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

Legal status

Not a designated drug in Austria, and controlled instead as a prescription medicine. The placement is the Rezeptpflichtverordnung: scopolamine appears in part 2 of Annex A to the prescription regulation marked RP. It is a tropane alkaloid with a long association with the plants it comes from, and it still carries no Austrian narcotic, psychotrope or NPS designation. This is a medicines control rather than a drug designation, and the two are separate systems in Austria. The medicines act's §7 authorisation requirement and §59 pharmacy supply rule are what surround the prescription entry.

Consequences if caught

Capital exposure: none. Austria answers this row through the medicines act rather than through the drug instruments, neither of which carries an entry, so the SMG ceilings including the life term in §28a(5) are simply not in play, in a country with no capital punishment. Scopolamine is a prescription medicine here, so the alarming reputation it carries in some reporting has no counterpart in the Austrian penalty structure. Those two offence lists are distinct, and neither is an automatic fine for holding a prescription substance. AMG §84(1) tops at EUR 25,000, or EUR 50,000 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

Austria's traveller rule is the authorized purpose rule and there is no other. SMG §5(1) allows a Suchtmittel to be acquired, possessed, produced, processed, carried, imported, exported, offered, transferred or procured only for medical, dental, veterinary or scientific purposes and only as that Act provides, and professional licensing, medical dispensing and travel exemptions each remain subject to their own particular provisions rather than to any general allowance. 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. An ordinary dispensed product is the lawful form of scopolamine, and its RP marking is the only Austrian requirement the material read attaches to it.

Documentation

Carry the pharmacy documentation for the supply, which is what establishes that the medicines regime was complied with. Scopolamine is a prescription medicine in Austria with no drug schedule attached. 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.