Is Pink Cocaine / Tusi legal in Yemen?

Also known as: tucibi, tusibi, tuci

Legal status

Controlled only through what the sample contains. Pink cocaine is not named in Law No. 3 of 1993. In the 1993 text read, neither MDMA nor ketamine is printed in Schedule 1, the narcotic and psychotropic substances (Article 1(c)), or in Schedule 3, the substances subject to some of the restrictions (Article 27). Article 1(c) excludes from Schedule 1 the preparations listed in Schedule 2, and Schedule 2 part (d) is headed "مستحضرات الكوكايين" (cocaine preparations), naming particular pharmaceutical formulations. Schedule 1 prints item 120, "ميثيلين داي أوكسى امفيتامين" (Methylene Di Oxy Amphetamine), known as M.D.A. and it prints amphetamine (item 15), cocaine (item 76) and methamphetamine (item 93). A paragraph after item 111 extends Schedule 1 to any mixture containing one of its substances "وبأي نسبة كانت ما لم ينص على نسبة محددة" (in any proportion, unless a specific proportion is stated). For cocaine a proportion is stated: item 76 covers "كافة مستحضرات الكوكايين المدرجة أو غير المدرجة في دساتير الأدوية والتي تحتوى على أكثر من (٠,١ %) من الكوكايين" (all cocaine preparations, listed in pharmacopoeias or not, containing more than 0.1 per cent cocaine), and "مخففات الكوكايين في مادة غير فعالة سائلة او صلبة أياً كانت درجة تركيزها" (cocaine diluted in an inert liquid or solid substance, whatever the concentration). Schedule 3 prints phencyclidine (part (c) item 9), phenmetrazine and phentermine among others. The answer turns on what the sample is found to contain.

Consequences if caught

These penalties are stated as printed in the 1993 text read, not as confirmed current law. If the sample contains a Schedule 1 substance: Article 38 imposes imprisonment for five years for possession or purchase for consumption or personal use, and lets the court commit a proved addict to a sanatorium instead, while no criminal action is brought against a user who comes for treatment of his own accord; Article 34(a) punishes by death or imprisonment for twenty five years possession, sale, delivery or transport of a narcotic substance with intent to traffic; Article 33 punishes by death import or export with intent to traffic or promote before obtaining the Article 3 licence, and manufacture with intent to traffic; Article 35 punishes by death or twenty five years anyone who offers a narcotic substance for use without payment or facilitates its use. Article 49 exempts from the Article 33, 34 and 35 penalties an offender who reports the offence before the authorities know of it, and one who reports after they know if the report actually leads to the arrest of the other offenders. Article 27 prohibits dealing in Schedule 3 substances; Article 45 punishes production, import, export or possession with intent to traffic of a Schedule 3 substance by imprisonment of up to one year, and Article 46 punishes any other contravention of the Law by up to three months. A sample that contains only substances printed in neither Schedule 1 nor Schedule 3, such as MDMA or ketamine, is not shown by this text to be within the Law.

If prescribed or medical

The Law provides no lawful prescription of an unidentified mixture. Its prescription articles (Articles 14 to 17) concern narcotic substances dispensed by pharmacies against a physician's or dentist's prescription or a licence card, and ketamine is printed in none of the six schedules of the text read.

Documentation

A test result naming the substances present, and for cocaine its proportion, decides which articles, if any, apply. The Arabic text read is the PDF the Yemeni House of Representatives publishes on its website; every page was read as a rendered image because its text layer garbles on extraction, and it is published by a state body but is not an Official Gazette image. Its schedules carry a note citing health decisions of 1976 and 1981 and footnote markers whose footnote text is not printed. The English translation on UNODC SHERLOC agrees on the schedule entries cited, but it differs from the Arabic inside Article 38: the Arabic says a court committal to a sanatorium may not be shorter than six months, the English says it may not exceed six months and adds a paragraph on a committee and repeat committals that the Arabic does not print. So the two are not the same version, and the English is not relied on for Article 38. Article 32 allows the schedules to be amended by a decision published in the Official Gazette, and no such decision was found or read.

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