,000 to PHP 400,000. These are penalty bands and not an allowance: the lowest band has no lower limit, so any quantity is an offence. Section 13 imposes "the maximum penalties provided for in Section 11" on anyone found possessing a dangerous drug during a party, social gathering or meeting, or in the proximate company of at least two persons, "regardless of the quantity and purity", which is life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000. Importing or bringing a dangerous drug into the Philippines (section 4) and selling, giving away, delivering, distributing, transporting or brokering one (section 5) each carry life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000 "regardless of the quantity and purity involved", and manufacture (section 8) carries the same penalty. Each applies "unless authorized by law". Use is section 15: after a confirmatory test, a minimum of six months' rehabilitation in a government centre for a first offence, and 6 years and 1 day to 12 years with a fine of PHP 50,000 to PHP 200,000 for a second. RA 9165 prints "life imprisonment to death" in its penalty clauses, among them sections 4, 5, 8, 11 and 16. Republic Act No. 9346 of 24 June 2006 provides in section 1 that "The imposition of the penalty of death is hereby prohibited" and in section 2(b) substitutes life imprisonment where the law violated does not use the nomenclature of the Revised Penal Code, which RA 9165 does not. Section 98 of RA 9165 applies Revised Penal Code nomenclature to a minor offender, "reclusion perpetua to death", so for a minor RA 9346 section 2(a) substitutes reclusion perpetua. No drug offence carries death, and the fines set by RA 9165 are unchanged.
If prescribed / medical: Annex A to Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 maps the 1961 Schedules I and II and the 1971 Schedule II to Philippine Schedule 2. Section 31(6) of that Regulation allows a PDEA licensed practitioner to prescribe only FDA registered dangerous drugs, for up to 30 days' supply per prescription of a Schedule 2, 3 or 4 drug. Whether any product containing morphine is registered with the FDA was not checked for this cell. Board Regulation No. 10, Series of 2025, adopted 26 June 2025, authorizes an S2 licensed practitioner to use "ordinary prescriptions in prescribing any dangerous drug preparations", in three copies, to "effectively address the diseases, illnesses, infections, and symptoms associated with the global health concern on mpox; the regional increase in COVID19; and the local surge in HIV cases"; its section 9 kept it in force "until June 30, 2026", and it takes effect fifteen days after publication and registration. Board Regulation No. 5, Series of 2026, adopted 23 June 2026, extends it "until June 30, 2027" to relieve the "transportation, logistics, and financial burdens of obtaining special prescription forms", but takes effect only "upon its publication in two (2) newspapers of general circulation and its registration", dates the signed copy does not record, so whether the ordinary prescription route is in force today is not established. Board Regulation No. 8, Series of 2019, adopted 17 December 2019, provides a "License to Acquire, Possess, and Use Unregistered Drug Products Containing Dangerous Drugs for Personal Use", for drug products "currently unregistered or in the process of being registered with the FDA but are already registered in FDA reference countries". The patient, or a "parent, spouse, guardian, or relative within the fourth degree of consanguinity or affinity", applies to PDEA, and only for "Diseases covered by RA 10747 or the 'Rare Disease Act of the Philippines'", "Life-threatening and debilitating diseases", "Cancer and other terminal diseases", "Rare forms of neurological conditions", or "Other diseases with limited therapeutic options identified by the Department of Health". It takes effect fifteen days after publication and registration, dates the signed copy does not record. The International Narcotics Control Board's estimated requirement of the Philippines for morphine for 2026, April update, is 110,000 grams.
Documentation: A patient holding a licence under Board Regulation No. 8, Series of 2019 may bring an unregistered product in by "courier/parcel service or personal transport by patient or authorized family members", as that licence specifies. Otherwise, section 35 of Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 lets a person under treatment who is entering, leaving or passing through the Philippines possess such quantities of a dangerous drug "as are reasonable for the purposes of such treatment", in the words of section 35(1) "wherever prescribed by a valid PDEA S2-licensed physician". The traveller carries a letter from the attending physician, the prescription with trade and generic names for up to 30 days' supply, and the medicine in its original labelled container. Above 30 days' supply the traveller needs certificates of authorization from the competent authority of the home country and from PDEA, requested from PDEA in writing 30 working days before arrival. Whether a prescription written abroad meets section 35(1) is not settled by its text, so confirm with PDEA before travelling. Without that authority the medicine is an imported dangerous drug under section 4 of RA 9165.

Republic Act No. 9165, the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, enrolled text as published by the Dangerous Drugs Board, sections 3(j), 4, 5, 8, 11, 13, 15, 16 and 93 and its annex · ddb.gov.ph · Dangerous Drugs Board, Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, page 8, read on 2 October 2026 · ddb.gov.ph · Republic Act No. 9346, sections 1 and 2, text read at lawphil.net on 2 October 2026 because the Official Gazette refused the request · lawphil.net · Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014, adopted 19 June 2014, sections 6(16), 31 and 35, and its Annex A · ddb.gov.ph · ddb.gov.ph · International Narcotics Control Board, estimated requirements of narcotic drugs for 2026, April update · incb.org · Board Regulation No. 10, Series of 2025, adopted 26 June 2025 · ddb.gov.ph · Board Regulation No. 5, Series of 2026, adopted 23 June 2026 · ddb.gov.ph · Board Regulation No. 8, Series of 2019, adopted 17 December 2019 · ddb.gov.ph · The schedule placement stated in this cell is read from the section heading of the Board's list under which the entry is printed, which is not printed in the quoted entry itself. · Updated October 2, 2026

Morphine in Philippines, full detail →

MXE

Legal status: A dangerous drug under RA 9165. Board Regulation No. 7, Series of 2016, adopted 8 November 2016, resolves to "include methoxetamine or MXE in the list of dangerous drugs", and it is printed as "methoxetamine, MXE" on page 18 of the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, in its 1971 Schedule II section. The Regulation takes effect fifteen days after publication in newspapers of general circulation and registration with the Office of the National Administrative Register; the signed copy read does not record either date, so its commencement is not established here. Separately, section 93(c) of RA 9165 creates no criminal liability for an added drug until fifteen days after the last publication of the notice of the Board's public hearing.
Consequences if caught: Possession is section 11, measured "regardless of the degree of purity thereof". It falls in the limb for "other dangerous drugs such as" MDMA, PMA, TMA, LSD and GHB and "those similarly designed or newly introduced drugs and their derivatives, without having any therapeutic value or if the quantity possessed is far beyond therapeutic requirements": 10 grams or more carries life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000; 5 grams or more but less than 10 carries 20 years and 1 day to life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 400,000 to PHP 500,000; less than 5 grams carries 12 years and 1 day to 20 years and a fine of PHP 300,000 to PHP 400,000. These are penalty bands and not an allowance: the lowest band has no lower limit, so any quantity is an offence. Section 13 imposes "the maximum penalties provided for in Section 11" on anyone found possessing a dangerous drug during a party, social gathering or meeting, or in the proximate company of at least two persons, "regardless of the quantity and purity", which is life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000. Importing or bringing a dangerous drug into the Philippines (section 4) and selling, giving away, delivering, distributing, transporting or brokering one (section 5) each carry life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000 "regardless of the quantity and purity involved", and manufacture (section 8) carries the same penalty. Each applies "unless authorized by law". Use is section 15: after a confirmatory test, a minimum of six months' rehabilitation in a government centre for a first offence, and 6 years and 1 day to 12 years with a fine of PHP 50,000 to PHP 200,000 for a second. RA 9165 prints "life imprisonment to death" in its penalty clauses, among them sections 4, 5, 8, 11 and 16. Republic Act No. 9346 of 24 June 2006 provides in section 1 that "The imposition of the penalty of death is hereby prohibited" and in section 2(b) substitutes life imprisonment where the law violated does not use the nomenclature of the Revised Penal Code, which RA 9165 does not. Section 98 of RA 9165 applies Revised Penal Code nomenclature to a minor offender, "reclusion perpetua to death", so for a minor RA 9346 section 2(a) substitutes reclusion perpetua. No drug offence carries death, and the fines set by RA 9165 are unchanged.
If prescribed / medical: Annex A to Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 maps the 1971 Schedule II to Philippine Schedule 2. Section 31(6) of that Regulation allows a PDEA licensed practitioner to prescribe only FDA registered dangerous drugs. Whether any product containing MXE is registered with the FDA was not checked for this cell, so no prescription route is asserted.
Documentation: There is no traveller or personal import route. Bringing any dangerous drug into the Philippines unless authorized by law is section 4 of RA 9165, life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000, regardless of the quantity and purity involved.

MXE in Philippines, full detail →

Nicotine

Legal status: Not a dangerous drug on the text read: nicotine is not listed in the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, and no Board Regulation adding it appears on the Board's regulations register read on 2 October 2026. This is stated as at the Board's list of 06 July 2025 and the Board's regulations register read at https://ddb.gov.ph/board-regulations/ on 2 October 2026, whose newest entry is Board Regulation No. 5, Series of 2026 and which lists no Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2026, and it does not rule out a later amendment.
Consequences if caught: No RA 9165 penalty attaches while it is unlisted. Searched in all 24 pages of the list: "nicotine" 0 hits. No entry carries the pyridine and methylpyrrolidine structure of nicotine. Section 93 lets the Board add a drug after notice and hearing, and under section 93(c) no criminal liability arises for an added drug until fifteen days after the last publication of the notice of that hearing.
If prescribed / medical: It is not a dangerous drug, so the prescription rules of Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 do not govern it. Its status under FDA rules was not read for this cell.
Documentation: No dangerous drug document is needed. Tobacco and vapour product rules sit outside RA 9165 and were not read for this cell.

