As those of you who follow my posts religiously (it could happen!) will know, my wife and I will be traveling to six European countries next month: Portugal (just changing planes), Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro, and Greece.
According to the CDC, you’re supposed to carry prescription meds in the original bottles with your name, the prescriber’s name, dosage, etc., on them.
That’s all very well, but between prescription and OTC meds, my wife takes about six pills in the morning and six at night, and uses those weekly pill organizers with 14 compartments. Keeping all these pills in their original bottles would be a PITA.
When I saw this advisory, I proposed we just bring the empty bottles for her prescriptions (four or five) along, but she says she’s traveled internationally for decades and has never had a problem, and thinks this is nonsense and a waste of space. My reply is that a few empty bottles won’t take up that much space and might save some bureaucratic hassle.
The problem is that the answer depends on who you ask - the CDC says travel with all medications in original containers , CBP recommends original containers for only narcotics and addictive substances ,TSA doesn’t care but says states may have requirements , and of course, every country has its own requirements. My advice would be to check with the countries you are going to, and any state you may travel through , follow those rules and don’t worry about the rest of it - if the countries/states require prescriptions/bottles for controlled substances only, you won’t have any problem with your blood pressure meds.
I think there are several variables here. One nation can differ greatly from another. Also, if any of her meds are opioids or narcotics, she’d better have a prescription to go with the pills. I think your age plays a factor, also. I actually got flagged on a domestic flight for having Pentasa in an empty little bottle, so it can happen. If you’re seniors, I’m thinking it’s a different ball game.
A set of pharmacy labels, or a note from her GP, or the empty bottles (retain until into the EU, or a photo of the bottles’ labels have all been fine for me. If I were going to China or other more restrictive countries, I’d leave everything in the bottles and spend some time sorting pills into the holders once I arrived.
Yeah - I’d be pretty leery of travelling to Russia, for example, without things properly labelled.
Watching thread with some curiosity - as I too have a similar number of meds and use a pill organizer, though no international travel is currently planned.
I was watching a Youtube channel a while back, where a young couple was travelling by bus from one Middle-East country to another, and there was a delay while they verified that all the wife’s medications were legal; as full-time travellers, she had compacted all her meds into a couple of zip-loc bags or something. So it is a real concern.
I like the idea of taking photos of pill bottles. A lot more compact than the bottles themselves, especially if you get large bottles with 90-day supply or whatever.
The only international borders we’ll be crossing with the pills on our person/in our bags will be into Italy on our flight (through Lisbon) from Boston and back into the US from Athens (also through Lisbon). The other countries are all stops on our Viking cruise.
So maybe we don’t need to be all that concerned about this issue.
Unless any are controlled or restricted substances for your frontier countries, it’s probably fine as long as she has evidence of the prescriptions. If carrying something controlled back into the US (like Ritalin), best to have the better level of documentation. Flying out of Athens may include an additional TSA screening if Greek security is still as lax as it used to be.
Yup. Travelling to Germany in 2018, they checked the bottles and spent a few minutes examining the one cold/sinus pill I had in my pocket. My sense is customs waves most people through and more or less randomly give someone fuller inspection. It takes me about 4 minutes to set out 2 weeks of pills in my organizer; they took longer than that “investigating” my cold pill, so now, it’s bottles and an empty organizer. I am sure this procedure will mean I willl never be checked again.
My brother was held up at the Niagara crossing returning to the USA for several hours because he had some prescription antacid pills (I think they are OTC now).
But instead of in a bottle they were in the blister packs. The prescription label had been attached to the box, but he discarded the box and only packed the blister pack sheets.
I always take my prescription meds in the pharmacy labeled bottle, the only place I’ve been asked about it was entering China. I’ve never been searched on any other border crossing. I’m sure I’ve made over 100 by now (most of them to and from Canada, but at least a dozen other countries).
Except when returning from India to Pakistan 40+ years ago. This was when Pakistan was the heroin capital of the world. They were checking I wasn’t carrying coal to Newcastle.
My brother was held up at the same crossroads when he was 17 or so. He was driving with some buddies in his car. When asked, “do you have any illegal drugs in the car?” one of his friends answered, “sure, whadaya want?”
They pulled seats out, removed tires, etc. They were clean, learned a lesson.
The officials at each border have almost unlimited authority to dig into your stuff and to demand paperwork for any/all medications. The odds that you will be singled out for fully detailed inspection are low, not zero, and unknowable. The worst case hassle can be significant enough to cause missed connections.
I travel with pills in weekly organizers all the time, and have never had a problem. If I were carrying anything restricted, I might take more care. But I have gone in and out of Russia, Japan, Australia, Canada, and most European countries without incident.
I had a full search looking for illicit drugs once going from Canada to the US, but not because I was carrying any pills. They just decided I looked suspicious, and spent about an hour searching me and my stuff.
If they ask what’s in those pill organizers, I will answer honestly. And it’s stuff that you don’t need a prescription for in most countries, although I got it via prescription. I’d like to point out that having a bottle with a label hardly proves that that’s what the drug actually is. For that matter, I have a friend who smuggles harmless-but-restricted biological samples by putting them into a travel-sized shampoo bottle. Looks like shampoo, and he’s never been questioned.
If I’d been carrying pills when I was searched, I suspect they would have made an effort to verify what they were, and not trust the label on the bottle. Because they thought I looked suspcious.
I take about 6-7 Rx medications, I use a pill organizer. I’ve flown to Europe twice and the US at least twice in the last year alone. The only thing that’s in the original packaging is testosterone gel, which is restricted in many countries. I take the Rx label from the box with me.
Yeah, if they want to detain you, they will. I doubt that carrying a pill organizer with some benign pills in it changes those odds much.
Mind you, if you are carrying anything that could actually get you in trouble, make sure it’s fully documented that you have a verified medical need. I don’t travel with my codeine cough syrup. Not worth the risk. But i do throw some antibiotics and stuff in my bag.
I asked my pharmacist to give me a 2 week supply in the smallest bottles they normally use, not a problem as I was also doing it at the normal break time when I normally get my 90 day supply. I have also asked my doc for a 2 week loadout of all my meds as a separate scrip that I paid for out of pocket so I didn’t have to dick around with insurance.
