medical drugs
 

Hi wondering how people get on with carrying their own prescribed drugs, do you need to get a letter from Doctor and have it translated.
Or just explain at the border, they are your own.

thanks for any advice

As long as the drugs have your name on the packets as printed by the issuing pharmacy, no problem.

Controlled drugs are different - you need a home office export license for things like morphine, fentanyl etc; easy to get, just call them and they will do for you. Again, must be labelled and preferably supported by documentation from your GP. Letter not necessary unless controlled drug.

Beware the Far East - possession of Class A drugs in even relatively small quantities can lead to long jail terms or execution if the documentation is not right. That is drugs like morphine, diamorphine, fentanyl etc.

Thanks no controlled drugs, all boxes have our name on them.

That is all you need then.

I carry 6 months supply of drugs when travelling (diminishing daily !!!!!) and have never been searched or questioned about them. They are all in the original pharmacy boxes with labels along with a copy of the prescription and stored in a locked box.

Margaret

Thanks Margaret
See you at the Overland Show September.

kevin

Be aware that if a drug is illegal in a country then all the prescriptions in the world will not mean squat to the customs guy that catches u

Hi,

I traveled more then 80 countrys now but never had someone asking for any paper for my medicine.

http://afrikamotorrad.de/?report=en_transafrika

Its normal that travelers carry malaria tablets and if your on the motorbike its also easy to understand if you have emergency treatment with you. In the more civilized countrys this is even forced by law.

Travel save, Tobi

Not so.

If you have the correct paperwork and supporting documentation all will be good.

Typically this is a home office export license and doctor's letter together with packaging labelled by the issuing pharmacy. Unless one has industrial quantities of drugs, this will suffice. IMHO. And extensive experience.

If you get caught with the wrong drugs in the wrong country without the right paperwork you will either by shot or hanged or spend the rest of your life in jail. No exaggeration.

Your experience of n=1 is not really helpful to those who need to carry medications and does not reflect either the law or how the importation of pharmaceuticals is viewed by customs authorities. I hope people are not misled by your own, albeit extensive, experience.

This thread....
 

.....is going the same way the malaria prophylaxis and pill re-selling threads always go.

I think the last punter hid behind his mum in the end, God bless 'im.

I'm bowing out.

Safe travels all.

if you turn up in Singapore or Thailand or the US with Heroin, along with medical paperwork from a country where its medicinal use is legal, I cannot see US customs saying fine you can use it in the US, when we deny it to our own citizens. If the drug has been rejected for medical use in that country and is forbidden full stop, its not going to be unforbidden for a tourist with medical paperwork from a foreign doctor. Countries don't change their rules about what is and what isn't forbidden for foreign tourists with medical paperwork.

They might accept a foreign prescription for a restricted drug that also requires a prescription in the US, but they dont change what is forbidden outright.

Any foreign paperwork like prescriptions, that you carry for drugs that ARE legal in the country you are visiting are under no obligation to be accepted. Customs cannot verify if the script is genuine - its a foreign form script from a foreign doctor. It must be pretty easy on the internet to get fake scripts.

If a guy turns up in the UK from Bhutan with a drug that is restricted in the UK with an unreadable script in local language from a Bhutanese doctor, what would you do as a customs official?

When you dont recognise another countries medical qualifications, how can you recognise the prescriptions written by those doctors?

There have been recent cases of travellers being jailed in Uzbekistan for several months for having codeine in the form of normal over the counter cold and flu capsules bought in the EU without prescription, in their luggage. Remember that ignorance of local laws is never a defence if you get caught.

I am with doc on this ... I dont think we should encourage people to be ignorant of the issue and rely on being lucky, when the consequences are often quite serious.

If people want to rely on being lucky, then they should at least be aware of the risks. If you are going to ask the question "whats the worst that can happen?", then at least be aware of what that worst is.

Or the UAE, or Saudi Arabia or, probably, a whole range of other countries, especially in the Middle East.

The thread reminds me of that old maxim "when in Rome, do as the Romans do".

Actually you are absolutely right on this point. Although the crucial thing is the pharmacy label rather than the prescription which is the written order to dispense the drug along with the home office export license. The prescription will never be recognized internationally, but the labeling of drugs by pharmacies is.

The importation of personal meds regulations to various countries is pretty easy to check and on the whole most countries are pretty good if one has the right paperwork; for example I know a chap who flew into Singapore, declared a shed load of morphine - for which he had the right docs - and it was not even checked (although the paperwork was). No docs and he'd have been hung, no question.

Hi,

Well i define "Medicine" like the western countrys define it. Of couse you are not allowed to import substances like cocain etc into a country were this is illegal even if you have paperwork and lots of stamps.

The worst thing that can happen is that you get run over and killed by a truck and the chance that this might happen is much higher as if someone is asking you "why do you carry malarone or strong pain killers on a world trip?" so i would focus on this. If you have a letter from the doctor for your prescribed drugs, you would need a translation of this too certificated by a notaria etc. pp.

http://schoene-motorradtouren.de

and if you love paperwork so much, you also officialy need a carnet for your camera in many countrys ;)

Different western countries define medicine differently. In the UK, heroin with a prescription is a medicine. In many other western countries it is not. There is no single definition of what is medicine and what is strictly illegal, even among western countries. Even among european countries.

You are missing the point. Everyone knows that the worst that can happen from riding a bike is a fatal or disabling accident.

Not everyone knows that the worst that can happen from carrying supermarket codeine flu capsules can be several years jail.

And customs dont only ask ... they also search luggage and find drugs.

Yup, I guess like actually getting malaria, its all part of the adventure, isn't it?

I wish I was young, dumb and full of come again.

Bah!

I've read all of this. I'm one of the one's that need a class A control drug every day in tablet form. I collect mine from the Doctors surgery. And you have to sign twice for them. Once for the prescription and once for the control drug register. Now my other problem is they come in boxes all ready made up in one week at a time. So if I'm out for two month's. I usually take about nine boxes with me. A just in case type of thing.

With that lot I also have a repeat prescription with me just in case I have to get some more due to loss or theft. I only travel in EU country's, but I have been asked the usual question that's blar blar blar, drug's. I always say yes at the boarder. When they ask to look at them. I have the repeat in my wallet. I show them the box and the repeat. Always got the, that OK. To tell you the truth, I don't think they know what's in the boxes any way. But there must be a lot of holiday maker's like me who are passing through who are on control drug's. It's an understanding. If you say when you get there. You can't be accused of smuggling, as you have declared them at the check point. Any way that's the way I look at it.
John933