Is Scopolamine (Devil's Breath) legal in South Africa?

Legal status

Controlled as a Schedule 2 substance under the Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965, through the entry for belladonna alkaloids, and as Schedule 1 when intended for topical application, as at the SAHPRA consolidation of 1 August 2025; it is not printed in the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992.

Consequences if caught

It is reached through a class entry and not by name. Schedule 2 prints on page 32 "Belladonna alkaloids, except when intended for topical application. (S1)", and Schedule 1 prints on page 3 "Belladonna alkaloids, when specifically intended for topical application. (S2)". Scopolamine, also called hyoscine, is one of the belladonna alkaloids with atropine and hyoscyamine; that is chemistry brought to the entry and it is the one step between the printed words and this row. The consolidation separately prints "Hyoscine butylbromide" in Schedules 1, 2 and 3 by pack size and route, but that is a different molecule, a quaternary derivative, and those entries do not decide this row. Section 22A (1) of the Medicines Act says no person shall "sell, have in his or her possession or manufacture any medicine, Scheduled substance, medical device or IVD, except in accordance with the prescribed conditions." Section 22A (16) (a) says "any person may possess a Schedule 0, Schedule 1 or Schedule 2 substance for medicinal purposes", and section 22A (5) (a) lets a pharmacist, or a pharmacist intern or assistant under a pharmacist's personal supervision, sell a Schedule 2 substance without a prescription. Possession for any purpose other than a medicinal one falls outside subsection (16) (a) and back under subsection (1), and section 22A (10) forbids sale or administration "for other than medicinal purposes". Section 29 (k) makes it an offence to contravene "any provision of section 22A", and section 30 (1) makes a person convicted of an offence referred to in section 29 "liable to a fine, or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding 10 years." Section 30 (2) lets the court declare the substance forfeited to the State, and section 30 (4) makes a magistrate's court competent to impose the penalty. Section 22A (11) (a) requires an import permit for "any specified Schedule 5, Schedule 6, Schedule 7 or Schedule 8 substance or other substance or medicine prescribed for that purpose", and section 22A (12) (a) extends import control to substances the Minister prescribes and to substances under international control. This entry carries no specified marker and sits in Schedule 2, and no instrument prescribing it for that purpose was found, which does not rule one out; on what was read, that subsection does not itself require a permit to bring it in, and possession on arrival still turns on section 22A (16). Under the Drugs Act the position is different. This row repays a close reading, because the Act does contain tropane chemistry. Part II prints "Ecgonine and the esters and derivatives thereof which are convertible to ecgonine and cocaine." and prints the coca leaf entry, and ecgonine is a tropane. This substance is a tropane ester as well, formed from a different alcohol and a different acid. The printed entry has an express qualification that keeps it away: it reaches esters and derivatives "which are convertible to ecgonine and cocaine", and this substance is not. So the entry itself excludes it, and the question becomes whether a tropane alkaloid of a different plant is a chemically related substance for the purposes of the limb. Because the tropane entries sit in Part II, the limb in question is Part II paragraph 2 (e), worded the same as Part III paragraph 2 (e), which reads "(e) all homologues of the listed substances (being any chemically related substances that incorporate a structural fragment into their structures that is similar to the structure of a listed substance or exhibit pharmacodynamic properties similar to the listed substances in this Part of the Schedule), unless listed separately in any Part of Schedule 2." The equivalent limb in Part I is paragraph 2 (c) and is worded identically for that Part. If the limb does reach this substance the consequences are the ordinary ones for the Part the listed relative sits in: section 4 (b) with section 17 (d) at up to 15 years for use or possession, and section 5 (b) with section 17 (e) at up to 25 years for dealing. If it does not, the Act does not reach the substance at all. This cell does not choose between those two outcomes under the Drugs Act. The Act supplies no test for deciding a homologue case. Capital exposure: none, and life exposure: none. Section 30 (1) of the Medicines Act fixes the penalty for an offence under section 29 at a fine or imprisonment for a period not exceeding 10 years, and section 17 sets out the whole penalty scale of the Drugs Act, whose highest figure is 25 years for dealing; neither Act carries a death sentence or a sentence of life imprisonment.

If prescribed or medical

A pharmacist may sell a Schedule 2 substance without a prescription under section 22A (5) (a). Section 22A (16) (a) lets any person possess it for medicinal purposes, so a traveller carrying scopolamine as a medicine needs no prescription under the Medicines Act, while a topical preparation drops to Schedule 1. The Drugs Act's own exceptions in section 4, paragraphs (i) to (vi), run through a practitioner acting in accordance with the Medicines Act, and section 2 of the Drugs Act says it applies "in addition to, and not in substitution for" the Medicines Act.

Documentation

Medicines Act search record, 3 October 2026. Terms searched: scopolamine, hyoscine, belladonna, atropine and tropane. Scopolamine returns nothing by that name; hyoscine returns only the hyoscine butylbromide entries; belladonna returns the Schedule 1 and Schedule 2 alkaloid entries. The consolidation is a text PDF of 199 pages and was searched as extracted text, every schedule from 0 to 8. The Medicines Act schedules are stated as at the SAHPRA Consolidated Schedules of 1 August 2025, which on a comparison of two of its changes, the inserted fluconazole entry in Schedule 2 and the reworded nicotine metered spray line, both read on pages 4 and 6 of the scanned notice, already carry Government Notice R6466 of 1 August 2025; the rest of that notice was not read. That consolidation is read with Government Notice 7446 in Government Gazette 54627 of 8 May 2026, whose only change is to insert a veterinary yohimbine entry in Schedule 4; both were read on 3 October 2026. SAHPRA now labels the 1 August 2025 file an archived version and offers its July 2026 consolidation only through a Microsoft sign in that refused an anonymous request, so that file was not read, and this does not rule out a later amendment. The text of the Medicines Act read is the consolidation published in Government Gazette 40869 of 26 May 2017, whose list of amending Acts ends at Act 14 of 2015; a search on 3 October 2026 found no later amending Act, which does not rule one out. Drugs Act search record carried from the earlier cell. Search record. The terms searched were scopolamine, hyoscine, tropane, atropine and Datura. Two of them return something relevant and neither is this substance: the ecgonine entry, and the atropine sulphate that appears inside the dose exceptions on the difenoxin and diphenoxylate entries as a deterrent constituent rather than as a listed substance. The text read for this cell is the Juta consolidation of the Act downloaded on 29 May 2025, taken from the Department of Justice copy at justice.gov.za whose sha256 begins bc1216a3. It carries the substitution of Schedules 1 and 2 by section 2 of Act 14 of 2022 with effect from 14 December 2022, and it marks section 7 of the Cannabis for Private Purposes Act 7 of 2024, the provision that would amend Schedule 2 again, as not yet put into operation by proclamation. The schedules are stated as at that consolidation and this does not rule out a later amendment made or commenced since.

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