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'Mule' Bringing Prescription Drugs


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If one is really worried, then you could just place in a different bottle with a label that has your  name on it if meds look similar or as another poster did, place in vitamin or supplement bottles.

No one is telling them what to do, just giving an opinion on how they handle it or have handled it. 

The whole system does rely on fear and it works on many.  That, of course, is another topic completely.

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Three of us friends from Phoenix have lived here for 7 years.  We have brought each others' prescriptions down when one of us goes to Phoenix.  I can recall three occasions when one or another of us has gotten the red light.  They poked through the suitcase, pulled out each Rx bottle and looked at the label, and placed each one back.  They never looked at the name on the customs declaration form to compare it with the names on the script bottles.  Each time there was more than one name on the collection of bottles.  It appeared they were looking at the name of the drug only.  We also usually had up to a one year's supply of allergy meds, vitamins, ibuprofen, and other supplements from the US Costco in our bags.  Because the decongestant substitute for Sudafed is also a little red pill (phenlypropanolamine,) I always advised my friend who needed those to never pop all the pills out of the original blister packaging ahead of time but rather carry all the little cards of pills in one rubber banded stack plus one complete box with the name and all the info readily available to read and compare.  With the prescription drugs we often had up to 6 bottles of the same med waiting for us in Phoenix meaning a larger bottle with about 1/2 inch of pills in the bottom.  We always combined these into the one bottle with the newest date to save room and there was also never a problem with there being more pills in the bottle than the stated number on the label.  Once the officer commented on the "large" amount of vitamins, etc. we had.  They're looking for folks who resell meds for profit here.  We explained that we lived here permanently and that it was a year's supply for the two of us which was sufficient for them.

The one exception to this routine was for our one friend who uses a narcotic for chronic pain and also takes an anti-anxiety med as both of these are controlled in Mexico.  They always tell you that you must "carry the presecription" with you when travelling with this type of med.  That always seemed strange to me because you have to turn in the script to the pharmacy to get the med filled, so you no longer have it.  Nowadays with most meds being filled electronically anyway, no patient even sees the script anymore.  So I advised my friend to make copies of the scripts of his controlled substances before filling them so he had them to carry with.  And of course never would one of the other two of us ever carry those meds down for him.  You must carry those only yourself with the script copies in your possession.

These are our experiences at the Guad airport and I have never heard of anyone getting into trouble carrying prescrition meds following the routines I've outlined.  There have been big exceptions to this experience however posted online in the past.  Specifically a man was arrested at the Mexico City airport carrying in a box of self catheterization urinary catheters for a friend with MS who needed to use these daily.  As he found out in jail, they are considered a script-requiring medical device here and are apparently treated the same as a narcotic.  Of course this seems strange to an expat who knows he can buy these without a script in the US and would never consider this to be an offense.  Once again the Mexican surprise!  And many of us recall the Canadian tourist who was thrown in la carcel in PV a couple of years ago for having forgotten 8 Sudafed tabs in her purse from a recent cold when she arrived on vacation.  The family had quite a nightmare getting her released, dealing with a demand to sign a paper in Spanish admitting guilt, which she wisely refused to sign as she couldn't understand a word of it, and dealing with the expensive legal representation required to make it go away.

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On 7/1/2017 at 8:27 AM, TelsZ4 said:

Of course you don't want to hear what might happen.. You don't want to scare off any potential mules..  So if they do get stopped and thrown in to jail for smuggling a banned substance will you offer to trade places with them...?

Keep it civil and non personal folks.

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10 hours ago, TelsZ4 said:

I thought it was a valid point.. 

You thought wrong.  Your post was accusatory and personal and did not respect the request of the OP for actual experiences.  What is being discussed here is the law and actual practice and experience.  In Mexico there can be quite a wide gap and variation between the two.  I see no basis in the OP or subsequent posts indicating that anyone here is trying to recruit "mules" or smuggle banned substances or setting people up to be arrested.

PM me if you need further assistance in understanding why you've been corrected.  Let's get back on topic.

 

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1 hour ago, sanditoes said:

Thank you moderator 2.  Being cyber bullied was what I was trying to avoid.  As I said in my original post, I was seeking info from personal experiences.  I have no need to explain myself to anyone on this board.  

Agreed.

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