The European Commission's new Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/196 adds five drug precursors to the list of scheduled substances. These are substances that can be used to produce fentanyl or amphetamines. The trade, possession and use of these substances are subject to governmental supervision. The regulation enters into force on 20 February 2023.
The European Commission published Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/196 to amend the provisions in Regulation (EC) 273/2004 and Regulation (EC) 111/2005 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.
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 following substances were added to annex I of Regulation (EC) 273/2004 and to the annex of Regulation (EC) 111/2005 :
• tert-butyl 4-anilinopiperidine1-carboxylate (1-boc-4-AP, CAS 125541-22-2)
• N-phenylpiperidin-4-amine (4-AP, CAS 23056-29-3)
• diethyl (phenylacetyl) propanedioate (DEPAPD, CAS 20320-59-6)
• N-phenyl-N-(piperidin-4-yl)propanamide (norfentanyl, CAS 1609-66-1)
• ethyl 3-(2H-1,3-benzodioxol-5-yl)-2-methyloxirane-2-carboxylate (PMK ethyl glycidate), CAS 28578-16-7)
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 outside of the European Union (extracommunity). This means that operators must hold a licence when working with the above-mentioned drug precursors from 20 February 2023.
Other changes because of this regulation
The CN codes for NPP (CAS 39742-60-4) and ANPP (CAS 21409-26-7) have been changed. The new CN codes are 2933 3700 and 2933 3600 respectively. These tariff and statistical nomenclature and Common Customs Tariff goods codes must be used from now on for all extracommunity transactions (imports and exports) of NPP and ANPP respectively.
More information
Specially regulated substances: precursors – Legislative background