Nicotine in Philippines, full detail →

Nimetazepam

Legal status: A dangerous drug under RA 9165. Nimetazepam is printed as "50. NIMETAZEPAM" on page 22 of the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, in its 1971 Schedule IV section. It is also listed in the annex to RA 9165, which section 3(j) makes "an integral part of this Act". It is printed apart from nitrazepam at entry 51.
Consequences if caught: Possession is section 11, measured "regardless of the degree of purity thereof". It falls in the limb for "other dangerous drugs such as" MDMA, PMA, TMA, LSD and GHB and "those similarly designed or newly introduced drugs and their derivatives, without having any therapeutic value or if the quantity possessed is far beyond therapeutic requirements": 10 grams or more carries life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000; 5 grams or more but less than 10 carries 20 years and 1 day to life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 400,000 to PHP 500,000; less than 5 grams carries 12 years and 1 day to 20 years and a fine of PHP 300,000 to PHP 400,000. These are penalty bands and not an allowance. For a medicine with therapeutic value the Act applies these bands where the drug is held without therapeutic value or in a quantity far beyond therapeutic requirements, as the Board determines; it states no separate band for an unauthorised quantity within therapeutic requirements, and none is asserted here. Section 13 imposes "the maximum penalties provided for in Section 11" on anyone found possessing a dangerous drug during a party, social gathering or meeting, or in the proximate company of at least two persons, "regardless of the quantity and purity", which is life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000. Importing or bringing a dangerous drug into the Philippines (section 4) and selling, giving away, delivering, distributing, transporting or brokering one (section 5) each carry life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000 "regardless of the quantity and purity involved", and manufacture (section 8) carries the same penalty. Each applies "unless authorized by law". Use is section 15: after a confirmatory test, a minimum of six months' rehabilitation in a government centre for a first offence, and 6 years and 1 day to 12 years with a fine of PHP 50,000 to PHP 200,000 for a second. RA 9165 prints "life imprisonment to death" in its penalty clauses, among them sections 4, 5, 8, 11 and 16. Republic Act No. 9346 of 24 June 2006 provides in section 1 that "The imposition of the penalty of death is hereby prohibited" and in section 2(b) substitutes life imprisonment where the law violated does not use the nomenclature of the Revised Penal Code, which RA 9165 does not. Section 98 of RA 9165 applies Revised Penal Code nomenclature to a minor offender, "reclusion perpetua to death", so for a minor RA 9346 section 2(a) substitutes reclusion perpetua. No drug offence carries death, and the fines set by RA 9165 are unchanged.
If prescribed / medical: Annex A to Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 maps the 1971 Schedule IV to Philippine Schedule 4. Section 31(6) of that Regulation allows a PDEA licensed practitioner to prescribe only FDA registered dangerous drugs, for up to 30 days' supply per prescription of a Schedule 2, 3 or 4 drug, and up to 60 days of a Schedule 4 drug for epilepsy and dystonia. Whether any product containing nimetazepam is registered with the FDA was not checked for this cell. Board Regulation No. 10, Series of 2025, adopted 26 June 2025, authorizes an S2 licensed practitioner to use "ordinary prescriptions in prescribing any dangerous drug preparations", in three copies, to "effectively address the diseases, illnesses, infections, and symptoms associated with the global health concern on mpox; the regional increase in COVID19; and the local surge in HIV cases"; its section 9 kept it in force "until June 30, 2026", and it takes effect fifteen days after publication and registration. Board Regulation No. 5, Series of 2026, adopted 23 June 2026, extends it "until June 30, 2027" to relieve the "transportation, logistics, and financial burdens of obtaining special prescription forms", but takes effect only "upon its publication in two (2) newspapers of general circulation and its registration", dates the signed copy does not record, so whether the ordinary prescription route is in force today is not established. Board Regulation No. 8, Series of 2019, adopted 17 December 2019, provides a "License to Acquire, Possess, and Use Unregistered Drug Products Containing Dangerous Drugs for Personal Use", for drug products "currently unregistered or in the process of being registered with the FDA but are already registered in FDA reference countries". The patient, or a "parent, spouse, guardian, or relative within the fourth degree of consanguinity or affinity", applies to PDEA, and only for "Diseases covered by RA 10747 or the 'Rare Disease Act of the Philippines'", "Life-threatening and debilitating diseases", "Cancer and other terminal diseases", "Rare forms of neurological conditions", or "Other diseases with limited therapeutic options identified by the Department of Health". It takes effect fifteen days after publication and registration, dates the signed copy does not record.
Documentation: A patient holding a licence under Board Regulation No. 8, Series of 2019 may bring an unregistered product in by "courier/parcel service or personal transport by patient or authorized family members", as that licence specifies. Otherwise, section 35 of Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 lets a person under treatment who is entering, leaving or passing through the Philippines possess such quantities of a dangerous drug "as are reasonable for the purposes of such treatment", in the words of section 35(1) "wherever prescribed by a valid PDEA S2-licensed physician". The traveller carries a letter from the attending physician, the prescription with trade and generic names for up to 30 days' supply, and the medicine in its original labelled container. Above 30 days' supply the traveller needs certificates of authorization from the competent authority of the home country and from PDEA, requested from PDEA in writing 30 working days before arrival. Whether a prescription written abroad meets section 35(1) is not settled by its text, so confirm with PDEA before travelling. Without that authority the medicine is an imported dangerous drug under section 4 of RA 9165.

Republic Act No. 9165, the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, enrolled text as published by the Dangerous Drugs Board, sections 3(j), 4, 5, 8, 11, 13, 15, 16 and 93 and its annex · ddb.gov.ph · Dangerous Drugs Board, Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, page 22, read on 2 October 2026 · ddb.gov.ph · Republic Act No. 9346, sections 1 and 2, text read at lawphil.net on 2 October 2026 because the Official Gazette refused the request · lawphil.net · Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014, adopted 19 June 2014, sections 6(16), 31 and 35, and its Annex A · ddb.gov.ph · ddb.gov.ph · Board Regulation No. 10, Series of 2025, adopted 26 June 2025 · ddb.gov.ph · Board Regulation No. 5, Series of 2026, adopted 23 June 2026 · ddb.gov.ph · Board Regulation No. 8, Series of 2019, adopted 17 December 2019 · ddb.gov.ph · The schedule placement stated in this cell is read from the section heading of the Board's list under which the entry is printed, which is not printed in the quoted entry itself. · Updated October 2, 2026

Nimetazepam in Philippines, full detail →

Nitrous Oxide

Legal status: Not a dangerous drug on the text read: nitrous oxide is not listed in the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, and no Board Regulation adding it appears on the Board's regulations register read on 2 October 2026. This is stated as at the Board's list of 06 July 2025 and the Board's regulations register read at https://ddb.gov.ph/board-regulations/ on 2 October 2026, whose newest entry is Board Regulation No. 5, Series of 2026 and which lists no Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2026, and it does not rule out a later amendment.
Consequences if caught: No RA 9165 penalty attaches while it is unlisted. Searched in all 24 pages of the list: "nitrous" 0 hits; "dinitrogen" 0 hits; "N2O" 0 hits. A joint statement of the Dangerous Drugs Board and PDEA dated 19 May 2023 says it "is not classified or listed as a controlled or illegal substance under the Republic Act No. 9165" and that the FDA "classified Nitrous Oxide (N2O) as a prescribed medication". Section 93 lets the Board add a drug after notice and hearing, and under section 93(c) no criminal liability arises for an added drug until fifteen days after the last publication of the notice of that hearing. It is not free of penalty. Presidential Decree No. 1619 names "nitrous oxide" among the compounds that make a substance a volatile substance. Section 2 of Presidential Decree No. 1619 of 23 July 1979 punishes "The use or possession of volatile substances for the purpose of inhalation to induce or produce intoxication" with imprisonment of six months and one day to four years and a fine of PHP 600 to PHP 4,000, and section 3 punishes selling, giving away, distributing or transporting such a substance for that purpose with four years and one day to eight years and a fine of PHP 4,000 to PHP 8,000. The Dangerous Drugs Board and PDEA statement of 19 May 2023 names this Decree as one PDEA enforces.
If prescribed / medical: The joint statement of 19 May 2023 records that the FDA classified it as a prescribed medication; FDA rules themselves were not read for this cell.
Documentation: No dangerous drug document is needed under RA 9165, but inhaling it to get high is an offence under Presidential Decree No. 1619, so there is no lawful recreational use.

