Desmethylflunitrazepam

Austria places the collective designation “Benzodiazepine” in the human-medicines part of the Rezeptpflichtverordnung and marks it NR. The annex defines NR as prescription-only with repeat dispensing prohibited, while § 1 applies the dispensing restriction to listed medicines and their preparations subject to stated exceptions. An official National Forensic Laboratory report identifies fonazepam—and names N-desmethylflunitrazepam, desmethylflunitrazepam, norflunitrazepam, and Ro 5-4435 as synonyms—as belonging to the benzodiazepine compound class, so the Austrian collective designation covers this substance when regulated as a medicinal product.

Desmethylflunitrazepam is expressly listed as Fonazepam, with the alternate name Ro 05-4435, in Annex 4 (List No. 4 of psychotropic substances) to Government Regulation No. 463/2013 Coll. Section 1(d)(2) limits substances and preparations in this category to restricted research, scientific, and very limited therapeutic purposes defined in a handling permit. Section 4 of Act No. 167/1998 Coll. requires a handling permit for addictive substances and preparations unless the Act provides otherwise.

Italy expressly lists fonazepam, identified by the chemical name 5-(2-fluorofenil)-1,3-diidro-7-nitro-2H-1,4-benzodiazepin-2-one and the alternative name Desmethylflunitrazepam, in Tabella IV. The listing took effect on 16 June 2018. Article 75 of D.P.R. 309/1990 treats the illicit import, export, acquisition, receipt, or possession of a listed substance for personal use as an administrative offence and applies administrative sanctions to conduct involving Tables II and IV. Desmethylflunitrazepam is therefore prohibited for personal use but subject to non-criminal penalties for personal-use amounts, which maps to the canonical status decriminalized rather than prohibited. The current Normattiva text remains in force through 23 August 2026, and exact-name searches of later official Gazette publications located no removal or rescheduling; the 28 April 2026 update adds avizafone to Tabella IV without altering fonazepam.

Desmethylflunitrazepam is a benzodiazepine derivative: NIST identifies N-desmethylflunitrazepam, norflunitrazepam, and desmethylflunitrazepam as names for the same 1,4-benzodiazepin-2-one structure. Schedule 1, Part 1 of the Medicines Regulations 1984 places benzodiazepine derivatives among prescription medicines unless specified elsewhere. Medsafe explains that group entries can capture active ingredients not individually named and has applied the benzodiazepine-derivatives group entry to a novel designer benzodiazepine.

NIST identifies N-desmethylflunitrazepam, norflunitrazepam, and desmethylflunitrazepam as the same 1,4-benzodiazepin-2-one structure; its separate flunitrazepam record shows the corresponding N-methyl structure. Schedule 2, Part I of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act lists flunitrazepam and extends listed substances to all homologues, defined to include chemically related substances incorporating a similar structural fragment. Desmethylflunitrazepam is therefore covered as a dependence-producing-substance homologue, and sections 4 and 5 prohibit unauthorized possession, use, and dealing while preserving the Act's medicinal and other authorized exceptions.

The UNODC substance record identifies Fonazepam as an alternative name for desmethylflunitrazepam. The annex to Council of Ministers Decision No. 2018/11697 expressly lists Fonazepam with the corresponding 5-(2-fluorophenyl)-1,3-dihydro-7-nitro-2H-1,4-benzodiazepin-2-one chemical name. The decision subjects every substance in the annex to Law No. 2313, so Turkey controls desmethylflunitrazepam as a prohibited controlled substance by express listing rather than analogue inference.

The Therapeutic Goods (Poisons Standard—June 2026) Instrument 2026 is in force and commenced on 1 June 2026. Section 7(c) provides that a reference to a substance includes every derivative of that substance, and Schedule 8 separately lists flunitrazepam. PubChem identifies Desmethylflunitrazepam as Norflunitrazepam (CID 520217); its recorded structure is the N-desmethyl counterpart of flunitrazepam (CID 3380), whose IUPAC name specifies the corresponding 1-methyl group. Desmethylflunitrazepam is therefore covered by the Schedule 8 flunitrazepam entry. Schedule 8 classifies controlled drugs that remain available for use under restrictions on manufacture, supply, distribution, possession and use, supporting the legal_regulated canonical status rather than prescription_only.

UNODC Global SMART Update Volume 18 expressly lists Desmethylflunitrazepam in Table 4 among benzodiazepine new psychoactive substances. The same report describes benzodiazepines as central-nervous-system depressants and states that chronic use may result in tolerance and dependence. Those characteristics bring the substance within the effect-based definition of a psychoactive substance in section 1 of the Criminal Justice (Psychoactive Substances) Act 2010. Section 3 makes it an offence to sell, import or export a psychoactive substance while knowing or being reckless as to whether it is being acquired or supplied for human consumption; the statutory definition of sell also includes supply, offers, distribution, keeping for sale or distribution, and possession for those purposes. Section 2 exclusions remain applicable. The official eISB effects table, updated to 14 August 2026, records no amendment affecting sections 1 or 3, records only the commenced nicotine-inhaling-product addition to section 2, and lists no exclusion order made under the Act. Its current Misuse of Drugs Act 1977 directory lists controlled-drug declaration orders through S.I. No. 176/2022; searches for Desmethylflunitrazepam, Fonazepam and Norflunitrazepam found no exact declaration, while the inspected 1987 order names Flunitrazepam itself and extends that entry only to stereoisomers, salts and preparations. S.I. No. 401/2010 brought the whole 2010 Act into operation on 23 August 2010. This is blanket, effect-based NPS coverage and therefore maps to analog_covered. The Act does not create a general offence of simple possession for personal use.

Desmethylflunitrazepam, identified as fonazepam, is covered structurally rather than by an exact-name entry under Poland's V-NPS class for benzodiazepine derivatives. The class covers 1,4-benzodiazepines below 600 u and permits the fluorinated phenyl and nitro substituents present in fonazepam. An official UK Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs report identifies fonazepam as 5-(2-fluorophenyl)-7-nitro-1,3-dihydro-2H-1,4-benzodiazepin-2-one, establishing the structural match to the Polish class definition.

An official UK instrument identifies Fonazepam as 5-(2-fluorophenyl)-7-nitro-1,3-dihydro-2H-1,4-benzodiazepin-2-one, and UNODC lists Desmethylflunitrazepam among benzodiazepine NPS. Singapore's Poisons Act list and the Third Schedule to the Poisons Rules both cover diazepam and every compound containing a dihydro-1,4-benzodiazepine structure substituted to any degree; rule 15 requires sales of Third-Schedule poisons to be on and in accordance with a prescription. The Misuse of Drugs Act's Fifth Schedule excludes any poison from its separate psychoactive-substance regime, so the present classification rests on the prescription-only poison controls.