Carrying prescription medication on your person

Factual Questions
1

Hello everyone,

I have a current prescription question active on the board, but have another that I could use an answer to. I currently take some Schedule II drugs including morphine, percocet and amphetamine. I always carry a couple days supply of the pills on me in a small pill container so I am never without my medication. Recently I went to the local courthouse and had to empty my pockets at the security check. The guard asked me what was in the little container and I told her that it wad my medication. She then proceeded on lecturing me about needing to carry copies of my prescriptions as without them she could arrest me for having the drugs. Sigh, don’t the cops have anything better to do?

So, what’s the deal? Can I carry these without fear or should I carry some documentation with me? My though is, if a cop wants to make a huge deal out of it, he can easily call my doctor or the pharmacy and verify that I am legally in possession of these drugs. I can’t imagine this would be a problem, but it would suck having to sit in jail until things could be verified. And yes I know that the simplest thing to do would be to carry a letter from the doctor, but my wallet is full enough and the thought of having to prove myself innocent is irritating. But, just wondering what the deal is.

2

Depends on how much trouble you are willing to put up with if the police decide to trouble you.

If you are carrying Schedule II drugs a police officer has no way of discerning if you need it as legal medication or are a junkie or drug dealer.

If they decided to arrest you I am sure it would get sorted in short(ish) order once you proved these were legally prescribed medications. Still, that means you have to deal with all that hassle.

If you have documentation on you the chances are less (though never certain) that a cop will bother you about it.

Of course you have to weigh the hassle of being sure to carry documentation around all the time against the chances a cop will have cause to even know you have the drugs on you which I imagine is a rare event. If you are going through an airport or courthouse then probably best to have the documentation with you.

3

I age it would be a rare event. But I was just curious if you get pulled over and a cop sees the container.

4

FYI, some states have laws that you must keep prescription medications in their original containers. cite. So even if you can prove that you have the prescriptions, you could get nailed for that violation as well.

5

Just watch a few episodes of “Cops” and see what happens when they find a pill bottle with an array of goodies in it!

You are supposed to carry prescribed medication in the original container, which has your name, the pharmacy, the prescribing doctor, the drug, the strength, and the dosage.

I don’t carry the big guns like you do, but I DO carry some nice prescription drugs. If I get stopped and searched, I’m screwed.

If I’m TRAVELING and have my PILL CADDIES with me, I’m going to make every law enforcement officer who has to deal with me have an incredible amount of fun with red tape, forms, and hassles.

So while I will probably be detained, and have to blow money I don’t have on a lawyer, and in the end it will all be okay, BOY HOWDY, I’m going to be entertained!
~VOW

6

Would the info page that comes with the prescription not be enough? Mine come with a huge page of drug info, side effects, etc., and then at the bottom is a business card size tear-away with doctor, drug, dosage, that is easily stored in a purse, wallet, etc. It even has a description of what the drug is supposed to look like so you can’t fudge it that way.

7

The problem with carrying them in their original bottle is the size. I usually get a three month prescription so I would be carrying around 270 amphetamine pills, 270 morphine pills and 360 percocet pills. Probably not a good idea. Besides if I lose them, the doctor will not be too happy. Apparently the DEA can audit his records and it doesn’t look too good if he gives a patient close to a thousand narcotic pills in a month!

8

Never thought of that, good idea.

9

The solution is to let me carry them for you. You can trust me. :dubious:

10

It could be worse. In Toronto the cops confiscate prosthetic legs.

11

Oh, I know ALL ABOUT ordering from “The Mail Order Pharmacy,” also called TMOP. You should see some of the huge jugs of pills we get!

Those enormous bottles are just ONE of the reasons I play “poison parade” and distribute medication into weekly pill caddies. When we travel, I take the caddies, not the suitcase pharmacy.

ONE CAVEAT I want to pass along about using TMOP, especially for the goodie-roonie pills you take.

COUNT the damn things, as soon as you receive them!

When my son was a kid, he was medicated with some big guns for his ADD. One of his medications was Dexedrine, which is a Cat-2 drug, and required a triplicate prescription form. The doctor didn’t like using up his precious supply of forms every single month, and requested we use TMOP to get a three-month supply.

One day, about 2 months into the bottle of Dexedrine, I’m looking at the bottom of the bottle. I should have had at LEAST 30 days left.

You can bet yer booties I was on the horn to the pharmacy IMMEDIATELY. I got passed from the lowly customer service rep all the way up to the pharmacy supervisor. And the bottom line was: I was told to get a new prescription. They couldn’t make up the missing pills.

I tore a hunk out of the pharmacy supervisor. I told HIM that if my health insurance didn’t approve the new prescription because it would appear on paper I got more drugs than I was entitled to, I was DAMNED if I’d pay full price, so HE had better take care of it!

Everything went through as it was supposed to, I was not charged anything extra.

And I hope that one or more technicians in that pharmacy were FIRED, big time!
~VOW

12

Thanks for the advice. The current supply I have is the first I have gotten from mail order and I didn’t think about counting them but will do from now on. I can already see that they are morons for UPS just left the package on my front door step. A package filled with enough drugs to make a street seller really happy or a curious neighborhood kid really dead. You would think that they would require a signature.

13

UPS should have requested a signature. The strongest thing I take is Vicodin, and Vicodin ALWAYS has to have a signature. ALWAYS.

I’d make a complaint to TMOP.
~VOW

14

I’d print out a copy of my 'script, in a small font, and carry it in my wallet.