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Where to find legal medicine information

5 replies

LittleLostThing · 25/09/2019 14:34

I’m travelling to Costa Rica next month and due to my ill health I have an awful lot of medication that I need to take with me. I have prescriptions for all my medicine but also planning on taking a first aid kit with a few over the counter medications (omeprazol, Nytol and co-codamol).

I’ve found lots of information stating that you need prescriptions for all medications taken into Costa Rica and you can’t take more than you’ll need for your stay. But I can’t find anything about specific medicines.

The Laura Plummer case has made me a lot more aware I need to check this stuff before I go (although I’m not taking 500 tramadol tablets without a prescription obviously!). One of my prescribed medications is diazepam and I just can’t find any information anywhere to say whether this is legal or not. If it’s not then it’s not a huge problem, I can probably get GP to prescribe something else.

Any ideas?

OP posts:
LittleLostThing · 25/09/2019 18:25

Hopeful bump

OP posts:
Twila1 · 25/09/2019 18:58

Contact the embassy in London:
www.costaricanembassy.co.uk

www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/costa-rica/health

AuntieMaggie · 25/09/2019 19:10

Personally I wouldn't travel anywhere with codeine based products without a prescription as it's banned in some countries.

LittleLostThing · 25/09/2019 20:27

auntiemaggie that’s what I’m trying to find out. I’ll probably just take bog standard paracetamol rather than the co codamol so that’s not too much of an issue. I’m prescribed a fairly hefty dose of diazepam, I have the prescriptions for it and will only take what I need but I can’t find out if it’s actually legal or not.

I emailed the embassy a couple of weeks ago and they just directed me to the uk travel recommendations for Costa Rica and a link to the Costa Rica health department which is all in Spanish. No information on actual legality of specific medications.

Dh is of the opinion that as it’s a massive tourist destination and diazepam is a fairly standard medication there would be more information if it was actually illegal. I’m just a worrier and don’t want to spend my dream holiday in prison.

OP posts:
AttilaTheMeerkat · 26/09/2019 10:13

This may help:-

www.costarica-embassy.org/index.php?q=node/111

also the ISTM database:-
higherlogicdownload.s3.amazonaws.com/ISTM/062acfe6-1d82-461c-8965-9948543fc637/UploadedImages/ISTM%20database%20on%20International%20regulations%20%20explanation.pdf

scroll down to Costa Rica (no specific restrictions listed)

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