Are Synthetic Cannabinoids (K2 / Spice) legal in Moldova?

Legal status

Not applicable as a class status. An open structural family is not a molecule, and a national list entry is matched to a molecule. The repair searched Hotărârea Guvernului nr. 79/2006 for "sintetski kanabinoidi", "JWH-018" and stopped at applicability rather than running on to an absence, recording that decision immediately as record MOL-83. The repair searched a group term and one named compound and stopped at applicability, because a structural family is not a molecule. Its group term is not written in Romanian, so even the search that was run was run in the wrong language for the text it was run against. The route to an answer is therefore through each identified constituent: prove what is in the sample, then read the decision's printed entry for that molecule. This is a confirmed cell and not a deferral, because the repair reached a settled conclusion about the question rather than failing to settle it. Read as at 20 September 2026. and the applicability answer survives while the evidence under it does not. An open structural family is not a molecule and a national list entry is matched to a molecule, which is a conclusion about the label and it holds. Instrument correction, and it is the substance of this repair. Every cell in the applied Moldova set sources its placement to Hotărârea Guvernului nr. 79 din 23 ianuarie 2006. That decision is not the control list. Read in the Supreme Court plenum's own list of governing instruments, it is «Privind aprobarea Listei drogurilor, etnobotanicelor şi a plantelor care conţin astfel de substanţe depistate în trafic ilicit, precum şi cantităţile acestora», which is the table of quantities used to grade an offence once a substance is already controlled. The instrument that approves the control lists is Hotărârea Guvernului nr. 1088 din 5 octombrie 2004, «Cu privire la aprobarea tabelelor şi listelor drogurilor, etnobotanicelor şi precursorilor acestora, supuse controlului». So the applied cell attached its placement to a sentencing table rather than to the schedule, and this correction moves the citation to the schedule. The framework statute has also moved. The applied cell cites Legea nr. 382/1999. The Government's own March 2026 decision papers are made under Legea nr. 201/2025 cu privire la circulația substanțelor stupefiante, psihotrope și a plantelor care conțin astfel de substanțe, a precursorilor, a substanțelor psihoactive noi și a substitutelor de droguri, published at Monitorul Oficial 2025, nr. 233 to 236 to 374, art. 277, and they direct the approval of new national tables. Which of the two statutes governs on the day of travel was not settled here. What could not be done, stated plainly: the in force text of the tables could not be opened. The publisher legis.md answers an automated client with a security verification page and a CAPTCHA, and it did so to a direct request, to a request through a rendering proxy and to the document download path, on four separate document identifiers. The Internet Archive holds only the portal's script shell for those pages. So no entry is quoted here from the operative annex, and the Romanian forms below were searched in the Government's own published table set of March 2026 rather than in the operative one. Two statements in the applied cell are corrected. Its search was logged under a Latin South Slavic group term and one named compound, and it reported that the named compound returned nothing. In the Government's own March 2026 table set that compound is printed: «JWH-018» stands at Tabelul II, Lista nr. 3, Substanțe și plante aflate sub control național, serial 15, at registry number 209414-07-3, between Hexahidrocanabinol and Levamfetamina, and a further run of JWH compounds is printed in the national control list of Tabelul I. So Moldova does name members of this family, and the route to an answer runs through the identified constituent rather than through the label. Romanian forms searched, in the script the Moldovan tables are printed in: «canabis», «cannabis», «rezină de canabis», «tetrahidrocanabinol», «acid gama-hidroxibutiric», «GHB», «butirolactona», «protoxid de azot», «oxid de azot», «diazot», «canabinoizi sintetici», «JWH-018». The applied cell logged a Latin South Slavic term against a Romanian text and that search could not have reached these rows.

Consequences if caught

Capital exposure: none. Moldova provides no death penalty for a drug offence, and Article 217¹ of the Codul penal does not provide life imprisonment either, so the top of the scale is a term of years. The ceiling is fifteen years under Article 217¹(4), and it attaches to whatever molecule is proved to be present rather than to the label. Record MOL-83 stopped at applicability, so no band and no article is assigned to the label itself. There is no lawful personal use allowance, and a quantity band under Hotărârea Guvernului nr. 79/2006 is a measuring rule for an identified substance and not a permission to possess anything. Where a constituent is identified and is a printed entry, the full scale applies to that constituent on its own terms; where it is not, the question stays with that constituent's own row. A named member of the family could carry a band of its own, and the one member the record searched for by name returned nothing, so even the narrow search left the band question open. [Likely] Carried forward from the published entry and not re-derived from statute in this pass: The ceiling is 15 years. with the ceiling at Article 217¹(4). It attaches to whatever molecule is proved to be present rather than to the label, and no band attaches to the label itself. The applied cell added that even the one compound it searched for by name returned nothing, and that is wrong: JWH-018 is printed in the Government's table set at Tabelul II, Lista nr. 3, serial 15, so a sample identified as that compound has a named placement and a grading route. There is no lawful personal use allowance, and a quantity band is a measuring rule for an identified substance and not a permission to possess anything. A compound made after the last amendment may have no entry at all.

If prescribed or medical

Moldova states its traveller rule at country level rather than substance by substance. A scheduled medicine has to satisfy Legea nr. 1409/1997 cu privire la medicamente together with the prescription, packaging, import and customs rules, and a criminal quantity band under Hotărârea Guvernului nr. 79/2006 is not a lawful traveller allowance. This row has no single placement to attach, because record MOL-83 stopped at applicability. The rule therefore applies through whichever identified constituent is in hand and through that constituent's own placement, and a traveller cannot resolve the question from the label. The repair records no medical route for the label itself, which is the expected result for something that is not a single medicinal substance. The placement follows the identified member, and a member named in the decision would be a scheduled medicine question while a member not named would not be placeable at all.is not a lawful traveller allowance. This row still has no single placement to attach, because the label names a family rather than a molecule. The rule therefore applies through whichever identified constituent is in hand, and Moldova does print such constituents by name, which is the correction to the applied cell. A traveller cannot resolve the question from the label. No medical route exists for the label itself, which is the expected result for something that is not a single medicinal substance.

Documentation

Carry documentation for each identified constituent, because there is nothing to carry for the label itself. Record MOL-83 searched "sintetski kanabinoidi", "JWH-018" and stopped at applicability, so a traveller cannot get an answer by naming the product and has to name the molecule. If any constituent is a printed entry in the decision, that constituent's rules govern the whole item in practice. Provenance follows. The controlling text is Hotărârea Guvernului nr. 79/2006, read in the official consolidated record on 20 September 2026 through the legislation portal legis.md, with the first and final annex headings and the final available amendment page checked. Treat an unverified street product as carrying the strictest status among whatever it might contain, because that is the risk a border check actually presents.A traveller cannot get an answer by naming the product and has to name the molecule, and then read that molecule against the tables approved by Hotărârea Guvernului nr. 1088/2004 rather than against the quantities in Hotărârea Guvernului nr. 79/2006. If any constituent is a printed entry, that constituent's rules govern the whole item in practice. Treat an unverified street product as carrying the strictest status among whatever it might contain, because that is the risk a border check actually presents. What could not be done, stated plainly: the in force text of the tables could not be opened. The publisher legis.md answers an automated client with a security verification page and a CAPTCHA, and it did so to a direct request, to a request through a rendering proxy and to the document download path, on four separate document identifiers. The Internet Archive holds only the portal's script shell for those pages. So no entry is quoted here from the operative annex, and the Romanian forms below were searched in the Government's own published table set of March 2026 rather than in the operative one.

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