Is Scopolamine (Devil's Breath) legal in Kazakhstan?
- Legal status
- Scopolamine is not controlled by Kazakhstan's Resolution No. 470, on the version of the lists read for this row. Government Resolution No. 470 of 3 July 2019 approves three documents in all, the Список наркотических средств, психотропных веществ и прекурсоров, подлежащих контролю в Республике Казахстан, the Сводная таблица of sizes, a substituent list and a short list of veterinary medicines, and all three were searched. Scopolamine is named nowhere in the Resolution. Searches for скополамин and for the alternative Russian name гиосцин return nothing across all three approved lists, and no solanaceous plant appears in the cultivation table, which names only the coca bush, khat, the opium poppy and ephedra. Searches were anchored at the start of each entry name rather than run as free substring matches, because unanchored matching in this document produces false hits: the Russian for codeine matches acetyldihydrocodeine, the Russian for diazepam matches fludiazepam and the Russian for ephedrine matches cathine. The copy read carries the amendment of 24 February 2026 made by Government Resolution No. 111, and the Сводная таблица is wholly in that redaction, so every size quoted here is the 24 February 2026 text, and a later amendment adding this substance is expressly not ruled out. [Certain] that the substance is absent from all three lists as this version stands, the search having been re-run from the instrument in this pass. [Certain] Re-derived in this pass: an absence from Resolution 470 does not close the question for this row. Kazakhstan runs a separate category of сильнодействующие и ядовитые вещества outside that Resolution, fixed by the Order of the Minister of Health No. 120 of 26 December 2023 approving the List of Potent Substances Having Harmful Effects on Human Life and Health, and punished by Criminal Code Article 301 rather than by Articles 296 and 297. Criminal liability for unlawful trafficking in a listed potent substance took effect on 1 January 2026 under Law No. 150-VIII of 2 January 2025. That list was not reached in this pass, so whether it names this substance is unresolved and is not ruled out either way.
- Consequences if caught
- Capital exposure: none. Kazakhstan has abolished the death penalty. No capital punishment remains available anywhere in its Criminal Code, because the law of 29 December 2021 numbered 89-VII on abolition replaced the words carrying it in Article 11 with life imprisonment, and Article 46 now names life imprisonment as the heaviest penalty the Code holds. Because Resolution No. 470 does not reach scopolamine, it sets no size bands for it and no threshold can be quoted, so nothing in the criminal ladder below attaches to this substance on the strength of this instrument. The penalty ladder is read off those sizes. Possession without intent to supply sits in Criminal Code Article 296, which is non-custodial at parts 2 and 3, a fine of up to 160 or up to 200 monthly calculation indices or arrest of up to 40 or 50 days, and becomes custodial only at part 4, three to seven years, once the seizure is особо крупный. Consumption in a public place is part 1 of the same article. Supply runs under Article 297 at five to eight years with confiscation for the bare offence and fifteen to twenty years for its heaviest part, and manufacture or processing for supply under Article 297-1, added on 2 January 2025 by law No. 150-VIII, carries life imprisonment at part 4. Every one of those rungs is read off a size band in the Сводная таблица, and for an unlisted substance there is no band to read. Article 296 also carries a note releasing from liability under that article a person who voluntarily hands the substance over, seeks medical help or actively assists in uncovering a related offence. [Likely] The Criminal Code articles and their year ranges in this cell were read from secondary consolidations rather than from an official publisher in this pass. Two independent consolidations agree on them, and the Code's own article text was not reached: the state portal served only its contents list. The abolition of the death penalty, by contrast, was confirmed against the Code itself and is tagged [Certain] where it appears. [Likely] Carried from the entry published before this batch and not re-derived in this pass: the two middle rungs of that ladder are six to ten years for part 2 and seven to twelve years for part 3.
- If prescribed or medical
- Because the Resolution does not reach scopolamine, it supplies no prescribing rule for it and none is invented here. Kazakhstan runs a separate category of сильнодействующие и ядовитые вещества, potent and poisonous substances, which Criminal Code Article 301 punishes and which is fixed by its own list. That list was not read in this pass, so silence in Resolution No. 470 is not a finding that scopolamine is unregulated in Kazakhstan, only that this instrument does not schedule it.
- Documentation
- Provenance. All three lists approved by Government Resolution of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 470 of 3 July 2019 approving the Список наркотических средств, психотропных веществ и прекурсоров, подлежащих контролю в Республике Казахстан and the Сводная таблица of small, large and particularly large sizes, the Список in its four tables, the Сводная таблица in its four tables, the substituent list and the veterinary medicines list, were read from the consolidated text at https://zakon.uchet.kz/rus/docs/P1900000470 on 2026-09-21, with the tables parsed by column position. The copy read carries the amendment of 24 February 2026 made by Government Resolution No. 111, and the Сводная таблица is wholly in that redaction, so every size quoted here is the 24 February 2026 text. This cell asserts an absence, so it names the version of the list it read and does not rule out a later one adding Scopolamine.
- Kazakhstan, Government Resolution of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 470 of 3 July 2019 approving the Список наркотических средств, психотропных веществ и прекурсоров, подлежащих контролю в Республике Казахстан and the Сводная таблица of small, large and particularly large sizes, all three approved lists, read at https://zakon.uchet.kz/rus/docs/P1900000470 on 2026-09-21
- the copy states с изменениями на 24.02.2026 and the Сводная таблица is в редакции постановления Правительства РК от 24.02.2026 № 111. Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Code No. 226-V of 3 July 2014, articles 296, 297 and 297-1, read at https://prg.kz/Document/?doc_id=31575252
- the death penalty was removed from that Code by the Law of 29 December 2021 No. 89-VII.
Court records
We have not yet assessed whether court records are publicly available for this jurisdiction.
Other substances confirmed in Kazakhstan
Drug laws and enforcement change and vary within a country. This is not legal advice. Always confirm with Kazakhstan’s embassy or official drug authority before traveling; penalties can be severe, including imprisonment.
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