Is Psilocybin legal in Timor-Leste?

Legal status

Named. Tabela II-A of Anexo II to Lei n.º 2/2017, de 25 de Janeiro, carries two separate entries: item 31, "Psilocibina - fosfatodiidrogenado de 3-(2-dimetila-minoetil)-4-indolilo" (Psilocybin, dihydrogen phosphate ester of 3-(2-dimethylaminoethyl)-4-indolyl), and item 32, "Psilocina - 3-(-2-dimetilaminoetil)-4-(hidroxi-indol)" (Psilocin, 3-(2-dimethylaminoethyl)-4-(hydroxyindole)). Both the phosphorylated prodrug and its active dephosphorylated metabolite are named directly, a related but separate finding worth stating together rather than treating as one entry. The mushroom itself, as plant or fungal material, is not separately named in either table; Table II-A's closing clause reaches salts and isomers of its listed entries, not preparations, so a psilocybin mushroom or a preparation of one is a separate, unreached question from the two named compounds, the same structural distinction that closing clause produces for ayahuasca, khat and peyote under this law. The mushroom's absence from a separate named entry is stated as in force on 25 January 2017, Lei n.º 2/2017's own enactment date, and does not rule out a later amendment this session did not find.

Consequences if caught

Table II-A sits within the "tabelas I a III" grouping article 7(1) addresses, so cultivating, producing, manufacturing, extracting, preparing, offering, selling, distributing, buying, transporting, importing, exporting or possessing psilocybin or psilocin without authorisation is punished with imprisonment of 5 to 15 years, rising to 6 to 16 years under article 7(2) for an authorised person acting against that authorisation, and aggravated by two thirds on both limits under article 9 where a listed factor applies (8 years 4 months to 25 years on the base band). Annex I does not price psilocybin or psilocin, so the article 11 reduced-gravity 5-times threshold cannot be stated numerically for either. A psilocybin mushroom or a preparation of it, as distinct from the isolated compounds, carries no stated table I to IV penalty band here. Personal possession of isolated psilocybin or psilocin for exclusively personal use falls under article 26(1): up to 1 year imprisonment or a fine of up to 120 days.

If prescribed or medical

Article 6(1) defers psilocybin and psilocin's licensing to a Ministério da Saúde instrument not located this session, and no medical prescription or supply route is stated here under Lei n.º 2/2017.

Documentation

Lei n.º 2/2017's own enacted preamble, read in full, states that before this law, the operative drug-trafficking regime in Timor-Leste was Indonesia's Law 5/1997, carried over under article 165 of the Constitution ("a legislação vigente é a Lei n.º 5/1997 da República da Indonésia, que se mantém em vigor"), and that the Penal Code's own third amendment, Lei n.º 5/2013, "não se traduziu na criminalização do tráfico ilícito e o consumo de estupefacientes e substâncias psicotrópicas" (did not result in criminalising illicit trafficking or consumption of narcotic and psychotropic substances). The preamble states that an adequate domestic regime remained to be approved, which Lei n.º 2/2017 then supplied. Decreto-Lei n.º 19/2009 (the Penal Code) carries no drug-trafficking chapter on this reading, and Lei n.º 2/2017 is Timor-Leste's first and controlling domestic instrument for psilocybin trafficking and consumption offences.

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