Hm, Japan might be different. I know they are very strict about things like pseudephedrine, which can be made into amphetamines (US is getting stricter too, but you can still buy it here).
Every week, I put a weeks’ worth of my half-dozen pills into a 7-day container. No prescription labels on that. I take that with when traveling, and I was once stopped & asked about it. But they just asked another employee, who was also diabetic, and he identified a couple of the pills as ones he also took. He asked about insulin, and I pointed out the leather bag containing my pre-filled insulin syringe, needles, lancets, blood tester, etc. – which they hadn’t noticed at all. So no problem, except a couple extra minutes time.
Again, it’s a matter of police, not TSA/Airlines.
Years ago, a man was jailed in Florida (it is always FL or TX, isn’t it?) for possession of hydrocodone (vicodin, percoxxx). He insisted they were a legit prescription.
The jail ended up dispensing hydrocodone for his pain.
I carry opiates in small bottle. I also have a xerox of the original prescription in my wallet.
I live in CA (big city) and am too old to fit the profile, so I guess I’m safe.
My doc expressed some concern.
My standard is, if the question arises, would I rather stand on some indignant version of what I think is right and have my pills confiscated, or would I rather continue on my trip while retaining all my medications?
I think also that Japan, and many other countries, are extra wary of flights coming from anywhere near the Golden Triangle.
Is pseudephedrine the active ingredient in Actifed? Because Thailand banned Actifed and a bunch of other cold medicines a few years ago for that same reason. We bought up a bunch of Actifed before the ban took effect and still have a bunch of it, although it’s all expired now.
Actifed (I just learned) used to contain pseudoephedrine but changed its formulation in the U.S. because of new restrictions on it (has to be kept behind the pharmacy counter, I think limits on how much you can purchase at a time).
Your Actifed may not be ‘bad’ even though expired–I think there was a discussion on this here some time ago–IANAD but I think it’s mostly the case that drugs lose some potency over time, but they don’t turn into deadly poison.
We figure they’re still good and will continue using them for colds since they’re still better than anything else available here now. But that shows how long it’s been since the ban.
I have a bunch of old small prescription bottles and I put a trip’s worth of meds, each kind in one little bottle, and stick the name of the drug & dosage on the outside - written on a plain sticky label.
I wasn’t trying to please investigators. It was just to make the package smaller and to make sure I don’t forget what to take when.
Nobody’s ever questioned me about them.