Your brother comes home with a small packet of green powder. A friend sent it from the Gulf. The label says kratom and calls it a herbal tea. He asks the question you came here with. Is kratom legal in Pakistan?
What is kratom?
Kratom is the leaf of Mitragyna speciosa, a tree that grows wild in Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. People there have chewed the leaves or brewed them as tea for a long time. The leaf carries two main active chemicals, mitragynine and 7-hydroxymitragynine. Both act on the same receptors in the body as opioids, which is why kratom feels stimulating in small amounts and sedating in larger ones. The science of kratom is well documented.
People use it for pain, for energy, and some use it to manage opioid withdrawal. Health agencies are not convinced. The United States FDA said in 2019 that there is no evidence kratom is safe or effective for any medical condition.
What does Pakistan's drug law ban?
The main law is the Control of Narcotic Substances Act 1997, known as the CNSA. The full text is on the National Assembly website.
Section 6 is the heart of it. No one may produce, possess, sell, buy, transport, import or export any narcotic drug, psychotropic substance or controlled substance. The only exception is for medical, scientific or industrial purposes, and even then you need the licence or permission the law requires.
The punishment sits in section 9. For narcotic drugs the penalties climb with quantity, up to life imprisonment. For psychotropic substances the same scale applies. So the whole question becomes a simple one. Is kratom any of those three things?
Is kratom on the list?
No. Kratom is not named in the Act, and neither is mitragynine. The Act carries two schedules. Schedule I lists psychotropic substances and is a copy of the United Nations 1971 Convention list. Schedule II lists controlled substances linked to the UN conventions. The rules made under the Act, the CNSA Rules 2001, carry their own schedules. Kratom appears in none of them.
That matches the international position. Kratom is not under international control. In 2021 the World Health Organization's Expert Committee on Drug Dependence reviewed kratom and its two alkaloids and found there was not enough evidence to recommend a critical review. The WHO review report is public.
The law has powers to add it
This is where the grey starts. The law does not need Parliament to ban kratom. Three powers exist right now.
First, the Federal Government can declare any substance a psychotropic substance by a notification in the official gazette. Section 2(z-a) of the CNSA says so.
Second, the 2022 amendment gave the government a power to change the schedules by notification, so new drugs can be listed quickly as they appear.
Third, the CNSA Rules 2001 define an analogue. An analogue is a substance not listed anywhere whose chemical structure is close to a listed drug of abuse and whose effect it copies. Plain kratom leaf is a stretch under this rule, because mitragynine is not chemically close to morphine. But extracted or modified versions of the alkaloids could be argued as analogues in court.
Sindh went further. A 2021 Sindh amendment widened the definition of a controlled substance to cover psychoactive or recreational drugs, including synthetic and semi synthetic ones. It also lets the Sindh government declare any substance a narcotic drug by notification. So the law on the ground is not identical in every province.
The medicine law is where people actually get caught
Even when a substance is not on the narcotics list, selling it as a medicine can still be illegal. This is the part most people miss.
Kratom is not a registered drug in Pakistan. The Drugs Act 1976 controls which therapeutic goods can be imported and sold, and section 23 prohibits the import of any drug that is not registered. The exemptions are narrow. Since 2021, and extended in 2025, hospitals and institutions may import certain unregistered anti cancer and lifesaving drugs for patients, under strict conditions in SRO 134(1)/2021. The Express Tribune explained the exemption. A packet of kratom powder is not on that list.
So a shop that sells kratom as a cure for pain, anxiety or addiction is selling an unregistered medicine. That is a different offence from narcotics trafficking, but it is still an offence, and it is enforceable today.
What happens in practice?
So far there are no widely reported cases of kratom seizures or kratom prosecutions in Pakistan. The Anti Narcotics Force has not publicly listed kratom as a target. But that is not the same as safety.
Customs can hold a suspicious powder at the border and ask questions. If the packet looks like a medicine or a drug, you become the one who has to explain it. And in Sindh, the wider 2021 definition gives an aggressive prosecutor more room to argue.
What does this mean for you?
Three honest points.
- Kratom is not a scheduled substance in Pakistan today. So carrying a small amount is not a listed offence under the CNSA, the way carrying charas or heroin is.
- That can change overnight. One gazette notification puts a substance on the list. Do not build plans on a grey zone.
- Selling it as medicine is the fast route to trouble. Importing unregistered drugs, making medical claims, or running a shop that sells herbal cures are all enforceable today.
If you are ordering kratom online, expect the parcel to be stopped. If you are thinking of selling it, talk to a lawyer first. The medicine laws do not need kratom on the narcotics list to bite.
Related laws worth reading
Pakistan's law on intoxicating substances is uneven, and each one has its own rules. The position on alcohol in Pakistan bans it for Muslims and allows it for non Muslims only with a permit. The rules on online betting in Pakistan show how fast the state moves against new intoxicants and apps. And the position on using a VPN in Pakistan shows how grey zones get resolved by agencies and notifications rather than by courts.
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