When Legal Drugs Can Be Illegal

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When Legal Drugs Can Be Illegal

November 05, 2017, 10:54:25 am

There is an article in the current issue of Escapees magazine that opens with

In a previous issue of Escapees magazine, a reader responded to an article stating that creating a pill box for all your medication, and keeping those medications in it while you are RVing, may be illegal.

I have no idea if this is alarmist issue or what. I can not imagine a uniformed officer making an arrest just because you have prescription drugs on a one-a-day pill box in your RV. But what do I know?

Here is the link for Escapees members.

Re: When Legal Drugs Can Be Illegal

Reply #1 – November 05, 2017, 12:02:39 pm

Don,

This has been a concern of mine for years. While I do have my medications “ready for use” in a daily pill container, I also carry the prescription bottles in a Red First Aid bag.

I do this for a couple of reasons. One is so I have proof that the medication is mine and also to have backups in case I accidentally dump my meds somewhere unretrievable.

Been doing this for years ever since I heard of possible police confusion. So far, I’ve never encountered a situation where it’s been necessary to prove ownership but I’m ready just in case.

Kent

Re: When Legal Drugs Can Be Illegal

Reply #2 – November 05, 2017, 12:06:03 pm

Thanks for the heads up, Don!

Re: When Legal Drugs Can Be Illegal

Reply #3 – November 05, 2017, 01:16:40 pm

I think this would be unlikely UNLESS there was a probable cause (PC) basis for searching for and finding the pill boxes. The most obvious PC reason would be involvement in a traffic collision, especially one that results in an injury. If you, the pill taker, were also the driver involved in the collision, and the investigating officer had a PC reason to believe that you might have been impaired at the time of the collision, then they could search your motor home following your arrest. Impairment does not need to be alcohol or illegal drugs, either. It can be for a prescription drug. If in the search, they come upon your pill container, it could be seized and tested. Having a prescription for the pill does not necessarily mean that you would be justified for having them and using them while driving. Now, camped someplace and having no incident that would generate a PC search is, in my opinion, unlikely unless you were passing through a border crossing (Mexico or Canada).

I can think of several other scenarios -- like inviting the officer to sit at the dinette while he inspects your license and registration, and he sees pills on the counter in plain sight. That might be a PC for a search, but a prescription would most likely prevent any sort of arrest.

Re: When Legal Drugs Can Be Illegal

Reply #4 – November 05, 2017, 02:29:01 pm

Being that I get my prescriptions form a online pharmacy. I can quickly show valid prescriptions for all my meds. As long as I have cell service.

Re: When Legal Drugs Can Be Illegal

Reply #5 – November 05, 2017, 02:40:39 pm

We travel with a bag of pills and supplements in their original containers that weighs at least ten pounds! This is the entire supply that is on hand at any given time. There are also two weekly dispenser cases (one for each of us) out on the counter in the kitchen. I can see where this might be cause for alarm were a police officer to see this huge supply.

Also, there could be a problem if there is simply a container of unmarked pills with written prescriptions to tell what they are. This could be confusing to a non-pharmacist inspecting these pills.

While it is certainly possible to substitute contraband medications into the prescription bottles to make them look legitimate; that would be extreme, but certainly not unheard of in the case of a drug user. At any given time, there are probably several unopened bottles of any given medication in our cache, so that seal would be hard to duplicate on one's own, thus legitimatizing the pills in the daily container.

There are probably PDR's (Physician's Desk Reference) apps in whatever electronic devices the gendarmes carry with them, so it might be possible to take whatever information that is stamped on the pill and run it through their device to ascertain legitimacy. But it would be easier to read the name of the medication off the label of a bottle and use that as the starting point to compare the pill's official portrait to the one in the daily dispenser container.

All that said, the cancer drugs that we carry around with us DO NOT include any pain killers, but that fact would not be obvious without further inspection and verification.

I had not really ever considered any of these aspects surrounding the enormous numbers of pills that are in our possession at any one time, so thanks for bringing this up.

Virtual hugs,

Judie <-- Sierra Vista, Arizona
Adventures of Dorrie Anne | Photographing the West

Today: Swiss, Salami, and Roasted Green Peppers
**********************************************

Re: When Legal Drugs Can Be Illegal

Reply #6 – November 05, 2017, 06:02:16 pm

I recently (July) traveled to Peru. Was told by airlines to carry medicine in original packaging with labels so anyone would know what I was carrying and no miss understandings would arise. Then once in Peru I could put in daily pillboxes if I desired.

Re: When Legal Drugs Can Be Illegal

Reply #7 – November 05, 2017, 07:13:36 pm

When preparing for suitcase trips, I ask the pharmacy to package our prescriptions in the smallest available bottles.
In the LD, I use a 7-day container for convenience and also carry the original bottles, to keep it legal and for restocking.

Larry

Re: When Legal Drugs Can Be Illegal

Reply #8 – November 05, 2017, 11:52:29 pm

Between chemotherapy courses, we managed to take a couple of trips longer than 30 days. This made continuing with schedule II medications (for which they only dispense a 28 day supply and require hardcopy Rx's) 'interesting'. Our primary care physician overnighted the Rx's to the RV park at Emerald Isle, NC.

The DEA doesn't expect you to get far from home.

Re: When Legal Drugs Can Be Illegal

Reply #9 – November 11, 2017, 06:32:42 pm

Quote from: Lazy Bones 2 - November 05, 2017, 06:02:16 pm

I recently (July) traveled to Peru. Was told by airlines to carry medicine in original packaging with labels so anyone would know what I was carrying and no miss understandings would arise. Then once in Peru I could put in daily pillboxes if I desired.

Having just returned from the Philippines, I should have been as smart! I discovered shortly after arrival that I had some loose prescription pills in my baggage. I promptly tossed them before leaving the country due to President Duterte's war on drugs. Photos in this article are not suited for the faint-hearted:

Philippines: Rodrigo Duterte's Drug War Photos

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