Controlled medicines in Thailand: narcotics and psychotropics explained

Check before you pack. Thailand's controlled drug lists are long and are updated from time to time. This page explains the system as of 13 November 2026. For your exact medicine, see our medicine pages or the Thai FDA permit site.

Two separate systems

Thailand controls strong medicines under two systems. Official documents call the groups "categories" or "schedules"; they mean the same thing.

• Narcotics, in five schedules. Schedule I covers drugs with no accepted medical use in Thailand, such as amphetamine and methamphetamine. Schedule II covers strong medical narcotics such as morphine, oxycodone, fentanyl, methadone and codeine. Schedule III covers medicines that contain a Schedule II narcotic as an ingredient. Schedules IV and V cover chemicals used to make narcotics, and plants.
• Psychotropic substances, in four schedules. Schedule 1 is banned. Schedules 2 to 4 include many medicines doctors prescribe every day, such as benzodiazepines.

What each schedule means for a traveller

Schedule	Examples	Can you bring it?
Narcotic, Schedule I	Amphetamine, methamphetamine	No, banned even with a prescription
Narcotic, Schedule II	Morphine, oxycodone, fentanyl, methadone, codeine	Yes, with a Thai FDA permit applied for at least 15 days ahead
Narcotic, Schedule III	Medicines containing a Schedule II narcotic, such as some codeine combinations	Yes, with a Thai FDA permit
Narcotic, Schedules IV and V	Precursor chemicals, plants	No
Psychotropic, Schedule 1	Hallucinogens and similar	No
Psychotropic, Schedules 2 to 4	Alprazolam, diazepam, lorazepam, clonazepam	Yes, up to 30 days with a doctor's letter; 31 to 90 days needs a permit

Medicines with a permit must be shown, with the permit and medical documents, at the Red Channel when you arrive. Sending any narcotic or psychotropic medicine to Thailand by post is prohibited.

The medicines people get caught out by

• ADHD medicines. Amphetamine products such as Adderall are banned. Other ADHD medicines are treated differently, so check each one on our medicine pages.
• Codeine. Codeine and codeine combination products need a permit. Do not assume a cough syrup or painkiller that is sold freely at home is fine to carry.
• Sleeping pills. Most are psychotropics you can bring for 30 days with a doctor's letter, but the amount matters. Do not bring more than 30 days.

Who to ask

The Thai FDA Narcotics Control Division answers traveller questions at narcotics@fda.moph.go.th, and its permit and lookup system is at permitfortraveler.fda.moph.go.th. Royal Thai embassies say they cannot certify or look up individual medicines, so go to the FDA directly.

This page is general information, not medical or legal advice.