Is Tobacco legal in Bahrain?

Legal status

Not a controlled drug on the text read. Tobacco is not named in any of the twelve tables annexed to Bahrain's Law 15 of 2007 on narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, nor in any of the three decisions that have amended them. Only four plants are prohibited, in Group I Schedule 5: Indian cannabis, poppy capsules or straw, all kinds of coca and all kinds of khat. Bahrain regulates tobacco under a separate regime that was not read for this cell.

Consequences if caught

Whether Bahrain's drug offences reach Tobacco is a question this cell does not answer, because the offences are built on the tables and Tobacco is in none of them; whether the offence reaches this row at all is exactly what was not established. What follows is therefore recorded as Bahrain's published drug penalties and not as this substance's exposure. Article 30(a) punishes trafficking in the narcotic drugs of Group I Schedules 1, 2, 3 and 4, the psychotropic substances of Group II Schedule 1 and the plants of Group I Schedule 5 by death or life imprisonment. That paragraph adds a fine of not less than 5,000 and not more than 50,000 Bahraini dinars, and Article 30(b) makes the penalty death in five listed cases. Article 31(a) sets not less than ten years with a fine of 3,000 to 30,000 dinars, Article 31(b) raises that to life imprisonment, and Article 32 covers personal use of the same schedules with imprisonment and a fine of not more than 3,000 dinars, or not more than seven years with a fine of not more than 5,000 dinars where the purpose is neither trafficking nor personal use. Article 34 sets not more than five years with a fine of not more than 3,000 dinars for Group II Schedules 2, 3 and 4, Article 35 not more than six months with a fine of not more than 100 dinars, and Article 36 imprisonment with a fine of not more than 1,000 dinars for the Group III precursors. The Law states no quantity threshold anywhere, and no table states one for Tobacco. Article 57 forbids going below ten years on Article 30 or Article 31(b) when Article 72 of the Penal Code is applied. Article 49 of the Penal Code, Decree-Law No. 15 of 1976, attaches civil deprivation of 3 to 15 years to a felony and Article 50 civil deprivation of 1 to 3 years to a misdemeanour. They are set out that way because whether the offence reaches this row at all is exactly what was not established. Article 51 makes confiscation of the substance, the equipment and any vehicle prepared for the purpose mandatory in every case. Article 54 lets the court add permanent deportation of a foreign national to the sentence. Bahraini courts have passed drug death sentences, including in a 2019 smuggling case, and executions for drug offences have not been carried out, sentences being commonly commuted; that last point is carried forward from the cell this replaces and was not re-derived here.

If prescribed or medical

The Law provides no prescription route for Tobacco. Article 23 lets a pharmacist dispense only a narcotic drug or a psychotropic substance on a Ministry of Health prescription form, and Article 26's traveller allowances are written for Group I and Group II medicines, so neither reaches this row.

Documentation

The version read for this cell is the annex to Law 15 of 2007 as printed in Official Gazette 2804 of 16 August 2007 at pages 20 to 34, together with the publisher's amendment register for the Law, which on 22 September 2026 listed exactly three amendments and showed a site update of 17 September 2026. The register does not certify that no other instrument exists, so the consolidation is silent on that stronger point. The power that moves these tables is article 4 of the Law, which lets the Council of Ministers add to the attached schedules or change their percentages on the Minister's proposal after a committee of specialists approves, so the list can move without a new Law and all three amendments so far were made that way. The twelve tables reproduce the convention lists: the Group I Schedule 3 heading names Schedule III of the 1961 Convention in its English line and the 1971 Convention in its Arabic line, which is a mismatch inside the Gazette itself, Group II carries the four schedules of the 1971 Convention, and Group III mirrors the two tables of the 1988 Convention down to the note excluding the salts of hydrochloric and sulphuric acid. All twelve tables were read: Group I Schedules 1 to 6, Group II Schedules 1 to 4 and Group III Schedules 1 and 2, ending with the salts clause on the last annex page. The terms searched for this row were tobacco, Nicotiana tabacum, shisha, waterpipe. None of them returned an entry, and the annex carries no general analogue clause: the only class entries anywhere are the Synthetic Cannabinoids and Synthetic CATHINONE entries that Decision 39 of 2016 added to Group I Schedule 1. This absence is stated as those schedules stand after Decision 14 of 2020, the last of the three amendments on the publisher's register for this Law, read on 22 September 2026. The group and schedule placement stated here is not printed in the quotation column of the dossier this lane was given: that column carries a bare entry name on its placement rows and a synthesised Arabic search record on its absence rows, and no group marker on any of its 88 rows, so every placement in this batch was read from the Gazette annex page instead. Bahrain's drug law carries capital exposure, and which offences reach it is set out in the street section of this cell rather than recited as a general fact about the country.

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