Nitrous Oxide in Philippines, full detail →

Opium

Legal status: A dangerous drug under RA 9165. Opium is printed as "105. OPIUM* (the coagulated juice of the opium poppy (plant species Papaver somniferum L.)" on page 8 of the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, in its 1961 Schedule I section, and is named in section 11(1) of RA 9165. Section 4 reaches "any and all species of opium poppy or any part thereof or substances derived therefrom even for floral, decorative and culinary purposes".
Consequences if caught: Possession is section 11, measured "regardless of the degree of purity thereof". Opium is named in item 1: 10 grams or more carries life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000; 5 grams or more but less than 10 carries 20 years and 1 day to life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 400,000 to PHP 500,000; less than 5 grams carries 12 years and 1 day to 20 years and a fine of PHP 300,000 to PHP 400,000. These are penalty bands and not an allowance: the lowest band has no lower limit, so any quantity is an offence. Section 13 imposes "the maximum penalties provided for in Section 11" on anyone found possessing a dangerous drug during a party, social gathering or meeting, or in the proximate company of at least two persons, "regardless of the quantity and purity", which is life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000. Importing or bringing a dangerous drug into the Philippines (section 4) and selling, giving away, delivering, distributing, transporting or brokering one (section 5) each carry life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000 "regardless of the quantity and purity involved", and manufacture (section 8) carries the same penalty. Each applies "unless authorized by law". Use is section 15: after a confirmatory test, a minimum of six months' rehabilitation in a government centre for a first offence, and 6 years and 1 day to 12 years with a fine of PHP 50,000 to PHP 200,000 for a second. RA 9165 prints "life imprisonment to death" in its penalty clauses, among them sections 4, 5, 8, 11 and 16. Republic Act No. 9346 of 24 June 2006 provides in section 1 that "The imposition of the penalty of death is hereby prohibited" and in section 2(b) substitutes life imprisonment where the law violated does not use the nomenclature of the Revised Penal Code, which RA 9165 does not. Section 98 of RA 9165 applies Revised Penal Code nomenclature to a minor offender, "reclusion perpetua to death", so for a minor RA 9346 section 2(a) substitutes reclusion perpetua. No drug offence carries death, and the fines set by RA 9165 are unchanged. Cultivating opium poppy is section 16: life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000, regardless of quantity.
If prescribed / medical: Annex A to Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 maps the 1961 Schedules I and II and the 1971 Schedule II to Philippine Schedule 2. Section 31(6) of that Regulation allows a PDEA licensed practitioner to prescribe only FDA registered dangerous drugs, for up to 30 days' supply per prescription of a Schedule 2, 3 or 4 drug. Whether any product containing opium is registered with the FDA was not checked for this cell. Board Regulation No. 10, Series of 2025, adopted 26 June 2025, authorizes an S2 licensed practitioner to use "ordinary prescriptions in prescribing any dangerous drug preparations", in three copies, to "effectively address the diseases, illnesses, infections, and symptoms associated with the global health concern on mpox; the regional increase in COVID19; and the local surge in HIV cases"; its section 9 kept it in force "until June 30, 2026", and it takes effect fifteen days after publication and registration. Board Regulation No. 5, Series of 2026, adopted 23 June 2026, extends it "until June 30, 2027" to relieve the "transportation, logistics, and financial burdens of obtaining special prescription forms", but takes effect only "upon its publication in two (2) newspapers of general circulation and its registration", dates the signed copy does not record, so whether the ordinary prescription route is in force today is not established. Board Regulation No. 8, Series of 2019, adopted 17 December 2019, provides a "License to Acquire, Possess, and Use Unregistered Drug Products Containing Dangerous Drugs for Personal Use", for drug products "currently unregistered or in the process of being registered with the FDA but are already registered in FDA reference countries". The patient, or a "parent, spouse, guardian, or relative within the fourth degree of consanguinity or affinity", applies to PDEA, and only for "Diseases covered by RA 10747 or the 'Rare Disease Act of the Philippines'", "Life-threatening and debilitating diseases", "Cancer and other terminal diseases", "Rare forms of neurological conditions", or "Other diseases with limited therapeutic options identified by the Department of Health". It takes effect fifteen days after publication and registration, dates the signed copy does not record.
Documentation: A patient holding a licence under Board Regulation No. 8, Series of 2019 may bring an unregistered product in by "courier/parcel service or personal transport by patient or authorized family members", as that licence specifies. Otherwise, section 35 of Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 lets a person under treatment who is entering, leaving or passing through the Philippines possess such quantities of a dangerous drug "as are reasonable for the purposes of such treatment", in the words of section 35(1) "wherever prescribed by a valid PDEA S2-licensed physician". The traveller carries a letter from the attending physician, the prescription with trade and generic names for up to 30 days' supply, and the medicine in its original labelled container. Above 30 days' supply the traveller needs certificates of authorization from the competent authority of the home country and from PDEA, requested from PDEA in writing 30 working days before arrival. Whether a prescription written abroad meets section 35(1) is not settled by its text, so confirm with PDEA before travelling. Without that authority the medicine is an imported dangerous drug under section 4 of RA 9165.

Republic Act No. 9165, the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, enrolled text as published by the Dangerous Drugs Board, sections 3(j), 4, 5, 8, 11, 13, 15, 16 and 93 and its annex · ddb.gov.ph · Dangerous Drugs Board, Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, page 8, read on 2 October 2026 · ddb.gov.ph · Republic Act No. 9346, sections 1 and 2, text read at lawphil.net on 2 October 2026 because the Official Gazette refused the request · lawphil.net · Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014, adopted 19 June 2014, sections 6(16), 31 and 35, and its Annex A · ddb.gov.ph · ddb.gov.ph · Board Regulation No. 10, Series of 2025, adopted 26 June 2025 · ddb.gov.ph · Board Regulation No. 5, Series of 2026, adopted 23 June 2026 · ddb.gov.ph · Board Regulation No. 8, Series of 2019, adopted 17 December 2019 · ddb.gov.ph · The schedule placement stated in this cell is read from the section heading of the Board's list under which the entry is printed, which is not printed in the quoted entry itself. · Updated October 2, 2026

Opium in Philippines, full detail →

Oxycodone

Legal status: A dangerous drug under RA 9165. Oxycodone is printed as "108. OXYCODONE" on page 8 of the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, in its 1961 Schedule I section. It is also listed in the annex to RA 9165, which section 3(j) makes "an integral part of this Act".
Consequences if caught: Possession is section 11, measured "regardless of the degree of purity thereof". It falls in the limb for "other dangerous drugs such as" MDMA, PMA, TMA, LSD and GHB and "those similarly designed or newly introduced drugs and their derivatives, without having any therapeutic value or if the quantity possessed is far beyond therapeutic requirements": 10 grams or more carries life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000; 5 grams or more but less than 10 carries 20 years and 1 day to life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 400,000 to PHP 500,000; less than 5 grams carries 12 years and 1 day to 20 years and a fine of PHP 300,000 to PHP 400,000. These are penalty bands and not an allowance. For a medicine with therapeutic value the Act applies these bands where the drug is held without therapeutic value or in a quantity far beyond therapeutic requirements, as the Board determines; it states no separate band for an unauthorised quantity within therapeutic requirements, and none is asserted here. Section 13 imposes "the maximum penalties provided for in Section 11" on anyone found possessing a dangerous drug during a party, social gathering or meeting, or in the proximate company of at least two persons, "regardless of the quantity and purity", which is life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000. Importing or bringing a dangerous drug into the Philippines (section 4) and selling, giving away, delivering, distributing, transporting or brokering one (section 5) each carry life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000 "regardless of the quantity and purity involved", and manufacture (section 8) carries the same penalty. Each applies "unless authorized by law". Use is section 15: after a confirmatory test, a minimum of six months' rehabilitation in a government centre for a first offence, and 6 years and 1 day to 12 years with a fine of PHP 50,000 to PHP 200,000 for a second. RA 9165 prints "life imprisonment to death" in its penalty clauses, among them sections 4, 5, 8, 11 and 16. Republic Act No. 9346 of 24 June 2006 provides in section 1 that "The imposition of the penalty of death is hereby prohibited" and in section 2(b) substitutes life imprisonment where the law violated does not use the nomenclature of the Revised Penal Code, which RA 9165 does not. Section 98 of RA 9165 applies Revised Penal Code nomenclature to a minor offender, "reclusion perpetua to death", so for a minor RA 9346 section 2(a) substitutes reclusion perpetua. No drug offence carries death, and the fines set by RA 9165 are unchanged.
If prescribed / medical: Annex A to Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 maps the 1961 Schedule I to Philippine Schedule 2. Section 31(6) of that Regulation allows a PDEA licensed practitioner to prescribe only FDA registered dangerous drugs, for up to 30 days' supply per prescription of a Schedule 2, 3 or 4 drug. Whether any product containing oxycodone is registered with the FDA was not checked for this cell. Board Regulation No. 10, Series of 2025, adopted 26 June 2025, authorizes an S2 licensed practitioner to use "ordinary prescriptions in prescribing any dangerous drug preparations", in three copies, to "effectively address the diseases, illnesses, infections, and symptoms associated with the global health concern on mpox; the regional increase in COVID19; and the local surge in HIV cases"; its section 9 kept it in force "until June 30, 2026", and it takes effect fifteen days after publication and registration. Board Regulation No. 5, Series of 2026, adopted 23 June 2026, extends it "until June 30, 2027" to relieve the "transportation, logistics, and financial burdens of obtaining special prescription forms", but takes effect only "upon its publication in two (2) newspapers of general circulation and its registration", dates the signed copy does not record, so whether the ordinary prescription route is in force today is not established. Board Regulation No. 8, Series of 2019, adopted 17 December 2019, provides a "License to Acquire, Possess, and Use Unregistered Drug Products Containing Dangerous Drugs for Personal Use", for drug products "currently unregistered or in the process of being registered with the FDA but are already registered in FDA reference countries". The patient, or a "parent, spouse, guardian, or relative within the fourth degree of consanguinity or affinity", applies to PDEA, and only for "Diseases covered by RA 10747 or the 'Rare Disease Act of the Philippines'", "Life-threatening and debilitating diseases", "Cancer and other terminal diseases", "Rare forms of neurological conditions", or "Other diseases with limited therapeutic options identified by the Department of Health". It takes effect fifteen days after publication and registration, dates the signed copy does not record. The International Narcotics Control Board's estimated requirement of the Philippines for oxycodone for 2026, April update, is 2,000 grams.
Documentation: A patient holding a licence under Board Regulation No. 8, Series of 2019 may bring an unregistered product in by "courier/parcel service or personal transport by patient or authorized family members", as that licence specifies. Otherwise, section 35 of Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 lets a person under treatment who is entering, leaving or passing through the Philippines possess such quantities of a dangerous drug "as are reasonable for the purposes of such treatment", in the words of section 35(1) "wherever prescribed by a valid PDEA S2-licensed physician". The traveller carries a letter from the attending physician, the prescription with trade and generic names for up to 30 days' supply, and the medicine in its original labelled container. Above 30 days' supply the traveller needs certificates of authorization from the competent authority of the home country and from PDEA, requested from PDEA in writing 30 working days before arrival. Whether a prescription written abroad meets section 35(1) is not settled by its text, so confirm with PDEA before travelling. Without that authority the medicine is an imported dangerous drug under section 4 of RA 9165.

