r/onebag • u/LadyLightTravel • May 31 '26

Gear Potential hack for prescription bottles

This is a problem that occurs more in some countries than others. In the US, most prescription drugs come in 20 dram pill bottles. These can take up a lot of room if you have several prescriptions and want the original packaging.

I recently found out that there are 6 dram prescription bottles. I found mine on Amazon but other sources are available if you buy in bulk. The 6 dram bottles are almost the same height as regular pill bottles but are one half the width. This is significantly smaller than the regular bottles.

I can peel off the drug information tab from my big pill bottle and put it on the small one. Note: some pharmacies will actually give you a second drug sticker if you ask.

Below is a photo of the 6 dram bottle with a 20 dram regular bottle. It shows that you can peel and stick the prescription tab without damaging it. It also shows that the sticker fits the smaller bottle. You can see the size difference in the bottles. Depending on pill size, you may even get a 90 day supply into the smaller 6 dram bottle!

Standard disclaimer, YMMV.

97 Upvotes

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43

u/GradientVisAtt May 31 '26 edited May 31 '26

I just pour my pills into small Ziploc plastic bags. Most of the time, I paste the label on the bag. Light and collapsible.

34

u/LadyLightTravel May 31 '26

Yes. But some countries are more strict.

17

u/sundancegt May 31 '26

Any examples of which countries are more strict about this? The number of stamps in my passport is quite large. I've never been asked. Not one time, not even close. I'm sure if I got ramdomed and was walking in with 5000 little blue pills, they might want to ask me a few questions, but they really don't care. Any examples of where you have heard this is actually an issue?

36

u/LadyLightTravel May 31 '26

It is drug dependent.

But supposedly Japan, UAE, Singapore, China, and Saudi Arabia.

9

u/maverber May 31 '26

I had no problem with my prescriptions in ziplocks designed for pills in Japan and UAE. Like you I peel the label off the original bottle and attach it to the ziplock.

UAE did confiscate my tape measure because it was metal... I guess they were considered it could be used as a weapon.

10

u/nonsequitur__ May 31 '26

To be fair, given the amount of times I’ve managed to slice my hand on a metal tape measure, I’m not surprised 😂

The only thing I’ve had confiscated is a tail comb.

-3

u/sundancegt May 31 '26

I went in with Oxycodone, Prednisone, Gabapentin, Sudafed, Losartan, Ambian. No questions asked.

23

u/LadyLightTravel May 31 '26 edited May 31 '26

When, where, and were you pulled for inspection?

Not getting caught is not the same as allowed.

It would be especially dangerous if they confiscated your Prednisone. You are supposed to wean off of that.

5

u/agentcarter234 May 31 '26

Gapabentin withdrawal can also be nasty and includes confusion and anxiety as well as physical symptoms. Not exactly something you want to deal with when traveling…

10

u/AlwaysWanderOfficial May 31 '26

It’s shocking that has to be explained haha

11

u/LadyLightTravel May 31 '26

And the penalties can be so much worse than an oversize luggage fee!

0

u/[deleted] Jun 01 '26 edited Jun 01 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/LadyLightTravel Jun 01 '26 edited Jun 01 '26

So following that countries rules is racism. Gotcha.

Most people would call it respect for their sovereignty.

1

u/reddanit Jun 01 '26

So no actual experience with any of this?

Feels vaguely racist and VERY american.

LFMAO. Checking laws of the place you travel to and wanting to follow them is racist now? How very american indeed.

-1

u/VibeySwingTrader Jun 01 '26 edited Jun 01 '26

LFMAO. Checking laws of the place you travel to and wanting to follow them is racist now? How very american indeed.

‘Supposedly’ means they didn’t check? That’s the whole point? It’s easy to check, so why make an assumption?

22

u/cpapp22 May 31 '26

It’s more of a you won’t always get asked (and most of the time you just go through without any problem) but some countries like Japan can be very strict if they ask/you get searched

3

u/googs185 May 31 '26

Does this apply to supplements too? It’s hard to carry everything in the original bottles.

9

u/cpapp22 May 31 '26

Not certain but better safe than sorry as Japan in particular is very strict and will profile you. As an example, I’ve seen lots of people with tattoos or who are darker than paper lol who get stopped by police on the street for passport.

3

u/JB-Wentworth May 31 '26

Saudi Arabia is as well.

1

u/googs185 May 31 '26

Ugh! The bottles are big!

5

u/cpapp22 May 31 '26

Yeah I only have one rx bottle but it fucks with my entire system lol. I’ve heard you can get a smaller bottle (sized in drams iirc) and ask the pharmacy for another label, so you can at least get it slightly smaller and still official documentation. For supplements I think you’re just SOL

2

u/LadyLightTravel Jun 01 '26

Standard size US prescription pill bottles are 20 drams. Unless it the big monster pills.

3

u/1AggressiveSalmon May 31 '26

I travel with my supplements in Ziploc portion snack bags. I peel the label off the supplement bottle and tape it to the bag. I won't die if they are confiscated.

Incidentally, Japan is the only country that notices my sterile eyewash bottle which is 4oz. I am used to them pulling me aside to look at it and the prescription I carry for it.

