I have a trip to Portland (OR) coming up on the 21st, and I’m flying (since it would be lunacy to drive from Nashville. IMHO, anyway. I have two questions about things I want to take, and if either, or both, will be a problem/issue/whatever.
1.) Homemade beef jerky.
Can I pack this in my checked luggage? Are there any rules about bringing it into Oregon? I have a lot of food allergies, and I really would like to have this on hand.
2.) Prescription meds.
These would be in carry-on luggage, obviously, but the thing is that this category further subdivides into:
a.) Regular medication
b.) Schedule II drugs (the methylphenidate, since I’m not taking amphetamines anymore.)
Oh, people’s reactions to these have been a JOY to deal with, but I still love them, because they saved my life. However, they do cause some problems of various kinds. My insurance company thinks I’m a speed freak because I’m taking the amount of Focalin that MY DOCTOR PRESCRIBES, for instance, so I wouldn’t be surprised at anything by this point. So is it going to cause some kind of weird extra problem when going through security?
You should be able to take both on as carry-on. But if you prefer put the jerky into your checked bags (but think how the other passengers will envy you when you’re munching jerky and they’re not )
Just to be sure of no hassles you should keep your meds in the original pharmacy bottle with your name and all on it. I would never pack meds in checked luggage.
I know that at my airport (Sea-Tac Int’l) you can’t take food in your carry-ons. I’m not sure if this is the airport’s rule or if it’s national. So the jerky would be a no-go. Checked it should be fine. Unless there’s some kind of beef quarantine…
I flew out of Sea-Tac last September and had a number of munchies in my carry on. The NSA folks didn’t question any of it. I had a sandwich and some cookies in zip lock bags, a couple of candy bars and a large box of Junior Mints.
I know of no restrictions on food as carry-on, but I am not an airport security person. Since AA has stopped offering even peanuts on flights over 5 hours long, for Christ’s sake, I have always brought food aboard. This includes stuff I picked up after security and stuff purchased at the supermarket. I think the latest big bruhaha (and I think that’s all it is) is restricted to liquid or gel type foods. So jerky is fine as long as you don’t have to suck it out of a tube. It’s the evil bottled water that they confiscate at the security check points these days. I do wonder about cheese, could they expect that it’s plastic explosives?
SeaTac is serious about security, it appears.
NSA = National Security Agency (“No Such Agency”)
TSA = Transportation Security Administration (“Thousands Standing Around”)
Just for the record, I always bring my medications (both Rx and OTC) in baggies, with no identificaion or prescription. One baggie can hold four days of meds, separated by twist-ties. I take a lot of meds, and this minimizes their volume and weight. I’ve never had any problem, whether domestic or international.
I just flew into Sea-Tac with food in my carry-on (they won’t allow liquid food, of course) and I am planning to fly out on Monday. But I did have an amusing incident. The inspector examined my carry-on bag (a small back-pack) carefully until she had extracted both the cheese and a travel clock. She laughed and explained to me that the confluence of an organic material and a clock was suspicious and advised me to pack them separately in the future.
WAG - In this day and age, carrying your medication in baggies with no medical identification may very well some day get you stopped, or worse, being accused of illegally possessing drugs. Sure it may work its way out in the end, after you’ve been delayed for several hours by TSA and the local police. But then your name will be entered into “the system” and you may end up being stopped (and detained) every time you fly, even though the initial incident didn’t amount to anything. Flying internationally without your script exposes yourself to other countries and their drug laws, as well as their enforcement, that may not be so kindly as it is here in the US.
I’m told carrying chocolate bars will get you stopped not just because of their density but because some baggage sniffers calibrated incorrectly tag it as explosives. I have no cite for this other than personal experience.
It sounds like I can take beef jerky, and medications should be in original bottles. What I’ve always wondered about, though, is vitamins. I’ve always put them in plastic bags. I do NOT want to pack a gazillion original bottles!!
I’ve always travelled with medication in bottles, some labelled, some not. I’ve got a 2 day supply of my prescription medication in a baggie in my carry on. No one has ever questioned me about it, and my bag has been x-rayed, hand searched, mass spec sniffed hundreds of times. I’ve even brought a white powder protein supplement in an unmarked plastic bottle. It has never been an issue. The baggage screeners are not interested in drugs.
I’ve read dozens of technical documents concerning detection of explosives. One of the more common methods of analysis is to find the atomic weight vs. density of the compounds they’re looking at. I don’t have any experience with the atomic weight of chocholate, but I don’t see why it couldn’t fall right between explosives and drugs on a plot. I would expect chocholate to be heavier than drugs, and lighter than explosives. It wouldn’t be so much a case as the sniffers being calibrated incorrectly, but moreso that chocholate would be close enough to warrant a false positive, rather than a false negative.
Oh, I’m NOT quitting amphetamines, trust me. They’re what I’m bringing on the plane with me! ( More or less. Actually, Adderall didn’t work as well, which was why I switched to Happy Fun Focalin. Dexmethylphenidate is not exactly the same thing, but close enough…) If I just get my prescription speed, I’ll have a great trip to Portland.
I have two questions about things I want to take, and if either, or both, will be a problem/issue/whatever.
However, they do cause some problems of various kinds. My insurance company thinks I’m a speed freak because I’m taking the amount of Focalin that MY DOCTOR PRESCRIBES, for instance, so I wouldn’t be surprised at anything by this point. So is it going to cause some kind of weird extra problem when going through security?
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