Prescription meds

[BallFour4]

Why risk the hassle of being detained and arrested in a foreign country when you can avoid it by taking medication in the original container with a copy of your prescription?

Two reasons. With EMR (electronic medical records) prescriptions are often dispensed in 90 day supply. For some patients that's a bottle or two for hypertension, a statin for hypercholesterolemia, perhaps a diabetes med, an antihistamine or COPD med and suddenly you have an additional carry on for pill bottles. Not all cruisers are young and disease free.

 

Second, with the EMR system the patient doesn't see a written prescription for non-scheduled drugs. He/she can ask for a printout of their current meds, and that's a strong recommendation for anyone.

 

I also did a search on the FAQ page for Carnival and found this statement:

 

Pack in Your Carry-On Bag

Since your checked luggage will arrive to your stateroom later in the day of embarkation, it is recommended that you pack a small carry-on bag with:

 

• Prescription medications in their original containers
  

https://help.carnival.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3583/kw/prescription%20drugs

 

Now I'm confused, and I've never taken the entire bottle on cruises to the Caribbean and Canada.

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Edited September 12, 2018 by BallFour4

[iancal]

The longest period that we have traveled is six months. Now, it us usually two months, twice a year plus a few one weekers in between. We carry meds. Usually enough for an extra 15-30 days after we anticipate returning home.

 

I strongly suspect that the reason no one bothers with us, despite the fact that labels, containers, written prescriptions are meaningless and give no real guarantee as to the contents, is because of demographics. We are in our sixties. It is clear to anyone that the amount of prescription drugs that we carry is no where near what I would assume illegal drug mules try to move with.

 

Most authoriites are under staffed and overworked. Given our demographics and the quantities that we carry I suspect that the authorities have much bigger fish to fry when it comes to the illegal importation of banned substances. It could also be that we each travel only with a 20" carry on. We do not have the luxury of over packing drugs for illicit means.

 

When we went through customs numerous times in Australia and New Zealand the focus for people in our demographic group appeared to be food item-meats and fruits. We had far more questions about those items and not one question about the bottle of pills that we had in our carry on. Same experience going into the US from Canada and from other countries. Last time, going through Australia we were jokingly asked if we weree were smuggling maple syrup into the country. We were waved through with inspection and observation that we probably were not aware of. Same in most other countries that we have visited. We have only really had one issue....a hidden nail file that slipped through the lining of a bag. The only inspection in five years of travel the picked up on it was in a Vietnamese airport check.

Edited September 12, 2018 by iancal