Article 48 of the Saudi Anti-Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances Law

This article is the penalty set for violating Article 36.

Article 36 prohibits bringing in, exporting, manufacturing, trading in, using, transferring or possessing the chemical precursors listed in Table No. (3) attached to the Law, except in accordance with the conditions and procedures set by the Implementing Regulations, which also set how they are monitored and the authority responsible. Under the definition in Article 1, chemical precursors are the substances used in the illicit manufacture of narcotics or psychotropic substances and listed in Table No. (3).

The penalty for anyone who commits an act in violation of Article 36:

• imprisonment for a period not exceeding 6 months,
• and a fine not exceeding SAR 3,000,
• or either of these two penalties.

So the judge may combine imprisonment and the fine or be content with one of them, within the stated maximum.

Note that this penalty is much lighter than those for the narcotics offenses themselves, because it concerns raw materials that mostly have legitimate uses; the violation here is dealing in them outside the conditions and procedures set by the Implementing Regulations.

This article comes after Article 47, which allows the Minister of Interior or his delegate to be content with deporting an addict who arrived on a Hajj or Umrah visa if the substances in his possession do not exceed his personal need, and before Article 49, which punishes licensees who violate the registration and prescription rules with a fine not exceeding SAR 20,000.

Anyone working in the chemical trade who faces liability can consult a lawyer specialized in criminal or commercial matters.