I'm gonna chime in: Last time I checked for an international flight, they said you're not allowed to carry unmarked pills. It has to be in the original packaging including that leaflet. If you don't do that, you might be in for an interesting day.
And if you're travelling abroad: Check if that OTC medication is also OTC in the destination country.
Airport security, particularly in the US where many airports have international and domestic departures out of the same terminal, will not care about that. I regularly travel with OTC pills loose in a container and no documentation, and have had no issues.
Where you might encounter problems is on entering that foreign country. While they have never ever given me grief over my OTC medicines, I try to make sure to remember to buy stuff in original packaging to bring. But even then, as long as you are only bringing enough for your trip they probably won't care. Prescription medicines should absolutely be in original containers, though.
It's real hit or miss. I've had TSA search through my daughters bag of Goldfish looking for stuff in a podunk little airport while I'm rushed through in busier international airports.
Ah, the smaller airports are probably worse, because they don't have much to do and have to justify the investment in all the fancy machines.
Example of note: France won’t sell Sudafed, so bringing any might be a risk unless you have a printed and signed rx. That being said, their pharmacies are pretty good. Shoutout to the migraine medication with codeine in it.
Leave them in the original container.
This is the right answer. It’s worth noting I traveled domestically and internationally quite a bit lately and I carry prescribed and controlled meds loose in a container. I carry maybe 6 pills total and no one has ever cared or asked about them.
I just didn't wanna bring a whole bottle, I have extremely limited luggage space (just a personal item lol (a backpack))
Then don't worry about it
Bring an old bottle you’re going to throw away anyway and still bring the ziplock. Use it to go through security. Once at destination, transfer to the ziplock. Works only one way, though.
They're not looking for your ten pills, even if they were a controlled substance. It's best to bring them in the original packaging, but they have reference guides to check the stamp and color of the pills if they question it, but they probably won't even look twice at them. If you had a full gallon ziplock full of pills, they would check them out.
In their blisters.
That said, airport security aren't cops, they care about bombs, not about drug, most likely, it's too much work for them to care about some pills. Custom might be more of an issue
If you don't have space for the retail bottle, take a photos of the bottle so that the drug name, usage instructions, and expiry are visible. (a photo of the pills themselves is good too) Print these photos out and keep them in the bag with the pills.
This is a good idea for more than just security.
If you're going on an international flight find a way to bring the original bottle so customs doesn't find an issue with it. For just airport security though you could maybe transfer them to a smaller bottle of some kind they almost certainly won't dig through your bag to find them.
If you're going to an airport that only uses metal detectors not those fancy body scanners you can just put them in your pocket.
TSA don't get paid enough to care. A million people travel with drugs every day. As long as TSA don't believe your stuff can be used to hurt others, they probably won't bother.
A pill organizer, if the original containers are too large (or too numerous) to be practical. I've only flown domestic USA, but security has never bothered me about it.
yeah the TSA website says that it doesn't matter how you take them idk just got me stressing lol
Least suspicious would probably be in whatever package they come in. When I travel with my family, we do usually bring most meds in a zip lock bag and we've had zero issues so far though. Anyway it doesn't typically matter, assuming the meds are not restricted in the country you're going to. I wouldn't expect many OTC meds would be.
If it's a simple otc med, maybe just grab a small bottle once you get to destination.
I've been carrying around multiple little baggies of pills in my backpack for years and over 20+ flights, several international, they've never asked.
Some are separated but loose in the bag (ibuprofen, cetirizine, diphenhydramine, from a bottle), and some were trimmed to minimum size from a blister pack and placed in the bag.
They focus a lot more closely on my headphones, charging cables, battery packs, etc.
So whatever is most convenient for you, in my opinion.
EDIT: they didn't flag my epinephrine auto injectors (see: needles) either the three or four times I forgot to put them in the bin separately. Granted, those were domestic US flights.
Get one of those daily pill thingumies and put 2 pills per day m-f and ur golden
I'm trying to work out if your hypothetical pill holder only has five days or you're calling OP a motherfucker.
Nah nah nah the pill holder has 7 days for the week, Sunday- Saturday. Op only needs to load up m-f with 2 pills each to reasonably smuggle them through customs.
When I flew in May I put all of my pills in one bottle. I had my allergy meds, anti-diarrhea pills, and ibuprofen. Nothing was said about it going through security.
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