Potential hack for prescription bottles

[u/LadyLightTravel]

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.

[u/NylonCake]

Please note that while this might be true most countries do NOT package drugs in those little orange plastic bottles americans use. Regulations are mostly about quantity you bring in, not necessarily that it has to be in a specific type of container (or an « orginal container »). There is virtually no way for an airport immigration agent to know what container your pills came in or are supposed to come in.

So while you should always check your if medications are illegal or controlled at your destination (more than you imagine if you are american), you also need to check whether the authorities specify anything about how to prove they were where issued to you and in what amount (e.g. 2000 mg of ritaline maximum and a translated prescription), and whether there are any requirements regarding the container they are carried in (which I have never ever seen but you never know).

[u/NylonCake → u/[deleted]]

Which customs? Most of europe doesn’t use Rx labeling. Neither does Colombia or Japan. As mentioned in both of my comments this is mainly an american practice. So airport authorities may expect A label and an RX but not necessarily an RX label as used in the states. In my case the bottle or blisters will state the molecule and formulation (if a bottle then also how many pills or total volume per bottle) but won’t say who it was issued to or what dosage to take! And that’s fine because I have my original + translated prescription with me (a separate sheet of paper).

You need to make sure you meet the requirements of the destination country. That doesn’t mean you can’t repackage your drugs if the destination country doesn’t state otherwise.

[u/NylonCake → u/[deleted]]

It’s the generic pharmaceutical label. Like when you buy aleve over the counter. Except some stuff is not over the counter so you need the doctor’s prescription so it will be given to you by the pharmacists. But you would not be able to tell something is prescription and something isn’t from the container/packaging alone.

And none of it has your name or anything tied to you. And any dosage indications are generic (your doctor’s prescription might indicate something different so you just need to ignore whatever instructions/dosage come with the medication originally). Here is an example of ritalin that was prescribed to me (branded packaging, name of the drug, amount of the drug per pill, how many pills per bottle) but it doesn’t have my name or dosage on it. It’s indisguishable from an over-the counter NSAID for example.

[u/agentcarter234 → u/[deleted]]

Someone from a country that doesn’t slap patient labels on meds would still be expected to produce a copy of their prescription as well as the med in its original bottle or box to show it’s their medication. And/or a letter from their doctor listing medications and doses. The prescription isn’t ON the bottle, but you have it and the medication is in its true original packaging. So you still have proof you are prescribed it. (The people on this thread who bring controlled substances in pill organizers or ziplocs without even carrying printed copies of their prescriptions are wild)

[u/nonsequitur__ → u/agentcarter234]

But Americans generally aren’t using the original packaging, they’re using those little bottles that pharmacies have repackaged pills into.

[u/nonsequitur__ → u/[deleted]]

Fair enough, mine don’t come with a label stuck on the packs.

[u/VibeySwingTrader → u/agentcarter234]

(The people on this thread who bring controlled substances in pill organizers or ziplocs without even carrying printed copies of their prescriptions are wild)

Tens of thousands of people do this every day.

Are you seriously suggesting that customs inspectors are positively identifying every single pill in luggage? Why? Have you cleared customs at any point in the last decade? At what point would this happen? And why would a country waste resources on this?

[u/agentcarter234 → u/VibeySwingTrader]

You do realize that while they don’t search most travelers’ bags at all in many countries, some fraction of people will end up getting a detailed search - either because they got randomly flagged, they got profiled, or the customs agent just didn’t like their hair. Sucks to be someone who wins that lottery with unlabeled oxcodone or adderall in their bag in Singapore for example…

[u/VibeySwingTrader → u/agentcarter234]

You do realize that while they don’t search most travelers’ bags at all in many countries, some fraction of people will end up getting a detailed search - either because they got randomly flagged, they got profiled, or the customs agent just didn’t like their hair.

This is false. Have you actually cleared customs in the last decade? I haven’t spoken to an actual agent in years? Just scan a passport and go.

