Rules ON Presription meds

[Shadeland Cruiser]

Both my wife and I have certain daily presriptions.  What are the rumes on trveling with nthem. we will leave the uS and fly to Hungary witha a possible stop in germany and cruise through Austria and germany.

[RDC1]

30 minutes ago, Shadeland Cruiser said:

Both my wife and I have certain daily presriptions.  What are the rumes on trveling with nthem. we will leave the uS and fly to Hungary witha a possible stop in germany and cruise through Austria and germany.

Depends upon the prescriptions.  As long as the drugs are legal in the countries you are traveling to (probably not a problem in the EU, Asian countries tend to be more restrictive), not an issue.  The best practice is to carry them in the original containers with pharmacy labels.  At a minimum carry a copy of the labels for each, if you do not have room for the original containers.

 

[Canal archive]

It helps to take a copy of your prescription with you, which is useful if you need additional medication if you lose some. CA

[Roz]

Unless they're narcotics like oxycontin, you should be okay.  

 

Roz 

[tfred]

use the original containers

[G.M.T.]

Another important aspect is only to take the required amount to cover your journey and say a safety margin of 10% to cover unforseen eventualities.

 

Taking more you could be considered a drug smuggler.

 

Take the original packaging but not the full contents.

Edited February 18, 2019 by G.M.T.

[Kenster]

After about 25 trips to Europe I've never been asked, a single time, about my prescription drugs. But yes, keep them in original bottles with the pharmacy label OR, if you have to pack them some other way, at least have the labels with you.  My money says you'll never be asked about them. 

[Chloesmom1]

I used to have to travel with a medication that was legal, but likely to be questioned for a neurological disease I have. I carried the med in the original bottle, as has already been suggested, but my doctor also wrote a note on her Rx pad stating when I had started taking it and for what condition. I never needed it because the few times I was stopped and searched they saw my meds in their bottles after checking for my name on them, but it made me feel a bit better having the note just in case. 

 

I always checked the gov't site for any country or area I was planning to travel to usually starting with a google search, probably something like, "Is x medication legal in Hungary?", or wherever, which was an easy way of finding the right page. Just be sure that the result is an official site from that country and not a general travel page since laws change and third party sources can be inaccurate. We sometimes planned our vacations around the med because it was illegal in several Asian countries. I also check certain OTC medication, like pseudoephedrine, which is illegal in certain countries where it is considered a controlled substance. 

[hbr777]

Chloe’s mom has given you great advice.

For non schedule drugs (is, not narcotics) my pharmacy gives me extra sticky labels for each drug. I slap a label on a pill envelope and go on my merry way. In many parts of the world prescription drugs are not dispensed in pill bottles but in blister packs so there is no real legal need to keep pills in pill bottles (again, I am not talking about narcotics here or other schedule drugs). This has served me well all over the world, but for certain Asian countries I would check and see what if any requirements they have. Japan especially comes to mind. Also, if you have normal quantities of the non schedule med, like 14 blood pressure pills, that’s way different from say...300 pills. They are not looking to cause problems for the average river cruising traveler.

 

 

 

 

Edited February 19, 2019 by hbr777