Is Pink Cocaine / Tusi legal in Sri Lanka?

Also known as: tucibi, tusibi, tuci

Legal status

Dangerous drug under Sri Lanka's Poisons, Opium and Dangerous Drugs Ordinance (Chapter 218): no entry of its own; reached through whichever listed constituents a given sample contains. Pink cocaine, tusi, is a name for a variable powder rather than a substance, and it usually contains no cocaine. Analyses commonly find ketamine, Group B Section 2 item 56, and MDMA, Section 2. Where cocaine is present it is Section 1 item 31 and the five gramme band applies. Section 2 clause 6 and Section 1 clause 6 both catch 「Substances, preparations or mixtures containing any proportion」 of a listed drug, so a mixture is reached at any proportion. The model: the list is inside the Ordinance and the power to change it is delegated, with a parliamentary lock on the delegation. Section 48 provides that 「the drugs, substances, articles or preparations, specified for the time being in Groups A, B, C, D and E in Part I of the Third Schedule, shall be deemed to be dangerous drugs」. Section 2(1) then provides that 「regulation」 means a regulation made under this Ordinance and published in the Gazette, 「and includes the First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Schedules」, so the Third Schedule is itself a regulation. The empowering section is section 80. Section 80(2)(b) lets the Minister make regulations 「for adding any item to or deleting any item from, or altering, varying or amending in any other way, any of the lists or Groups of poisons and dangerous drugs set out in the First and Third Schedules」, and section 80(3) then provides that 「No regulation so made shall have effect unless it has been approved by Parliament and notification of such approval has been published in the Gazette」. So the delegation is real but it is locked to an affirmative vote, and in practice the 2022 changes were made by primary legislation rather than by regulation. The Act was last amended by the Poisons, Opium and Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act, No. 7 of 2026, certified 6 March 2026. The Third Schedule was last amended by section 6 of the Poisons, Opium and Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act, No. 41 of 2022, certified 23 November 2022 and published as a supplement to Part II of the Gazette of 25 November 2022, which substituted Group B of Part I and the whole of Part III. Act No. 7 of 2026 does not touch the Third Schedule.

Consequences if caught

Capital exposure: not established. Section 54A(1) has four limbs and they do not carry the same exposure. Limb (a) punishes any person who 「manufactures any of the following dangerous drugs, namely heroin or cocaine or morphine or opium」 with 「a sentence of death or life imprisonment」, with no quantity stated. Limbs (b), (c) and (d) punish trafficking, importing or exporting, and possession, of 「any dangerous drug set out in Column II of Part III of the Third Schedule in excess of the amount set out in the said Column II」, with the penalty in Column III. Part III Column II is headed 「Pure Quantities」, and Column I is headed 「Traffics, possess, imports or exports」, so possession is inside the same ladder as trafficking. Section 54B extends the same punishment to abetting, attempting and acts preparatory to or in furtherance of a section 54A offence. Since Act No. 7 of 2026 a parallel section 54AA applies the same two structures on the high seas, aboard a ship registered in Sri Lanka or a stateless ship. Part III, as substituted in 2022, sets only two capital bands. Opium at 1 kilogramme or above is 「Death or life imprisonment」, and 「Morphine, Cocaine, Heroin and Methamphetamine」 at 5 grammes or above is 「Death or life imprisonment」. Cannabis has a ladder in Part III whose top band is 100 kilogrammes or above and carries ten to fifteen years, with no capital band at all. No other substance appears in Column II anywhere. Sri Lanka has no express highest-grade-governs rule of the kind some jurisdictions use for mixtures. Each listed constituent is reached on its own entry, and Part III then applies to whichever of them appears in Column II. Both can reach a given sample and neither reaches the name. Pink cocaine has no entry, so the question is what is actually in the powder. If it carries cocaine, cocaine is in the Part III band at 「5 grammes or above」 at 「Death or life imprisonment」, and cocaine is also in the section 54A(1)(a) manufacture limb at any quantity. If it carries only ketamine and MDMA, neither is in Part III at all and section 54A never engages, leaving the general penalty in section 78(5). Column II is headed 「Pure Quantities」, so a five gramme bag that is one fifth cocaine carries one gramme of cocaine and is two bands below the capital line. Sri Lanka has no provision charging a mixture at the grade of its worst component, so each listed constituent is assessed on its own. The practical consequence is that the exposure is unknowable at purchase and it swings between no section 54A offence and a capital one.

If prescribed or medical

There is no lawful supply of the mixture and no prescription route. Ketamine alone has a veterinary and anaesthetic use.

Documentation

The composition varies batch to batch, so whether a given bag is inside a capital band is unknowable at purchase. A ketamine and MDMA powder is outside Part III entirely; the same powder with cocaine in it is inside the five gramme band.

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