TSA Medications Screening
 

I have taken my prescription pills in a M-S dispenser. In reading the TSA advice, they ask you to take the meds in their respective bottles. I haven't flown since 2008, and back then, it was never an issue. How many of you have had issues with TSA because your meds are not in their original bottles please? (I always take the LIST of meds with me from the pharmacy, but somehow it doesn't sound like that would do. Any feedback and suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I have never carried pills in their original container and have never had a problem, ditto my SO. We've both flown a few times a year for the past many years, internationally and inside the US.

(Of course, no one can promise that you won't have a problem.)

I agree. Thank you so much for your feedback. It is appreciated.

Like NewB, I carry my meds in bottles different from what they came in. Basically, in order to ensure I only carry the amount of pills that I will need for a trip, I put all of my meds in one small pill bottle. I also place this bottle it in my carry-on bag, lest my main luggage gets misdirected. I've been doing this for years, and this pill bottle has never been searched*.

It will be more problematic if you're transporting medical marijuana, oxycotin{R}, or amphetamines -- particularly if you're carrying far more than one person would normally need. If it's stuff that couldn't be sold on the side, it probably won't be an issue.

* I've had my can opener examined (they thought it might be a wire cutter), been randomly patted down while in line, and had the area over my groin & buttocks area checked (for reasons I can't imagine why) -- but never a problem with my meds.

Thank you. I will be taking meds for a week, and two of them are horse pills. There are about 9 total. I heard back from TSA (which I see is on Twitter) and their rule is:

"We recommend, but do not require prescription meds be in their original containers w/ a label to facilitate screening."

I guess I cannot take a chance that I am the one they choose to screen who does NOT have the meds in individual medicine bottles....amazing...

I flew last month and had my pills in a M-S holder and had no problems. Flew Nashville to New Hampshire.

There have been multiple threads about this - and the consensus is that you can put them in anything you want. There was a guy who wanted info on how to transport 90 days supply for 2 people of compounded "supplements" after staying only 6 hours. But that would have involved Customs inspection and sounded bogus to many of us anyway. But you are not doing that.

Use logic. You could take an aspirin bottle and put oxycontin in it and no one would know or care. Unless professional sealed, the identifying label says nothing about the content.

I called the pharmacy to inquire and the pharmacist says that she prefers to take them in their original bottles. Like PaulRabe said above, and the pharmacist confirmed, they are looking to see that if you are taking a controlled substance and you have brought more than someone would normally take...so, I guess I am going to make the smart choice (and huge sacrifice - LOL) and take everything in its bottle. I will place it in my purse, put it in the basket (for all to see - how embarrassing. As someone on one of the forums said, why increase your chance that you MIGHT be hassled because you happened to be screened and the pills have no labeled bottle.

Actually, what this teaches me is that we live in a society horribly dependent on prescription pills, I am sad for that and hope that taking better of my health, I can stop taking some meds in the future.

Thanks again for all your help!

<How many of you have had issues with TSA because your meds are not in their original bottles please?>

Not me.

And yes they would be looking for opiates or controlled substances (if they checked at all) they don't care about your blood pressure meds or statins.

My Husbear and I both carry meds in the M-S "boxes." We have never, EVER had anyone from TSA even take a second look and yes, we have had the contents of carry-ons "detained" and searched more than once.

In each case the meds were clearly evident and never questioned.

And let's get real here. So you show up with some "original" med container with your name and instructions on the label. How is that TSA person <B>going to know</B> what the capsules/pills inside that container <B>actually are</B>?

I suggest you ask the pharmacist that question and wait for the long pause.

One other t hing, do I place the meds in bottles in my carry-on, purse or in a baggy and separately, or does it matter? These inspections are inconsistent, and I guess for me, I want to do it "just right". Sorry for the inconvenience. Thanks.

Dukey, they have a PDR on site. I am assuming they have the authority to verify it, IF it went that far. I called TSA cares and they re-iterated the "we recommend, but don't require" that the meds be in original bottles. :-) I have two that I was told are controlle

I doubt if the TSA cares one whit about your medicines. I travel often and always have multiple bottles of vitamins, prescription pills, etc etc. Mostly in unmarked bottles. Not once has anyone ever given them a second glance.

