South Korea Adds Seventeen Designer Drugs to National Control Schedules

President Lee Jae-myung promulgated Presidential Decree No. 36827, amending the Enforcement Decree of the Narcotics Management Act, on 10 November 2026, placing seventeen additional designer drugs and pharmaceuticals under national control. The decree was published in the Official Gazette (Gwanbo) No. 21358 under the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, countersigned by Prime Minister Han Seong-suk and Public Administration and Security Minister Yoon Ho-jung.

The explanatory note attached to the text states that three substances designated as narcotics by the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs were added to the narcotics schedules, while fourteen substances whose dependence had already been confirmed during their period as temporary narcotics — mephedrene among them — were moved into the psychotropic schedules. The additions are written into annex tables 2, 3, 4 and 6 of the enforcement decree.

The decree took effect on the day of promulgation, 10 November 2026, with two exceptions: the amended supervision clause in Article 12-2(3) applies three months after promulgation, and the amended penalty cross-reference in Table 10 applies from 12 November 2026.

Three substances classed as narcotics

Table 2 of the enforcement decree gains entries 114 to 116, covering:

• U-49900, chemically 3,4-dichloro-N-[2-(diethylamino)cyclohexyl]-N-methylbenzamide
• N-desethyl etonitazene, a nitazene-type benzimidazole compound
• N-pyrrolidino isotonitazene, a nitazene carrying a pyrrolidine ring

Nitazenes are the family that prompted the scheduling push: the decree text treats them alongside existing fentanyl-type entries in the same table.

Fourteen substances classed as psychotropics

Table 3 is extended with entries 148 to 159, Table 4 with entry 46, and Table 6 with entry 85:

• Mephedrene, mephtetramine (MTTA) and α-D2PV
• DF-MDBP, a difluorobenzodioxole piperazine
• 4-AcO-DET, 4-AcO-DMT, 4-OH-MET, 4-AcO-MET and 4-OH-MiPT, all tryptamine derivatives
• 4-AcO-EPT and 4-AcO-DALT
• 5-MeO-2-TMT
• 3-fluorophenmetrazine (3-FPM), the stimulant sold on illicit markets as a substitute for amphetamines
• Daridorexant, an orexin-receptor antagonist approved as a prescription insomnia medicine

Theft and leakage obligations widened

Article 12-2(3) no longer speaks only of “theft accidents”: it now covers “theft or leakage accidents”, obliging licence holders to supervise employees so that neither occurs. Article 28(2)(5), previously addressed to academic narcotics researchers alone, is extended to narcotics importers, narcotics manufacturers and users of narcotic raw materials as well, bringing commercial operators into an obligation they had been outside.

The same article also rewrites the generic structure definitions for barbituric acid and thiobarbituric acid in Table 5, renames the product entry for alpha-phenylacetoacetonitrile (APAAN) in Table 8, and corrects an internal reference in Table 10 to Article 8(2) and (4) of the Act.

Parallel rule tightens sanctions on licence holders

The same issue of the gazette carries Prime Minister’s Ordinance No. 2170, amending the enforcement rules of the same Act, which requires narcotics handlers filing a closure report to submit their stock status and a disposal plan, allows holders who lose their licence to destroy rather than only transfer their stock, and imposes suspension of business of three, six, nine or twelve months where a handler’s failure to supervise employees leads to theft or leakage of medical narcotics. That ordinance takes effect on 12 November 2026, except the sanctions table, which applies three months after promulgation; it implements Act No. 21102, promulgated on 11 November 2025.

For laboratories, pharmacies and hospitals holding narcotics licences, the practical effect is twofold: any substance ordered from abroad after 10 November in the new listings is now a controlled drug, and documentation duties on theft or leakage now attach to importers and manufacturers rather than to researchers alone. Users of research chemicals face the sharpest shift — molecules such as 4-AcO-DMT and 3-FPM move from the grey zone of temporary scheduling into the permanent psychotropic list, where possession and sale carry criminal liability.

Source: Official Gazette of the Republic of Korea (Gwanbo), No. 21358, 10 November 2026, section I, p. 79 (official reference: Presidential Decree No. 36827).