Kanna

UNODC identifies kanna as the plant Sceletium tortuosum and lists mesembrine among its active ingredients in its plant-based new-psychoactive-substance material. Singapore’s Misuse of Drugs Act 1973 defines a psychoactive substance by its capacity to stimulate or depress the central nervous system and affect mental functioning or emotional state, while CNB states that an unlisted NPS with that capacity is treated as a psychoactive substance. Since 1 June 2024, sections 11F–11I create offences for unauthorised trafficking, manufacture, import or export, possession and consumption of psychoactive substances, subject to the Act’s exclusions and statutory defences. Kanna and Sceletium tortuosum are not named in the current First Schedule or CNB’s controlled-plant list; they are covered by the effects-based regime rather than a substance-specific schedule entry.

South Korea’s Narcotics Control Act (Article 5-2) authorizes the Minister of Food and Drug Safety to designate a non-narcotic substance as a temporary narcotic when urgent narcotics-equivalent controls are needed, and prohibits cultivation, extraction, manufacture, import or export, sale, possession, use and related handling of a preannounced or designated temporary narcotic. An MFDS consumer newsletter dated 31 July 2026 expressly identifies mesembrine (메셈브린) as a temporary narcotic and a priority ingredient for blocking domestic import, while an MFDS report records domestic import-blocking action for products in which mesembrine is detected. The prohibition applies to kanna preparations containing mesembrine, not to every Sceletium tortuosum plant or extract at the species level.

Louisiana Revised Statutes §40:989.1 classifies any part or portion of listed Mesembryanthemum spp. as a "hallucinogenic plant." It makes knowingly producing, manufacturing, distributing, or possessing for human consumption a preparation containing such a plant unlawful, and its definition of manufacture covers extraction and chemical synthesis. USDA’s National Agricultural Library lists Mesembryanthemum tortuosum as a synonym of Sceletium tortuosum, while USDA Agricultural Research Service identifies Sceletium tortuosum as kanna; the Louisiana restriction therefore reaches kanna under that botanical synonym, subject to express exemptions for aesthetic cultivation and specified FDA-compliant homeopathic or dietary-supplement forms.

Western Australia's WAOL lists Sceletium tortuosum (L.) N.E.Br. as "Permitted - s11" for the whole state under the Biosecurity and Agriculture Management Act 2007 (WA). The WAOL says permitted organisms must satisfy applicable import requirements and may require an import permit when they are potential carriers of high-risk organisms. This biosecurity classification applies to the organism in Western Australia, not to the legality throughout Australia of kanna extracts, mesembrine, food, therapeutic products, possession, or supply.

Belgium’s Royal Decree of 31 August 2021 prohibits marketing plants in List 1 as foods or food components and prohibits food preparations made from them. The FPS Public Health’s current List 1 names Mesembryanthemum spp. (with a cross-reference to List 3), while List 3 separately permits only leaves of Mesembryanthemum crystallinum under notification, a 90 µg/day limit for mesembrine-type alkaloids, and batch analyses; Sceletium tortuosum/kanna is not named specifically. This is a food-use restriction rather than a blanket possession rule; the separate AFMPS controlled-substances regime covers substances listed in its annexes and warns that Annex IVa’s generic structure is non-exhaustive.

Anvisa’s Resolução-RE nº 537 prohibits, throughout Brazil, the manufacture, sale, distribution, importation and advertising of supplements presenting ingredients described in its Annex I; item 24 expressly names Sceletium tortuosum extract in a SUPER HDx/EXTREME/CELLUCOR supplement. Article 2 applies the determination to all brands and supplements containing those substances, not only the products listed. The restriction applies to food supplements; it does not classify the whole kanna plant or its alkaloids as controlled drugs under Portaria SVS/MS nº 344/1998.

Finland’s Decision 230/2025 on the Medicines List places Sceletium tortuosum (syn. Mesembryanthemum tortuosum) in Annex 2 among medicinal herbs, under the Finnish name Kanna and the English names Canna, Channa and Kougoed. Section 3(1) provides that Annex 2 herbs and derived active preparations, including extracts, tinctures and expressed juices, are supervised as medicines when used medicinally under section 3(1) of the Medicines Act. The listing is conditional rather than an automatic prescription-only classification for every kanna product; presentation, composition, pharmacological properties and intended use are relevant to product classification.

Germany’s BVL RASFF table records notification 2025.7263 for Sceletium tortuosum extract in a food supplement from South Africa and describes it as an unauthorised novel-food ingredient. The food-law restriction applies to that extract and supplement context, not to the Kanna plant or its isolated alkaloids across all product categories. Non-food products and particular preparations remain subject to product-specific classification.

Ireland’s Criminal Justice (Psychoactive Substances) Act 2010 defines a "psychoactive substance" to include a plant or natural organism capable, when consumed, of producing specified central-nervous-system effects or dependence. Subject to statutory exclusions, section 3 prohibits selling, importing or exporting such a substance when the person knows or is reckless as to human consumption, and section 5 restricts advertising that promotes consumption for psychoactive effects. Kanna (Sceletium tortuosum) is not expressly named in the controlled-drug schedules and designation instruments, so the applicable controls are functional rather than a specific scheduled-drug prohibition.

Приложение 7 к ТР ТС 021/2011 запрещает использовать в составе биологически активных добавок к пище растения и продукты их переработки из установленного перечня. В таблице прямо указано «Скелетиум скрученный» (Sceletium tortuosum), для которого охватываются все части растения. Это ограничение относится к составу БАД и само по себе не устанавливает общий режим контроля для изолированного месембрина, иных экстрактов или продуктов другого назначения.

South Africa regulates commercial bioprospecting involving indigenous biological resources, and related export for bioprospecting or research, through Chapter 6 of the National Environmental Management: Biodiversity Act 10 of 2004 and the 2015 Bioprospecting, Access and Benefit-Sharing Regulations. The government identifies Sceletium tortuosum (Kanna) as an indigenous biological resource associated with traditional knowledge and records a permit for research on cultivated plant material and extracts intended for commercialisation. These controls apply to bioprospecting, biotrade, and related export; they neither prohibit nor authorize ordinary possession or consumption.

The Emirates Drug Establishment’s controlled and semi-controlled medicines list includes a blanket entry for plants not otherwise stated that contain narcotic ingredients or can cause harm to the mind. That entry is assigned Narcotic Schedule IV and marked Prohibited for travelers. Kanna (Sceletium tortuosum, also Mesembryanthemum tortuosum) is not named, so this is a blanket plant-control classification rather than an express kanna listing and its application to a particular product may require EDE interpretation.

Health Canada’s Licensed Natural Health Products Database lists NPN 80091056 (EliteNeuro) as active and marketed, identifying Sceletium tortuosum extract (25 mg, standardized to 0.4% total alkaloids) as a medicinal ingredient. The Natural Health Products Regulations require a product licence for sale of a natural health product and cover its sale, manufacture, packaging, labelling, importation for sale, distribution and storage. That kanna-containing product may be lawfully marketed subject to regulation; the authorization does not extend to every kanna preparation or to isolated mesembrine or mesembrenone.