It doesn't matter where you carry them. But do keep them with you (don't put them in your checked luggage).

ekscrunchy, I totally agree with you, those pills are not going to be a focus for them (unless of course I appear stoned out of my mind or incoherent or something like that which would make them want to take a second look)...no issue with that, I don't even drink alcohol. However, I am trying to follow "rules" and perhaps I am going overboard, but I am MOST worried about not leaving for my destination and being without my pills--which are necessary for chronic illnesses. :-)

>>In reading the TSA advice, they ask you to take the meds in their respective bottles.<<

Are you sure? At most they recommend them be labeled.

Per the TSA website: >>Medications in pill or other solid form must undergo security screening. It is recommended that medication be clearly labeled to facilitate the screening process.<<

It says nothing about original containers.

My wife was a pharmacist for 40 years. She says the letter of the law might be that the drugs should be in the original bottle.

But we have never done that. She labels plastic bags since they are lighter and easier to pack. ("You watch out for the ounces and the pounds will take care of themselves")

She'll sometimes mix pills in the bag, with the label saying "round blue = xxxx", oval white = yyyy". The labels are for my benefit, just in case.

The same with vitamins.

We have never been stopped or questioned on this issue.

Dukey, they have a PDR on site.

Yeah, but do they have anybody who can READ or even FIND it?

And are you going to tell me they are opening the PDR and trying to match the pills in the pictures to the ones you are carrying? How about all those generics which aren't pictured?

DO get over this and please, you can only carry on ONE of your television sets.

Relax, Cira, you do not have to use original containers. We always dump our pills in baggies for international and domestic trips. No problems. Ever. All over the world multiple trips. You have a doctor(Dukey1) and the spouse of a pharmacist(Nelson) telling you this on this post.

No one uses a PDR for pill identification. There are phone apps and websites on which you enter color, shape, markings, etc. But pill identifiers in print or electronic can not possibly identify all the various generics out there.

Not one person above has found a citation that it is required. Recommended, suggested - not required.

And if the TSA has questions about a pile of pills, they are not going to find some dusty and outdated PDR. They are calling local law enforcement. It is not the job of TSA to determine if you are a Lipitor smuggler.

In all my travels I have never seen a TSA agent with a PDR. I will try to remember to ask them about this when I travel next in a few weeks. They care about more important things, I think. I hope.

I only take one med and vitamins but also travel with OTCs (dramimine, benadryl, etc) and put them all in their little cards (or baggies) in a small pouch. Have never - in about a gazillion trips - had anyone question this.

What they tend to really look for is how many liquids you are carrying.

I've traveled hundreds of times since 9/11 and never once has any TSA Agent or similar "agent" in any foreign county EVER look at or questioned any of my medications, whether they've been in M-S dispensers , loose in plain zip-lock bags, bulk bottles, etc.

FYI - Spouse sometimes has one OTH medication that's a powder in a large bottle. TSA occasionally shakes the container to make sure it is not a liquid or gel and then gives it a pass.

OP's concerns are a non-issue.

<I will place it in my purse, put it in the basket (for all to see>

The TSA wants you to put into the bins only that which they require to be put in, and pills do not require special screening. So even if you decide to carry original bottles, don't pull them out. Leave them in your purse.

Yes, we never pull any of that stuff out for all to see.

In fact, our favorite vitamin is a powder, which we sometimes bring, and we like to take brewers yeast, also a powdwe - absolutely proven to help with vit B deficiency in our cases.

We put these in something similar to a Talenti gelato container with a screw lid (or a smaller version), leave it in in our bags. Never had a issue, and a reason to buy gelato, if you need one.

The only time we were ever stopped was returning from Mexico with about a kilo of course ground rock salt from a salt flat in Baja, where it was harvested and sold, wrapped in suspicious looking plastic bag. The agent knew exactly what it was when he found it, smiled, and waved us through.

IF anyone cared about it, it would be the new country you are entering (for example, Mexican customs) not TSA as you are leaving the USA.

Correct, exactly the case with our kilo of salt, so that story doesn't apply to a domestic flight.

Even going through Dubai and Abu Dhabi we had no issue with meds. We were concerned because we were going to be away for extended time and needed 60 days of pills. And they have some strange things on their forbidden list. We were carrying some "pain pills" and we went with original containers, doctors script and they didn't even notice.

This a really a non-issue; take what you need in any convenient container and put it in your carryon and very done with it. You are over thinking this....