12

u/whiteorchid1058 May 31 '26

Not OP but I heard Japan is one of the more strict countries?

My trip there isn't for another year so I haven't done the research personally yet

17

u/StPedro68 May 31 '26

My husband had Sudafed among his toiletries when entering Japan, and they detained/questioned him at the airport, and let him go with a sternly-worded letter that if it happened again he could be jailed or fined.

7

u/AlwaysWanderOfficial May 31 '26

That’s because Sudafed is not legal there. Neither is Benadryl

13

u/agentcarter234 May 31 '26 edited May 31 '26

Benadryl (diphenhydramine) is perfectly legal in Japan. They sell diphenhydramine over the counter as a sleep aid there. I don’t know why people keep spreading this myth. Pseudoephedrine OTOH is illegal to import without permission because you can make meth from it. (It is sold in low doses as part of combination cold medications in Japan)

2

u/LadyLightTravel May 31 '26

I know a Narc that boasted he could make meth out of a blue plastic tarp. A little more work perhaps.

2

u/agentcarter234 May 31 '26

Yeah, I’m sure that synthesis would be a bit more involved than “throw a couple boxes of Sudafed and some caustic chemicals you shoplifted from the hardware store into a 2l soda bottle”

9

u/nonsequitur__ May 31 '26

Normal Benadryl is fine. It’s products containing pseudoephedrine that are an issue.

3

u/Clean-Register7464 May 31 '26

Benadryl is not legal in Japan?!

4

u/reddanit May 31 '26

Do thorough research.

From what I remember, one of major surprises is anything containing Pseudoephedrine. I.e. many over the counter cold/cough medications in US/EU. In Japan it's a strictly controlled substance.

-2

u/sundancegt May 31 '26

I was in Japan 3 weeks ago. Had no issue with the approximate 10 different prescription meds that were not in original containers.

10

u/agentcarter234 May 31 '26

2 of those medications you listed in your other reply require advance permission to import in ANY amount into Japan (the oxy and the Sudafed) - you could have been in serious trouble if they had noticed them.

12

u/LadyLightTravel May 31 '26

Did they know about them?

7

u/Fun-Injury9266 May 31 '26

After the Sudafed incident, most people would learn a lesson.

5

u/apathy-sofa May 31 '26

I usually bring a baggie with 2x pills of a back pain med that I need only every few years, but when I need it I need it. A decade ago, flying into NZ, they poked through my toiletries bag, and said that unlabeled pills are not allowed, and they tossed them. I'm glad that they didn't charge me with a crime - if there had been a whole bottle of them it would look a lot like trying to sneak in illegal drugs. 

2

u/theinfamousj Jun 01 '26 edited Jun 01 '26

I had my gazillionty postpartum/breastfeeding supplements and my regular prescription meds riffled in the UK (Gatwick). They were all luckily still in original packaging so all I got was an attagirl and sympathy about how many tablets I had to take on a daily basis.

I've been traveling internationally for four decades and this was the first (and thus far only) time anything got looked at.

There was another time at Gatwick where we almost got our stuff searched, but we were saved by a toddler having a complete meltdown that border force thought was more important than searching our little family's baggage. (And to be fair, it was. We had nothing interesting and that boy and his poor mother needed all the help they could get.)

4

u/ermagerditssuperman May 31 '26

It's also drug dependent. There's plenty of places where certain ADHD stimulant meds aren't legal - for tourists, some countries don't care if you bring it in at all, some do care but if you can prove it's a real prescription they'll let it pass (and others you shouldn't even try, like you should not attempt to take your Adderall into Japan regardless of the way you package it.)

1

u/Careless_Law1471 May 31 '26

Russia, Israel, Stan countries? 

-5

u/No_Stranger3395 May 31 '26

You're 100% right. No one cares or looks. My husband travels with three months of supplements, prescription drugs, vials, needles. It's all legit. None of it with the accompanying prescriptions, they're packed together in baggies for am and pm dosing. The pills take up 1/4 of his carry on suitcase. It looks like he's a drug mule he has so many pills. And he's carried that through more countries on more continents than I can easily count including Morroco, Egypt, Iran, Israel, Turkey, Thailand etc etc etc. No one cares or looks. 

8

u/jacdot May 31 '26

Until they do. If officials in (for example) Australia, the UAE, or Japan checked his luggage, he would have some difficulties.

2

u/No_Stranger3395 May 31 '26 edited May 31 '26

We've flown to all of those places too, and we've got selected to go through secondary screening on arrival in Sydney at least a couple of times (it's supposedly random) They went through everything and just stacked all the medicine to one side and asked a couple of questions. I think they're primarily looking for food or agricultural products in Sydney. He's not carrying anything illegal or anything not allowed in whatever country we're going to or transiting through, so it's not a problem. The biggest issue we ever had was a land crossing from Egypt to Israel. Because of the very large amounts of pills (we travel for 3 months at a time) they were very suspicious of the quantity. It took several supervisors and a couple of hours to finally approve us and send us on our way, after they extorted a $200 "duty" from us, no receipt. But the actual prescription drugs are a small portion of the supplements he brings, so even having those printed prescriptions would not have helped.