International Regulatory Comparison

Why one vial gets different treatment at each border

Steroids and SARMs are often sold on the same websites as research-use peptides, but no country regulates them as one group. Most countries use a mix of three kinds of law: controlled-drug law, which can make simple possession a crime; medicines law, which mostly targets the supply and import of unapproved products; and, in a few places, anti-doping law with criminal penalties.

Which of these a compound falls under decides who carries the legal risk. This page compares the five jurisdictions in the table below, where we could check primary sources as of October 2026, and looks at China's role as a source country. For the US framework in more depth, see our US legal overview for steroids and peptides.

Country snapshot (as of October 2026)

United States

Of the five, the US is the only country where possessing any amount of a steroid without a prescription is a national crime. The DEA's list of controlled substances names testosterone and dozens of related steroids in Schedule III, and it also covers any substance that meets the federal definition of an anabolic steroid. Under 21 U.S.C. 844, a first simple-possession offence carries up to a year in prison and a minimum $1,000 fine. That rule has a long backstory, covered in our history of performance-enhancer laws.

SARMs and most gray-market peptides aren't scheduled. A 2019 Senate bill to schedule SARMs (S. 2895) was referred to committee and went no further. Instead, FDA treats these products as unapproved drugs. In an August 24, 2026 warning letter to one seller, FDA called five peptide products unapproved new drugs, among them retatrutide and SS-31, and it said the same of the seller's bacteriostatic water. The letter said the seller's "research use only" and "not for human consumption" statements didn't change that, because the product descriptions and the sale of bacteriostatic water for reconstitution showed the products were meant for people.

Criminal cases are rarer but now exist. In July 2026 the owner of Paradigm Peptides was sentenced to 70 months in prison after pleading guilty to selling unapproved drugs and illegally importing them, according to CBS News. Court filings showed the company imported from China and India, among other places. Prosecutors estimated it had customers in 80 countries.

Canada

Canada also schedules anabolic steroids, but it places them in Schedule IV of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. That matters because the Act's simple-possession offence covers only Schedules I to III. Trafficking in a Schedule IV substance, or possessing it for trafficking, can bring up to three years in prison on indictment.

For peptides, Health Canada's public advisory RA-81874 (April 9, 2026) says peptides are generally regulated as prescription drugs in Canada and that unauthorized drug products are illegal. Its list of seized examples has 14 entries, from BPC-157 and TB-500 to SS-31 and retatrutide. The advisory states that "For Research Use Only" labelling "does not make these products legal or exempt from regulatory requirements." Health Canada says it is working with the Canada Border Services Agency to stop shipments at the border.

The legal route has widened for one peptide. On June 29, 2026 Health Canada authorized Sevmia, a generic version of Wegovy (semaglutide) for weight management and its third generic semaglutide approval that year. It's a prescription medicine, and it shows the gap between approved peptide drugs and gray-market vials of the same molecule.

United Kingdom

The UK lists anabolic steroids as Class C drugs. According to the government's drug penalties guidance, possessing them for personal use isn't an offence, but supply and production carry up to 14 years in prison or an unlimited fine (or both).

Unapproved peptides fall under medicines law instead. On May 28, 2026 the MHRA's Criminal Enforcement Unit raided a site near Northampton and recovered about 12,000 doses of unlicensed weight-loss medicines such as retatrutide and tirzepatide. Officers also found peptide products. The agency called it its largest seizure of these products, and the two people arrested were held on suspicion of offences under the Human Medicines Regulations 2012. We didn't find a UK statement that addresses research-use labels directly.

Germany

Germany is the one EU country we checked this cycle, and its approach is unusual. Its Anti-Doping Act makes it a crime to acquire or possess more than a small quantity of a listed substance for doping in sport, or to bring it into Germany, with up to three years in prison. The annex to the Act (last amended in March 2023) covers anabolic steroids and SARMs such as ostarine and RAD-140. It also names many peptides sold online, including CJC-1295 and ipamorelin, GHRP-2 and GHRP-6, ibutamoren (MK-677) and IGF-1 analogues. Thymosin beta-4 derivatives are listed too, with TB-500 as the example. BPC-157 doesn't appear in the annex.

Self-doping is a separate offence, but it applies only to elite athletes in a testing pool or people who earn substantial income from sport. A recreational lifter's exposure under this law depends mainly on quantity and purpose. Other EU member states have their own medicines and anti-doping laws, and we haven't verified them.

Australia

On April 13, 2026 the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) issued a safety alert on unapproved peptide products. It named five examples, including BPC-157 and TB-500, often sold as injectables. The TGA said research-use disclaimers don't change a product's regulatory status. Nor do they permit importation or remove advertising and supply obligations. Products identified only by codes, or without a clear active ingredient and strength, won't be released under the Personal Importation Scheme. ABC News reported that the TGA had received reports of severe allergic reactions, some leading to hospitalisation.

The TGA describes SARMs as prescription-only medicines that also need an import permit, and it says no SARM is approved in Australia. For performance and image enhancing drugs in general, including steroids and peptide hormones, it says supply without a prescription is illegal and that possession may be too, depending on the drug and the state.

China as a source country

China appears in these cases mostly as the origin of supply. US Customs and Border Protection reported in March 2026 that a shipper in China had tried to move about 5,000 mis-manifested peptide shipments through the Port of Cincinnati between December 2025 and March 2026. The seized products included GLP-1 drugs such as retatrutide and semaglutide, plus MOTS-c and semax. The Paradigm case above also involved imports from China. We didn't research China's domestic rules this cycle.

Sport rules don't change at the border

National laws differ, but the WADA Prohibited List is the same for tested athletes everywhere. WADA's 2026 list has been in force since January 1, 2026. The 2027 list takes effect January 1, 2027, and USADA's advisory says it names "peptides" in general as examples in the S0 non-approved substances class, which is prohibited at all times. USADA names BPC-157 and TB-500 among prohibited peptides. Ipamorelin and ibutamoren are on its list too. SARMs are prohibited at all times under S1.2. Semaglutide and tirzepatide stay in the 2027 Monitoring Program, which means labs track them but they aren't banned.

Germany is the only one of the five where we found anti-doping rules written into criminal law.

What the 2026 actions have in common

Between April and August 2026, three of the five regulators covered here said in writing that a research-use label doesn't change what a product is. None of the three treats the label as a defence when the surrounding evidence points to human use.

Most of the pressure lands on supply: import seizures and warning letters, with occasional prosecutions of sellers. For buyers, the sources we reviewed point to the border as the main point of contact. US and Canadian agencies describe stopping shipments, and Australia won't release unlabelled personal imports. The exception is steroids in the US, where possession itself is a crime. Our article on recent peptide enforcement trends covers who has been targeted, and our predictions for peptide regulation looks at what could change next.

What we still don't know

• An earlier version of this page rated six more countries without citing sources: Brazil and Mexico; France and the Netherlands; Japan and Thailand. We couldn't verify those ratings this cycle, so we removed them rather than repeat them.
• How Canada and the UK classify SARMs. We didn't confirm a SARM-specific rule in either country.
• Whether Germany will add BPC-157 or other S0 peptides to its anti-doping annex, which hasn't changed since March 2023.
• Whether other regulators follow the TGA and Health Canada with peptide-specific alerts, and whether the MHRA issues guidance on research-use labels.