Did I break some rule by putting prescription drugs in checked bag?
 

3 weeks ago I flew DFW-LGW. I always carry my own prescription pills on board with me, but this time I put a large bottle of presciption pills in my luggage. The pills belonged to my mother-in-law who forgot them on a visit over December, and I had promised to return them.

When I arrived in London, I found that my bag had been opened and the pill bottle had been emptied, and the empty bottle replaced in the bag. Nothing else was missing from the bag.

Did I break a rule by putting the drugs in the bag? If so, who would have emptied the bottle, and why no note to let me know what had been done?

If not, the pills were stolen. If they were stolen, do I have a case to make an claim from AA? The pills were worth around $300 apparantly.

I'd have to say they were stolen. If customs were to have confiscated them it would have been in your presence.

Stolen. Never put anything of value in a checked bag.

You did have a case, but you had to file your claim with AA (in writing) within 7 days of arrival...

AA.com lists things that they have no liability for if put into checked bags. Prescription drugs are on the list for domestic flights. The list is here. The carrier might be liable for stolen prescription drugs on international flights.

Of course, the biggest reason not to put prescription drugs into checked bags is that bags sometimes get lost, and prescription drugs are sometimes difficult to replace. Your health can suffer if you don't take the drugs as prescribed.

You did not break any rules I can see - if they were prescription drugs etc. Diagnosis: pilfered / stolen. For recreational use and resale, or repackaging and resale if they are expensive therapuetics.

Even others' drugs I would not put in checked baggage. Anything valuable should be carried aboard. With prescription evidence, there is usually no problem - even the Customs folks will generally let amounts of prescribed drugs by that are technically beyond what you are allowed into the US for your personal use (within limits!)

If only everybody realized that before their bags hit the check-in. My carry-on is crammed to the brim with anything of value.

You broke the rules, but not the type that would cause you to get into legal trouble; you broke the first rule of checked baggage, and that is this:

Never (and I mean NEVER) place anything in a checked suitcase in the USA that you care about. Never check valuables of any kind.

Sorry you had to learn that lesson by personal experience. :(

Someone stole your pills, either a TSA thug or an airline thug.

Or an airport or contract thug. Entirely too many of the variety are attracted to airports for the easy pickin's. You are absolutely right, er, correct might be more accurate...

I say stolen. I'd be curious to know what type of medication it was?

It is AA's (very wise) recommendation that you carry medications onboard with you, but there is no "rule" about it that I am aware of.

The pills were Hydrocodone and Acetaminophen, aka Vicodin.

In 12 years of travel thru DFW I have never had anything stolen from checked baggage, but I do take your (and other's) points about no valuables in checked baggage. As I mentioned earlier, I do put my pills, etc in my carry-on.

The only reason I put these pills in the checked bag was a concern that there might be some rule about carrying a large bottle of drugs with someone else's name on the bottle, and I thought there would be fewer problems if they were in checked luggage. :(

I never even leave my bag unlocked for them. just asks for trouble.

Some baggage handler is feeling no pain!

:o .... with those kinds of meds, what do you expect :p

In light of this, you may very well have broken some rules. The thief may have done you a favor, depending on the UK rules on importation of controlled substances.

MIL should have written off the pills and replaced them when she got home.

Transporting a large container full of Vicodin? For which you have no lawful prescription? :eek:

The pills were Hydrocodone and Acetaminophen, aka Vicodin.


definately stolen!

I think if the MIL had prescription, then he should be ok, but just to be safe I would carry a copy of prescription or doc's note.

"Vikings?" Definitely stolen and "redistributed for recreational purposes," not to mention profit. IMO, these are more accurately described as "controlled substance" and not merely "prescription medicines," I suspect - that is how HM Customs might perceive them in the hands of someone who is not the patient they were prescribed for. (I don't suspect you'd have served time in durance vile, but your mother-in-law might have had to do some fast talking.)

Carrying them on might have not been so great either, if the TSA etc. got nosy at this end, given the circumstances.

$300 worth of Vicodin would be around 700 pills. Even in a labeled Rx bottle, carrying it under someone else's name could be considered a "commercial quantity."

Maybe he meant street value. I have heard you can get 5-10 bucks a pill on the street. Sounds fishy.

I am sure there were not that many pills in the bottle, it wasn't that big, looked like a standard prescription bottle. MIL told me how much they were worth and maybe inflated the value to ensure I took them to her.

And then there's the $20 per pill street price for Vicodin.

I wonder how MIL would know the street price of narcotics, then again, how do you? :p As an aside to that, I've never had anything stolen from my bags until a recent SNA/SJC flight when my electric razor was lifted from my very rarely checked bags :-(

Very Fishy..all prescription drugs are free for over 60's in the UK..Its also unlikely any UK NHS doctor would prescribe more than 40 and as she had already been on Vacation in US she had presumably used some. Getting a large priscription of any expensive prescription drug form a UK doctor is always difficult. But the maximum co-payment is only around $12 for any prescription in the UK. So why the worry. :confused:

Maybe she was a very young MIL though.

"Yes, officer, those are mine."

"No, I don't have the prescription. They're not really mine. I mean, I put them in there, but they're for my mother-in-law. She left them at my place by mistake when she visited over Christmas. I'm bringing them back to her."

"No, I don't know why she got so many all at once."

"No, I don't know what she takes them for."

"No, I don't know what she's been doing for the past four months."

"You mean these can be sold on the street? I had no idea!"

See the first paragraph of FWAAA's post #15. This is not a scenario that is likely to turn out well for the "importer." The best that can be hoped for is custody until you can contact the MIL and have her produce a valid prescription. The worst is worse. Much worse.

All of the people who said you hadn't broken any law are most likely incorrect. You were in posession of a controlled substance without a valid prescription. That's basically the whole story. The fact that somewhere, in some place, there's a person who does have a valid prescription for this medication isn't relevant. You posessed them, and you don't have a prescription for them. That's illegal in most places, and these are strong narcotics.

If I had to *guess* I'd say they were taken by customs, who just didn't feel like dealing with you or charging anything, since it was fairly minor. It's equally plausible that they were stolen, everyone knows what those are for.

And with all due respect, your story boils down to - I had narcotics and I was "holding them for a friend" and is this OK?

Usually, no.

I suspect the story would probably be believed. After all, why would someone be smuggling drugs from the UK to the US and back into the UK His MIL is from the UK, correct? The pills are from the UK. He was traveling to the UK.

If he's an addict and these aren't his is one plausible reason isn't it?

I believe if they had been confiscated by HM Customs or security,) the container would be gone as well, IMO. Not to mention, if it had been Customs, I suspect they'd have had the OP in for a nice chat.

The reason many were incorrect is that the OP stated "prescription drugs," not "controlled substance." FT - where "the rest of the story" didn't originate, but us taken to, er, new heights.

I think the story and the pills and everything about this is a load of codswallop.

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.)

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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