Republic Act No. 9165, the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, enrolled text as published by the Dangerous Drugs Board, sections 3(j), 4, 5, 8, 11, 13, 15, 16 and 93 and its annex · ddb.gov.ph · Dangerous Drugs Board, Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, page 8, read on 2 October 2026 · ddb.gov.ph · Republic Act No. 9346, sections 1 and 2, text read at lawphil.net on 2 October 2026 because the Official Gazette refused the request · lawphil.net · Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014, adopted 19 June 2014, sections 6(16), 31 and 35, and its Annex A · ddb.gov.ph · ddb.gov.ph · International Narcotics Control Board, estimated requirements of narcotic drugs for 2026, April update · incb.org · Board Regulation No. 10, Series of 2025, adopted 26 June 2025 · ddb.gov.ph · Board Regulation No. 5, Series of 2026, adopted 23 June 2026 · ddb.gov.ph · Board Regulation No. 8, Series of 2019, adopted 17 December 2019 · ddb.gov.ph · The schedule placement stated in this cell is read from the section heading of the Board's list under which the entry is printed, which is not printed in the quoted entry itself. · Updated October 2, 2026

Oxycodone in Philippines, full detail →

PCP

Legal status: A dangerous drug under RA 9165. PCP is printed as "PHENCYCLIDINE" on page 19 of the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, in its 1971 Schedule II section. It is also listed in the annex to RA 9165, which section 3(j) makes "an integral part of this Act". 3-methoxy phencyclidine is printed as a separate entry.
Consequences if caught: Possession is section 11, measured "regardless of the degree of purity thereof". It falls in the limb for "other dangerous drugs such as" MDMA, PMA, TMA, LSD and GHB and "those similarly designed or newly introduced drugs and their derivatives, without having any therapeutic value or if the quantity possessed is far beyond therapeutic requirements": 10 grams or more carries life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000; 5 grams or more but less than 10 carries 20 years and 1 day to life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 400,000 to PHP 500,000; less than 5 grams carries 12 years and 1 day to 20 years and a fine of PHP 300,000 to PHP 400,000. These are penalty bands and not an allowance: the lowest band has no lower limit, so any quantity is an offence. Section 13 imposes "the maximum penalties provided for in Section 11" on anyone found possessing a dangerous drug during a party, social gathering or meeting, or in the proximate company of at least two persons, "regardless of the quantity and purity", which is life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000. Importing or bringing a dangerous drug into the Philippines (section 4) and selling, giving away, delivering, distributing, transporting or brokering one (section 5) each carry life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000 "regardless of the quantity and purity involved", and manufacture (section 8) carries the same penalty. Each applies "unless authorized by law". Use is section 15: after a confirmatory test, a minimum of six months' rehabilitation in a government centre for a first offence, and 6 years and 1 day to 12 years with a fine of PHP 50,000 to PHP 200,000 for a second. RA 9165 prints "life imprisonment to death" in its penalty clauses, among them sections 4, 5, 8, 11 and 16. Republic Act No. 9346 of 24 June 2006 provides in section 1 that "The imposition of the penalty of death is hereby prohibited" and in section 2(b) substitutes life imprisonment where the law violated does not use the nomenclature of the Revised Penal Code, which RA 9165 does not. Section 98 of RA 9165 applies Revised Penal Code nomenclature to a minor offender, "reclusion perpetua to death", so for a minor RA 9346 section 2(a) substitutes reclusion perpetua. No drug offence carries death, and the fines set by RA 9165 are unchanged.
If prescribed / medical: Annex A to Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 maps the 1971 Schedule II to Philippine Schedule 2. Section 31(6) of that Regulation allows a PDEA licensed practitioner to prescribe only FDA registered dangerous drugs. Whether any product containing PCP is registered with the FDA was not checked for this cell, so no prescription route is asserted.
Documentation: There is no traveller or personal import route. Bringing any dangerous drug into the Philippines unless authorized by law is section 4 of RA 9165, life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000, regardless of the quantity and purity involved.

PCP in Philippines, full detail →

Peyote

Legal status: Controlled through its constituent. Peyote is not named as a plant in the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, but "mescaline" is printed on page 13 in its 1971 Schedule I section. Board Regulation No. 3, Series of 2019, adopted 27 June 2019, classifies as dangerous drugs "all plants found containing substances listed in the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, the 1971 Single Convention on Psychotropic Substances and those classified by the Board as dangerous drugs, or are found to be sources thereof, after the conduct of an examination in a laboratory of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, Philippine National Police, or the National Bureau of Investigation, which shall specify the presence of such substance/s". Peyote is caught once a laboratory examination finds mescaline.
Consequences if caught: Possession is section 11, measured "regardless of the degree of purity thereof". It falls in the limb for "other dangerous drugs such as" MDMA, PMA, TMA, LSD and GHB and "those similarly designed or newly introduced drugs and their derivatives, without having any therapeutic value or if the quantity possessed is far beyond therapeutic requirements": 10 grams or more carries life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000; 5 grams or more but less than 10 carries 20 years and 1 day to life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 400,000 to PHP 500,000; less than 5 grams carries 12 years and 1 day to 20 years and a fine of PHP 300,000 to PHP 400,000. These are penalty bands and not an allowance: the lowest band has no lower limit, so any quantity is an offence. Section 13 imposes "the maximum penalties provided for in Section 11" on anyone found possessing a dangerous drug during a party, social gathering or meeting, or in the proximate company of at least two persons, "regardless of the quantity and purity", which is life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000. Importing or bringing a dangerous drug into the Philippines (section 4) and selling, giving away, delivering, distributing, transporting or brokering one (section 5) each carry life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000 "regardless of the quantity and purity involved", and manufacture (section 8) carries the same penalty. Each applies "unless authorized by law". Use is section 15: after a confirmatory test, a minimum of six months' rehabilitation in a government centre for a first offence, and 6 years and 1 day to 12 years with a fine of PHP 50,000 to PHP 200,000 for a second. RA 9165 prints "life imprisonment to death" in its penalty clauses, among them sections 4, 5, 8, 11 and 16. Republic Act No. 9346 of 24 June 2006 provides in section 1 that "The imposition of the penalty of death is hereby prohibited" and in section 2(b) substitutes life imprisonment where the law violated does not use the nomenclature of the Revised Penal Code, which RA 9165 does not. Section 98 of RA 9165 applies Revised Penal Code nomenclature to a minor offender, "reclusion perpetua to death", so for a minor RA 9346 section 2(a) substitutes reclusion perpetua. No drug offence carries death, and the fines set by RA 9165 are unchanged. Cultivating a plant classified as a dangerous drug is section 16: life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000, regardless of quantity.
If prescribed / medical: Annex A to Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 maps the 1971 Schedule I, where mescaline is printed, to Philippine Schedule 1, which it describes as having "no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the Philippines". Section 6(16) of that Regulation bars a licence holder from handling a dangerous drug in Philippine Schedule I "unless for the purpose of a research program approved by the Board in conjunction with the Department of Science and Technology, Department of Health, and Food and Drug Administration". There is no prescription route.
Documentation: There is no traveller or personal import route. Bringing any dangerous drug into the Philippines unless authorized by law is section 4 of RA 9165, life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000, regardless of the quantity and purity involved.

Peyote in Philippines, full detail →

Phenibut

Legal status: Not a dangerous drug on the text read: phenibut is not listed in the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, and no Board Regulation adding it appears on the Board's regulations register read on 2 October 2026. This is stated as at the Board's list of 06 July 2025 and the Board's regulations register read at https://ddb.gov.ph/board-regulations/ on 2 October 2026, whose newest entry is Board Regulation No. 5, Series of 2026 and which lists no Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2026, and it does not rule out a later amendment.
Consequences if caught: No RA 9165 penalty attaches while it is unlisted. Searched in all 24 pages of the list: "phenibut" 0 hits; "phenyl-GABA" 0 hits. GHB, the nearest listed depressant, is a different compound. Section 93 lets the Board add a drug after notice and hearing, and under section 93(c) no criminal liability arises for an added drug until fifteen days after the last publication of the notice of that hearing.
If prescribed / medical: It is not a dangerous drug, so the prescription rules of Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 do not govern it. Its status under FDA rules was not read for this cell.
Documentation: No dangerous drug document is needed under RA 9165.

