Countries around the world have very different regulations on drugs. Prescription and over-the-counter medicines that are available legally in the UK are among the items that could get you into a lot of trouble in your destination country, as international healthcare insurance provider MediCare International explains.
The term ‘illegal drug trafficking’ usually refers to drugs such as heroin, cocaine and marijuana. However, the truth is that ‘drugs’ can also encompass pharmaceutical drugs, together with herbal medicines and locally made preparations.
With global travel becoming easier, and an increasingly transient workforce, assumptions regarding what may, or may not, be illegal have tended to slip off the radar for many.
Rules regarding the legality of drugs differ from country to country, so travellers should be aware of the local statutory position. Rather than just checking the weather forecast before they set off, they should ensure their prescription medicine isn’t actually banned – it could cause more than a headache otherwise.
The difficulty in trying to monitor drug sales or allowing for the different regimes between countries has been exacerbated by the ease of buying drugs over the internet. Trying to monitor drug purchasing has become extremely difficult, and the rules of what is, and isn’t, allowed aren’t always clear on a country-by-country basis.
Visitors to the United Arab Emirates, for example, may be surprised to learn that codeine products are banned across the Emirates. This means that commonly used over-the-counter medication available in the UK and many other European countries would be confiscated on arrival, and, if suspected of taking the drug, an individual may be subject to a urine test, to ensure no trace of it is in his body.
Drugs are also classified in different ways across different parts of the world, such that not all might be considered pharmaceutical drugs.
Take melatonin, for example, a hormone supplement that occurs naturally in the brain to regulate sleep patterns. This supplement is often taken by people with insomnia, or those trying to get over jet lag, but it is actually banned in most countries outside the United States, except, in some instances, as a prescription medicine.
Most notably, melatonin is not allowed to be sold over the counter within the European Union or Canada.
Bans can also include herbal medicines, which have traditionally been kept out of the frame when it comes to monitoring prescriptions.
Over the past few years, in the West, in particular, herbal medicines have become more and more popular, as people try to find natural substitutes for pharmaceutical drugs.
However, as plant-based medicines can often have potentially dangerous side effects, too, regulators and the industry have had to introduce the same rigorous testing as pharmaceutical drugs undergo.
As a result, more is now known about many of these alternative preparations, and, as of 1 May 2011, many herbal medicines, including Ayurvedic medicine, have been banned across the European Union. Ayurvedic medicines have been an integral part of Indian medicine for centuries, and so bans can often have a cultural implication, too.
China is another country with a long tradition of an alternative medicine culture, which has been in existence for centuries. Travellers and visitors can often make the mistake of assuming that Western medicines will be available in China.
In fact, many Western pharmaceutical medicines are simply not sold, so, if you are planning to visit China and are taking a long-term prescription, make sure you have enough to last for the whole trip, and that your medicines are in their original containers and approved locally.
