Is Pregabalin legal in Austria?

Legal status

Not a designated drug in Austria, and controlled instead as a prescription medicine. The placement is the Rezeptpflichtverordnung: pregabalin is in part 2 of Annex A to the prescription regulation marked RP. Despite its misuse profile in several other jurisdictions, the Austrian sweep found no narcotic, psychotrope or NPS designation for it. A prescription entry applies to medicines and not automatically to every use of a raw chemical. AMG §7 sets the authorisation requirements with their exceptions, and §59 provides that medicines may be supplied only through pharmacies except where §§57 and 58 or the following provisions say otherwise.

Consequences if caught

Capital exposure: none. This row's real ceiling is an administrative one under the medicines act, the drug instruments carrying no entry for the substance, no life term being available, and Austrian law carrying no death penalty. Pregabalin is controlled as a medicine in Austria and not as a drug, so none of the SMG ceilings applies to it however large the quantity. The figures are fact specific. AMG §84(1) reaches EUR 25,000, or EUR 50,000 on repeat, for the offences it lists, while the separate §83(1) dispensing breaches reach EUR 7,500, or EUR 14,000 on repeat. Separately from that, and carried forward from this site's published Austria entry rather than re-derived from the Suchtmittelgesetz in this pass, the published penalties are these. Austrian practice is depenalised and not legalised, and the published entry says so in those terms. There is no legal minimum quantity, and possession of any amount for personal use is punishable under section 27, up to six months in prison or a fine. Under Therapie statt Strafe at section 35, small quantity personal use is typically provisionally suspended from prosecution on one to two years of probation where the person accepts counselling or treatment. Consumption itself is not criminalised, but the possession that precedes it is. Above the Grenzmenge, the threshold quantity, the offence becomes dealing or trafficking under sections 28 and 28a, up to one to three years, escalating to ten to fifteen years for commercial or organised cases. Every figure in this paragraph is a penalty range or a fine and none of them is a quantity threshold. This row is placed outside that regime, so they are recorded as Austria's published drug penalties and not as this substance's exposure.

If prescribed or medical

The rule that governs every traveller in Austria is SMG §5(1). It confines the acquisition, possession, production, processing, carriage, import, export, offering, transfer and procurement of a Suchtmittel to medical, dental, veterinary and scientific purposes, and the particular travel, licensing and dispensing provisions operate inside it rather than around it. Because this substance carries no narcotic and no psychotrope designation, SMG §5(1) does not govern it and neither the psychotrope medicine exception nor the psychotrope travel certificate is in play. The medicines regime applies instead: AMG §7 sets the authorisation requirements with their exceptions and §59 confines the supply of medicines to pharmacies except where §§57 and 58 or the following provisions say otherwise. A dispensed pregabalin course is an ordinary prescription medicine in Austria rather than a scheduled substance, and the RP marking is the whole of what has to be satisfied.

Documentation

Carry the dispensing record and the prescription, because the question at an Austrian border for this substance is a medicines question and not a drug schedule question. Pregabalin is a prescription medicine in Austria and is not on any Austrian drug schedule. The prescription regulation was read on 18 September 2026 at the consolidation listing BGBl II 282/2025 as its latest amendment, through page 49 and including the exception and warning annexes.

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