Are Magic Mushrooms, Ayahuasca and Kratom Legal in Guatemala? What the Treaties and Decreto 48-92 Say (2026)

In short: Guatemala’s narcotics law, Decreto 48-92, never names psilocybin, ayahuasca or kratom. It does not need to for two of them: Article 2(b) adopts as controlled any drug so considered in treaties binding on Guatemala, and the UN depositary records that Guatemala acceded to the 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances on 13 August 1979. Psilocybine, psilocine and DMT are in Schedule I of that Convention. Kratom is different: its alkaloid mitragynine appears on no UN list and in no Guatemalan text we searched, which leaves a genuine gap rather than a permission. This page reports what the instruments say, read on 7 October 2026. It is not legal advice and not guidance on using, buying or carrying anything.

Our cannabis and CBD guide established that Decreto 48-92 contains no list of substances and routes the question outward. This page follows that route to where it ends for psychedelics: the UN depositary’s record of what Guatemala signed, the schedules themselves, the Health Code’s articles on psychotropics, and what the UN drug-control board has said about plants and brews.

The answer by substance

Named means the word appears in the text. We searched both captured copies of Decreto 48-92 for psilocib-, hongo, ayahuasca, kratom, mitragin-, peyote, mescalin- and alucin- on 7 October 2026: zero hits for every one.

How a law with no list reaches a substance it never names

Decreto 48-92 works in two moves.

Article 2(b) defines estupefacientes y sustancias psicotrópicas as any natural or synthetic drug “así considerada en tratados o convenios Internacionales de observancia obligatoria en la República de Guatemala, el Código de Salud” and other provisions issued to determine prohibited drugs. The list, in other words, lives in the treaties.

The treaty record. The UN Treaty Collection status page for the Convention on Psychotropic Substances (Vienna, 21 February 1971) shows Guatemala with a single date, 13 August 1979, marked as an accession. The Convention entered into force on 16 August 1976 and has 184 parties (status page read 7 October 2026). For the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, the same depositary records Guatemala’s signature on 26 July 1961 and ratification on 1 December 1967.

What Schedule I means. The Convention defines a psychotropic substance as any substance “natural or synthetic, or any natural material in Schedule I, II, III or IV”, and for Schedule I it requires parties to “Prohibit all use except for scientific and very limited medical purposes by duly authorized persons”. Article 22 then obliges each party, subject to its constitutional limitations, to “treat as a punishable offence, when committed intentionally, any action contrary to a law or regulation adopted in pursuance of its obligations under this Convention”. The INCB Green List, 36th edition (2025), the Board’s current list of psychotropic substances under international control, places DMT, psilocybine, psilocine, mescaline and (+)-lysergide (LSD) in Schedule I.

The Health Code points the same way. Código de Salud (Decreto 90-97) Article 164(c) defines estupefacientes y sicotrópicos as substances “que afectan la salud orgánica y síquica, que pueden crear adicción y que son considerados como tales internacionalmente”, and names alucinógenos among the pharmacological categories to which the term estupefaciente can apply. Article 178 says any act involving them “sólo podrá efectuarse con fines terapéuticos o industriales, previa autorización del Ministerio de Salud”, under the treaties ratified by Guatemala.

Magic mushrooms

The mushroom’s two active compounds, psilocybine and psilocine, are both Schedule I substances, so they fall inside Article 2(b)’s definition through the 1971 Convention.

The mushroom itself falls under a second provision. Article 2(a) adds: “También se consideran drogas las semillas, florescencias, plantas o parte de ellas y cualquier otra sustancia de donde puedan ser extraídas aquellas” (seeds, inflorescences, plants or parts of them, and anything from which drugs can be extracted, are also considered drugs). The INCB describes magic mushrooms as containing psilocybine and psilocine; we found no Guatemalan ruling applying Article 2(a) to them. And Article 36 punishes sowing, cultivating or harvesting, without legal authorisation, seeds, plants or parts of them from which dependence-producing drugs can be obtained, with five to twenty years and a fine of Q10,000 to Q100,000.

The Health Code’s cultivation ban, Article 180, names opium poppy, coca, hemp and marijuana, and amapola, “y de otros que la ley determine”. Mushrooms are not on that list by name.

Ayahuasca

The INCB’s report for 2010 describes ayahuasca as a preparation made mainly from the vine Banisteriopsis caapi and the plant Psychotria viridis, containing several psychoactive alkaloids including DMT. DMT is in Schedule I.