Phenibut in Philippines, full detail →

Pink Cocaine / Tusi

Legal status: Pink cocaine is treated through its constituents, and where those are MDMA or ketamine each is controlled. Pink cocaine is a market name for a powder of varying make, often ketamine with MDMA, and has no entry of its own in the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025. MDMA is printed on page 13 in its 1971 Schedule I section, and ketamine is a dangerous drug by Board Regulation No. 3, Series of 2005. The constituents must be identified before a schedule and penalty can be assigned.
Consequences if caught: The penalty follows each constituent identified, and a buyer cannot know them at purchase. Possession is section 11, measured "regardless of the degree of purity thereof". It falls in the limb for "other dangerous drugs such as" MDMA, PMA, TMA, LSD and GHB and "those similarly designed or newly introduced drugs and their derivatives, without having any therapeutic value or if the quantity possessed is far beyond therapeutic requirements": 10 grams or more carries life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000; 5 grams or more but less than 10 carries 20 years and 1 day to life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 400,000 to PHP 500,000; less than 5 grams carries 12 years and 1 day to 20 years and a fine of PHP 300,000 to PHP 400,000. These are penalty bands and not an allowance: the lowest band has no lower limit, so any quantity is an offence. MDMA is also named in section 11(8). Section 13 imposes "the maximum penalties provided for in Section 11" on anyone found possessing a dangerous drug during a party, social gathering or meeting, or in the proximate company of at least two persons, "regardless of the quantity and purity", which is life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000. Importing or bringing a dangerous drug into the Philippines (section 4) and selling, giving away, delivering, distributing, transporting or brokering one (section 5) each carry life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000 "regardless of the quantity and purity involved", and manufacture (section 8) carries the same penalty. Each applies "unless authorized by law". Use is section 15: after a confirmatory test, a minimum of six months' rehabilitation in a government centre for a first offence, and 6 years and 1 day to 12 years with a fine of PHP 50,000 to PHP 200,000 for a second. RA 9165 prints "life imprisonment to death" in its penalty clauses, among them sections 4, 5, 8, 11 and 16. Republic Act No. 9346 of 24 June 2006 provides in section 1 that "The imposition of the penalty of death is hereby prohibited" and in section 2(b) substitutes life imprisonment where the law violated does not use the nomenclature of the Revised Penal Code, which RA 9165 does not. Section 98 of RA 9165 applies Revised Penal Code nomenclature to a minor offender, "reclusion perpetua to death", so for a minor RA 9346 section 2(a) substitutes reclusion perpetua. No drug offence carries death, and the fines set by RA 9165 are unchanged.
If prescribed / medical: No product sold as pink cocaine is a medicine. MDMA falls in Philippine Schedule 1, with no currently accepted medical use, and ketamine's narrow prescription exception covers only a licensed practitioner's prescription of a qualifying preparation.
Documentation: There is no traveller or personal import route. Bringing any dangerous drug into the Philippines unless authorized by law is section 4 of RA 9165, life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000, regardless of the quantity and purity involved.

Pink Cocaine / Tusi in Philippines, full detail →

Poppers

Legal status: Not a dangerous drug on the text read: the alkyl nitrites sold as poppers are not listed in the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, and no Board Regulation adding one appears on the Board's regulations register read on 2 October 2026. This is stated as at the Board's list of 06 July 2025 and the Board's regulations register read at https://ddb.gov.ph/board-regulations/ on 2 October 2026, whose newest entry is Board Regulation No. 5, Series of 2026 and which lists no Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2026, and it does not rule out a later amendment.
Consequences if caught: No RA 9165 penalty attaches while it is unlisted. Searched in all 24 pages of the list: "nitrite" 0 hits; "poppers" 0 hits. Poppers is a product label for several alkyl nitrites, and no alkyl nitrite is printed in the list, so none of them is a dangerous drug on the text read. Section 93 lets the Board add a drug after notice and hearing, and under section 93(c) no criminal liability arises for an added drug until fifteen days after the last publication of the notice of that hearing. That is not the same as free of penalty. The Decree's list of compounds names "isoamyl nitrate", a different compound from amyl nitrite, and closes with "any other chemical substance which when sniffed, smelled, inhaled, or introduced into the physiological system of the body produces or induces a condition of intoxication"; alkyl nitrites inhaled to get high fall within those words on their face, though no ruling applying them was read, and applying section 3, which speaks of compounds "mentioned in Section one", to them is a further reading. Section 2 of Presidential Decree No. 1619 of 23 July 1979 punishes "The use or possession of volatile substances for the purpose of inhalation to induce or produce intoxication" with imprisonment of six months and one day to four years and a fine of PHP 600 to PHP 4,000, and section 3 punishes selling, giving away, distributing or transporting such a substance for that purpose with four years and one day to eight years and a fine of PHP 4,000 to PHP 8,000. The Dangerous Drugs Board and PDEA statement of 19 May 2023 names this Decree as one PDEA enforces.
If prescribed / medical: It is not a dangerous drug, so the prescription rules of Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 do not govern it. Its status under FDA rules was not read for this cell.
Documentation: No dangerous drug document is needed under RA 9165. Inhaling poppers to get high may fall within the catch-all words of Presidential Decree No. 1619; no ruling applying them was read.

Poppers in Philippines, full detail →

Pregabalin

Legal status: Not a dangerous drug on the text read: pregabalin is not listed in the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, and no Board Regulation adding it appears on the Board's regulations register read on 2 October 2026. This is stated as at the Board's list of 06 July 2025 and the Board's regulations register read at https://ddb.gov.ph/board-regulations/ on 2 October 2026, whose newest entry is Board Regulation No. 5, Series of 2026 and which lists no Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2026, and it does not rule out a later amendment.
Consequences if caught: No RA 9165 penalty attaches while it is unlisted. Searched in all 24 pages of the list: "pregabalin" 0 hits; "Lyrica" 0 hits. Gabapentin, a different ingredient, is not listed either. Section 93 lets the Board add a drug after notice and hearing, and under section 93(c) no criminal liability arises for an added drug until fifteen days after the last publication of the notice of that hearing.
If prescribed / medical: It is not a dangerous drug, so the prescription rules of Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 do not govern it. Its status under FDA rules was not read for this cell. Carry any prescription you hold.
Documentation: No dangerous drug document is needed under RA 9165.

Pregabalin in Philippines, full detail →

Psilocybin

Legal status: A dangerous drug under RA 9165. Psilocybin is printed as "PSILOCYBINE" on page 14 of the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, in its 1971 Schedule I section. It is also listed in the annex to RA 9165, which section 3(j) makes "an integral part of this Act". Psilocine is printed as a separate entry on the same page.
Consequences if caught: Possession is section 11, measured "regardless of the degree of purity thereof". It falls in the limb for "other dangerous drugs such as" MDMA, PMA, TMA, LSD and GHB and "those similarly designed or newly introduced drugs and their derivatives, without having any therapeutic value or if the quantity possessed is far beyond therapeutic requirements": 10 grams or more carries life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000; 5 grams or more but less than 10 carries 20 years and 1 day to life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 400,000 to PHP 500,000; less than 5 grams carries 12 years and 1 day to 20 years and a fine of PHP 300,000 to PHP 400,000. These are penalty bands and not an allowance: the lowest band has no lower limit, so any quantity is an offence. Section 13 imposes "the maximum penalties provided for in Section 11" on anyone found possessing a dangerous drug during a party, social gathering or meeting, or in the proximate company of at least two persons, "regardless of the quantity and purity", which is life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000. Importing or bringing a dangerous drug into the Philippines (section 4) and selling, giving away, delivering, distributing, transporting or brokering one (section 5) each carry life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000 "regardless of the quantity and purity involved", and manufacture (section 8) carries the same penalty. Each applies "unless authorized by law". Use is section 15: after a confirmatory test, a minimum of six months' rehabilitation in a government centre for a first offence, and 6 years and 1 day to 12 years with a fine of PHP 50,000 to PHP 200,000 for a second. RA 9165 prints "life imprisonment to death" in its penalty clauses, among them sections 4, 5, 8, 11 and 16. Republic Act No. 9346 of 24 June 2006 provides in section 1 that "The imposition of the penalty of death is hereby prohibited" and in section 2(b) substitutes life imprisonment where the law violated does not use the nomenclature of the Revised Penal Code, which RA 9165 does not. Section 98 of RA 9165 applies Revised Penal Code nomenclature to a minor offender, "reclusion perpetua to death", so for a minor RA 9346 section 2(a) substitutes reclusion perpetua. No drug offence carries death, and the fines set by RA 9165 are unchanged.
If prescribed / medical: Annex A to Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 maps the 1971 Schedule I to Philippine Schedule 1, which it describes as having "no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the Philippines". Section 6(16) of that Regulation bars a licence holder from handling a dangerous drug in Philippine Schedule I "unless for the purpose of a research program approved by the Board in conjunction with the Department of Science and Technology, Department of Health, and Food and Drug Administration". There is no prescription route.
Documentation: There is no traveller or personal import route. Bringing any dangerous drug into the Philippines unless authorized by law is section 4 of RA 9165, life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000, regardless of the quantity and purity involved.

