Is Salvia divinorum legal in Philippines?

Legal status

A dangerous drug under RA 9165, by a national listing. Board Regulation No. 3, Series of 2015, adopted 9 September 2015, classifies Salvia divinorum, its resin, extract, tinctures and other forms and any part of it as a dangerous drug, and it appears on page 24 of the Dangerous Drugs Board's Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances as at 06 July 2025 among the Board's national additions. The plant itself is named, so control does not depend on a test for salvinorin A. The Regulation takes effect fifteen days after publication in newspapers of general circulation and registration with the Office of the National Administrative Register; the signed copy read does not record either date, so its commencement is not established here. Separately, section 93(c) of RA 9165 creates no criminal liability for an added drug until fifteen days after the last publication of the notice of the Board's public hearing.

Consequences if caught

Possession is section 11, measured "regardless of the degree of purity thereof". It falls in the limb for "other dangerous drugs such as" MDMA, PMA, TMA, LSD and GHB and "those similarly designed or newly introduced drugs and their derivatives, without having any therapeutic value or if the quantity possessed is far beyond therapeutic requirements": 10 grams or more carries life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000; 5 grams or more but less than 10 carries 20 years and 1 day to life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 400,000 to PHP 500,000; less than 5 grams carries 12 years and 1 day to 20 years and a fine of PHP 300,000 to PHP 400,000. These are penalty bands and not an allowance: the lowest band has no lower limit, so any quantity is an offence. Section 13 imposes "the maximum penalties provided for in Section 11" on anyone found possessing a dangerous drug during a party, social gathering or meeting, or in the proximate company of at least two persons, "regardless of the quantity and purity", which is life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000. Importing or bringing a dangerous drug into the Philippines (section 4) and selling, giving away, delivering, distributing, transporting or brokering one (section 5) each carry life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000 "regardless of the quantity and purity involved", and manufacture (section 8) carries the same penalty. Each applies "unless authorized by law". Use is section 15: after a confirmatory test, a minimum of six months' rehabilitation in a government centre for a first offence, and 6 years and 1 day to 12 years with a fine of PHP 50,000 to PHP 200,000 for a second. RA 9165 prints "life imprisonment to death" in its penalty clauses, among them sections 4, 5, 8, 11 and 16. Republic Act No. 9346 of 24 June 2006 provides in section 1 that "The imposition of the penalty of death is hereby prohibited" and in section 2(b) substitutes life imprisonment where the law violated does not use the nomenclature of the Revised Penal Code, which RA 9165 does not. Section 98 of RA 9165 applies Revised Penal Code nomenclature to a minor offender, "reclusion perpetua to death", so for a minor RA 9346 section 2(a) substitutes reclusion perpetua. No drug offence carries death, and the fines set by RA 9165 are unchanged. Cultivating it is section 16: life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000, regardless of quantity.

If prescribed or medical

Section 2(2) of Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2014 places the Board's own national additions in Philippine Schedule 5. No medicine containing Salvia divinorum was found and no prescription route is asserted.

Documentation

There is no traveller or personal import route. Bringing any dangerous drug into the Philippines unless authorized by law is section 4 of RA 9165, life imprisonment and a fine of PHP 500,000 to PHP 10,000,000, regardless of the quantity and purity involved.

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