The same report states the international position on plants and brews plainly: although some active ingredients of certain plants are controlled under the 1971 Convention, “no plants are currently controlled under that Convention or under the 1988 Convention”, and “Preparations (e.g. decoctions for oral use) made from plants containing those active ingredients are also not under international control”. That was the Board’s statement in 2010, and it describes the treaties, not national law. In the same section the Board noted that some governments had put such plant material under national control, and added: “The Board recommends that Governments should consider controlling such plant material at the national level where necessary”.

Guatemala’s statute has its own plant wording: Article 2(a) counts as drugs the plants, or parts of plants, from which a drug can be extracted. We found no Guatemalan court ruling applying Article 2(a) to an ayahuasca brew, and we are not converting the text into a verdict on one.

No ceremonial exception. The 1971 Convention allowed a State with wild plants used in traditional rites to make reservations about those plants at the time of signature, ratification or accession, covering the Schedule I restrictions of Article 7 but not the rules on international trade (Article 32(4)). Mexico made such a reservation, citing “certain indigenous ethnic groups which, in magical or religious rites, traditionally make use of wild plants which contain psychotropic substances from among those in schedule I”; Canada (under Article 32(3)) and the United States made peyote reservations. The depositary lists no reservation or declaration by Guatemala. Inside Guatemalan law, the only appearance of religioso in Decreto 48-92 is Article 6, under which religious and other organisations “colaborarán con los programas contra el uso de drogas”. And Código de Salud Article 181 limits personal use: “Se permitirá el consumo personal de estupefacientes y sicotrópicos, sólo cuando se realice con fines terapéuticos y bajo prescripción y vigilancia médica”.

Kratom: a genuine gap

Kratom is where the chain runs out.

• Not on the UN lists. Mitragynine and kratom return zero hits in the INCB Green List (36th edition, 2025) and in the INCB Yellow List of narcotic drugs (65th edition, July 2026). The INCB’s 2010 report listed kratom, “a plant indigenous to South-East Asia that contains mitragynine”, among the plant materials not under international control.
• Not in Guatemalan texts. Zero hits in Decreto 48-92, in the Código de Salud as published by the Health Ministry’s pharmaceutical regulator, and in the Ministry’s list of active ingredients not authorised for sale in Guatemala (page marked as updated 05/03/2024).
• But the statute has no list. Article 2(a) defines a drug as a substance that, introduced into a living body, modifies its physiological functions and transforms states of consciousness. That test is functional, and no list is needed to apply it. Whether it reaches kratom is a question no published text or ruling we found answers.

So the honest statement is narrow: no Guatemalan or UN instrument we read names kratom or mitragynine. That is not the same as saying kratom is legal in Guatemala, and we do not say it.

The penalties, if a substance is a drug under the law

Article 39 opens “Quien para su propio consumo adquiera o posea cualquiera de las drogas a que se refiere esta ley” and sets no gram threshold; our cannabis guide quotes the full article and explains its two cumulative conditions.

The only lawful channels

Decreto 48-92 Article 3 (as reformed by Decreto 32-99) allows the import, production, manufacture, extraction, possession and use of drugs only in strictly necessary quantities, exclusively by legally empowered persons, for medical treatment, toxicological and pharmacological analysis, scientific research and the making of medicines. Código de Salud Article 178 adds that any act involving estupefacientes, sicotrópicos and precursors needs prior Health Ministry authorisation and must serve therapeutic or industrial ends. Neither text contains a ceremonial or religious-use exception.

If your question is about carrying a prescribed controlled medicine, the page that answers it is our prescription medication guide. For general traveller allowances, see the customs guide and the prohibited and restricted imports list.

What we could not establish

• Court rulings. We did not search or review Guatemalan case law on mushrooms, ayahuasca or kratom.
• A national psychotropic schedule. The Health Ministry’s pharmaceutical-regulation site publishes precursor lists (Acuerdo Ministerial 174-2025 and its reforms) and a list of non-authorised active ingredients; we found no separate national schedule of psychotropic substances on it.
• Guatemala’s approval decree for the 1971 Convention. The accession date comes from the UN depositary; we did not capture the Guatemalan instrument itself.
• Enforcement practice. Nothing on this page describes how police, prosecutors or customs act in practice.

Related reading

• Cannabis, CBD and edibles in Guatemala — the structure of Decreto 48-92 and Article 39 in full
• Bringing prescription medication to Guatemala
• Guatemala customs: what you can bring
• All Guatemala guides

Sources

This page reports the content of published instruments as read on 7 October 2026. It is not legal advice and not medical advice, and it does not tell you what you may use, buy or carry. Where an instrument is silent we say so and name the instrument instead of inferring a rule. En español: ¿Son legales los hongos, la ayahuasca y el kratom en Guatemala?