diff --git a/cassandra/metadata.py b/cassandra/metadata.py
index 0b403bc324..906c3a73e5 100644
--- a/cassandra/metadata.py
+++ b/cassandra/metadata.py
@@ -19,7 +19,6 @@
 from collections import defaultdict
 from collections.abc import Mapping
 from functools import total_ordering
-from hashlib import md5
 import json
 import logging
 import re
@@ -28,6 +27,12 @@
 import struct
 import random
 
+md5 = None
+try:
+    from hashlib import md5
+except ImportError as e:
+    pass
+
 murmur3 = None
 try:
     from cassandra.murmur3 import murmur3
@@ -1827,6 +1832,8 @@ def __repr__(self):
 class NoMurmur3(Exception):
     pass
 
+class NoMD5(Exception):
+    pass
 
 class HashToken(Token):
 
@@ -1862,6 +1869,8 @@ class MD5Token(HashToken):
 
     @classmethod
     def hash_fn(cls, key):
+        if md5 is None:
+            raise NoMD5()
         if isinstance(key, str):
             key = key.encode('UTF-8')
         return abs(varint_unpack(md5(key).digest()))