Is Pink Cocaine / Tusi legal in Malaysia?

Also known as: tucibi, tusibi, tuci

Legal status

Pink cocaine is not scheduled as such and the name has no legal meaning in Malaysia. What decides the answer is what is in the powder, and the usual constituents are both in Part III of the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952. Ketamine is a dangerous drug in Malaysia, and so is MDMA. That is worth saying because in most of the region ketamine is a psychotropic only, and a reader who carries that assumption across the border will get this exactly wrong. Cocaine and methamphetamine, the other things found in these powders, are in the same Part. MDMA and methamphetamine carry presumption weights of 50 grammes; ketamine and cocaine are treated differently, cocaine having a 40 gramme weight and ketamine none at all.

Consequences if caught

Pink cocaine is not scheduled as such and the name has no legal meaning in Malaysia, so section 39B(2) reaches it through whatever is actually in the powder. The usual constituents are all named in Part III of the First Schedule: «Ketamine», «3, 4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA)», «Methamphetamine» and «Cocaine». Any one of them makes the powder a dangerous drug and the sentence on a trafficking conviction death or imprisonment for life. The chain is short and it passes through no weight at any point. Section 2 defines a «dangerous drug» as «any drug or substance which is for the time being comprised in the First Schedule», section 39B(1) prohibits trafficking in «a dangerous drug», whether on your own behalf or on behalf of any other person, and section 39B(2) sets the penalty. And the word «trafficking» is itself defined in section 2, far wider than selling: it «includes the doing of any of the following acts, that is to say, manufacturing, importing, exporting, keeping, concealing, buying, selling, giving, receiving, storing, administering, transporting, carrying, sending, delivering, procuring, supplying or distributing any dangerous drug otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act». Keeping, carrying and storing are on that list, so nothing commercial has to be shown. The presumption weights differ by constituent and they do not all exist. MDMA is «50 grammes or more» at section 37(da)(xxii) and methamphetamine the same at subparagraph (xvi), cocaine 40 grammes at subparagraph (ix), and ketamine none at all. Subparagraph (xxv) aggregates MDMA and methamphetamine with the rest of the fourteen-substance block to a combined 50 grammes, and it does not reach cocaine or ketamine, which are on separate subparagraphs outside the block. Section 37(da) closes with the words «otherwise than in accordance with the authority of this Act or any other written law, shall be presumed, until the contrary is proved, to be trafficking in the said drug», so it is a rebuttable presumption about proof and not a definition of the offence, and the words «until the contrary is proved» are what put the defendant to proof. Section 39B(2) itself turns on quantity at no point. Below trafficking there are two further tiers, and they are a separate list from the presumption weights. Section 39A(1)(x) and (r) applies where the subject matter is 5 grammes or more but less than 30 grammes of MDMA or methamphetamine, and sets «imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than two years but shall not exceed five years» with «whipping of not less than three strokes but not more than nine strokes». Section 39A(2)(x) and (r) applies where the offence is «not punishable with death» and the subject matter is 30 grammes or more, and sets «imprisonment for life or for a term which shall not be less than five years» with «whipping of not less than ten strokes». Cocaine has its own tiers at section 39A(1)(e) and section 39A(2)(e), 5 to 15 grammes and 15 grammes or more, and ketamine has none at any level. Death is available and it is no longer mandatory, and the change has a date. Section 39B(2) once read simply «on conviction with death». The Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2017, Act A1558, in force 15 March 2018, opened a narrow gate out of that, a date carried forward from the earlier reading and not re-derived in this pass. The Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, Act 846, came into operation on 4 July 2023, and section 54 of it is the whole of what it did to the Dangerous Drugs Act: it substituted «be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes» for fifteen strokes in subsection (2), and it deleted subsections (2A) and (2B), which were the mandatory death machinery. Section 39B(2) now reads, in full: «Any person who contravenes any of the provisions of subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence against this Act and shall be punished on conviction with death or imprisonment for life and shall, if he is not sentenced to death, be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes.» So the court chooses between death and imprisonment for life with no precondition, and at least twelve strokes follow any sentence that is not death. Act 846 is widely described as replacing life with a term of thirty to forty years. It did that in the Penal Code, the Firearms (Increased Penalties) Act 1971, the Arms Act 1960, the Kidnapping Act 1961, the Strategic Trade Act 2010 and the Criminal Procedure Code. It did not do it here: the words «imprisonment for life» in section 39B(2) are untouched and no definition of that phrase appears anywhere in the Dangerous Drugs Act, so no year figure is stated in this cell. Section 55 of Act 846 applies the amended section to anyone sentenced after it came into operation even where the offence was committed before. Below trafficking, the possession offence is section 12. Section 11(1) provides that «This Part applies to dangerous drugs listed in Parts III, IV and V of the First Schedule», which is what brings a Part III substance inside Part IV of the Act. Section 12(2) then prohibits having such a drug in your possession, custody or control «unless he is authorized to be in possession, custody or control of such drug or is deemed to be so authorized under this Act or the regulations made thereunder», and section 12(3) punishes a contravention with «a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Self-administration is section 15(1), at a fine not exceeding five thousand ringgit or imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, and section 38B(1) then requires supervision for not less than two and not more than three years after the sentence has been served. Three procedural consequences follow automatically. Section 41(1) removes a section 39B charge from the Sessions Court and the Magistrates' Court, so it is tried in the High Court, and section 41A(3) has it tried by a judge sitting alone. Section 41B(1) provides that bail «shall not be granted» where the offence is punishable with death, and also where it is punishable with imprisonment for more than five years. Section 38A, which lets a court deal with a drug dependant under eighteen under the Drug Dependants (Treatment and Rehabilitation) Act 1983 rather than punish him, is expressly unavailable for a section 39B offence. Section 39C separately escalates a repeat offender under the consumption and possession provisions to not less than five and not more than seven years with not more than three strokes. The ketamine listing is the trap. In most of the region ketamine is a psychotropic substance only, and a powder analysed as ketamine would carry a light sentence there. In Malaysia it is a Part III dangerous drug and section 39B applies to it in full. The list can move under all of this. Section 45A is headed «Power of the Minister to vary First Schedule» and it operates either on a decision of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs or of the United Nations Organization altering the Schedules to the Single Convention, or simply where the Minister «considers it expedient to add a substance to, or remove a substance from, or vary the First Schedule, he may by order make the requisite modifications». An order takes effect on gazetting and there is no notice period. He has used it twice since the text read here, by P.U. (A) 97 gazetted 2 April 2024 and P.U. (A) 416 gazetted 25 November 2025, both carried forward from the earlier reading and neither re-read in this pass. The text read for this cell is the Attorney General's Chambers updated text headed «As at 4 July 2023», and a later order is not ruled out.

