Unmarked medicine through customs
 

Am flying Chicago to London, then 3 days later Eurostar to Paris. Then 3 days later flying from CDG to Greece and then Crete, Santorini and other Greek islands for 2 weeks. Can medications be carried in a plastic day-of-the-week container or is that a no-no at the customs inspection? Someone mentioned to me that my meds would have to be kept im their original conatiners to avoid any delays. What do you think?

I would definitely carry medicines in their original containers with Doctor's name and your name and the contents printed on the label. I have always in the past, to avoid any problems, carried a letter from my doctor with the list of any medication I would be travelling with and what it is being used for.

There aren't Customs inspections within, or arriving in, Europe. Customs administrations have better things to do with their resources than squander them on ridiculous interrogations of innocent travellers, and modern management techniques have much more efficient methods of tracking drug or arms smugglers

There is, wantago, a pattern to questions such as yours.

A concerned person such as yourself asks whether they need some ridiculous procedure for taking their insulin across borders. The answers they get are usually from people telling them that they, the respondent, always do indeed do something ridiculous.

What never hapens is that anyone gives a single solitary scrap of evidence this ridiculous procedure is necessary.

I cross borders, into and within, Europe relatively frequently. My medications are thrown into my toiletries bag as I leave home, in exactly the state they're in in the bathroom cupboard. No-one's ever asked a question about them - mainly, of curse, because no Customs officer ever asks me anything, but on the rare occasions they do, they're always more interested in how much I spent on clothes in New York or Hong Kong.

Is that because my innocence shines forth to even the dumbest public servant? No. it's because:

- <b> I challenge anyone on this board to cite a single occasion a Customs official, anywhere in the civilised world, has stopped a traveller from bringing their allopurinol or whatever into ther country with them. Not necessarily stopped just you. But stopped the cousin of the sister of that lady in the office who's always telling horror stories about distant acquaintances' dreadful discoveries when Going Abroad </b>

There is however one complication that doesn't apply to the specific question you ask, but does apply to some people travelling abroad. European and American security people don't like you getting on a plane with <b> liquid </b> medicines in your hand baggage. Check the US TSA and the UK DofT websites for the specifics of how this is handled, but if you're carrying liquid medicines into the cabin, you must have the prescription with you, as well as conform to the packing rules.

But if your medicines are all solid, and you're really, really worried about being stopped, just bring your prescription. It MIGHT come in handy if you run out and need some more, but otherwise it'll lie, unmolested, in your wallet for the whole of your trip. But it might stop you worrying.

Flanneruk is right, IMO. The customs and security people don't give a rat's behind about your medicines or vitamins. Their concerns are people smuggling either explosives or drugs. I, getting older, take a number of medications, vitamins, and supplements. I also am getting a bit forgetful -- DW keeps telling me.

I put my stuff in those compartmented containers so I don't forget to take them -- and, frankly, it helps me remember what day of the week it is. No custom's agent has ever questioned me. I don't expect them to. There is too little a quantity of pills to add up to any sort of explosive device, and who would want to risk jail time for smuggling that tiny amount of coke or heroin?

I do, however, throw the prescription slip that comes with each of my prescriptions into my travel papers; not so much for customs, as for reference by any European doctor who might need the information.

Relax and have a great trip!

:-)

Thank you Flanneruk, this question had briefly crossed my mind and your answer has completely put me at ease. Why we insist on finding things to fret about I will have no idea. thereyet

I agree with flanneruk’s premise that in general, Customs inspectors in Europe could not care less about what medications you bring in. I generally travel with dozens of filled syringes, and never a prescription to accompany them, and even during a customs inspection, never get a question on this.

I disagree with flanneruk that in “Europe” there are no Customs inspections. He may not have been through the Customs process very often in a non-EU country like Switzerland, which is in “Europe” as far as I know. People can, and often are, pulled over and the contents of their suitcases are inspected, or short of that, they are asked questions about where they have been on their travels. The likelihood of this happening in Greece, and EU country, are probably less, but there certainly are Customs inspectors out there in even in the EU countries.

Hi W,

It's not Customs, but Security that would be concerned.

Bring your meds in your plastic case.

Bring copies of your Rx, in case you are asked.

Enjoy your visit.

((I))

As a follow-on to Ira's opinion: I often take meds in those seven-day containers to Europe and have never had a problem with any Customs agents, probably because I have never been stopped by any Customs agents and that includes numerous trips into and out of Switzerland.

