Cold medicine in transit
 

Can I take my cold and flu medication in transit at Singapore airport? It has pseudoephedrine in it which is not allowed in some countries I am told...

Take your meds and get some sleep....if you run out, go down to the pharmacy (Guardian) and ask for more :)

If you're concerned whether you and your checked or hand luggage will be subject to detailed (or even cursory) search by S'pore Customs ("Death to drug traffickers under S'pore law"), don't be. In about a zillion entries, I've never been checked. (Though I hasten to say I've never brought in any prohibited items.) Your pseudoephedrine containing meds will be fine.

Interesting to read dtsm's remark that you can get pseudoephedrine meds from Guardian. I think I tried at least once without much success. I'm sure it was probably just my own issue, though.

Apologies - didn't mean to imply you'd get same exact active ingredients. But equivalents are available....usually the pharmacist on call is very helpful.

No apology needed :). It's just the substitutes marketed in the US as equivalents to keep real pseudoephedrine out of the hands of the meth lab crowd I find ineffective, so I usually try to get the real thing when I need it. Some people have this issue; some don't.

I've done my share of miming signs/symptoms in various non-English speaking countries (not a S'pore problem) to understand the OP's potential issue.

I have found also that in Singapore Thailand and Indonesia, and of course our crowd too, as long as "it" is in a 100ml bottle, they are happy, it's a mind set with them all, if it's in 100ml bottle it's OK. I have transferred all my bathroom cabinet stuff into 100ml and now happily take the whole pharmacy with me on my trips, all looks quite cute in their little containers. You do come unstuck though, last month one lot took my favourite cologne, even though it was half empty which I thought would be OK, but it was a 125ml bottle so it was bined, and they wonder why we get annoyed.

Have traveled through Sing dozens of times, never had anyone look at my meds. As long as you aren't carrying a case, they will not even look at your cold medicine.

Yes, they shouldn't even be looking at your meds unless you are carrying a special bag for it.

Just for the record, medicines containing pseudoephedrine in combination with other drugs are available in Singapore, but it's not sold in pure form. No problems with importing it though.

The official list of medicines that may not be imported into Singapore without explicit advance permission is here:

http://www.hsa.gov.sg/publish/hsapor...edication.html

This is mostly heavy-duty painkillers and sedatives (incl. Valium!), and bringing along a prescription won't cut it.