Short answer. Yes. For the specific acts listed in Section 26 — including the sale of dangerous drugs — an attempt or a conspiracy carries the same penalty as the completed offence. This departs from the general rule in ordinary criminal law, where an attempt is usually punished more lightly than the finished crime.
What the law says
Any attempt or conspiracy to commit the following unlawful acts shall be penalized by the same penalty prescribed for the commission of the same as provided under this Act
RA 9165, Section 26 — Attempt Or Conspiracy. Read the full provision →
The equal-penalty rule
Section 26 provides that any attempt or conspiracy to commit the following unlawful acts shall be penalized by the same penalty prescribed for the commission of the same as provided under this Act. It then lists the acts it covers: importation of dangerous drugs or controlled precursors; their sale, trading, administration, dispensation, delivery, distribution and transportation; maintaining a den, dive or resort where drugs are used; manufacture; and the cultivation or culture of plants that are sources of dangerous drugs. The list is closed. For those acts, and only those, an attempt or a conspiracy is punished exactly as heavily as the finished offence.
How this differs from ordinary criminal law
Under the general rules of the Revised Penal Code, an attempted or frustrated crime is normally punished one or two degrees below the completed one, and a mere conspiracy is punishable only where a law specifically says so. Section 26 sets both of those defaults aside for the acts it lists. It makes conspiracy to commit them punishable, and it removes the reduction an attempt would ordinarily attract. The graduated leniency a defendant might expect elsewhere is therefore unavailable here — an attempt to sell is met with the penalty for a sale that went through.
Attempt and conspiracy are different things
The section reaches two distinct situations. An attempt involves overt acts that begin the offence but fall short of completing it. A conspiracy is an agreement between two or more people to commit one of the listed acts, and it can be punished even if nothing further is done. Both carry the completed-offence penalty. But the equal-penalty rule bites only on the enumerated acts; an attempt or agreement aimed at conduct outside that list is judged under the ordinary provisions instead, which is why identifying exactly which act is alleged is the first question.
Why the stakes are high, and what to check
Because the exposure for an attempt or a conspiracy is identical to that for a completed transaction, there is no penalty cushion to fall back on, and the practical consequences of such a charge are severe. The contest usually turns on whether the facts genuinely amount to a covered attempt or a real agreement, as opposed to preparation or association that the section does not reach. Those are evidentiary questions, and the precise wording of the charge matters. Anyone facing an attempt or conspiracy count under this section should have it examined with counsel against what the prosecution can actually prove.