As I mentioned earlier, Prescriptions cost less in the UK than 3 Beers in Coach. This story is 100% FAKE :td:

Well, never put Godiva in your checked luggage, because my chocolate was definitely stolen out of my bag. I filed a claim and was told by the agent to never put anything that looks too tasty in your luggage either. He even admitted the Godiva was lifted.

I said I was meeting MIL in London, I didn't say she was a UK resident, in fact she is a South African citizen visiting family in the UK. She is not covered by NHS and I don't know if you have checked the cost of filling prescriptions in RSA recently.

I guess I am learning one of the FT experiences, which is ask a simple question to get info and you get a really complicated answer and every conspiracy theorist on the forum.

For all those with constructive responses, I thank you for enlightening me, viz;

1. Don't put valuables in checked luggage
2. If soemtihing is stolen, notify airlline asap
3. Be aware of rules about transporting 3rd party prescriptions before travelling, not after. :eek:

Wrong.
By the OP saying 'acetaminophen', the pills must have originated in the US.
Otherwise he should have said 'Hydrocodone + Paracetamol'

I think the OP was very lucky he isn't writing to us from inside a jail somewhere in UK....

On the other hand, he was also lucky he made it out of the US with this in his bags.

Either way, the disappearing act was probably the best outcome for the OP.

Also, as bodega124 said."You were in posession of a controlled substance without a valid prescription" its actually a lot worse than that, if he was caught by customs at the LGW end, he would have been charged with "Importing a Controlled Substance".

Rob

Anyway, its been fun. We all care too much to see a fellow FT member get in trouble for such a silly thing.....

Simple Solution
 

If MIL shows up at the Airport, show them her ID, Name on ID==Name on Bottle, you're good.

In the US people have gotten caught bringing in small amounts of pot, gotten a $500 ticket and let go. (I remember this because it was a GA state leg member and it made big headlines).

Though someone made an interesting point, though since she is from South Africa, that means you might be smuggling Vicodin from South Africa->USA->UK ???

This does sound like a strange story.

Assuming this OP is fair dinkum, I guess he is lucky he wasn't flying to SIN and had Customs intercept him there. No more frequent flyer account, to say the least. And you are right, it is paracetamol in much of the Anglophone world (including among English-speaking Singaporeans, though I think the "off with his head!" originated in the UK... And, properly speaking, it is hanged, not "hung," as a person smuggling controlled substances into Singapore might find out.)

Deleted

This thread makes me want to ask my pharmacist for an Oxycontin bottle, to be filled by me with Exlax, and placed noticably in my checked luggage :D.

So MIL leaves USA in December, 3 months later having managed without her important drugs, she is still in UK [Hope she did not overstay her Visa], during these 3 months nobody in her UK family has in this time been able to get her any UK-NHS Vicodin but she has managed to survive. I can see Dame Judi Dench playing the roll in the Movie. :D

You broke two rules:

1) Never check bags

2) In the event of breaking rule #1, never put anything valuable and/or needed into a checked bag

In reference to all of the above, it seems that there is some confusion between "legally obtained" and "illegally obtained" drugs. For instance, I can go overseas with my prescriptions, and re-enter the U.S. with them, but I cannot import non-prescribed drugs, except for limited personal uses. The bottle in question in this thread had a valid prescription on it (I'm assuming), it just wasn't the passenger's.

Title 21 of the U.S. code (if I read it correctly), would allow me to import up to 50 doses of a controlled substance for personal use for which I didn't have a prescription. (Remember that people bring over-the-counter codeine pain meds into the U.S. every day without penalty.)

http://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/21cfr/21usc/956.htm

While laws differ in every country, I don't believe that anyone could make a global statement that just having legally-obtained controlled substances on them would make them a drug smuggler.

The only time I ran into a similar situation was when I crossed the border at Tijuana and had bought some things that aren't available in the U.S. w/o a prescription. I declared them at Customs, the officer looked them over, and let me bring in most of it, but took away what he judged to be more than a 3-month supply.

The big thing is to know the laws of the country where you're headed, DECLARE what you bring in, and if it's something as simple as bringing a prescription to someone who's left something behind, the consulate or embassy of the desination country should be able to advise you.

What was the name of that movie? Brokedown Palace? ;)

"Midnight Express" ;)

Well said and good catch. It's a LOT worse to try to take drugs illegally through a customs controlled border than to just have them in your pocket. That said, at my age I have quite a few friends that do just that, and buy prescriptions including controlled substances overseas and bring them back (remind me never to get cancer, my the grace of g-d) and though a few have stories of confiscation and some nasty questions being asked it doesn't seem that anyone is really out to file real charges unless they get a feeling that it goes beyond personal use.