Is Scopolamine (Devil's Breath) legal in Albania?

Legal status

Scopolamine is not listed in the narcotic, psychotropic and plant tables annexed to Ligji nr. 7975, datë 26.7.1995, për barnat narkotike, psikotrope dhe të kontrolluara. The search recorded for this row ran «scopolamine» against those tables, recording the national language form «skopolaminë», and accepted no printed row. The instrument that governs it instead is Ligji nr. 105/2014 për barnat dhe shërbimin farmaceutik, and the legal category the dossier records is medicinal active ingredient. The tables are read here as those tables stand after Ligji nr. 17/2026, the statute that last moved the list by adding substances to the 1971 Convention list annexed to Ligji nr. 7975, datë 26.7.1995, për barnat narkotike, psikotrope dhe të kontrolluara through its shtojca nr. 1, and that does not rule out a later addition under the same power.

Consequences if caught

Capital exposure: none. Albania has abolished the death penalty and no offence in the Criminal Code, Ligji nr. 7895, datë 27.1.1995, carries it, so the abolition is a country level fact and does not turn on where a substance sits in the annexed tables. The drug offences are in that Code: article 283, the narcotics offence, whose first paragraph excludes personal use in a small dose; article 283/a, also cited as 283-a, the trafficking article; and article 284, the cultivation article for narcotic plants. The one figure the Albania dossier prints is the ceiling, twenty years, at article 283/a, second paragraph. The dossier records no numerical substance by substance table behind the small dose exclusion, so nothing in the statute fixes the weight at which a small dose stops being one, and a reduced offence or an exclusion from one trafficking paragraph is not a general lawful possession safe harbour. The figures that follow are carried forward from the Albania entry already published on this site and were not re-derived from the statute text in this pass. Under article 283 the published entry gives five to ten years for manufacturing, selling, transporting or keeping, rising to seven to fifteen years in complicity or on repeat and ten to twenty years for organising, managing or financing. Under article 283/a it gives seven to fifteen years for trafficking by import, export or transit, rising to ten to twenty in complicity or on repeat and fifteen years and above for organising or financing. Under article 283/b it gives three to seven years for facilitating intake or use by administering drugs. Under article 284 it gives three to seven years for cultivating narcotic plants, rising to five to ten in complicity or on repeat and ten to twenty for organising or financing. Those are penalty bands and nothing else: they are not quantities and they are not fines. They sit alongside the ceiling the dossier states, twenty years at article 283/a second paragraph, and this pass did not re-derive either, so whether the published ten to twenty and fifteen years and above limbs state that same ceiling in other words is not resolved here. Quantity is a separate question from any of those bands, and the published entry answers it the same way the dossier does: there is no statutory gram threshold. It records that the Supreme Court, in Decision 1 of 27 March 2008, defined small quantity as a single dose for that individual, decided case by case. Observed practice is a third thing again and it is reported rather than enacted. The published entry records that in practice low level users are still prosecuted under article 283, and that five year minimums have been seen even for roughly 0.4 to 1.9 g. That is a quantity seen in reported cases, not a threshold the statute sets. The published entry also records that personal possession may, in practice, be handled administratively under the Code of Misdemeanors article 121, with a fine of about 10,000 to 50,000 ALL. That is a money figure and not a quantity, and the published entry marks the path reported, not controlling. Those articles are not reached through the annexed tables for this row, because the search recorded against «skopolaminë» accepted no printed entry there. What governs instead is Ligji nr. 105/2014 për barnat dhe shërbimin farmaceutik, whose duties are its own and are not the Criminal Code's drug offences.

If prescribed or medical

Albania states one traveller rule and not a route for each substance. Scheduled medicines and other prescription products stay subject to Ligji për barnat dhe shërbimin farmaceutik and to its prescription, packaging, import and customs requirements, and a brand or street name is resolved through the proved active ingredient rather than the label on the container. The Albania dossier read for this work carries no prescription column at all, so no medical route particular to this row is stated here and none is invented. The placement that rule attaches to is an absence from the tables annexed to Ligji nr. 7975, datë 26.7.1995, për barnat narkotike, psikotrope dhe të kontrolluara on the national language form «skopolaminë», with Ligji nr. 105/2014 për barnat dhe shërbimin farmaceutik governing instead, in the category the dossier records as medicinal active ingredient.

Documentation

The placement read for this row is an absence from the tables annexed to Ligji nr. 7975, datë 26.7.1995, për barnat narkotike, psikotrope dhe të kontrolluara on the national language form «skopolaminë», with Ligji nr. 105/2014 për barnat dhe shërbimin farmaceutik governing instead, in the category the dossier records as medicinal active ingredient, with the annexed tables read as those tables stand after Ligji nr. 17/2026. Carry any controlled medicine in its original dispensing packaging with the prescription and a doctor's letter naming the patient, the active ingredient, the dose and the treatment period, and settle the import question with the Albanian authorities before travelling rather than at the border. Carried forward from the Albania entry already published on this site and not re-derived in this pass: cannabis cultivation is prohibited under Law 88/2016, article 9, except authorised medical cultivation, and the Law 61/2023 medical cannabis and CBD framework is export only. The act, the annexed tables and the amending list instrument were read as at 20 September 2026.

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