Psilocybin in Philippines, full detail →

Quetiapine

Legal status: Not a dangerous drug on the text read: quetiapine is not listed in the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, and no Board Regulation adding it appears on the Board's regulations register read on 2 October 2026. This is stated as at the Board's list of 06 July 2025 and the Board's regulations register read at https://ddb.gov.ph/board-regulations/ on 2 October 2026, whose newest entry is Board Regulation No. 5, Series of 2026 and which lists no Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2026, and it does not rule out a later amendment.
Consequences if caught: No RA 9165 penalty attaches while it is unlisted. Searched in all 24 pages of the list: "quetiapine" 0 hits; "Seroquel" 0 hits. The listed benzodiazepines are a different class from this dibenzothiazepine antipsychotic. Section 93 lets the Board add a drug after notice and hearing, and under section 93(c) no criminal liability arises for an added drug until fifteen days after the last publication of the notice of that hearing.
If prescribed / medical: It is not a dangerous drug, so the prescription rules of Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 do not govern it. Its status under FDA rules was not read for this cell. Carry any prescription you hold.
Documentation: No dangerous drug document is needed under RA 9165.

Quetiapine in Philippines, full detail →

Salvia divinorum

Legal status: A dangerous drug under RA 9165, by a national listing. Board Regulation No. 3, Series of 2015, adopted 9 September 2015, classifies Salvia divinorum, its resin, extract, tinctures and other forms and any part of it as a dangerous drug, and it appears on page 24 of the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025 among the Board's national additions. The plant itself is named, so control does not depend on a test for salvinorin A. The Regulation takes effect fifteen days after publication in newspapers of general circulation and registration with the Office of the National Administrative Register; the signed copy read does not record either date, so its commencement is not established here. Separately, section 93(c) of RA 9165 creates no criminal liability for an added drug until fifteen days after the last publication of the notice of the Board's public hearing.
Consequences if caught: Possession is section 11, measured "regardless of the degree of purity thereof". It falls in the limb for "other dangerous drugs such as" MDMA, PMA, TMA, LSD and GHB and "those similarly designed or newly introduced drugs and their derivatives, without having any therapeutic value or if the quantity possessed is far beyond therapeutic requirements": 10 grams or more carries life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000; 5 grams or more but less than 10 carries 20 years and 1 day to life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 400,000 to PHP 500,000; less than 5 grams carries 12 years and 1 day to 20 years and a fine of PHP 300,000 to PHP 400,000. These are penalty bands and not an allowance: the lowest band has no lower limit, so any quantity is an offence. Section 13 imposes "the maximum penalties provided for in Section 11" on anyone found possessing a dangerous drug during a party, social gathering or meeting, or in the proximate company of at least two persons, "regardless of the quantity and purity", which is life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000. Importing or bringing a dangerous drug into the Philippines (section 4) and selling, giving away, delivering, distributing, transporting or brokering one (section 5) each carry life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000 "regardless of the quantity and purity involved", and manufacture (section 8) carries the same penalty. Each applies "unless authorized by law". Use is section 15: after a confirmatory test, a minimum of six months' rehabilitation in a government centre for a first offence, and 6 years and 1 day to 12 years with a fine of PHP 50,000 to PHP 200,000 for a second. RA 9165 prints "life imprisonment to death" in its penalty clauses, among them sections 4, 5, 8, 11 and 16. Republic Act No. 9346 of 24 June 2006 provides in section 1 that "The imposition of the penalty of death is hereby prohibited" and in section 2(b) substitutes life imprisonment where the law violated does not use the nomenclature of the Revised Penal Code, which RA 9165 does not. Section 98 of RA 9165 applies Revised Penal Code nomenclature to a minor offender, "reclusion perpetua to death", so for a minor RA 9346 section 2(a) substitutes reclusion perpetua. No drug offence carries death, and the fines set by RA 9165 are unchanged. Cultivating it is section 16: life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000, regardless of quantity.
If prescribed / medical: Section 2(2) of Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 places the Board's own national additions in Philippine Schedule 5. No medicine containing Salvia divinorum was found and no prescription route is asserted.
Documentation: There is no traveller or personal import route. Bringing any dangerous drug into the Philippines unless authorized by law is section 4 of RA 9165, life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000, regardless of the quantity and purity involved.

Salvia divinorum in Philippines, full detail →

Scopolamine (Devil's Breath)

Legal status: Not a dangerous drug on the text read: scopolamine (hyoscine) is not listed in the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, and no Board Regulation adding it appears on the Board's regulations register read on 2 October 2026. This is stated as at the Board's list of 06 July 2025 and the Board's regulations register read at https://ddb.gov.ph/board-regulations/ on 2 October 2026, whose newest entry is Board Regulation No. 5, Series of 2026 and which lists no Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2026, and it does not rule out a later amendment.
Consequences if caught: No RA 9165 penalty attaches while it is unlisted. Searched in all 24 pages of the list: "scopolamine" 0 hits; "hyoscine" 0 hits. Atropine appears only as an ingredient of exempt preparations, and is a different substance. Section 93 lets the Board add a drug after notice and hearing, and under section 93(c) no criminal liability arises for an added drug until fifteen days after the last publication of the notice of that hearing.
If prescribed / medical: It is not a dangerous drug, so the prescription rules of Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 do not govern it. Its status under FDA rules was not read for this cell.
Documentation: No dangerous drug document is needed under RA 9165.

Scopolamine (Devil's Breath) in Philippines, full detail →

Synthetic Cannabinoids (K2 / Spice)

Legal status: Treated by named compound, with no class rule. The Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025 names synthetic cannabinoids one by one in its 1971 Schedule II section, among them "JWH-018, AM-678" on page 17, "MDMB-CHMICA" on page 18 and "AB-PINACA" and "MDMB-4enPINACA" on page 19. Board Regulation No. 13, Series of 2025, adopted 15 September 2025, names Schedule II in its subject line and, in its operative paragraph, places MDMB-4en-PINACA "in Schedule II of the Convention on Psychotropic Substances of 1971", while the Board's regulations register titles it "Schedule I"; the signed text is followed here and the conflict is left visible. Board Regulation No. 4, Series of 2026, adopted 23 June 2026, adds MDMB-FUBINACA. A cannabinoid not named in the list or a Regulation is not reached by the label.
Consequences if caught: Possession is section 11, measured "regardless of the degree of purity thereof". It falls in the limb for "other dangerous drugs such as" MDMA, PMA, TMA, LSD and GHB and "those similarly designed or newly introduced drugs and their derivatives, without having any therapeutic value or if the quantity possessed is far beyond therapeutic requirements": 10 grams or more carries life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000; 5 grams or more but less than 10 carries 20 years and 1 day to life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 400,000 to PHP 500,000; less than 5 grams carries 12 years and 1 day to 20 years and a fine of PHP 300,000 to PHP 400,000. These are penalty bands and not an allowance: the lowest band has no lower limit, so any quantity is an offence. Section 13 imposes "the maximum penalties provided for in Section 11" on anyone found possessing a dangerous drug during a party, social gathering or meeting, or in the proximate company of at least two persons, "regardless of the quantity and purity", which is life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000. Importing or bringing a dangerous drug into the Philippines (section 4) and selling, giving away, delivering, distributing, transporting or brokering one (section 5) each carry life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000 "regardless of the quantity and purity involved", and manufacture (section 8) carries the same penalty. Each applies "unless authorized by law". Use is section 15: after a confirmatory test, a minimum of six months' rehabilitation in a government centre for a first offence, and 6 years and 1 day to 12 years with a fine of PHP 50,000 to PHP 200,000 for a second. RA 9165 prints "life imprisonment to death" in its penalty clauses, among them sections 4, 5, 8, 11 and 16. Republic Act No. 9346 of 24 June 2006 provides in section 1 that "The imposition of the penalty of death is hereby prohibited" and in section 2(b) substitutes life imprisonment where the law violated does not use the nomenclature of the Revised Penal Code, which RA 9165 does not. Section 98 of RA 9165 applies Revised Penal Code nomenclature to a minor offender, "reclusion perpetua to death", so for a minor RA 9346 section 2(a) substitutes reclusion perpetua. No drug offence carries death, and the fines set by RA 9165 are unchanged. The penalty follows the compound actually identified.
If prescribed / medical: Annex A to Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 maps the 1971 Schedule II to Philippine Schedule 2. Section 31(6) of that Regulation allows a PDEA licensed practitioner to prescribe only FDA registered dangerous drugs. Whether any product containing these compounds is registered with the FDA was not checked for this cell, so no prescription route is asserted.
Documentation: There is no traveller or personal import route. Bringing any dangerous drug into the Philippines unless authorized by law is section 4 of RA 9165, life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000, regardless of the quantity and purity involved.

