Legal status in South Africa

Per-substance legal status for South Africa, from sourced statutes where available. Legal information, not legal advice; drug laws change, so confirm with the destination’s embassy or drug authority before you travel.

69 confirmed substances19 not individually verifiedLast updated October 4, 2026

Confirmed legal status

2-FDCK

Legal status: Controlled as a Schedule 7 substance under the Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965, 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: Schedule 7 prints it on page 195 as "2-Fluorodeschloroketamine." So the fluorinated analogue is in Schedule 7 while ketamine itself is a Schedule 5 medicine. Section 22A (9) (a) (i) of the Medicines Act says no person shall "acquire, use, possess, manufacture or supply any Schedule 7 or Schedule 8 substance" unless the Director-General has issued a permit for it, and its proviso lets the Director-General authorise use only to provide a medical practitioner, analyst, researcher or veterinarian with the substance for a particular patient or for education, analysis or research. 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) also forbids importing or exporting any Schedule 7 substance without a permit, and (11) (b) says such a permit "may be issued for any purpose other than the satisfaction or relief of a habit or craving". Under the Drugs Act the position is different. The starting point for this family in most jurisdictions is a ketamine entry, and this Act has none: the string ketamine occurs zero times in the whole 84,091 byte text. What Part III does carry is a closed list of arylcyclohexylamines, printed as "Phencyclidine and the congeners thereof, namely, N-ethyl-1-phenylcyclohexylamine (PCE), 1-(1-phenylcyclohexyl) pyrrolidine (PHP or PCPY) and 1-[1-(2-thienyl) cyclohexyl] piperidine (TCP)." The entry names three congeners and this substance is not one of them, and the schedule chose to name rather than to describe a class. So the question becomes whether a fluorinated analogue of a substance that is itself unlisted is a homologue of the three that are listed. The Drugs Act limb that could still reach it is Part III paragraph 2 (e), "(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). If it does reach the substance, use or possession falls under section 4 (b), an offence under section 13 (d) punishable under section 17 (d) by such fine as the court may deem fit, imprisonment for a period not exceeding 15 years, or both, and dealing falls under section 5 (b), an offence under section 13 (f) punishable under section 17 (e) by imprisonment for a period not exceeding 25 years, or that imprisonment and a fine. If it does not, the Drugs Act does not reach the substance at all. 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 / medical: There is no prescription route. Section 22A (9) (a) (i) says no person shall "acquire, use, possess, manufacture or supply any Schedule 7 or Schedule 8 substance" unless the Director-General has issued a permit for it, and its proviso lets the Director-General authorise use only to provide a medical practitioner, analyst, researcher or veterinarian with the substance for a particular patient or for education, analysis or research. 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: fluorodeschloroketamine, 2-FDCK, deschloroketamine and ketamine. The systematic name returns one Schedule 7 entry; 2-FDCK returns nothing because the entry does not print the short name. 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 2-fdck, 2-FDCK, fluorodeschloroketamine, ketamine and arylcyclohexylamine. All return zero occurrences. 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.

Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965, Schedules made under section 22A (2), Schedule 7, page 195 · SAHPRA Consolidated Schedules of 1 August 2025, read on 3 October 2026 · sahpra.org.za · Government Notice 7446, Government Gazette 54627 of 8 May 2026, read on 3 October 2026 · gov.za · Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965, ss 1, 22A, 29 and 30, consolidation in Government Gazette 40869 of 26 May 2017, read on 3 October 2026 · sahpra.org.za · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992 fetched again on 3 October 2026, sha256 beginning bc1216a3 and byte identical to the cached copy · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, Schedule 2 open homologue limb, closed congener list read and rejected · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, ss 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 17 and 19, with Schedules 1 and 2 · justice.gov.za · read from the cached text at research/instruments/south-africa/za-drugs-act-140-1992.txt, 84,091 bytes, against the.pdf beside it at 127,460 bytes · the consolidation is dated 29 May 2025 and carries the Act 14 of 2022 substitution of both schedules with effect from 14 December 2022 · Updated October 4, 2026

2-FDCK in South Africa, full detail →

25I-NBOMe

Legal status: Controlled as a Schedule 7 substance under the Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965, 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: Schedule 7 prints it under its own name as "25I-NBOMe (2C-I-NBOMe)." on page 196, beside "25B-NBOMe (2C-B-NBOMe)." and "25C-NBOMe (2C-C-NBOMe)." Section 22A (9) (a) (i) of the Medicines Act says no person shall "acquire, use, possess, manufacture or supply any Schedule 7 or Schedule 8 substance" unless the Director-General has issued a permit for it, and its proviso lets the Director-General authorise use only to provide a medical practitioner, analyst, researcher or veterinarian with the substance for a particular patient or for education, analysis or research. 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) also forbids importing or exporting any Schedule 7 substance without a permit, and (11) (b) says such a permit "may be issued for any purpose other than the satisfaction or relief of a habit or craving". Under the Drugs Act the position is different. The only ring-halogenated phenethylamine printed in Part III is "4-bromo-2,5-dimethoxyphene-thylamine (2C-B), (Nexus)." This substance is two steps away from it: the ring halogen is iodine rather than bromine, and the amine carries a 2-methoxybenzyl group. Neither the 4-iodo parent nor any N-benzyl derivative of anything in this family is printed. Paragraph 2 (a) to (d) does not bridge either step, because a change of halogen is not an isomerism and an N-benzyl group is not an ester, an ether or a salt. The Drugs Act limb that could still reach it is Part III paragraph 2 (e), "(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). If it does reach the substance, use or possession falls under section 4 (b), an offence under section 13 (d) punishable under section 17 (d) by such fine as the court may deem fit, imprisonment for a period not exceeding 15 years, or both, and dealing falls under section 5 (b), an offence under section 13 (f) punishable under section 17 (e) by imprisonment for a period not exceeding 25 years, or that imprisonment and a fine. If it does not, the Drugs Act does not reach the substance at all. 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 / medical: There is no prescription route. Section 22A (9) (a) (i) says no person shall "acquire, use, possess, manufacture or supply any Schedule 7 or Schedule 8 substance" unless the Director-General has issued a permit for it, and its proviso lets the Director-General authorise use only to provide a medical practitioner, analyst, researcher or veterinarian with the substance for a particular patient or for education, analysis or research. 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: NBOMe, 25I, 2C-I and iodo. NBOMe returns three Schedule 7 entries; the 4-iodo parent phenethylamine 2C-I occurs only inside the bracket of this entry and has no entry of its own. 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 25i, 25I-NBOMe, nbome, methoxybenzyl and iodo. All return zero occurrences in either schedule. 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.

Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965, Schedules made under section 22A (2), Schedule 7, page 196 · SAHPRA Consolidated Schedules of 1 August 2025, read on 3 October 2026 · sahpra.org.za · Government Notice 7446, Government Gazette 54627 of 8 May 2026, read on 3 October 2026 · gov.za · Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965, ss 1, 22A, 29 and 30, consolidation in Government Gazette 40869 of 26 May 2017, read on 3 October 2026 · sahpra.org.za · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992 fetched again on 3 October 2026, sha256 beginning bc1216a3 and byte identical to the cached copy · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, Schedule 2 open homologue limb, nearest halogenated phenethylamine read and rejected · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, ss 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 17 and 19, with Schedules 1 and 2 · justice.gov.za · read from the cached text at research/instruments/south-africa/za-drugs-act-140-1992.txt, 84,091 bytes, against the.pdf beside it at 127,460 bytes · the consolidation is dated 29 May 2025 and carries the Act 14 of 2022 substitution of both schedules with effect from 14 December 2022 · Updated October 4, 2026

25I-NBOMe in South Africa, full detail →

2C-B

Legal status: Controlled as an undesirable dependence-producing substance under Schedule 2 Part III of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992.
Consequences if caught: The printed name is "4-bromo-2,5-dimethoxyphene-thylamine (2C-B), (Nexus)." and the reader should see it exactly as the Act sets it, because the published text breaks the chemical name with a hyphen in the middle of the word phenethylamine, in the cached text and in the.pdf alike. Nexus is carried in the schedule itself as a second alias. Section 4 (b) forbids the use or possession of any dangerous dependence-producing substance or undesirable dependence-producing substance. Section 13 (d) makes that an offence and section 17 (d) fixes the penalty at such fine as the court may deem fit to impose, or imprisonment for a period not exceeding 15 years, or both. Dealing is section 5 (b), made an offence by section 13 (f) and punished under section 17 (e) by imprisonment for a period not exceeding 25 years, or by both that imprisonment and such fine as the court may deem fit to impose. The reader should note how wide dealing is: section 1 defines deal in to include transhipment, importation, cultivation, collection, manufacture, supply, prescription, administration, sale, transmission and exportation. Capital exposure: none, and life exposure: none. Section 17 sets out the whole penalty scale of this Act and its highest figure is 25 years for dealing; no provision of the Act carries a death sentence or a sentence of life imprisonment. One boundary on this cell: the minimum sentence regime in the Criminal Law Amendment Act 105 of 1997 was not read for this cell, so nothing here states whether a minimum term attaches to a drug offence of this kind.
If prescribed / medical: The Act's own lawful route is the set of exceptions in section 4, paragraphs (i) to (vi). A patient falls outside section 4 only where the substance was acquired from a medical practitioner, dentist or practitioner acting in a professional capacity and in accordance with the Medicines and Related Substances Control Act 101 of 1965, or from a pharmacist on that person's oral instruction or written prescription, and is used for medicinal purposes under that person's care or treatment. Section 2 states that this Act applies in addition to, and not in substitution for, the Medicines Act. The Medicines Act schedules themselves are not held in this repository and were not read for this cell, so no medicine schedule number is stated here. Nothing in Part III is available on prescription as such; a lawful holding would have to come through the Medicines Act route the section 4 exceptions describe.
Documentation: Search record. The terms searched through Schedules 1 and 2 were 2c-b, 2C-B, bromo-2,5-dimethoxy, phenethylamine and Nexus. The schedule returns one printed name and it is not an inference: "4-bromo-2,5-dimethoxyphene-thylamine (2C-B), (Nexus)." The dossier for this row repairs the typesetting and quotes the name as 4-bromo-2,5-dimethoxyphenethylamine, which is not what the Act prints. The form above is the printed form, checked against both the cached text and the published.pdf. 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. The Schedule and the Part named in this cell are read from the Act itself at the lines quoted; they are nowhere printed in the verbatim quotation supplied for this row.

Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, Schedule 2 Part III, printed name with its Nexus alias · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, ss 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 17 and 19, with Schedules 1 and 2 · justice.gov.za · read from the cached text at research/instruments/south-africa/za-drugs-act-140-1992.txt, 84,091 bytes, against the.pdf beside it at 127,460 bytes · the consolidation is dated 29 May 2025 and carries the Act 14 of 2022 substitution of both schedules with effect from 14 December 2022 · Updated September 21, 2026

2C-B in South Africa, full detail →

2C-T-7

Legal status: Controlled as a Schedule 7 substance under the Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965, 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: Schedule 7 prints it on page 194 as "2,5-dimethoxy-4-(n)-propylthiophenethylamine (2C-T-7)", by its full systematic name with the short name in brackets. Section 22A (9) (a) (i) of the Medicines Act says no person shall "acquire, use, possess, manufacture or supply any Schedule 7 or Schedule 8 substance" unless the Director-General has issued a permit for it, and its proviso lets the Director-General authorise use only to provide a medical practitioner, analyst, researcher or veterinarian with the substance for a particular patient or for education, analysis or research. 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) also forbids importing or exporting any Schedule 7 substance without a permit, and (11) (b) says such a permit "may be issued for any purpose other than the satisfaction or relief of a habit or craving". Under the Drugs Act the position is different. This row turns on an unusual phrase. Part III prints "4-methyl-2,5-dimethoxyamphetamine (DOM) and the derivatives thereof." and the words about derivatives are wider than anything paragraph 2 supplies, but they hang off a 4-methyl amphetamine and this substance is a 4-propylthio phenethylamine. Two changes separate them, the sulphur-bearing side chain at the 4 position and the absence of the alpha-methyl group. Whether a compound that far away is a derivative of that entry, or a homologue of the printed 4-bromo phenethylamine "4-bromo-2,5-dimethoxyphene-thylamine (2C-B), (Nexus)." is the open point, and the Act does not define derivative at all. The Drugs Act limb that could still reach it is Part III paragraph 2 (e), "(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). If it does reach the substance, use or possession falls under section 4 (b), an offence under section 13 (d) punishable under section 17 (d) by such fine as the court may deem fit, imprisonment for a period not exceeding 15 years, or both, and dealing falls under section 5 (b), an offence under section 13 (f) punishable under section 17 (e) by imprisonment for a period not exceeding 25 years, or that imprisonment and a fine. If it does not, the Drugs Act does not reach the substance at all. 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 / medical: There is no prescription route. Section 22A (9) (a) (i) says no person shall "acquire, use, possess, manufacture or supply any Schedule 7 or Schedule 8 substance" unless the Director-General has issued a permit for it, and its proviso lets the Director-General authorise use only to provide a medical practitioner, analyst, researcher or veterinarian with the substance for a particular patient or for education, analysis or research. 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: 2C-T-7, propylthio and 2C-T. The systematic name and the bracketed short name return the one Schedule 7 entry; no other 2C-T compound is printed. 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 2c-t-7, 2C-T-7, propylthio, thio and sulphide. None returns an entry. The derivatives phrase on the 4-methyl amphetamine entry was read in full and is quoted above, because it is the widest words in this family and a cell that ignored it would understate the reach of the schedule. 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.

Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965, Schedules made under section 22A (2), Schedule 7, page 194 · SAHPRA Consolidated Schedules of 1 August 2025, read on 3 October 2026 · sahpra.org.za · Government Notice 7446, Government Gazette 54627 of 8 May 2026, read on 3 October 2026 · gov.za · Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965, ss 1, 22A, 29 and 30, consolidation in Government Gazette 40869 of 26 May 2017, read on 3 October 2026 · sahpra.org.za · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992 fetched again on 3 October 2026, sha256 beginning bc1216a3 and byte identical to the cached copy · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, Schedule 2 open homologue limb, express derivatives phrase read and its reach left open · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, ss 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 17 and 19, with Schedules 1 and 2 · justice.gov.za · read from the cached text at research/instruments/south-africa/za-drugs-act-140-1992.txt, 84,091 bytes, against the.pdf beside it at 127,460 bytes · the consolidation is dated 29 May 2025 and carries the Act 14 of 2022 substitution of both schedules with effect from 14 December 2022 · Updated October 4, 2026

2C-T-7 in South Africa, full detail →

4-AcO-DMT

Legal status: Controlled as an undesirable dependence-producing substance under Schedule 2 Part III of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992.
Consequences if caught: This is reached by an express limb and not by the homologue limb. Part III prints "Psilocin (4-hydroxydimethyltryptamine)." and paragraph 2 (b) extends every entry to "(b) the esters and ethers of the specified substances or plants and of the isomers referred to in subparagraph (a), as well as the isomers of such esters and ethers, where the existence of such esters, ethers and isomers is possible;" The substance's own systematic name, 4-acetoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine, states the relationship: it is the acetate ester of the 4-hydroxy compound the schedule prints. The schedule already treats one ester of that compound as separately listed, "Psilocybin (4-phosphoryloxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine)." which is its phosphate ester. Section 4 (b) forbids the use or possession of any dangerous dependence-producing substance or undesirable dependence-producing substance. Section 13 (d) makes that an offence and section 17 (d) fixes the penalty at such fine as the court may deem fit to impose, or imprisonment for a period not exceeding 15 years, or both. Dealing is section 5 (b), made an offence by section 13 (f) and punished under section 17 (e) by imprisonment for a period not exceeding 25 years, or by both that imprisonment and such fine as the court may deem fit to impose. The reader should note how wide dealing is: section 1 defines deal in to include transhipment, importation, cultivation, collection, manufacture, supply, prescription, administration, sale, transmission and exportation. Capital exposure: none, and life exposure: none. Section 17 sets out the whole penalty scale of this Act and its highest figure is 25 years for dealing; no provision of the Act carries a death sentence or a sentence of life imprisonment.
If prescribed / medical: The Act's own lawful route is the set of exceptions in section 4, paragraphs (i) to (vi). A patient falls outside section 4 only where the substance was acquired from a medical practitioner, dentist or practitioner acting in a professional capacity and in accordance with the Medicines and Related Substances Control Act 101 of 1965, or from a pharmacist on that person's oral instruction or written prescription, and is used for medicinal purposes under that person's care or treatment. Section 2 states that this Act applies in addition to, and not in substitution for, the Medicines Act. The Medicines Act schedules themselves are not held in this repository and were not read for this cell, so no medicine schedule number is stated here. No prescription route was found for this substance in anything read for this cell.
Documentation: Search record. The terms searched were 4-aco-dmt, 4-acetoxy-DMT, psilacetin, psilocin and psilocybin. No exact entry is printed. The finding rests on paragraph 2 (b), quoted in full above, and on the substance's own name. [Certain] that 4-acetoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine is the acetate ester of 4-hydroxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine; the ester relationship is what the chemical name says and is not a judgement about similarity. The dossier put this row on the homologue limb and marked it not verified, without reaching the ester limb. 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.

Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, Schedule 2 Part III, paragraph 2 (b) applied to the printed psilocin entry · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, ss 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 17 and 19, with Schedules 1 and 2 · justice.gov.za · read from the cached text at research/instruments/south-africa/za-drugs-act-140-1992.txt, 84,091 bytes, against the.pdf beside it at 127,460 bytes · the consolidation is dated 29 May 2025 and carries the Act 14 of 2022 substitution of both schedules with effect from 14 December 2022 · Updated September 21, 2026

4-AcO-DMT in South Africa, full detail →

5-MeO-DMT (Bufo / Toad)

Legal status: Controlled as an undesirable dependence-producing substance under Schedule 2 Part III of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992.
Consequences if caught: This is reached by the ester and ether limb rather than by the homologue limb. Part III prints "Bufotenine (N,N-dimethylserotonin)." which is the 5-hydroxy compound, and paragraph 2 (b) extends every entry to "(b) the esters and ethers of the specified substances or plants and of the isomers referred to in subparagraph (a), as well as the isomers of such esters and ethers, where the existence of such esters, ethers and isomers is possible;" The substance's own systematic name, 5-methoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine, states that it is the methyl ether of that printed compound. Part III separately prints "Dimethyltryptamine [3-(2-(dimethylamino)-ethyl)-indole]." which is the same molecule without the 5-substituent. Section 4 (b) forbids the use or possession of any dangerous dependence-producing substance or undesirable dependence-producing substance. Section 13 (d) makes that an offence and section 17 (d) fixes the penalty at such fine as the court may deem fit to impose, or imprisonment for a period not exceeding 15 years, or both. Dealing is section 5 (b), made an offence by section 13 (f) and punished under section 17 (e) by imprisonment for a period not exceeding 25 years, or by both that imprisonment and such fine as the court may deem fit to impose. The reader should note how wide dealing is: section 1 defines deal in to include transhipment, importation, cultivation, collection, manufacture, supply, prescription, administration, sale, transmission and exportation. Capital exposure: none, and life exposure: none. Section 17 sets out the whole penalty scale of this Act and its highest figure is 25 years for dealing; no provision of the Act carries a death sentence or a sentence of life imprisonment.
If prescribed / medical: The Act's own lawful route is the set of exceptions in section 4, paragraphs (i) to (vi). A patient falls outside section 4 only where the substance was acquired from a medical practitioner, dentist or practitioner acting in a professional capacity and in accordance with the Medicines and Related Substances Control Act 101 of 1965, or from a pharmacist on that person's oral instruction or written prescription, and is used for medicinal purposes under that person's care or treatment. Section 2 states that this Act applies in addition to, and not in substitution for, the Medicines Act. The Medicines Act schedules themselves are not held in this repository and were not read for this cell, so no medicine schedule number is stated here. Nothing read for this cell shows a medicine route for this substance in South Africa.
Documentation: Search record. The terms searched were 5-meo-dmt, 5-methoxy-DMT, bufotenine, Bufo alvarius and mebufotenin. No exact entry is printed. The finding rests on paragraph 2 (b), quoted above. [Certain] that the 5-methoxy compound is the methyl ether of the 5-hydroxy compound, which is what the two names say. The dossier put this row on the homologue limb and marked it not verified; the ether limb settles it without needing the homologue limb at all. 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.

Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, Schedule 2 Part III, paragraph 2 (b) applied to the printed bufotenine entry · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, ss 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 17 and 19, with Schedules 1 and 2 · justice.gov.za · read from the cached text at research/instruments/south-africa/za-drugs-act-140-1992.txt, 84,091 bytes, against the.pdf beside it at 127,460 bytes · the consolidation is dated 29 May 2025 and carries the Act 14 of 2022 substitution of both schedules with effect from 14 December 2022 · Updated September 21, 2026

5-MeO-DMT (Bufo / Toad) in South Africa, full detail →

Adderall

Legal status: Controlled as an undesirable dependence-producing substance under Schedule 2 Part III of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992.
Consequences if caught: Adderall is a trade name and the Act names substances, not brands. The two substances it is made of are printed in Part III on consecutive lines: "Amphetamine." and "Dexamphetamine." A product made of amphetamine salts is reached twice over, by those printed names and by Part III paragraph 2 (c), which extends each entry to "the salts of the specified substances or plants", and by paragraph 2 (d), which extends it to "all preparations and mixtures" of them. Section 4 (b) forbids the use or possession of any dangerous dependence-producing substance or undesirable dependence-producing substance. Section 13 (d) makes that an offence and section 17 (d) fixes the penalty at such fine as the court may deem fit to impose, or imprisonment for a period not exceeding 15 years, or both. Dealing is section 5 (b), made an offence by section 13 (f) and punished under section 17 (e) by imprisonment for a period not exceeding 25 years, or by both that imprisonment and such fine as the court may deem fit to impose. The reader should note how wide dealing is: section 1 defines deal in to include transhipment, importation, cultivation, collection, manufacture, supply, prescription, administration, sale, transmission and exportation. Capital exposure: none, and life exposure: none. Section 17 sets out the whole penalty scale of this Act and its highest figure is 25 years for dealing; no provision of the Act carries a death sentence or a sentence of life imprisonment. Section 19 (2) is the provision a traveller carrying medication should know about. If the quantity found exceeds what the accused could have bought for medicinal purposes on the prescription relied on, it is presumed until the contrary is proved that the accused dealt in the drug, which moves the case from the possession scale to the dealing scale. Section 20, which presumed possession from mere proximity, was declared inconsistent with the interim Constitution in S v Mello 1998 (3) SA 712 (CC), and the Act's own footnote records that.
If prescribed / medical: The Act's own lawful route is the set of exceptions in section 4, paragraphs (i) to (vi). A patient falls outside section 4 only where the substance was acquired from a medical practitioner, dentist or practitioner acting in a professional capacity and in accordance with the Medicines and Related Substances Control Act 101 of 1965, or from a pharmacist on that person's oral instruction or written prescription, and is used for medicinal purposes under that person's care or treatment. Section 2 states that this Act applies in addition to, and not in substitution for, the Medicines Act. The Medicines Act schedules themselves are not held in this repository and were not read for this cell, so no medicine schedule number is stated here. A traveller carrying a prescribed amphetamine product is relying on the section 4 exceptions, and section 19 (2) is the provision that bites if the quantity exceeds what the prescription accounts for.
Documentation: Search record. The terms searched were adderall, amphetamine, dexamphetamine, dextroamphetamine and amfetamine. The trade name returns nothing, which is what a schedule listing substances should do. The constituent names return two printed entries. The step from the brand to those two substances is a fact about the product and not a reading of the Act, and it is stated rather than hidden: [Certain] the active substances of this product are amphetamine and dexamphetamine salts. 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. The Schedule and the Part named in this cell are read from the Act itself at the lines quoted; they are nowhere printed in the verbatim quotation supplied for this row.

Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, Schedule 2 Part III, two printed names with paragraph 2 (c) and 2 (d) · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, ss 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 17 and 19, with Schedules 1 and 2 · justice.gov.za · read from the cached text at research/instruments/south-africa/za-drugs-act-140-1992.txt, 84,091 bytes, against the.pdf beside it at 127,460 bytes · the consolidation is dated 29 May 2025 and carries the Act 14 of 2022 substitution of both schedules with effect from 14 December 2022 · Updated September 21, 2026

Adderall in South Africa, full detail →

Alcohol

Legal status: Not named in Schedule 1 or Schedule 2 of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, so it is not a drug or a scheduled substance under that Act.
Consequences if caught: Every entry in Schedule 1 Parts I and II and in Schedule 2 Parts I, II and III was read for this row. No entry is ethanol, alcohol or a simple aliphatic alcohol, and no listed entry is a substance that ethanol shares a structural fragment with. The open homologue limb in each Part of Schedule 2 reaches homologues, defined in the Act as chemically related substances, and chemical relatedness is the gateway to both halves of that definition. Nothing in the two schedules is chemically related to ethanol. Liquor in South Africa is regulated by separate legislation, which is not held in this repository and was not read for this cell, so this row states what the drug statute does and does not do and stops there. Capital exposure: none, and life exposure: none. Section 17 sets out the whole penalty scale of this Act and its highest figure is 25 years for dealing; no provision of the Act carries a death sentence or a sentence of life imprisonment.
If prescribed / medical: The Act's section 4 exceptions do not arise, because section 4 applies only to a drug as the Act defines it. No prescription or permit under this Act is needed for alcohol.
Documentation: Search record. The terms searched across the whole 84,091 byte text were alcohol, ethanol, ethyl alcohol, liquor and spirits. Every one returns zero occurrences except in unrelated compound words. The dossier answers this row from a liquor statute that is not in the instrument set given to this lane, and its quotation is therefore one this cell cannot confirm and does not repeat. 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. The Schedule and the Part named in this cell are read from the Act itself at the lines quoted; they are nowhere printed in the verbatim quotation supplied for this row.

Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, absence measured across both schedules · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, ss 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 17 and 19, with Schedules 1 and 2 · justice.gov.za · read from the cached text at research/instruments/south-africa/za-drugs-act-140-1992.txt, 84,091 bytes, against the.pdf beside it at 127,460 bytes · the consolidation is dated 29 May 2025 and carries the Act 14 of 2022 substitution of both schedules with effect from 14 December 2022 · Updated September 21, 2026

Alcohol in South Africa, full detail →

Amphetamine

Legal status: Controlled as an undesirable dependence-producing substance under Schedule 2 Part III of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992.
Consequences if caught: The schedule prints the bare name: "Amphetamine." It is the first line of Part III. Four of its relatives are printed separately on their own lines, which tells the reader how this schedule works: "Dexamphetamine." and the entries for levamphetamine, levomethamphetamine and etilamfetamine each stand alone rather than being left to a general limb. Section 4 (b) forbids the use or possession of any dangerous dependence-producing substance or undesirable dependence-producing substance. Section 13 (d) makes that an offence and section 17 (d) fixes the penalty at such fine as the court may deem fit to impose, or imprisonment for a period not exceeding 15 years, or both. Dealing is section 5 (b), made an offence by section 13 (f) and punished under section 17 (e) by imprisonment for a period not exceeding 25 years, or by both that imprisonment and such fine as the court may deem fit to impose. The reader should note how wide dealing is: section 1 defines deal in to include transhipment, importation, cultivation, collection, manufacture, supply, prescription, administration, sale, transmission and exportation. Capital exposure: none, and life exposure: none. Section 17 sets out the whole penalty scale of this Act and its highest figure is 25 years for dealing; no provision of the Act carries a death sentence or a sentence of life imprisonment. One boundary on this cell: the minimum sentence regime in the Criminal Law Amendment Act 105 of 1997 was not read for this cell, so nothing here states whether a minimum term attaches to a drug offence of this kind.
If prescribed / medical: The Act's own lawful route is the set of exceptions in section 4, paragraphs (i) to (vi). A patient falls outside section 4 only where the substance was acquired from a medical practitioner, dentist or practitioner acting in a professional capacity and in accordance with the Medicines and Related Substances Control Act 101 of 1965, or from a pharmacist on that person's oral instruction or written prescription, and is used for medicinal purposes under that person's care or treatment. Section 2 states that this Act applies in addition to, and not in substitution for, the Medicines Act. The Medicines Act schedules themselves are not held in this repository and were not read for this cell, so no medicine schedule number is stated here. An amphetamine dispensed on prescription in South Africa sits under the Medicines Act as well as this Act, and section 2 says the two run together rather than one displacing the other.
Documentation: Search record. The terms searched were amphetamine, amfetamine, phenylisopropylamine and the separately printed relatives. Part III carries the bare name at its head. Paragraph 2 (a) then adds "(a) The isomers of the specified substances or plants, where the existence of such isomers is possible;" which is how the schedule handles the optical forms it does not name one by one. 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. The Schedule and the Part named in this cell are read from the Act itself at the lines quoted; they are nowhere printed in the verbatim quotation supplied for this row.

Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, Schedule 2 Part III, printed name at the head of the list · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, ss 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 17 and 19, with Schedules 1 and 2 · justice.gov.za · read from the cached text at research/instruments/south-africa/za-drugs-act-140-1992.txt, 84,091 bytes, against the.pdf beside it at 127,460 bytes · the consolidation is dated 29 May 2025 and carries the Act 14 of 2022 substitution of both schedules with effect from 14 December 2022 · Updated September 21, 2026

Amphetamine in South Africa, full detail →

Amyl Nitrite

Legal status: Not named in Schedule 1 or Schedule 2 of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, so it is not a drug or a scheduled substance under that Act.
Consequences if caught: Amyl nitrite is an alkyl ester of nitrous acid. No nitrite ester and no nitrate ester appears anywhere in either schedule, and no listed substance is a vasodilator. The homologue limb needs a chemically related listed substance to work from, and there is none. The dossier left this row unresolved on the footing that the closest Schedule 2 text was the entry for glutethimide, which the Act prints as "Gluthethimide." with that spelling. That entry is a piperidinedione sedative in Part I and it has nothing structural or pharmacological in common with an alkyl nitrite, so it does not support a deferral. Capital exposure: none, and life exposure: none. Section 17 sets out the whole penalty scale of this Act and its highest figure is 25 years for dealing; no provision of the Act carries a death sentence or a sentence of life imprisonment.
If prescribed / medical: Amyl nitrite has a medicinal history as a vasodilator and an antidote constituent. Any current South African pharmacy status for it comes from the Medicines Act, which is not held in this repository and was not read for this cell. This Act imposes nothing.
Documentation: Search record. The terms searched were amyl nitrite, amyl, nitrite, nitrate and isobutyl. All return zero occurrences as substance entries. The related label row for this family is answered separately and reaches the same conclusion by the same route. 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.