What I have had happen were various seraches by Security agents, the most recent was upon departure from Amsterdam at which time every single thing in my luggage was laid out, inspected, and then put back.

Nothing has ever been said about medications; I do not take copies of prescriptions since mine are all electronically-generated anyway (I could make the effort to print out an Rx list but never have).

Whether this law is still in effect - can't say, but at one time CODEINE was banned in Greece and we were warned not to bring any medication containing it.

We travel all the time with medication in day-of-the-week containers and vitamins packed in plastic bags. I also always have some extra meds packed in my purse in a little pill container. My daughter has a chronic health condition so we've always traveled with her meds (when she goes for extended travel in the summer she takes her meds in the bottles) otherwise for short trips she uses the containers mentioned. No one has ever asked us about the meds or vitamins.

Rush limbaugh got in trouble for not having his prescriptions in the right bottle!


authorities found a bottle of Viagra in his bag at Palm Beach International Airport. The prescription did not have his name.

Limbaugh was detained for more than three hours Monday at the airport after returning from a vacation in the Dominican Republic. Customs officials found the Viagra in his luggage but his name was not on the prescription, said Paul Miller, a spokesman for the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office.

Miller said the alleged violation could be a second-degree misdemeanor. The sheriff's office was investigating and will soon turn the case over to the state attorney's office, which had no immediate comment Tuesday.


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Rush Limbaugh has a well-known drug problem and an even better-known denial syndrome.

Medicine in large tubes, such as prescription creams are also a no-no as carry-on, although it might be accepted if it is recognized as prescription medicine.

Passengers arriving in smaller Florida airports on private planes from the Carribean (e.g. Limbaugh) should expect a lot more scrutiny than those landing at a major airport on a 747.

Do keep in mind that, just because no one who has posted here knows of anyone who had a problem because their drugs weren't in the original container, it doesn't mean no one has ever had a problem or that some customs official might be feeling nasty on a particular day and itching to give a tourist a bad time.

Both my husband and I have traveled with a lot of prescription medications into Europe on numerous occasions.

No one has ever questioned us about any of our medications or if we actually have prescriptions for them.

We do try to carry them in their original containers when possible, but many are not. We do, however, always have a copy of the prescription label from the local pharmacy or mail order company.

There's a reason for that, Jake. You &quot;can't prove the negative&quot;. Until we've heard from every single traveler in the history of the world, we can't say with absolute certainty that no one has. We also can't say with absolute certainty that your customs agent is not a serial murderer or a shape-shifting Eldritch from the planet Muldroon, either.

But the evidence of people who've been there and done that is worth a little something.

The onus of proof in a simple case like this is on the positive claim, that your meds will get you in trouble. No evidence of any kind has been presented, here or elsewhere. Simple logic.

Technically, prescription medicines are supposed to be transported in the original container. My mother's pharmacist put a supply for the time she would be away in smaller bottles with the same official labels. This was more convenient and he also provided a paper identifying them all in case any were lost and needed to be refilled. I carried a copy of this paper as well as a summary of her medical conditions and past treatments and surgeries.

Would a plastic container have been fine? Possibly.

However, her bags were thoroughly hand-searched at each and every checkpoint (my theory was because she squashes a lot into her bags and this makes it difficult to interpret the scanner image). While I agree that Customs or Security perhaps may not care, with this many searches and delays it was a relief to be on our way without further worries or questions about her meds.

Experiences vary widely and if prescriptions were required to maintain my immediate state of health I'm not sure I'd risk at best a hassle from a grumpy or misinformed agent or at worst potentially serious ramifications by not having them properly marked. It's an easy enough thing to comply with.

fnarf--just because the few people in the world who come to fodors.com, and who then visit the European forum, and who then bother to click on this thread, and then took time to answer haven't had a problem still doesn't mean there might not be times when people do have problems.

Now if we are talking about an allergy prescription or even cholesterol lowering drugs, it's not a huge deal to be without them for a couple of weeks. But if someone has a serious medical problem where their medicine keeps them alive day-to-day, then it might not be a great idea to just rely on the anecdotal evidence of the very small percentage of travelers who respond to this thread.

I recently flew from Denver to Seattle with Heparin, syringes &amp; some other prescription meds I'm on in my carry-on, since I needed a dose-midflight. I mentioned it to the security guard at the desk that had a sign telling people to claim prescriptions and other potentially restricted items, and he waved me off and said I was fine as long as I had copies of my prescriptions with me -- which I did. But no one ever checked.

Jules