Republic Act No. 9165, the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, enrolled text as published by the Dangerous Drugs Board, sections 3(j), 4, 5, 8, 11, 13, 15, 16 and 93 and its annex · ddb.gov.ph · Dangerous Drugs Board, Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, pages 17 to 19, read on 2 October 2026 · ddb.gov.ph · Republic Act No. 9346, sections 1 and 2, text read at lawphil.net on 2 October 2026 because the Official Gazette refused the request · lawphil.net · Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014, adopted 19 June 2014, sections 6(16), 31 and 35, and its Annex A · ddb.gov.ph · ddb.gov.ph · Board Regulation No. 13, Series of 2025, adopted 15 September 2025 · ddb.gov.ph · Board Regulation No. 4, Series of 2026, adopted 23 June 2026 · ddb.gov.ph · The schedule placement stated in this cell is read from the section heading of the Board's list under which the entry is printed, which is not printed in the quoted entry itself. · Updated October 2, 2026

Synthetic Cannabinoids (K2 / Spice) in Philippines, full detail →

Tobacco

Legal status: Not a dangerous drug on the text read: tobacco is not listed in the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, and no Board Regulation adding it appears on the Board's regulations register read on 2 October 2026. This is stated as at the Board's list of 06 July 2025 and the Board's regulations register read at https://ddb.gov.ph/board-regulations/ on 2 October 2026, whose newest entry is Board Regulation No. 5, Series of 2026 and which lists no Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2026, and it does not rule out a later amendment.
Consequences if caught: No RA 9165 penalty attaches while it is unlisted. Searched in all 24 pages of the list: "tobacco" 0 hits; "nicotine" 0 hits; "Nicotiana" 0 hits. Neither the plant nor its alkaloid is printed, and Board Regulation No. 3, Series of 2019 reaches a plant only through a listed substance found in it. Section 93 lets the Board add a drug after notice and hearing, and under section 93(c) no criminal liability arises for an added drug until fifteen days after the last publication of the notice of that hearing.
If prescribed / medical: Not a medicine question for this site.
Documentation: No dangerous drug document is needed. Tobacco tax, age and sale rules sit outside RA 9165 and were not read for this cell.

Tobacco in Philippines, full detail →

Tramadol

Legal status: Not a dangerous drug on the text read: tramadol is not listed in the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, and no Board Regulation adding it appears on the Board's regulations register read on 2 October 2026. This is stated as at the Board's list of 06 July 2025 and the Board's regulations register read at https://ddb.gov.ph/board-regulations/ on 2 October 2026, whose newest entry is Board Regulation No. 5, Series of 2026 and which lists no Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2026, and it does not rule out a later amendment.
Consequences if caught: No RA 9165 penalty attaches while it is unlisted. Searched in all 24 pages of the list: "tramadol" 0 hits; "Tramal" 0 hits. None of the listed opioids, among them methadone and morphine, is tramadol. Section 93 lets the Board add a drug after notice and hearing, and under section 93(c) no criminal liability arises for an added drug until fifteen days after the last publication of the notice of that hearing.
If prescribed / medical: It is not a dangerous drug, so the prescription rules of Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 do not govern it. Its status under FDA rules was not read for this cell. Carry any prescription you hold.
Documentation: No dangerous drug document is needed under RA 9165. Medicine import rules under other laws were not read for this cell.

Tramadol in Philippines, full detail →

Xanax (Alprazolam)

Legal status: A dangerous drug under RA 9165. Alprazolam is printed as "2. ALPRAZOLAM" on page 21 of the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, in its 1971 Schedule IV section. It is also listed in the annex to RA 9165, which section 3(j) makes "an integral part of this Act".
Consequences if caught: Possession is section 11, measured "regardless of the degree of purity thereof". It falls in the limb for "other dangerous drugs such as" MDMA, PMA, TMA, LSD and GHB and "those similarly designed or newly introduced drugs and their derivatives, without having any therapeutic value or if the quantity possessed is far beyond therapeutic requirements": 10 grams or more carries life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000; 5 grams or more but less than 10 carries 20 years and 1 day to life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 400,000 to PHP 500,000; less than 5 grams carries 12 years and 1 day to 20 years and a fine of PHP 300,000 to PHP 400,000. These are penalty bands and not an allowance. For a medicine with therapeutic value the Act applies these bands where the drug is held without therapeutic value or in a quantity far beyond therapeutic requirements, as the Board determines; it states no separate band for an unauthorised quantity within therapeutic requirements, and none is asserted here. Section 13 imposes "the maximum penalties provided for in Section 11" on anyone found possessing a dangerous drug during a party, social gathering or meeting, or in the proximate company of at least two persons, "regardless of the quantity and purity", which is life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000. Importing or bringing a dangerous drug into the Philippines (section 4) and selling, giving away, delivering, distributing, transporting or brokering one (section 5) each carry life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000 "regardless of the quantity and purity involved", and manufacture (section 8) carries the same penalty. Each applies "unless authorized by law". Use is section 15: after a confirmatory test, a minimum of six months' rehabilitation in a government centre for a first offence, and 6 years and 1 day to 12 years with a fine of PHP 50,000 to PHP 200,000 for a second. RA 9165 prints "life imprisonment to death" in its penalty clauses, among them sections 4, 5, 8, 11 and 16. Republic Act No. 9346 of 24 June 2006 provides in section 1 that "The imposition of the penalty of death is hereby prohibited" and in section 2(b) substitutes life imprisonment where the law violated does not use the nomenclature of the Revised Penal Code, which RA 9165 does not. Section 98 of RA 9165 applies Revised Penal Code nomenclature to a minor offender, "reclusion perpetua to death", so for a minor RA 9346 section 2(a) substitutes reclusion perpetua. No drug offence carries death, and the fines set by RA 9165 are unchanged.
If prescribed / medical: Annex A to Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 maps the 1971 Schedule IV to Philippine Schedule 4. Section 31(6) of that Regulation allows a PDEA licensed practitioner to prescribe only FDA registered dangerous drugs, for up to 30 days' supply per prescription of a Schedule 2, 3 or 4 drug, and up to 60 days of a Schedule 4 drug for epilepsy and dystonia. Whether any product containing alprazolam is registered with the FDA was not checked for this cell. Board Regulation No. 10, Series of 2025, adopted 26 June 2025, authorizes an S2 licensed practitioner to use "ordinary prescriptions in prescribing any dangerous drug preparations", in three copies, to "effectively address the diseases, illnesses, infections, and symptoms associated with the global health concern on mpox; the regional increase in COVID19; and the local surge in HIV cases"; its section 9 kept it in force "until June 30, 2026", and it takes effect fifteen days after publication and registration. Board Regulation No. 5, Series of 2026, adopted 23 June 2026, extends it "until June 30, 2027" to relieve the "transportation, logistics, and financial burdens of obtaining special prescription forms", but takes effect only "upon its publication in two (2) newspapers of general circulation and its registration", dates the signed copy does not record, so whether the ordinary prescription route is in force today is not established. Board Regulation No. 8, Series of 2019, adopted 17 December 2019, provides a "License to Acquire, Possess, and Use Unregistered Drug Products Containing Dangerous Drugs for Personal Use", for drug products "currently unregistered or in the process of being registered with the FDA but are already registered in FDA reference countries". The patient, or a "parent, spouse, guardian, or relative within the fourth degree of consanguinity or affinity", applies to PDEA, and only for "Diseases covered by RA 10747 or the 'Rare Disease Act of the Philippines'", "Life-threatening and debilitating diseases", "Cancer and other terminal diseases", "Rare forms of neurological conditions", or "Other diseases with limited therapeutic options identified by the Department of Health". It takes effect fifteen days after publication and registration, dates the signed copy does not record. The International Narcotics Control Board's assessment of the Philippines' annual requirement for alprazolam, as at 2 October 2026, is 3,000 grams.
Documentation: A patient holding a licence under Board Regulation No. 8, Series of 2019 may bring an unregistered product in by "courier/parcel service or personal transport by patient or authorized family members", as that licence specifies. Otherwise, section 35 of Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 lets a person under treatment who is entering, leaving or passing through the Philippines possess such quantities of a dangerous drug "as are reasonable for the purposes of such treatment", in the words of section 35(1) "wherever prescribed by a valid PDEA S2-licensed physician". The traveller carries a letter from the attending physician, the prescription with trade and generic names for up to 30 days' supply, and the medicine in its original labelled container. Above 30 days' supply the traveller needs certificates of authorization from the competent authority of the home country and from PDEA, requested from PDEA in writing 30 working days before arrival. Whether a prescription written abroad meets section 35(1) is not settled by its text, so confirm with PDEA before travelling. Without that authority the medicine is an imported dangerous drug under section 4 of RA 9165.

Republic Act No. 9165, the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, enrolled text as published by the Dangerous Drugs Board, sections 3(j), 4, 5, 8, 11, 13, 15, 16 and 93 and its annex · ddb.gov.ph · Dangerous Drugs Board, Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, page 21, read on 2 October 2026 · ddb.gov.ph · Republic Act No. 9346, sections 1 and 2, text read at lawphil.net on 2 October 2026 because the Official Gazette refused the request · lawphil.net · Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014, adopted 19 June 2014, sections 6(16), 31 and 35, and its Annex A · ddb.gov.ph · ddb.gov.ph · International Narcotics Control Board, psychotropics assessments in grams as at 2 October 2026 · incb.org · Board Regulation No. 10, Series of 2025, adopted 26 June 2025 · ddb.gov.ph · Board Regulation No. 5, Series of 2026, adopted 23 June 2026 · ddb.gov.ph · Board Regulation No. 8, Series of 2019, adopted 17 December 2019 · ddb.gov.ph · The schedule placement stated in this cell is read from the section heading of the Board's list under which the entry is printed, which is not printed in the quoted entry itself. · Updated October 2, 2026

Xanax (Alprazolam) in Philippines, full detail →

Xylazine

Legal status: Not a dangerous drug on the text read: xylazine is not listed in the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, and no Board Regulation adding it appears on the Board's regulations register read on 2 October 2026. This is stated as at the Board's list of 06 July 2025 and the Board's regulations register read at https://ddb.gov.ph/board-regulations/ on 2 October 2026, whose newest entry is Board Regulation No. 5, Series of 2026 and which lists no Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2026, and it does not rule out a later amendment.
Consequences if caught: No RA 9165 penalty attaches while it is unlisted. Searched in all 24 pages of the list: "xylazine" 0 hits; "Rompun" 0 hits. Xylazine is not ketamine and not fentanyl, and no listed entry names it. Section 93 lets the Board add a drug after notice and hearing, and under section 93(c) no criminal liability arises for an added drug until fifteen days after the last publication of the notice of that hearing.
If prescribed / medical: It is not a dangerous drug, so the prescription rules of Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 do not govern it. Its status under FDA rules was not read for this cell. Veterinary product rules were not read for this cell.
Documentation: No dangerous drug document is needed under RA 9165.