If prescribed or medical

There is no prescription route for pink cocaine in Malaysia, and this cell states that rather than leaving a reader to infer it. Every prohibition in the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, and the definition of trafficking in section 2, is qualified by the words «otherwise than under the authority of this Act or the regulations made under the Act», so a lawful holding is one that sits inside an authority granted under the Act. The authority the Act contemplates is a licence or a regulation made under it, and here there is nothing for one to attach to. It is reached at Part III of the First Schedule, through whichever of its constituents is present: the name has no legal meaning in Malaysia and the powder is usually ketamine with MDMA, sometimes with cocaine or methamphetamine, each of which is named in Part III. Neither Act evidences a registered product containing it. Nothing can be authorised for a mixture that has no entry. Whatever authority might exist would have to exist for each named constituent separately, and a seller's description of the powder is not evidence of what is in it.

Documentation

There is no document to carry, because there is no lawful holding for a document to evidence. This cell says so plainly rather than leave a traveller looking for paperwork that does not exist for pink cocaine. The entry that forecloses the question is «Ketamine», reached at Part III of the First Schedule, through whichever of its constituents is present. Section 25 of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, the traveller provision, turns on a medicinal preparation supplied by or on the prescription of a medical practitioner residing outside Malaysia, so it has nothing to attach to here. It is also confined to Part V of the Act, the external trade Part, and would not answer a possession charge even if it did apply. Getting the paperwork wrong is not a paperwork penalty. Section 37(d) provides that «any person who is found to have had in his custody or under his control anything whatsoever containing any dangerous drug shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have been in possession of such drug and shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have known the nature of such drug», and section 37(da) can then presume trafficking from the weight of the material alone. A foreign prescription, a licence issued in another country, and religious or traditional use are none of them provided for anywhere in the Act. The entry the document has to answer to, in the First Schedule itself, is «Ketamine» at Part III, «3, 4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA)» at Part III. If the document does not answer the entry, the charge is section 12(2) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, possession of a dangerous drug without authority, and section 12(3) sets «a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both». Section 12(4) adds whipping of not more than three strokes where the person convicted is a public officer employed at a prison, rehabilitation centre, police lock-up or place of detention.

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