Amyl Nitrite in South Africa, full detail →

Ayahuasca

Legal status: Controlled as an undesirable dependence-producing substance under Schedule 2 Part III of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992.
Consequences if caught: The brew is not named, and it does not need to be: three of the substances it is made of are each printed in Part III. They are "Dimethyltryptamine [3-(2-(dimethylamino)-ethyl)-indole]." "Harmaline (3,4-dihydroharmine)." and "Harmine [7-methoxy-1-methyl-9H-pyrido (3,4-b)-indole]." Two independent routes therefore reach it. Paragraph 2 (d) extends every Part III entry to "all preparations and mixtures of the specified substances or plants", and a brew of two plants is a preparation and a mixture. Section 1 reaches it a second way, by defining an undesirable dependence-producing substance to mean "any substance or any plant from which a substance can be manufactured included in Part III of Schedule 2", with manufacture defined in the same section to include "the preparing, extraction or producing of the substance". Section 4 (b) forbids the use or possession of any dangerous dependence-producing substance or undesirable dependence-producing substance. Section 13 (d) makes that an offence and section 17 (d) fixes the penalty at such fine as the court may deem fit to impose, or imprisonment for a period not exceeding 15 years, or both. Dealing is section 5 (b), made an offence by section 13 (f) and punished under section 17 (e) by imprisonment for a period not exceeding 25 years, or by both that imprisonment and such fine as the court may deem fit to impose. The reader should note how wide dealing is: section 1 defines deal in to include transhipment, importation, cultivation, collection, manufacture, supply, prescription, administration, sale, transmission and exportation. Capital exposure: none, and life exposure: none. Section 17 sets out the whole penalty scale of this Act and its highest figure is 25 years for dealing; no provision of the Act carries a death sentence or a sentence of life imprisonment.
If prescribed / medical: The Act's own lawful route is the set of exceptions in section 4, paragraphs (i) to (vi). A patient falls outside section 4 only where the substance was acquired from a medical practitioner, dentist or practitioner acting in a professional capacity and in accordance with the Medicines and Related Substances Control Act 101 of 1965, or from a pharmacist on that person's oral instruction or written prescription, and is used for medicinal purposes under that person's care or treatment. Section 2 states that this Act applies in addition to, and not in substitution for, the Medicines Act. The Medicines Act schedules themselves are not held in this repository and were not read for this cell, so no medicine schedule number is stated here. There is no religious or ceremonial exception anywhere in this Act. The section 4 exceptions are medical and professional only, and none of them fits a ceremonial preparation.
Documentation: Search record. The terms searched were ayahuasca, yage, caapi, Banisteriopsis, Psychotria, harmala, harmine, harmaline and dimethyltryptamine. The plant names return nothing; the three alkaloid names return three printed entries. [Certain] that an ayahuasca brew characteristically contains dimethyltryptamine together with harmine and harmaline. The dossier for this row cited only the dimethyltryptamine entry and reached neither harmala alkaloid, although both are printed in the same Part a page apart. 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.

Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, Schedule 2 Part III, three printed names, with paragraph 2 (d) and the section 1 plant limb · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, ss 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 17 and 19, with Schedules 1 and 2 · justice.gov.za · read from the cached text at research/instruments/south-africa/za-drugs-act-140-1992.txt, 84,091 bytes, against the.pdf beside it at 127,460 bytes · the consolidation is dated 29 May 2025 and carries the Act 14 of 2022 substitution of both schedules with effect from 14 December 2022 · Updated September 21, 2026

Ayahuasca in South Africa, full detail →

Benzodiazepines

Legal status: Controlled as a class under the Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965, as at the SAHPRA consolidation of 1 August 2025: benzodiazepines and their derivatives are Specified Schedule 5 substances, phenazepam is printed in Schedule 5 without that mark, flunitrazepam is in Schedule 6 and a group of designer members is in Schedule 7; flunitrazepam is also the one member printed in the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992.
Consequences if caught: Schedule 5 prints on page 168 "Benzodiazepines and their derivatives, unless listed in another Schedule and except flunitrazepam. (S6)", with the specified marker after both "Benzodiazepines" and "derivatives", which this cell describes rather than reproduces, and it then prints the common members by name, each with that marker, among them alprazolam, bromazepam, clobazam, clonazepam, diazepam, lorazepam, midazolam, nitrazepam, oxazepam, temazepam and triazolam. The exceptions are real. Schedule 6 prints "Flunitrazepam." on page 186, and Schedule 7 prints clonazolam, diclazepam, flualprazolam and flubromazolam, so those designer members carry the Schedule 7 rule below instead: no acquisition, use or possession without a permit. 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) (b) lets any person possess a Schedule 3, Schedule 4, Schedule 5 or Schedule 6 substance "if he or she is in possession of a prescription issued by an authorised prescriber", and section 22A (5) confines the sale of a Schedule 5 substance to a pharmacist acting on a prescription or on the verbal instructions of an authorised prescriber, to a manufacturer or wholesale dealer, and to the prescribing professions it lists. Section 22A (10) adds that no person shall sell or administer any Scheduled substance or medicine "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) says no person shall import or export "any specified Schedule 5, Schedule 6, Schedule 7 or Schedule 8 substance" without a permit from the Director-General, and (11) (b) says such a permit "may be issued for any purpose other than the satisfaction or relief of a habit or craving". Under the Drugs Act the position is different. One member is printed in the whole Act: "Flunitrazepam." in Schedule 2 Part I. Every other benzodiazepine in ordinary clinical use returns zero occurrences. That single entry carries the five year and 10 year scales under sections 17 (b) and 17 (c) rather than the heavier ones. Whether Part I paragraph 2 (c) carries the rest of the class is the whole of this row, and the Part I extension limbs that do not depend on it are narrow: "(a) The salts and esters of the specified substances, where the existence of such salts and esters is possible;" and "(b) all preparations and mixtures of the specified substances; and" with no isomer limb. The Drugs Act limb that could still reach it is Part I paragraph 2 (c), "(c) 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." Parts II and III carry the same words as paragraph 2 (e). Because the printed relative sits in Part I, the scale that would follow is the Part I scale: use or possession under section 4 (a), an offence under section 13 (c) punishable under section 17 (b) by a fine, imprisonment for a period not exceeding five years, or both, and dealing under section 5 (a), an offence under section 13 (e) punishable under section 17 (c) by a fine, imprisonment for a period not exceeding 10 years, or both. The heavier scale, section 4 (b) with section 17 (d) and section 5 (b) with section 17 (e), at up to 15 and 25 years, applies only where the relative relied on is printed in Part II or Part III. If the limb does not reach the substance, the Drugs Act does not reach it at all. 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 / medical: The common members are medicines on prescription in South Africa. Outside the practitioners and pharmacies that section 22A (16) (c) and (d) cover, section 22A (16) (b) makes possession lawful only with a prescription issued by an authorised prescriber. For a visitor, SAHPRA's guideline SAHPGL-INSP-RC11, version 2 of June 2022, which restates the General Regulations, says "Any person entering the Republic may be in possession, for personal medicinal use, of- 3.2.1. a quantity of a Schedule 3, 4 or 5 substances, which shall not exceed for use for a period of six months; oral quantity of a Schedule 6 substance, which shall not exceed use for a period of 30 days;" and requires the original prescription, a certified copy of it, or a certificate or letter from the person who prescribed or dispensed it certifying the substance and quantity, with that person's name, physical and email address. The regulation the guideline restates sits behind the same SAHPRA sign in as the July 2026 schedules and was not itself read, so the allowance is stated here from the guideline. Section 22A (17) (a) defines an authorised prescriber as "a medical practitioner, dentist, veterinarian, practitioner, nurse or other person registered under the Health Professions Act, 1974". The guideline's own paragraph 3.1.3 says schedule 5, 6, 7 and 8 products "can only be imported with a permit issued in terms of Section 22A (9) and 22(A)(11)", in its part on commercial imports; nothing read says whether a traveller's personal supply within the allowance also needs that permit, and this cell does not decide it. Section 22A (6) (g) lets a Schedule 5 sale be repeated for no longer than six months, and then only if the prescriber has stated the number of times and the intervals, and section 22A (6) (h) (i) stops a Schedule 5 substance used for its anxiolytic, antidepressant or tranquillising properties being prescribed for longer than six months unless the prescriber has consulted a registered psychiatrist. 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: benzodiazepine, diazepam, alprazolam, flunitrazepam, clonazolam, diclazepam, flualprazolam, flubromazolam and phenazepam. The class word returns the Schedule 5 class entry; flunitrazepam returns Schedule 6; the four designer names return Schedule 7; phenazepam returns a Schedule 5 entry without the specified marker on page 175. 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 benzodiazepine, diazepam, flunitrazepam, azepam and azolam. The family suffix searches return the single entry above and nothing else. 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. The Schedule and the Part named in this cell are read from the Act itself at the lines quoted; they are nowhere printed in the verbatim quotation supplied for this row.

Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965, Schedules made under section 22A (2), Schedule 5, page 168 · SAHPRA Consolidated Schedules of 1 August 2025, read on 3 October 2026 · sahpra.org.za · Government Notice 7446, Government Gazette 54627 of 8 May 2026, read on 3 October 2026 · gov.za · Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965, ss 1, 22A, 29 and 30, consolidation in Government Gazette 40869 of 26 May 2017, read on 3 October 2026 · sahpra.org.za · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992 fetched again on 3 October 2026, sha256 beginning bc1216a3 and byte identical to the cached copy · SAHPRA guideline SAHPGL-INSP-RC11, Guidelines for Release of Imported Health Products at Ports of Entry, version 2, June 2022, paragraphs 3.1.3 and 3.2, read on 3 October 2026 · sahpra.org.za · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, Schedule 2 open homologue limb, single printed class member read, with the rest of the class absent · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, ss 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 17 and 19, with Schedules 1 and 2 · justice.gov.za · read from the cached text at research/instruments/south-africa/za-drugs-act-140-1992.txt, 84,091 bytes, against the.pdf beside it at 127,460 bytes · the consolidation is dated 29 May 2025 and carries the Act 14 of 2022 substitution of both schedules with effect from 14 December 2022 · Updated October 4, 2026

Benzodiazepines in South Africa, full detail →

Buprenorphine

Legal status: Controlled as a dependence-producing substance under Schedule 2 Part I of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992.
Consequences if caught: The bare name is printed in the first Part of the criminal schedule: "Buprenorphine." That Part carries the lighter of the two scales the Act runs. Section 4 (a) forbids the use or possession of a dependence-producing substance. Section 13 (c) makes that an offence and section 17 (b) fixes such fine as the court may deem fit to impose, or imprisonment for a period not exceeding five years, or both. Dealing is section 5 (a), an offence under section 13 (e), punished under section 17 (c) by such fine as the court may deem fit to impose, or imprisonment for a period not exceeding 10 years, or both. This is the lighter of the two scales the Act runs, and it applies only to the substances in the first Part of the criminal schedule. The neighbouring entries show what company it keeps: "Butalbital." "Flunitrazepam." "Gluthethimide." and the pentazocine and meptazinol entries. Capital exposure: none, and life exposure: none. Section 17 sets out the whole penalty scale of this Act and its highest figure is 25 years for dealing; no provision of the Act carries a death sentence or a sentence of life imprisonment.
If prescribed / medical: The Act's own lawful route is the set of exceptions in section 4, paragraphs (i) to (vi). A patient falls outside section 4 only where the substance was acquired from a medical practitioner, dentist or practitioner acting in a professional capacity and in accordance with the Medicines and Related Substances Control Act 101 of 1965, or from a pharmacist on that person's oral instruction or written prescription, and is used for medicinal purposes under that person's care or treatment. Section 2 states that this Act applies in addition to, and not in substitution for, the Medicines Act. The Medicines Act schedules themselves are not held in this repository and were not read for this cell, so no medicine schedule number is stated here. Buprenorphine is a prescribed treatment substance and a patient on it is inside the section 4 exceptions provided it came through a practitioner or a pharmacist acting on that practitioner's instruction.
Documentation: Search record. The terms searched were buprenorphine, Subutex, Suboxone, norbuprenorphine and pentazocine. One printed entry, in Part I rather than Part II, which is the fact that decides the sentence for this row: five years for possession and 10 for dealing rather than 15 and 25. Part I extends by "(a) The salts and esters of the specified substances, where the existence of such salts and esters is possible;" and by "(b) all preparations and mixtures of the specified substances; and" which is a narrower set of limbs than the Parts below it carry. 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. The Schedule and the Part named in this cell are read from the Act itself at the lines quoted; they are nowhere printed in the verbatim quotation supplied for this row.

Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, Schedule 2 Part I, printed bare name · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, ss 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 17 and 19, with Schedules 1 and 2 · justice.gov.za · read from the cached text at research/instruments/south-africa/za-drugs-act-140-1992.txt, 84,091 bytes, against the.pdf beside it at 127,460 bytes · the consolidation is dated 29 May 2025 and carries the Act 14 of 2022 substitution of both schedules with effect from 14 December 2022 · Updated September 21, 2026

Buprenorphine in South Africa, full detail →

Caffeine

Legal status: Not named in Schedule 1 or Schedule 2 of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, so it is not a drug or a scheduled substance under that Act.
Consequences if caught: Caffeine is a xanthine. Reading every entry of both schedules, there is no xanthine in either, and no purine alkaloid of any kind. That matters because the homologue limb reaches only chemically related substances, and there is nothing in the two schedules for a xanthine to be related to. The stimulants Part III does carry are phenethylamines, cathinones and one methylphenidate entry, none of which shares a ring system with this substance. Food law in South Africa does regulate caffeine content and labelling, and that legislation is not held in this repository and was not read for this cell. Capital exposure: none, and life exposure: none. Section 17 sets out the whole penalty scale of this Act and its highest figure is 25 years for dealing; no provision of the Act carries a death sentence or a sentence of life imprisonment.
If prescribed / medical: No prescription or permit under this Act arises, because the Act reaches only substances in its own schedules.
Documentation: Search record. The terms searched were caffeine, coffein, xanthine, theophylline and theobromine. All five return zero occurrences in the Act. The dossier answers this row from a foodstuffs statute that is not in the instrument set given to this lane, so its quotation is not repeated here. 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. The Schedule and the Part named in this cell are read from the Act itself at the lines quoted; they are nowhere printed in the verbatim quotation supplied for this row.

Caffeine in South Africa, full detail →

Cannabis / THC

Legal status: Controlled as an undesirable dependence-producing substance under Schedule 2 Part III of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, but the use or possession of cannabis by an adult in private for that adult's own consumption in private is not a criminal offence.
Consequences if caught: The schedule entry still stands and reads "Cannabis (dagga), the whole plant or any portion or product thereof, except dronabinol [(-)-transdelta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol]." What has changed is not the schedule but section 4 (b). In Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development and Others v Prince; National Director of Public Prosecutions and Others v Rubin; National Director of Public Prosecutions and Others v Acton and Others [2018] ZACC 30, handed down on 18 September 2018, section 4 (b) read with Part III of Schedule 2 was declared invalid to the extent that it makes the use or possession of cannabis in private by an adult for that adult's own consumption in private a criminal offence, and the Court read a further exception into section 4 (b): "(vii), in the case of an adult, the substance is cannabis and he or she uses it or is in possession thereof in private for his or her personal consumption in private." The same order read words into the definition of deal in, so that cultivation by an adult in a private place for personal consumption in private falls outside dealing. Everything else remains an offence. Possession outside a private place, supply to another person and every other limb of deal in are untouched. Section 4 (b) forbids the use or possession of any dangerous dependence-producing substance or undesirable dependence-producing substance. Section 13 (d) makes that an offence and section 17 (d) fixes the penalty at such fine as the court may deem fit to impose, or imprisonment for a period not exceeding 15 years, or both. Dealing is section 5 (b), made an offence by section 13 (f) and punished under section 17 (e) by imprisonment for a period not exceeding 25 years, or by both that imprisonment and such fine as the court may deem fit to impose. The reader should note how wide dealing is: section 1 defines deal in to include transhipment, importation, cultivation, collection, manufacture, supply, prescription, administration, sale, transmission and exportation. A second judgment matters to a family: in Centre for Child Law v Director of Public Prosecutions, Johannesburg, 29 September 2022, section 4 was declared invalid to the extent that it criminalises the use or possession of cannabis by a child, and during the suspension no child may be arrested, prosecuted or diverted for it. Capital exposure: none, and life exposure: none. Section 17 sets out the whole penalty scale of this Act and its highest figure is 25 years for dealing; no provision of the Act carries a death sentence or a sentence of life imprisonment.
If prescribed / medical: Cannabis is not available to a traveller as a prescribed medicine on the strength of anything in this Act. The Part II entry "Dronabinol [(-)-transdelta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol]." is the one cannabinoid this Act treats as a medicine substance, and it sits on the heavier of the two scales rather than the lighter one. The Act's own lawful route is the set of exceptions in section 4, paragraphs (i) to (vi). A patient falls outside section 4 only where the substance was acquired from a medical practitioner, dentist or practitioner acting in a professional capacity and in accordance with the Medicines and Related Substances Control Act 101 of 1965, or from a pharmacist on that person's oral instruction or written prescription, and is used for medicinal purposes under that person's care or treatment. Section 2 states that this Act applies in addition to, and not in substitution for, the Medicines Act. The Medicines Act schedules themselves are not held in this repository and were not read for this cell, so no medicine schedule number is stated here.
Documentation: Search record and the currency question, which is the hard part of this row. The terms searched were cannabis, dagga, marijuana, hemp, dronabinol and tetrahydrocannabinol. The Part III entry is quoted above and Part III also prints "Tetrahydrocannabinol." separately. Three items in the schedule carry a note that they have been deleted by section 7 of the Cannabis for Private Purposes Act 7 of 2024, "a provision which will be put into operation by proclamation": the cannabis item, the dronabinol item and the tetrahydrocannabinol item. What this cell relied on, said plainly. [Certain] from the Act itself, which carries the Prince order verbatim in its own footnotes to section 1 and section 4, that the reading-in above is the law and that the schedule entry is unamended. [Likely] that the Cannabis for Private Purposes Act 7 of 2024 is still not in operation as at 22 September 2026: the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development published draft regulations for comment on 2 February 2026 with comment closing on 5 March 2026, and its media statement of 3 February 2026 says "Since the judgement, the use or possession of cannabis by an adult for private purposes has not constituted a criminal offence", which is the judgment and not the Act doing the work. No commencement proclamation was found. So the schedule entry above is the operative text and the deletion has not taken effect. 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. The Schedule and the Part named in this cell are read from the Act itself at the lines quoted; they are nowhere printed in the verbatim quotation supplied for this row.

Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, Schedule 2 Part III, printed name, with the Prince reading-in into section 4 (b) · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, ss 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 17 and 19, with Schedules 1 and 2 · justice.gov.za · read from the cached text at research/instruments/south-africa/za-drugs-act-140-1992.txt, 84,091 bytes, against the.pdf beside it at 127,460 bytes · the consolidation is dated 29 May 2025 and carries the Act 14 of 2022 substitution of both schedules with effect from 14 December 2022 · Updated September 21, 2026

Cannabis / THC in South Africa, full detail →

Cathinone

Legal status: Controlled as an undesirable dependence-producing substance under Schedule 2 Part III of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992.
Consequences if caught: The schedule prints the bare name: "Cathinone." The Act splits this family across two Parts and the split changes the sentence. Cathinone sits in Part III, while its reduced relative is in Part I as "Cathine ((+)-norpseudoephedrine), except preparations and mixtures containing 50 milligrams or less of cathine per dosage unit." so the same plant can put a person on either scale depending on which substance is in issue. Section 4 (b) forbids the use or possession of any dangerous dependence-producing substance or undesirable dependence-producing substance. Section 13 (d) makes that an offence and section 17 (d) fixes the penalty at such fine as the court may deem fit to impose, or imprisonment for a period not exceeding 15 years, or both. Dealing is section 5 (b), made an offence by section 13 (f) and punished under section 17 (e) by imprisonment for a period not exceeding 25 years, or by both that imprisonment and such fine as the court may deem fit to impose. The reader should note how wide dealing is: section 1 defines deal in to include transhipment, importation, cultivation, collection, manufacture, supply, prescription, administration, sale, transmission and exportation. Capital exposure: none, and life exposure: none. Section 17 sets out the whole penalty scale of this Act and its highest figure is 25 years for dealing; no provision of the Act carries a death sentence or a sentence of life imprisonment.
If prescribed / medical: The Act's own lawful route is the set of exceptions in section 4, paragraphs (i) to (vi). A patient falls outside section 4 only where the substance was acquired from a medical practitioner, dentist or practitioner acting in a professional capacity and in accordance with the Medicines and Related Substances Control Act 101 of 1965, or from a pharmacist on that person's oral instruction or written prescription, and is used for medicinal purposes under that person's care or treatment. Section 2 states that this Act applies in addition to, and not in substitution for, the Medicines Act. The Medicines Act schedules themselves are not held in this repository and were not read for this cell, so no medicine schedule number is stated here. Neither entry in this family is a traveller medicine in South Africa on anything read for this cell, and the Part I entry carries its own dosage exception rather than a prescription route.
Documentation: Search record. The terms searched were cathinone, cathine, norpseudoephedrine, khat and methcathinone. Part III prints the bare name; Part I prints the cathine entry with its 50 milligram dosage exception; Part III also prints "Methcathinone (2-(methylamino)-1-phenylpropan-1-one)." as a separate line. Three printed entries in one family across two Parts, and the Act keeps them apart rather than running them together. 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. The Schedule and the Part named in this cell are read from the Act itself at the lines quoted; they are nowhere printed in the verbatim quotation supplied for this row.

Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, Schedule 2 Part III, printed name, with the related Part I entry noted · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, ss 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 17 and 19, with Schedules 1 and 2 · justice.gov.za · read from the cached text at research/instruments/south-africa/za-drugs-act-140-1992.txt, 84,091 bytes, against the.pdf beside it at 127,460 bytes · the consolidation is dated 29 May 2025 and carries the Act 14 of 2022 substitution of both schedules with effect from 14 December 2022 · Updated September 21, 2026

Cathinone in South Africa, full detail →

Clonazepam

Legal status: Controlled as a Specified Schedule 5 substance under the Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965, 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: Schedule 5 prints it under its own name as "Clonazepam" on page 170, between Clomipramine and Clopenthixol. Schedule 7, by contrast, prints the designer triazolo analogue "Clonazolam" on page 193, so the two names a reader may confuse sit in different schedules. The entry is followed by the double asterisk that paragraph c of the Schedule 5 preamble explains: "Specified Schedule 5 substances listed in this schedule are subject to additional control in terms of section 22A of the Act as required under the provisions of the 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances and are denoted by" that mark. 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) (b) lets any person possess a Schedule 3, Schedule 4, Schedule 5 or Schedule 6 substance "if he or she is in possession of a prescription issued by an authorised prescriber", and section 22A (5) confines the sale of a Schedule 5 substance to a pharmacist acting on a prescription or on the verbal instructions of an authorised prescriber, to a manufacturer or wholesale dealer, and to the prescribing professions it lists. Section 22A (10) adds that no person shall sell or administer any Scheduled substance or medicine "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) says no person shall import or export "any specified Schedule 5, Schedule 6, Schedule 7 or Schedule 8 substance" without a permit from the Director-General, and (11) (b) says such a permit "may be issued for any purpose other than the satisfaction or relief of a habit or craving". Under the Drugs Act the position is different. The one printed member of the class is "Flunitrazepam." in Schedule 2 Part I. This substance is also a nitrobenzodiazepine, which makes it a closer relative of the printed entry than most of the class, but the two differ in the halogen on the pendant ring and in the methyl group on the diazepine nitrogen, and they have different molecular formulas. Part I offers no isomer limb, so paragraph 2 (a) of the heavier Parts is not available to bridge that. The Drugs Act limb that could still reach it is Part I paragraph 2 (c), "(c) 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." Parts II and III carry the same words as paragraph 2 (e). Because the printed relative sits in Part I, the scale that would follow is the Part I scale: use or possession under section 4 (a), an offence under section 13 (c) punishable under section 17 (b) by a fine, imprisonment for a period not exceeding five years, or both, and dealing under section 5 (a), an offence under section 13 (e) punishable under section 17 (c) by a fine, imprisonment for a period not exceeding 10 years, or both. The heavier scale, section 4 (b) with section 17 (d) and section 5 (b) with section 17 (e), at up to 15 and 25 years, applies only where the relative relied on is printed in Part II or Part III. If the limb does not reach the substance, the Drugs Act does not reach it at all. 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 / medical: Clonazepam is a medicine on prescription in South Africa. Outside the practitioners and pharmacies that section 22A (16) (c) and (d) cover, section 22A (16) (b) makes possession lawful only with a prescription issued by an authorised prescriber. For a visitor, SAHPRA's guideline SAHPGL-INSP-RC11, version 2 of June 2022, which restates the General Regulations, says "Any person entering the Republic may be in possession, for personal medicinal use, of- 3.2.1. a quantity of a Schedule 3, 4 or 5 substances, which shall not exceed for use for a period of six months; oral quantity of a Schedule 6 substance, which shall not exceed use for a period of 30 days;" and requires the original prescription, a certified copy of it, or a certificate or letter from the person who prescribed or dispensed it certifying the substance and quantity, with that person's name, physical and email address. The regulation the guideline restates sits behind the same SAHPRA sign in as the July 2026 schedules and was not itself read, so the allowance is stated here from the guideline. Section 22A (17) (a) defines an authorised prescriber as "a medical practitioner, dentist, veterinarian, practitioner, nurse or other person registered under the Health Professions Act, 1974". The guideline's own paragraph 3.1.3 says schedule 5, 6, 7 and 8 products "can only be imported with a permit issued in terms of Section 22A (9) and 22(A)(11)", in its part on commercial imports; nothing read says whether a traveller's personal supply within the allowance also needs that permit, and this cell does not decide it. Section 22A (6) (g) lets a Schedule 5 sale be repeated for no longer than six months, and then only if the prescriber has stated the number of times and the intervals, and section 22A (6) (h) (i) stops a Schedule 5 substance used for its anxiolytic, antidepressant or tranquillising properties being prescribed for longer than six months unless the prescriber has consulted a registered psychiatrist. 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: clonazepam, Rivotril, clonazolam and benzodiazepine. Clonazepam returns the Schedule 5 entry on page 170 with the specified marker; clonazolam returns a separate Schedule 7 entry on page 193. 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 clonazepam, Rivotril, nitrazepam, nitrobenzodiazepine and flunitrazepam. Only the last returns an entry. The structural comparison is stated because it is what makes this row a closer call than the other members of the class, not because the Act invites it. 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.

Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965, Schedules made under section 22A (2), Schedule 5, page 170 · SAHPRA Consolidated Schedules of 1 August 2025, read on 3 October 2026 · sahpra.org.za · Government Notice 7446, Government Gazette 54627 of 8 May 2026, read on 3 October 2026 · gov.za · Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965, ss 1, 22A, 29 and 30, consolidation in Government Gazette 40869 of 26 May 2017, read on 3 October 2026 · sahpra.org.za · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992 fetched again on 3 October 2026, sha256 beginning bc1216a3 and byte identical to the cached copy · SAHPRA guideline SAHPGL-INSP-RC11, Guidelines for Release of Imported Health Products at Ports of Entry, version 2, June 2022, paragraphs 3.1.3 and 3.2, read on 3 October 2026 · sahpra.org.za · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, Schedule 2 open homologue limb, single printed benzodiazepine read and rejected · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, ss 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 17 and 19, with Schedules 1 and 2 · justice.gov.za · read from the cached text at research/instruments/south-africa/za-drugs-act-140-1992.txt, 84,091 bytes, against the.pdf beside it at 127,460 bytes · the consolidation is dated 29 May 2025 and carries the Act 14 of 2022 substitution of both schedules with effect from 14 December 2022 · Updated October 4, 2026

Clonazepam in South Africa, full detail →

Cocaine

Legal status: Controlled as a dangerous dependence-producing substance under Schedule 2 Part II of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992.
Consequences if caught: Cocaine is not printed as an entry under its own name, and the cell says so rather than inventing one. It is reached by the coca leaf entry, which is printed in full as "Coca leaf and any salt, compound, derivative or preparation of coca leaf, and any salt, compound, derivative or preparation thereof that is chemically equivalent or identical to any of these substances, whether obtained directly or indirectly by extraction from material or substances obtained from plants, or obtained independently by chemical synthesis, or by a combination of extraction and chemical synthesis, except decocainized coca leaf and extractions of coca leaf where such extractions contain no cocaine or ecgonine." Three features of that entry do the work. It reaches any salt, compound, derivative or preparation of coca leaf; it reaches anything chemically equivalent or identical to those, whether obtained by extraction or "obtained independently by chemical synthesis"; and its own exception, for extractions that "contain no cocaine or ecgonine", presupposes that an extraction which does contain cocaine is inside the entry. Section 4 (b) forbids the use or possession of any dangerous dependence-producing substance or undesirable dependence-producing substance. Section 13 (d) makes that an offence and section 17 (d) fixes the penalty at such fine as the court may deem fit to impose, or imprisonment for a period not exceeding 15 years, or both. Dealing is section 5 (b), made an offence by section 13 (f) and punished under section 17 (e) by imprisonment for a period not exceeding 25 years, or by both that imprisonment and such fine as the court may deem fit to impose. The reader should note how wide dealing is: section 1 defines deal in to include transhipment, importation, cultivation, collection, manufacture, supply, prescription, administration, sale, transmission and exportation. Capital exposure: none, and life exposure: none. Section 17 sets out the whole penalty scale of this Act and its highest figure is 25 years for dealing; no provision of the Act carries a death sentence or a sentence of life imprisonment. Section 19 (2) is the provision a traveller carrying medication should know about. If the quantity found exceeds what the accused could have bought for medicinal purposes on the prescription relied on, it is presumed until the contrary is proved that the accused dealt in the drug, which moves the case from the possession scale to the dealing scale. Section 20, which presumed possession from mere proximity, was declared inconsistent with the interim Constitution in S v Mello 1998 (3) SA 712 (CC), and the Act's own footnote records that.
If prescribed / medical: The Act's own lawful route is the set of exceptions in section 4, paragraphs (i) to (vi). A patient falls outside section 4 only where the substance was acquired from a medical practitioner, dentist or practitioner acting in a professional capacity and in accordance with the Medicines and Related Substances Control Act 101 of 1965, or from a pharmacist on that person's oral instruction or written prescription, and is used for medicinal purposes under that person's care or treatment. Section 2 states that this Act applies in addition to, and not in substitution for, the Medicines Act. The Medicines Act schedules themselves are not held in this repository and were not read for this cell, so no medicine schedule number is stated here. Cocaine has a narrow surgical use in some countries. Nothing read for this cell establishes a South African medicine route for it, and the Act's exceptions run through a practitioner and the Medicines Act rather than through the schedule.
Documentation: Search record. The terms searched were cocaine, coca, ecgonine, benzoylmethylecgonine and crack. The word cocaine occurs exactly twice in the whole Act, and neither occurrence is a heading: once inside the coca leaf exception and once inside the entry that reads "Ecgonine and the esters and derivatives thereof which are convertible to ecgonine and cocaine." Both are quoted here because between them they are the entire statutory basis for this row. The dossier quotes only the opening fragment of the coca leaf entry and stops before the synthesis clause, which is the clause that reaches a synthesised sample. 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. The Schedule and the Part named in this cell are read from the Act itself at the lines quoted; they are nowhere printed in the verbatim quotation supplied for this row.

Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, Schedule 2 Part II, coca leaf entry with the ecgonine entry · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, ss 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 17 and 19, with Schedules 1 and 2 · justice.gov.za · read from the cached text at research/instruments/south-africa/za-drugs-act-140-1992.txt, 84,091 bytes, against the.pdf beside it at 127,460 bytes · the consolidation is dated 29 May 2025 and carries the Act 14 of 2022 substitution of both schedules with effect from 14 December 2022 · Updated September 21, 2026

Cocaine in South Africa, full detail →

Codeine

Legal status: Controlled as a dangerous dependence-producing substance under Schedule 2 Part II of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992.
Consequences if caught: The entry carries a dose exception that decides most real cases: "Codeine (methylmorphine), except preparations and mixtures containing not more than 20 milligrams of codeine per recommended or prescribed dose." A preparation at or under 20 milligrams per recommended or prescribed dose is outside the entry, which is why ordinary combination analgesics are sold in South African pharmacies. Above that line the substance is a dangerous dependence-producing substance and the full scale applies. Section 4 (b) forbids the use or possession of any dangerous dependence-producing substance or undesirable dependence-producing substance. Section 13 (d) makes that an offence and section 17 (d) fixes the penalty at such fine as the court may deem fit to impose, or imprisonment for a period not exceeding 15 years, or both. Dealing is section 5 (b), made an offence by section 13 (f) and punished under section 17 (e) by imprisonment for a period not exceeding 25 years, or by both that imprisonment and such fine as the court may deem fit to impose. The reader should note how wide dealing is: section 1 defines deal in to include transhipment, importation, cultivation, collection, manufacture, supply, prescription, administration, sale, transmission and exportation. Capital exposure: none, and life exposure: none. Section 17 sets out the whole penalty scale of this Act and its highest figure is 25 years for dealing; no provision of the Act carries a death sentence or a sentence of life imprisonment. Section 19 (2) is the provision a traveller carrying medication should know about. If the quantity found exceeds what the accused could have bought for medicinal purposes on the prescription relied on, it is presumed until the contrary is proved that the accused dealt in the drug, which moves the case from the possession scale to the dealing scale. Section 20, which presumed possession from mere proximity, was declared inconsistent with the interim Constitution in S v Mello 1998 (3) SA 712 (CC), and the Act's own footnote records that.
If prescribed / medical: The Act's own lawful route is the set of exceptions in section 4, paragraphs (i) to (vi). A patient falls outside section 4 only where the substance was acquired from a medical practitioner, dentist or practitioner acting in a professional capacity and in accordance with the Medicines and Related Substances Control Act 101 of 1965, or from a pharmacist on that person's oral instruction or written prescription, and is used for medicinal purposes under that person's care or treatment. Section 2 states that this Act applies in addition to, and not in substitution for, the Medicines Act. The Medicines Act schedules themselves are not held in this repository and were not read for this cell, so no medicine schedule number is stated here. This is one of the few rows where the schedule itself, rather than the Medicines Act, answers the traveller's question in part: the 20 milligram per dose exception is printed in the entry. The Act's own lawful route is the set of exceptions in section 4, paragraphs (i) to (vi). A patient falls outside section 4 only where the substance was acquired from a medical practitioner, dentist or practitioner acting in a professional capacity and in accordance with the Medicines and Related Substances Control Act 101 of 1965, or from a pharmacist on that person's oral instruction or written prescription, and is used for medicinal purposes under that person's care or treatment. Section 2 states that this Act applies in addition to, and not in substitution for, the Medicines Act. The Medicines Act schedules themselves are not held in this repository and were not read for this cell, so no medicine schedule number is stated here.
Documentation: Search record. The terms searched were codeine, methylmorphine, norcodeine, dihydrocodeine and pholcodine. Part II prints four separate codeine-family entries, each with its own 20 milligram per dose exception, which is the schedule handling the family member by member. The dossier quotes only the opening bracket of this entry and refers to the exception without reproducing it; the exception is reproduced above because it is the operative part. 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. The Schedule and the Part named in this cell are read from the Act itself at the lines quoted; they are nowhere printed in the verbatim quotation supplied for this row.

Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, Schedule 2 Part II, printed name with its 20 milligram dose exception · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, ss 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 17 and 19, with Schedules 1 and 2 · justice.gov.za · read from the cached text at research/instruments/south-africa/za-drugs-act-140-1992.txt, 84,091 bytes, against the.pdf beside it at 127,460 bytes · the consolidation is dated 29 May 2025 and carries the Act 14 of 2022 substitution of both schedules with effect from 14 December 2022 · Updated September 21, 2026

Codeine in South Africa, full detail →

Crack Cocaine

Legal status: Controlled as a dangerous dependence-producing substance under Schedule 2 Part II of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992.
Consequences if caught: The base form is reached the same way as the salt form and by one further step. The printed entry "Ecgonine and the esters and derivatives thereof which are convertible to ecgonine and cocaine." reaches esters and derivatives convertible to ecgonine and cocaine, and the coca leaf entry reaches "any salt, compound, derivative or preparation of coca leaf". Part II paragraph 2 (d) then extends every entry in the Part to all preparations and mixtures of the specified substances, and a freebase prepared from the salt is a preparation of it. Nothing in the Act distinguishes the two forms, which means the sentence does not change with the form. Section 4 (b) forbids the use or possession of any dangerous dependence-producing substance or undesirable dependence-producing substance. Section 13 (d) makes that an offence and section 17 (d) fixes the penalty at such fine as the court may deem fit to impose, or imprisonment for a period not exceeding 15 years, or both. Dealing is section 5 (b), made an offence by section 13 (f) and punished under section 17 (e) by imprisonment for a period not exceeding 25 years, or by both that imprisonment and such fine as the court may deem fit to impose. The reader should note how wide dealing is: section 1 defines deal in to include transhipment, importation, cultivation, collection, manufacture, supply, prescription, administration, sale, transmission and exportation. Capital exposure: none, and life exposure: none. Section 17 sets out the whole penalty scale of this Act and its highest figure is 25 years for dealing; no provision of the Act carries a death sentence or a sentence of life imprisonment.
If prescribed / medical: The Act's own lawful route is the set of exceptions in section 4, paragraphs (i) to (vi). A patient falls outside section 4 only where the substance was acquired from a medical practitioner, dentist or practitioner acting in a professional capacity and in accordance with the Medicines and Related Substances Control Act 101 of 1965, or from a pharmacist on that person's oral instruction or written prescription, and is used for medicinal purposes under that person's care or treatment. Section 2 states that this Act applies in addition to, and not in substitution for, the Medicines Act. The Medicines Act schedules themselves are not held in this repository and were not read for this cell, so no medicine schedule number is stated here. There is no medicine route for this form of the substance anywhere in the Act, and none was found in anything read for this cell.
Documentation: Search record. The terms searched were crack, freebase, cocaine base, rock and ecgonine. The street name returns nothing, as expected. This row differs from the salt row only in the route: the salt row rests mainly on the coca leaf entry and its synthesis clause, this row adds the preparations limb because the base is made from the salt rather than found as such. 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. The Schedule and the Part named in this cell are read from the Act itself at the lines quoted; they are nowhere printed in the verbatim quotation supplied for this row.

Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, Schedule 2 Part II, ecgonine entry with the coca leaf entry and paragraph 2 (d) · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, ss 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 17 and 19, with Schedules 1 and 2 · justice.gov.za · read from the cached text at research/instruments/south-africa/za-drugs-act-140-1992.txt, 84,091 bytes, against the.pdf beside it at 127,460 bytes · the consolidation is dated 29 May 2025 and carries the Act 14 of 2022 substitution of both schedules with effect from 14 December 2022 · Updated September 21, 2026

Crack Cocaine in South Africa, full detail →

Delta-8-THC

Legal status: Controlled as an undesirable dependence-producing substance under Schedule 2 Part III of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992.
Consequences if caught: Part III prints the class name without qualification: "Tetrahydrocannabinol." A delta-8 isomer is a tetrahydrocannabinol, so the printed name reaches it on its own terms. There is a second and independent route: Part III paragraph 2 (a) extends each entry to "(a) The isomers of the specified substances or plants, where the existence of such isomers is possible;" and the delta-8 and delta-9 forms are isomers of one another. The Act names the delta-9 form separately in Part II as "Dronabinol [(-)-transdelta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol]." which shows that it distinguishes these isomers when it wants to. Section 4 (b) forbids the use or possession of any dangerous dependence-producing substance or undesirable dependence-producing substance. Section 13 (d) makes that an offence and section 17 (d) fixes the penalty at such fine as the court may deem fit to impose, or imprisonment for a period not exceeding 15 years, or both. Dealing is section 5 (b), made an offence by section 13 (f) and punished under section 17 (e) by imprisonment for a period not exceeding 25 years, or by both that imprisonment and such fine as the court may deem fit to impose. The reader should note how wide dealing is: section 1 defines deal in to include transhipment, importation, cultivation, collection, manufacture, supply, prescription, administration, sale, transmission and exportation. Capital exposure: none, and life exposure: none. Section 17 sets out the whole penalty scale of this Act and its highest figure is 25 years for dealing; no provision of the Act carries a death sentence or a sentence of life imprisonment.
If prescribed / medical: The Act's own lawful route is the set of exceptions in section 4, paragraphs (i) to (vi). A patient falls outside section 4 only where the substance was acquired from a medical practitioner, dentist or practitioner acting in a professional capacity and in accordance with the Medicines and Related Substances Control Act 101 of 1965, or from a pharmacist on that person's oral instruction or written prescription, and is used for medicinal purposes under that person's care or treatment. Section 2 states that this Act applies in addition to, and not in substitution for, the Medicines Act. The Medicines Act schedules themselves are not held in this repository and were not read for this cell, so no medicine schedule number is stated here. The only cannabinoid this Act treats as a medicine substance is the one printed in Part II under its pharmaceutical name, and a delta-8 preparation is not that substance.
Documentation: Search record. The terms searched were delta-8, delta 8, tetrahydrocannabinol, THC and dronabinol. The unqualified class name is printed in Part III and the delta-9 pharmaceutical form is printed in Part II. This row does not rest on the homologue limb at all, which is why it is stated as a finding: the isomer limb is express and is quoted above in full. The tetrahydrocannabinol item carries the note that it has been deleted by section 7 of the Cannabis for Private Purposes Act 7 of 2024, a provision not yet put into operation. 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.

Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, Schedule 2 Part III, printed class name, with paragraph 2 (a) · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, ss 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 17 and 19, with Schedules 1 and 2 · justice.gov.za · read from the cached text at research/instruments/south-africa/za-drugs-act-140-1992.txt, 84,091 bytes, against the.pdf beside it at 127,460 bytes · the consolidation is dated 29 May 2025 and carries the Act 14 of 2022 substitution of both schedules with effect from 14 December 2022 · Updated September 21, 2026

Delta-8-THC in South Africa, full detail →

Diazepam

Legal status: Controlled as a Specified Schedule 5 substance under the Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965, 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: Schedule 5 prints it under its own name as "Diazepam" on page 171, and Annexures 1A, 1B, 1E and 1F to Schedule 5 list diazepam for parenteral use by emergency care providers as an "Anti-convulsant/Sedative/Hypnotic", which shows the schedule treating it as a working medicine. The entry is followed by the double asterisk that paragraph c of the Schedule 5 preamble explains: "Specified Schedule 5 substances listed in this schedule are subject to additional control in terms of section 22A of the Act as required under the provisions of the 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances and are denoted by" that mark. 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) (b) lets any person possess a Schedule 3, Schedule 4, Schedule 5 or Schedule 6 substance "if he or she is in possession of a prescription issued by an authorised prescriber", and section 22A (5) confines the sale of a Schedule 5 substance to a pharmacist acting on a prescription or on the verbal instructions of an authorised prescriber, to a manufacturer or wholesale dealer, and to the prescribing professions it lists. Section 22A (10) adds that no person shall sell or administer any Scheduled substance or medicine "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) says no person shall import or export "any specified Schedule 5, Schedule 6, Schedule 7 or Schedule 8 substance" without a permit from the Director-General, and (11) (b) says such a permit "may be issued for any purpose other than the satisfaction or relief of a habit or craving". Under the Drugs Act the position is different. Schedule 2 Part I prints "Flunitrazepam." and nothing else in the class. The defining feature of that printed entry is a nitro group, and this substance has none. It is the plainest member of the family and the one furthest from the printed entry on the feature the schedule appears to have selected for. The extension limbs available in Part I are "(a) The salts and esters of the specified substances, where the existence of such salts and esters is possible;" and "(b) all preparations and mixtures of the specified substances; and" and neither reaches a differently substituted molecule. The Drugs Act limb that could still reach it is Part I paragraph 2 (c), "(c) 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." Parts II and III carry the same words as paragraph 2 (e). Because the printed relative sits in Part I, the scale that would follow is the Part I scale: use or possession under section 4 (a), an offence under section 13 (c) punishable under section 17 (b) by a fine, imprisonment for a period not exceeding five years, or both, and dealing under section 5 (a), an offence under section 13 (e) punishable under section 17 (c) by a fine, imprisonment for a period not exceeding 10 years, or both. The heavier scale, section 4 (b) with section 17 (d) and section 5 (b) with section 17 (e), at up to 15 and 25 years, applies only where the relative relied on is printed in Part II or Part III. If the limb does not reach the substance, the Drugs Act does not reach it at all. 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 / medical: Diazepam is a medicine on prescription in South Africa. Outside the practitioners and pharmacies that section 22A (16) (c) and (d) cover, section 22A (16) (b) makes possession lawful only with a prescription issued by an authorised prescriber. For a visitor, SAHPRA's guideline SAHPGL-INSP-RC11, version 2 of June 2022, which restates the General Regulations, says "Any person entering the Republic may be in possession, for personal medicinal use, of- 3.2.1. a quantity of a Schedule 3, 4 or 5 substances, which shall not exceed for use for a period of six months; oral quantity of a Schedule 6 substance, which shall not exceed use for a period of 30 days;" and requires the original prescription, a certified copy of it, or a certificate or letter from the person who prescribed or dispensed it certifying the substance and quantity, with that person's name, physical and email address. The regulation the guideline restates sits behind the same SAHPRA sign in as the July 2026 schedules and was not itself read, so the allowance is stated here from the guideline. Section 22A (17) (a) defines an authorised prescriber as "a medical practitioner, dentist, veterinarian, practitioner, nurse or other person registered under the Health Professions Act, 1974". The guideline's own paragraph 3.1.3 says schedule 5, 6, 7 and 8 products "can only be imported with a permit issued in terms of Section 22A (9) and 22(A)(11)", in its part on commercial imports; nothing read says whether a traveller's personal supply within the allowance also needs that permit, and this cell does not decide it. Section 22A (6) (g) lets a Schedule 5 sale be repeated for no longer than six months, and then only if the prescriber has stated the number of times and the intervals, and section 22A (6) (h) (i) stops a Schedule 5 substance used for its anxiolytic, antidepressant or tranquillising properties being prescribed for longer than six months unless the prescriber has consulted a registered psychiatrist. 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: diazepam, Valium and benzodiazepine. Diazepam returns the Schedule 5 entry on page 171 and four annexure lines for emergency care providers; no other schedule prints it. 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 diazepam, Valium, nordazepam, temazepam and oxazepam. All return zero occurrences in the Act. Four members of the immediate metabolic family were searched rather than one, so that the zero covers the family and not only the parent. 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.

Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965, Schedules made under section 22A (2), Schedule 5, page 171 · SAHPRA Consolidated Schedules of 1 August 2025, read on 3 October 2026 · sahpra.org.za · Government Notice 7446, Government Gazette 54627 of 8 May 2026, read on 3 October 2026 · gov.za · Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965, ss 1, 22A, 29 and 30, consolidation in Government Gazette 40869 of 26 May 2017, read on 3 October 2026 · sahpra.org.za · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992 fetched again on 3 October 2026, sha256 beginning bc1216a3 and byte identical to the cached copy · SAHPRA guideline SAHPGL-INSP-RC11, Guidelines for Release of Imported Health Products at Ports of Entry, version 2, June 2022, paragraphs 3.1.3 and 3.2, read on 3 October 2026 · sahpra.org.za · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, Schedule 2 open homologue limb, single printed benzodiazepine read and rejected · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, ss 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 17 and 19, with Schedules 1 and 2 · justice.gov.za · read from the cached text at research/instruments/south-africa/za-drugs-act-140-1992.txt, 84,091 bytes, against the.pdf beside it at 127,460 bytes · the consolidation is dated 29 May 2025 and carries the Act 14 of 2022 substitution of both schedules with effect from 14 December 2022 · Updated October 4, 2026

Diazepam in South Africa, full detail →

DMT

Legal status: Controlled as an undesirable dependence-producing substance under Schedule 2 Part III of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992.
Consequences if caught: The entry is printed with its systematic description: "Dimethyltryptamine [3-(2-(dimethylamino)-ethyl)-indole]." Part III also prints its N,N-diethyl relative on a separate line, and prints "Bufotenine (N,N-dimethylserotonin)." which is the 5-hydroxy form of the same molecule. Section 4 (b) forbids the use or possession of any dangerous dependence-producing substance or undesirable dependence-producing substance. Section 13 (d) makes that an offence and section 17 (d) fixes the penalty at such fine as the court may deem fit to impose, or imprisonment for a period not exceeding 15 years, or both. Dealing is section 5 (b), made an offence by section 13 (f) and punished under section 17 (e) by imprisonment for a period not exceeding 25 years, or by both that imprisonment and such fine as the court may deem fit to impose. The reader should note how wide dealing is: section 1 defines deal in to include transhipment, importation, cultivation, collection, manufacture, supply, prescription, administration, sale, transmission and exportation. Capital exposure: none, and life exposure: none. Section 17 sets out the whole penalty scale of this Act and its highest figure is 25 years for dealing; no provision of the Act carries a death sentence or a sentence of life imprisonment. One boundary on this cell: the minimum sentence regime in the Criminal Law Amendment Act 105 of 1997 was not read for this cell, so nothing here states whether a minimum term attaches to a drug offence of this kind.
If prescribed / medical: The Act's own lawful route is the set of exceptions in section 4, paragraphs (i) to (vi). A patient falls outside section 4 only where the substance was acquired from a medical practitioner, dentist or practitioner acting in a professional capacity and in accordance with the Medicines and Related Substances Control Act 101 of 1965, or from a pharmacist on that person's oral instruction or written prescription, and is used for medicinal purposes under that person's care or treatment. Section 2 states that this Act applies in addition to, and not in substitution for, the Medicines Act. The Medicines Act schedules themselves are not held in this repository and were not read for this cell, so no medicine schedule number is stated here. This substance has no prescription route in South Africa on anything read for this cell, and the section 4 exceptions all run through a practitioner and the Medicines Act.
Documentation: Search record. The terms searched were dmt, dimethyltryptamine, N,N-DMT and tryptamine. Part III returns the entry above. The bracketed systematic name in the printed entry is what identifies it, and it is reproduced here exactly, including the bracket style the Act uses. The dossier quotes this entry correctly on this row. 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. The Schedule and the Part named in this cell are read from the Act itself at the lines quoted; they are nowhere printed in the verbatim quotation supplied for this row.

Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, Schedule 2 Part III, printed name with its bracketed systematic description · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, ss 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 17 and 19, with Schedules 1 and 2 · justice.gov.za · read from the cached text at research/instruments/south-africa/za-drugs-act-140-1992.txt, 84,091 bytes, against the.pdf beside it at 127,460 bytes · the consolidation is dated 29 May 2025 and carries the Act 14 of 2022 substitution of both schedules with effect from 14 December 2022 · Updated September 21, 2026

DMT in South Africa, full detail →

DOM

Legal status: Controlled as an undesirable dependence-producing substance under Schedule 2 Part III of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992.
Consequences if caught: The entry carries the widest extension phrase in this family: "4-methyl-2,5-dimethoxyamphetamine (DOM) and the derivatives thereof." The words about derivatives sit on only a handful of Part III entries, and they sit on top of paragraph 2 (a) to (d) rather than replacing them. Part III prints the closely related "2,5-dimethoxy-4-ethylamphetamine (DOET)." on its own line rather than treating it as a derivative, which shows the schedule naming the members of the series it means to catch. Section 4 (b) forbids the use or possession of any dangerous dependence-producing substance or undesirable dependence-producing substance. Section 13 (d) makes that an offence and section 17 (d) fixes the penalty at such fine as the court may deem fit to impose, or imprisonment for a period not exceeding 15 years, or both. Dealing is section 5 (b), made an offence by section 13 (f) and punished under section 17 (e) by imprisonment for a period not exceeding 25 years, or by both that imprisonment and such fine as the court may deem fit to impose. The reader should note how wide dealing is: section 1 defines deal in to include transhipment, importation, cultivation, collection, manufacture, supply, prescription, administration, sale, transmission and exportation. Capital exposure: none, and life exposure: none. Section 17 sets out the whole penalty scale of this Act and its highest figure is 25 years for dealing; no provision of the Act carries a death sentence or a sentence of life imprisonment.
If prescribed / medical: The Act's own lawful route is the set of exceptions in section 4, paragraphs (i) to (vi). A patient falls outside section 4 only where the substance was acquired from a medical practitioner, dentist or practitioner acting in a professional capacity and in accordance with the Medicines and Related Substances Control Act 101 of 1965, or from a pharmacist on that person's oral instruction or written prescription, and is used for medicinal purposes under that person's care or treatment. Section 2 states that this Act applies in addition to, and not in substitution for, the Medicines Act. The Medicines Act schedules themselves are not held in this repository and were not read for this cell, so no medicine schedule number is stated here. There is no medical use route for this substance in anything read for this cell.
Documentation: Search record. The terms searched were dom, STP, 4-methyl-2,5-dimethoxyamphetamine and dimethoxyamphetamine. Three members of the series are printed in Part III: the 4-methyl amphetamine above, the 4-ethyl amphetamine, and the unsubstituted 2,5-dimethoxyamphetamine, which shares a printed line with the diethyltryptamine entry. 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. The Schedule and the Part named in this cell are read from the Act itself at the lines quoted; they are nowhere printed in the verbatim quotation supplied for this row.

Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, Schedule 2 Part III, printed name with its express derivatives phrase · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, ss 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 17 and 19, with Schedules 1 and 2 · justice.gov.za · read from the cached text at research/instruments/south-africa/za-drugs-act-140-1992.txt, 84,091 bytes, against the.pdf beside it at 127,460 bytes · the consolidation is dated 29 May 2025 and carries the Act 14 of 2022 substitution of both schedules with effect from 14 December 2022 · Updated September 21, 2026

DOM in South Africa, full detail →

DXM

Legal status: Not a drug under the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992: Schedule 2 Part II excludes dextromethorphan by name from the entry that would otherwise catch it.
Consequences if caught: The printed entry is "Methorphan, including levomethorphan and racemethorphan, but excluding dextromethorphan." The closing words are an express exclusion, which makes this the strongest kind of absence finding available in this jurisdiction: the schedule has considered the substance and put it outside. Its mirror image, levomethorphan, is inside the same entry, so the two enantiomers of one molecule sit on opposite sides of the criminal line. Because the substance is not in any Part of Schedule 2, it is not a drug within the section 1 definition, and sections 4 and 5 do not reach it at all. Capital exposure: none, and life exposure: none. Section 17 sets out the whole penalty scale of this Act and its highest figure is 25 years for dealing; no provision of the Act carries a death sentence or a sentence of life imprisonment.
If prescribed / medical: Nothing in this Act restricts this substance, so the Act's section 4 exceptions do not arise for it. Its pharmacy status in South Africa is governed by the Medicines and Related Substances Control Act 101 of 1965, whose schedules are not held in this repository and were not read for this cell.
Documentation: Search record. The terms searched were dextromethorphan, dxm, methorphan, levomethorphan and racemethorphan. The single entry above is what all five return. This row does not depend on the homologue limb, because paragraph 2 of Part II opens with the words "Unless expressly excluded", and this is an express exclusion. 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. The Schedule and the Part named in this cell are read from the Act itself at the lines quoted; they are nowhere printed in the verbatim quotation supplied for this row.

Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, Schedule 2 Part II, express exclusion inside the methorphan entry · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, ss 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 17 and 19, with Schedules 1 and 2 · justice.gov.za · read from the cached text at research/instruments/south-africa/za-drugs-act-140-1992.txt, 84,091 bytes, against the.pdf beside it at 127,460 bytes · the consolidation is dated 29 May 2025 and carries the Act 14 of 2022 substitution of both schedules with effect from 14 December 2022 · Updated September 21, 2026

DXM in South Africa, full detail →

Ephedrine

Legal status: Listed as a scheduled substance in Schedule 1 Part I of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, which is the precursor list and not the drug list.
Consequences if caught: The printed entry is "Ephedrine." and the Part is headed, in the capitals the schedule uses, «SUBSTANCES USEFUL FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF DRUGS». This is a different regime from every other row in this batch and the difference is the point. Section 1 defines a scheduled substance as any substance included in Part I or II of Schedule 1, and the definition of drug covers only the three Parts of Schedule 2. Section 4, the use and possession offence, applies to drugs and not to scheduled substances. What applies here is section 3: no person shall manufacture any scheduled substance or supply it to any other person, knowing or suspecting that it is to be used in or for the unlawful manufacture of any drug. Section 13 (b) makes that an offence and section 17 (d) punishes it with such fine as the court may deem fit to impose, or imprisonment for a period not exceeding 15 years, or both. So simple possession of this substance is not an offence under this Act, and supplying it with the relevant knowledge or suspicion carries 15 years. Capital exposure: none, and life exposure: none. Section 17 sets out the whole penalty scale of this Act and its highest figure is 25 years for dealing; no provision of the Act carries a death sentence or a sentence of life imprisonment.
If prescribed / medical: Ephedrine is sold in South Africa in medicines, and this Act does not regulate that. The Medicines Act does, and its schedules are not held in this repository and were not read for this cell. Nothing here states a medicine schedule number or a pharmacy status.
Documentation: Search record. The terms searched were ephedrine, pseudoephedrine, norephedrine, ephedra and methcathinone. Schedule 1 Part I returns "Ephedrine." "Pseudoephedrine." and "Norephedrine, including its optical isomers." as three separate entries. Schedule 2 returns nothing for any of them, which is the finding that puts this row on the section 3 offence rather than the section 4 one. Schedule 1 Part I extends only by "2. The salts of all substances included in this Part, where the existence of such salts is possible." and has no homologue limb at all. 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. The Schedule and the Part named in this cell are read from the Act itself at the lines quoted; they are nowhere printed in the verbatim quotation supplied for this row.

Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, Schedule 1 Part I, printed name, with ss 1, 3, 13 (b) and 17 (d) · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, ss 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 17 and 19, with Schedules 1 and 2 · justice.gov.za · read from the cached text at research/instruments/south-africa/za-drugs-act-140-1992.txt, 84,091 bytes, against the.pdf beside it at 127,460 bytes · the consolidation is dated 29 May 2025 and carries the Act 14 of 2022 substitution of both schedules with effect from 14 December 2022 · Updated September 21, 2026

Ephedrine in South Africa, full detail →

Etizolam

Legal status: Controlled as a Schedule 7 substance under the Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965, 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: Schedule 7 prints it under its own name as "Etizolam" on page 194. So although it acts like the benzodiazepines of Schedule 5, it sits with the designer sedatives in Schedule 7, where possession of any amount without a permit is the offence. Section 22A (9) (a) (i) of the Medicines Act says no person shall "acquire, use, possess, manufacture or supply any Schedule 7 or Schedule 8 substance" unless the Director-General has issued a permit for it, and its proviso lets the Director-General authorise use only to provide a medical practitioner, analyst, researcher or veterinarian with the substance for a particular patient or for education, analysis or research. 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) also forbids importing or exporting any Schedule 7 substance without a permit, and (11) (b) says such a permit "may be issued for any purpose other than the satisfaction or relief of a habit or craving". Under the Drugs Act the position is different. The comparison here is further away than for the rest of this class. Schedule 2 Part I prints "Flunitrazepam." which is a benzodiazepine, and this substance is a thienotriazolodiazepine: a thiophene ring stands where the benzene ring should be, and a triazole is fused on. It is therefore not a benzodiazepine at all, although it acts like one. That puts the weight of the row on the second half of the homologue definition, similar pharmacodynamic properties, rather than on a shared structural fragment. The Drugs Act limb that could still reach it is Part I paragraph 2 (c), "(c) 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." Parts II and III carry the same words as paragraph 2 (e). Because the printed relative sits in Part I, the scale that would follow is the Part I scale: use or possession under section 4 (a), an offence under section 13 (c) punishable under section 17 (b) by a fine, imprisonment for a period not exceeding five years, or both, and dealing under section 5 (a), an offence under section 13 (e) punishable under section 17 (c) by a fine, imprisonment for a period not exceeding 10 years, or both. The heavier scale, section 4 (b) with section 17 (d) and section 5 (b) with section 17 (e), at up to 15 and 25 years, applies only where the relative relied on is printed in Part II or Part III. If the limb does not reach the substance, the Drugs Act does not reach it at all. 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 / medical: There is no prescription route. Section 22A (9) (a) (i) says no person shall "acquire, use, possess, manufacture or supply any Schedule 7 or Schedule 8 substance" unless the Director-General has issued a permit for it, and its proviso lets the Director-General authorise use only to provide a medical practitioner, analyst, researcher or veterinarian with the substance for a particular patient or for education, analysis or research. 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: etizolam, thienodiazepine and benzodiazepine. Etizolam returns one entry, in Schedule 7 on page 194; it is not in the Schedule 5 class entry, which covers benzodiazepines "unless listed in another Schedule". 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 etizolam, thienodiazepine, thieno, triazolo and diazepine. All return zero occurrences. 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.

Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965, Schedules made under section 22A (2), Schedule 7, page 194 · SAHPRA Consolidated Schedules of 1 August 2025, read on 3 October 2026 · sahpra.org.za · Government Notice 7446, Government Gazette 54627 of 8 May 2026, read on 3 October 2026 · gov.za · Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965, ss 1, 22A, 29 and 30, consolidation in Government Gazette 40869 of 26 May 2017, read on 3 October 2026 · sahpra.org.za · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992 fetched again on 3 October 2026, sha256 beginning bc1216a3 and byte identical to the cached copy · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, Schedule 2 open homologue limb, single printed benzodiazepine read and rejected on ring system · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, ss 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 17 and 19, with Schedules 1 and 2 · justice.gov.za · read from the cached text at research/instruments/south-africa/za-drugs-act-140-1992.txt, 84,091 bytes, against the.pdf beside it at 127,460 bytes · the consolidation is dated 29 May 2025 and carries the Act 14 of 2022 substitution of both schedules with effect from 14 December 2022 · Updated October 4, 2026

Etizolam in South Africa, full detail →

Fentanyl

Legal status: Controlled as a dangerous dependence-producing substance under Schedule 2 Part II of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992.
Consequences if caught: The bare name is printed in Part II: "Fentanyl." The analogues are handled in the other Part. Part III prints a heading for fentanyl analogues and names ten of them, including the three-methyl compound and both of its isomeric forms. So the parent sits on the dangerous scale and the named analogues on the undesirable scale, and both scales carry the same maxima. Section 4 (b) forbids the use or possession of any dangerous dependence-producing substance or undesirable dependence-producing substance. Section 13 (d) makes that an offence and section 17 (d) fixes the penalty at such fine as the court may deem fit to impose, or imprisonment for a period not exceeding 15 years, or both. Dealing is section 5 (b), made an offence by section 13 (f) and punished under section 17 (e) by imprisonment for a period not exceeding 25 years, or by both that imprisonment and such fine as the court may deem fit to impose. The reader should note how wide dealing is: section 1 defines deal in to include transhipment, importation, cultivation, collection, manufacture, supply, prescription, administration, sale, transmission and exportation. Capital exposure: none, and life exposure: none. Section 17 sets out the whole penalty scale of this Act and its highest figure is 25 years for dealing; no provision of the Act carries a death sentence or a sentence of life imprisonment. Section 19 (2) is the provision a traveller carrying medication should know about. If the quantity found exceeds what the accused could have bought for medicinal purposes on the prescription relied on, it is presumed until the contrary is proved that the accused dealt in the drug, which moves the case from the possession scale to the dealing scale. Section 20, which presumed possession from mere proximity, was declared inconsistent with the interim Constitution in S v Mello 1998 (3) SA 712 (CC), and the Act's own footnote records that.
If prescribed / medical: The Act's own lawful route is the set of exceptions in section 4, paragraphs (i) to (vi). A patient falls outside section 4 only where the substance was acquired from a medical practitioner, dentist or practitioner acting in a professional capacity and in accordance with the Medicines and Related Substances Control Act 101 of 1965, or from a pharmacist on that person's oral instruction or written prescription, and is used for medicinal purposes under that person's care or treatment. Section 2 states that this Act applies in addition to, and not in substitution for, the Medicines Act. The Medicines Act schedules themselves are not held in this repository and were not read for this cell, so no medicine schedule number is stated here. A fentanyl patch or lozenge carried by a patient is inside the section 4 exceptions only if it came through a practitioner and the Medicines Act. The Act's own lawful route is the set of exceptions in section 4, paragraphs (i) to (vi). A patient falls outside section 4 only where the substance was acquired from a medical practitioner, dentist or practitioner acting in a professional capacity and in accordance with the Medicines and Related Substances Control Act 101 of 1965, or from a pharmacist on that person's oral instruction or written prescription, and is used for medicinal purposes under that person's care or treatment. Section 2 states that this Act applies in addition to, and not in substitution for, the Medicines Act. The Medicines Act schedules themselves are not held in this repository and were not read for this cell, so no medicine schedule number is stated here.
Documentation: Search record. The terms searched were fentanyl, alfentanil, remifentanil, sufentanil and thiofentanyl. Part II prints the bare name and prints alfentanil, remifentanil and sufentanil as separate entries. Part III prints the analogue heading with its ten named members. The split across two Parts is the feature of this row. 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. The Schedule and the Part named in this cell are read from the Act itself at the lines quoted; they are nowhere printed in the verbatim quotation supplied for this row.

Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, Schedule 2 Part II, printed bare name, with the Part III analogue heading noted · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, ss 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 17 and 19, with Schedules 1 and 2 · justice.gov.za · read from the cached text at research/instruments/south-africa/za-drugs-act-140-1992.txt, 84,091 bytes, against the.pdf beside it at 127,460 bytes · the consolidation is dated 29 May 2025 and carries the Act 14 of 2022 substitution of both schedules with effect from 14 December 2022 · Updated September 21, 2026

Fentanyl in South Africa, full detail →

Gabapentin

Legal status: Controlled as a Schedule 3 substance under the Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965, 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: Schedule 3 prints it under its own name as "Gabapentin." on page 68, after Frusemide and before Gadoxetic acid. Pregabalin, its neighbour in chemistry, is two schedules higher, in Schedule 5. 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) (b) lets any person possess a Schedule 3, Schedule 4, Schedule 5 or Schedule 6 substance "if he or she is in possession of a prescription issued by an authorised prescriber", and section 22A (5) confines the sale of a Schedule 3 substance to a pharmacist acting on a prescription or on the verbal instructions of an authorised prescriber, to a manufacturer or wholesale dealer, and to the prescribing professions it lists. Section 22A (10) adds that no person shall sell or administer any Scheduled substance or medicine "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 3, 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. Both schedules were read for anything in this chemistry and nothing matches. The nearest entry by effect is the Part III "Gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB)." and the two share no more than a short carbon chain carrying a functional group; the printed compound is a hydroxy acid and this one is a cyclohexane-substituted amino acid. Neither half of the homologue definition is comfortably engaged, and the Act offers no way of deciding how much shared skeleton is enough. The limb in question is 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 / medical: Gabapentin is a medicine on prescription in South Africa. Outside the practitioners and pharmacies that section 22A (16) (c) and (d) cover, section 22A (16) (b) makes possession lawful only with a prescription issued by an authorised prescriber. For a visitor, SAHPRA's guideline SAHPGL-INSP-RC11, version 2 of June 2022, which restates the General Regulations, says "Any person entering the Republic may be in possession, for personal medicinal use, of- 3.2.1. a quantity of a Schedule 3, 4 or 5 substances, which shall not exceed for use for a period of six months; oral quantity of a Schedule 6 substance, which shall not exceed use for a period of 30 days;" and requires the original prescription, a certified copy of it, or a certificate or letter from the person who prescribed or dispensed it certifying the substance and quantity, with that person's name, physical and email address. The regulation the guideline restates sits behind the same SAHPRA sign in as the July 2026 schedules and was not itself read, so the allowance is stated here from the guideline. Section 22A (17) (a) defines an authorised prescriber as "a medical practitioner, dentist, veterinarian, practitioner, nurse or other person registered under the Health Professions Act, 1974". Section 22A (6) (f) lets a sale of a Schedule 3 substance be repeated where the prescriber has written the number of times on the prescription, but not for longer than six months. 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: gabapentin, Neurontin and pregabalin. Gabapentin returns one Schedule 3 entry on page 68; pregabalin returns a Schedule 5 entry. 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 gabapentin, gabapentinoid, gamma-aminobutyric, cyclohexane and pregabalin. All return zero occurrences in the Act. 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.

Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965, Schedules made under section 22A (2), Schedule 3, page 68 · SAHPRA Consolidated Schedules of 1 August 2025, read on 3 October 2026 · sahpra.org.za · Government Notice 7446, Government Gazette 54627 of 8 May 2026, read on 3 October 2026 · gov.za · Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965, ss 1, 22A, 29 and 30, consolidation in Government Gazette 40869 of 26 May 2017, read on 3 October 2026 · sahpra.org.za · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992 fetched again on 3 October 2026, sha256 beginning bc1216a3 and byte identical to the cached copy · SAHPRA guideline SAHPGL-INSP-RC11, Guidelines for Release of Imported Health Products at Ports of Entry, version 2, June 2022, paragraphs 3.1.3 and 3.2, read on 3 October 2026 · sahpra.org.za · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, Schedule 2 open homologue limb, nearest entry by effect read and rejected · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, ss 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 17 and 19, with Schedules 1 and 2 · justice.gov.za · read from the cached text at research/instruments/south-africa/za-drugs-act-140-1992.txt, 84,091 bytes, against the.pdf beside it at 127,460 bytes · the consolidation is dated 29 May 2025 and carries the Act 14 of 2022 substitution of both schedules with effect from 14 December 2022 · Updated October 4, 2026

Gabapentin in South Africa, full detail →

GHB

Legal status: Controlled as an undesirable dependence-producing substance under Schedule 2 Part III of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992.
Consequences if caught: The entry is printed with the abbreviation the schedule itself supplies: "Gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB)." Section 4 (b) forbids the use or possession of any dangerous dependence-producing substance or undesirable dependence-producing substance. Section 13 (d) makes that an offence and section 17 (d) fixes the penalty at such fine as the court may deem fit to impose, or imprisonment for a period not exceeding 15 years, or both. Dealing is section 5 (b), made an offence by section 13 (f) and punished under section 17 (e) by imprisonment for a period not exceeding 25 years, or by both that imprisonment and such fine as the court may deem fit to impose. The reader should note how wide dealing is: section 1 defines deal in to include transhipment, importation, cultivation, collection, manufacture, supply, prescription, administration, sale, transmission and exportation. The placement is worth noticing. This substance sits with the hallucinogens and stimulants in the undesirable Part rather than with the sedatives in the dependence-producing Part, so it carries the 15 year and 25 year scales and not the five year and 10 year ones. Capital exposure: none, and life exposure: none. Section 17 sets out the whole penalty scale of this Act and its highest figure is 25 years for dealing; no provision of the Act carries a death sentence or a sentence of life imprisonment.
If prescribed / medical: The Act's own lawful route is the set of exceptions in section 4, paragraphs (i) to (vi). A patient falls outside section 4 only where the substance was acquired from a medical practitioner, dentist or practitioner acting in a professional capacity and in accordance with the Medicines and Related Substances Control Act 101 of 1965, or from a pharmacist on that person's oral instruction or written prescription, and is used for medicinal purposes under that person's care or treatment. Section 2 states that this Act applies in addition to, and not in substitution for, the Medicines Act. The Medicines Act schedules themselves are not held in this repository and were not read for this cell, so no medicine schedule number is stated here. There is no prescription route for this substance in anything read for this cell, and the exceptions in the Act require a practitioner and the Medicines Act.
Documentation: Search record. The terms searched were ghb, gamma-hydroxybutyrate, gamma hydroxybutyric, 4-hydroxybutanoic and sodium oxybate. One printed entry is returned, in the form quoted. Its lactone is not printed anywhere in either schedule, which is why the neighbouring row for that substance defers rather than resting on a finding. 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. The Schedule and the Part named in this cell are read from the Act itself at the lines quoted; they are nowhere printed in the verbatim quotation supplied for this row.

Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, Schedule 2 Part III, printed name with the schedule's own abbreviation · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, ss 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 17 and 19, with Schedules 1 and 2 · justice.gov.za · read from the cached text at research/instruments/south-africa/za-drugs-act-140-1992.txt, 84,091 bytes, against the.pdf beside it at 127,460 bytes · the consolidation is dated 29 May 2025 and carries the Act 14 of 2022 substitution of both schedules with effect from 14 December 2022 · Updated September 21, 2026

GHB in South Africa, full detail →

Heroin

Legal status: Controlled as an undesirable dependence-producing substance under Schedule 2 Part III of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992.
Consequences if caught: The entry is printed with its chemical name: "Heroin (diacetylmorphine)." The placement is the surprise in this schedule and it is worth stating: heroin is in the undesirable Part with the hallucinogens, not in the dangerous Part with morphine, codeine and the rest of the opioids. Both Parts carry the same sentences, so nothing turns on it for a reader, but a cell that put this entry in Part II would be wrong about the text. Section 4 (b) forbids the use or possession of any dangerous dependence-producing substance or undesirable dependence-producing substance. Section 13 (d) makes that an offence and section 17 (d) fixes the penalty at such fine as the court may deem fit to impose, or imprisonment for a period not exceeding 15 years, or both. Dealing is section 5 (b), made an offence by section 13 (f) and punished under section 17 (e) by imprisonment for a period not exceeding 25 years, or by both that imprisonment and such fine as the court may deem fit to impose. The reader should note how wide dealing is: section 1 defines deal in to include transhipment, importation, cultivation, collection, manufacture, supply, prescription, administration, sale, transmission and exportation. Capital exposure: none, and life exposure: none. Section 17 sets out the whole penalty scale of this Act and its highest figure is 25 years for dealing; no provision of the Act carries a death sentence or a sentence of life imprisonment. Section 19 (2) is the provision a traveller carrying medication should know about. If the quantity found exceeds what the accused could have bought for medicinal purposes on the prescription relied on, it is presumed until the contrary is proved that the accused dealt in the drug, which moves the case from the possession scale to the dealing scale. Section 20, which presumed possession from mere proximity, was declared inconsistent with the interim Constitution in S v Mello 1998 (3) SA 712 (CC), and the Act's own footnote records that.
If prescribed / medical: The Act's own lawful route is the set of exceptions in section 4, paragraphs (i) to (vi). A patient falls outside section 4 only where the substance was acquired from a medical practitioner, dentist or practitioner acting in a professional capacity and in accordance with the Medicines and Related Substances Control Act 101 of 1965, or from a pharmacist on that person's oral instruction or written prescription, and is used for medicinal purposes under that person's care or treatment. Section 2 states that this Act applies in addition to, and not in substitution for, the Medicines Act. The Medicines Act schedules themselves are not held in this repository and were not read for this cell, so no medicine schedule number is stated here. This substance has no prescription route in South Africa on anything read for this cell. Its parent substance is in Part II under its own name with a 0,2 per cent preparation exception, and that exception does not travel to the diacetyl compound.
Documentation: Search record. The terms searched were heroin, diacetylmorphine, diamorphine and morphine. One printed entry, in Part III. Part II separately prints "Morphine, except preparations and mixtures of morphine containing not more than 0,2 per cent of morphine, calculated as anhydrous morphine." so the two sit in different Parts of the same schedule. 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. The Schedule and the Part named in this cell are read from the Act itself at the lines quoted; they are nowhere printed in the verbatim quotation supplied for this row.

Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, Schedule 2 Part III, printed name, in the undesirable Part rather than the dangerous one · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, ss 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 17 and 19, with Schedules 1 and 2 · justice.gov.za · read from the cached text at research/instruments/south-africa/za-drugs-act-140-1992.txt, 84,091 bytes, against the.pdf beside it at 127,460 bytes · the consolidation is dated 29 May 2025 and carries the Act 14 of 2022 substitution of both schedules with effect from 14 December 2022 · Updated September 21, 2026

Heroin in South Africa, full detail →

Hydrocodone

Legal status: Controlled as a dangerous dependence-producing substance under Schedule 2 Part II of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992.
Consequences if caught: The entry is printed with its alternative chemical name: "Hydrocodone (dihydrocodeinone)." Part II prints the related morphinans around it on their own lines, including hydromorphone and hydromorphinol, each with its own bracketed name, so this is a schedule that names members rather than describing a class. Section 4 (b) forbids the use or possession of any dangerous dependence-producing substance or undesirable dependence-producing substance. Section 13 (d) makes that an offence and section 17 (d) fixes the penalty at such fine as the court may deem fit to impose, or imprisonment for a period not exceeding 15 years, or both. Dealing is section 5 (b), made an offence by section 13 (f) and punished under section 17 (e) by imprisonment for a period not exceeding 25 years, or by both that imprisonment and such fine as the court may deem fit to impose. The reader should note how wide dealing is: section 1 defines deal in to include transhipment, importation, cultivation, collection, manufacture, supply, prescription, administration, sale, transmission and exportation. Capital exposure: none, and life exposure: none. Section 17 sets out the whole penalty scale of this Act and its highest figure is 25 years for dealing; no provision of the Act carries a death sentence or a sentence of life imprisonment.
If prescribed / medical: The Act's own lawful route is the set of exceptions in section 4, paragraphs (i) to (vi). A patient falls outside section 4 only where the substance was acquired from a medical practitioner, dentist or practitioner acting in a professional capacity and in accordance with the Medicines and Related Substances Control Act 101 of 1965, or from a pharmacist on that person's oral instruction or written prescription, and is used for medicinal purposes under that person's care or treatment. Section 2 states that this Act applies in addition to, and not in substitution for, the Medicines Act. The Medicines Act schedules themselves are not held in this repository and were not read for this cell, so no medicine schedule number is stated here. A hydrocodone product carried into South Africa sits inside the section 4 exceptions only through the practitioner route. The Act's own lawful route is the set of exceptions in section 4, paragraphs (i) to (vi). A patient falls outside section 4 only where the substance was acquired from a medical practitioner, dentist or practitioner acting in a professional capacity and in accordance with the Medicines and Related Substances Control Act 101 of 1965, or from a pharmacist on that person's oral instruction or written prescription, and is used for medicinal purposes under that person's care or treatment. Section 2 states that this Act applies in addition to, and not in substitution for, the Medicines Act. The Medicines Act schedules themselves are not held in this repository and were not read for this cell, so no medicine schedule number is stated here.
Documentation: Search record. The terms searched were hydrocodone, dihydrocodeinone, hydromorphone and dihydromorphinone. Part II returns the entry above and returns the two neighbouring morphinans separately. No dose exception is printed on this entry, unlike the codeine and dihydrocodeine entries a few lines away, which is a difference worth noticing for a reader comparing the two. 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. The Schedule and the Part named in this cell are read from the Act itself at the lines quoted; they are nowhere printed in the verbatim quotation supplied for this row.

Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, Schedule 2 Part II, printed name with its bracketed chemical name · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, ss 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 17 and 19, with Schedules 1 and 2 · justice.gov.za · read from the cached text at research/instruments/south-africa/za-drugs-act-140-1992.txt, 84,091 bytes, against the.pdf beside it at 127,460 bytes · the consolidation is dated 29 May 2025 and carries the Act 14 of 2022 substitution of both schedules with effect from 14 December 2022 · Updated September 21, 2026

Hydrocodone in South Africa, full detail →

Ketamine

Legal status: Controlled as a Schedule 5 substance under the Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965, 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: Schedule 5 prints it under its own name as "Ketamine." on page 173, with no specified marker, and separately prints "Esketamine" on page 171. The Schedule 5 annexures list ketamine for parenteral use by paramedics and emergency care practitioners as an induction agent. Its fluorinated analogue is not in Schedule 5: Schedule 7 prints "2-Fluorodeschloroketamine." on page 195. 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) (b) lets any person possess a Schedule 3, Schedule 4, Schedule 5 or Schedule 6 substance "if he or she is in possession of a prescription issued by an authorised prescriber", and section 22A (5) confines the sale of a Schedule 5 substance to a pharmacist acting on a prescription or on the verbal instructions of an authorised prescriber, to a manufacturer or wholesale dealer, and to the prescribing professions it lists. Section 22A (10) adds that no person shall sell or administer any Scheduled substance or medicine "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 5, 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. The string ketamine occurs zero times in the whole 84,091 byte text of the Act, and that was measured rather than assumed. The nearest printed text is "Phencyclidine and the congeners thereof, namely, N-ethyl-1-phenylcyclohexylamine (PCE), 1-(1-phenylcyclohexyl) pyrrolidine (PHP or PCPY) and 1-[1-(2-thienyl) cyclohexyl] piperidine (TCP)." which names three congeners and describes no class. This substance is not one of the three. So the criminal statute reaches it only if the homologue limb does, and the answer to that question decides whether possession attracts nothing under this Act or up to 15 years under sections 4 (b) and 17 (d). The limb in question is 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 / medical: Ketamine is used in South Africa as an anaesthetic and emergency analgesic, in practice by practitioners rather than on a take home prescription. Outside the practitioners and pharmacies that section 22A (16) (c) and (d) cover, section 22A (16) (b) makes possession lawful only with a prescription issued by an authorised prescriber. For a visitor, SAHPRA's guideline SAHPGL-INSP-RC11, version 2 of June 2022, which restates the General Regulations, says "Any person entering the Republic may be in possession, for personal medicinal use, of- 3.2.1. a quantity of a Schedule 3, 4 or 5 substances, which shall not exceed for use for a period of six months; oral quantity of a Schedule 6 substance, which shall not exceed use for a period of 30 days;" and requires the original prescription, a certified copy of it, or a certificate or letter from the person who prescribed or dispensed it certifying the substance and quantity, with that person's name, physical and email address. The regulation the guideline restates sits behind the same SAHPRA sign in as the July 2026 schedules and was not itself read, so the allowance is stated here from the guideline. Section 22A (17) (a) defines an authorised prescriber as "a medical practitioner, dentist, veterinarian, practitioner, nurse or other person registered under the Health Professions Act, 1974". Section 22A (6) (g) lets a Schedule 5 sale be repeated for no longer than six months, and then only if the prescriber has stated the number of times and the intervals, and section 22A (6) (h) (ii) stops a Schedule 5 substance used for its analgesic properties being prescribed for longer than six months unless the prescriber has consulted another medical practitioner. 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: ketamine, esketamine and arylcyclohexylamine. Ketamine returns the Schedule 5 entry on page 173 and the annexure lines; esketamine returns its own Schedule 5 entry; the only other hit is the Schedule 7 fluorinated analogue. 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 ketamine, ketamin, 2-chlorophenyl, cyclohexanone and arylcyclohexylamine. 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.

Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965, Schedules made under section 22A (2), Schedule 5, page 173 · SAHPRA Consolidated Schedules of 1 August 2025, read on 3 October 2026 · sahpra.org.za · Government Notice 7446, Government Gazette 54627 of 8 May 2026, read on 3 October 2026 · gov.za · Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965, ss 1, 22A, 29 and 30, consolidation in Government Gazette 40869 of 26 May 2017, read on 3 October 2026 · sahpra.org.za · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992 fetched again on 3 October 2026, sha256 beginning bc1216a3 and byte identical to the cached copy · SAHPRA guideline SAHPGL-INSP-RC11, Guidelines for Release of Imported Health Products at Ports of Entry, version 2, June 2022, paragraphs 3.1.3 and 3.2, read on 3 October 2026 · sahpra.org.za · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, Schedule 2 open homologue limb, closed congener list read and rejected, with a measured zero for the substance name · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, ss 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 17 and 19, with Schedules 1 and 2 · justice.gov.za · read from the cached text at research/instruments/south-africa/za-drugs-act-140-1992.txt, 84,091 bytes, against the.pdf beside it at 127,460 bytes · the consolidation is dated 29 May 2025 and carries the Act 14 of 2022 substitution of both schedules with effect from 14 December 2022 · Updated October 4, 2026

Ketamine in South Africa, full detail →

Khat

Legal status: Controlled as an undesirable dependence-producing substance under Schedule 2 Part III of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992.
Consequences if caught: The plant is not named and it does not have to be. Section 1 defines an undesirable dependence-producing substance as "any substance or any plant from which a substance can be manufactured included in Part III of Schedule 2", and defines manufacture to include "the preparing, extraction or producing of the substance". Part III prints "Cathinone." so a plant yielding cathinone falls inside that definition. The same plant also yields the substance printed in Part I as "Cathine ((+)-norpseudoephedrine), except preparations and mixtures containing 50 milligrams or less of cathine per dosage unit." which brings the section 1 definition of a dependence-producing substance into play as well. Section 4 (b) forbids the use or possession of any dangerous dependence-producing substance or undesirable dependence-producing substance. Section 13 (d) makes that an offence and section 17 (d) fixes the penalty at such fine as the court may deem fit to impose, or imprisonment for a period not exceeding 15 years, or both. Dealing is section 5 (b), made an offence by section 13 (f) and punished under section 17 (e) by imprisonment for a period not exceeding 25 years, or by both that imprisonment and such fine as the court may deem fit to impose. The reader should note how wide dealing is: section 1 defines deal in to include transhipment, importation, cultivation, collection, manufacture, supply, prescription, administration, sale, transmission and exportation. The split matters: conduct answered by the Part I constituent carries five years for possession and 10 for dealing under sections 17 (b) and 17 (c), while conduct answered by the Part III constituent carries 15 and 25. Capital exposure: none, and life exposure: none. Section 17 sets out the whole penalty scale of this Act and its highest figure is 25 years for dealing; no provision of the Act carries a death sentence or a sentence of life imprisonment.
If prescribed / medical: The Act's own lawful route is the set of exceptions in section 4, paragraphs (i) to (vi). A patient falls outside section 4 only where the substance was acquired from a medical practitioner, dentist or practitioner acting in a professional capacity and in accordance with the Medicines and Related Substances Control Act 101 of 1965, or from a pharmacist on that person's oral instruction or written prescription, and is used for medicinal purposes under that person's care or treatment. Section 2 states that this Act applies in addition to, and not in substitution for, the Medicines Act. The Medicines Act schedules themselves are not held in this repository and were not read for this cell, so no medicine schedule number is stated here. No prescription route arises for this plant. The Part I entry carries a dosage exception for preparations containing 50 milligrams or less of that substance per dosage unit, which is a formulation exception and not a traveller allowance for the leaf.
Documentation: Search record. The terms searched were khat, qat, cat, Catha edulis, cathinone and cathine. The plant names return nothing in either schedule; the two alkaloid names return two printed entries in two different Parts. [Certain] that the leaf yields cathinone and cathine. The route used here is the section 1 plant limb, not the homologue limb, and the dossier for this row did not use it. 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.

Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, Schedule 2 Part III, section 1 plant limb applied to the printed cathinone entry, with the Part I cathine entry · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, ss 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 17 and 19, with Schedules 1 and 2 · justice.gov.za · read from the cached text at research/instruments/south-africa/za-drugs-act-140-1992.txt, 84,091 bytes, against the.pdf beside it at 127,460 bytes · the consolidation is dated 29 May 2025 and carries the Act 14 of 2022 substitution of both schedules with effect from 14 December 2022 · Updated September 21, 2026

Khat in South Africa, full detail →

Lorazepam

Legal status: Controlled as a Specified Schedule 5 substance under the Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965, 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: Schedule 5 prints it under its own name as "Lorazepam" on page 173, between Loprazolam and Lormetazepam, and the Schedule 5 annexures list it for parenteral use by emergency care providers. The entry is followed by the double asterisk that paragraph c of the Schedule 5 preamble explains: "Specified Schedule 5 substances listed in this schedule are subject to additional control in terms of section 22A of the Act as required under the provisions of the 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances and are denoted by" that mark. 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) (b) lets any person possess a Schedule 3, Schedule 4, Schedule 5 or Schedule 6 substance "if he or she is in possession of a prescription issued by an authorised prescriber", and section 22A (5) confines the sale of a Schedule 5 substance to a pharmacist acting on a prescription or on the verbal instructions of an authorised prescriber, to a manufacturer or wholesale dealer, and to the prescribing professions it lists. Section 22A (10) adds that no person shall sell or administer any Scheduled substance or medicine "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) says no person shall import or export "any specified Schedule 5, Schedule 6, Schedule 7 or Schedule 8 substance" without a permit from the Director-General, and (11) (b) says such a permit "may be issued for any purpose other than the satisfaction or relief of a habit or craving". Under the Drugs Act the position is different. Schedule 2 Part I prints one member of this class, "Flunitrazepam." This substance carries two chlorines and a hydroxyl group and no nitro group at all, so it differs from the printed entry in every substituent that identifies either of them. Part I extends only by "(a) The salts and esters of the specified substances, where the existence of such salts and esters is possible;" and "(b) all preparations and mixtures of the specified substances; and" and has no isomer limb, so nothing short of the homologue limb could bridge that. The Drugs Act limb that could still reach it is Part I paragraph 2 (c), "(c) 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." Parts II and III carry the same words as paragraph 2 (e). Because the printed relative sits in Part I, the scale that would follow is the Part I scale: use or possession under section 4 (a), an offence under section 13 (c) punishable under section 17 (b) by a fine, imprisonment for a period not exceeding five years, or both, and dealing under section 5 (a), an offence under section 13 (e) punishable under section 17 (c) by a fine, imprisonment for a period not exceeding 10 years, or both. The heavier scale, section 4 (b) with section 17 (d) and section 5 (b) with section 17 (e), at up to 15 and 25 years, applies only where the relative relied on is printed in Part II or Part III. If the limb does not reach the substance, the Drugs Act does not reach it at all. 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 / medical: Lorazepam is a medicine on prescription in South Africa. Outside the practitioners and pharmacies that section 22A (16) (c) and (d) cover, section 22A (16) (b) makes possession lawful only with a prescription issued by an authorised prescriber. For a visitor, SAHPRA's guideline SAHPGL-INSP-RC11, version 2 of June 2022, which restates the General Regulations, says "Any person entering the Republic may be in possession, for personal medicinal use, of- 3.2.1. a quantity of a Schedule 3, 4 or 5 substances, which shall not exceed for use for a period of six months; oral quantity of a Schedule 6 substance, which shall not exceed use for a period of 30 days;" and requires the original prescription, a certified copy of it, or a certificate or letter from the person who prescribed or dispensed it certifying the substance and quantity, with that person's name, physical and email address. The regulation the guideline restates sits behind the same SAHPRA sign in as the July 2026 schedules and was not itself read, so the allowance is stated here from the guideline. Section 22A (17) (a) defines an authorised prescriber as "a medical practitioner, dentist, veterinarian, practitioner, nurse or other person registered under the Health Professions Act, 1974". The guideline's own paragraph 3.1.3 says schedule 5, 6, 7 and 8 products "can only be imported with a permit issued in terms of Section 22A (9) and 22(A)(11)", in its part on commercial imports; nothing read says whether a traveller's personal supply within the allowance also needs that permit, and this cell does not decide it. Section 22A (6) (g) lets a Schedule 5 sale be repeated for no longer than six months, and then only if the prescriber has stated the number of times and the intervals, and section 22A (6) (h) (i) stops a Schedule 5 substance used for its anxiolytic, antidepressant or tranquillising properties being prescribed for longer than six months unless the prescriber has consulted a registered psychiatrist. 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: lorazepam, Ativan and benzodiazepine. Lorazepam returns the Schedule 5 entry on page 173 and the emergency care annexure lines; lormetazepam is a separate specified entry beside it. 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 lorazepam, Ativan, oxazepam, hydroxy and dichlorophenyl. All return zero occurrences in either schedule. The hydroxylated members of this family were searched as a group because they share a metabolic pathway and would have been listed together had the schedule listed them at all. 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.

Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965, Schedules made under section 22A (2), Schedule 5, page 173 · SAHPRA Consolidated Schedules of 1 August 2025, read on 3 October 2026 · sahpra.org.za · Government Notice 7446, Government Gazette 54627 of 8 May 2026, read on 3 October 2026 · gov.za · Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965, ss 1, 22A, 29 and 30, consolidation in Government Gazette 40869 of 26 May 2017, read on 3 October 2026 · sahpra.org.za · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992 fetched again on 3 October 2026, sha256 beginning bc1216a3 and byte identical to the cached copy · SAHPRA guideline SAHPGL-INSP-RC11, Guidelines for Release of Imported Health Products at Ports of Entry, version 2, June 2022, paragraphs 3.1.3 and 3.2, read on 3 October 2026 · sahpra.org.za · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, Schedule 2 open homologue limb, single printed benzodiazepine read and rejected · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, ss 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 17 and 19, with Schedules 1 and 2 · justice.gov.za · read from the cached text at research/instruments/south-africa/za-drugs-act-140-1992.txt, 84,091 bytes, against the.pdf beside it at 127,460 bytes · the consolidation is dated 29 May 2025 and carries the Act 14 of 2022 substitution of both schedules with effect from 14 December 2022 · Updated October 4, 2026

Lorazepam in South Africa, full detail →

LSD

Legal status: Controlled as an undesirable dependence-producing substance under Schedule 2 Part III of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992.
Consequences if caught: The entry is printed with its chemical name: "Lysergide (lysergic acid diethylamide)." There is a second and separate point for anyone reading the two schedules together. Schedule 1 Part I lists "Lysergic acid." as a substance useful for the manufacture of drugs, which is a different regime: section 3 forbids manufacturing or supplying a scheduled substance knowing or suspecting it is to be used for the unlawful manufacture of a drug, and section 17 (d) sets 15 years for that. Section 4 (b) forbids the use or possession of any dangerous dependence-producing substance or undesirable dependence-producing substance. Section 13 (d) makes that an offence and section 17 (d) fixes the penalty at such fine as the court may deem fit to impose, or imprisonment for a period not exceeding 15 years, or both. Dealing is section 5 (b), made an offence by section 13 (f) and punished under section 17 (e) by imprisonment for a period not exceeding 25 years, or by both that imprisonment and such fine as the court may deem fit to impose. The reader should note how wide dealing is: section 1 defines deal in to include transhipment, importation, cultivation, collection, manufacture, supply, prescription, administration, sale, transmission and exportation. Capital exposure: none, and life exposure: none. Section 17 sets out the whole penalty scale of this Act and its highest figure is 25 years for dealing; no provision of the Act carries a death sentence or a sentence of life imprisonment.
If prescribed / medical: The Act's own lawful route is the set of exceptions in section 4, paragraphs (i) to (vi). A patient falls outside section 4 only where the substance was acquired from a medical practitioner, dentist or practitioner acting in a professional capacity and in accordance with the Medicines and Related Substances Control Act 101 of 1965, or from a pharmacist on that person's oral instruction or written prescription, and is used for medicinal purposes under that person's care or treatment. Section 2 states that this Act applies in addition to, and not in substitution for, the Medicines Act. The Medicines Act schedules themselves are not held in this repository and were not read for this cell, so no medicine schedule number is stated here. There is no prescription route for this substance in anything read for this cell.
Documentation: Search record. The terms searched were lsd, lysergide, lysergic acid diethylamide and lysergic acid. Part III returns the entry above; Schedule 1 Part I returns the precursor entry. Schedule 1 Part I extends only by "2. The salts of all substances included in this Part, where the existence of such salts is possible." so the precursor list has no homologue limb at all. That is a real difference between the two schedules and the neighbouring lysergamide row turns on it. 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. The Schedule and the Part named in this cell are read from the Act itself at the lines quoted; they are nowhere printed in the verbatim quotation supplied for this row.

Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, Schedule 2 Part III, printed name, with the Schedule 1 precursor entry noted · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, ss 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 17 and 19, with Schedules 1 and 2 · justice.gov.za · read from the cached text at research/instruments/south-africa/za-drugs-act-140-1992.txt, 84,091 bytes, against the.pdf beside it at 127,460 bytes · the consolidation is dated 29 May 2025 and carries the Act 14 of 2022 substitution of both schedules with effect from 14 December 2022 · Updated September 21, 2026

LSD in South Africa, full detail →

MDA

Legal status: Controlled as an undesirable dependence-producing substance under Schedule 2 Part III of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992.
Consequences if caught: The entry is printed as a heading with two named members under it: "Methylenedioxyamphetamine (MDA): N-ethyl-methylenedioxyamphetamine; and N-hydroxy-methylenedioxyamphetamine." The colon and the two sub-entries are the structure the Act uses, and this cell reproduces them rather than truncating the entry at the bracket. Section 4 (b) forbids the use or possession of any dangerous dependence-producing substance or undesirable dependence-producing substance. Section 13 (d) makes that an offence and section 17 (d) fixes the penalty at such fine as the court may deem fit to impose, or imprisonment for a period not exceeding 15 years, or both. Dealing is section 5 (b), made an offence by section 13 (f) and punished under section 17 (e) by imprisonment for a period not exceeding 25 years, or by both that imprisonment and such fine as the court may deem fit to impose. The reader should note how wide dealing is: section 1 defines deal in to include transhipment, importation, cultivation, collection, manufacture, supply, prescription, administration, sale, transmission and exportation. Capital exposure: none, and life exposure: none. Section 17 sets out the whole penalty scale of this Act and its highest figure is 25 years for dealing; no provision of the Act carries a death sentence or a sentence of life imprisonment. One boundary on this cell: the minimum sentence regime in the Criminal Law Amendment Act 105 of 1997 was not read for this cell, so nothing here states whether a minimum term attaches to a drug offence of this kind.
If prescribed / medical: The Act's own lawful route is the set of exceptions in section 4, paragraphs (i) to (vi). A patient falls outside section 4 only where the substance was acquired from a medical practitioner, dentist or practitioner acting in a professional capacity and in accordance with the Medicines and Related Substances Control Act 101 of 1965, or from a pharmacist on that person's oral instruction or written prescription, and is used for medicinal purposes under that person's care or treatment. Section 2 states that this Act applies in addition to, and not in substitution for, the Medicines Act. The Medicines Act schedules themselves are not held in this repository and were not read for this cell, so no medicine schedule number is stated here. No medicine route was found for this substance in anything read for this cell.
Documentation: Search record. The terms searched were mda, methylenedioxyamphetamine, tenamfetamine and 3,4-methylenedioxy. One printed heading with two named members. The dossier quotes this entry as ending in a full stop after the bracket, which drops both members; the printed entry ends in a colon and continues. 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. The Schedule and the Part named in this cell are read from the Act itself at the lines quoted; they are nowhere printed in the verbatim quotation supplied for this row.

Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, Schedule 2 Part III, printed heading with its two named members · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, ss 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 17 and 19, with Schedules 1 and 2 · justice.gov.za · read from the cached text at research/instruments/south-africa/za-drugs-act-140-1992.txt, 84,091 bytes, against the.pdf beside it at 127,460 bytes · the consolidation is dated 29 May 2025 and carries the Act 14 of 2022 substitution of both schedules with effect from 14 December 2022 · Updated September 21, 2026

MDA in South Africa, full detail →

MDMA

Legal status: Controlled as an undesirable dependence-producing substance under Schedule 2 Part III of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992.
Consequences if caught: The entry is printed in full systematic form: "(±)-N,a-dimethyl-3,4-(methylenedioxy)phenethylamine (3,4-methylenedioxymetamfetamine) (MDMA)." The Act sets it out that way rather than by the four-letter name, which appears only inside the final bracket. Section 4 (b) forbids the use or possession of any dangerous dependence-producing substance or undesirable dependence-producing substance. Section 13 (d) makes that an offence and section 17 (d) fixes the penalty at such fine as the court may deem fit to impose, or imprisonment for a period not exceeding 15 years, or both. Dealing is section 5 (b), made an offence by section 13 (f) and punished under section 17 (e) by imprisonment for a period not exceeding 25 years, or by both that imprisonment and such fine as the court may deem fit to impose. The reader should note how wide dealing is: section 1 defines deal in to include transhipment, importation, cultivation, collection, manufacture, supply, prescription, administration, sale, transmission and exportation. Capital exposure: none, and life exposure: none. Section 17 sets out the whole penalty scale of this Act and its highest figure is 25 years for dealing; no provision of the Act carries a death sentence or a sentence of life imprisonment. Section 19 (2) is the provision a traveller carrying medication should know about. If the quantity found exceeds what the accused could have bought for medicinal purposes on the prescription relied on, it is presumed until the contrary is proved that the accused dealt in the drug, which moves the case from the possession scale to the dealing scale. Section 20, which presumed possession from mere proximity, was declared inconsistent with the interim Constitution in S v Mello 1998 (3) SA 712 (CC), and the Act's own footnote records that.
If prescribed / medical: The Act's own lawful route is the set of exceptions in section 4, paragraphs (i) to (vi). A patient falls outside section 4 only where the substance was acquired from a medical practitioner, dentist or practitioner acting in a professional capacity and in accordance with the Medicines and Related Substances Control Act 101 of 1965, or from a pharmacist on that person's oral instruction or written prescription, and is used for medicinal purposes under that person's care or treatment. Section 2 states that this Act applies in addition to, and not in substitution for, the Medicines Act. The Medicines Act schedules themselves are not held in this repository and were not read for this cell, so no medicine schedule number is stated here. There is no prescription route for this substance in South Africa on anything read for this cell.
Documentation: Search record. The terms searched were mdma, ecstasy, methylenedioxymethamphetamine, metamfetamine and methylenedioxy. Part III returns the entry above and separately returns the heading for the des-methyl compound. The dossier quotes this entry as ending after the middle bracket, which lifts one parenthetical out of the printed entry and presents it as the whole of it. 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. The Schedule and the Part named in this cell are read from the Act itself at the lines quoted; they are nowhere printed in the verbatim quotation supplied for this row.

Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, Schedule 2 Part III, printed name in full systematic form · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, ss 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 17 and 19, with Schedules 1 and 2 · justice.gov.za · read from the cached text at research/instruments/south-africa/za-drugs-act-140-1992.txt, 84,091 bytes, against the.pdf beside it at 127,460 bytes · the consolidation is dated 29 May 2025 and carries the Act 14 of 2022 substitution of both schedules with effect from 14 December 2022 · Updated September 21, 2026

MDMA in South Africa, full detail →

MDPV

Legal status: Controlled as a Schedule 7 substance under the Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965, 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: Schedule 7 prints it on page 196 as "3,4-methylenedoxypyrovalerone (MDPV).", with the word methylenedioxy misspelled in the consolidation; the bracketed short name fixes which compound is meant. Schedule 7 also prints the parent "Pyrovalerone" and "α-pyrrolidinovalerophenone (α-PVP)." on page 197. Section 22A (9) (a) (i) of the Medicines Act says no person shall "acquire, use, possess, manufacture or supply any Schedule 7 or Schedule 8 substance" unless the Director-General has issued a permit for it, and its proviso lets the Director-General authorise use only to provide a medical practitioner, analyst, researcher or veterinarian with the substance for a particular patient or for education, analysis or research. 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) also forbids importing or exporting any Schedule 7 substance without a permit, and (11) (b) says such a permit "may be issued for any purpose other than the satisfaction or relief of a habit or craving". Under the Drugs Act the position is different. The nearest printed text is "Methcathinone (2-(methylamino)-1-phenylpropan-1-one)." and this substance differs from it in two places at once. The amine is a pyrrolidine ring rather than a methylamino group, and the aromatic ring carries a methylenedioxy bridge. Part III also prints "Cathinone." as a bare name, and whether a bare family name can carry a member that differs in both the amine and the ring is the open point. Paragraph 2 (a) to (d) does not help, because none of those changes is an isomerism, an esterification or a salt. The Drugs Act limb that could still reach it is Part III paragraph 2 (e), "(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). If it does reach the substance, use or possession falls under section 4 (b), an offence under section 13 (d) punishable under section 17 (d) by such fine as the court may deem fit, imprisonment for a period not exceeding 15 years, or both, and dealing falls under section 5 (b), an offence under section 13 (f) punishable under section 17 (e) by imprisonment for a period not exceeding 25 years, or that imprisonment and a fine. If it does not, the Drugs Act does not reach the substance at all. 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 / medical: There is no prescription route. Section 22A (9) (a) (i) says no person shall "acquire, use, possess, manufacture or supply any Schedule 7 or Schedule 8 substance" unless the Director-General has issued a permit for it, and its proviso lets the Director-General authorise use only to provide a medical practitioner, analyst, researcher or veterinarian with the substance for a particular patient or for education, analysis or research. 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: MDPV, methylenedioxypyrovalerone, methylenedoxypyrovalerone and pyrovalerone. The correctly spelled systematic name returns nothing; the short name and the misspelled form return the one Schedule 7 entry. 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 mdpv, methylenedioxypyrovalerone, pyrovalerone, pyrrolidino and bath salts. All return zero occurrences. The two printed entries in this family were read in full and both are quoted, because the bare name and the systematic description give different amounts of room and a cell that quoted only one would misstate the reach of the schedule. 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.

Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965, Schedules made under section 22A (2), Schedule 7, page 196 · SAHPRA Consolidated Schedules of 1 August 2025, read on 3 October 2026 · sahpra.org.za · Government Notice 7446, Government Gazette 54627 of 8 May 2026, read on 3 October 2026 · gov.za · Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965, ss 1, 22A, 29 and 30, consolidation in Government Gazette 40869 of 26 May 2017, read on 3 October 2026 · sahpra.org.za · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992 fetched again on 3 October 2026, sha256 beginning bc1216a3 and byte identical to the cached copy · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, Schedule 2 open homologue limb, both printed cathinone entries read and rejected · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, ss 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 17 and 19, with Schedules 1 and 2 · justice.gov.za · read from the cached text at research/instruments/south-africa/za-drugs-act-140-1992.txt, 84,091 bytes, against the.pdf beside it at 127,460 bytes · the consolidation is dated 29 May 2025 and carries the Act 14 of 2022 substitution of both schedules with effect from 14 December 2022 · Updated October 4, 2026

MDPV in South Africa, full detail →

Memantine

Legal status: Controlled as a Schedule 4 substance under the Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965, 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: Schedule 4 prints it under its own name as "Memantine." on page 128, between Melphalan and Meningococcal Group B vaccine. Schedule 4 is the ordinary prescription medicine schedule. 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) (b) lets any person possess a Schedule 3, Schedule 4, Schedule 5 or Schedule 6 substance "if he or she is in possession of a prescription issued by an authorised prescriber", and section 22A (5) confines the sale of a Schedule 4 substance to a pharmacist acting on a prescription or on the verbal instructions of an authorised prescriber, to a manufacturer or wholesale dealer, and to the prescribing professions it lists. Section 22A (10) adds that no person shall sell or administer any Scheduled substance or medicine "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 4, 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 is the clearest case in the batch where the limb argues with itself. Part III prints "Phencyclidine and the congeners thereof, namely, N-ethyl-1-phenylcyclohexylamine (PCE), 1-(1-phenylcyclohexyl) pyrrolidine (PHP or PCPY) and 1-[1-(2-thienyl) cyclohexyl] piperidine (TCP)." and this substance acts at the same receptor as the compound that entry names, which engages the words about similar pharmacodynamic properties. It is structurally an adamantanamine, a cage hydrocarbon carrying an amine, and no entry in either schedule shares any part of that structure, which leaves the words about a shared structural fragment entirely unsatisfied. The Act gives no rule for which half governs when they disagree. 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 / medical: Memantine is a medicine on prescription in South Africa. Outside the practitioners and pharmacies that section 22A (16) (c) and (d) cover, section 22A (16) (b) makes possession lawful only with a prescription issued by an authorised prescriber. For a visitor, SAHPRA's guideline SAHPGL-INSP-RC11, version 2 of June 2022, which restates the General Regulations, says "Any person entering the Republic may be in possession, for personal medicinal use, of- 3.2.1. a quantity of a Schedule 3, 4 or 5 substances, which shall not exceed for use for a period of six months; oral quantity of a Schedule 6 substance, which shall not exceed use for a period of 30 days;" and requires the original prescription, a certified copy of it, or a certificate or letter from the person who prescribed or dispensed it certifying the substance and quantity, with that person's name, physical and email address. The regulation the guideline restates sits behind the same SAHPRA sign in as the July 2026 schedules and was not itself read, so the allowance is stated here from the guideline. Section 22A (17) (a) defines an authorised prescriber as "a medical practitioner, dentist, veterinarian, practitioner, nurse or other person registered under the Health Professions Act, 1974". Section 22A (6) (f) lets a sale of a Schedule 4 substance be repeated where the prescriber has written the number of times on the prescription, but not for longer than six months. 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: memantine, Ebixa and adamantan. Memantine returns one Schedule 4 entry on page 128. 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 memantine, amantadine, adamantane, adamantyl and Namenda. All return zero occurrences. The row is recorded this way rather than as an absence because a reader who saw only the structural negative would not know that the other half of the limb had been considered. 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.

Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965, Schedules made under section 22A (2), Schedule 4, page 128 · SAHPRA Consolidated Schedules of 1 August 2025, read on 3 October 2026 · sahpra.org.za · Government Notice 7446, Government Gazette 54627 of 8 May 2026, read on 3 October 2026 · gov.za · Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965, ss 1, 22A, 29 and 30, consolidation in Government Gazette 40869 of 26 May 2017, read on 3 October 2026 · sahpra.org.za · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992 fetched again on 3 October 2026, sha256 beginning bc1216a3 and byte identical to the cached copy · SAHPRA guideline SAHPGL-INSP-RC11, Guidelines for Release of Imported Health Products at Ports of Entry, version 2, June 2022, paragraphs 3.1.3 and 3.2, read on 3 October 2026 · sahpra.org.za · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, Schedule 2 open homologue limb, both halves applied and disagreeing · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, ss 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 17 and 19, with Schedules 1 and 2 · justice.gov.za · read from the cached text at research/instruments/south-africa/za-drugs-act-140-1992.txt, 84,091 bytes, against the.pdf beside it at 127,460 bytes · the consolidation is dated 29 May 2025 and carries the Act 14 of 2022 substitution of both schedules with effect from 14 December 2022 · Updated October 4, 2026

Memantine in South Africa, full detail →

Mephedrone (4-MMC)

Legal status: Controlled as a Schedule 7 substance under the Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965, 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: Schedule 7 prints it on page 196 under the bare name "Mephedrone.", with no systematic description, and prints the related cathinones "4- MEC.", "4-CMC (4-chloromethcathinone; clephedrone).", "Methcathinone." and "Pentedrone." as separate entries. Section 22A (9) (a) (i) of the Medicines Act says no person shall "acquire, use, possess, manufacture or supply any Schedule 7 or Schedule 8 substance" unless the Director-General has issued a permit for it, and its proviso lets the Director-General authorise use only to provide a medical practitioner, analyst, researcher or veterinarian with the substance for a particular patient or for education, analysis or research. 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) also forbids importing or exporting any Schedule 7 substance without a permit, and (11) (b) says such a permit "may be issued for any purpose other than the satisfaction or relief of a habit or craving". Under the Drugs Act the position is different. The nearest printed text is "Methcathinone (2-(methylamino)-1-phenylpropan-1-one)." whose bracketed description fixes an unsubstituted phenyl ring. This substance adds a methyl group to that ring at the 4 position. The Act has no equivalent of a generic ring-substitution clause anywhere in Schedule 2, and it demonstrably knows how to add ring-substituted members individually, because Part III separately prints the 4-methyl and the 4-ethyl members of the neighbouring amphetamine series. That it did so there and not here is the feature of this row. The Drugs Act limb that could still reach it is Part III paragraph 2 (e), "(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). If it does reach the substance, use or possession falls under section 4 (b), an offence under section 13 (d) punishable under section 17 (d) by such fine as the court may deem fit, imprisonment for a period not exceeding 15 years, or both, and dealing falls under section 5 (b), an offence under section 13 (f) punishable under section 17 (e) by imprisonment for a period not exceeding 25 years, or that imprisonment and a fine. If it does not, the Drugs Act does not reach the substance at all. 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 / medical: There is no prescription route. Section 22A (9) (a) (i) says no person shall "acquire, use, possess, manufacture or supply any Schedule 7 or Schedule 8 substance" unless the Director-General has issued a permit for it, and its proviso lets the Director-General authorise use only to provide a medical practitioner, analyst, researcher or veterinarian with the substance for a particular patient or for education, analysis or research. 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: mephedrone, 4-MMC, methylmethcathinone and cathinone. Mephedrone returns one Schedule 7 entry; 4-MMC and methylmethcathinone return nothing, because the entry uses only the trivial name. 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 mephedrone, 4-mmc, methylmethcathinone, meow and toluene-based cathinone. All return zero occurrences as entries. This row and the 3-methyl row reach the same statutory result by the same route; what differs is the ring position and the comparison made with the amphetamine series above. 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.

Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965, Schedules made under section 22A (2), Schedule 7, page 196 · SAHPRA Consolidated Schedules of 1 August 2025, read on 3 October 2026 · sahpra.org.za · Government Notice 7446, Government Gazette 54627 of 8 May 2026, read on 3 October 2026 · gov.za · Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965, ss 1, 22A, 29 and 30, consolidation in Government Gazette 40869 of 26 May 2017, read on 3 October 2026 · sahpra.org.za · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992 fetched again on 3 October 2026, sha256 beginning bc1216a3 and byte identical to the cached copy · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, Schedule 2 open homologue limb, nearest cathinone entry read and rejected on ring substitution · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, ss 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 17 and 19, with Schedules 1 and 2 · justice.gov.za · read from the cached text at research/instruments/south-africa/za-drugs-act-140-1992.txt, 84,091 bytes, against the.pdf beside it at 127,460 bytes · the consolidation is dated 29 May 2025 and carries the Act 14 of 2022 substitution of both schedules with effect from 14 December 2022 · Updated October 4, 2026

Mephedrone (4-MMC) in South Africa, full detail →

Mescaline

Legal status: Controlled as an undesirable dependence-producing substance under Schedule 2 Part III of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992.
Consequences if caught: The entry is printed with its systematic name: "Mescaline (3,4,5-trimethoxyphenethylamine)." Part III also prints the ring-trimethoxy amphetamine on a separate line, so the schedule distinguishes the phenethylamine from the amphetamine in this series rather than leaving one to a general limb. Section 4 (b) forbids the use or possession of any dangerous dependence-producing substance or undesirable dependence-producing substance. Section 13 (d) makes that an offence and section 17 (d) fixes the penalty at such fine as the court may deem fit to impose, or imprisonment for a period not exceeding 15 years, or both. Dealing is section 5 (b), made an offence by section 13 (f) and punished under section 17 (e) by imprisonment for a period not exceeding 25 years, or by both that imprisonment and such fine as the court may deem fit to impose. The reader should note how wide dealing is: section 1 defines deal in to include transhipment, importation, cultivation, collection, manufacture, supply, prescription, administration, sale, transmission and exportation. Capital exposure: none, and life exposure: none. Section 17 sets out the whole penalty scale of this Act and its highest figure is 25 years for dealing; no provision of the Act carries a death sentence or a sentence of life imprisonment.
If prescribed / medical: The Act's own lawful route is the set of exceptions in section 4, paragraphs (i) to (vi). A patient falls outside section 4 only where the substance was acquired from a medical practitioner, dentist or practitioner acting in a professional capacity and in accordance with the Medicines and Related Substances Control Act 101 of 1965, or from a pharmacist on that person's oral instruction or written prescription, and is used for medicinal purposes under that person's care or treatment. Section 2 states that this Act applies in addition to, and not in substitution for, the Medicines Act. The Medicines Act schedules themselves are not held in this repository and were not read for this cell, so no medicine schedule number is stated here. No prescription route arises for this substance in anything read for this cell.
Documentation: Search record. The terms searched were mescaline, 3,4,5-trimethoxyphenethylamine, peyote and San Pedro. The substance returns one printed entry; neither cactus name returns anything, which is why the cactus row for this jurisdiction is answered through the section 1 plant limb rather than by a printed name. 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. The Schedule and the Part named in this cell are read from the Act itself at the lines quoted; they are nowhere printed in the verbatim quotation supplied for this row.

Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, Schedule 2 Part III, printed name with its systematic description · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, ss 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 17 and 19, with Schedules 1 and 2 · justice.gov.za · read from the cached text at research/instruments/south-africa/za-drugs-act-140-1992.txt, 84,091 bytes, against the.pdf beside it at 127,460 bytes · the consolidation is dated 29 May 2025 and carries the Act 14 of 2022 substitution of both schedules with effect from 14 December 2022 · Updated September 21, 2026

Mescaline in South Africa, full detail →

Methadone

Legal status: Controlled as a dangerous dependence-producing substance under Schedule 2 Part II of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992.
Consequences if caught: Two printed entries stand next to each other: "Methadone." and "Methadone-intermediate." The second is the synthetic intermediate, listed in its own right, which matters to anyone asking about manufacture rather than possession. Part II also prints isomethadone, normethadone, noracymethadol and the acetylmethadol series on their own lines. Section 4 (b) forbids the use or possession of any dangerous dependence-producing substance or undesirable dependence-producing substance. Section 13 (d) makes that an offence and section 17 (d) fixes the penalty at such fine as the court may deem fit to impose, or imprisonment for a period not exceeding 15 years, or both. Dealing is section 5 (b), made an offence by section 13 (f) and punished under section 17 (e) by imprisonment for a period not exceeding 25 years, or by both that imprisonment and such fine as the court may deem fit to impose. The reader should note how wide dealing is: section 1 defines deal in to include transhipment, importation, cultivation, collection, manufacture, supply, prescription, administration, sale, transmission and exportation. Capital exposure: none, and life exposure: none. Section 17 sets out the whole penalty scale of this Act and its highest figure is 25 years for dealing; no provision of the Act carries a death sentence or a sentence of life imprisonment.
If prescribed / medical: The Act's own lawful route is the set of exceptions in section 4, paragraphs (i) to (vi). A patient falls outside section 4 only where the substance was acquired from a medical practitioner, dentist or practitioner acting in a professional capacity and in accordance with the Medicines and Related Substances Control Act 101 of 1965, or from a pharmacist on that person's oral instruction or written prescription, and is used for medicinal purposes under that person's care or treatment. Section 2 states that this Act applies in addition to, and not in substitution for, the Medicines Act. The Medicines Act schedules themselves are not held in this repository and were not read for this cell, so no medicine schedule number is stated here. Methadone maintenance is a prescribed treatment in South Africa and a patient on it is inside the section 4 exceptions provided the substance came through a practitioner and a pharmacist. The Act's own lawful route is the set of exceptions in section 4, paragraphs (i) to (vi). A patient falls outside section 4 only where the substance was acquired from a medical practitioner, dentist or practitioner acting in a professional capacity and in accordance with the Medicines and Related Substances Control Act 101 of 1965, or from a pharmacist on that person's oral instruction or written prescription, and is used for medicinal purposes under that person's care or treatment. Section 2 states that this Act applies in addition to, and not in substitution for, the Medicines Act. The Medicines Act schedules themselves are not held in this repository and were not read for this cell, so no medicine schedule number is stated here.
Documentation: Search record. The terms searched were methadone, dolophine, levomethadyl, acetylmethadol and normethadone. Two printed entries under the name itself and five more in the immediate family. The intermediate entry is the one most cells miss, and it is reproduced here. 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. The Schedule and the Part named in this cell are read from the Act itself at the lines quoted; they are nowhere printed in the verbatim quotation supplied for this row.

Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, Schedule 2 Part II, printed name with its separately listed intermediate · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, ss 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 17 and 19, with Schedules 1 and 2 · justice.gov.za · read from the cached text at research/instruments/south-africa/za-drugs-act-140-1992.txt, 84,091 bytes, against the.pdf beside it at 127,460 bytes · the consolidation is dated 29 May 2025 and carries the Act 14 of 2022 substitution of both schedules with effect from 14 December 2022 · Updated September 21, 2026

Methadone in South Africa, full detail →

Methamphetamine

Legal status: Controlled as an undesirable dependence-producing substance under Schedule 2 Part III of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992.
Consequences if caught: The entry names the racemate expressly: "Methamphetamine and methamphetamine racemate." Part III also prints the levo isomer on its own line, so the schedule does not rely on paragraph 2 (a) for this family even though paragraph 2 (a) would cover it. Section 4 (b) forbids the use or possession of any dangerous dependence-producing substance or undesirable dependence-producing substance. Section 13 (d) makes that an offence and section 17 (d) fixes the penalty at such fine as the court may deem fit to impose, or imprisonment for a period not exceeding 15 years, or both. Dealing is section 5 (b), made an offence by section 13 (f) and punished under section 17 (e) by imprisonment for a period not exceeding 25 years, or by both that imprisonment and such fine as the court may deem fit to impose. The reader should note how wide dealing is: section 1 defines deal in to include transhipment, importation, cultivation, collection, manufacture, supply, prescription, administration, sale, transmission and exportation. Methaqualone and methamphetamine are the two substances South African practice most often associates with this Part, and both sit on the 15 year and 25 year scales. Capital exposure: none, and life exposure: none. Section 17 sets out the whole penalty scale of this Act and its highest figure is 25 years for dealing; no provision of the Act carries a death sentence or a sentence of life imprisonment.
If prescribed / medical: The Act's own lawful route is the set of exceptions in section 4, paragraphs (i) to (vi). A patient falls outside section 4 only where the substance was acquired from a medical practitioner, dentist or practitioner acting in a professional capacity and in accordance with the Medicines and Related Substances Control Act 101 of 1965, or from a pharmacist on that person's oral instruction or written prescription, and is used for medicinal purposes under that person's care or treatment. Section 2 states that this Act applies in addition to, and not in substitution for, the Medicines Act. The Medicines Act schedules themselves are not held in this repository and were not read for this cell, so no medicine schedule number is stated here. There is no traveller prescription route for this substance in anything read for this cell.
Documentation: Search record. The terms searched were methamphetamine, metamfetamine, tik, crystal meth and levomethamphetamine. Part III returns the entry above and separately returns the levo isomer entry. Schedule 1 Part I is relevant to anyone reading about manufacture rather than possession: it lists "Ephedrine." and "Pseudoephedrine." as substances useful for the manufacture of drugs, under the separate section 3 offence. 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. The Schedule and the Part named in this cell are read from the Act itself at the lines quoted; they are nowhere printed in the verbatim quotation supplied for this row.

Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, Schedule 2 Part III, printed name including the racemate · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, ss 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 17 and 19, with Schedules 1 and 2 · justice.gov.za · read from the cached text at research/instruments/south-africa/za-drugs-act-140-1992.txt, 84,091 bytes, against the.pdf beside it at 127,460 bytes · the consolidation is dated 29 May 2025 and carries the Act 14 of 2022 substitution of both schedules with effect from 14 December 2022 · Updated September 21, 2026

Methamphetamine in South Africa, full detail →

Methaqualone (Quaaludes)

Legal status: Controlled as an undesirable dependence-producing substance under Schedule 2 Part III of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992.
Consequences if caught: The entry names its trade forms and then closes the list: "Methaqualone, including Mandrax, Isonox, Quaalude, or any other preparation containing methaqualone and known by any other trade name." The closing words matter in South Africa, where this substance is usually encountered under a trade name, and they are the half of the entry the dossier drops. Part II separately prints the chlorinated relative on its own line. Section 4 (b) forbids the use or possession of any dangerous dependence-producing substance or undesirable dependence-producing substance. Section 13 (d) makes that an offence and section 17 (d) fixes the penalty at such fine as the court may deem fit to impose, or imprisonment for a period not exceeding 15 years, or both. Dealing is section 5 (b), made an offence by section 13 (f) and punished under section 17 (e) by imprisonment for a period not exceeding 25 years, or by both that imprisonment and such fine as the court may deem fit to impose. The reader should note how wide dealing is: section 1 defines deal in to include transhipment, importation, cultivation, collection, manufacture, supply, prescription, administration, sale, transmission and exportation. Capital exposure: none, and life exposure: none. Section 17 sets out the whole penalty scale of this Act and its highest figure is 25 years for dealing; no provision of the Act carries a death sentence or a sentence of life imprisonment. Section 19 (2) is the provision a traveller carrying medication should know about. If the quantity found exceeds what the accused could have bought for medicinal purposes on the prescription relied on, it is presumed until the contrary is proved that the accused dealt in the drug, which moves the case from the possession scale to the dealing scale. Section 20, which presumed possession from mere proximity, was declared inconsistent with the interim Constitution in S v Mello 1998 (3) SA 712 (CC), and the Act's own footnote records that.
If prescribed / medical: The Act's own lawful route is the set of exceptions in section 4, paragraphs (i) to (vi). A patient falls outside section 4 only where the substance was acquired from a medical practitioner, dentist or practitioner acting in a professional capacity and in accordance with the Medicines and Related Substances Control Act 101 of 1965, or from a pharmacist on that person's oral instruction or written prescription, and is used for medicinal purposes under that person's care or treatment. Section 2 states that this Act applies in addition to, and not in substitution for, the Medicines Act. The Medicines Act schedules themselves are not held in this repository and were not read for this cell, so no medicine schedule number is stated here. This substance has no current medicine route in South Africa on anything read for this cell.
Documentation: Search record. The terms searched were methaqualone, Mandrax, mandrax, quaalude and mecloqualone. Part III returns the entry above; Part II returns the chlorinated relative, which sits on the dangerous scale rather than the undesirable one although the two carry the same maxima. 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. The Schedule and the Part named in this cell are read from the Act itself at the lines quoted; they are nowhere printed in the verbatim quotation supplied for this row.

Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, Schedule 2 Part III, printed name including its trade name closing words · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, ss 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 17 and 19, with Schedules 1 and 2 · justice.gov.za · read from the cached text at research/instruments/south-africa/za-drugs-act-140-1992.txt, 84,091 bytes, against the.pdf beside it at 127,460 bytes · the consolidation is dated 29 May 2025 and carries the Act 14 of 2022 substitution of both schedules with effect from 14 December 2022 · Updated September 21, 2026

Methaqualone (Quaaludes) in South Africa, full detail →

Methylone

Legal status: Controlled as a Schedule 7 substance under the Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965, 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: Schedule 7 prints it on page 196 as "Methylone (beta-keto-MDMA)." Section 22A (9) (a) (i) of the Medicines Act says no person shall "acquire, use, possess, manufacture or supply any Schedule 7 or Schedule 8 substance" unless the Director-General has issued a permit for it, and its proviso lets the Director-General authorise use only to provide a medical practitioner, analyst, researcher or veterinarian with the substance for a particular patient or for education, analysis or research. 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) also forbids importing or exporting any Schedule 7 substance without a permit, and (11) (b) says such a permit "may be issued for any purpose other than the satisfaction or relief of a habit or craving". Under the Drugs Act the position is different. Two printed entries were compared for this row. Part III prints "(±)-N,a-dimethyl-3,4-(methylenedioxy)phenethylamine (3,4-methylenedioxymetamfetamine) (MDMA)." and this substance is that compound with an oxygen added at the beta carbon, which changes the molecular formula and so takes it outside paragraph 2 (a). Part III also prints "Methcathinone (2-(methylamino)-1-phenylpropan-1-one)." and this substance is that compound with a methylenedioxy bridge added to the ring, which is the same problem in the other direction. It sits between two listed substances and is neither of them. The Drugs Act limb that could still reach it is Part III paragraph 2 (e), "(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). If it does reach the substance, use or possession falls under section 4 (b), an offence under section 13 (d) punishable under section 17 (d) by such fine as the court may deem fit, imprisonment for a period not exceeding 15 years, or both, and dealing falls under section 5 (b), an offence under section 13 (f) punishable under section 17 (e) by imprisonment for a period not exceeding 25 years, or that imprisonment and a fine. If it does not, the Drugs Act does not reach the substance at all. 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 / medical: There is no prescription route. Section 22A (9) (a) (i) says no person shall "acquire, use, possess, manufacture or supply any Schedule 7 or Schedule 8 substance" unless the Director-General has issued a permit for it, and its proviso lets the Director-General authorise use only to provide a medical practitioner, analyst, researcher or veterinarian with the substance for a particular patient or for education, analysis or research. 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: methylone, beta-keto and MDMA. Methylone returns one Schedule 7 entry whose own bracket describes it as the beta-keto form of the MDMA entry printed on page 194. 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 methylone, bk-MDMA, beta-keto, methylenedioxymethcathinone and ethylone. All return zero occurrences. Two comparisons are recorded rather than one because the substance is a hybrid of two separately printed entries and a cell that named only one of them would understate how close the schedule comes. 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.

Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965, Schedules made under section 22A (2), Schedule 7, page 196 · SAHPRA Consolidated Schedules of 1 August 2025, read on 3 October 2026 · sahpra.org.za · Government Notice 7446, Government Gazette 54627 of 8 May 2026, read on 3 October 2026 · gov.za · Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965, ss 1, 22A, 29 and 30, consolidation in Government Gazette 40869 of 26 May 2017, read on 3 October 2026 · sahpra.org.za · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992 fetched again on 3 October 2026, sha256 beginning bc1216a3 and byte identical to the cached copy · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, Schedule 2 open homologue limb, two printed entries compared and both rejected · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, ss 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 17 and 19, with Schedules 1 and 2 · justice.gov.za · read from the cached text at research/instruments/south-africa/za-drugs-act-140-1992.txt, 84,091 bytes, against the.pdf beside it at 127,460 bytes · the consolidation is dated 29 May 2025 and carries the Act 14 of 2022 substitution of both schedules with effect from 14 December 2022 · Updated October 4, 2026

Methylone in South Africa, full detail →

Methylphenidate

Legal status: Controlled as a dangerous dependence-producing substance under Schedule 2 Part II of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992.
Consequences if caught: The entry carries an express extension: "Methylphenidate and the derivatives thereof." The words about derivatives are printed on this entry and on only a handful of others in the whole schedule, and they operate on top of paragraph 2 (a) to (d) rather than instead of them. That matters here because the medicine is dispensed as several salts and esters. Section 4 (b) forbids the use or possession of any dangerous dependence-producing substance or undesirable dependence-producing substance. Section 13 (d) makes that an offence and section 17 (d) fixes the penalty at such fine as the court may deem fit to impose, or imprisonment for a period not exceeding 15 years, or both. Dealing is section 5 (b), made an offence by section 13 (f) and punished under section 17 (e) by imprisonment for a period not exceeding 25 years, or by both that imprisonment and such fine as the court may deem fit to impose. The reader should note how wide dealing is: section 1 defines deal in to include transhipment, importation, cultivation, collection, manufacture, supply, prescription, administration, sale, transmission and exportation. Capital exposure: none, and life exposure: none. Section 17 sets out the whole penalty scale of this Act and its highest figure is 25 years for dealing; no provision of the Act carries a death sentence or a sentence of life imprisonment. Section 19 (2) is the provision a traveller carrying medication should know about. If the quantity found exceeds what the accused could have bought for medicinal purposes on the prescription relied on, it is presumed until the contrary is proved that the accused dealt in the drug, which moves the case from the possession scale to the dealing scale. Section 20, which presumed possession from mere proximity, was declared inconsistent with the interim Constitution in S v Mello 1998 (3) SA 712 (CC), and the Act's own footnote records that.
If prescribed / medical: The Act's own lawful route is the set of exceptions in section 4, paragraphs (i) to (vi). A patient falls outside section 4 only where the substance was acquired from a medical practitioner, dentist or practitioner acting in a professional capacity and in accordance with the Medicines and Related Substances Control Act 101 of 1965, or from a pharmacist on that person's oral instruction or written prescription, and is used for medicinal purposes under that person's care or treatment. Section 2 states that this Act applies in addition to, and not in substitution for, the Medicines Act. The Medicines Act schedules themselves are not held in this repository and were not read for this cell, so no medicine schedule number is stated here. This is the row where section 19 (2) matters most to an ordinary traveller. A prescribed stimulant carried in a quantity larger than the prescription accounts for shifts the presumption towards dealing. The Act's own lawful route is the set of exceptions in section 4, paragraphs (i) to (vi). A patient falls outside section 4 only where the substance was acquired from a medical practitioner, dentist or practitioner acting in a professional capacity and in accordance with the Medicines and Related Substances Control Act 101 of 1965, or from a pharmacist on that person's oral instruction or written prescription, and is used for medicinal purposes under that person's care or treatment. Section 2 states that this Act applies in addition to, and not in substitution for, the Medicines Act. The Medicines Act schedules themselves are not held in this repository and were not read for this cell, so no medicine schedule number is stated here.
Documentation: Search record. The terms searched were methylphenidate, Ritalin, Concerta, dexmethylphenidate and ritalinic acid. One printed entry, carrying the derivatives phrase reproduced above. None of the trade names appears, which is expected of a schedule that lists substances rather than products. 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. The Schedule and the Part named in this cell are read from the Act itself at the lines quoted; they are nowhere printed in the verbatim quotation supplied for this row.

Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, Schedule 2 Part II, printed name with its express derivatives phrase · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, ss 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 17 and 19, with Schedules 1 and 2 · justice.gov.za · read from the cached text at research/instruments/south-africa/za-drugs-act-140-1992.txt, 84,091 bytes, against the.pdf beside it at 127,460 bytes · the consolidation is dated 29 May 2025 and carries the Act 14 of 2022 substitution of both schedules with effect from 14 December 2022 · Updated September 21, 2026

Methylphenidate in South Africa, full detail →

Modafinil

Legal status: Controlled as a Schedule 5 substance under the Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965, 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: Schedule 5 prints it under its own name as "Modafinil." on page 174, with no specified marker, and prints its single enantiomer on page 168 as "Armodafanil.", spelled that way in the consolidation. 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) (b) lets any person possess a Schedule 3, Schedule 4, Schedule 5 or Schedule 6 substance "if he or she is in possession of a prescription issued by an authorised prescriber", and section 22A (5) confines the sale of a Schedule 5 substance to a pharmacist acting on a prescription or on the verbal instructions of an authorised prescriber, to a manufacturer or wholesale dealer, and to the prescribing professions it lists. Section 22A (10) adds that no person shall sell or administer any Scheduled substance or medicine "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 5, 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. The stimulants this Act lists fall into several groups and this substance belongs to none of them. Part III lists phenethylamines and their amphetamine relatives and lists cathinones, Part II lists a methylphenidate entry and anorectics such as benzphetamine, fenproporex, mefenorex and phendimetrazine, and Part I lists cathine, chlorphentermine and diethylpropion. If the limb were applied against a Part I stimulant, the Part I scale of five and 10 years under sections 17 (b) and 17 (c) would follow instead of the scale stated below. This substance is a benzhydryl sulphinylacetamide and shares no ring system or side chain with any of them, so the first half of the homologue definition has nothing to attach to. The second half would ask whether a wakefulness agent has pharmacodynamic properties similar to those listed stimulants, and the Act gives no way of answering that. The limb in question is 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 / medical: Modafinil is a medicine on prescription in South Africa. Outside the practitioners and pharmacies that section 22A (16) (c) and (d) cover, section 22A (16) (b) makes possession lawful only with a prescription issued by an authorised prescriber. For a visitor, SAHPRA's guideline SAHPGL-INSP-RC11, version 2 of June 2022, which restates the General Regulations, says "Any person entering the Republic may be in possession, for personal medicinal use, of- 3.2.1. a quantity of a Schedule 3, 4 or 5 substances, which shall not exceed for use for a period of six months; oral quantity of a Schedule 6 substance, which shall not exceed use for a period of 30 days;" and requires the original prescription, a certified copy of it, or a certificate or letter from the person who prescribed or dispensed it certifying the substance and quantity, with that person's name, physical and email address. The regulation the guideline restates sits behind the same SAHPRA sign in as the July 2026 schedules and was not itself read, so the allowance is stated here from the guideline. Section 22A (17) (a) defines an authorised prescriber as "a medical practitioner, dentist, veterinarian, practitioner, nurse or other person registered under the Health Professions Act, 1974". Section 22A (6) (g) lets a Schedule 5 sale be repeated for no longer than six months, and then only if the prescriber has stated the number of times and the intervals. 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: modafinil, armodafinil, armodafanil and Provigil. Modafinil returns one Schedule 5 entry; armodafinil returns nothing under that spelling and the enantiomer is found under the printed spelling armodafanil. 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 modafinil, armodafinil, benzhydryl, sulphinyl and adrafinil. All return zero occurrences. The three families of listed stimulant were enumerated for the comparison rather than described, so that the negative rests on a reading of the list. 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.

Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965, Schedules made under section 22A (2), Schedule 5, page 174 · SAHPRA Consolidated Schedules of 1 August 2025, read on 3 October 2026 · sahpra.org.za · Government Notice 7446, Government Gazette 54627 of 8 May 2026, read on 3 October 2026 · gov.za · Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965, ss 1, 22A, 29 and 30, consolidation in Government Gazette 40869 of 26 May 2017, read on 3 October 2026 · sahpra.org.za · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992 fetched again on 3 October 2026, sha256 beginning bc1216a3 and byte identical to the cached copy · SAHPRA guideline SAHPGL-INSP-RC11, Guidelines for Release of Imported Health Products at Ports of Entry, version 2, June 2022, paragraphs 3.1.3 and 3.2, read on 3 October 2026 · sahpra.org.za · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, Schedule 2 open homologue limb, all three listed stimulant families read and rejected · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, ss 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 17 and 19, with Schedules 1 and 2 · justice.gov.za · read from the cached text at research/instruments/south-africa/za-drugs-act-140-1992.txt, 84,091 bytes, against the.pdf beside it at 127,460 bytes · the consolidation is dated 29 May 2025 and carries the Act 14 of 2022 substitution of both schedules with effect from 14 December 2022 · Updated October 4, 2026

Modafinil in South Africa, full detail →

Morphine

Legal status: Controlled as a dangerous dependence-producing substance under Schedule 2 Part II of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992.
Consequences if caught: The entry carries a concentration exception rather than a per dose one: "Morphine, except preparations and mixtures of morphine containing not more than 0,2 per cent of morphine, calculated as anhydrous morphine." Two further entries sit beside it and are easy to miss: the schedule separately prints morphine methobromide with the other pentavalent nitrogen derivatives, and separately prints morphine-N-oxide and its derivatives. Section 4 (b) forbids the use or possession of any dangerous dependence-producing substance or undesirable dependence-producing substance. Section 13 (d) makes that an offence and section 17 (d) fixes the penalty at such fine as the court may deem fit to impose, or imprisonment for a period not exceeding 15 years, or both. Dealing is section 5 (b), made an offence by section 13 (f) and punished under section 17 (e) by imprisonment for a period not exceeding 25 years, or by both that imprisonment and such fine as the court may deem fit to impose. The reader should note how wide dealing is: section 1 defines deal in to include transhipment, importation, cultivation, collection, manufacture, supply, prescription, administration, sale, transmission and exportation. Capital exposure: none, and life exposure: none. Section 17 sets out the whole penalty scale of this Act and its highest figure is 25 years for dealing; no provision of the Act carries a death sentence or a sentence of life imprisonment. Section 19 (2) is the provision a traveller carrying medication should know about. If the quantity found exceeds what the accused could have bought for medicinal purposes on the prescription relied on, it is presumed until the contrary is proved that the accused dealt in the drug, which moves the case from the possession scale to the dealing scale. Section 20, which presumed possession from mere proximity, was declared inconsistent with the interim Constitution in S v Mello 1998 (3) SA 712 (CC), and the Act's own footnote records that.
If prescribed / medical: The Act's own lawful route is the set of exceptions in section 4, paragraphs (i) to (vi). A patient falls outside section 4 only where the substance was acquired from a medical practitioner, dentist or practitioner acting in a professional capacity and in accordance with the Medicines and Related Substances Control Act 101 of 1965, or from a pharmacist on that person's oral instruction or written prescription, and is used for medicinal purposes under that person's care or treatment. Section 2 states that this Act applies in addition to, and not in substitution for, the Medicines Act. The Medicines Act schedules themselves are not held in this repository and were not read for this cell, so no medicine schedule number is stated here. A patient carrying prescribed morphine is inside the section 4 exceptions only where it came from a practitioner or a pharmacist on that practitioner's instruction and is used under that practitioner's care. The Act's own lawful route is the set of exceptions in section 4, paragraphs (i) to (vi). A patient falls outside section 4 only where the substance was acquired from a medical practitioner, dentist or practitioner acting in a professional capacity and in accordance with the Medicines and Related Substances Control Act 101 of 1965, or from a pharmacist on that person's oral instruction or written prescription, and is used for medicinal purposes under that person's care or treatment. Section 2 states that this Act applies in addition to, and not in substitution for, the Medicines Act. The Medicines Act schedules themselves are not held in this repository and were not read for this cell, so no medicine schedule number is stated here.
Documentation: Search record. The terms searched were morphine, anhydrous morphine, normorphine, ethylmorphine and benzylmorphine. Part II returns the entry above and returns six further morphine-family entries on their own lines. The 0,2 per cent exception is a concentration limit on preparations and mixtures, not an allowance for a dose, and the difference from the codeine entry is deliberate in the text. 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. The Schedule and the Part named in this cell are read from the Act itself at the lines quoted; they are nowhere printed in the verbatim quotation supplied for this row.

Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, Schedule 2 Part II, printed name with its 0,2 per cent concentration exception · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, ss 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 17 and 19, with Schedules 1 and 2 · justice.gov.za · read from the cached text at research/instruments/south-africa/za-drugs-act-140-1992.txt, 84,091 bytes, against the.pdf beside it at 127,460 bytes · the consolidation is dated 29 May 2025 and carries the Act 14 of 2022 substitution of both schedules with effect from 14 December 2022 · Updated September 21, 2026

Morphine in South Africa, full detail →

MXE

Legal status: Controlled as a Schedule 7 substance under the Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965, 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: Schedule 7 prints it on page 196 as "Methoxetamine (MXE).", and separately prints "3-Methoxyphencyclidine." and phencyclidine with its named congeners. Section 22A (9) (a) (i) of the Medicines Act says no person shall "acquire, use, possess, manufacture or supply any Schedule 7 or Schedule 8 substance" unless the Director-General has issued a permit for it, and its proviso lets the Director-General authorise use only to provide a medical practitioner, analyst, researcher or veterinarian with the substance for a particular patient or for education, analysis or research. 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) also forbids importing or exporting any Schedule 7 substance without a permit, and (11) (b) says such a permit "may be issued for any purpose other than the satisfaction or relief of a habit or craving". Under the Drugs Act the position is different. Part III prints "Phencyclidine and the congeners thereof, namely, N-ethyl-1-phenylcyclohexylamine (PCE), 1-(1-phenylcyclohexyl) pyrrolidine (PHP or PCPY) and 1-[1-(2-thienyl) cyclohexyl] piperidine (TCP)." naming three congeners and no class, and this substance is not among them. The substance it is most often compared with, ketamine, is itself unlisted, so the chain from the printed entry to this molecule runs through a compound the schedule never mentions. A homologue limb applied through an unlisted intermediate is a longer reach than one applied directly, and the Act says nothing about how far it goes. The Drugs Act limb that could still reach it is Part III paragraph 2 (e), "(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). If it does reach the substance, use or possession falls under section 4 (b), an offence under section 13 (d) punishable under section 17 (d) by such fine as the court may deem fit, imprisonment for a period not exceeding 15 years, or both, and dealing falls under section 5 (b), an offence under section 13 (f) punishable under section 17 (e) by imprisonment for a period not exceeding 25 years, or that imprisonment and a fine. If it does not, the Drugs Act does not reach the substance at all. 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 / medical: There is no prescription route. Section 22A (9) (a) (i) says no person shall "acquire, use, possess, manufacture or supply any Schedule 7 or Schedule 8 substance" unless the Director-General has issued a permit for it, and its proviso lets the Director-General authorise use only to provide a medical practitioner, analyst, researcher or veterinarian with the substance for a particular patient or for education, analysis or research. 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: methoxetamine, MXE and phencyclidine. Methoxetamine returns one Schedule 7 entry; ketamine, the compound it is usually compared with, is in Schedule 5. 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 mxe, methoxetamine, methoxyketamine, arylcyclohexylamine and eticyclidine. The last of these is the one that returns something, because the printed congener list names the N-ethyl phenylcyclohexylamine, and that is the closest the schedule comes to this chemistry. 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.

Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965, Schedules made under section 22A (2), Schedule 7, page 196 · SAHPRA Consolidated Schedules of 1 August 2025, read on 3 October 2026 · sahpra.org.za · Government Notice 7446, Government Gazette 54627 of 8 May 2026, read on 3 October 2026 · gov.za · Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965, ss 1, 22A, 29 and 30, consolidation in Government Gazette 40869 of 26 May 2017, read on 3 October 2026 · sahpra.org.za · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992 fetched again on 3 October 2026, sha256 beginning bc1216a3 and byte identical to the cached copy · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, Schedule 2 open homologue limb, closed congener list read and rejected, with the usual comparator itself unlisted · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, ss 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 17 and 19, with Schedules 1 and 2 · justice.gov.za · read from the cached text at research/instruments/south-africa/za-drugs-act-140-1992.txt, 84,091 bytes, against the.pdf beside it at 127,460 bytes · the consolidation is dated 29 May 2025 and carries the Act 14 of 2022 substitution of both schedules with effect from 14 December 2022 · Updated October 4, 2026

MXE in South Africa, full detail →

Nicotine

Legal status: Not named in Schedule 1 or Schedule 2 of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, so it is not a drug or a scheduled substance under that Act.
Consequences if caught: Nicotine is a pyridine alkaloid with a pyrrolidine ring. No entry in either schedule is a nicotinoid, and no entry shares that pair of rings. The homologue limb is therefore not engaged, because it reaches chemically related substances and there is no relative in the list. Tobacco control in South Africa runs through its own legislation, and therapeutic nicotine products run through the Medicines Act; neither instrument is held in this repository and neither was read for this cell, so nothing is stated here about advertising, sale to minors or public place restrictions. Capital exposure: none, and life exposure: none. Section 17 sets out the whole penalty scale of this Act and its highest figure is 25 years for dealing; no provision of the Act carries a death sentence or a sentence of life imprisonment.
If prescribed / medical: The Act's medical exceptions do not arise for a substance outside its schedules. Any pharmacy status this substance has in South Africa comes from the Medicines Act, which was not read for this cell.
Documentation: Search record. The terms searched were nicotine, nicotinic, tobacco, Nicotiana and cotinine. All five return zero occurrences. The dossier answers this row from a tobacco statute that is not in the instrument set given to this lane. 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. The Schedule and the Part named in this cell are read from the Act itself at the lines quoted; they are nowhere printed in the verbatim quotation supplied for this row.

Nicotine in South Africa, full detail →

Nimetazepam

Legal status: Controlled as a Specified Schedule 5 substance under the Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965, reached by the class entry for benzodiazepines and not by name, 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 by class, not by name. Schedule 5 prints on page 168 "Benzodiazepines and their derivatives, unless listed in another Schedule and except flunitrazepam. (S6)", with the specified marker after both "Benzodiazepines" and "derivatives", which this cell describes rather than reproduces. Nimetazepam is itself a 1,4-benzodiazepine, the 1-methyl relative of nitrazepam, which Schedule 5 prints on page 174 as "Nitrazepam" with the same marker. It is not listed in another Schedule: the benzodiazepine-type names in Schedule 7 are clonazolam, diclazepam, flualprazolam, flubromazolam and etizolam, and Schedule 6 carries flunitrazepam alone. That nimetazepam is a benzodiazepine is chemistry brought to the entry, and it is the only step between the printed words and 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) (b) lets any person possess a Schedule 3, Schedule 4, Schedule 5 or Schedule 6 substance "if he or she is in possession of a prescription issued by an authorised prescriber", and section 22A (5) confines the sale of a Schedule 5 substance to a pharmacist acting on a prescription or on the verbal instructions of an authorised prescriber, to a manufacturer or wholesale dealer, and to the prescribing professions it lists. Section 22A (10) adds that no person shall sell or administer any Scheduled substance or medicine "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) says no person shall import or export "any specified Schedule 5, Schedule 6, Schedule 7 or Schedule 8 substance" without a permit from the Director-General, and (11) (b) says such a permit "may be issued for any purpose other than the satisfaction or relief of a habit or craving". Under the Drugs Act the position is different. Of every member of this class, this one is the closest to the single printed entry. Schedule 2 Part I prints "Flunitrazepam." and the two compounds share the nitro group at the same ring position and the methyl group on the diazepine nitrogen, differing only in a fluorine on the pendant phenyl ring. That makes this the strongest homologue case in the class and it is still not one the Act settles, because Part I has no isomer limb, because a fluorine substitution is not an esterification or a salt, and because nothing in the Act says how much similarity is enough. The Drugs Act limb that could still reach it is Part I paragraph 2 (c), "(c) 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." Parts II and III carry the same words as paragraph 2 (e). Because the printed relative sits in Part I, the scale that would follow is the Part I scale: use or possession under section 4 (a), an offence under section 13 (c) punishable under section 17 (b) by a fine, imprisonment for a period not exceeding five years, or both, and dealing under section 5 (a), an offence under section 13 (e) punishable under section 17 (c) by a fine, imprisonment for a period not exceeding 10 years, or both. The heavier scale, section 4 (b) with section 17 (d) and section 5 (b) with section 17 (e), at up to 15 and 25 years, applies only where the relative relied on is printed in Part II or Part III. If the limb does not reach the substance, the Drugs Act does not reach it at all. 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 / medical: Nimetazepam is not a registered medicine in South Africa on anything read for this cell, so in practice there is no local prescription for it. Outside the practitioners and pharmacies that section 22A (16) (c) and (d) cover, section 22A (16) (b) makes possession lawful only with a prescription issued by an authorised prescriber. For a visitor, SAHPRA's guideline SAHPGL-INSP-RC11, version 2 of June 2022, which restates the General Regulations, says "Any person entering the Republic may be in possession, for personal medicinal use, of- 3.2.1. a quantity of a Schedule 3, 4 or 5 substances, which shall not exceed for use for a period of six months; oral quantity of a Schedule 6 substance, which shall not exceed use for a period of 30 days;" and requires the original prescription, a certified copy of it, or a certificate or letter from the person who prescribed or dispensed it certifying the substance and quantity, with that person's name, physical and email address. The regulation the guideline restates sits behind the same SAHPRA sign in as the July 2026 schedules and was not itself read, so the allowance is stated here from the guideline. Section 22A (17) (a) defines an authorised prescriber as "a medical practitioner, dentist, veterinarian, practitioner, nurse or other person registered under the Health Professions Act, 1974". The guideline's own paragraph 3.1.3 says schedule 5, 6, 7 and 8 products "can only be imported with a permit issued in terms of Section 22A (9) and 22(A)(11)", in its part on commercial imports; nothing read says whether a traveller's personal supply within the allowance also needs that permit, and this cell does not decide it. Section 22A (6) (g) lets a Schedule 5 sale be repeated for no longer than six months, and then only if the prescriber has stated the number of times and the intervals, and section 22A (6) (h) (i) stops a Schedule 5 substance used for its anxiolytic, antidepressant or tranquillising properties being prescribed for longer than six months unless the prescriber has consulted a registered psychiatrist. 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: nimetazepam, Erimin, nitrazepam and benzodiazepine. Nimetazepam and Erimin return zero entries; nitrazepam returns its specified Schedule 5 entry; benzodiazepine returns the class entry on page 168. 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 nimetazepam, Erimin, nitrazepam, nimetaz and flunitrazepam. Only the last returns an entry. This is the one row in the class where the structural comparison genuinely favours inclusion, and it is recorded that way rather than smoothed over. 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.

Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965, Schedules made under section 22A (2), Schedule 5, page 168 · SAHPRA Consolidated Schedules of 1 August 2025, read on 3 October 2026 · sahpra.org.za · Government Notice 7446, Government Gazette 54627 of 8 May 2026, read on 3 October 2026 · gov.za · Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965, ss 1, 22A, 29 and 30, consolidation in Government Gazette 40869 of 26 May 2017, read on 3 October 2026 · sahpra.org.za · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992 fetched again on 3 October 2026, sha256 beginning bc1216a3 and byte identical to the cached copy · SAHPRA guideline SAHPGL-INSP-RC11, Guidelines for Release of Imported Health Products at Ports of Entry, version 2, June 2022, paragraphs 3.1.3 and 3.2, read on 3 October 2026 · sahpra.org.za · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, Schedule 2 open homologue limb, single printed benzodiazepine read, closest comparison in the class · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, ss 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 17 and 19, with Schedules 1 and 2 · justice.gov.za · read from the cached text at research/instruments/south-africa/za-drugs-act-140-1992.txt, 84,091 bytes, against the.pdf beside it at 127,460 bytes · the consolidation is dated 29 May 2025 and carries the Act 14 of 2022 substitution of both schedules with effect from 14 December 2022 · Updated October 4, 2026

Nimetazepam in South Africa, full detail →

Nitrous Oxide

Legal status: Not named in Schedule 1 or Schedule 2 of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, so it is not a drug or a scheduled substance under that Act.
Consequences if caught: Nitrous oxide is an inorganic gas. The only inorganic substances anywhere in the two schedules are three precursor chemicals in Schedule 1 Part II, hydrochloric acid, sulphuric acid and potassium permanganate, and none of them is this gas. Every entry in all three Parts of Schedule 2 is an organic molecule or a plant. The homologue limb reaches chemically related substances, and an inorganic gas has no chemical relative in a list of organic molecules. The dossier for this row left it unresolved on the footing that the nearest Schedule 2 text was an entry for ketamine, and that string does not occur in this Act at all, so the reason it gave for deferring does not exist. Capital exposure: none, and life exposure: none. Section 17 sets out the whole penalty scale of this Act and its highest figure is 25 years for dealing; no provision of the Act carries a death sentence or a sentence of life imprisonment.
If prescribed / medical: Medical nitrous oxide in South Africa is a matter for the Medicines Act and for occupational and consumer regulation, none of which is held in this repository or was read for this cell. This Act imposes nothing on it.
Documentation: Search record. The terms searched were nitrous, nitrous oxide, laughing gas, dinitrogen and N2O. All return zero occurrences. The three inorganic precursor entries were read individually to make the negative a measurement rather than an impression. 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.

Nitrous Oxide in South Africa, full detail →

Opium

Legal status: Controlled as a dangerous dependence-producing substance under Schedule 2 Part II of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992.
Consequences if caught: Two printed entries carry this row. The first is "Opium and opiates and any salt, compound, derivative or preparation of opium or opiates, whether obtained directly or indirectly by extraction from material or substances obtained from plants, or obtained independently by chemical synthesis, or by a combination of extraction and chemical synthesis, except mixtures containing not more than 0,2 per cent of morphine, calculated as anhydrous morphine." The second is "Opium-poppy and poppy straw, whether obtained directly or indirectly by extraction from material or substances obtained from plants, or whether obtained independently by chemical synthesis, or by a combination of extraction and chemical synthesis." Between them they reach the raw material, the plant and the poppy straw, whether extracted or synthesised, subject to one concentration exception at 0,2 per cent of morphine. Section 4 (b) forbids the use or possession of any dangerous dependence-producing substance or undesirable dependence-producing substance. Section 13 (d) makes that an offence and section 17 (d) fixes the penalty at such fine as the court may deem fit to impose, or imprisonment for a period not exceeding 15 years, or both. Dealing is section 5 (b), made an offence by section 13 (f) and punished under section 17 (e) by imprisonment for a period not exceeding 25 years, or by both that imprisonment and such fine as the court may deem fit to impose. The reader should note how wide dealing is: section 1 defines deal in to include transhipment, importation, cultivation, collection, manufacture, supply, prescription, administration, sale, transmission and exportation. Capital exposure: none, and life exposure: none. Section 17 sets out the whole penalty scale of this Act and its highest figure is 25 years for dealing; no provision of the Act carries a death sentence or a sentence of life imprisonment.
If prescribed / medical: The Act's own lawful route is the set of exceptions in section 4, paragraphs (i) to (vi). A patient falls outside section 4 only where the substance was acquired from a medical practitioner, dentist or practitioner acting in a professional capacity and in accordance with the Medicines and Related Substances Control Act 101 of 1965, or from a pharmacist on that person's oral instruction or written prescription, and is used for medicinal purposes under that person's care or treatment. Section 2 states that this Act applies in addition to, and not in substitution for, the Medicines Act. The Medicines Act schedules themselves are not held in this repository and were not read for this cell, so no medicine schedule number is stated here. An opium-derived medicine is inside the section 4 exceptions only through the practitioner route. The 0,2 per cent exception is a limit on the concentration of morphine in a mixture and is not a traveller allowance. The Act's own lawful route is the set of exceptions in section 4, paragraphs (i) to (vi). A patient falls outside section 4 only where the substance was acquired from a medical practitioner, dentist or practitioner acting in a professional capacity and in accordance with the Medicines and Related Substances Control Act 101 of 1965, or from a pharmacist on that person's oral instruction or written prescription, and is used for medicinal purposes under that person's care or treatment. Section 2 states that this Act applies in addition to, and not in substitution for, the Medicines Act. The Medicines Act schedules themselves are not held in this repository and were not read for this cell, so no medicine schedule number is stated here.
Documentation: Search record. The terms searched were opium, opiate, poppy, poppy straw and papaver. Two printed entries, both reproduced above in full. The first entry spans a page break in the published text and is joined here across the publisher footer; every other quotation in this batch is a single unbroken span. The dossier quotes the opening clause of the first entry only and stops before the synthesis clause and the exception. 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. The Schedule and the Part named in this cell are read from the Act itself at the lines quoted; they are nowhere printed in the verbatim quotation supplied for this row.

Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, Schedule 2 Part II, two printed entries, for the substance and for the plant · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, ss 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 17 and 19, with Schedules 1 and 2 · justice.gov.za · read from the cached text at research/instruments/south-africa/za-drugs-act-140-1992.txt, 84,091 bytes, against the.pdf beside it at 127,460 bytes · the consolidation is dated 29 May 2025 and carries the Act 14 of 2022 substitution of both schedules with effect from 14 December 2022 · Updated September 21, 2026

Opium in South Africa, full detail →

Oxycodone

Legal status: Controlled as a dangerous dependence-producing substance under Schedule 2 Part II of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992.
Consequences if caught: The entry is printed with both of its alternative chemical names: "Oxycodone (14-hydroxydihydrocodeinone or dihydrohydroxycodeinone)." The neighbouring entry does the same for oxymorphone, and the two sit on consecutive lines. No dose or concentration exception is printed on either. Section 4 (b) forbids the use or possession of any dangerous dependence-producing substance or undesirable dependence-producing substance. Section 13 (d) makes that an offence and section 17 (d) fixes the penalty at such fine as the court may deem fit to impose, or imprisonment for a period not exceeding 15 years, or both. Dealing is section 5 (b), made an offence by section 13 (f) and punished under section 17 (e) by imprisonment for a period not exceeding 25 years, or by both that imprisonment and such fine as the court may deem fit to impose. The reader should note how wide dealing is: section 1 defines deal in to include transhipment, importation, cultivation, collection, manufacture, supply, prescription, administration, sale, transmission and exportation. Capital exposure: none, and life exposure: none. Section 17 sets out the whole penalty scale of this Act and its highest figure is 25 years for dealing; no provision of the Act carries a death sentence or a sentence of life imprisonment. Section 19 (2) is the provision a traveller carrying medication should know about. If the quantity found exceeds what the accused could have bought for medicinal purposes on the prescription relied on, it is presumed until the contrary is proved that the accused dealt in the drug, which moves the case from the possession scale to the dealing scale. Section 20, which presumed possession from mere proximity, was declared inconsistent with the interim Constitution in S v Mello 1998 (3) SA 712 (CC), and the Act's own footnote records that.
If prescribed / medical: The Act's own lawful route is the set of exceptions in section 4, paragraphs (i) to (vi). A patient falls outside section 4 only where the substance was acquired from a medical practitioner, dentist or practitioner acting in a professional capacity and in accordance with the Medicines and Related Substances Control Act 101 of 1965, or from a pharmacist on that person's oral instruction or written prescription, and is used for medicinal purposes under that person's care or treatment. Section 2 states that this Act applies in addition to, and not in substitution for, the Medicines Act. The Medicines Act schedules themselves are not held in this repository and were not read for this cell, so no medicine schedule number is stated here. A prescribed oxycodone product is inside the section 4 exceptions through the practitioner route only, and the absence of any printed dose exception on this entry means there is no low-dose formulation outside it. The Act's own lawful route is the set of exceptions in section 4, paragraphs (i) to (vi). A patient falls outside section 4 only where the substance was acquired from a medical practitioner, dentist or practitioner acting in a professional capacity and in accordance with the Medicines and Related Substances Control Act 101 of 1965, or from a pharmacist on that person's oral instruction or written prescription, and is used for medicinal purposes under that person's care or treatment. Section 2 states that this Act applies in addition to, and not in substitution for, the Medicines Act. The Medicines Act schedules themselves are not held in this repository and were not read for this cell, so no medicine schedule number is stated here.
Documentation: Search record. The terms searched were oxycodone, dihydrohydroxycodeinone, oxymorphone and thebaine. Part II returns the entry above, returns oxymorphone on the next line and returns thebaine, the alkaloid it is made from, further down the same Part. 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. The Schedule and the Part named in this cell are read from the Act itself at the lines quoted; they are nowhere printed in the verbatim quotation supplied for this row.

Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, Schedule 2 Part II, printed name with both bracketed chemical names · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, ss 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 17 and 19, with Schedules 1 and 2 · justice.gov.za · read from the cached text at research/instruments/south-africa/za-drugs-act-140-1992.txt, 84,091 bytes, against the.pdf beside it at 127,460 bytes · the consolidation is dated 29 May 2025 and carries the Act 14 of 2022 substitution of both schedules with effect from 14 December 2022 · Updated September 21, 2026

Oxycodone in South Africa, full detail →

PCP

Legal status: Controlled as an undesirable dependence-producing substance under Schedule 2 Part III of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992.
Consequences if caught: The entry names its congeners exhaustively: "Phencyclidine and the congeners thereof, namely, N-ethyl-1-phenylcyclohexylamine (PCE), 1-(1-phenylcyclohexyl) pyrrolidine (PHP or PCPY) and 1-[1-(2-thienyl) cyclohexyl] piperidine (TCP)." That closed list is the important feature of this entry for anyone asking about the wider arylcyclohexylamine family, because the schedule chose to name three congeners rather than to describe a class. Section 4 (b) forbids the use or possession of any dangerous dependence-producing substance or undesirable dependence-producing substance. Section 13 (d) makes that an offence and section 17 (d) fixes the penalty at such fine as the court may deem fit to impose, or imprisonment for a period not exceeding 15 years, or both. Dealing is section 5 (b), made an offence by section 13 (f) and punished under section 17 (e) by imprisonment for a period not exceeding 25 years, or by both that imprisonment and such fine as the court may deem fit to impose. The reader should note how wide dealing is: section 1 defines deal in to include transhipment, importation, cultivation, collection, manufacture, supply, prescription, administration, sale, transmission and exportation. Capital exposure: none, and life exposure: none. Section 17 sets out the whole penalty scale of this Act and its highest figure is 25 years for dealing; no provision of the Act carries a death sentence or a sentence of life imprisonment.
If prescribed / medical: The Act's own lawful route is the set of exceptions in section 4, paragraphs (i) to (vi). A patient falls outside section 4 only where the substance was acquired from a medical practitioner, dentist or practitioner acting in a professional capacity and in accordance with the Medicines and Related Substances Control Act 101 of 1965, or from a pharmacist on that person's oral instruction or written prescription, and is used for medicinal purposes under that person's care or treatment. Section 2 states that this Act applies in addition to, and not in substitution for, the Medicines Act. The Medicines Act schedules themselves are not held in this repository and were not read for this cell, so no medicine schedule number is stated here. No human medicine route arises for this substance in anything read for this cell.
Documentation: Search record. The terms searched were pcp, phencyclidine, angel dust and the three congener abbreviations the entry prints. One printed entry, reproduced above with the three congeners the Act names. The dossier truncates this entry after the words about congeners, dropping the word namely and the three names that follow, and those three names decide every other question in this family. 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. The Schedule and the Part named in this cell are read from the Act itself at the lines quoted; they are nowhere printed in the verbatim quotation supplied for this row.

Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, Schedule 2 Part III, printed name with its three named congeners · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, ss 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 17 and 19, with Schedules 1 and 2 · justice.gov.za · read from the cached text at research/instruments/south-africa/za-drugs-act-140-1992.txt, 84,091 bytes, against the.pdf beside it at 127,460 bytes · the consolidation is dated 29 May 2025 and carries the Act 14 of 2022 substitution of both schedules with effect from 14 December 2022 · Updated September 21, 2026

PCP in South Africa, full detail →

Peyote

Legal status: Controlled as an undesirable dependence-producing substance under Schedule 2 Part III of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992.
Consequences if caught: The cactus is not named and does not need to be. Section 1 defines an undesirable dependence-producing substance as "any substance or any plant from which a substance can be manufactured included in Part III of Schedule 2", and section 1 defines manufacture to include "the preparing, extraction or producing of the substance". Part III prints "Mescaline (3,4,5-trimethoxyphenethylamine)." so a cactus from which mescaline can be extracted falls within the definition without any need for the homologue limb. Section 4 (b) forbids the use or possession of any dangerous dependence-producing substance or undesirable dependence-producing substance. Section 13 (d) makes that an offence and section 17 (d) fixes the penalty at such fine as the court may deem fit to impose, or imprisonment for a period not exceeding 15 years, or both. Dealing is section 5 (b), made an offence by section 13 (f) and punished under section 17 (e) by imprisonment for a period not exceeding 25 years, or by both that imprisonment and such fine as the court may deem fit to impose. The reader should note how wide dealing is: section 1 defines deal in to include transhipment, importation, cultivation, collection, manufacture, supply, prescription, administration, sale, transmission and exportation. Capital exposure: none, and life exposure: none. Section 17 sets out the whole penalty scale of this Act and its highest figure is 25 years for dealing; no provision of the Act carries a death sentence or a sentence of life imprisonment.
If prescribed / medical: The Act's own lawful route is the set of exceptions in section 4, paragraphs (i) to (vi). A patient falls outside section 4 only where the substance was acquired from a medical practitioner, dentist or practitioner acting in a professional capacity and in accordance with the Medicines and Related Substances Control Act 101 of 1965, or from a pharmacist on that person's oral instruction or written prescription, and is used for medicinal purposes under that person's care or treatment. Section 2 states that this Act applies in addition to, and not in substitution for, the Medicines Act. The Medicines Act schedules themselves are not held in this repository and were not read for this cell, so no medicine schedule number is stated here. There is no ceremonial or religious exception in this Act. The section 4 exceptions are medical and professional, and none of them reaches a cactus held for ritual use.
Documentation: Search record. The terms searched were peyote, Lophophora, williamsii, San Pedro, mescaline and cactus. None of the botanical names appears in either schedule; the alkaloid name returns one printed entry. [Certain] that the cactus contains mescaline. The route used is the section 1 plant limb, which the dossier for this row did not apply; it placed the row on the homologue limb and left it unresolved. 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.

Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, Schedule 2 Part III, section 1 plant limb applied to the printed mescaline entry · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, ss 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 17 and 19, with Schedules 1 and 2 · justice.gov.za · read from the cached text at research/instruments/south-africa/za-drugs-act-140-1992.txt, 84,091 bytes, against the.pdf beside it at 127,460 bytes · the consolidation is dated 29 May 2025 and carries the Act 14 of 2022 substitution of both schedules with effect from 14 December 2022 · Updated September 21, 2026

Peyote in South Africa, full detail →

Pink Cocaine / Tusi

Legal status: This is a street label rather than a substance, and South African law answers it by what the sample actually contains.
Consequences if caught: The Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992 works entirely through named entries in Schedule 2, so a label has no legal identity of its own and the question is always which listed substance is present. Samples sold under this name commonly contain one or more of the following, and this Act treats them very differently. A sample containing the substance printed in Part III as "(±)-N,a-dimethyl-3,4-(methylenedioxy)phenethylamine (3,4-methylenedioxymetamfetamine) (MDMA)." or the substance printed as "Methamphetamine and methamphetamine racemate." is squarely inside the undesirable Part. A sample containing cocaine is inside Part II through the coca leaf and ecgonine entries. A sample containing ketamine is a different matter entirely, because ketamine occurs zero times in this Act, and a sample containing only caffeine and a dye is outside the Act altogether. Section 4 (b) forbids the use or possession of any dangerous dependence-producing substance or undesirable dependence-producing substance. Section 13 (d) makes that an offence and section 17 (d) fixes the penalty at such fine as the court may deem fit to impose, or imprisonment for a period not exceeding 15 years, or both. Dealing is section 5 (b), made an offence by section 13 (f) and punished under section 17 (e) by imprisonment for a period not exceeding 25 years, or by both that imprisonment and such fine as the court may deem fit to impose. The reader should note how wide dealing is: section 1 defines deal in to include transhipment, importation, cultivation, collection, manufacture, supply, prescription, administration, sale, transmission and exportation. Capital exposure: none, and life exposure: none. Section 17 sets out the whole penalty scale of this Act and its highest figure is 25 years for dealing; no provision of the Act carries a death sentence or a sentence of life imprisonment.
If prescribed / medical: The Act's own lawful route is the set of exceptions in section 4, paragraphs (i) to (vi). A patient falls outside section 4 only where the substance was acquired from a medical practitioner, dentist or practitioner acting in a professional capacity and in accordance with the Medicines and Related Substances Control Act 101 of 1965, or from a pharmacist on that person's oral instruction or written prescription, and is used for medicinal purposes under that person's care or treatment. Section 2 states that this Act applies in addition to, and not in substitution for, the Medicines Act. The Medicines Act schedules themselves are not held in this repository and were not read for this cell, so no medicine schedule number is stated here. No preparation sold under this label has any prescription route, and where the label turns out to cover a listed substance the medical exceptions are the only lawful holding.
Documentation: Search record. The terms searched were tusi, tuci, pink cocaine, cocaina rosada and the constituent names above. The label returns nothing, which is the finding. This row is written as a confirmed label cell under the project rule that pink-cocaine, poppers and synthetic-cannabinoids carry the label treatment and are not deferrals. 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. The Schedule and the Part named in this cell are read from the Act itself at the lines quoted; they are nowhere printed in the verbatim quotation supplied for this row.

Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, section 1 definition of drug, with the Part II and Part III entries the label may resolve to · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, ss 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 17 and 19, with Schedules 1 and 2 · justice.gov.za · read from the cached text at research/instruments/south-africa/za-drugs-act-140-1992.txt, 84,091 bytes, against the.pdf beside it at 127,460 bytes · the consolidation is dated 29 May 2025 and carries the Act 14 of 2022 substitution of both schedules with effect from 14 December 2022 · Updated September 21, 2026

Pink Cocaine / Tusi in South Africa, full detail →

Poppers

Legal status: Poppers is a label for a group of alkyl nitrites, and no alkyl nitrite is named in Schedule 1 or Schedule 2 of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992.
Consequences if caught: The label covers amyl nitrite, isobutyl nitrite, isopropyl nitrite and their relatives. None of them is printed in either schedule, and nothing in either schedule is a nitrite or nitrate ester for the homologue limb to work from. So this Act does not reach the product under any of its three definitions of a drug, and sections 4 and 5 have nothing to operate on. What this cell does not say is that the product is unregulated: its sale and labelling may be governed by the Medicines and Related Substances Control Act 101 of 1965 and by consumer and hazardous substances legislation, and none of those instruments is held in this repository or was read for this cell. Capital exposure: none, and life exposure: none. Section 17 sets out the whole penalty scale of this Act and its highest figure is 25 years for dealing; no provision of the Act carries a death sentence or a sentence of life imprisonment.
If prescribed / medical: No exception under section 4 arises, because section 4 operates only on a drug as this Act defines it. Any pharmacy or scheduling status these products have in South Africa comes from instruments not read for this cell.
Documentation: Search record. The terms searched were poppers, nitrite, amyl, isobutyl and isopropyl. All return zero occurrences as substance entries in either schedule. This row is written as a confirmed label cell under the project rule that pink-cocaine, poppers and synthetic-cannabinoids carry the label treatment and are not deferrals, and the label resolves the same way for every member of the group. 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. The Schedule and the Part named in this cell are read from the Act itself at the lines quoted; they are nowhere printed in the verbatim quotation supplied for this row.

Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, section 1 definition of drug, with the absence measured across both schedules · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, ss 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 17 and 19, with Schedules 1 and 2 · justice.gov.za · read from the cached text at research/instruments/south-africa/za-drugs-act-140-1992.txt, 84,091 bytes, against the.pdf beside it at 127,460 bytes · the consolidation is dated 29 May 2025 and carries the Act 14 of 2022 substitution of both schedules with effect from 14 December 2022 · Updated September 21, 2026

Poppers in South Africa, full detail →

Pregabalin

Legal status: Controlled as a Schedule 5 substance under the Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965, 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: Schedule 5 prints it under its own name as "Pregabalin." on page 175, with no specified marker. Its neighbour in chemistry, gabapentin, sits two schedules lower, as "Gabapentin." in Schedule 3 on page 68. 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) (b) lets any person possess a Schedule 3, Schedule 4, Schedule 5 or Schedule 6 substance "if he or she is in possession of a prescription issued by an authorised prescriber", and section 22A (5) confines the sale of a Schedule 5 substance to a pharmacist acting on a prescription or on the verbal instructions of an authorised prescriber, to a manufacturer or wholesale dealer, and to the prescribing professions it lists. Section 22A (10) adds that no person shall sell or administer any Scheduled substance or medicine "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 5, 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. The chemistry of this substance is closer to gabapentin than to anything in the Act. Neither schedule carries a substituted amino acid of this kind. The nearest entry by effect is the Part III "Gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB)." and the comparison is thin: a short chain with a functional group at each end, and nothing else in common. The Act contains no sedative amino acid and no other calcium channel ligand, so the first half of the homologue definition has nothing to attach to and the second half is left to run alone. The limb in question is 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 / medical: Pregabalin is a medicine on prescription in South Africa. Outside the practitioners and pharmacies that section 22A (16) (c) and (d) cover, section 22A (16) (b) makes possession lawful only with a prescription issued by an authorised prescriber. For a visitor, SAHPRA's guideline SAHPGL-INSP-RC11, version 2 of June 2022, which restates the General Regulations, says "Any person entering the Republic may be in possession, for personal medicinal use, of- 3.2.1. a quantity of a Schedule 3, 4 or 5 substances, which shall not exceed for use for a period of six months; oral quantity of a Schedule 6 substance, which shall not exceed use for a period of 30 days;" and requires the original prescription, a certified copy of it, or a certificate or letter from the person who prescribed or dispensed it certifying the substance and quantity, with that person's name, physical and email address. The regulation the guideline restates sits behind the same SAHPRA sign in as the July 2026 schedules and was not itself read, so the allowance is stated here from the guideline. Section 22A (17) (a) defines an authorised prescriber as "a medical practitioner, dentist, veterinarian, practitioner, nurse or other person registered under the Health Professions Act, 1974". Section 22A (6) (g) lets a Schedule 5 sale be repeated for no longer than six months, and then only if the prescriber has stated the number of times and the intervals, and section 22A (6) (h) (i) stops a Schedule 5 substance used for its anxiolytic, antidepressant or tranquillising properties being prescribed for longer than six months unless the prescriber has consulted a registered psychiatrist. 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: pregabalin, Lyrica and gabapentin. Pregabalin returns one Schedule 5 entry on page 175; gabapentin returns one Schedule 3 entry on page 68. 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 pregabalin, Lyrica, gabapentinoid, isobutyl and aminomethyl. All return zero occurrences. 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.

Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965, Schedules made under section 22A (2), Schedule 5, page 175 · SAHPRA Consolidated Schedules of 1 August 2025, read on 3 October 2026 · sahpra.org.za · Government Notice 7446, Government Gazette 54627 of 8 May 2026, read on 3 October 2026 · gov.za · Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965, ss 1, 22A, 29 and 30, consolidation in Government Gazette 40869 of 26 May 2017, read on 3 October 2026 · sahpra.org.za · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992 fetched again on 3 October 2026, sha256 beginning bc1216a3 and byte identical to the cached copy · SAHPRA guideline SAHPGL-INSP-RC11, Guidelines for Release of Imported Health Products at Ports of Entry, version 2, June 2022, paragraphs 3.1.3 and 3.2, read on 3 October 2026 · sahpra.org.za · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, Schedule 2 open homologue limb, nearest entry by effect read and rejected · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, ss 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 17 and 19, with Schedules 1 and 2 · justice.gov.za · read from the cached text at research/instruments/south-africa/za-drugs-act-140-1992.txt, 84,091 bytes, against the.pdf beside it at 127,460 bytes · the consolidation is dated 29 May 2025 and carries the Act 14 of 2022 substitution of both schedules with effect from 14 December 2022 · Updated October 4, 2026

Pregabalin in South Africa, full detail →

Psilocybin

Legal status: Controlled as an undesirable dependence-producing substance under Schedule 2 Part III of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992.
Consequences if caught: Two entries, printed on consecutive lines: "Psilocybin (4-phosphoryloxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine)." and "Psilocin (4-hydroxydimethyltryptamine)." The schedule lists the phosphate ester and the free phenol separately rather than relying on paragraph 2 (b) to carry one to the other, which is a useful signal about how this schedule is built. Section 4 (b) forbids the use or possession of any dangerous dependence-producing substance or undesirable dependence-producing substance. Section 13 (d) makes that an offence and section 17 (d) fixes the penalty at such fine as the court may deem fit to impose, or imprisonment for a period not exceeding 15 years, or both. Dealing is section 5 (b), made an offence by section 13 (f) and punished under section 17 (e) by imprisonment for a period not exceeding 25 years, or by both that imprisonment and such fine as the court may deem fit to impose. The reader should note how wide dealing is: section 1 defines deal in to include transhipment, importation, cultivation, collection, manufacture, supply, prescription, administration, sale, transmission and exportation. Capital exposure: none, and life exposure: none. Section 17 sets out the whole penalty scale of this Act and its highest figure is 25 years for dealing; no provision of the Act carries a death sentence or a sentence of life imprisonment.
If prescribed / medical: The Act's own lawful route is the set of exceptions in section 4, paragraphs (i) to (vi). A patient falls outside section 4 only where the substance was acquired from a medical practitioner, dentist or practitioner acting in a professional capacity and in accordance with the Medicines and Related Substances Control Act 101 of 1965, or from a pharmacist on that person's oral instruction or written prescription, and is used for medicinal purposes under that person's care or treatment. Section 2 states that this Act applies in addition to, and not in substitution for, the Medicines Act. The Medicines Act schedules themselves are not held in this repository and were not read for this cell, so no medicine schedule number is stated here. No prescription route arises in anything read for this cell, and South African trial access, if there is any, was not examined here.
Documentation: Search record. The terms searched were psilocybin, psilocin, psilocybe, mushroom and 4-phosphoryloxy. The two substance names return two printed entries; none of the fungal words returns anything. Where a fungus yields either substance, section 1 reaches it as a plant from which a listed substance can be manufactured, on the same wording relied on for the cactus row. 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. The Schedule and the Part named in this cell are read from the Act itself at the lines quoted; they are nowhere printed in the verbatim quotation supplied for this row.

Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, Schedule 2 Part III, two printed names on consecutive lines · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, ss 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 17 and 19, with Schedules 1 and 2 · justice.gov.za · read from the cached text at research/instruments/south-africa/za-drugs-act-140-1992.txt, 84,091 bytes, against the.pdf beside it at 127,460 bytes · the consolidation is dated 29 May 2025 and carries the Act 14 of 2022 substitution of both schedules with effect from 14 December 2022 · Updated September 21, 2026

Psilocybin in South Africa, full detail →

Quetiapine

Legal status: Controlled as a Schedule 5 substance under the Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965, 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: Schedule 5 prints it under its own name as "Quetiapine." on page 175, with no specified marker, in the same schedule as olanzapine, risperidone and clozapine; not every antipsychotic is there, since lurasidone is printed in Schedule 4. 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) (b) lets any person possess a Schedule 3, Schedule 4, Schedule 5 or Schedule 6 substance "if he or she is in possession of a prescription issued by an authorised prescriber", and section 22A (5) confines the sale of a Schedule 5 substance to a pharmacist acting on a prescription or on the verbal instructions of an authorised prescriber, to a manufacturer or wholesale dealer, and to the prescribing professions it lists. Section 22A (10) adds that no person shall sell or administer any Scheduled substance or medicine "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 5, 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. The finding behind this row is about the whole list rather than about one entry. Reading every entry of Schedule 1 Parts I and II and Schedule 2 Parts I, II and III, there is no antipsychotic of any kind in either schedule. This Act is built around opioids, stimulants, hallucinogens, a small group of sedatives and a precursor list, and this substance belongs to none of those families. It is a dibenzothiazepine, and no dibenzothiazepine, phenothiazine or butyrophenone appears anywhere. So the first half of the homologue definition has no candidate at all, and the second half would have to compare an antipsychotic with sedatives in Part I. The Drugs Act limb that could still reach it is Part I paragraph 2 (c), "(c) 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." Parts II and III carry the same words as paragraph 2 (e). Because the printed relative sits in Part I, the scale that would follow is the Part I scale: use or possession under section 4 (a), an offence under section 13 (c) punishable under section 17 (b) by a fine, imprisonment for a period not exceeding five years, or both, and dealing under section 5 (a), an offence under section 13 (e) punishable under section 17 (c) by a fine, imprisonment for a period not exceeding 10 years, or both. The heavier scale, section 4 (b) with section 17 (d) and section 5 (b) with section 17 (e), at up to 15 and 25 years, applies only where the relative relied on is printed in Part II or Part III. If the limb does not reach the substance, the Drugs Act does not reach it at all. 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 / medical: Quetiapine is a medicine on prescription in South Africa. Outside the practitioners and pharmacies that section 22A (16) (c) and (d) cover, section 22A (16) (b) makes possession lawful only with a prescription issued by an authorised prescriber. For a visitor, SAHPRA's guideline SAHPGL-INSP-RC11, version 2 of June 2022, which restates the General Regulations, says "Any person entering the Republic may be in possession, for personal medicinal use, of- 3.2.1. a quantity of a Schedule 3, 4 or 5 substances, which shall not exceed for use for a period of six months; oral quantity of a Schedule 6 substance, which shall not exceed use for a period of 30 days;" and requires the original prescription, a certified copy of it, or a certificate or letter from the person who prescribed or dispensed it certifying the substance and quantity, with that person's name, physical and email address. The regulation the guideline restates sits behind the same SAHPRA sign in as the July 2026 schedules and was not itself read, so the allowance is stated here from the guideline. Section 22A (17) (a) defines an authorised prescriber as "a medical practitioner, dentist, veterinarian, practitioner, nurse or other person registered under the Health Professions Act, 1974". Section 22A (6) (g) lets a Schedule 5 sale be repeated for no longer than six months, and then only if the prescriber has stated the number of times and the intervals, and section 22A (6) (h) (i) stops a Schedule 5 substance used for its anxiolytic, antidepressant or tranquillising properties being prescribed for longer than six months unless the prescriber has consulted a registered psychiatrist. 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: quetiapine, Seroquel and dibenzothiazepine. Quetiapine returns one Schedule 5 entry on page 175; the class word returns nothing. 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 quetiapine, Seroquel, dibenzothiazepine, phenothiazine and antipsychotic. All return zero occurrences. The negative is stated as a property of the whole list because that is how it was measured, entry by entry, rather than by one failed lookup. 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.

Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965, Schedules made under section 22A (2), Schedule 5, page 175 · SAHPRA Consolidated Schedules of 1 August 2025, read on 3 October 2026 · sahpra.org.za · Government Notice 7446, Government Gazette 54627 of 8 May 2026, read on 3 October 2026 · gov.za · Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965, ss 1, 22A, 29 and 30, consolidation in Government Gazette 40869 of 26 May 2017, read on 3 October 2026 · sahpra.org.za · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992 fetched again on 3 October 2026, sha256 beginning bc1216a3 and byte identical to the cached copy · SAHPRA guideline SAHPGL-INSP-RC11, Guidelines for Release of Imported Health Products at Ports of Entry, version 2, June 2022, paragraphs 3.1.3 and 3.2, read on 3 October 2026 · sahpra.org.za · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, Schedule 2 open homologue limb, whole list read, no member of this drug class present · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, ss 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 17 and 19, with Schedules 1 and 2 · justice.gov.za · read from the cached text at research/instruments/south-africa/za-drugs-act-140-1992.txt, 84,091 bytes, against the.pdf beside it at 127,460 bytes · the consolidation is dated 29 May 2025 and carries the Act 14 of 2022 substitution of both schedules with effect from 14 December 2022 · Updated October 4, 2026

Quetiapine in South Africa, full detail →

Scopolamine (Devil's Breath)

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 / 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.

Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965, Schedules made under section 22A (2), Schedule 2, page 32, and Schedule 1, page 3 · SAHPRA Consolidated Schedules of 1 August 2025, read on 3 October 2026 · sahpra.org.za · Government Notice 7446, Government Gazette 54627 of 8 May 2026, read on 3 October 2026 · gov.za · Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965, ss 1, 22A, 29 and 30, consolidation in Government Gazette 40869 of 26 May 2017, read on 3 October 2026 · sahpra.org.za · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992 fetched again on 3 October 2026, sha256 beginning bc1216a3 and byte identical to the cached copy · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, Schedule 2 open homologue limb, printed tropane entry read and rejected on its own express qualification · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, ss 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 17 and 19, with Schedules 1 and 2 · justice.gov.za · read from the cached text at research/instruments/south-africa/za-drugs-act-140-1992.txt, 84,091 bytes, against the.pdf beside it at 127,460 bytes · the consolidation is dated 29 May 2025 and carries the Act 14 of 2022 substitution of both schedules with effect from 14 December 2022 · Updated October 4, 2026

Scopolamine (Devil's Breath) in South Africa, full detail →

Synthetic Cannabinoids (K2 / Spice)

Legal status: Controlled in part: Schedule 2 Part III of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992 names ten synthetic cannabinoid designations, and the class is wider than those ten.
Consequences if caught: The printed designations, counted from the schedule, are these ten: "Cannabicyclohexanol." "CP-47, 497." "CP 47, 497-C6." "CP 47, 497-C7." "CP 47, 497-C8." "CP 47, 497-C9." "HU-210." "JWH-018." "JWH-073." and "JWH-200." That is a list of named designations from one era of this chemistry, not a class description, and the schedule carries no generic synthetic cannabinoid clause. A named one carries the full weight of this Part. Three further synthetic cannabinoids are printed elsewhere in the same Part and are not what this street label means: nabilone, parahexyl and the compound the schedule sets out as "3-(1,2-dimethylheptyl)-7,8,9,10-tetrahydro-6,6,9-trimethyl-6H-dibenzo [b,d] pyran-1-ol (DMHP)." Section 4 (b) forbids the use or possession of any dangerous dependence-producing substance or undesirable dependence-producing substance. Section 13 (d) makes that an offence and section 17 (d) fixes the penalty at such fine as the court may deem fit to impose, or imprisonment for a period not exceeding 15 years, or both. Dealing is section 5 (b), made an offence by section 13 (f) and punished under section 17 (e) by imprisonment for a period not exceeding 25 years, or by both that imprisonment and such fine as the court may deem fit to impose. The reader should note how wide dealing is: section 1 defines deal in to include transhipment, importation, cultivation, collection, manufacture, supply, prescription, administration, sale, transmission and exportation. A synthetic cannabinoid outside those printed names is reached only if the homologue limb catches it, and this cell does not answer that question for any particular compound. Capital exposure: none, and life exposure: none. Section 17 sets out the whole penalty scale of this Act and its highest figure is 25 years for dealing; no provision of the Act carries a death sentence or a sentence of life imprisonment.
If prescribed / medical: The Act's own lawful route is the set of exceptions in section 4, paragraphs (i) to (vi). A patient falls outside section 4 only where the substance was acquired from a medical practitioner, dentist or practitioner acting in a professional capacity and in accordance with the Medicines and Related Substances Control Act 101 of 1965, or from a pharmacist on that person's oral instruction or written prescription, and is used for medicinal purposes under that person's care or treatment. Section 2 states that this Act applies in addition to, and not in substitution for, the Medicines Act. The Medicines Act schedules themselves are not held in this repository and were not read for this cell, so no medicine schedule number is stated here. None of these substances has a medicine route in South Africa on anything read for this cell.
Documentation: Search record. The terms searched were synthetic cannabinoid, cannabimimetic, JWH, CP 47, HU-210, AM-2201, AB-CHMINACA, 5F-ADB, MDMB and cannabicyclohexanol. The printed entries are the ten designations above. No later series returns anything at all. This row is written as a label row under the project rule that pink-cocaine, poppers and synthetic-cannabinoids are confirmed cells carrying the label treatment rather than deferrals, and the label here is that the schedule names members rather than the class. 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. The Schedule and the Part named in this cell are read from the Act itself at the lines quoted; they are nowhere printed in the verbatim quotation supplied for this row.

Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, Schedule 2 Part III, ten printed designations · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, ss 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 17 and 19, with Schedules 1 and 2 · justice.gov.za · read from the cached text at research/instruments/south-africa/za-drugs-act-140-1992.txt, 84,091 bytes, against the.pdf beside it at 127,460 bytes · the consolidation is dated 29 May 2025 and carries the Act 14 of 2022 substitution of both schedules with effect from 14 December 2022 · Updated September 21, 2026

Synthetic Cannabinoids (K2 / Spice) in South Africa, full detail →

Tobacco

Legal status: Not named in Schedule 1 or Schedule 2 of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, so the plant is not a drug or a scheduled substance under that Act.
Consequences if caught: This row is worth doing carefully, because the Act does catch some plants that it never names. Section 1 defines each of its three drug classes to include any plant from which a listed substance can be manufactured, and manufacture is defined to include extraction. That limb is what brings the khat leaf and the mescaline cactus inside the Act. It does not bite here: the substance this plant yields is nicotine, and nicotine is not printed in any Part of either schedule. So the plant limb was applied and produced a negative, rather than being left unconsidered. Tobacco control legislation is separate and was not read for this cell. Capital exposure: none, and life exposure: none. Section 17 sets out the whole penalty scale of this Act and its highest figure is 25 years for dealing; no provision of the Act carries a death sentence or a sentence of life imprisonment.
If prescribed / medical: No exception under section 4 arises, because the plant is not within any of the three definitions that section 4 operates on.
Documentation: Search record. The terms searched were tobacco, Nicotiana, snuff, cigarette and nicotine. All return zero occurrences in the Act. The plant limb in section 1 was applied expressly and is the reason this row is a finding rather than a deferral. 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. The Schedule and the Part named in this cell are read from the Act itself at the lines quoted; they are nowhere printed in the verbatim quotation supplied for this row.

Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, section 1 plant limb applied and returning a negative · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, ss 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 17 and 19, with Schedules 1 and 2 · justice.gov.za · read from the cached text at research/instruments/south-africa/za-drugs-act-140-1992.txt, 84,091 bytes, against the.pdf beside it at 127,460 bytes · the consolidation is dated 29 May 2025 and carries the Act 14 of 2022 substitution of both schedules with effect from 14 December 2022 · Updated September 21, 2026

Tobacco in South Africa, full detail →

Tramadol

Legal status: Controlled as a Schedule 5 substance under the Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965, 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: Schedule 5 prints it under its own name as "Tramadol." on page 176, with no specified marker. It is not in Schedule 6, where the consolidation puts morphine, oxycodone and tapentadol, nor in Schedule 7 with heroin and the fentanyl analogues. 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) (b) lets any person possess a Schedule 3, Schedule 4, Schedule 5 or Schedule 6 substance "if he or she is in possession of a prescription issued by an authorised prescriber", and section 22A (5) confines the sale of a Schedule 5 substance to a pharmacist acting on a prescription or on the verbal instructions of an authorised prescriber, to a manufacturer or wholesale dealer, and to the prescribing professions it lists. Section 22A (10) adds that no person shall sell or administer any Scheduled substance or medicine "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 5, 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. Schedule 2 Part II is the longest list in the Act and it is predominantly opioid, although not only opioid: it also carries anorectics, a quinazolinone, a barbiturate, a cannabinoid and one stimulant entry. Many of its opioid entries are obscure and several are named twice over with their chemical synonyms. This substance is not among them, and the fact that the list is that long and that careful is the point of this row. It is a cyclohexanol with an aminomethyl group and a methoxyphenyl ring, and it is not an isomer, an ester, an ether, a salt or a preparation of any listed opioid. What is left is the second half of the homologue definition, applied to a substance that acts on the same receptor as the Part II entries while sharing no skeleton with them. Part I also prints three opioids, buprenorphine, pentazocine and meptazinol; if the limb were applied against one of those, the Part I scale of five and 10 years under sections 17 (b) and 17 (c) would follow instead of the Part II scale below. The Drugs Act limb that could still reach it is Part II paragraph 2 (e), "(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). If it does reach the substance, use or possession falls under section 4 (b), an offence under section 13 (d) punishable under section 17 (d) by such fine as the court may deem fit, imprisonment for a period not exceeding 15 years, or both, and dealing falls under section 5 (b), an offence under section 13 (f) punishable under section 17 (e) by imprisonment for a period not exceeding 25 years, or that imprisonment and a fine. If it does not, the Drugs Act does not reach the substance at all. 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 / medical: Tramadol is a medicine on prescription in South Africa. Outside the practitioners and pharmacies that section 22A (16) (c) and (d) cover, section 22A (16) (b) makes possession lawful only with a prescription issued by an authorised prescriber. For a visitor, SAHPRA's guideline SAHPGL-INSP-RC11, version 2 of June 2022, which restates the General Regulations, says "Any person entering the Republic may be in possession, for personal medicinal use, of- 3.2.1. a quantity of a Schedule 3, 4 or 5 substances, which shall not exceed for use for a period of six months; oral quantity of a Schedule 6 substance, which shall not exceed use for a period of 30 days;" and requires the original prescription, a certified copy of it, or a certificate or letter from the person who prescribed or dispensed it certifying the substance and quantity, with that person's name, physical and email address. The regulation the guideline restates sits behind the same SAHPRA sign in as the July 2026 schedules and was not itself read, so the allowance is stated here from the guideline. Section 22A (17) (a) defines an authorised prescriber as "a medical practitioner, dentist, veterinarian, practitioner, nurse or other person registered under the Health Professions Act, 1974". Section 22A (6) (g) lets a Schedule 5 sale be repeated for no longer than six months, and then only if the prescriber has stated the number of times and the intervals, and section 22A (6) (h) (ii) stops a Schedule 5 substance used for its analgesic properties being prescribed for longer than six months unless the prescriber has consulted another medical practitioner. 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: tramadol, Tramal, tapentadol and opioid. Tramadol returns one entry, in Schedule 5 on page 176; tapentadol returns a Schedule 6 entry; Schedule 6 does not print tramadol. 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 tramadol, tapentadol, cyclohexanol, aminomethyl and O-desmethyltramadol. All return zero occurrences. The whole of Part II was read rather than searched, because a negative about a long list is only as good as the reading behind it. 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.

Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965, Schedules made under section 22A (2), Schedule 5, page 176 · SAHPRA Consolidated Schedules of 1 August 2025, read on 3 October 2026 · sahpra.org.za · Government Notice 7446, Government Gazette 54627 of 8 May 2026, read on 3 October 2026 · gov.za · Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965, ss 1, 22A, 29 and 30, consolidation in Government Gazette 40869 of 26 May 2017, read on 3 October 2026 · sahpra.org.za · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992 fetched again on 3 October 2026, sha256 beginning bc1216a3 and byte identical to the cached copy · SAHPRA guideline SAHPGL-INSP-RC11, Guidelines for Release of Imported Health Products at Ports of Entry, version 2, June 2022, paragraphs 3.1.3 and 3.2, read on 3 October 2026 · sahpra.org.za · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, Schedule 2 open homologue limb, whole opioid Part read and the substance not found in it · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, ss 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 17 and 19, with Schedules 1 and 2 · justice.gov.za · read from the cached text at research/instruments/south-africa/za-drugs-act-140-1992.txt, 84,091 bytes, against the.pdf beside it at 127,460 bytes · the consolidation is dated 29 May 2025 and carries the Act 14 of 2022 substitution of both schedules with effect from 14 December 2022 · Updated October 4, 2026

Tramadol in South Africa, full detail →

Xanax (Alprazolam)

Legal status: Controlled as a Specified Schedule 5 substance under the Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965, 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: Schedule 5 prints it under its own name as "Alprazolam" on page 168 of the consolidation, between Alfaxalone and Amisulpride. The entry is followed by the double asterisk that paragraph c of the Schedule 5 preamble explains: "Specified Schedule 5 substances listed in this schedule are subject to additional control in terms of section 22A of the Act as required under the provisions of the 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances and are denoted by" that mark. 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) (b) lets any person possess a Schedule 3, Schedule 4, Schedule 5 or Schedule 6 substance "if he or she is in possession of a prescription issued by an authorised prescriber", and section 22A (5) confines the sale of a Schedule 5 substance to a pharmacist acting on a prescription or on the verbal instructions of an authorised prescriber, to a manufacturer or wholesale dealer, and to the prescribing professions it lists. Section 22A (10) adds that no person shall sell or administer any Scheduled substance or medicine "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) says no person shall import or export "any specified Schedule 5, Schedule 6, Schedule 7 or Schedule 8 substance" without a permit from the Director-General, and (11) (b) says such a permit "may be issued for any purpose other than the satisfaction or relief of a habit or craving". Under the Drugs Act the position is different. Schedule 2 Part I carries exactly one member of this class: "Flunitrazepam." This substance is a triazolobenzodiazepine, carrying a fused triazole ring and no nitro group, while the printed compound is a nitrobenzodiazepine. They share a diazepine core and differ in both of the features that identify each of them. Part I extends by "(a) The salts and esters of the specified substances, where the existence of such salts and esters is possible;" and by "(b) all preparations and mixtures of the specified substances; and" neither of which bridges that difference. Part I has no isomer limb at all, which is a narrower extension than Parts II and III carry. The Drugs Act limb that could still reach it is Part I paragraph 2 (c), "(c) 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." Parts II and III carry the same words as paragraph 2 (e). Because the printed relative sits in Part I, the scale that would follow is the Part I scale: use or possession under section 4 (a), an offence under section 13 (c) punishable under section 17 (b) by a fine, imprisonment for a period not exceeding five years, or both, and dealing under section 5 (a), an offence under section 13 (e) punishable under section 17 (c) by a fine, imprisonment for a period not exceeding 10 years, or both. The heavier scale, section 4 (b) with section 17 (d) and section 5 (b) with section 17 (e), at up to 15 and 25 years, applies only where the relative relied on is printed in Part II or Part III. If the limb does not reach the substance, the Drugs Act does not reach it at all. 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 / medical: Alprazolam is a medicine on prescription in South Africa and is not barred from medical use. Outside the practitioners and pharmacies that section 22A (16) (c) and (d) cover, section 22A (16) (b) makes possession lawful only with a prescription issued by an authorised prescriber. For a visitor, SAHPRA's guideline SAHPGL-INSP-RC11, version 2 of June 2022, which restates the General Regulations, says "Any person entering the Republic may be in possession, for personal medicinal use, of- 3.2.1. a quantity of a Schedule 3, 4 or 5 substances, which shall not exceed for use for a period of six months; oral quantity of a Schedule 6 substance, which shall not exceed use for a period of 30 days;" and requires the original prescription, a certified copy of it, or a certificate or letter from the person who prescribed or dispensed it certifying the substance and quantity, with that person's name, physical and email address. The regulation the guideline restates sits behind the same SAHPRA sign in as the July 2026 schedules and was not itself read, so the allowance is stated here from the guideline. Section 22A (17) (a) defines an authorised prescriber as "a medical practitioner, dentist, veterinarian, practitioner, nurse or other person registered under the Health Professions Act, 1974". The guideline's own paragraph 3.1.3 says schedule 5, 6, 7 and 8 products "can only be imported with a permit issued in terms of Section 22A (9) and 22(A)(11)", in its part on commercial imports; nothing read says whether a traveller's personal supply within the allowance also needs that permit, and this cell does not decide it. Section 22A (6) (g) lets a Schedule 5 sale be repeated for no longer than six months, and then only if the prescriber has stated the number of times and the intervals, and section 22A (6) (h) (i) stops a Schedule 5 substance used for its anxiolytic, antidepressant or tranquillising properties being prescribed for longer than six months unless the prescriber has consulted a registered psychiatrist. 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 in the Medicines Act consolidation: alprazolam, Xanax, triazolam and benzodiazepine. Alprazolam returns one entry, in Schedule 5 with the specified marker; triazolam returns its own specified Schedule 5 entry on page 177; benzodiazepine returns the class entry on page 168. 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 alprazolam, Xanax, triazolam, triazolo and benzodiazepine. All return zero occurrences in the Act. The single printed member of the class was read in full. 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.

Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965, Schedules made under section 22A (2), Schedule 5, page 168 · SAHPRA Consolidated Schedules of 1 August 2025, read on 3 October 2026 · sahpra.org.za · Government Notice 7446, Government Gazette 54627 of 8 May 2026, read on 3 October 2026 · gov.za · Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965, ss 1, 22A, 29 and 30, consolidation in Government Gazette 40869 of 26 May 2017, read on 3 October 2026 · sahpra.org.za · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992 fetched again on 3 October 2026, sha256 beginning bc1216a3 and byte identical to the cached copy · SAHPRA guideline SAHPGL-INSP-RC11, Guidelines for Release of Imported Health Products at Ports of Entry, version 2, June 2022, paragraphs 3.1.3 and 3.2, read on 3 October 2026 · sahpra.org.za · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, Schedule 2 open homologue limb, single printed benzodiazepine read and rejected · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, ss 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 17 and 19, with Schedules 1 and 2 · justice.gov.za · read from the cached text at research/instruments/south-africa/za-drugs-act-140-1992.txt, 84,091 bytes, against the.pdf beside it at 127,460 bytes · the consolidation is dated 29 May 2025 and carries the Act 14 of 2022 substitution of both schedules with effect from 14 December 2022 · Updated October 4, 2026

Xanax (Alprazolam) in South Africa, full detail →

Xylazine

Legal status: Not named in Schedule 1 or Schedule 2 of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, so it is not a drug or a scheduled substance under that Act.
Consequences if caught: Xylazine is a thiazine derivative of a xylidine and it acts on an adrenergic receptor. Reading every entry in both schedules, there is no thiazine, no xylidine derivative and no adrenergic agonist of any kind. Neither half of the homologue definition is engaged: there is no shared structural fragment and no listed substance with similar pharmacodynamic properties, because nothing in the Act's schedules works through that receptor. The dossier deferred this row on the footing that the closest Schedule 2 text was an entry for ketamine. That string occurs zero times in the Act, so the stated ground for the deferral is not there. Where this substance is found mixed into a sample of a listed drug, the listed drug answers the case and this substance adds nothing to it. Capital exposure: none, and life exposure: none. Section 17 sets out the whole penalty scale of this Act and its highest figure is 25 years for dealing; no provision of the Act carries a death sentence or a sentence of life imprisonment.
If prescribed / medical: Xylazine is a veterinary sedative. Its supply in South Africa runs through the Medicines Act and the veterinary medicines regime, neither of which is held in this repository or was read for this cell. Nothing in this Act restricts it.
Documentation: Search record. The terms searched were xylazine, thiazine, xylidine, Rompun and tranq. All return zero occurrences in the Act. [Likely] on the relatedness judgement, which rests on having read the whole list rather than on any statement in the Act about this 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.

Xylazine in South Africa, full detail →

Zolpidem

Legal status: Controlled as a Specified Schedule 5 substance under the Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965, 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: Schedule 5 prints it under its own name as "Zolpidem" on page 177, on the line above Zopiclone, which carries no specified marker, and a few lines below Zaleplon, which carries none either; so of the three hypnotics of this kind only zolpidem is specified. The entry is followed by the double asterisk that paragraph c of the Schedule 5 preamble explains: "Specified Schedule 5 substances listed in this schedule are subject to additional control in terms of section 22A of the Act as required under the provisions of the 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances and are denoted by" that mark. 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) (b) lets any person possess a Schedule 3, Schedule 4, Schedule 5 or Schedule 6 substance "if he or she is in possession of a prescription issued by an authorised prescriber", and section 22A (5) confines the sale of a Schedule 5 substance to a pharmacist acting on a prescription or on the verbal instructions of an authorised prescriber, to a manufacturer or wholesale dealer, and to the prescribing professions it lists. Section 22A (10) adds that no person shall sell or administer any Scheduled substance or medicine "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) says no person shall import or export "any specified Schedule 5, Schedule 6, Schedule 7 or Schedule 8 substance" without a permit from the Director-General, and (11) (b) says such a permit "may be issued for any purpose other than the satisfaction or relief of a habit or craving". Under the Drugs Act the position is different. The single printed sedative of this receptor family is "Flunitrazepam." in Schedule 2 Part I. This substance is an imidazopyridine and not a benzodiazepine, so it has no diazepine ring and shares no more than a fused bicyclic nitrogen heterocycle with the printed entry. It does act at the same receptor. That leaves the row resting entirely on the second half of the homologue definition, with the first half unsatisfied, which is the same shape as the etizolam row but further away structurally. The Drugs Act limb that could still reach it is Part I paragraph 2 (c), "(c) 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." Parts II and III carry the same words as paragraph 2 (e). Because the printed relative sits in Part I, the scale that would follow is the Part I scale: use or possession under section 4 (a), an offence under section 13 (c) punishable under section 17 (b) by a fine, imprisonment for a period not exceeding five years, or both, and dealing under section 5 (a), an offence under section 13 (e) punishable under section 17 (c) by a fine, imprisonment for a period not exceeding 10 years, or both. The heavier scale, section 4 (b) with section 17 (d) and section 5 (b) with section 17 (e), at up to 15 and 25 years, applies only where the relative relied on is printed in Part II or Part III. If the limb does not reach the substance, the Drugs Act does not reach it at all. 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 / medical: Zolpidem is a medicine on prescription in South Africa. Outside the practitioners and pharmacies that section 22A (16) (c) and (d) cover, section 22A (16) (b) makes possession lawful only with a prescription issued by an authorised prescriber. For a visitor, SAHPRA's guideline SAHPGL-INSP-RC11, version 2 of June 2022, which restates the General Regulations, says "Any person entering the Republic may be in possession, for personal medicinal use, of- 3.2.1. a quantity of a Schedule 3, 4 or 5 substances, which shall not exceed for use for a period of six months; oral quantity of a Schedule 6 substance, which shall not exceed use for a period of 30 days;" and requires the original prescription, a certified copy of it, or a certificate or letter from the person who prescribed or dispensed it certifying the substance and quantity, with that person's name, physical and email address. The regulation the guideline restates sits behind the same SAHPRA sign in as the July 2026 schedules and was not itself read, so the allowance is stated here from the guideline. Section 22A (17) (a) defines an authorised prescriber as "a medical practitioner, dentist, veterinarian, practitioner, nurse or other person registered under the Health Professions Act, 1974". The guideline's own paragraph 3.1.3 says schedule 5, 6, 7 and 8 products "can only be imported with a permit issued in terms of Section 22A (9) and 22(A)(11)", in its part on commercial imports; nothing read says whether a traveller's personal supply within the allowance also needs that permit, and this cell does not decide it. Section 22A (6) (g) lets a Schedule 5 sale be repeated for no longer than six months, and then only if the prescriber has stated the number of times and the intervals, and section 22A (6) (h) (i) stops a Schedule 5 substance used for its anxiolytic, antidepressant or tranquillising properties being prescribed for longer than six months unless the prescriber has consulted a registered psychiatrist. 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: zolpidem, Stilnox, zopiclone and zaleplon. Zolpidem returns one Schedule 5 entry with the specified marker; zopiclone and zaleplon return Schedule 5 entries without it. 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 zolpidem, Stilnox, imidazopyridine, zopiclone and zaleplon. All five return zero occurrences, so the whole non-benzodiazepine hypnotic group is absent from the Act and not only this member of it. 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.

Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965, Schedules made under section 22A (2), Schedule 5, page 177 · SAHPRA Consolidated Schedules of 1 August 2025, read on 3 October 2026 · sahpra.org.za · Government Notice 7446, Government Gazette 54627 of 8 May 2026, read on 3 October 2026 · gov.za · Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965, ss 1, 22A, 29 and 30, consolidation in Government Gazette 40869 of 26 May 2017, read on 3 October 2026 · sahpra.org.za · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992 fetched again on 3 October 2026, sha256 beginning bc1216a3 and byte identical to the cached copy · SAHPRA guideline SAHPGL-INSP-RC11, Guidelines for Release of Imported Health Products at Ports of Entry, version 2, June 2022, paragraphs 3.1.3 and 3.2, read on 3 October 2026 · sahpra.org.za · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, Schedule 2 open homologue limb, single printed sedative of this receptor family read and rejected · Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, ss 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 17 and 19, with Schedules 1 and 2 · justice.gov.za · read from the cached text at research/instruments/south-africa/za-drugs-act-140-1992.txt, 84,091 bytes, against the.pdf beside it at 127,460 bytes · the consolidation is dated 29 May 2025 and carries the Act 14 of 2022 substitution of both schedules with effect from 14 December 2022 · Updated October 4, 2026

Zolpidem in South Africa, full detail →

Not individually verified

19 substances are not individually verified for South Africa

For these the governing national drug law is cited, but we have not verified that the substance specifically is scheduled under it. Treat them as unanswered, not as legal. Confirm with South Africa’s drug authority or your embassy.

Substance	What we found
1P-LSD	Not confirmed. This substance is not printed in Schedule 1 or Schedule 2 of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140...
2C-E	Not confirmed. This substance is not printed in Schedule 1 or Schedule 2 of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140...
2C-I	Not confirmed. This substance is not printed in Schedule 1 or Schedule 2 of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140...
3-MMC	Not confirmed. This substance is not printed in Schedule 1 or Schedule 2 of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140...
4-HO-MET	Not confirmed. This substance is not printed in Schedule 1 or Schedule 2 of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140...
6-APB	Not confirmed. This substance is not printed in Schedule 1 or Schedule 2 of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140...
7-Hydroxymitragynine (7-OH)	Not confirmed. This substance is not printed in Schedule 1 or Schedule 2 of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140...
Amanita muscaria	Not confirmed. This fungus is not printed in Schedule 1 or Schedule 2 of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of...
Barbiturates	Not confirmed. The class splits three ways under the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992 and the answer for...
Cannabinol	Not confirmed. This substance is not printed in Schedule 1 or Schedule 2 of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140...
CBD	Not confirmed. This substance is not printed in Schedule 1 or Schedule 2 of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140...
GBL	Not confirmed. This substance is not printed in Schedule 1 or Schedule 2 of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140...
HHC	Not confirmed. This substance is not printed in Schedule 1 or Schedule 2 of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140...
Kratom	Not confirmed. This plant is not printed in Schedule 1 or Schedule 2 of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of...
LSA (Morning Glory)	Not confirmed. This substance is not printed in Schedule 1 or Schedule 2 of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140...
Mitragynine	Not confirmed. This substance is not printed in Schedule 1 or Schedule 2 of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140...
Phenibut	Not confirmed. This substance is not printed in Schedule 1 or Schedule 2 of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140...
Salvia divinorum	Not confirmed. This plant is not printed in Schedule 1 or Schedule 2 of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of...
THC-P	Not confirmed. This substance is not printed in Schedule 1 or Schedule 2 of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140...

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

Before you travel

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If you’re detained or arrested abroad

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