Xylazine in Philippines, full detail →

Zolpidem

Legal status: A dangerous drug under RA 9165. Zolpidem is printed as "69. ZOLPIDEM" on page 23 of the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, in its 1971 Schedule IV section. It is also listed in the annex to RA 9165, which section 3(j) makes "an integral part of this Act".
Consequences if caught: Possession is section 11, measured "regardless of the degree of purity thereof". It falls in the limb for "other dangerous drugs such as" MDMA, PMA, TMA, LSD and GHB and "those similarly designed or newly introduced drugs and their derivatives, without having any therapeutic value or if the quantity possessed is far beyond therapeutic requirements": 10 grams or more carries life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000; 5 grams or more but less than 10 carries 20 years and 1 day to life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 400,000 to PHP 500,000; less than 5 grams carries 12 years and 1 day to 20 years and a fine of PHP 300,000 to PHP 400,000. These are penalty bands and not an allowance. For a medicine with therapeutic value the Act applies these bands where the drug is held without therapeutic value or in a quantity far beyond therapeutic requirements, as the Board determines; it states no separate band for an unauthorised quantity within therapeutic requirements, and none is asserted here. Section 13 imposes "the maximum penalties provided for in Section 11" on anyone found possessing a dangerous drug during a party, social gathering or meeting, or in the proximate company of at least two persons, "regardless of the quantity and purity", which is life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000. Importing or bringing a dangerous drug into the Philippines (section 4) and selling, giving away, delivering, distributing, transporting or brokering one (section 5) each carry life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000 "regardless of the quantity and purity involved", and manufacture (section 8) carries the same penalty. Each applies "unless authorized by law". Use is section 15: after a confirmatory test, a minimum of six months' rehabilitation in a government centre for a first offence, and 6 years and 1 day to 12 years with a fine of PHP 50,000 to PHP 200,000 for a second. RA 9165 prints "life imprisonment to death" in its penalty clauses, among them sections 4, 5, 8, 11 and 16. Republic Act No. 9346 of 24 June 2006 provides in section 1 that "The imposition of the penalty of death is hereby prohibited" and in section 2(b) substitutes life imprisonment where the law violated does not use the nomenclature of the Revised Penal Code, which RA 9165 does not. Section 98 of RA 9165 applies Revised Penal Code nomenclature to a minor offender, "reclusion perpetua to death", so for a minor RA 9346 section 2(a) substitutes reclusion perpetua. No drug offence carries death, and the fines set by RA 9165 are unchanged.
If prescribed / medical: Annex A to Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 maps the 1971 Schedule IV to Philippine Schedule 4. Section 31(6) of that Regulation allows a PDEA licensed practitioner to prescribe only FDA registered dangerous drugs, for up to 30 days' supply per prescription of a Schedule 2, 3 or 4 drug, and up to 60 days of a Schedule 4 drug for epilepsy and dystonia. Whether any product containing zolpidem is registered with the FDA was not checked for this cell. Board Regulation No. 10, Series of 2025, adopted 26 June 2025, authorizes an S2 licensed practitioner to use "ordinary prescriptions in prescribing any dangerous drug preparations", in three copies, to "effectively address the diseases, illnesses, infections, and symptoms associated with the global health concern on mpox; the regional increase in COVID19; and the local surge in HIV cases"; its section 9 kept it in force "until June 30, 2026", and it takes effect fifteen days after publication and registration. Board Regulation No. 5, Series of 2026, adopted 23 June 2026, extends it "until June 30, 2027" to relieve the "transportation, logistics, and financial burdens of obtaining special prescription forms", but takes effect only "upon its publication in two (2) newspapers of general circulation and its registration", dates the signed copy does not record, so whether the ordinary prescription route is in force today is not established. Board Regulation No. 8, Series of 2019, adopted 17 December 2019, provides a "License to Acquire, Possess, and Use Unregistered Drug Products Containing Dangerous Drugs for Personal Use", for drug products "currently unregistered or in the process of being registered with the FDA but are already registered in FDA reference countries". The patient, or a "parent, spouse, guardian, or relative within the fourth degree of consanguinity or affinity", applies to PDEA, and only for "Diseases covered by RA 10747 or the 'Rare Disease Act of the Philippines'", "Life-threatening and debilitating diseases", "Cancer and other terminal diseases", "Rare forms of neurological conditions", or "Other diseases with limited therapeutic options identified by the Department of Health". It takes effect fifteen days after publication and registration, dates the signed copy does not record. The International Narcotics Control Board's assessment of the Philippines' annual requirement for zolpidem, as at 2 October 2026, is 32,000 grams.
Documentation: A patient holding a licence under Board Regulation No. 8, Series of 2019 may bring an unregistered product in by "courier/parcel service or personal transport by patient or authorized family members", as that licence specifies. Otherwise, section 35 of Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 lets a person under treatment who is entering, leaving or passing through the Philippines possess such quantities of a dangerous drug "as are reasonable for the purposes of such treatment", in the words of section 35(1) "wherever prescribed by a valid PDEA S2-licensed physician". The traveller carries a letter from the attending physician, the prescription with trade and generic names for up to 30 days' supply, and the medicine in its original labelled container. Above 30 days' supply the traveller needs certificates of authorization from the competent authority of the home country and from PDEA, requested from PDEA in writing 30 working days before arrival. Whether a prescription written abroad meets section 35(1) is not settled by its text, so confirm with PDEA before travelling. Without that authority the medicine is an imported dangerous drug under section 4 of RA 9165.

Republic Act No. 9165, the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, enrolled text as published by the Dangerous Drugs Board, sections 3(j), 4, 5, 8, 11, 13, 15, 16 and 93 and its annex · ddb.gov.ph · Dangerous Drugs Board, Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025, page 23, read on 2 October 2026 · ddb.gov.ph · Republic Act No. 9346, sections 1 and 2, text read at lawphil.net on 2 October 2026 because the Official Gazette refused the request · lawphil.net · Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014, adopted 19 June 2014, sections 6(16), 31 and 35, and its Annex A · ddb.gov.ph · ddb.gov.ph · International Narcotics Control Board, psychotropics assessments in grams as at 2 October 2026 · incb.org · Board Regulation No. 10, Series of 2025, adopted 26 June 2025 · ddb.gov.ph · Board Regulation No. 5, Series of 2026, adopted 23 June 2026 · ddb.gov.ph · Board Regulation No. 8, Series of 2019, adopted 17 December 2019 · ddb.gov.ph · The schedule placement stated in this cell is read from the section heading of the Board's list under which the entry is printed, which is not printed in the quoted entry itself. · Updated October 2, 2026

Zolpidem in Philippines, full detail →

Not individually verified

13 substances are not individually verified for Philippines

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 Philippines’s drug authority or your embassy.

Substance	What we found
1P-LSD	Not confirmed. 1P-LSD is not named in the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances...
2C-E	Not confirmed. 2C-E is not named in the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as...
2C-I	Not confirmed. 2C-I is not named in the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as...
2C-T-7	Not confirmed. 2C-T-7 is not named in the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances...
4-AcO-DMT	Not confirmed. 4-AcO-DMT is not named in the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled...
4-HO-MET	Not confirmed. 4-HO-MET is not named in the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances...
5-MeO-DMT (Bufo / Toad)	Not confirmed. 5-MeO-DMT is not named in the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled...
6-APB	Not confirmed. 6-APB is not named in the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as...
Amanita muscaria	Not confirmed. Amanita muscaria is not named in the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled...
Cannabinol	Not confirmed. Cannabinol (CBN) as an isolated compound is not named in the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of...
HHC	Not confirmed. HHC is printed in the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at...
LSA (Morning Glory)	Not confirmed. LSA (ergine) is not named in the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled...
THC-P	Not confirmed. THC-P is not named in the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as...

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

Verify current rules with the destination country’s official drug authority and your own country’s embassy before traveling. Find the destination’s U.S. embassy & official country guidance →
Non-U.S. travelers: check your own government’s travel advisory and embassy.

If you’re detained or arrested abroad

Contact your own country’s embassy or consulate in the destination immediately, not the destination’s authorities. U.S. citizens: contact the nearest U.S. embassy/consulate and the U.S. State Department at +1-202-501-4444 (from abroad). If a U.S. citizen is arrested or detained abroad →

← All countries Drug index