I travel routinely with several Schedule II prescription drugs (never in their original containers) and I've never had an issue with TSA in the past 15 yrs.

I honestly don't know where the myth of 'original containers' came from. The TSA website has always only mentioned some sort of labeling -- and that is only a suggestion, not a mandate. And before TSA -- was a total non-issue.


But when traveling it probably IS a good idea to have some sort of basic labeling -- if just in case of emergency and someone needs to know what meds you are taking.

My pharmacy will put prescription labels on zip lock bags and it works well. They say they do it all the time because many people going on certain trips (African Safaris, etc) can only take a very small bag. I only put my eye drops in my plastic bag that I put in the TSA bin. All the rest of prescriptions are left in my bag and put thru the machine.

Again - use logic. Anyone with a good printer and some computer skills can make a label that says anything and looks authentic. (Same concept as why an "MD letter" requesting certain privileges or accommodations is useless).

Anyone can put 100 oxycontin in a Bayer's aspirin bottle. No one is going to open it and look. And if they do they will see 100 little white pills.

Forget bothering the drug store. When I used to travel with a prescribed controlled substance I asked them to print out a label since I carried all my pills in unmarked containers, many drugs in one container, or sometimes in ZipLocs. That label from the pharmacy was carried for so many years in my wallet in case I got stopped. I was far more worried about customs than TSA. The label was never looked at and became so tattered I threw it out. No problem. Lisgten to Gail.

I just throw my Rx bottles in a baggie and put it in my carryon, no one has ever looked at my meds and I have traveled with Vicodin.

Face it, TSA agents are not qualified to make pharmaceutical and medical decisions for travelers. Imagine confiscating just one travelers meds leads to death. I always travel with a slurry pill box that has OTC excedrin for head aches, tylenol for aches, and a couple of vicodin for emergency if going to the emergency room isn't necessary. Now if you're traveling with a mason jar of vicodin - well that's a red flag. No blue pills here.

I've never in my entire life had any TSA agent ask me about drugs, why would they? It's not something they are concerned about in the Xray machines (which is metal, etc). I certainly don't carry them in the original containers, I think that is ridiculous as my containers hold 90 days, I'm not taking that on a trip, I just take the number of pills I need in a small pillbox I carry in my purse. I"m not taking anything remotely controlled, but they are prescriptions.

The idea that some "original container" is going to prove anything is so stupid I don't even know why any security agency would recommend such a thing as proving anything. You wouldn't have to have that high an IQ to just get a container for some innocuous prescription and fill it with illegal drugs if that's all it took to prove something. If the TSA says you have to do it and that it proves something, that shows how deficient they are. Having read what the TSA advises, they are talking about things that are controlled through the security process, not a few small pills--anything that is liquid or aerosol or a gel, for example, and can't be contained in the 1 qt bag you are allowed or that could be detected in screening. Not pills.

Just to add to the chorus...

I recently traveled to and from Brazil with pills in checked luggage (daily vitamins, each day in a tiny ziploc, two weeks' + worth, as well as OTC meds such as Motrin and Immodium) and in carry on bag (a few tiny ziplocs with vitamins, plus individual small containers with prescription meds, plus some Motrin, Immodium, and Mucinex), none labeled or in their original containers, and SO had the same in his checked and carry on bags, and neither of us encountered any extra questions anywhere.

Unless your prescription meds come in large white bricks wrapped in plastic and masking tape, this is a non-issue.

>> If the TSA says you have to do it and that it proves something, that shows how deficient they are.<<

They DON'T say you have to . . .

All is well. I asked two different TSA reps and they told me that in the state that I live in, it is a requirement to carry CONTROLLED Rx meds in its original container, but that they usually do not bother with pills, in general. They also added that it is SUGGESTED, not required and he doesn't remember a time when they have pulled someone over re: Rx pills.

TSA will not question your meds. Not in their job description unless it is liquid. The only time I ever saw meds checked was with a girl that passed out and they could not wake her. Delta called the leo's and they got her awake enough to get her permission to check her meds to see if she had overdosed. They wheeled her out and she got picked up. Some people self medicate to get on the plane and then don't make it. I personally take my ambien in the original container but everything else goes in a daily pill container. If you have narcotic pain meds I would keep in bottle if flying international.