Is It Legal To Carry Your Controlled Medications With You?

This question has been posed to me in emails, and this deserves a post on the subject; obviously many people are interested in this, and need a bit of teaching to understand this question.  There is much to know if no one has bothered to instruct you.  This subject has also been heavily searched.  What is most interesting is that these are pain patients, managed by pain doctors.  The doctor ‘should’ instruct each patient regarding carrying these meds, what needs to be done to keep everyone comfortable and safe; talk about the laws related to prescriptions; and answer your questions.  Ask your doctor any and all questions related to these subjects.   

Carrying Your Medications With You—The Basics

Keep each medication in the original bottle it came in.  Do not place the pills in one of the generic pill holders, labeled each day of the week, or times in one day, etc.  These are great for home use.  Actually, they are convenient to carry with you, filling what you think you will need for the time you will be out that day.  Here's what is wrong with not having your meds in labeled bottles:

#1.  The medications are not labeled in any way, and you cannot prove that they are yours, or not yours.  You may have your meds confiscated simply for not keeping them in their own bottle.  These are hard to replace, and it shows what level of understanding and commitment by the patient of keeping their meds safe.    

#2.  You may lose the meds if the top of the plastic holders decide to open, and yes, this does happen.  On the other hand, the top may be very hard to open, especially with Arthritic hands; and in doing so, the pills can fly all over.  They do go everywhere.  Keep them away from the bathroom--then you are really stuck with nothing.

 #3. What happens if you are gone longer than you had planned?  Life sure gets in the way, so any car trouble, traffic jams, missed flights, longer than planned evenings that somehow turn into the next day, all these issues must be thought about so that you are always prepared.  Possibly the unmarked meds you brought for a day are not going to be enough. 

What Do The Police Require If Your Medication Is With You?  

Having a very close friend who is a law enforcement officer, I was able to sit down and clear up others questions.  It was a great conversation, and I learned what I had not already been taught or learned on the job in nursing, or from my pain management doctor.

If you need to show your medication bottles to the police, for whatever reason, please remember-- you have the right to carry these needed medications.  Kind of ties in with the Medical ID Bracelet too, in that you are a serious and responsible patient; you are learning to balance the need for pain relief, with the fact that MEDICATIONS MUST EACH BE IN THEIR  PROPERLY LABELED CONTAINERS-- PER LAW ENFORCEMENT.

Security Prescriptions are so hard for your doctor to re-prescribe again if they are lost, spilled, get wet, etc.  Treat those Prescriptions like gold, filled yet or not.  I don't want to bring everything I have with me, but I bring three days extra at all times with me.  Raised in Southern CA, spending lots of time directly on top of the San Andreas fault....which by the way, is considered extremely 'overdue’ for a large quake, having lived through many earthquakes I must take this seriously.  I respect Earthquakes, and have enormous respect for the Ocean.  I’ve lived in Southern CA all my life (minus Expatriate time in Taiwan), and I have learned to keep 3 days of basic supplies in my car as the experts suggest it will take that long for help to arrive to stranded motorists.  Sad to say but right now, my E-kit contains: Jumper cables, flashlight, water, collapsible dog water bowl, sneakers, and a blanket.  Not a full kit per CA quake standards!  However, it’s much better than nothing.  Next, I need to focus on some nibbles for my little kit.      

Sometimes it is so much easier to just put what we know we will be taking like clockwork that day or two, into one pill bottle.  I'm like every other woman with a 10 lb. purse, and the less I have to stuff in my handbag, the better.  Yet if some policeman was going through your things and found one bottle with a lot of different pills, they don't like that.  It is illegal.  There is no proof of a prescription in your name, even if the bottle is for one of your meds, it is certainly not for any of the other ones.  It could also point to drug-dealing, on either side—you the seller, or you the buyer, believe it or not.  Oh, we know we're innocent, and simply trying to be able to live some semblance of life.  If medications are of benefit to you, you must have them with you everywhere you go.  In the pill bottle each medication originally came in.  

How To Transport Your Security Medications Safely & Legally

Keep all pills in the bottle they came in.  That is THE ONLY place that you are legally allowed to carry your medications.  The original bottle must have all the normal information on the label that is printed by your pharmacy.  Sometimes the size of the bottle changes from month to month, and I simply use the previous month's smaller bottle to carry that certain medication only, if the newest bottle is too large to carry with me.  That bottle has exactly all the information on it that the police require, just the fill date is one month behind.  No worries using that bottle if it is smaller and works better for you.   

"Can I carry them in my purse legally to my pain doctor's appointment?” asked one curious person.  Sure, you can!  This is not an open container of liquor, like an open bottle of wine from dinner needing to be carried home in the trunk, separated from the driver.  We are just fine to keep our medications, in the correct bottles; in our purse, backpack, etc.  We don't have to be separated from these medications.  This is not just regarding going to your pain doctor, either.  You can go anywhere with these medications.  These are YOUR medications.  They are prescribed by a physician who manages your pain issues.  They are legal.  Just make sure to follow the tips above, and there should never be any problem with carrying your medications, especially your security prescriptions.  They are simply part of the arsenal in the treatment of chronic pain.  We should feel fine in carrying the chemical part of that arsenal with us if we need to do so.  It is our responsibility to carry them according to the laws governing controlled medications. 

If you have further questions or concerns about this subject, please discuss it with your treating doctor.  It always comes down to the relationship you have, it must be very open, and you should feel safe talking to her or him about anything to do with your Chronic Pain.  Not just how to carry your medications under the law; everything that you feel affects your pain and your doc must know these extenuating circumstances.  As this post shows, treating pain is a multi-factorial issue between your physician and you; the treatment does not stand alone with just taking medications.

Educate Yourself!!  Learn how to protect yourself and your medications!

Gentle Hugs...