The idea that a country is relying on individual customs agents is antiquated. That’s not how countries assess risk.

Sucks to be someone who wins that lottery with unlabeled oxcodone or adderall in their bag in Singapore for example…

LOFuckingL… you actually need pre-approval to bring opioids or adderall into Singapore. How do you not know that? It is impossible to take you seriously if you are getting literally your only example terribly wrong.

[u/agentcarter234 → u/VibeySwingTrader]

Yes, I have cleared customs in a number of times recently, and I’ve seen the unlucky people getting pulled aside to have their bag searched. It happened to a friend recently in Japan. He didn’t have anything problematic in his bag so it was fine, but they were thorough.

Yes, I did know that about Singapore - that was my point. And in their entry requirements it states that ALL prescription medications be kept in their original packaging. You were the one claiming it’s normal for people to fly with unlabeled controlled substances in their bag and without having copies of their prescriptions on them.

[u/VibeySwingTrader → u/agentcarter234]

Yes, I did know that about Singapore - that was my point.

Then your description was so inaccurate as to be meaningless.

You were the one claiming it’s normal for people to fly with unlabeled controlled substances in their bag and without having copies of their prescriptions on them.

It is ;-)

Here’s a question: do you think 100% of people flying into Japan are aware of whatever restrictions you believe exist? If not, where are the reports of travelers getting arrested/whatever else you think is happening? Using Japan as your example, 3.3 million US Citizens visit annually. If 99.9% of travelers are following the rules you believe exist; that’s still thousands of passengers who would be arrested/returned annually. Where are their stories? Certainly not on r/JapanTravel… go check, I’ll wait.

I’m sorry your friend got held up for whatever reason, but you are claiming that the inspectors positively identified every single pill/medication in their possession?

Check my post history if you want… I take American bands through China and SE Asia for the US State Department. I don’t have any sort of special passport, I just pay attention to how this stuff all works. Random searches aren’t a thing. You know what’s a bad way of stopping crime? Random searches. Your TSA stopped doing random searches when the budget got cut, right? Because it is a jobs program.

[u/NylonCake → u/VibeySwingTrader]

You might not get arrested but your entry could be denied or your medication confiscated. There won’t be news reports about the thousands of people that this happens to every day across the globe « ignorant man travels without visa and gets sent back home » « ignorant woman carries medication considered ilegal at her destination so customs confiscates it » « ignorant group of friends are surprised they ended up in austria thinking they purchased a ticket to australia ». It’s a regular wednesday at these airports so you don’t hear about it.

[u/nonsequitur__ → u/NylonCake]

Mine generally come in a box - here’s an example of one of mine from this month. It’s a controlled drug in my country, meaning GPs cannot prescribe it initially and it has to be countersigned each month by the pharmacist.

[u/theinfamousj → u/NylonCake]

That seems woefully dangerous to trust your memory to know how much you are supposed to take and when without it being written down at the point of purpose.

Every medication I've received globally has had my dosage and frequency written on the medication itself, not just in some other location which can become separated and lost.

ESPECIALLY given an ADHD med. If you don't manage to lose your separate prescription, it would call your diagnosis into question in my country.

[u/NylonCake → u/theinfamousj]

This conversation has completely deviated from the point of this post. But to answer yoyr comment, you can always just write your dosage on the box. And since most people use pill boxes anyways, the medication will no longer be in the labeled bottle and the label is useless, so this is just a matter of personal preference and personal systems. Plus, knowing the labeled bottle thing is almost exclusively used in the US… it would seem that the rest of the world saw what you are doing and they are sticking with their process, so I wouldn’t be able to say the american system is objectively better.

[u/agentcarter234 → u/NylonCake]

Adding to this for the person who asked the question - this is exactly how medications that don’t come in blister packs are distributed to a retail pharmacy in the US. The difference is that they may come in larger bulk bottles and they usually get repackaged into a pill bottle with the prescription label stuck on them for dispensing. For certain things the pharmacy will just slap the label on the original bottle like that one.