Amended legislation: drug precursors added to list of scheduled substances

date: 05/10/2022

The European Commission's new Delegated Regulation (EU) 2022/1518 adds two drug precursors to the list of scheduled substances. The regulation entered into force on 3 October 2022.

Drug precursors are substances that can be misused for the illicit manufacture of psychotropic substances and narcotic drugs. The newly added substances were freely available on the internet and were increasingly used by criminals for the illicit manufacture of drugs.

The European Commission published Delegated Regulation (EU) 2022/1518 to amend the provisions in Regulation (EC) 273/2004 and Regulation (EC) 111/2005 and to include a number of additional drug precursors in the list of scheduled substances. These new measures will allow competent public authorities to better monitor trade in these substances.

The following substances were added to annex I of Regulation (EC) 273/2004 and to the annex of Regulation (EC) 111/2005 as precursors of (meth)amphetamine and MDMA (ecstacy):

  • ethyl-α-phenyl-acetoacetate (EAPA, CAS 5413-05-8);
  • methyl-3-oxo-2-(3,4-ethylenedioxyphenyl)butanoate (MAMDPA, CAS 1369021-80-6).

Under these regulations, the trade, possession and use of these substances are subject to monitoring, both within the European Union (intracommunity) as for import and export (on the level of the European Union, extracommunity). This means that operators must hold a licence when working with the above-mentioned drug precursors from 3 October 2022.

More information
Specially regulated substances: precursors – Legislative background 

 

Last updated on 05/10/2022