Is it legal in the UK? Drug law, penalties and sources

Two acts, and the second one is not a second list

The Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 names controlled drugs in Schedule 2 and sorts them into Class A in Part I, Class B in Part II and Class C in Part III. The class decides the penalty. Possession under section 5(2) carries up to 7 years on indictment for Class A, 5 years for Class B and 2 years for Class C. Production under section 4(2) and supply under section 4(3) each carry imprisonment for life for Class A and up to 14 years for Class B and Class C.

The Psychoactive Substances Act 2016 names no substance at all. Section 2(1) provides that a psychoactive substance means any substance which is capable of producing a psychoactive effect in a person who consumes it, and is not an exempted substance. Section 2(2) defines the effect: a substance produces a psychoactive effect if, by stimulating or depressing the person's central nervous system, it affects the person's mental functioning or emotional state.

That test has no significance threshold. Ireland's equivalent act requires hallucinations or a significant disturbance or change, and the British one asks only whether mental functioning or emotional state is affected. The British definition is the wider of the two, and the work is done by the exemptions instead.

The exemptions are inside the definition, and that is the half that matters

Section 3 and Schedule 1 exempt controlled drugs, medicinal products, alcohol, nicotine and tobacco products, caffeine, and food. The food exemption reads: any substance which is ordinarily consumed as food and does not contain a prohibited ingredient.

The placement is the point. An exempted substance fails limb (b) of section 2(1), so it is not a psychoactive substance in the first place. It is not a substance that is caught and then forgiven. A thing that meets the effects test and is ordinarily consumed as food is simply outside the act, and so is caffeine, and so is nicotine.

The controlled drug exemption is what keeps the two acts apart. Anything in Schedule 2 to the 1971 Act is outside the 2016 Act by definition, so the older act is read first and the newer one covers the remainder.

The 2016 Act does not criminalise possession

Its offences are producing, supplying or offering to supply, possessing with intent to supply, and importing or exporting. Section 10(1) sets those at up to 7 years on conviction on indictment, or a fine, or both.

There is one possession offence and it is narrow. Section 9 makes it an offence to possess a psychoactive substance in a custodial institution, where the person knows or suspects that it is one and intends to consume it for its psychoactive effects. Section 10(2) sets that at up to 2 years on indictment.

So a person who holds a psychoactive substance that is not a controlled drug, outside a custodial institution, commits no offence under either act by holding it. That is the same shape as the German new psychoactive substances act, which forbids possession in one section and does not punish it in the next, and as the Irish act, which creates no possession offence at all. Three countries reach the same place by three routes.

Nitrous oxide changed regime in 2023 and most accounts still describe the old one

The Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 (Amendment) Order 2023, S.I. 2023/1091, was made on 11 October 2023 and came into force on 8 November 2023. Article 2 inserts the words Nitrous oxide into paragraph 1(a) of Part 3 of Schedule 2 to the 1971 Act, which the order itself describes as the part that specifies the drugs subject to control as Class C drugs.

Before that date nitrous oxide sat under the 2016 Act, where supply was an offence and possession was not. Since that date it is a Class C controlled drug, so possession is an offence under section 5(2) of the 1971 Act carrying up to 2 years on indictment, and supply carries up to 14 years.

The change is one line in one order and it reversed the answer to the question most readers are actually asking.

Some substances are Class A without being named

Schedule 2 does not only list compounds. Paragraph 1(c) of Part I reaches any compound structurally derived from phenethylamine and the related parent amines it lists, by substitution in the ring to any extent with alkyl, alkoxy, alkylenedioxy or halide substituents, whether or not further substituted in the ring by one or more other univalent substituents. Part I is Class A.

2C-B is reached that way. It is named nowhere in Schedule 2, and its systematic name, 4-bromo-2,5-dimethoxyphenethylamine, describes a phenethylamine substituted in the ring with two alkoxy groups and a halide, which is what the definition covers.

The trap is next to it. Schedule 2 does individually name 4-bromo-2,5-dimethoxy-alpha-methylphenethylamine, which is a different compound. A search that matches on the bromo-dimethoxy fragment finds the wrong molecule, and the generic paragraph is what actually answers the question.

What each provision carries

Every substance confirmed against a primary source

88 substances have a status for United Kingdom verified against a named statute. Each row links to the full entry, with the consequences, the prescription position and the source.

Sources

• Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, Schedule 2 and Schedule 4, and ss. 4 and 5 Consulted 16 September 2026.
• Psychoactive Substances Act 2016, ss. 2, 3, 9 and 10 and Schedule 1 Consulted 16 September 2026.
• The Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 (Amendment) Order 2023, S.I. 2023/1091 Made 11 October 2023, in force 8 November 2023. The nitrous oxide change.

Statute text on this page is quoted from the copies linked above. Last verified September 16, 2026.